Quarterly Favorite Photos | Jan–Mar 2011

What a great idea to look back and do a summary of our top 5 favorite photos of our children for each quarter! 

It was hard for me to choose which five are my favorites.  I ended up with six.  Couldn’t help myself.

In no particular order (even though I’ve numbered them), here are my Top 5 6 ~

1.  Zoë loves ballet.  She gets all excited about twirling and dancing and wearing pink and feeling pretty.  She loves having her hair done up in a bun.   I was just really lucky to get this shot of her.  She was prancing around, showing off to my parents who were visiting, when she plopped down and decided to do up her ballet slippers.  Looking at this pic makes me wonder if I might see a similar “moment in time,” say, 10 years down the line… if I might see a 13-year old Zoë in her ballet costume, putting on her shoes, getting ready to dance.

2.  Sometimes I do wonder if there isn’t anything that Zoë doesn’t take to wholeheartedly.  She loves being on the carousel.  Just seeing the joy on her face as her horse went up and down made me just feel all warm and fuzzy.  She was absolutely beaming and was exclaiming over and over, “I love the carousel!”  Definitely made the wait to get on the ride worthwhile.

3.  This is one little girl whose name so fits her.  Zoë means “life” in Greek and she is so full of it.  WE. LOVE. HER. TO. BITS!

4.  Zoë has got to be the luckiest little girl with a brother like Josh.  I wish I had an older brother like Josh.  He’s always been very, very good with Zoë –looking out for her, reading to her, explaining things to her.  Yes, they do bicker and fight at times and I know that sometimes he gets jealous of the attention that Zoë gets, but he does not take it out on her.

6.  Josh has always been a serious boy… even when he was a baby.  It’s like he has an old soul.  But every once in a while, we catch a glimpse of his smile, a natural smile (not the grimace that he passes off as a smile when I ask him to smile for me) and it just lights up his whole face and makes us just smile big along with him –no matter that we’re not sure what it was that he found so amusing.  He very easily gets amused and tickled (literally) over the slightest thing, like finding a Sugus candy in the Pass the Parcel game.  I. LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. THIS. BOY!

6.  Oh, I like this just because.

Amber {Amber’s Articles}, Sarah {Nap Time MomTog} and Courtney {Click It Up a Notch} are hosting this fun photo meme.  Do go visit with them and check out some outrageously adorable photos!

While Waiting for Zoë…

I decided to avoid the shops in Stanley and all their temptations.  Instead I walked down the waterfront and took some photos.   It was a rather overcast day… still a bit cold.

Mister Softee  

A pre-wedding* shoot

{It’s common here for couples to have their wedding pictures taken before the actual wedding day.  They usually have a big wedding portrait ~framed~ on display at the wedding reception.  What they do with the portrait afterwards?  I’m not sure.}

Shooting the breeze

A fishing boat

Three days a week, I “wait.”  I wait for Josh and for Zoë while they are at their various activities.  But Tuesday is the one day that I can really go walk around, run errands and/or take photos while I wait.  The other days?  I pretty much have to do my “waiting” at the venue where their activities are held.  I chat with the other moms.  Sometimes I do Sudoku. 

What do you generally do while you wait?

Country in the City

 

 

 

Last Friday, my city-born, city-bred kids were invited to my friend’s {plant} nursery and there, they got to experience a little bit of ‘farm life.’   This is not the first time we’ve done that, but each time, it’s such a treat.

 

They got to pick carrots

 

 

and beets,

 

dig for potatoes,

{Those baby potatoes taste SO good!}

 

and they even tried to catch tadpoles!

 

We also learned about a vegetable called kohlrabi

 

and came home with bags full of freshly picked veggies and some delphiniums, too.

 

 

Like I said, each time we visit them, it’s such a treat.  Josh and Zoë get a better appreciation of the food we eat, where they come from, how they’re harvested, etc.  They play with my friend’s children.  I get to spend time with my friend and I also get tons of things to photograph!  Thank you, G, for your hospitality!

Please link up with Communal Global and share a bit of your world with us.

Scavenger Hunt Sunday | Kitchen

1.  Kitchen

This stone pot rice with short ribs and mushrooms came from a kitchen –only not mine, but the restaurant’s.   This was what I had tonight.

2.  Things That Make You Go “Hmmm…”

This was part of an ikebana exhibit… using air ducts as plant holders.

3.  Me Time

These days, “Me” time is spent walking around with my camera and taking pictures, stopping at leisure without having to hurry up and catch up with the kiddies.

Bird of paradise

4.  Group of Three

We went to my friend’s {plant} nursery and they had pots of these flowers all lined up in one of the areas. (Yeah, “these” flowers, because I don’t know the name.)  They come in all sorts of vibrant colors.  Apart from the three that you see here, we saw white and purple, too.

5.  Decay

An old, old fan… does this count?

Do head on over to Ramblings and Photos

and check out other entries for Scavenger Hunt Sunday.

I Heart Faces | Slice of Life

 

 

Josh and Zoë munching on baby mangoes that my parents brought from the Philippines.

 

This is a typical scene at our place.  They usually have their snacks and Josh would almost always be reading some book at the same time.  Here, he’s reading his Star Wars | The Clone Wars Character Encyclopedia.  Yes, he is totally into Star Wars.  {And yes, it was mid-morning and they’re still in their pajamas.}  *sigh*

 

She Wants to Learn Everything

She loves ballet.

 

She loves her gymnastics class.

 

 She says that she wants swimming lessons again once it gets warmer. She once asked for drum lessons. She told me she wants to learn to ski. She has asked me if I know of any xylophone teacher. She wants to learn everything.  Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Random Nothings

I almost popped an artery.   Okay, that was a bit dramatic.  But I did get worked up.

Over the past few months, quite a number of you emailed to say that you couldn’t leave comments.  There are times when I could not even see the Intense Debate comments section myself!   So I decided to switch back to the old Blogger comment system.  


Intense Debate, you were pretty and interactive, but I did not enjoy the “now-you-see-it, now-you-don’t” games that you play. 

I need a blog overhaul. Is what I need. 

~~—~~

A very good friend was in town last week. I had lunch with him and his family.  M’s my friend from way back grade school/high school.  We even went to the same university.  He went to Montreal for his MBA.  We sort of toured Canada together one spring.  Later he was in Paris for Cordon Bleu.  Chris and I visited him there after our trip to Antibes.  Then he settled back in Toronto.  We had lunch with him there when Josh was 6 months old.  That was the last time we had seen each other.  Until last week.  More than five years.  Yet it was like the years didn’t happen.  The conversation just flowed, the laughter came fast and easily.

After lunch, we parted ways with his parents (who happen to be my parents’ friends, too) and M, his sister and her husband, and I went walking around Tsim Sha Tsui.  We did not have any particular destination in mind.  His sister wanted to find a special gift for a friend.  In and out of little shopping centers, off the main drag.  Until we happened in one that looked similar to other mini-malls, except that the basement level had shops that cater to, um,  a certain clientele.  We saw risqué displays, racy “toys,” provocative outfits.  And then we also saw this:





This was a sign on a jewelry store right next to one of the aforementioned shops.  We couldn’t agree whether the sign was deliberate or accidental.  What do you think?

~~—~~

We hurried out of there.  M’s sister and her husband wanted to walk some more.  M and I decided to find somewhere to sit down and just chat.  We made our way to iSquare, where we found Honeymoon Dessert.  It was empty save for one table and us.  I’m not one for desserts usually, but I love the desserts at this place!  We ordered their signature Mango Pancakes and I had the  Mango Pomelo & Sago Tofu Pudding with Sweet Soup,

(You’ll have to trust me when I say it tastes a LOT better than it looks here!I would have had seconds if I didn’t mind looking like a complete glutton.)

while M had this:

A hodgepodge of bananas, mango bits, sugar palm, passion fruit seeds, pomelo bits,

and some preserved kumquat-ish fruit that we could not identify.

If you are into desserts and especially mango-flavored desserts, do check out Honeymoon Dessert (滿記甜品) if ever you’re in town. I daresay it’s even better than the other mango place I’d written about before.

*Calvin image from http://tantrum.dk/.