May with the Mac-Taks

So only one month and already I'm posting again! May is a pretty special month though and worth of it's own post in the Mac-Tak world. The twins turned TWO! I can't believe I have two two year-olds. Crazy. We kept the birthday celebrations pretty low-key this year. Presents on their actual day and a family we are friends with over for breakfast on the weekend.

Laurel gave us quite a scare this past weekend. On Friday morning she slipped on the bathroom floor and hit her head and lost consciousness. It was the scariest moment I've ever had. I picked her up and watched face turn blue and then she passed out. She was only out for a moment and then rushed up to the Queen Mary hospital. This is the public hospital just up the hill. The hospital is quite a scene in itself and one day when I'm fully recovered I'll write about it. She seems fine now and what we have discovered through this misadventure is that Laurel has truly remarkable liver enzymes. We always knew there was something special about her... She had two different types of sedative and had enough to make a grown-man black out. With Laurel though... No effect. The Drs thought she was amazing and excitedly told me that she will be a "fantastic drinker"! Perfect! Just what you want to hear about your two year-old daughter!

Anyway, as usual I'll turn this over to the photos.

Spring 2009

I know it's very bad when I start making this a Quarterly publication but time doesn't just march here; it gallops. In the last couple months we've had Astri and Taliya, Steve's mom, Jane and Dave and Steve's sister all visit. We've had countless public holidays (the party never ends in HK!) We've been to Singapore, Shenzhen, Macau and hither and yon around Hong Kong and tomorrow Steve and I are leaving for Shanghai. (Oh yeah! and then there's those pesky jobs taking a big chunk of our time...) SO! That's why I don't find myself sitting down to think about how to relay our news in a readable-non-stream-of-consciousness manner very often. As usual, I'll let the pictures do the talking....

The Picture Post

The Mac-Taks Highlights Edition

Whaaat????! My last post was Halloween??? I don't believe it! Well, I actually do kind of.... It's been times over here. So welcome to the Mac-Tak blog Highlights edition.

Birthday Extravaganza!
Fin and I both celebrated birthdays since I last posted. Mine was low key but Finno had his first official birthday party with friends and games and all the birthday trimmings. We painted t-shirts, played Pin-the-Fire on the Rocket and ate a beautiful space shuttle cake. Steve revealed as to now unknown skillz in cake decoration and thoroughly wowed parents and kids alike.

Sickness Extrvaganza!
This was really tied in to Fin's party but deserves it's own highlights section. Fin kicked off the sickness extravaganza with flair and drama by barfing all over in the middle of his party. Undeterred we partied on, naivly thinking it was "just the excitement". Over the next 4 days the twins, my dad, Steve and Karen all succumbed to the "excitement". In fact, most of Hong Kong seemed "over-excited". Smug in my resistance to it all I kept up a hectic pace of work during the day and preparing for our house move in the evenings. We were scheduled to move the Saturday following Fin's party and Friday morning I was still going strong. By Friday night though I was the sickest I've ever been. Which brings us to....

Moving Extravaganza!
We moved house on Saturday December 20th. Yes, 20th!! We're nothing if not gluttons for punishment! The moving company was stellar and by the afternoon we were somewhat settled in our new apartment - surrounded by towers of boxes and bewildered children. 4 days to unpack, settle in and make some christmas magic.... Somehow we managed to complete the shopping, unpacking, decorating, wrapping, baking, cooking that was required to put together the....

Christmas Extravaganza!
We had a beautiful Christmas celebration. It was the right mix of quiet lounging, children playing, new toys, new books and happy company. I made our favourite french toast souffle for breakfast and a roast beef dinner. I had pre-ordered the roast, saying I needed enough for a dinner for 6 people. When I went to pick it up the butcher handed me a hefty roast with a price tag of $968 on it! Gasp!! (over $100 CDN!!!) I stood there for a few minutes letting it sink in, had the briefest debates with myself over whether it could ever be justified, even for Christmas dinner, to spend that on a piece of meat. I'm sure you all know me well enough to know that the part of me that has spent most of my adult life as a poor student won out and I handed the roast back to the guy saying I needed a mere fraction of that roast please. We lots of potatoes to make up for the missing roast.

So with all the extravaganza's winding down and a return to work for both Steve and I, life is back to it's normal hectic pace and routines. As a family we are enjoying the economic downturn which has meant a lot more time for Steve to spend with the family. As employees, Steve and I have become accustomed to a constant state of fretting and the possible consequences it could have for two lawyers whose firms are so closely married to the banking industry.

In more cheerful news the kids are doing terrifically. Fin has had an interview at the Canadian School so everyone please cross your fngers! A friend at the school says that he did "very well". However it's incredibly competitive and I think last year they had something like 600 applicants for 30 spots... The preschool he goes to right now has him working on writing his letters and numbers and he is very good at writing his name and his numbers up to 10.

The twins have been mixing real words in with their non-stop babbling lately. Laurel loves to talk about the boats outside the windows and Joe has the sweetest little "Gah goo" for thank-you. They are at such a fun age. Even Fin would agree! The three of them are really starting to play together. It is so delightful to see them charging around the house in a little pack.

We want to wish all of you and your families a Happy Year of the Ox. Gung Hei Fat Choi!