Dim Sum Mum - Tess' Little Pieces

home again home again jiggedy jig

here i am, back at 122 pokfulam road.

a few hours and many time zones ago i was going through my annual, oh i wish i wasn't so far away from family and my long term friends...i love it here and am i denying my kids the opportunity to learn to play ice hockey and ski by living so far away and what about their grandparents and their relationships with them...bla bla bla.

forget stella, tess has to get her groove back, and to help my re-integration into hong kong be not so severe, while the kids were sleeping (yes, you read that correctly), i made a list of new school year resolutions. some of them are pretty good, some are long term, and some i have crossed off my list already. (nothing like those small tasks to make you smile when you see you have checkmarks on the page already).

one of the most difficult things i have to do is suck it up. don'twanttodon'twanttodon'twantto.

but will do, i hope. at least it is on th e list.

the year before i got pregnant with sebastian and while pregnant with sebastian i was boxing. loving it. non contact. i found boxing such an efficient way to tone and work out aggression and focus. loved boxing. the owner of the place and i didn't see eye to eye, he would comment unfavourably on my pre boxing arms, and then after i delivered sebastian, the first week i went back he commented on how fat and unattractive i was. when my instructor quit, i didn't go back because the owner took over his classes.

but i miss boxing. and so, i am going to suck it up, risk the probable snide comments that will come my way (friends who have been have just about all quit because they say he isn't getting any nicer or tolerant of anything that is not body beautiful) and head back. my canadian accent will also come under fire. "the only thing more unattractive than a canadian accent is an american accent."

he's not my favourite, but i want to be boxing again, and he's just about the only game in town.

the other item i have to take care of just about right now, is to fill out sebastian's primary one application form. i have to post it tomorrow, so given that it is 10.20pm, i should do that now. tomorrow, unpacking.

i have missed blogging, and reading blogs, and will catch up. it's on the list, and therefore, it will be done.

Fintry Update - New Pictures

Chuck here... very briefly everyone is doing well. Sela's cold is cycling through the kids and it looks like hopefully Jasper will be the last to succumb and recover. But as you can tell from the pictures below, no one is hurting!

Meanwhile, hop on over to see The New Charles.

Report from Fintry: Float Buses & Tricks

Charles here, writing on Tess behalf to give an update on the latest events at Fintry.

As you know, Sebastian loves float planes. Apparently, reports Sebastian to everyone at Fintry, he is about to commence building of an actual float plane. The outside will be black and the inside will be red. The crew will serve passengers chicken noodle soup and chocolate. (Not necessarily mixed together.)

Sounds very dear, but before you rush out to place your order, you might want to wait to learn about Sebastian's most recent design, also in the throws of production set-up.

The Float Bus - this little darling, it sounds like, can hold more passengers. Black on the outside and brown on the inside, the crew serves sausages. (Coincidentally, Sebastian's favourite.) Passengers will enjoy a selection of Sponge Bob, Veggie Tales or the Aristocats to view as they enjoy their sausages. Considering that Airbus is now frantically manufacturing their new Super Jumbo, Sebastian may not be far off with his vision of big planes. His creativity is in full bloom, too. If Richard Branson doesn't put us lay people on the moon, Sebastian just might. Fasten your seatbelts.

Looks like Sela is teething. The poor girl is running an off and on temperature and little pearlies are budding through next to her two front teeth. Not surprisingly, Sela is not a happy camper. She was grumpy for her first teeth and that will probably continue. (At left, Sela cuddles her new baby doll.)

Meanwhile, Jasper loves to swim. The little olympian-in-training will waltz over to the kiddies pool (on all fours, he is yet to walk so I have been told, and has no interest - he'd rather swim now) and diving in head first, clothes and all. Reportedly, Jasper spends the most amount of time in the pool. He loves the water. (Jasper left, but wow... watch Sela walking in the background!)

Finally, Carys our little midnight marauder in training. I keep hearing stories that the "walking six steps" little miss innocent is not so innocent! Carys regularly drums up trouble and eggs on her siblings to no end. Coy Carys won't let anyone see her new teeth coming in but they don't seem to be causing her too much discomfort. Carys is probably the one who put Sela up to new teeth. I can just see it now, "Hey, Sela, I am going to grow a few new teeth. You want to, too?"

"Okay!" Sela would reply cheerily.

"Great, because mine are going to come in easily but yours always hurt like heck."

And later as Sela wails away: "Oh, I am so sorry, Sela, that your teeth hurt!"

"Yeah, but I'm walking and YOU'RE not," Sela would snap back. We've learned that both these girls have wicked tempers and strong wills.

All three have grown lots in body and hair, increased their barely distinguishable vocabularies, and spoiled rotten on custom made, fresh, gourmet meals. They dont like the plain stuff anymore and made that very clear the other night when someone tried to feed The Terrific Trio something out of a can.

I am drumming my fingers waiting for them to be teenagers, but I'm in no hurry. Doh!

very quickly for it is late...

i wanted to post about my day with kathryn, and some of the special times i spent with yellowknife girlfriends as well. there isn't time, but there is the NEED to say how blessed i am to have such friends.

cyber friends, long term friends, short term friends. i am going to write about you all. but for now, i will sleep.

quick baby update:

sela is walking. very proud of herself thankyouverymuch. she is also big into "babies". we bought triplet dolls for the babies, and sela loves picking up baby (and even calls her bay-bee) and patting her on the back. she also loves mobile phones and has been sighted "burping" them as well. best comment about sela...jennifer's 9 year old daughter hannah is wonderful with kids, and informed her mother:

"mummy, sela is my favourite triplet because i like her style."

sela is also SINGING. lita and i first noticed this fact the night we arrived in vancouver. it was 3am and all the kids were awake and lita and i were staring at each other stupidly our eyes tired and mouths open when we heard sela singing TWINKLE TWINKLE LITTLE STAR. lita said,

sela is singing

i know i replied dumbly.

she also sings sleeping bunnies, ba ba black sheep and incy wincy spider. it is amazing. her words are non existent, except she is trying hard to say "diamond" "star" "dame" "like" etc. it is so odd to hear this and she is growing so quickly.

carys is wishing mightily that she were walking. she grips on to your fingers and tries to walk, except for steps, they are more like stamps...like the marching band walk if you get the image. she is a clever little girl, and is really playing up the "oh i am so fragile" card. if i am cuddling her and someone else comes to me for a cuddle, even if they are barely touching carys, she will burst into tears, as if she is being crushed, which of course causes me to push the other child off me, allowing carys complete mummy time. of course, carys has no problem trying to muscle in some lap time when one of the others is adorning mummy's lap. she also is humming to some words. she shows NO Interest in playing sleeping bunnies like her brother and sister do, but she enjoys the HOP HOP HOP at the end, which is great exercise for her little legs.

jasper has figured out his winning formula. you know that slightly helpless look he sports in all those pictures? he knows that by being good humoured, dancing and singing that he gets lifted up, attention and food. so he is goodhumoured, and there is no need to walk because visitors scoop him up so quickly. he is singing a bit, plays sleeping bunnies, and loves clapping and drumming tables and pots with his hands. when he does this he will also say ba ba ba ba ba to the rhythm. my dad has discovered that jasper likes cheesies.

sebastian has fallen in love with franklin the turtle books. there have been a few books that sebbie has loved, the ever wonderful "the tiger who came to tea" being one of them, but he loves talking about franklin the turtle and his sister harriet. he is talking more...still shy around adults he doesn't know, but he is warming up faster. sebastian grew to love nathan very quickly, and when we were saying goodbye to nathan, sebastian said something i had never heard him say before:

i will miss you very much, nafan.

he also said, i wuff you very much, nafan.

this made me cry, little sebbie, opening his heart. and being so richly blessed with this bravery.

tomorrow to the cottage.....i probably won't be posting for a few weeks....but charles will give updates!

three weeks of sun, family, feuds, love and laughter and no television. yay!

northern transportation

i am in edmonton now. carys had a great trip down with grandad and mo, and the reason she drove down that fearful mackenzie highway (cracker of windshields, imprinter of black flies and wasps on vehicles) is because there weren't enough adults to accompany three under threes. my mum had flown down to kelowna to collect us, so she had used her round trip ticket already. she could have flown down, but she doesn't like my dad driving the dreaded mackenzie highway alone. true love indeed. the mackenzie highway is gravelly, dusty, pot holey and not aesthetically pleasing.

another aspect to the mackenzie highway...not alot of places to stop. my parents needed gas, and stopped in a place called enterprise to get it. enterprise is close to the alberta/nt border. and not for the first time this summer...the gas station had no gas. this does happen a lot. there wasn't a gas station for another 200 kilometres, so my parents had to stop at houses and ask if the residents would be willing to sell them gas. it took three hours of knocking on doors and driving to locations people who had no gas for sale recommended them to, but eventually they got some and went on their merry way. carys was apparently an angel for the drive.

we had a fairly uneventful flight to edmonton, except we were sitting beside my former eighth grade teacher (kelly, you can guess which one..have fun), and that was, well, odd.

upon arriving in edmonton, we met up with the limo driver who would transport us to pammie's house, but wait! we were short a car seat. the airline had lost one of our carseats. luggage we could leave without, but not carseats. it was 6.30pm, everyone was hungry, babies were tired and whinging, sebastian kept asking

why can't we leave the airport mummy? which gave me the best reason to repeatedly snap in not my quietest tone

because the airline lost our carseat.

we were a cranky little tag team.

over one hour later, the car seat was found, and we were off. 20 minutes into the journey, sebastian announces,

i need to do a wee wee

how badly?

wight now mummy.

there is no use in asking him to "hold it". but i am so tired and upset i cannot fathom pulling over into some place, unsnapping him out of the carseat, walking to a store, begging to use the loo, doing the wee wee and then reversing the above steps. so i rummage around in my bag, and pull out a water bottle.

zip goes the zipper

aside goes his bobs

out pops his willie

ahh sighs my son

as wee wee fills the bottle. he was right, he really did need to go. afterwards, he looked at the bottle and informed me,

i don't want to dwink that.

but kevin costner did in that terrible movie he directed...but sebastian is no kevin costner. (good).

oh, and we got charged an extra 100 dollars because the limo driver had to wait an extra 90 minutes for us. can you imagine.

the next day i got an incredible gift...the entire day to myself. and i spent it with my girlfriend kathryn, but more on that later. i will post again tonight.

75 per cent

my parents left today: they will arrive in edmonton late tomorrow afternoon.

they did not depart alone...oh no. they took carys with them. (grandad blake with carys, left)

even though it has been only a few hours, i cannot believe how easy it is with only three children.

seriously.

meals are finished faster, the noise level is reduced by more than 25 per cent (it seems), there is one less moving shape to track.

when sebastian was an infant, on saturdays charles would take him out of the house and give me a few hours to be sane again. and i remember thinking, everything is so easy when there is no baby. well the same apparently applies when you go down from four to three. it is amazing. surprisingly, none of the remaining three have stepped up to bat and been more difficult.

however, my ease and enjoyment of increased relaxation is marred by this little awareness that we are not complete. the triumverate have not been separated for one night since carys arrived home from the hospital. but tonight, jasper and sela will rest their heads and carys will be hundreds of kilometres away. i hope my parents remember that carys likes to sleep on her tummy and hates having a blanket tucked around her.

i love the extra quiet, but i also like (forgive me for going all jerry mcguire) the feeling of being complete that i get when i know my family is safe, nearby, and happy. it was bad enough with mc being gone, and now these forlorn feelings are increasing.