Dim Sum Mum - Tess' Little Pieces:

NEW PICTURES

Click here to see the latest photo album of Sebastian & The Terrific Trio out and around Hong Kong in January 2006.

if this is chicken pox, it isn't so bad. a couple of seb's bumps now sport blisters, but he's not itching, isn't in a bad humour, and all seems to be well. his back has about nine red marks, none on his face, (yet), his chest and area maybe seven. it's no big deal. seb and i walked to the horses today and then looked at the koi fish in the nearby reservior. it was a warm day and we had a fun time and best of all, he got to burn up some energy. the whole family played at a nearby playground earlier in the day, and i am pleased to say that sebastian and carys did not cry when they were forced to get off the swings. as for sela and jasper? the diva and the baby? you draw your own conclusions.

jasper ended up in emergency today, nothing drastically wrong, but since all the drs offices are closed for chinese new year, when he started wheezing and the pulmacort, nebuliser and chamber weren't helping, we knew it was time to get him to a&e and some stronger drugs. jasper had spent a great deal of the day in my arms, i'm such an unhappy boy, and cuddling gave him some comfort. but he really perked up after he spent 30 minutes taking oxygen through a mask, even to the point where when the man next to him vomitted, jasper said to charles, "uh oh".

sela has two red bumps on her face, they have not blistered, and i am wondering if they are mossie bites. but when push comes to shove, i think we are looking at a month or so of chicken pox.

i had a great run today, i didn't time myself but i know that it was around 30 minutes. i started off with u2's beautiful day, i song i have loved for a long time. next is two dog night's "mama told me not to come" followed by slim shady, but folks, i need some other good music. my brother has a lot of my cd's, which is too bad...but i do have a $15 credit on imusic, so if anyone has any good songs to recommend, please post them here.

and that's all we have from spot central. if we ask nicely, charles might post some pictures.....

08:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

a pox on you

we have had a great weekend. i love being in hong kong for chinese new year. everyone is dressed in colourful traditional costume, the streets are filled with families together, walking to another relatives home. children skipping along in reds, pinks, blues and yellows, carrying lai see packets and looking back at their laughing parents enjoying the opportunity to laugh with their spouses and families.

the triumverate are no longer napping in the mornings, we have that up this week. so yesterday we packed up and left the house around 9.30am and drove to a nearby mall, the international finance centre. the ifc is one of hong kong's newest malls, home to upscale shops, and home to several thousand offices. but it is surprisingly deserted on the weekends, particularly chinese new year when many hk'ers are out of town.

we had a great time walking around ifc, the children were thrilled with the views and decorations and admired the shop windows greatly. at around 11am jasper decided that he had had enough of this walking business, and slumped down beside abercrombie and fitch or timberland. wearing his osh kosh jacket and grey corderoys, he could have been in a vogue print ad fo rthe shop, with the tag line: not much longer now.

we then took the troops for lunch, which they really enjoyed. magnificent and i aren't foolish enough to believe we have the world's best behaved kids, but we do know that while they are still contained in high chairs, dining out is a relative pleasure for us. and it was true, it was another excellent meal.

after naps, we went to park and shop for a huge shop up, and afterwards, since the rain was still pelting down, for a family drive. it is so nice to be at this stage, where we can be out of the house for the majority of the day.

today, the weather was fantastic, and after church we came home and had lunch, and after naps we got the four seater tricycle on to the tot yacht (the seven seater van), and headed off to walk bowen road. the sky was brilliant, the sun was shining, despite the mosquitoes, it was fantastic. our friend angela and her daughter kaila joined us, and seb had fun either running or pedalling the trike. we finished off the day at the playground, then loaded up and headed home.

after bath time i noticed that sebastian had quite a few mossie bites on his torso. or wait....

are

those

red

marks

chicken pox?

i think so. they're red bumps right now, and if they are indeed the pox, they should blister in a few hours. i can let you know then. in the meantime....argh. the babies will get it as well, i suppose that is inevitable...but better all in one lot.

the other day, a child i know was sent home from school with headlice. throughout the next couple of days it seemed my scalp was always itchy. and since spotting the possible pox on sebbie, i am now scratching all over the place. argh.

06:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

unpalatable tess traits

one day i will post about my good traits, but the less appealing ones tend to be more entertaining.

1) i crack my toes in bed. this is one of the traits i hate the most about myself. poor mc will be lying there innocently, tired after a long day's work and being ambushed by the triumverate and mini-he upon his return, and suddenly out of no where comes this cannonball of cracking toes. i don't crack my fingers, but all i have to do is point my toes and they (i think) loudly snap.

2) i tend to believe the person i heard the story from first. whereas mc can withold judgement, i tend to be biased towards whichever side of the story made it to me first. this is not a good trait for a journalist, parent or friend.

3) i don't drink alchohol.

4) i intensely dislike cheap people. having said that, my dad is frugal, but 35 years of living with frugal blake has given me the opportunity to witness extreme acts of financial, physical and "time" generosity to people and charities. he would never weasle out of a bill, or get vague when it was his turn to buy a round.

5) valentine's day is no big deal for me. i also don't consider flowers a great gift. i don't buy exorbitant gifts for valentine's day.

6) very often i am too sarcastic.

7) i don't gush enough about things i love. or i gush about the wrong things (food, my beloved eyebrow tweezers, cathay pacific airlines). i just am not one of those people who says, "aren't my kids gorgeous?" i wish i was. two reasons for this. either i am afraid of hating them if they didn't agree wholeheartedly enough, OR i really don't care if you think they are. i think they are, and am teaching them to believe they are. 'nuff said.

8) i am constantly bringing lines from 80's music into conversations. which is cool if you are like minded, but not so much if you aren't. a fresh example...the other day i meet a mild aquaintance in park and shop, and she smiles at me and says, "you are..." and for no other reason than i have to, i respond, "the sun, you are the rain, you make my life this foolish game." that would be lionel ritchie and the commodores, my friends. but you see, if you don't know that, my response makes for very stilted conversation. "right. bye bye."

9) i have a tougher time forgiving myself than i do forgiving others. i have a tougher time forgiving people who have hurt my family or friends than i do forgiving people who have hurt me. my grudges are long, cold and bother me more than they bother the people probably don't even know i am holding them.

10) my written vocabulary is much more impressive than my spoken vocabulary.

11) i love sudoku. i thought i was committed to crosswords, but no, sudoku has won my heart. LOVE IT.

12) i have a tough time with compliments and usually will joke about myself before others can get the joke in there. it hurts less that way.

13) i am very self-protective. when meeting new people important to me, if they slight me, or don't respond in a similar manner, then i shut down.

so there are a few of my finer warts. (nothing could be finer than to be in carolina in the morrrrr-ning)

06:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

say my name

there are no accidents in the world:

magnificent and i recently flew UNITED airlines (not recommended)

magnificent and i try to create a UNITED front in front of our children

the result? our children have UNITED us, and created one new uber parent, named DADDY.

indeed, mummy is a name only sebastian uses, and that's when he's not calling me tess.

jasper started it. little lazy man suddenly decided it was too much effort remembering both mcs' and my own parental monikers, and realised we both could nicely fall under the umbrella name "DADDY". so these days when he sees me, he is very happy to see me, smiles and raises his chunky arms to "DADDY!"

i thought it might be a really conscious thing, so this morning after a rousing four way chorus of "sleeping bunnies" made me realise they were up for good, i went into the nursery and was greeted with three voices shrieking, DADDY!

what IS this? would i be so upset if they were calling mc mummy? would HE be upset?

yes yes yes, it doesn't matter what they call you as long as it is said with love, and no mistake, this most certainly is said with love. but this namelessness makes me feel rather bland. the triumverate just love elmo, and whenever i am reading their sesame street manners, clearing up or "happy and you know it" singing book, even the pages that DON"T have elmo on it, have my children happily declaring ELMO!!! ELMO!!! ELMO!!!

i am a second rate cartoon character.

for those of you wondering, i actually do a first rate elmo voice. it's a gift. being in this nameless frontier is not. i am trying to put a positive spin on it, but need to blame myself a bit more first.

how could my kids do this to me? ingrates. they're connecting words together, stumbling sentences usually featuring the words "no, share, me, pees, 'nana, ta-too" .. and mummy is no where to be found. i thought we were having such fun lately!

i am a pathetic person. instead of exaulting about how great it is spending time with the kids these days (and it is a lot of fun), how they are learning to hail taxi's, and the laughter we're having, i'm banging on about how my name isn't the one in headlines. i don't deserve the name mummy, maybe that's why they took it away. they sensed i was undeserving, the same way they know the difference between when i go into the pantry to grab a lightbulb and when i dash in there to stuff my gob with biscuits.

okay, i am beginning to see the positive...self pity is ending... wait, here it comes...it would make a great first line of jasper's book:

i stopped calling my mother "mummy" before i turned two years old for the simple reason she displayed none of the characteristics that made her deserving of that cherished title.

i smell a best seller. and if he wrote it before he turned 19, taxes would be lower and he could pay his own university fees. the bank of dad is CLOSED jasper.

i could then write my own tell-all novel. the cover would have a tasteful black and white shot of me...my hair would be carefully draped over to hide the scars of my recent plastic surgery (good looks sell books!) and the title, "mummy loves you" would be in a carefully constructed curly cue font. i would also be holding an expensively framed picture of jasper and myself.

i love that i can see the positive.

and now i seriously need to exercise. i have been eating gummy bears since 6am and am bouncing off the fricking walls.

10:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

how are we ever expected to experience world peace when countries can't even agree on word definitions? if a blue/green eyed resident of, say, texas, was visiting hong kong, and managed to get herself arrested, she could find herself in the clink for a stolen passport or identification on the grounds that her id declares her eyes to be "hazel" in colour. in many countries of the world, "hazel" means light brown. but in the US (and a few other locations) hazel means blue/green. moral of the story...don't get arrested in hong kong? moving on at a sharpish pace (have to take carys to physio in a jiff), i can see huge fights breaking out if at a peacekeeping dinner when it came time for dessert, the brits and many of their european compatriots, who had requested "pudding" in their menu cards, found bowls of thick cold goo (but tasty, i must say) placed in front of them, while the aussies and kiwi's were celebrating with a gloriously decorated pavlova and other nations were gobbling down a cheeseboard and grapes. in the UK, pudding is dessert, not the goo. of course, the hope lies with the children. so it's time to get a few issues sorted out: find one name for: "pacifiers" : binky, dummy, soothers, paccies...sort it out folks. "nappies" : nappies or diapers....one or the other "bottle nipples" : teats is accepted in most commonwealth countries...but could the rest of the countries say the word without giggling? school: is it level one, primary one or grade one? shorts: i heard a great story the other day where a kiwi teacher walked into the change room before PE class and instructed the slow moving 10 year old boys, "come on boys, get your shorts off". and so none of the boys wore underpants to gym that day. because in the uk, underpants are shorts. short pants are shorts. i have to take the c now....but i hope you get the drift and send me further suggestions. xo from mumma mia!

09:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (11)

yay! im doing it again.

i am back in the saddle again.

in my hong kong saddle.

saddled with kids, obligations, and compensations for a week;s absence.

geographically, i felt right at home in texas. it was just like edmonton. quite windy and cold. it was heartwarming to be in attendance for the shower.....after the trials, sorrows, uncertainty and stress of infertility, friends karen and steve have adopted little miss marissa from guatemala. the bounty at the shower was incredible, but karen's joy wasn't at the piles of stuff, it was more that the piles of clothes, books, and toys represented joy from people around the world who love her and are so glad she is about to experience motherhood, and that motherhood has arrived.

at last

my lonely days are over

and life is like a song

and i got to meet carrie, who left her 2.5 yo b/g twins and hustled over to texas from minnesota. carrie is such a nuturing girl, she would sit in bed with charmaine and i each night and we would giggle, and then she would admonish us to get some sleep, and then tuck us in. charmaine and i would compromise by looking at the clock and agreeing we would only talk for 20 more minutes and then we would pray and then we would sleep. charmaine is so definite and so certain, and everyone loves her for it because her heart is so large and her generosity so immense. mac is her son, he is 17 months and absolutely lovely. so well brought up, signing more, please and all done. love him.

and it all seems a distant dream now that i am back in hong kong. this morning magnificent and i made the most of jet lag by snuggling and talking and planning...it necessary and good to catch up.

and as the hours stretched and pulled themselves towards dawn, i heard noises from the nursery and knew the day was really beginning. sela was first, singing in her cot at 7.05am. as quietly as i could i slipped in to the nursery and returned the sleepy massive grin she gave me when i lifted her up. but alas, the shadow knows, and carys and jasper (weren't they supposed to be asleep?) poked up their little eyebrows and voices.

so the triumverate and charles and i cuddled in the bed, sang Jesus loves me, and the good morning song, and jasper didn't evaporate even though we never got around to singing perennial favourite baa baa black sheep. (which he never sings but loves to hear...go figure???)

and then they were eating weetabix and warm milk and applesauce and i laced up, put on two jumpers and headed out for a run. just like i try to do three times a week. except, what's this? ah yes, today i had my ipod. which made my breathing all knackered as sometimes i got too excited and messed up. but who cares.

90 per cent of me loves running in the rain. even if i am in a hate exercising mode, when i see people running in the rain i wish it were me. i just hate the slippy aspect of it. but i love the cold plunk of raindrops hitting my face combatting the wet streams of sweat sliding down from my forehead. i love the drops moistening my face, feeling my sleeves getting heavier, wondering when i hit little puddles and the droplets slap against my ankles why i was avoiding the puddles in the first place, and deciding "oh sod it, there's no use avoiding the puddles all the time, my feet are going to get wet, so let's just get them wet and get it over with." and then running through a puddle and feeling the coldness quickly seep through my shoes and quickly become warm.

when i look at people running in the rain i think, "my what a dedicated athlete". i hope no one out there is thinking that about me, because i am not. i run because i like it, i like feeling like i have accomplished something so early in the day, i like the way it makes my body feel, i like that it sets an example for my children that regular exercise is good, that later in the day i can look at my arms and remember how they looked swinging beside me some hours earlier. but there are weeks that i do not run. at all. or i will be halfway through a jog and then stop and walk, because i feel like being quiet and looking instead of racing past all the beauty. i like racing, but i also like the walking too.

i'm back in hong kong. racing and walking. welcome back to my life.

09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

New pics...

New pictures have been added to the Sebastian and Jasper posts below.

03:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

last hong kong post for a bit...next time you hear from me i will be in texas where it will hopefully be a bit warmer!

for those of you who care ... sela did a poopers (poopahs according to coach sebastian) and was rewarded 2 m & m' s (no peanuts) for her efforts (i love "lemlems!" said coach sebastian).

i'll write soon. quite melancholy at the thought of leaving the children. so will focus on something else, like this new mouth ulcer i have and is driving me crazy or that yesterday en route to the post office i acted like a total gobdaw and crossed the street without looking and nearly got hit (thank goodness cars in hong kong can't drive too quickly due to the crowded streets.)

does anyone else find that wearing iPod's or walkman's, etc, make them less aware of their surroundings?

08:38 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

sebbie sebbie so so!!

timing is everything...yesterday sebastian told me that when he grows up, he wants to marry me. oedipus aside, it was a wonderful thing to hear. firstly that he wants to and secondly that he wants to. little man.

at 35 pounds, sebastian blake caldwell is much better looking than the 6.7 pound laddie he was on 30 november 2001. and louder. then, he was a very solemn tiny boy whose facial features were crammed into what appeared to be one square inch in the lower level of his bald head.

there was a teeny period of time where sebastian was not my favourite person in the house. breastfeeding was not fun. choose your word: cracked, bleeding, engorged, peeling...it all happened within the confines of my bra. and it was all sebastian's fault. i remember avoiding charles as he would bring the wailing bundle from room to room, searching for me. our place isn't huge, so i would open closet doors a fraction, and hide in the open space. and always display wide eyed surprise when a flustered charles and waahhhhing sebastian found me. oh, he was crying? sorry, didn't hear him. hold my breath, count to ten, put child to breast, bite lip and clench fist.

thankfully those days ended, and before you know it, sebastian was an interesting little bald person.

the first time he saw a dalmation dog sebastian thought it was a cow, and ran up to it and said, MOO! MOO! he's never been afraid of animals, although he is plenty skeptical of people.

we learned so much together, sebastian and i. when to hold on, when to let go. when to help, when to stay silent. the importance of disciplining your child in private, acceptance...his tabla rasa and my learning curve were massive.

his second day of playschool we were informed sebastian had taken off all his clothes and jumped into the full bathtub while the rest of the class was putting water into the fishtank.

his vocabulary was always endearing: she-shell, wappy, yum!, lemlems (m&m's), jofeth (joseph), underpants were "bob's", so many more than i am so scared i might forget.

toilet training was easy, and as quickly as he determined he hated vegetables, he liked them again.

his relationship with special blanket is based on adoration. special blanket is reserved for warm clean times, or when sebastian needs comforting. on occasion, special blanket shows up when we play school, or when sebastian is watching television.

he has yet to latch on a special shirt, book, toy..his intense adoration is focused on people. most particularly his father. one morning he realised what the rest of us have known for years, his father is an amazing person. daddy! my daddy! sebastian behaves differently when his father is around, subtley he acts up, he definitely toes the line when i am around. we have had amazing days together, but when mc and i are together, sebastian makes it very clear where his loyalties lie. what's why the proposal, and times when seb is clearly thrilled to see ME ME ME are memorable.

he is aloof. as a young child several people asked me if he was autistic. he wasnt, but he is reserved. but once you are loved, you are loved for life.

his memory is spectacular. he can place buildings, names, meals (we ate this at annie's house!) and other quirky little issues.

he comes into the master bedroom, and his fingers are apparently taken over my david helfgott. flight of the bumblebee...he's touching everything on the bedside table, what's this mummy, twisting off caps, pulling at tops, dipping fingers into creams, putting chapstick on chin and then on the sheets....oops as something drops, what's this mummy? he touches everything. and puts them back awkwardly, and cries bitterly when they break. and he wipes tears out of his eyes with his left hand, thumb and forefinger in separate eyes, pulling away the tears. occasionally he uses a fist, but usually tears are removed with thumb and forefinger wiping the tears up to the bridge of the nose and then by rubbing the digits together.

he is shorter than average, and given his hearing impairments and dad like habits, is not the most social kitten in the bunch. but despite his affection for his much loved teacher michelle, sebastian is no goody goody. he can ignore instructors with the best of them, is learning to make little comebacks (like at gymnatics today where he asked the teacher, "if i do it will you give me candy?") and follow his own drummer. you have to respect independence and it will be our job to help him find a balance between being a team player and pursuing independent interests.

sebastian has the extreme advantage of being the first born, and has opened a new dimension to our world. his perspective, "this is a fun family activity", his ability to make us remember what is important, "i have the best family" and the firm cuddles (even when i have to ask for them) reinforce that we are doing good jobs as his parents. watching him run and explore tells me i am teaching him to embrace his world. even if he doesn't stop the first time i ask him too, i know he knows there are boundaries. (at left as Santa in his school Christmas pageant)

seb has appointed himself as a deputy responsible for ensuring the triplets follow every single rule laid down for them. "jayjay! if you do not stop cwying i will come back here and give you a time out!"

sela!use your inside voice! it is your choice!

come on cawis..finish dinner or no yogurt!

some siblings of multiples tend to feel lost in the fray, but sebastian has never been an attention seeker and quite likes his position of older, wiser and the one who is granted more privileges brother. i turned away modelling opportunities for sebastian because i knew although he photographs beautifully, that he would NOT enjoy it. i don't regret that decision at all.

he is so much like magnificent, that i often make mistakes. i was a kid that was either racing around with friends, or reading a book alone. seb is not a social dude, unless for a very few people. and this tough, until i remember that I AM ONE OF THESE PEOPLE! he loves riding the bus with me, walking to the shops, going to the wetmarket...he likes me. he loves me. sally field aside, seriously. i may be second fiddle to dad, but he really loves me.