choo choo....

we DID make it to the beach on saturday, and so did the typhoon! thankfully, we arrived at different times.

with ONLY four bags (that would average one per child), we made it to the beach close to our hoped for arrival time of 9.30am. we settled about 20 metres from the vehicle and i spread a blanket out on the sand.

by this time, we had a crowd of interested watchers. originally, it was jasper that pulled them in, waving and dancing in my arms. but then, the magic of the concept of TRIPLETS struck, and we had the beach cleaners approaching us, one by one, to touch the babies, gesture about their genders and confirm their triplet-ness. no one tried to pick them up, for which we were grateful. there was a bit of a wind, so the admirers helped us pick up rocks to secure the edges of the blanket.

some hong kong sand tends to resemble kitty litter...so the babies showed no interest in leaving the peripheries of the blanket. they liked the spade, bucket and digging equipment, though.

after the fans dispersed, i sebastian ran the 10 metres or so to the water's edge and popped his boat into the sea. the sea was quite choppy, and sebastian wailed in distress when he tried to reach for the boat and found it out of his grasp. i saw what was going on and pulled my linen pants as far up as they would go, and then ran into the water. retrieved the boat and felt like a wet pink panted hero as my son applauded me.

after a bit of racing up and down the beach, sebastian decided he wanted to go for a swim. it was my turn to look after jasper, carys and sela, so i traded off with magnificent. sebastian was pretty much body surfing, and liking it. he DIDNt like the taste of the sea. i think he was expecting the water to taste like lake okanagan, which if we go by the amounts of lake that he consumed this summer, he enjoyed very much.

the wind started to pick up, and the smaller bits of sand began flying swirling about. you can always tell a pre-typhoon state..and this was it. charles and i quickly fed the babies some raisins, cheese and apple, (jasper didn't eat the apple), noted it was 11.45, and packed up. we were away by 11.50, and home by noon. we quickly fed the crew, then they went for their 12.30pm naptime.

no rest for the weary, magnificent and i needed to buy a washing machine so we headed off into the grey skies to do so. we only checked out two stores, sheung wan wing on and fortress world. we like the one we bought, and hope it will fit into our space. by the time we finished buying the washing machine and arranging terms of delivery, it was pouring outside. we had no umbrellas, but we had no cares either. we skipped, dodged and jogged to the nearby GATEWAY, a shop that specialises in selling american items you can't easily procure in hong kong.  i wanted to buy a huge box of cheerios and some applesauce.

i found the selection really poor, and shockingly overpriced. GATEWAY used to be fairly reliable and reasonable, but maybe like the rest of hong kong, their rent has gone up and as a result their prices have too???

no cheerios, but lots of applesauce later, we headed back to the car, and noted the next item on our TO DO LIST was groceries.

we decided this would be another team caldwell event (we even have a team cheer), and called lita to see if the four feet and under crowd were still asleep. indeed they were, she replied. by the time we got home, jasper was awake, sela was grousing in her crib and carys slumbered on. sebastian was also awake, trying to convince lita to let him watch THE FAMILY GUY. (!!!)

we loaded team caldwell into the van and were off again on our second outing. charles chose to push the grocery cart while i pushed the kid cart. its a tough business, because the kids like standing in the cart and if i stop, when i start again, someone usually tumbles over. met a couple people i knew, the babies were very smily.  then sebastian requested that i sing a train song.

problem is, i don't know a train song.

he is very specific. he will give me instructions.

sing the train song where sebastian is driving the train and we are going to fintry and phuket and antigua and we pick up my triplets, anjali, hubie, adam and annie and we drive and i wear a seatbelt and we eat apple juice and choclit bears and we come to the station and then people get off after the train slows down and you also make the train sound mummy.

so not only do i have to find a tune to fit this song, but i also get to remember the instructions. i tell you, i forgot to pick up the triplets and put them on the train and we were all clicking in our seatbelts when rasputin in the cart bellows out...

no mummy, you also must pick up my triplets!

righty-oh. and apparently i don't have enough train sounds as well.

but forget about picking up triplets because just as i turn around to pick up some sausages that mc has asked to collect, a woman comes flying over faster than a speeding bullet/train and catches, gracious me, sela, who has fallen out of the cart.

she was like a super hero.

sela was fine.

charles was in line.

we bought our groceries, plotted the cookware we're going to buy once we get enough stamps with the new promotion park and shop is offering, loaded up and went home.

EVERYONE slept well last night.

then this morning, team caldwell headed off to church. magnificent charles was baptised today and a lot of his friends showed up, which was fantastic. his blog will tell more, i won't steal his thunder.

then, we went out for lunch at dan ryan's. we had mila with us, and the minute we were seated ordered three plates of chicken fingers and one fish and chips. a few minutes later we ordered, and soon the kids food arrived. it was too hot, of course, so charles and i cut it up.

heres a tip to parents: when you are ordering a meal that comes with chips, ask that the chips come afterwards. only when sebastian is close to finishing the deep fried (healthy) protein on his plate, do the chips come out.

i had half a reuben, charles a clubhouse and mila chose eggs and ham. we wanted food that could be easily packed up if things started to go pearshaped. but they didn't! the kids were really very good. no crying, sebbie only had to do one wee, sela only chewed one crayon and then spit it out right afterwards...but they were QUIET! and ate more food than i would have thought. and we had been smart enough to select food they could feed themselves with.

home again home again. and here we are...me trying to finish an article due in two days, the babies still sleeping, and sebastian preparing to take his daddy and me in his "suprewi". which i think is a boat that also sports doors like a car, and front and back seats. any guesses where sebastian sits? today the suprewi is apparently the lower bunk of sebastian's bed.

as long as its not a train, i'm okay.

Comments

[Auntie Pammie]

I would like to reqest a ride on the suprwhewi please and thanxs. Great blog Tess, I loved the fact that you all were able to have a normal day together!!
love to you all
Auntie P xo

[SheilaC]

What a lovely account of your day. It brings back so many memories to me of the toddler stage - which I am missing sometimes!

The train song instructions are great, wish I could have heard the song. No "I've been working on the railroad" at your house, that would be too easy! ha. Maybe you could give him a tape of Gordon Lightfoot, Murray McLaughlin or other Canadian folkies who sing train songs? (Fred Penner has a good one for kids called the Trans Canadian Super Continental Streamlined Special Express.)

Once I read a tip for feeding multiples that suggested cutting up their meat, fruit etc. with a pizza wheel. It's very speedy!

Best wishes,

[knobody]

i loved the train song instructions! you will have to get seb to start singing his own songs and record them for posterity (and us bloggies).

[joeinvegas]

'Team Caldwell', and the 'four feet and under crowd'. Sounds like an athletic event, and from the description of your outings it really sounds athletic.