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.