HKG247: Wild Wednesday

today started out harmless enough. quinn and i headed down to the hollywood road park in sheung wan...our goal was to play and feed the GIGANTIC koi fish that live in a pond at the park. well, we got there and noticed a lot of signs that said not to feed the fish. so, we didn't. instead, q played around for a while, took a public potty break (so proud of my big boy for doing well on the public potty), and then we walked around looking for sustenance. we found the infamous hotdog bun at a local mom-and-pop bakery...YUM!

after a LOOONNNNGG walk home and a quick nap, we headed downstairs to collect sissy. we waited. and waited. and waited. and waited some more. when we reached 20 minutes past the scheduled drop-off time, i started to panic. first i called the school, and then realized that the bus company is separate from the school, so i quickly hung up. so then i googled the bus company name and called the number listed online...disconnected. then i called josh to see if he heard from the bus company and/or could do some more sleuthing online for a working phone number (my phone is super slow for web surfing, and i also was keeping a close eye and at least one hand on q since our building is on a very busy road). he did not answer. i am now in FULL BLOWN panic mode and trying not to cry. i call the school again and calmly ask the office to please, please, please give me the number for the bus company. i know this is not their job or their issue, but i was desperate...they quickly gave me a working number. i get hold of dispatch and am told that livie's bus is held up in a traffic jam. it's another 10 to 15 minutes before her bus finally shows up...it's about 40 minutes past the scheduled drop off time. i feel relieved to see the bus until....

i go to get livie, and she's crying so hard that she can't breathe, her face is swollen and red, and she's got snot EVERYWHERE. i try to calm her down and ask her to tell me what's wrong...it takes her a few minutes, but then she finally is able to tell me that three of her classmates spent the end of the day and the bus ride home taunting her and telling her that she is stupid...or really stupid. after i got through clenching my teeth and cussing like a sailor in my mind, i told her that was an incredibly mean thing to say, that i am sorry they did that to her, and then i asked her what she thought...does she think she's stupid. she proudly told me no. right then and there, her tears stopped. i am SO incredibly proud of my girl for understanding her own self worth and realizing that she is NOT what people tell her she is.

after calming down and talking about how smart olivia really is and reassuring her, we made a plan to go get therapeutic frozen yogurt after we got livie changed and q off for a potty break. while we were upstairs accomplishing these missions, hong kong post rang up and brought us PRIZES FROM GRAMMIE. grammie saved the ever-livin-shit out of our day. THANK YOU GRAMMIE...you have no idea how therapeutic pretzel m&ms are :-) instead of frozen yogurt, we enjoyed our goodies from home.

recently, livie asked to go back to cheung sing, our favorite restaurant in happy valley, so after we finished hoovering up a bunch of pretzel m&ms and cheez-its, we packed it up and headed to happy valley. we played at our favorite playground, went into the tunnel between the playground and the happy valley race course so the kids could play red light/green light and make a bunch of ear-splitting echoes, visited our favorite shop kitty, doh-doh, and then met josh at cheung sing for dinner.

during dinner, olivia started crying and opened her mouth...it was filled with blood. her loose tooth was just about out. we hurried out of there, headed to our favorite frozen yogurt shop, and got some yummy-ness to take home. once we got home, josh gently helped the tooth out the rest of the way, and after swishing her mouth a few times, livie made some good progress on her frozen yogurt, which was not only tasty, but made her mouth feel better and made the bleeding stop.

we kept checking skype to see which of our friends we could call and show livie's lost tooth, but alas, it is just too freakin' early in texas for people to be up and ready to skype. apology to the franz family for ringing your house at 6:30 in the morning...i hope you didn't hear that!!!!!!!!!!!

one down, 22 more to go :-)

cutie bug at happy valley

loot that grammie sent us! THANK YOU, GRAMMIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

goofy q

cutie q on the playscape at hollywood road park

i felt compelled to obey this sign even though the fish pellets in my bag were begging to be thrown in and eaten ;-)

turtles at hollywood road park

this morning, i saw the biggest pigeon i have ever seen in my life...it was walking around on the a/c units outside this window. i picked q up and showed him, and then i picked waffle up and showed him. he flattened his ears and chattered at the bird while he was in my arms. i then set him down to continue his bird watch...he stayed in this position for nearly 30 minutes watching that pigeon.

while my tailbone is protesting and my legs are cramping, waffle is THOROUGHLY enjoying the lack of a dining room table. he now can cuddle up on my legs while i am on the computer. he looks comfy, doesn't he?