Week 177 and Week 89.5 - School and Twinkle Twinkle and Imee's birthday and Video catch up

We cannot seem to get our stuff together when it comes to picking Charlotte up from school.  It is reason enough for me to stay at home - it is really difficult with the demands of work.  We were super late picking Char up at least 2 of the days (and I went to school two of the other days) and the teachers are not happy with Team Drake and our pick up situation.  Within this week we also transitioned Char to her international school which requires her to wear gym shorts and sneakers everyday.  We realized on the first day of school (Wednesday) that we don't have any sneakers that fit her anymore.  This whole school thing here in Macau... we are totally behind the curve.  Someone please help us get ahead of it.  As a side note, I realize how spoiled we were in Singapore - we could drop Charlotte off basically anytime before 9AM (even 7) and pick her up well after 1 (pick up time was noon).  Macau has not adopted this flexibility one iota.  Oh well.  Blacklist, here we come.

I also cannot seem to get this blog off on time - I think I am going to have to move to a weekend publishing date.  Sophia was born on a Sunday after all :).

Sophia is singing Twinkle Twinkle a lot these days - in Chinese and then her ABC's (a pretty good rendition I must say - she probably says 30% of the letters).  She sings or hums it all day long while she remembers to.

Janice and Jason came over last Saturday and we went to Singing Bean Cafe - our new favorite pizza joint at the "Long Tower House" as Charlotte calls Macau Tower.  I love their vegetarian pizza - they marinate the peppers and it is amazing.

Charlotte likes to wear necklaces and an old Mickey Mouse watch of mine.  She continues to be a hungry monkey and Matt and I were starving at the end of our dim sum lunch on Sunday. 

Yaya's birthday was on Thursday - so we took everyone to the Hard Rock Cafe.  The girls loved it!  There was a best bartender contest so there was a lot of loud music - the girls loved dancing on the banquettes.  Sophia showed us her trance like dancing - even busting out some Vogue moves!  I was unable to get them on video and unfortunately we have had a hard time trying to get her to do them again.  We need to play more '70's rock in the house apparently...

Char says she likes Hard Rock better than the pizza joint.  Maybe it is because she can show off her moves better there.

The world for Charlotte's height:

Blow dryer fun:

Who is this big girl?  

Chinese Celebrities at Madame Toussaud's - family pics:

Kye noses come in handy for spoon parlor tricks at Singing Bean:

Everyone is busy:

Auntie Janice and Char:

Cakes are yummy!

Bath time!

Charlotte wears her new school backpack to dim sum.  She filled it with Mrs. Potato Head's appendages:

Naturally Sophia got into the backpack routine:

Charlotte got angry that Sophia took her backpack without asking.  She is expressing her anger here:

The girls love the fountain at Sands Cotai Central:

Sophia likes these tennies from Zara:

First day of Pre-Kindergarten.  There are 3 years of kindergarten here!

Play is serious work:

Happy birthday Yaya!

Here we are trying to stretch Charlotte's uniform shorts:

And the videos:

I love this video of Charlotte dancing:

The girls at the SCC fountain - screamy and funny:

The girls lift weights with Mommy:

Char likes those auntie exercise machines in the park:

Dancing at Hard Rock for Yaya's birthday:

Week 176 and Week 88.5

Yay - we get to stay (for now!).  We are here in Macau, Matt and I are doing our own things, and things take time to resolve if you do (actually true if you don't too).  We are not alone in having to go to and from Macau as our immigration status is sorted.  Matt of course thinks we are crazy as we moved here basically with no work for either of us - I mean who does that really?  I know people who will always have a job - get a job and then quit first job sort of thing - but we are indeed crazy for just up and moving to another country.  So, as I was saying, our status is in process and we hired a lawyer this week so we can stay till the end of October - yay!  Because uprooting is a splendid idea until you add kids and schooling and their general stability into the mix.  Well, at least we are all crazy together.

We are in the process of testing out pools (which I mentioned before) - I think we will end up at the Westin because there is golf there, and this is a golfer's town (and Matt is a golfer).  Plus there is tons of green space and pools and playgrounds.  It is like going on holiday without leaving home. 


The girls have a friend - Arian.  He is our neighbor who goes to Charlotte's school.  The kids and Imee and Daisy (his nanny) all ride the bus together.  Arian kisses Sophia goodbye when he goes into the classroom.  Nobody told him to.

I had a parenting win not too long ago.  Charlotte was inconsolable because she did not want to listen to Gangnam Style when Arian was over one morning.  Just a sloppy, grumpy mess.  So I took her to her room, let her cry out her angst (and tried not to be undone by it) and told her that she does not get to act that way when friends are over.  She was consolable and ok with it.  Yay!  If only I could be this patient all the time!

No major bumps or bruises or lost teeth this week.  We have finally met up with Caleb and Cooper - Melanie and Tom are long time friends who have had kids at the same time we have.  Caleb and Charlotte even share the exact same birthdate!

Sophia unhappy.  She does these backwards bends writhing in unhappiness.  She also bumps her head on walls.  I hope this is a short phase:

Testing out the slide at the Westin - made even more exciting by a slanted floor:

Cooper!

We went with Uncle David to the Macau Tower for dim sum - the best in Macau I think so far!  We blowed bubbles afterwards.

We had a BBQ with Cooper and Caleb at our house.  Except our BBQ did not work.  So it was Matt as stove master (not pictured here):

Now both girls are eating in high chairs - much more manageable!

The girls want to read to Arian:

Sophia is nodding "Yeah" here: