No! No like it........

This is Fin's favourite phrase these days. And my least favourite! Fin is becoming a very assertive young man and lets everyone know very clearly what is and is not acceptable in his world. Fortunately he is generally quite easy going and likes most things. We are enjoying his playgroup and meeting some really nice kids and moms. I have met quite a few from our complex and we even have a playdate set up for tomorrow. The best part is the family hosting it has cats! I'm going to get my feline fix!

The other day on the elevator one of the moms that lives in our building got on with her very bald 7 month old son and Fin looked over at him and said "Nice haircut!". I can't believe he's become sarcastic at such a young age! Actually, I think he was being quite genuine.

I had the detailed anatomy scan of the twins today and in my OB's words the twins look "perfect"! Yay!! However because I have been having quite a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions I have been told that I must rest more and sleep at least 8 hours at night (HA!!!). I am taking magnesium now to help prevent contractions and my doctor thinks that later on I will have to take a different drug to prevent contractions. Thank goodness I don't ever have to be pregnant with twins again!

Everybody is gearing up for Chinese New Year here and our complex is no exception. It practically looks like an orange grove they have brought in so many miniature orange trees. They also have giant trees covered in pink blossoms and potted chrysanthemums. All of the lobbies are decked out in red lanterns and decorations and there are lit up cartoonish pigs in front of all the buildings. It's VERY festive!

Last week Fin and Evelyn and I went out to the Flower market in Kowloon and came home with armloads of beautiful flowers. While we were there we walked through the Goldfish market which was a delight for Fin. There were bags of goldfish and buckets of turtles everywhere. When Steve (who has been working crazy hours lately) has a chance we are hoping to get an aquarium set up in our apartment.

Evelyn is a real Mary Poppins except that she cooks the most wonderful Asian food. Fin has become very find of her and she is wonderful with him. She has definitely been key in making this pregnancy tolerable! Apparently she is expert at making chinese dumplings. We are putting her to the test on Thursday. We are HUGE dumpling fans and so excited to have an expert in our midst!

Tomorrow we are having a Chinese New Year celebration at Fin's playgroup and everyone is supposed to dress in tradtional chinese costume, so I will post a picture with my next entry. It should be VERY cute!

Sorry This is So Long in Coming!

I know it's been a while....... (Remember I warned everybody at the beginning that writing is not my forte!)

We are all doing really well. I am no longer on bedrest!! Yayyyy!!! My last ultrasound indicated that everything was completely normal now. I am so happy to be getting out! Also, we were able to find out the sexes of the twins........a boy AND a girl!!! We are all SO incredibly thrilled! I am feeling them moving around more and more, which is my absolute favorite part of being pregnant.

Fin is doing really well. He has started going to a local playgroup that leads into a preschool when he turns three (and is toilet trained - so now we have extra incentive!). We have met some really nice people there, but the teacher is exhausting. At least, she exhausts me! She absolutely MANIC! She shouts and sings everything, while playing tape recorded music in the background. Finley doens't seem too bothered by it - although on his first day I think he was certainly bewildered by it. I don't know if any of you have ever watched Cantonese pop entertainment shows but she is just as over the top as the people that host them!


I have met some really nice moms in the playroom of our complex. The playroom is fantastic. It's huge and has a climbing gym, a ball pit and tons of ride-on toys and giant stuffed animals. It also has a children's library and a separate play area reserved for the under 3s. It's a great place to meet people. Fin thinks we go there for his enjoyment but really it's for me to make friends!

Our helper started last week and she is transforming our lives! Our house has been thoroughly organized and cleaned. Fin is very taken with her at the moment and talks about her all the time. Steve and I are suffering little pangs of jealousy, but are mostly just enjoying the fact that there is someone always around to help with him.

Nana (Steve's mom, Pat) was here for 3 weeks and just left a couple days ago. She was absolutely wonderful and Fin loved having her at his beck and call! We went to Macau while she was here so that Fin and I could re-enter Hong Kong on our proper visas. It turned out to be a lot of fun - we took a bus tour of the older parts of Macau and everything but the actual bus was really lovely. The bus was very stinky and VERY tiny. Parts of Old Macau are designated World Heritage sites and are a really beautiful mix of Portugese and Chinese. Fin was a total champ and walked for literally hours. Nana only had to carry him occasionally and he didn't complain at all. I hope this means that he loves travel as much as his mom and dad!

Developments at the Mac-Tak Household

Here is pictoral proof that it's twins. How on earth could I be this big so early if it weren't??! I think I remember being about this size when I was 7 months pregnant with Fin!
We think we have found a structured playgroup that segues into a preschool class for Fin and are going on a tour of the facilities tomorrow. I'm very excited about Finley getting the chance to socialise a little more.
He is developing quite the sense of humour! Today while we were out walking we came across a woman sitting on a bench watching her daughter play. The woman was sitting perfectly still and didn't smile or say hi to us - so Fin stopped, watched her for a moment and when she still didn't move he said, "Statue!".
I met a couple of other moms in our complex's playroom. The seem really nice and have toddlers as well. Fin and I are also going to another mom's house on Thursday to play. Yay!! It's so nice to meet people!
In other news, Steve and I are still sleeping on the floor! Argh! However we are expecting our mattress tomorrow.
We have found that in Hong Kong you always get freebies when you sign up for services or make significant purchases. Here is our current list of freebies:

• vacuum cleaner - for signing up for our landline telephone
• slow-cooker - for signing up for a fax line
• DVD player - for buying a TV
• sound system - for signing up for a credit card
  
• pillows and mattress pad - for buying a mattress

I figure it won't be long before we'll have all the household gadgets we need! A colleague of Steve's said that's how they got all of their appliances - just by signing up for stuff.

Return to the 21st Century!

Two weeks with no internet or telephone!!! Getting our utilities set up here took longer than expected, however we are now back in the real world.
Over the last two weeks we have moved in to our new apartment and made steps to makng it feel more like a home. The furniture that totally crammed our New York apartment looked so lonely in this apartment. The square footage isn't really all that different, but the layout is different enough to make an enourmous difference. For those of you that visited our Brooklyn apartment you will remember the enormous run-way that served as our hallway. The space here is a little more well thought out thank goodness!
We have ordered most of our new stuff from Ikea since I'm still more or less confined to the apartment. With the various mix-ups and backorders the Ikea team has practically become resident in the apartment. We have a lovely new bedframe (the first we've ever had!!) and I was so excited about it, only to discover that Ikea's queen is smaller than our queen-sized mattress. We have ordered a new mattress but in the meantime we are being taunted by our lovely bedframe as we sleep on the floor next to it. Grr!
Fin is loving all the new space here and thinks all the container ships going by outside are super cool. We are so close to the ocean now that even on the 47th floor we can hear the waves at night.
The twins are continuing to do well. They are each just over 15 cm now and I can feel them moving on a regular basis. SO exciting!! We had an ultrasound last week and apparenty my Dr's machine has a 3D function so he printed us some pictures that are incredibly detailed. If I'd known about that function from the start I would have insisted on it every time!! I can't believe he was holding back on us! I'm feeling a little bit nervous about just how big I'm going to get as I already look about 7 months pregnant and I still have 5 MONTHS to go. Eek!

I'll post pictures next time. This time I was just excited to be able to post anything at all after our two week break from tehcnology!

PS - I have NO idea what's with all the italics. They won't go away!

Merry Christmas!!

The Littlest Engineer















Busy, Busy!!















A Hotel Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas Everybody!

We have had a very nice, but VERY quiet Christmas here in our hotel room. As most of you know I am on bedrest and have been since before Christmas (everything seems to be going fine!) so Steve had to take charge of everything. He did a fabulous job of shopping for us all. Steve and I have worried that we have started to share a brain. The one present I managed to get him before being incapacitated is the same present he bought himself for Christmas! And the one present I asked him for for myself is the one present he'd already bought for me! (For those who can't stand the suspense, it was a passport folder and a blowdryer, respectively!)

Fin was thrilled silly with his train table and has been working hard at keeping the trains running on time ever since Christmas morning. Fin had seen the box for the train table a few days before Christmas, as he had to go along on the shopping expedition, but had not seen it or heard a word about it since. On Christmas morning, when Steve got him out of bed, the first words out of Fin's mouth were, "Trains! Trains!!".

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and enjoying the train table. We had bought tickets to the buffet dinner in the hotel restaurant and the hotel was very accomodating in allowing Steve to go down and fill some plates, which the staff brought up for us. I literally didn't have to leave the couch for the entire day. We had a lovely Christmas, but are really looking forward to next year when it won't be in a hotel and I won't be on bedrest!

Best Wishes to All of you!! We miss you!

Our New Home!!

View from our Balcony


OK, we have a new apartment!! And it has an amazing view! The complex is called Bel Air and is on the South Side of Hong Kong Island in Pok Fu Lam, right next to a development called Cyberport. If you are Steve you will say this in a robotic voice every chance you get.

At the bottom of this post are pictures of the living room, master bedroom and one from the balcony featuring our real estate agent, Alice. She was terrific and has been a huge help. Totally different than any of the agents we dealt with in NYC!

We are moving in on January 1st if all goes well. Naturally, being us, we haven't contacted anybody to help with the move yet....... so we may have to wait a day or two.

The part of the island that our new place is has much fresher air than downtown, and has lots of flat, grassy space to play with Fin on. The complex has an outdoor pool and an indoor pool, a gym and a wonderful children's play area. I am SO looking forward to getting settled!


Top is the Master Bedroom, Bottom is the Living Room

Midnight Run to Macau

Argh! It' s been a tough 24 hours to be a Mac-Tak!

I woke up at 4am to discover that I was having quite a bit of bleeding and then I started cramping (and panicking!). I called Steve at work (which should tell you about the day he was having!) and like the gallant knight that he is he came home. On my Dr's advice I am now on complete bedrest for the next week or so. The good news is that both twins had strong heartbeats and were active during the ultrasound. My Dr feels that with rest all will be well. Everybody please cross your fingers en masse! On a kind of funny note: In the hospital waiting room there was a newspaper called "The Standard" and it's front page headline read "Thai Crisis Sends Region Tumbling". Now I don't know if the whole region actually tumbled but my crisis at least briefly rocked our family!

Steve is able to take a few days off work which is wonderful, but it will not be a restful few days! Everything looks hopeful for signing a lease tomorrow for the apartment that I saw (and loved) from yesterday. However Steve must also sign a contract with the nanny that I interviewed earlier this week. In order to process the nanny's visa Steve must have his worker's visa in place and have applied for a HK ID Card. All of this means that tonight, and I do mean night, Steve is making a run to Macau and back. He will then be up at the crack of dawn to stand in line for the several hours it takes to apply for an ID Card. Our real estate agent will be meeting him in the line-up so that he can sign the lease! Craaaazy! But that's not even the worst of it for the poor guy! As my bedrest is supposed to be complete, he will have Fin with him.

All in all, a lot of stress. However, if all of these contract signings and visa/immigration hassles work out then we will be completely set! A home, a helper and an ID Card!

Wish us luck!

PS - I have been talking to Fin about going to Macau because we had planned to go today as a family. Fin is under the impression that we are going to see a cow. I'm afraid he will be sorely disappointed when we do arrive and there are no cows to be seen!