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:

A few more before I go to bed

Honestly, I just can't get enough of this little guy.  His expressions are just too hilarious.  I love the casual hand placement in the second one.  What a little duuuude.

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:

George's first walk

We took George out for a walk yesterday, and I can confirm that it takes the better part of an hour to prepare a 3kg baby for a 2km walk.  And he doesn't even walk yet. Grandma and Mummy kitted the little fella out and prepared his stuff for the Lord of the Rings-esque journey down to the local supermarket. Nappy, onesie, trousers (verrry cute) a woolly cardigan, a hat, a shawl and a cover for the stroller (a bystander would be forgiven for thinking that the cover was bulletproof - it really is spectacular).  I flipped out the phone and took a photo for your benefit.  Apologies for any blurriness, I may have been giggling at the impressive fortress that he was hidden behind (there is actually a child under there somewhere):

The walk was pretty uneventful, as the little fella didn't once stir and was dead to the world for both the journey there and the journey back.  Mummy was a bit sore after the walk down, and so Mummy and Grandma ended up taking a cab back while Daddy faced his first true test of parenthood and had to push the little guy back home, unsupervised.

Below is a map of the walk we went on (it was 2km from bottom to top) and I have helpfully marked the areas where I stopped to make sure George was still breathing.  I am such a rookie father:

Needless to say, I got him home safely.  I am a legend.

I leave you with a shot of him and yet-to-be-named Hippo (I tried to name him "Hiphop" but the ladies of the house vetoed it) taken this morning:

Oh - and a photo of Ben for your viewing pleasure...

Sunday, Sunday

The nights are getting better, although we're gradually realising that George's late evening slumbers are the main reason that he's reluctant to nod off when we want him to during the night. We're still learning about his little sleeping and feeding patterns - lots to learn... It's almost lunchtime, and... nah.  Rather than bore you with details of what I'm about to cook and shove down my gob, here are some photos of the little guy that I took this morning:

The little flirt

Grandma arrives, George sleeps

Spacespacespace Last night was considerably better than George's first night at home - he had a bit more to eat during the day, and actually had a few stretches of pretty decent sleep in the night.  Only rocky time was between 1:30am and 2:45am when his daddy rocked him and walked him around while Mummy got a bit of sleep.  He was pretty good - not really many tears, however he simply didn't want to sleep.

This morning Barbara arrived and promptly got to making her aquaintance with her grandson.  Unfortunately, George wasn't particularly keen to awake from his morning slumber to mark the occasion, but some nice cuddles did eventuate.  After the unwrapping of some absolutely lovely presents (thank you notes to come, for anyone who sent gifts), we had a bit of lunch and the little dude went back to clocking up his 16 hours of sleep. Oh, what a life.

The cold weather seems to suit the rascals (as in the cats - Ben and Pop), as it means that we turn the heaters on - and they sit next to them all day.  Seriously, an injured mouse dressed in a catnip jacket with pockets stuffed full of tuna could run across the lounge floor, and they still wouldn't move from next to the heater.  If said mouse was dragging a still-warm heater behind him, they might consider checking him out.

Anyway - here are a few of George sleeping this afternoon (in the top left of the photos you can see the foot of the pink hippopotamus that Aunty Jane and Uncle Eliot gave him).  I've also knocked up a photo of Ben, because I'm feeling guilty about his cyberspace neglect.

First night - can we get a refund?

spacespacespace Of course I'm kidding - but funk me that first night was tough. He was an angel all day, and then we settled him at about 11:30pm after his last feed.  That lasted all of about 5 minutes, when he started wailing.  To cut a long story short, he slept from about 3am to 5am, and I had to reset / readjust my alarm clock four times in the night.  We both looked like hell this morning and George was none the wiser.  Come morning and he was back to angel status. Can babies get jetlag? Perhaps that's it...

Anyway, a much better day today.  This was certainly aided by some gripe water (never heard of it myself, but went and bought it at the recommendation of a nurse at the hospital), which appears to clear the litle guy's... *ahem*  passages.  After a teeny few precious drops, he burps like his daddy and then farts like a champ.  It appears that this is one of the main reasons for any grizzles he has - a bit of stored wind.  Am I venturing into "too much information" territory now?  Nah - that would be more like telling you that he managed to hit his own face with his wee yesterday.  Which was a partly hilarious and partly alarming (but mostly hilarious - well, for me and Rachel. Less so for little G).

I took a few photos today, but nothing fancy - just straight out of the camera.  All were taken as he was having a cuddle with his Mum on the couch.  He has quite the yawn on him for someone who weighs 3kg.

Home at last

Well, after three days in hospital, we've managed to bring the little hairy cuddlemonster home.  The transition from hospital to home was made a million times easier by the kindness of our friend Carolin, who offered to drive us home. It made the end of our 4 day ordeal pretty awesome really. Little George has spent the day squawking, grizzling, feeding and sleeping (he's asleep now, hence the fairly decent length post), but for most of the time he's been an absolute angel.  The night nurse told Rachel that he was her "baby of the month", as he didn't complain about anything and just slept and looked around.  "I don't want him to go home - I want to keep him until he is two years old!" is what she told Rachel.  I'm sure she says that to everyone, but a little bit of me was rather proud of the little fella.

Here are a few photos from today - the first taken on the proper camera and the send taken on my phone:

Project George, Day 3

Well, we've managed to get through day 3 of George without making any ridiculous mistakes.  He really is just the sweetest little fella.  When he's not feeding or crying about being fed, he either sleeps like a little angel, or just opens his eyes and looks around the room (although he certainly sees nothing except for weird shapes and lights).  He's pretty alert when he's awake, and when he's asleep he twitches and squawks - and occasionally wakes himself up. It's adorable. He's also developed a most excellent habit of crying, then either farting or burping... and then passing out into a blissful little slumber. Perhaps he's more like his Daddy than we had initially thought...

Tomorrow he comes home, and I'm really looking forward to it.  I've had a word to the cats and they don't seem to appreciate that their world is about to turn upside down.  In particular, Ben still thinks he rules the house.  Poor creature has a bit of a shock coming to him tomorrow...

I'll leave you with this picture of the little guy, fast asleep. I took this a few hours ago as Rachel and I were tucking into a bit of dinner:

Sleepy George

Little George had his first visitors yesterday, Uncle John and Aunty Kate.  Daddy was too disorganised to download the photos from his phone, but below are a few of the little fella looking downright tired.  Mummy is coping beautifully and is loving her new little man. Out of the hospital Thursday morning and thankfully a long week next week with Chinese New Year. Barbara arrives Saturday morning, which will make our first few weeks with George at home infinitely easier!

Here's the little guy:

The nurse tried to brush my hair like Daddy's

A few more of the little guy

George!

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:

A few films developed

I'm still relearning to shoot film using a manual camera, but I'm getting a bit better at it.  I really do need to get back into developing my own negatives and doing my own scanning - but we'll see how much time I have when Cracker arrives.  Anyway - here are a couple of film shots of Bella that made me laugh (I got the roll back today):

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...

Spacespacespace

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

Proof that I am the funniest man alive

Spacespacespace Because my goddaughter thinks I am:

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This was taken when I was at a conference in Singapore, and managed to find the Challis Circus for lunch (taken on a Pentax K1000 with Kodak ISO400 film, if you're curious)

Isabella

Spacespacespace Spent a lovely afternoon in Discovery Bay yesterday with Sue, Steve, Phoebe and Hermione - and their new addition to the family, Isabella.  Check out the cuteness that exudes from her 4 month old self.  She's still a fairly excitable pup, and jumps around like she's got springs for legs. Absolutely gorgeous:

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: