Back to regularly scheduled posts...

Now that all of you have had a look and a chuckle at my boobs and Cally, it's time to move on. And, really, I'm glad you enjoyed it. She's a riot. There's no nursing that girl discreetly in public.

So, how about some cute Halloween pictures?

This year's costumes: Buddy - a scary vampire, complete with blood, teeth and bats. Ella - a mermaid with sparkly jewels. She's been really into The Little Mermaid. And Cally - a sweet little garden fairy.

Didi and Lolly paired up with Buddy and Ella as usual. The "bigs" and the "smalls."

Cally enjoyed her first Halloween - for the most part spent safe in Mummy's arms.

Grown ups dressed up too. Gilbert has a great knife through the head bit. And Nining bought a funny witch nose. It kept dipping into her wine, her cake, and other things. Much to the kids' amusement. And hers.

Joey wore his 'fro.

We spent Halloween trick-or-treating in our old neighbourhood. Stanley Mound Road is where it's at for action. Our new neighbourhood got none. Not even one knock. We strolled up and down our old street with our dear friends the Halcrows. It's become a tradition. We added to it this year by carving pumpkins on our rooftop the weekend before.

I have taken this picture of the four kids - standing here - for the last three years.

Trick or treating at Stanley Court (at the top of the street) cannot be beat. All the doors are decorated and there are kids in costume everywhere. It sometimes feels a bit like mardi gras or a carnival of sorts.

After trick or treating, we returned to the Halcrow home to look at the spoils of our night.

And then we stayed for some spaghetti bolognaise. It was great food. Great wine. Great company.

I love this family.

Caution: Graphic content and pictures. Don't read if breastfeeding stories embarrass you....

I'm not shy. I used to be. Incredibly so. In high school, my cheeks flushed at the mere thought of having to speak in class.

Somehow, as an adult, I've outgrown this. I think it has to do with the fact that, as a mother, nothing is sacred. There is no such thing as privacy. I learned this quickly when I was in hospital after having Michael and there were probably three people at any one time touching me in places like my boobs, or looking at my vagina and pushing on my abdomen. Hard.

So, beware readers. I'm about to write a post about my boobs.

You see - the thing is, lately, Cally seems to think she's an acrobat. If she's laying with her tummy up while I cradle and nurse her, she stretches her leg straight out while holding onto her foot. Then, she'll bend it backwards like she's stretching her hamstring. It's hilarious. I've tried to capture this with my camera, but she's too quick.

But there's more. These days, feeding Cally (and changing her nappies) is similar to what I would imagine it would be like to wrestle a baby pig.

She turns right over on her tummy so that she's facing me. Often, she'll look right at me.

Then she starts standing. She likes to stand. Everywhere. At her activity table. At the coffee table. Holding a chair. Usually bouncing follows. Her little legs look like a frog hopping.

And, I really do find all this quite humorous. Except. She insists on doing this with my boob still in her mouth. So, I guess we're both acrobats.

***I do realize the pictures don't hide much, and I even half debated not adding them. But, as I said, I'm not shy. Total strangers in Hong Kong have seen my boobs (at the coffee shop or in buses or taxis). Most of you readers know me. And really, you just have to see this for yourself.

Fresh from Jojo's garden.

Tonight, we ate a yummy cashew chicken stir-fry.

With peppers and spring onions harvested from our rooftop garden.

Oh, how I love our rooftop.

Especially now the weather is cool enough to enjoy it.

Sweet, bumpy Ella

She's so accident prone and clumsy. She trips on her own feet. Or mine. Or the stairs. On the rug. Or whatever tiny obstacle there might be. If you can anticipate a fall, an accident, something breaking, it's usually happening to her.

I get frustrated with her at times. She takes things apart, gets into other people's things, moves stuff. Rearranges. There are days I can't keep up with her. But, it's because she likes things a certain way, her special way. She's curious. She's considerate. When she's making messes, really she's putting things out for us to see. On display. It's difficult to explain. It drives me crazy and warms my heart at the same time.

So we should have known, when she dropped the present we bought for Didi, that it would have happened. On our outing to the Flower Market today, Buddy picked this ceramic egg filled with a seed and dirt for Didi's birthday on Saturday. He went off for a sleepover at Nining's. As we were getting Ella ready for bed, she reached for this egg. I was in putting Cally to sleep, but I heard it all. The crash on the floor almost immediately after Ella asked, What's this Daddy? And Joey's, well, it was Didi's present.

Joey said she immediately bent down to scoop up the dirt and mess, and I came in and scooped her up to tell her it was alright, and it was an accident. Then the tears came, followed by her sad high pitched sobbing. We were not cross. We reminded her that she must ask before she touches something that belongs to someone else (as we always do). And we consoled her when she said it had given her a fright. But I know, too, that she was upset because she'd broken something. She works so hard at being a good girl.

Later, after she'd fallen asleep, Joey and I both said how sorry we felt for her. So clumsy, that one.

And so sweet.

What's your nick-nack name?

I've got to get these down before I forget. You know, those funny things the kids say.

I look at my three and I see Buddy stretching out, looking more and more like he really will be seven in five short weeks.

Then I watch Cally whiz by me to get over to the table to stand. Now she's enjoying dancing while she stands. She hasn't quite figured out how to get back down. Yet.

All the while, Ella keeps changing too. Sometimes I don't notice it because the other two are making such big strides, but I then I take a second look and I notice she has too. Mostly, it's in the little things, which are actually big things. She's starting to write her name. If you write out the letters for her, she'll do it.

Then there's her drawings. I remember this stage with Buddy too. All of a sudden, the scribbles she draws begin to look like what she says they are. She's really into faces. We've gone through an evolution of sorts. First, they were just round with eyes and a smile. Then we moved into noses. And, she's always been anatomically correct - the noses have nostrils. She isn't making us all pigs, she's just noticed our nostrils. Then one day, as we drew together, she noticed the eyelashes I drew. Since then, all her faces have these gorgeous long eyelashes. In the last week, I've noticed her starting to add stick bodies to her faces.

The funniest thing I became aware of were her self portraits. She's been doing this for ages, but I only just noticed last week that when she draws herself, she adds the sprinkle she has on her forehead. In reality, it's just tiny, but it's a feature on her face that she must be quite proud of because in her drawings it's quite pronounced.

Okay, so back to the title of this post. What's your nick-nack name? all stemmed from a conversation she had with Sid earlier this week. He came for a two day visit, which was a most anticipated event for Buddy and Ella. They love Sid & Judo and the stories of Tootai and Murphy in Pochon. Getting dressed for Sid's arrival was quite a big deal. On our first evening, we had dinner at Rolf's. The second night, we had drinks on our rooftop (even kiddie drinks). Ella had a long conversation with Sid about nick-nack names. It was cute. Ella's nick-nack name has always been Belly.

Here are a few other cute ones:

On our way to the wet market a two weekends ago, Joey suggested we wear closed-in shoes to protect our feet from stinky fish water. Ella went running over to the shoe closet to ask which ones were her din shoes.

Her r's are still said like w's. So Rolf's is actually Wolf's and my uncle Roger was Woger. But one day she came into the kitchen and shouted waar! So I sang that song to her, until I realized she actually came into scare me with a roar...

I just want to eat her up.

The pictures from this post come from our first few days of fall break. We carved pumpkins with the Halcrows (their first ever), we went to Hong Kong Park and Wanchai Market and this morning, Ella sat near our hydrangeas.

36.

And to think, I met him when he was 20. Now here he is sixteen years and three kids later.

A birthday snuggle for family movie night.

They had a little birthday party for Joey at work. Rishi recorded it on his new nano. Since it was a half day today, he was able to have all the family who are in HK with him too.

How lucky.

Awake.

You know those nights? The ones where your body is telling you you're exhausted, but your mind won't let you rest? I had one last night.

Cally had finally had a more restful night than the last two - Monday night I was up with her 5 times. Tuesday night I lost count. Last night, she was only up twice. Ella got up, scared, so I snuggled with her for a bit. My body was begging me to go back to sleep. But my mind raced.

And while I lay next to my dear husband, I could hear his heavy breathing. I hoped that he was getting some much needed rest. I tried not to disturb him with my restlessness and worry for him. I know he's unhappy, and now others around him are noticing too. What eats at him has now gotten to be so burdensome that his usual smile has disappeared.

I am thankful for our break next week, for all of us, but mostly for him.