"Nap Time"

I thought I should type what Kay is talking about with her stuffed animals while she is supposed to be napping. She talks...a lot ...and I want to be able to look back and smile about it someday like it makes me smile now.

Kay: "Apple (her stuffed animal) I tuck you in"
Kay: big yawn...
Kay: "up, up, down, down"
Kay: "make something for daddy" "make something for mommy" "make something for Lita"
Kay: big yawn...
Kay: counting to four in Mandarin...
Kay: ...silence...maybe asleep??...
Kay: "round and round"
Kay: "no more monkeys on bed""fell off bump head""dr said"
Kay: big yawn...
Kay: "mommy sit in Kay chair"
Kay: counting in Mandarin again...
Kay: "good girl Dora"
Kay: "I want Mommy do it, I want Mommy Kay do it"
Kay: silence
Kay: "I want other water"
Kay: "splish splash in bath"
Kay: silence....
Kay: "mommy daddy go bed three hours" "mommy go night night three hours"
Kay: "daddy in China"
Kay: counting in Mandarin again...
Kay: "daddy new wallet" "old one in taxi" (I think Craig losing his wallet left a huge impression on her)
Kay: "I'm flying mommy daddy"
Kay: "I'm laying polka dots (her comforter has polka dots)
Kay: "where my feet go" "slippers where are you"

...ok...you get the point...

...I guess it is pretty obvious a nap is not happening today before school...

Movies

I think I finally have the movies working.

Here is Kay feeding the elephants in Thailand...

To give you an idea of how crowded our walk is...this is the market we walk through to get to the MTR by our house. Notice how many carts and people almost run us over. You can imagine how difficult it is to walk through with Kay and groceries or other bags...

Phuket, Thailand

Thailand is amazing. The beaches are beautiful (especially if you have a two year old that wakes up early to beat the crowds!). The biggest decision each day was pool or beach. We ended up doing both each day.

Enjoying the delicious and spicy Thai food.

Kay does not get juice at home very often. Here she is guzzling her fresh squeezed guava juice. She loved every drop of it!

Riding in the open air tuk tuk. Tuk Tuks are taxis that you can take around the island. We took it to a show called Phanta Sea. Kay loved watching the dancing and danced along. It was a little too "touristy" for us so when Kay started showing signs of being tired we left early!

A bar with an amazing view. We got to sit in the trees and watch some of the locals play volleyball on the beach.

Kay loved listening to the music in the lobby.

This is how you buy gas along side the road...

Kay proud of her new cover up.

The Beautiful Kamala Beach...

The high-light of the trip was riding on, learning about, and feeding the elephants. Kay LOVED it. Now, when you ask her about an elephant she says they are "bumpy" because it was surprisingly bumpy riding on their backs. She giggled so much watching the baby elephants. I have a great video of her feeding the elephants that I will try to post too! The hook that Kay is holding is to help tell the elephant which direction to go. It looks scary but they hardly use it and when they do it does not hurt the elephant! Our elephant driver used his toes in the back of the elephants ears to encourage them to move.

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YUMMY!

I thought YUMMY would be the appropriate title for this post. We ate at our first Michelin Rated Restaurant this weekend and it was... YUMMY! It definitely lived up to the rating! The best part...we all ate for $13! We wanted to try this restaurant becausewe heard it was amazing and there is a little strategy to getting in. First, you stand in line very early (the line starts at 9:00 am we got there at 10 am) and get a number. The man said it would be about an hour so we left to visit the Jade Market. We returned to enjoy the best dumplings we have ever had!

Kay and Daddy marking down what we want to eat...

The line to get a number...

The Jade Market...

Enjoying Lunch...

In other news...

We spent Saturday trying to comfort Kay and taking her to the doctor. She was in so much pain she basically sat in our lap and whimpered. We took her to the doctor here and he suspected an ear infection. We know now that her tubes are officially out (it came out of the ear today!) and the Hong Kong antibiotics worked wonders. I had another "you know you are in another country when..." moments on the way home from the doctor. Craig met a co-worker for lunch so I was taking Kay home by myself. I had Kay in her PJs, slippers, and wrapped in a towel. After getting settled in the first Taxi he said he did not speak English. The second taxi would not even let me in the car. A very nice lady behind me offered to translate because she said there is no way they did not know the street I was headed too and were just giving me a hard time. I thanked her and explained I was just trying to get my sick baby home. Thankfully, the third taxi knew exactly where we were going and took us safely there. She was feeling much better Sunday and was eager to get out of the house and eat some Dim Sum!

A very Hong Kong Saturday...

We started out our morning by having Kay open her red envelopes for Chinese New Year. Craig's co-workers were so sweet and included Kay in the tradition.

We had lunch at a very local restaurant. I was so impressed with Craig's Chinese and how far it has come! He ordered our entire meal in Chinese- no English in this restaurant! When you walk in the restaurant you see a bunch of small tables with stools. You sit with anyone at any table. When you tell what you want, they just yell it out loud to the kitchen. A few minutes later... a yummy lunch appears! Notice the meat hanging in the window... I am sure one of those I ate.

Look at all the people! This is to get into the MTR in Mongkok (a huge shopping area)

We stopped for a snack on the sidewalk. We only ate the waffles which are DELICIOUS! When you come visit us we will get one!

We also had a bubble tea. The little black things on the bottom are tapioca pearls- delicious!

We took Kay to the market to pick out her watch (her reward she has been working toward with not sucking her thumb). She was SO excited to have so many choices. She ended up with a pink watch with frogs on it. She was one proud little girl!

We bought one! How can you not resist?? There are people on almost every street with microphones selling stuff. We always have to stop because they gather such a crowd and Kay is mesmerized by the microphone. This one seemed handy enough and we could not leave without experiencing the sidewalk, microphone purchase in Hong Kong. We are now the owners of a wine stopper that suctions the air out of the bottle!

You never know what you are going to see in Hong Kong. We came out of the subway and were greeted with music from the Wan Chai band!

While walking home today I saw this man delivering meat. I must be honest and say it still turns my stomach inside out when I see it. I know when we eat out, this is what we are eating! I am adjusting...

This is a pretty bad picture, but I am willing to publish because of what it shows - our first date night in over three months!! It was wonderful!

I have been working on teaching Kay to calm herself before bed. We have been practicing taking deep breaths (now that she has them down they usually lead to many yawns) and closing our eyes. This is how she closes them...