Christmas Tree

This is the only pic I was able to capture at the tree lot. The owners have a dog that she was mesmerized by so not a lot of opportunity for a perfect Kodak moment. We brought the tree home and were so busy it sat undecorated for about 10 days. Then, my mom came and declared it was about to die so we had to exchange it for another one. Hassle, but she was right and it's now finally decorated. Stella loves all the lights and so far, knock on wood, has not been interested in the hundreds of vintage glass ornaments on it. I would die if she broke any, they are so cool.

Other than that, we've been on the birthday party circuit while getting ready for Christmas and wedding!

Thanksgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving. This is a photo with cousin Sarah. Stella loved her iPod and they danced a ton. Hip Hop, of course. Even the next day, Stella had a dance lesson from Sarah and cousin Will!

Stella ate a ton. I got a full plate of food and she ate nearly all of it. So then cousin Liz had to go get me some more since Stella was sitting on my lap. It was very nice to see family and at that point we were pretty settled at home, though it helped to be celebrating the holiday up the street at the Cebron's. The day after, we even took Stella shopping, which she was totally over after a bit. She loves the shoe department though. I was looking for shoes for the wedding. Stella picked up some black patent leather (exactly the color I needed) Jimmy Choos, nodded her head and said "Niiiiiiiiccceeee." So, I bought them though have to admit I've since found more comfortable shoes on sale. The girl's got taste! However, she was also angling for me to buy some furry Coach boots that I wasn't so wild about.

More later!!!!

Flight Home

Per usual, there is very little time to blog when we first land. Stella has continued to be very easy on these flights. The first picture is breakfast in the Cathay Pacific lounge. She would march herself over to the buffet and demand cheese. The flight to Tokyo on Cathay Pacific is always the easiest. I managed to finally watch Batman. We ate, played, she watched her DVD player and it was largely uneventful. Business class was almost empty so I wasn't stressed about her bothering anyone. We got to Tokyo and she was grovelling for sushi in the Japan Airlines lounge. The sushi there is very good but they put it out in limited quantity and people dive on it. While I was waiting our turn, she took her plate and began grovelling for sushi from Japanese businessmen who didn't care one bit that she wanted some. It was funny. The second photo is her joyfully eating sushi she scored. The third photo is her dinner on JAL. It was totally bizarre. Fruit, donut, tater tots, squid, ketchup rice, egg, tiramisu, taffy, potato salad dressed like a clown, crab, and sweet corn. Maybe I should have titled this blog "Food."

Anyway, she barely slept the entire way home but it didn't matter since she just sat in her seat and watched the Disney channel or her DVD player. I would occasionally look over to see her entire body vibrating while she was focused on TV. She knows how to operate the shiatsu massager in her seat. She also did not sleep at all in the car to La Jolla--I,on the other hand, was about to die. She remembered everything about our house though which surprised me a little.

More later.

Adult Conversation

The first photo I took with a flash which is why it's darker. We have not had a fabulous day here in the Dillon household. We are super busy getting ready to leave for LJ and I discovered this morning, after washing my hair, that it's been totally fried by a cheaper (though not cheap!) hair salon. I have a bunch of friends that pay much less for hair straightening than I do but I think I have different, coarser hair than most salons here are generally used to. So, this morning after I washed and let my hair dry, I looked a little poodle-ish. Even Dan felt badly about it though he tried to cheer me up by saying it's not that bad, when I know it is. So, never again because, despite the economy, it will cost more to fix it than the savings. I bought a hair mask that should do the trick temporarily so I'm chill for the moment.

But, anyway, instead of going to Tuesday playgroup we went into the mall to run errands and on our way to the tea shop, Stella told me she was hungry. So, we stopped for a quick carrot raisin muffin. As you can kind of see in the background, this cafe has cubes for some of it's seating. Stella pulled out her cube, climbed on it, sat down, folded her arms on the table and started to babble and gesticulate like we were supposed to be talking about the weather or some soap opera. It was soooo funny. Then her muffin came and she kept on rambling about whatever. It was very funny. The big deal is that she's actually sitting on her own across the table from me.

There was an 8-month-old baby sitting at the table behind us. The mom brought out a wind up turtle that would roll over the mall floor after it's string was pulled. Stella thought that was great. We chatted briefly with the mom and baby. Stella would smile at the baby and then point to the baby's eye while yelling, "Eye!!!" and then she'd stealthfully grab the turtle and run away. As if pointing our attention to the baby's eye would cause us to not notice that she was running away with this poor baby's toy. I admired her cleverness, but when it came time to actually give back the turtle and leave to run our errands, she screamed her head off.

"We had a great time when you were gone. I taught her how to make music by banging stuff on her head..."

That's what Dan told me excitedly after I came home from my hair appointment on Saturday.

I can FINALLY leave Stella alone with Dan for short periods of time without him freaking out. I go to bootcamp very early in the morning which leaves Dan to get Stella out of bed and feed her breakfast before he goes to work. The first few times, I laid out her breakfast the night before and left him detailed instructions. I came home the first time and they were both happily eating Doritos together in bed. As you can see, the hotel has expensive Italian sheets and they were very orange after the Doritos incident. I wonder what housekeeping thought of that! The next time I came home from bootcamp, Dan had made her a box (it was organic) of mac and cheese for breakfast which she was also happily, happily eating. This was on the grounds that he thought she needed some carbs. So after a few other similar incidents, I don't bother laying out breakfast in advance anymore. Usually, he gives her fruit and yogurt but every once in a while something random gets thrown in. He got in trouble for the Doritos incident. But all in all, he does a great job and I'm only writing about it because both the mac and cheese and Doritos incidents made me laugh quite hard.

It's all good really--more freedom for me. I just have to accept that there will be some odd things happening in my absence. I'm sure there's a lot they aren't telling me about.

Word to Your Mother...

Quick update, as we're busy cleaning house and getting ready to go back to LJ for an ultra busy holiday season. She says a lot but here's the latest.

"Ah-meee" means Elmo
"Ay-vee-vee" means elevator
"Tick-uh!" (while pointing to her chest) means sticker. I think she points to her chest because the people at the front desk have been giving her stickers for ages and they seem to put them on her chest.
"Gooh" means read Mother Goose or put on my Mother Goose DVD. It's usually the latter.

She also says, "eat" and then opens the fridge to rummage around for something to eat. Luckily, she only ever wants fruit so that's what she goes for. I'm grateful we have a Sub Zero in LJ and am positive she can't open it.

Long and Lean (Still)

We went to the Dr. today and she's 12.5 kg (27.5 lbs) and about 87cm (34 inches). We could not get an accurate length measurement because she was too squirmy. Weight is about 90th percentile and height is about 99th percentile. Dan always laughs because that means she's "technically" skinny. I asked the Dr. if I should move toward lower fat but he said no and if she wants cheese melted on veggies and meat in order to eat it, then let her have it that way. I was complaining about her pickiness. She and I both got flu shots and she also got an MMR booster.

In the afternoon, we went to Discovery Bay to play on the beach with her friends. I'm using the zoom lens on my camera in the photo above, which I never have to do because she's usually stuck to my leg. You can kind of see the red roof of the Disneyland Hotel in the background. But, she had a blast. She ran all over the place in the sand and didn't at all care where I was. She also ate a fistful of sand, washed it ALL down with water from her sippy (I was frantically trying to get a cloth to scoop it out with) and never thought twice about it. We definitely need to do this more often. The only thing is that she pitched a fit when it was time to go because she, though exhausted and filthy, was not ready.

Sick, Starbucks, Spa...

She's sick and not eating so I took her to Starbucks knowing she'd take down an entire spinach pocket which, of course, she did. She perked up as soon as she saw the place. She kept pointing to her cup and my cup and I figured out that she wanted the "don't burn your fingers it's hot" thingy on her sippy. So, I had to doctor one up to get it on there. She was very happy after that and showed it off to several people in the mall who that it very funny.

She also has decided that she must moisturize multiple times per day. She self applies it, which is a mess.

Gone Clubbin'

Oh my we've been busy. Today was funny because Stella grabbed her purse and excitedly ran out the door when it was time to go to Baby Loves Disco. She ran quickly down the hall to the elevator and hit the down button. She knows now that when I carry her car seat, she's going in a taxi to somewhere cool. She ran through the lobby, waved to her fans and then shot out to where the taxis are. She ran to the front of the taxi stand and stood there waiting. It's Sunday, so there were no taxis and the bellmen were busy shuffling people in and out of the hotel, etc. She saw a cab (they are red and white here), pointed to it and began waving her arms above her head wildly to flag it down. The bellmen started laughing and one said something about Stella stealing their job. We got in and went off to the Tribeca Club for Baby Loves Disco. She is always overwhelmed at first but then settles in. I discovered that she'd dance to exhaustion on the little stage they have by the bar, but not on the floor--probably too many people there. I didn't have pockets in my pants so I only took dancing pics/video when she was tired. But, she even developed a new shoulder roll type move. She also loved the glow in the dark wrist bands. There was a Halloween theme but she refused to wear her costume since she wore it yesterday.

I did make the mistake of allowing to have 2 apple juices at BLD so she was wired beyond belief. We got back to the hotel and after she ran up and down our hallway about 10 times, I took her back out. She blasted through the lobby again and asked to go outside. There's a garden next to the rotunda where the taxis and chauffeurs are. She ran around the garden and to the entrance of the mall and back 7 times like a bat out of hell. Up and down stairs too, sweating like a pig. After about 45 minutes of this I picked her up kicking and screaming to go back inside the hotel. The bellmen were laughing because I told them about the apple juice and that she was hyper before we went outside.

Yesterday, we had our baby group Halloween party at Dakota Prime, a new fancy steakhouse. That was fun too. This week is incredibly busy too!!!

When you say "no"...I'll dance and then you'll forget why you're mad

This is entirely new. If she gets busted doing something she's not supposed to, she'll smile, her eyes will open really big and she'll start to dance with her fingers pointed in the air like John Travolta. She knows we think her dancing is funny so now she dances to diffuse "situations" she doesn't like. It's always when we want her to do something she doesn't want to do.

Smart. I can't help but laugh sometimes.

R.I.P. Little Teddy

We had our first loss yesterday. I saw it coming and tried to pry Little Teddy out of her hands before she got in her stroller but she wasn't having it so I let it go. Big mistake. He looks just like Teddy so I bet what happened is that he fell out of the stroller and she didn't notice because their fur is the same. She was holding Little Teddy, Teddy and her purse. We were just out cruising around when he fell out. We retraced our steps and asked building managers, store owners, etc. if they had found Little Teddy but no luck. I am probably more upset about it than she is. Stella jambs in as much stuff as possible into her purse when she knows we're leaving the house. This morning before we left, she found Little Teddy's shirt and went looking for him. She has so much stuff around the house that she probably thinks he's here somewhere. But, she took his shirt and put it in her purse before we left the house. I was so sad!!!

She also ordered her own Starbucks this morning. She is allowed to eat the whole wheat spinach pocket or fruit salad when we go there. She ran up to the glass cabinet, excitedly pointed to the spinach pocket and said, "dat! dat! dat!" so that is what she ate.

Whoa

...is perhaps her favorite saying right now. She says it sort of like Spicolli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High would. She says it when she drops toys, knocks stuff over, falls down...so that's basically all the time. Here's what else she says:

1. Hi
2. Up
3. Bye-Bye (sounds like "Die Die")
4. Off
5. Dog
6. Eye (she loves this one)
7. This
8. That
9. Mama
10. Daddy (sounds like dah-eeee)
11. Duck
12. Boat
13. Wet
14. Owl
15. Whoa

I'm missing a lot, so I'll revise as I remember. It's clear that she understands almost everything but pretends like she doesn't know what "no" means sometimes, unfortunately.

Quirks:

She is possessive of her stroller and throws fits when people try to move it or if we need to leave it out of her sight.

She has an obsession with cleaning her ears. Dan and I can never do it well with wash cloths in the bath so we do the outside only with Q tips since she gets eczema if we're not careful. She likes it and is often demanding that we clean her ears. Then we have to clean Teddy's ears, Duckie's ears, Blankie's ears (even though Blankie doesn't have ears, she insists), etc. etc. One day, I had to clean everyone's ears 6 times. I kept telling her that everyone's ears were already clean.

That's all I can think of right now. It's been a long day!

Shoe Fetish

She's always trying to steal other kids' Crocs at the LRC, so we got some for her. They put these button-type things in them called Jibbitzes. You buy them separately and can pick whatever kind you want to add into the holes. She needed new pool shoes anyway. Except, she loves these so much that she almost refuses to take them off. We were out running errands and she started squealing with joy as we approached the Crocs store. It's full of bright colors and was hard to control her in there. We settled on turquoise since both her bathing suits have that color in them. I plopped her back in her stroller and she played with her feet for almost an hour while I went to the grocery store and did a few other things around town. It was funny.

Also, she's become a picky eater. She only likes:

1. Muffins (any kind): I think it has something to do with the texture.
2. Pomelo:  It has surpassed avocado as "the" favorite food. It's expensive because you pretty much have to buy it pre-peeled since they are so hard to peel. If I give her a few slices, she'll squeal and point to the fridge, demanding more. She can not control herself around pomelo.
3. Sweet potato french fries
4. Any fruit: She likes mostly watermelon, grapes, berries, pomelo, and dragon fruit.
5. Avocado: However, I think she's getting sick of it.
6. Any cheese
7. Anything drowning beyond recognition in cheese. She hates fish and chicken now, unless it's hidden in melted cheese.
8. Peas
9. Broccoli:  Only when we're eating out, never at home.
10. Chinese-style noodles at the LRC
11. Soba noodles
12. Cucumber sushi rolls
13. Banana
14. Smoothies
15. Kashi Strawberry Fields cereal: She picked it out herself at the store, actually.
16. Pine nuts
17. Some, but not all, pasta
18. Risotto
19. Saltines
20. Scrambled eggs
21. Yogurt
22. Amy's vegetarian frozen lasagne
23. Pizza:  But it depends on her mood...sometimes she won't touch it.
24. Raisins, dried blueberries, or dried cranberries
25. Kalamata olives

She HATES pretty much everything else, but especially hates tomatoes, bowtie pasta, mango, papaya, fish, oatmeal, squash, white potatoes and anything multi-colored or messy looking.

That's it. Seriously. Try making 3 meals a day out of that!

I Had Nothing to Do with This....

She put this diaper on her head all by herself.......

We're so proud.

Purse

So, she knows what "let's go shopping" means. She will grab her Hello Kitty purse, put Teddy in it and run out the door. She runs full speed, squealing to the elevator. But, the problem is that she will keep her arm raised in order to keep her purse from falling off. I get worried she's going to lose circulation. I'll say, "Let mommy take your purse..." but she'll shake her head no and run away. I have more pictures on Picasa. People in the mall laugh when they see her with her purse. I need to get her a smaller one, I think.

I Will Survive...

We went to Baby Loves Disco today. Stella was overwhelmed at first but then settled in. She did quite a bit of dancing and wore a wrist jingle thing. She shook it around by waving her arms like a maniac to various disco songs. She particularly liked "I Will Survive" which is not one of my favorites, but it was funny. Some of her friends were there. There were photographers from local magazines/newspapers there. One took quite a few photos of her and asked me what brand of clothing she was wearing. I didn't know, so it was an odyssey trying to find the label which was way down in her pants. But, that's very much a Hong Kong thing. A lot of them asked what nationality she was because they couldn't quite figure her out. My photos didn't come out too well because it was dark in there so you can't see the full disco effect.

It's Mid-Autumn Festival so there are lanterns all over the place. She's holding one in the bottom photo but I need to put a light stick in it to get the full effect.

Ni Hao

The flight was the best yet. Stella was sooooo good. She was awake for most of the LAX-NRT flight which made me nervous, but she finally passed out spot on her bedtime for a few hours. She woke up for about the last 30 minutes or so. The big difference was that she was happy to be in her own seat for once. In the middle photo, her seat is fully reclined to an almost flat bed. She figured out that if she stood on the end of her "bed" that she could stand about 3 inches away from the Disney channel. That made her happy so she would bunch up her nose and squeal with joy. The latter was making me nervous as I wasn't sure how long she was going to squeal for. She also was happy to get on the second flight from NRT-HKG. She even waved and said, "Die, Die!" to the guy operating the jetway because she knew she was about to go somewhere. Then, she slept almost the entire flight, as did I.

My jet lag has been horrible. She's been just ok. She woke up starving last night around 3am but fell back asleep after some milk. I woke up at 1am, not to return to sleep. She likes the way her Keds sound on the mall floor so in the morning she did two full laps around the mall (it's circular) and went to the playroom. Then, lunch and a hefty nap. Then, we went to our first Mandarin playgroup at the LRC. I was dreading it because I had to get her in a taxi to the LRC by myself and I was soooo tired. But, it was definitely worth it. There were 5 other kids but she was the youngest. What surprised me was that when the teacher asked her in Mandarin to do something she'd do it. Even if she was the first kid asked, she'd do it. I had no idea what she was asking her to do until I saw the other kids do it too. I can tell the other kids are half-Chinese and are in this class because their parents don't speak enough Mandarin at home. Their moms are Chinese. Stella and I are the only non-natives. She loved this class. They learned about fruit, sang songs and at one point they sang this dog song I remember from being a kid (am drawing a blank on the name). Everyone was supposed to walk around in a circle but she stood in the mush pot doing her Axel Rose, hip-swaying dance. But, she did sound like she was actually repeating the words and I learned more Mandarin today than I have in the 5 years we've been in Hong Kong. The teacher asked to shake her hand when we left but Stella leaned over and gave her a kiss.

Mandarin class ended at 5pm so we headed to the playground. Dan had to work so we intended to stay at the LRC for dinner. Stella had such a good time for such a tired little girl. She met a little boy, maybe 3 years old and followed him around giggling. Then, right as we were about to leave some older girls ranging I'm guessing between 4-7 years old came running in. They were playing tag. One saw Stella and started to lead her around. Stella was in heaven and they kept hugging each other. So, I went to sit back down. She chased them around while they played and vice versa. They were very, very nice to her. In the last photo above, Stella was holding court. She was tired and sat down against the jungle gym and one by one, the other girls sat around her. I have no idea what they were talking about as I kept my distance, but they were clearly focused on Stella, petting her hair and hugging her. It was very cute. Stella noticed that I was no where to be found (this was after about 20+ minutes) so she ran over to me, exhausted. One of the girls ran up to her mom who was sitting a few tables over. I heard her tell her mom that she wanted to hug Stella. Her mom said for her to go ask me if that's ok. While this was going on, I picked up Stella and was gathering our things up to go. The little girl came over but was too shy to ask permission. Stella saw her and wanted to get down. She walked up to the little girl and gave her a slight hug in a "this is for your benefit, not mine" kind of way that she has. And, off we went. It was dark by then and she almost passed out in the cab.

Tomorrow is swimming lessons and coffee with her friends.

Busy!!!!!

It's astounding that it's been 6 weeks since the last blog. But we've been BUSY!!! This photo is from Auntie Kate's Bridal Shower which was last Saturday. Stella's shirt says "Flower Girl" in pink rhinestones because that's hopefully what she'll be, if she (Stella) makes it down the aisle without a meltdown. It's scary for an adult to perform in front of 200 people, let alone a toddler, but we'll keep our fingers crossed. Stella was very well behaved the entire time despite the fact that we cleared out her playroom to make room for 2 tables. She was very confused and not too psyched about that. Anyway, we had a good time and now we're exhausted. I got 2 nights out sans Stella but I sure paid the price on Monday. She let me know that my absence was completely unacceptable.

Dan left last weekend and has enjoyed a little bit of typhoon action. He got the day off. We've had several large BBQs, visited with friends and family, etc. Something has been going on every day, practically. She loves the car so is now fine doing errands but is mediocre at mall shopping. For some reason, she hates Crate and Barrel.

I am spending the next several days chilling so will upload more photos later and think about how to summarize our last few months!!!

Back in La Jolla

So, we made it. The flight was pretty good, relatively speaking. Do I miss the upper deck, catching up on movies, bottomless good wine, sleep--yes! But, I did manage to eat and watch one movie, 27 Dresses, which was just ok, but given the circumstances, I thought it was spectacular. Stella was great on Cathay, bothering minimal people in the lounge and on the plane. However, once we landed in Tokyo all hell broke loose. It was her nap time but no way she was going to nap on the go. She tore up the lounge and inhaled a table full of sushi. I'm sure they were glad to see us leave. For the first 3ish hours she was wide awake to LAX but then sacked out for the rest of the flight. She was babbling the entire 3 hours though, which I'm sure the people around us weren't psyched about. I'm not sure how much they heard since they were not too close. Anyway, I would have died without the DVD player and need to write the folks at Baby Einstein a serious thank you letter.

We've been busy. We put together her playroom and went to the Birch Aquarium, beach, malls, zoo with Becky who was visiting from HK, swimming, parties, and more parties! There is something going on everyday. She loves the backyard and it's "too bad" the sun has been shining constantly. We let her go out in the early morning and in the late afternoon. She just runs around. She has a new love of gardening and carries the watering can all over the place attempting to water the flowers. She killed one of my prized dahlia plants with too much water, I think, but such is life, I guess. We had zinnias at the hotel and she loved them so I planted some here. She clearly recognizes them and likes to pat them gently, thank goodness."Pat, pat flowers."

Dan arrived and she had no idea who he was for the first 45 minutes. Then it all came pouring back and they were up to their same old games.

I have so much more to write but am still tired from a very busy month. We are going to chill for the next few days, I think, so more later!!!

Stella and Her Boy Friends

She was about 7 months here.

I've noticed in the last few weeks that she really gravitates toward little boys around 2-4 years old. There are a few that live in the hotel. Tonight, we met Dan and his friend from high school, Neil, out for a quick happy hour. She and I rushed back into the hotel in time for 7pm bath time. I walked into the hotel holding her. She grabbed the doorman's hand (they always wave to her) so hard that he was drug inside the hotel and hit his head on the huge glass doors. He laughed and so did the concierge ladies. During the commotion, a little boy walked in the door with his auntie. Stella lept out of my arms and ran straight up to him. She is normally shy around strangers and there were a ton around because it was a busy time. Several people were coming in and out of the elevators so I couldn't quite see what she did. But, she got right in his face and grabbed his hand. She was looking longingly into his eyes and I'm sure he could not have cared less. He was very polite and humored her. She followed him right into the elevator. Luckily, someone held the door for me because I was lugging her stroller, Dan's coat and some other misc. She could have easily left without me and I actually don't think she would have cared as long as the little boy was there.

Also, last weekend at the LRC there was a little boy named Hugo that she loved. Actually, before Hugo entered the picture, Stella was riding in a Little Tykes car similar to the one we have in La Jolla. She had been hogging it for some time so Dan and I took her out as there was a little boy eyeing it. He got in. She ran right up to him and gently hung on to the car while swaying her hips back and forth. She was smiling and giggling while suggestively opening and shutting the car door. She was almost flirting and then Dan realized, "She's trying to hustle him out of the car so she can get it back." That's exactly what happened in the end. Part of me thinks, "Good for her." The other is bracing for trouble later on. So, after she was back in the car, sweet Hugo (maybe also 3 years old) came over and started talking to her. He carefully pushed her around the playground. I was upset to not have a camera. She smiled like crazy, honked the horn and loved every minute of it. Except that whenever Hugo stopped, she'd look back at him quizzically and motion for him to keep going. This went on and on for a while. We laughed a lot.

She has also inherited some of Dan's particular habits. She has decided that no pillow should touch the headboard so she arranges them exactly how she likes them toward the middle of the bed. If we happen to be laying on one of them near the headboard, she will grab us by our hair and pull us off the pillows. She likes to sit near the headboard. Evidently, some of her stuffed animals are allowed to be there but not Dan or I. We also colored for the first time today. I taped some paper to the dining room table and we used these big fat crayons to draw that Dan put in her Easter basket. They were housed in a plastic cup so they would not roll off the table when not in use. She would only arrange them in the cup with the tips facing up. She got angry if I put one in tip facing down and would immediately flip the crayon around. She probably took them in and out of the cup dozens of times and every single time she put them in tip up.

Some Funny Things

I think she was 3 days old in this photo.

Stella seriously soaks up all the attention from the staff here at the hotel. And, I can tell they genuinely love her. She's really in for a rude awakening when we get to the U.S. and not many non-family members will give a hoot about her. One of the concierge ladies, Mandy, always comes running when we enter the lobby. Stella blasts out of the elevator on the first floor and out the glass doors to the lobby where she expects (seriously) to be made the center of attention. Even the bellmen hold her hand and smile at her. It was very sweet today because she went to Mandy and tugged on her skirt which means that Stella wanted Mandy to pick her up. Stella does not do that very often to people who are not Dan or me.

But, the best is that once we've left the hotel and re-enter, Stella makes her presence known. For instance, if I'm carrying her on my hip, the second we walk through the big glass lobby doors she smiles, stretches out her arm with her palm turned up like a beauty queen as if to say, "I'm here!" It's hysterical and she only does it when we enter and leave the main lobby area where most of the staff are. I was pushing her in her stroller today and I nearly died when she did it. She faces me in the stroller so she's technically riding backward. The second those big doors opened she stuck out her arm to announce her arrival. She couldn't see anyone, because she was riding backward, but knew it was "time" to do that.

Food wise her palate is pretty funny:

1. Avocado is still #1:  She's eaten it every day since she was 6 months old except when we were in Bangkok because the Shangri-la had run out (???).

The rest are in no particular order:

2. Melon
3. Berries (all but raspberry)
4. Saffron bread (maybe because it's yellow)
5. Risotto:  It's such a pain to make, but she shovels it in because it's sticky (or I make it sticky) so she can pick it up.
6. Scrambled eggs
7. These really gross oatmeal millet pancakes from a kids health food book
8. Chicken pizza from the LRC
9. Sushi (we don't give her raw fish): I took her to the Japanese grocery store today and she almost (seriously) dove into the sushi counter trying to grab containers.
10. Pomelo: We have to ration it because it makes her diapers really, really gross.
11. Watermelon juice
12. Kiwi

She hates mango, papaya and strawberries that aren't ripe enough so much that she gets angry and screams at me.

I've also learned that whenever I say "mouth" she thinks I want her to spit out her food. It's because we say, "What's in your mouth?" when she sometimes puts stuff in it she's not supposed to. She's very good about spitting out stuff that is too big for her to chew or when she gets busted putting contraband in there. She also has learned to "dip." They have an organic baby ketchup here with no salt that we let her dip her scrambled eggs and whatever in to. She has to have a small bowl of vanilla yogurt to dip pancakes in. I discovered that on accident, but she loves to do it.

She doesn't eat any baby food anymore. In fact, we had coffee with some friends at a nice cafe so I got a sandwich for myself and a fruit salad for her since Dan was going to be home late. She ate my sandwich and the entire fruit salad. Dan asked how our dinner was so I had to say, "I don't know but I'm starving..."

Quite a Week

Still recycling old photos as the camera has not resurrected itself.

Last weekend, the three of us flew to Bangkok. We woke Stella up an hour earlier than normal and set off for the airport. She knew something was up. It was very early so she became fussy right about when we hit the security line in the airport. None of us had eaten breakfast or had a cup of coffee yet. We arrived at the Cathay Pacific business class lounge. Dan was cursing that he lost his American Airlines Executive Platinum status as he traveled less because of Stella last year. That allowed us entry into the first class lounge. I actually prefer the business class lounge, to be honest. For the non-Asian traveler, the Cathay Hong Kong lounges blow the U.S. Admirals Clubs and even all the ones I remember at Heathrow (including BA pre-terminal 5) just straight out of the water. Stella happily ate her breakfast there as she loves their congee. We boarded the plane and she was restless at first, but then slept the entire way. We had a car waiting at the airport. The new airport is really spectacular. The old one was very unpleasant. She was fine in the car even though it was past her lunch time and daddy refused to get out her DVD player and toys "just in case." We stayed at the Shangri-la, which I would highly recommend. We had a suite so she had her own room and it was one of the nicest hotel rooms I've ever stayed in. I hear the normal rooms are just "ok" unless you are in the new Krungthep wing. Anyway, bottom line is that is was a very nice vacation. Stella was in a GREAT mood the entire time and loved pretty much everything about the hotel, even though she already lives in a nice one. It was on the river so she saw fish jumping in the morning, there were older kids in the pool (we did a ton of swimming and she loved it), she devoured Thai fried rice and watermelon juice at every opportunity and then some. Dan joked today about how Asian she's become with her love of Thai pomelos (she would eat them all day long if it weren't for the fact they make her diapers stink like you would not believe), watermelon juice, fried rice and congee. I snuck out to do some shopping. We all had a great time and were very pleased at how easy it was. The hotel gave Stella a huge crib with 4 fancy pillows and Italian linens, so there was no way she could sleep poorly. She slept just like normal. The one-hour time change and occasional late bedtime (so mom and dad could meet friends out for drink) didn't bother her one bit. She fidgeted during the flight home but thank goodness for our portable DVD player because she never got fussy.

Then, on Monday, as everyone knows, we had an earthquake in Sichaun province near our favorite Chinese city, Chengdu. Dan and I traveled through Beichuan and some of the other little cities that are now leveled, in order to get to Wolong. We're both just gutted.

And then my 19-year-old cat, Fluffy died.

We land at LAX on June 6.

Who's Your Daddy?

We had a funny incident on the 59th floor. I take Stella out when housekeeping comes so the other day we went to the 59th floor where the pool and gym are. They have a nice reading area and the view is spectacular. Stella was running around like a bat out of hell, tossing newspapers off the table, etc. I was exhausted and about to take her back downstairs when the elevator "dinged" and a Chinese man walked out. Stella was in his path to the pool. She looked right at him and said "Dad-dy!!!" It was the clearest "Daddy" she's ever said. They guy replied, "uh, no..." and the other people in the reading area all laughed.

She's pretty clever. Today when housekeeping came, I took her to Caffe Vergnano where we have Thursday coffee because she slept until 4pm and we couldn't commit to going anywhere outside the mall as she eats at 5pm. They have nice leather sofas and leather cubes for chairs. I arranged some cubes to block her access to some electrical outlets and this space behind the sofas. She was desperate to get behind the sofas because there is a mini glass wall there that allows you to see down to the first floor. Because the tables next to us were occupied, I didn't want her going back there. She knew she was being denied. So she would drop her sippy cup right behind the cube and say, "Uh oh!" and look me in the eye with a very cute, innocent look. I would reach down and get it without moving the cube, which was frustrating to her because her plan was for me to move the cube in order to get it. That would be her opportunity to blast behind the sofas. After about 3 times, she started to toss it a little bit further away to where she thought I couldn't reach it without moving the cube. Same thing with the innocent, "Uh oh!" It was funny, transparent and pretty clever. Then, I could tell she was hurling it as far as she could over the cube. After a while, she gave up and decided to seriously soil her diaper in retaliation. I had to get the check and bolt home because she stank.

I am not at all sure if we're going to Bangkok this weekend because she's been really cranky. I can't tell if it's teething or an MMR shot reaction. She's had these white bumps on her gums for the last week or two but nothing has broken through yet.

More Parties

We had another busy weekend. On Friday, we saw the Olympic torch from the hotel reading room. We had a perfect view of all the drama. We saw it come across the harbour to the ferry dock and someone run it all the way down the waterfront. On Saturday, we went to Stella's friend Nivana's birthday party. It was at a very, very nice restaurant called H One which happens to be on the 4th floor of our hotel. It could not have been more convenient for us!!! The food was excellent and Stella was a fan of the mini quiches. She grabbed one off my plate and stuffed it in her mouth before I could get it from her. On Sunday, we had a group birthday party with all of her friends that were born around the same time. It was at JWT Kids gym which ironically originated in Solana Beach. Dan couldn't come, but it was exhausting as they had constant activities for almost 2 hours straight.

These are photos some friends took as my camera has not resurrected itself. We are off to Bangkok this weekend and I bought a few disposable cameras. I have not figured out why my Canon camera is 2x the price here in HK. We'll wait to get one on Amazon when we land in CA.

In the bottom photo, I think she's twisted her tummy a little funny as it does stick out but perhaps not that much in real life!

Jalopy, Part 2

Dan, half jokingly, calls our computer the jalopy because ever since Stella picked off the "o" key, it's just never been the same. It's only a matter of days until the entire thing crashes so we've already picked out a new laptop to order for immediate delivery after I land in CA. He's created a verb: jalopify. Stella is in the process of jalopifying his blackberry and cell phone regardless of how aggressive we are in trying to keep them away from her. I think he's given up, at least on the blackberry.

Anyway, there's quite a scare about bisphenol -A plastics going around in the baby world. How serious you take it is just up to you as some doctors and experts that think the thing is blown out of proportion. It depends on what you read. Stella has been more or less BPA-free since birth. She did use a few Dr Brown's bottles when she first started bottles until I read shortly after that they were "bad,'" even though it seems 80% of the people I know still use them or some other BPA-containing bottle. So, we bought the BPA free Born Free bottles which are $10 a bottle. That's a lot. Plus, the bottles as they are just plain suck so you have to use the Dr Brown's inserts which luckily are the only part of the bottle that are BPA-free. So that's about $15 per bottle and it's not like you can have just one or two. Then, she moved to sippy cups and we bought the BPA-free ones. They leak, but we used them anyway. Then, she moved to a straw cup. We used a Nuby, which was unfortunate since the almost exact model in the sippy cup form was BPA-free. I assumed the straw cup would be BPA free, too. Well, it is, except for the flip top that covers the straw. The baby websites say this is ok since the flip top never really touches the liquid. Stella loves this Nuby straw cup and it's by far the easiest for her to use. And, it does NOT leak under any circumstances. Not even one drop. I thought "well better be safe than sorry..." so bought some other crappy BPA-free straw cups that are "no-spill." We have tried 6 different straw cups and the Nuby is by far the best. She cries out of frustration sometimes because her other cups are terrible in comparison.

The "no-spill" BPA-free cup gushed all over my diaper bag and jalopified our digital camera. It's completely dead. So, no photos until we sort it. Bitter...and costly.

Elevator issues

I figured something out today. As I mentioned, there are times when Stella flat out refuses to get out of the elevator. Our floor, 35, has tan colored granite on the walls that's obviously visible as soon as the elevator opens. The lobby and playroom have black granite on the walls near the elevators while the 59th floor (pool and gym) has multi-colored lights and mirrors. These are the places she likes to go the most. Actually, all floors below 22 (can't remember the exact floor) were designed by one decorator that used black granite and the floors above that were designed by another. She will follow people she likes out of the elevator (mainly skinny asian women) on floors 22 and below. She refuses to get out on floors 22 and above because she thinks she's going home!!! Today, it was almost nap time so we got in the elevator and as soon as the doors opened and she saw the tan granite, she sat down immediately and refused to budge. I had to pick her up, kicking and screaming, to get her out of the elevator. She screamed all the way home, desperate to get down and run back to the elevator.

Elevators, Boogers and Naps

That's the only title I could think of. She is obsessed with the elevators. On the inside, they are fully mirrored so, of course, she likes to look at her self from all angles. She's also figured out that an elevator will open when she presses the down button in the corridor. So, the elevator will ding, start to open, she'll get excited and run toward it. But, then she realizes that when the elevator arrives, the down light becomes unlit. She then runs back out of the elevator (she never makes it fully into the elevator) and pushes the button again. And so the cycle goes. Sometimes she doesn't want to get out of the elevator. We rode it a ton up and down yesterday afternoon and I even got a little bit of motion sickness. This morning we rode it down to the lobby so that she could visit her fan club. The concierge desk ladies (and even some bellmen) are so nice to her and always run over to see her. She laughs like crazy. Then, we got back into the elevator and went to the playroom for 20 minutes. She walks the entire time.

We need to drop the morning nap because she's having trouble with her afternoon one. The afternoon one is the one she's supposed to keep for a few more years, in theory. I went to sleep school a few weeks ago and they taught me how to do this. Basically, I put her to bed a few minutes later every morning and wake her up a little bit earlier too. I was shooting for a 9:45am nap time instead of 9:30. We had such an active morning and got back to the apartment at 9:30am. I gave her a sippy cup and she made a beeline for her room as if to say, "Right, I'm tired and have had enough..." She pointed to Duckie so I gave it to her and she was in bed, relieved and tired by 9:35am. Will try again tomorrow.

Now, the boogers...on Sunday morning her nose began running like a faucet which was a bummer because we had a birthday party to go to that day. We skipped it, unfortunately, as I thought better to be safe. In the end I think it's been just teething even though they say runny nose is not a symptom. This exact same thing happened last time 2 teeth arrived. Low and behold there are 2 white bulging spots in her mouth which are obviously teeth.

Today, we meet some of her friends at the LRC playground, tomorrow Panda school, Thursday is a public holiday so Dan is off, Friday nothing (whew!!). Saturday is her friend Nivana's birthday party and Sunday is a joint birthday party at JWT Kids gym. So BUSY!!!

Long and Lean

We had a very busy birthday week with Grandpa and Grandma Dillon here to help celebrate. It was a lot of fun. Things are pretty much back to normal except that yesterday we had to go to the doctor for Stella's 1-year check-up. She is 32 1/4 inches tall and 25 1/2 lbs. Weight is in the 97th percentile and her height is off the charts. I followed the 97th percentile curve on the chart (she's been 97-99% her entire life) and her height is what she should be at age 2. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, the Dr. Thondup said everything is fine. She threw a fit when we sat her on the scale. Our pediatrician is the master shot-giver so she didn't cry for either of them. He feels that 3 shots in one day is a bit cruel so we go back in a few weeks for the chicken pox vaccine. She got MMR and Prevnar yesterday. I asked him when on earth she was going to stop drooling. He laughed and said that where he comes from (Tibet), that means she's going to be wealthy. He talks really quickly so I don't totally understand why that would make her wealthy. It sure makes her messy. She was at Gymboree today and so focused on getting to the Magic Box that she was splashing drool everywhere. It was running down her arm and dripping off her fingers. She had her back to me so I didn't see it in time to wipe her down.

Unfortunately, if she has an reaction to the MMR it will surface right around the time we leave for Bangkok. Perfect.

Oh and the bottom photo is noteworthy because Dan is giving her Puffs while telling her that she looks like a waitress with a nicotine patch. The front of her top is soaked with drool and full of crumbs. She's going to have to learn to deal with his sense of humor.

It's My Party, I Can Cry If I Want To....

I will write more later as we took a LOT of photos and I am having trouble uploading. She had a great time until the end when she started to do the major "fussy." We just kept her there too long as when they said we could have the room longer (there was still a ton of food and wine) we said ok, but it was too long for Stella and she let us know. Her friends Nana, Holly, Max, Clara, Becky, Pia, Moorea, Olivia, and Nivana came along with their parents. The room was really quite large and impressive for a 1st birthday party. I laughed when I first walked in. The LRC really went beyond the call of duty as the service was great and I felt sort of like I was at a wedding. I won't get all of the pics up tonight due to technical problems but will hopefully finish tomorrow.

A Happy Birthday

We had a very busy day. I'm totally wiped out too so sorry for the brief run-down. She woke up and Grandma and Grandpa Dillon came over for breakfast. We opened up a couple of presents and played. Stella napped and then we went to lunch at the LRC. She ran all over the playground. We put a candle in her chicken pizza! After another nap, we were off to the hotel playroom. Then, more presents, dinner and American Idol. Next, she dug into a cheesecake from the Mandarin Oriental cake shop. I suspected that she'd like it since all she wants to eat is cheese these days, and boy did she ever. In the second photo, she's dancing to American Idol while double-fisting cheesecake. As most of it shook to the floor, she really only had a few small bites in the end, but that's only because I didn't let her eat more.

Tomorrow is the party with her friends.

First Mother/Daughter Spa Day

Well, sort of. We went to the LRC's new spa to have Stella's hair cut. It's a super-fancy spa so if I walked in there and found out they charged the same prices as our hotel, I wouldn't have been surprised. But, they don't. It's a not-for-profit club and subsidized by dues (that Dan's firm pays), so my hair cut (best of my life with a 20 minute head massage) was $320 HKD or $41 USD. Stella's was $120 HKD or $15 USD. They can not accept gratuity either which is another bonus. So, I packed up all of our gear plus travel car seat and got us into the cab. I figured we'd stay and have dinner if Stella was cooperating because eating there is much cheaper than anything I could fix at home.

We got there a little bit early so we went to the indoor kids playroom next to the spa. There was a family of 3 kids in there, two girls and a boy. They were playing peek-a-boo with Stella and she was climbing all over the blocks laughing hysterically. She pitched a fit when we left because she was having a good time. We checked into the spa and they sent us into the posh waiting room, which is par for the course here in HK. They have super comfy lounge chairs, magazines, ginger tea (my favorite) and all sorts of cool relaxing stuff to enjoy while you wait for your treatment. Our hotel has whirlpools, saunas, massage chairs and they specifically tell you to arrive 30 minutes early, at least, so that you can just putz around in there. It's soooo worth it. Stella was like a bat out of hell in the waiting room climbing all over the lounge chairs and shredding up magazines. I thought I'd take a nice picture of her and Teddy on the lounge chair but that proved next to impossible (see above). She was trying to visit the poor lady in the section next to us. The sections are divided by glass and sheer curtains. Stella has learned how to play peek-a-boo with curtains. I had a half a cup of tea and then we were ushered into the hair salon. Stella sat on my lap and would not sit still. They had a DVD player running cartoons and I had brought books and everything I could think of to help her sit still. The lady cut off a ton of hair but you can't really tell in the photos that her hair was even cut. We were in there for almost 30 minutes and she said that if I didn't like it, I could come back for free and have it adjusted. But, she was so patient as Stella was whipping her head around that it's just good enough for now.

We then went to the playground and I ordered Stella dinner (grilled salmon and veggies off the kid's menu) and a club sandwich and wine for myself. The floor underneath the slides is very cushy. We wish we could find these floor tiles for our backyard. Because of the softness, she walked everywhere. She just walked/toddled around the playground for almost 2 hours. There were mostly older kids. Stella wants to be a big girl so badly. She tries to do everything that they do. A couple of older girls played with her for a while and she thought that was just the best. I was disappointed Dan was working because the improvement in her walking today was just incredible and she was soooo well-behaved.

She also figured out that if she threw food on the ground, the birds would come. In the last few weeks, she's developed a huge love of animals. Luckily, she figured that out at the end of dinner after inhaling her salmon filet.

But, my worst fear about her getting her hair cut came true when a little girl named Katie asked me if Stella was a girl or a boy! We'll need to keep wearing the bows.

Disciplining the Dancing Queen

First, we went to Stella's friend Nana's birthday party. It was a "Baby Loves Disco" party at a very hip club/restaurant called Dragon-I (www.dragon-i.com.hk). It was too dark and chaotic for me to take photos, but there was a photographer so Nana's mom will email out photos later. We had a great time. We woke Stella up early to get there at a decent time so it took her a while to get into the groove. They had mats on the floor with toys and a DJ spinning dance tunes. Stella was a little bit zoned-out on the mat trying to figure out where she and her friends were but she sat on her knees and swayed to the music, while looking around. The parents thought it was funny. She had done a lot of dancing and socializing by the time we left. In fact, I don't think she was ready to leave except that it was past dinner time. Nana's cake was very fancy and had all of things she liked on top of it, including a tube of Puffs. It was a big cake, because there were a lot of people there.

We have a very busy week ahead, including lunch at Dragon-I after Panda Junction school on Wednesday with some of Stella's Panda Junction friends. Dan laughed about that. Grandma and Grandpa Dillon arrive Thursday after Gymboree and Thursday coffee. Friday is Stella's birthday. Oh, and Tuesday Stella is getting her hair cut--FINALLY. It's starting to look pretty bad, actually, so we'll head to the LRC to play and go to the salon. We have a little bit of party prep to do for Saturday, but it's no where near as much as I would have to do if it were at our house in LJ.

We are having some problems disciplining Stella. She thinks "no" is funny no matter how harsh our voices get. She likes to grab the baby proofing corners off all of the tables and touch her diaper champ, the grossest thing in the house! We tell her no constantly and use all the tricks in my books about disciplining strong-willed children. But, she does it over and over and over again. Stubborn as hell, she is. She does really get upset if Dan and I both tell her no at the same time. It works though. She used to swipe the food off her placemat and we both told her no pretty harshly. She freaked out and screamed her head off afterward but she's not done it since. That happened today with the plastic corners. We both told her no, twice, and she had a melodramatic meltdown each time. She was very tired and fragile when she went to bed. But, other than that, she was very good today. We met a friend of mine with a 6-month-old baby today. I forgot how little Stella was then. Stella stood next to the baby and held her hand at one point. Stella played with her toys on the floor of the coffee place and was mostly smiles except for when she hit her head on the table toward the end.