I had to laugh...

I had to laugh when I saw this on the back of our water bill today. To be honest, there has been nothing fun, fast, easy, or joyful about learning how to pay bills here. Just when I think I have it all figured out there is a new one!

You know you live somewhere fast paced when..

1. The stoplights go from green-yellow-red-yellow-green. The second yellow gives drivers a heads up so they will be ready to move when it turns green.
2. You usually cannot move on elevators because they are so crammed with people trying to quickly get where they are going. Don't bother waiting for the next one... it will be crammed too!
3. There are not really lines for waiting to get on the subway, go up the escalator, get on the elevator, etc. Everyone is in charge of getting themselves on as quickly as possible.
4. Taxi doors open and close automatically so the driver does not have to wait for the passenger to do this.
5. The buses start moving before people are seated. Get on, pay, and sit down as fast as you can!
6. The buses don’t stop for more than a few seconds. If your stop is coming up, get your stuff organized, stand up and be ready to get off!
7. There are very few elevators. Don’t think about bringing it with you unless you can carry it up many flights of stairs!

Kay's favorite things...

I thought I would post some of Kay's favorite things at the moment. She loves reading. She will get us book after book now to read. She points and asks questions about things happening in the story.

Some of her favorite books:

* The Seven Silly Eaters or "silly eaters" (thank you Miles & Hazel!)

* Purplicious and The Pout Pout Fish (Thank you Great Aunt Pat!)

* Hands, Hands, Fingers, Thumb or "the monkey book" (Thank you Lopes Family!- my mom bought this at your garage sale when I was a child)

* She still likes many of her board books from when she was a baby because she can "read" them with us from memory

Some of her favorite activities:

* Kay loves to take care of her baby dolls. We walk them in the stroller outside, feed them, change them, tuck them in and give them milk

* Kay loves her scooter and is continuing to practice being able to ride it (poor girl seems to have gotten my coordination)

* Kay LOVES and I mean LOVES bath time

* Kay loves going to school and has begun making friends there

* Kay loves to talk. She will talk to anyone about anything. When we ride in the elevator she makes sure to look everyone in the eye and tell them if we are "going up" or "going down". The elevators here are often packed and her "going down" usually involves a little dance. Kay is usually very entertaining for those in the lift with us.

* Kay loves picking out her outfit for the day. This is usually a long process as she compares pants and shirts.

Grossly Underestimated....

I am guilty of grossly underestimating how hard this move would be on Kay. I spoke with her nurse/doctor from home last night at 2 am because I was desperate for some guidance on her sleep. As the nurse put it...”You have rocked her world. Everything is different; people look different, they talk in a different language, she is in a new home and room, she has left her friends/family, she switched from crib to bed, she has a new school, and you and your husband are her only constant.” When I told her Craig is also gone now during the week she said “oh yeah, you are in for it for awhile if you are the only constant...” Just the words I wanted to hear after struggling until 10 pm to get my two year old to bed!

On a positive note... Kay is almost done with her thumb sucking! She has been getting sick a lot and her teeth are moving very badly from it. I know this is yet another change for her! We are around so many people and ride so much public transportation that the sucking was a perfect avenue for the germs. We have been working on it for several weeks. We have been using lots of encouragement and a magical nail polish that had 800+ positive reviews on Amazon. Now when we ask her if she sucked her thumb during the night she says "no way!" She (and we) are proud of her progress. So far so good....

Kay graduated to her new classroom this week (another change- oh my!) The kids move up at 2 years, 8 months. She LOVES it despite being exhausted. Yesterday we were going to go on a play date and she got very mad because she wanted to go to school instead.

Overall, we are hanging in there. Sometimes I feel like it is by a thread, but we are hanging in there. Like most things in life... this too shall pass and I am sure we will forget about this phase until we look back in our blog book in the years to come...In the meantime, we will continue to enjoy the snuggles and little girl giggles when we get them!

Japan!

We had a great family trip to Japan over Chinese New Year. Craig had to travel to Tokyo and Kyoto for work and Kay and I tagged along.

Tokyo...

Observation floor of the World Trade Center to see the Tokyo sprawl. Tokyo is so different than Hong Kong. There is plenty of flat land for buildings and the high rises are shorter.

Asakusa Temple

Largest Buddhist temple in Tokyo

Craig and Kay were so excited to see a shoe bigger than his!

Trying to figure out the very confusing public transportation map.

Ginza Area...

Sony Building

We ate... A LOT...

Kay was pretty popular in Japan as well. There is a lot less English, but people still could not resist a friendly blonde little girl. Craig's co-worker gave Kay a small toy and she got a teddy bear from a lady at the coffee shop. The ladies sitting next to us at the restaurant loved that Kay could do cheers. They reached their glasses over and had Kay give them cheers as well. Very cute! We even had what we both decided was the best burger we have ever had.

Making the sesame paste for our tempura/Tonkatsu dipping sauce...

Shaba Shabu...

This is a traditional type of food that is similar to fondue. It usually takes 2.5 hours, but we were able to make it out in record speed because Kay didn't have the patience to make it any longer. The restaurant had their own head of cattle in the mountains surrounding Kyoto, so this was easily some of the best beef we have ever had. The only better beef we've had is at Gorat's in Nebraska!

Lots of Sushi and Shashimi (even I ate it!)

Trying Seaweed tea...

Yes, we took a picture of a toilet. Oh... the toilets.... We had a challenge with Kay and the toilets. It was very interesting how very few hotels had wireless, hardly anyone had smart phones, and in general it felt like we had gone back 10-20 years in time. Even without the technology we have grown accustomed to, they had "fancy" toilets. These things would play music when you sit down, lids would open automatically, and lights would flash. Thank goodness Kay never discovered the bidet button! We had a wonderful dinner with Craig's co-workers until Kay had to use the bathroom. When I took her in the toilet lid opened automatically and blue lights started to flash. Kay was terrified and would not use the bathroom. I walked around and finally found one in another store that she was not afraid of. We checked into our hotel only to find the same toilet! We finally had to unplug it so she would use it. The toilet even had a remote. Any ideas on why you would need to flush the toilet in a different room?

Waiting for the subway. Notice there are no doors to cover the tracks. There were men standing shining the light on the tracks to make sure no one fell. I was very nervous with Kay by the trains...

On the high speed train (180 miles per hour) to Kyoto. Enjoying a rice cracker with her daddy...

It was so cold! It was a rainy/snowy/yucky mess for several of the days. Apparently it snows in Tokyo/Kyoto about twice a year. Of course, it snows when we were there! We came out of the subway and saw this... we decided it was a sign to buy hats because we were freezing!

Kyoto...

Kinkaku-ji "Golden Temple"

Built in 1397

Ryoan-Ji "Zen Rock Garden"

Built in 1450

Kay's favorite part was getting to put on pink slippers. Staying quiet and enjoying the zen garden was a challenge for a two year old.

We were amazed at how incredible the moss gardens were. We then saw the ladies on their hands and knees digging out weeds.

Nijo-Jo (Nijo Castle)

Built in 1603 and housed the showguns.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside the building. The walls were gold leaf and had pairings that were over 300 years old. The floors were called knighting gale floors. They squeeked when you walked on them to alert the guards that enemies were coming.

Kiyomizudera "Pure water temple"

Founded in 780

There are three natural springs; each one is supposed to have a different benefit.

Kay checking out one of the many, many, many vending machines in Japan. They seem to be everywhere!

Exploring while Craig worked. We have talked about shadows often. Kay finally "got" that she had a shadow on this trip. We spent about 45 minutes chasing our shadow!

Our journey home was long. We left Kyoto for a 2.5 hour high speed train ride, then had a 45 minute train ride to the airport in Tokyo, had several hours to spend in the airport, then took a 4.5 hour plane ride, 35 minute subway ride to Hong Kong, and finally a 15 minute taxi ride to our house. We got home about 11:30 pm. Kay (and her parents) were exhausted!

Cloudy Day Fun...

We have had a lot of cloudy days recently. We decided to spend our Sunday at the amusement park we have season passes too. It was really neat because they had the park decorated for Chinese New Years.