Journey of a Kumquat: Week 205 and Week 117.5

Our Sunday was a replicate of our last Sunday except we were without Mark and Nicola. Same dim sum at Yum Cha, same pictures with the Dreamworks characters, same unadulterated fear from darling Sophia. I took pictures of Charlotte this week by herself - she did good with the larger than life characters (or rubberheads as we flippantly called them at Disney). Char has come a long way since first meeting the Dreamworks characters.

Charlotte has been sick all week - she only went to school two days. Today she had a student led conference with Matt and I. She did really good - except she got all shy at the Mandarin part of the day. We know she can count in Mandarin so we really don't know why the soft spokenness. I did not take pictures of this - I know that the girls grimace at my photo taking and I did not want to distract from her day today. I also realized how much I like her school. It is like school in America- lots of natural light, lots of kidcentric activities and a sense of community. A little bit of a haven in the concrete jungle that is Macau.

We have instituted new eating rules. We eat as a family (as best as we can). We are all not eating the same meal yet - but the discipline of eating together has begun and that is progress. We are keeping it fun by singing songs - everyone sings a song of their choosing and everyone else has to sing along (after some requisite number of bites). So far so good - but as Charlotte is still sick she claims to be too tired to eat much of the time. She really does not like eating!

I took the girls to McDonald's for lunch midweek. They can share a Happy Meal - a perfect half portion for both girls. But there is this thing that drives me nuts about the McDonald's here - they sell this soy milk with the Happy Meal. The girls LOVE this soy milk. So I want to buy another soy milk a la carte so they both get their own milk box. Do you think this is possible? Of course not. You can only get this soy milk if you buy a Happy Meal. This makes for an unhappy Mama.

Imee's son John Roi is leaving tomorrow. The girls love him - especially Sophia. Sophia is very partial to the boys. He has been kind to make many drawings for them. He has been like family here.

By the way - finished The Ghost Bride - it was really good! Go read it to learn more about the Chinese culture and folklore - and about the food! It made me hungry for some Singapore (really Malaysian) food!

John Roi and Sophia. Check out her bed head!

Matt and I went to the movies last week with Becky and Zack. We saw the Wolf of Wall Street - not sure why it was panned by critics - I thought it was good (and maybe I like despicable egocentric characters). Afterwards we went to the Crystal Piano Bar (a pretty local crowd) and Matt took this very locally representative wedding decoration that was nearby: