Hong Kong- Day 1& 2 (downtown)

We returned this week from 5 wonderful days in Hong Kong! All of us loved it! Our flight into HKG landed in the wee hours of the morning, so we paid the hotel for another day just to be able to crawl into a bed for a few hours before touring around. And of course, the only room available so early in the day was the penthouse, the most expensive room... go figure. But we thoroughly enjoyed our room, it was 2 floors with a spiral staircase to the bedroom. Our view was spectacular, so much so that we slept with the blinds open all night just to look out the windowed whole wall any time throughout the night when we woke up. For my pregnant, didn't-have-my-body-pillow-self, that was several views during the night.

(above: left- Chris & Ceiba at the zoo, right- daytime view from our room)

(below: Ceiba's reaction to Chris telling her to look like she's falling out the window)

Once we got up, we ventured down the hill to the Hong Kong Zoo and Botanical Gardens, where we tooled around for a nice, brisk afternoon. The temperatures were in the 60s, with mist on and off the first 2 days, while we were in the city on Hong Kong Island, near the Central MTR stop. We all slept well from having almost a week of cool, clean air to breath (a luxury we do NOT experience at home in Dhaka).

I'll break up Hong Kong Island from our days at Disney, as there are lots of photos to upload. I'm behind on postings, so should have several posts to put up this week, if the upload speed cooperates.

(above: l to r : Causeway Bay shopping and tram toy shop)

(below: left- Causeway Bay, right- night view from our room)

(above: Peak Tram, Ceiba enjoying cocoa at the top of the tram, Mama/Ceiba celebrating baby's year of the rabbit)

(below: Chris & Ceiba at top of Peak, Peak view of port, Mama & Ceiba looking around)

 (above: all at Victoria Peak top)

(below: Victoria Peak, our night view, Times Square mall)

Pics of Disney to come!!

Last Minute Get Away!!!

Nothing like winging it last minute before a 5 day weekend.

HINT:

 +  

=

We had said we'd stick around for the long weekend, but...

there is a certain little girl who will pee her pants when she sees her Disney friends.

And we just can't pass that up :)

Plus, I heard money grows on trees, and I've got a green thumb, so ?

Well, won't hold my breath on that idea.

She's only young once and will be jockeying for attention in a few months, 

so we're gonna try to give her a special trip to remember!

(It's Hong Kong!)

Bambina Update - 22ish Weeks

THAR SHE  BLOWS!!!!

Hee hee hee. Had our doctor's visit this week, and all is well. 

The belly and the number on the scale continue to grow, luckily the former more than the later :)

(Pic taken at 21 weeks)

Feeling good and nesting!

School Project

Hard to believe that in preK3 there would be a homework assignment. A few weeks ago, Ceiba's teacher sent home a large posterboard to be completed a week later with a project "All About Me". It happened to be the week Chris was out of town for work (need to post pics!), so Mama got to do some homework. We rounded up fun photos, made lists of likes, used lots of stickers of Ceiba's favorite princesses (the new love) and added all sorts of fun items to her board. She colored an Ariel page for the middle of the poster and colored on the board in a designated area with her favorite color red. We had a good time creating her first school project.

On our designated day and time, Chris and I went to school with Ceiba's project, so that she could present to her teachers and classmates her "All About Me" board. I always love to see all the little ones scramble and say "Ceiba, your mommy and daddy are here!". It was fun to go through the morning carpet-time, hellos and get started routine for the day. Kudos to the teacher for having each presenter use a shiny magic wand to help in their presentation; that sealed the deal for Ceiba.

Here are a few pics. She did a great job of talking about her board and herself with VERY little help from us. There was even a question and answer session at the end from the kids, which mostly turned into each little girl raising her hand, being called upon and saying "Ariel is my favorite too" or "I like Jasmine". Too cute!

The Last Melon

Ok, so if you aren't a Dreamworks/Disney/Pixar person, you may not get my humor. We are a family of movie line quoters, so these things pop in my head all the time.

Or alternatively titled, The Last HHE.

So we arrived in October, the first week. Most of our household effects were here in good time, with the exception of the items from our apartment in Washington D.C. (those not in the airfreight). We were overweight, mainly because all of our items went from IL to DC to FL to DC and then had to be hand sorted by me... in a dark warehouse... in July... while boxed or wrapped in paper. It was a bit of a crapshoot- lamp/but no shade, Christmas/but no favorite snowmen, yard tools/but no yard. You get the picture. So we went overweight. We paid the cashier at post within a week of arriving, but then began the tug of war between post and DC on whom would be responsible to get the final shipment moving.

It sat until almost December before it shipped out...........

 So that brings us to last week, when the final shipment arrived full of mostly food, toiletries, clothes and Ceiba's Christmas presents. Now we are happy and bursting at the seams.

I tend to be a bit of a planner...and anal retentive... and an over packer... and a pantry hoarder. (No input from family and friends :) thank you). So we have enough razor blades (bought 45 packs on Ebay in DC), Bath and Body (hit the semi-annual sale before to left), lady items (now only need about 1/2 the supply due to the bambina coming), and and and. But my OCD self feels cozy and warm now that we're surrounded by "stuff".

You never know what you might need.... Well, if we do - we've got it!