Breakfast in Langkawi

Here's a quick, unedited iPhone video of Finley waiting on his breakfast in Langkawi. Enjoy! Click here.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from the Dennison family! We celebrated this year by dying eggs for the first time. I'll be honest, it was a big job keeping Finley's hands out of the dye, but it was still very fun and a great tradition to start. I decided the kitchen floor would be the safest place to do the eggs. With a lot of help from his parents, Finley managed to get his eggs dyed, only significantly breaking 1 in the process.

As you might imagine, American Easter supplies and candies are not so easy to come by in Hong Kong (especially jelly beans-- practically non-existent here). We were fortunate enough to have a friend give us her extra "grass" and a dye kit to use, and we had the basket left over from a gift someone gave us when Finley was born.

There were several paper towels used during the process, and we could only manage having 3 colors out at a time.

The waiting is the hardest part. Well, actually, the waiting and keeping your hands out of the cups.

Showing off the finished product after his bath. This is the face Finley makes now when you tell him to smile.

On Easter morning, the Easter bunny left some goodies for Finley. Since he doesn't eat candy, he got toddler-friendly treats like animal crackers, freeze-dried strawberries, and fruit bars. He also got some ABC bath stickers.

Going straight for the fruit bars! Yes, we let him eat one for breakfast!

After going to church, we had an egg hunt and lunch with our friends from church. We ended up doing the egg hunt in the gym at the high school since the weather was a little iffy. This is Finley hugging Macy, one of his favorite friends.

Finley discovered some chocolate eggs hidden during the egg hunt, and he was very curious to bite the foil wrapper.

Finley only retrieved about 3 eggs, but he had fun running around the gym like a maniac!

Coming Soon, to a blog near you...

Sorry about the lack of posts recently, but if you can hold out a little longer, we'll be posting pictures from lots of exciting things. On Monday, we're leaving for Langkawi for Easter holiday...so excited!!! And then in two weeks, it will be Finley's 2nd birthday (whoa!). These flights to Langkawi will be the last time Finley doesn't have his own seat on the airplane. While my wallet isn't excited about this, my lap sure is!

Playing the Guitar

Finley has really enjoyed the guitar ever since he was tiny. Now he's starting to play it himself, with a little help from Daddy, of course. Click here for the video.

A Germ-infested Family

A couple weeks ago, poor Finley came down with a case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth. He had red, crusty sores all around his mouth, in his nose, inside his mouth, in his diaper area, and on his hands and feet. It was not pretty! Fortunately, he didn't have a fever so he didn't feel too bad. He did complain about the sores sometimes, saying, "Oh, hurts," and pointing to them, but he really wasn't very cranky. Unfortunately, HFM takes forever to go away! We were basically quarantined inside the apartment for over a week straight, and still had to be careful after that not to expose anyone to him. No playing with friends, no going to the playroom, no running errands unless I could keep him contained in the stroller. My only saving grace each day was taking Finley for a walk around the block in the stroller, even in the rain! We had to do something to get out of the house!

Even two weeks out now, Finley's sores are not 100% gone. It was actually really frustrating because of the cultural differences here. Anytime people saw Finley's face, they would look at him with a surprised/disgusted expression and be like, "Oh no! What is wrong with Finley?" I was patient at first, but after days of this, every single time we were out for a walk, I got a little short with people and just said, "He's sick," and walked off. People just didn't realize that, 1) that is really rude in my culture, and 2) Finley is old enough to understand those words and expressions.

The great news is that Nate and I did not get HFM (praise God!). The bad news is we got something else. When Finley was finally starting to get better, Nate and I got bad colds and fevers. I felt awful for a day or two, but then was fine. Nate's cold turned into a chest infection, and it took him the past week of being on antibiotics to kick it. But now I think we're all finally better!

Here's a photo from one of our first outings after Finley was starting to get better. We went to the wet market in Shau Kei Wan and stocked up on the tiny little oranges that Finley loves and a box of noodles. There were so many noodles in there that Finley and I ate them twice, and we shared a serving with our helper, all for $10 HKD/ $1.25 USD. And as you can see from the photo, Finley loved them!

Ocean Park

Since we had a child, everyone has been telling us that if you get one season pass anywhere in Hong Kong, it has to be Ocean Park. Nate and and I finally did it, and we took Finley there this weekend. Ocean Park is part zoo/aquarium and part theme park with rides for toddlers up to adults. It's pretty huge, so we only went to half of the park this time. The highlight of the trip for me was the pandas. Nate liked the aquarium. Finley was a huge fan of the dogs. "Wait, there were dogs at Ocean Park?" you ask. No, but Finley was convinced those pandas were actually dogs. He kept pointing at them, saying, "Dog. Woof woof." Finley loves dogs.

Finley also loved the birds and really wanted to touch them. Bird flu, anyone?

He was a little scared inside the aquarium because it was quite dark, but he did enjoy looking at the fish.

Trust me, this fish was absolutely massive and even weirder-looking in person.

And completely unrelated, this is what I made Nate for Valentine's Day. Chocolate-dipped potato chips!

Cute Little Finley-isms

Finley is a such a blast right now. It's amazing how he is developing, constantly surprising us with what he is saying and doing. Here are just a few little tidbits:

• This morning he just randomly said "three bags full" right after we had been listening to Baa Baa Black Sheep.
• Last week he started pointing in the sky and saying, "Airplane!" anytime he heard an airplane. We had pointed them out to him, but didn't realize he would make the connection of the sound of the airplane without seeing the actual airplane.
• A couple of days ago I said, "Bye guys!" and Finley repeated, "Bye guys!" after me.
• Finley has started saying rhythms he hears in his favorite songs or in music class. For example, we'll say "bah" to a rhythm like 1-2-3&4 or 1--&3-4. He has now started doing it on his on with a variety of rhythms!
• Finley knows the word "almost". When I think about it, it is quite a useful word that I say to him frequently. "We're almost home." or "I'm almost finished changing your diaper." Now when Finley wants something to be over, he'll start saying, "Almost! Almost!"

Okay, enough bragging about my adorable and amazing child. Back to my school work.