Milk Volcano

Little chap has turned into quite the milk volcano over the last few days (in fairness, he's also turned into a mustard / chocolate hybrid volcano, but I won't go there).  He did an awesome powerchuck right past Rachel's shoulder yesterday, and all she heard was the splatter as it hit the deck in the lounge.  Too awesome. His night feeds are actually getting quite good - he was only awake for 30 mins and 60 mins in last night's feeds, and he tends to stir at about 6:45am for his breakfast.  Evenings are a tad grizzly, as he sleeps a lot during the day and then wants to hang out with us in the evening after dinner.  I'm cool with that, as I don't get to see him during the day...

I took this photo a few days ago on my phone. Pretty sure I haven't't uploaded it before - it's not the greatest quality, but I like it anyway:

Lazy Sunday

Sadly, the weekend is almost over (well, for Daddy - Mummy's weekend ends in July). George had a pretty cool night last night, with a couple of feeds and then some good sleep stretches.  I sat with him for the last one, from 6:45am until about 9:30ish. Was rather nice - I just sat in his room reading, and gave him a gentle rock and a "ssshhhh" when he grizzled.  He's currently passed out on Rachel's lap after another feed. We're doing nothing today - we're literally sitting around the house just doing chores and having a quiet one. As good as George was yesterday, not every shop or location is going to be "feeding friendly", so an outing every couple of days is quite enough at this early stage.  He's a good little fella, but when he's hungry he lets us know - and the words "Can you hang on for a few minutes?" don't really go down so well.

I took a few photos of the little chap this morning - there was some nice light coming through the main window.

End of week 2 (well, almost)

Well, although George isn't quite two weeks old, we've managed to get him this far without any real damage (the little face scratches are self-inflicted - little dude needs fingernail trimming). He came down to Daddy's work again, and once again was practically comatose until the final stretch home, at which point he rather vocally reminded Rachel that it was his lunchtime.  There are some lunches you just can't have in an elevator, if you know what I mean. Ned is popping over tonight for a drink and hopefully he has time for a spot of dinner too (Grandma Barbara is cooking!).  Ned and his wife Thais used to live in Hong Kong, and although they now live in London, we've managed to catch them a few times since their departure - both in London and in Hong Kong.

Tomorrow we're heading to Kowloon for a spot of shopping for Barbara's belated 60th birthday present, and then we might have a few people coming to visit the little chap.

Naturally, a few shots of the little pooping and burping angel before I sign off.

Weight gains, heel pricks and sleep

Little dude has been sleeping up a storm - went to the doctor's today (apparently he's regained his birthweight), hit Pacific Place to do some shopping, and then came home - and pretty much slept through the whole experience.  This could explain the reluctance to sleep at night. Oh dear. He had his heel prick test today, and Rachel said he was a little miffed at that. Other than the odd needle-induced flipout, he's a pretty cool kid. Mummy uttered a few choice words under her breath at around midnight when the little fella wouldn't go to sleep, but he made up for it with an impressive four hour sleepfest in the night somewhere.  Rachel says she woke up and found herself patting my chest in her sleep (she was burping me).  Crikey.  I wonder if it worked.

A few photos of the little boy and the big boy:

Kung Hei Fat Choi!

Happy Chinese New Year as they say!  George narrowly avoided being an Ox and was born in the last week of the Year of the Rat.  I wouldn't have a clue what characteristics a Rat is supposed to exhibit, but I'm imagining "hairy" is one of them.  The little tyke's hair is as bushy as it was on Day 1 and I'm quite enjoying trying to part it when it's wet... We had a pretty lazy day, although George has his first official house visitor today - Alice came over for a bit to say hi and to gift George several awesome and cute presents (including a little Lion from South Africa, now christened "Harrice" (Harry + Alice). It's gorgeous and Daddy is considering stealing it.  Harry and Alice also gave George some lovely bibs and accessories and some cute little foot and hand animals so that he can locate his feet (you have to see it to understand what I'm talking about - but they are seriously cool).

We're heading upstairs for dinner tonight at Cam and Carolin's - technically George's first dinner outing.  Babysteps, babysteps - it's in the same apartment building as us.  If George pops a valve we're close to home!

Naturally, a few photos of the little fella to finish up - both with his Mummy:

The Daily George - Tuesday

We're in the middle of Chinese New Year, and it's pretty cold outside - although on the plus side, I have most of the week off and it's lovely and warm inside the apartment. The little chap is coming along nicely, and has learned to simultaneously burp and fart at the same time (I'm so proud). Sometimes when he really wants to impress me, he burps, vomits, farts and poops himself in quick succession.  His mum is slightly put out by the four-for-the-price-of-one performances, but only until she realises that he really is quite a happy and content little chap after one of his legendary pants explosions.

Tomorrow is the last day of Chinese New Year, and on Thursday I'll head back to work for perhaps half a day, and then half a day on Friday.  The day after CNY is "lai see" day where people give "red packets" (of cash) to people who either work for them or to unmarried friends. It's a bit strange, but hey - when in China... Anyway, I usually give cash packets to my secretary, the IT guy and girl who do a bit of work for me, and the building staff in the apartment building we live in. Plus, I'm supposed to give little cash packets to the unmarried people at work, but I wouldn't have the foggiest who is married and who isn't.  Oh well.

Naturally, I'll leave you with a few pictures of the little guy:

Nope, still no baby.

Spacespacespace We even indulged in a bit of curry last night.  Nada, nothing, not a bean.  Oh well. It's only a day or two late, and according to our doctor, the due date is today going by his calculations.

The boys are showing solidarity in these cold winter months:

American Idol

Spacespacespace I wonder if American Idol would be as popular as it is now if its name described the show a bit more accurately.  For example, would a bunch of judges and auditioning singers be as famous if the series was sold as "The American under 35 Karaoke Championships"?  I think not.  Oh marketing types, how ye mocketh me.

That said, despite my annual promise not to watch this crap, I found myself glued in front of the tv watching the endless stream of car crash contestants making international dorks out of themselves.

Highlights of last night's episode were surely the contestant with no shame who auditioned in a bikini (at least it wasn't an overweight hairy man), and this gem of a scene...

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...where the host Ryan Seacrest attempted to high five a blind contestant.  Unsurprisingly, the blind guy didn't respond to the high five.

Our last weekend as a two person, two kitten family?

SPACESPACESPACE If the doctor's estimation of Rachel's due date is correct, then this time next weekend we could be up at the hospital with a brand new baby.  How utterly freaky.  And a little bit scary.  Gone are the days of our lazy Saturday morning lie ins, hours with the newspaper and a coffee (well, ok - the newspaper is pretty crappy, so make that "minutes"), and lovely toasted croissants.  Hello to poop, vomit and screaming. Everything is going well, little Cracker has a new trick of kicking Rachel's ribs (or something around that region) and it's quite fun having a play with his/her foot when the game is on...

We had a lovely evening last night - Mark (my boss) is leaving Hong Kong, so we all hopped on a boat (well, three boats) and went to Middle Island on the South Side of HK Island and had a BBQ and dinner. It was frigging cold, but was actually ok in the end - there were plenty of gas heaters and there was also an inside area where we gathered for speeches and whatnot afterwards.

Today we're off to Discovery Bay for afternoon tea at Sue and Steve's (parents of the gorgeous Hermione and Phoebe) and we'll also get to meet their brand new puppy - woohoo!

Not sure what else the weekend holds - perhaps some trampolining... (apparently it induces labour)

I leave you with a few photos from last night's trip out to Middle Island:

Lazy Sunday (again)

We actually managed to get out of the house today, believe it or not. Admittedly we had a lazy breakfast of toast, hashbrowns, bacon (narly) and baked beans (Rachel) first - but then we took a nice walk down to Kennedy Town just a few kilometres away.  Ok, so maybe we watched another episode of Mad Men before we left. Bought a big silver bin which appears to have the sole purpose of storing dirty nappies pre-washing (yup - it's cloth diapers for these not-yet-parents) and not a lot else.  Ok, maybe we had a Snickers bar too. Was digging through some old photos that I found on some old CDs - here's a self-timer one of Rachel and I in our old HK apartment, and one of the dearly departed Chloe at Christmas about 5 years ago:

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Oh - and for Aunty Momo... here's a picture of the baby bag that you bought for Evilspawnofnarly.  It looks full because it's already packed and ready for an emergency trip to the hospital... only 12 days until the official due date - can't be too careful: