David, Grace, Sarah and Emma Bellis

Here's wishing you a healthy, wealthy and happy year of the pig.

We had a busy New Year's day, cooking in the morning:

We took the finished article along to Yuen Long for the New Year pot-luck meal with Grace's family, and finished the day at Angela's, to wish her a Happy New Year.

Nope...

Elizabeth sent this funny bath toy for Emma's first birthday. It sings, but when you turn it over it changes to sound as though the toy penguin has its head underwater. I'm not sure who's had most fun playing with it - me or Emma!

You can see it in this video, along with a few other clips of Emma's first year of bathtimes.

We tried an afternoon visit to Disneyland yesterday, collecting Sarah from Kindergarten after lunch and catching the train out to Disney for a couple of hours. It went well - ie no tantrums when it was time to leave! And although we only stayed a couple of hours, we got to see lots of things as the queues were either short or non-existent.

If you look at the photos below, you can see that Sarah still has mixed emotions about meeting the characters. While it all seems good in theory, when she's standing right next to them the awe takes over ...

We paid Mark & Jasmine a visit on Sunday to see Maya for the first time. She's a cheerful young lady, full of smiles. Here she is with Grace & Jasmine:

The girls all had fun playing in the garden, and Mark shows definite potential to be a 'Creative Kids' supply teacher:

Grace & I will be at Zentro's (above Airport Express) by appx 6:45 this evening. Hope to see you there.

Emma is one today.

Here she is at breakfast admiring her birthday card & new Piglet from Nana.

And here she is at this time last year!

Yesterday saw Sarah on duty as part of her kindergarten's welcoming committee. Each morning several children stand outside and shake hands with all other pupils as they arrive.

It's not something I'd heard of before, is it a common practice?

Also we had a bit of a muddle in communications. I thought I was supposed to accompany Sarah and join in the welcome line, which I did, and had a wonderful time. Though about halfway through I realised that A) there was only one other parent present, and B) they weren't in the line. Ah, what the heck, noone asked me to leave so I had a happy quarter-hour spent kneeling down and wishing each new arrival a cheery "jo san" (good morning).

Here's Sarah's favourite teacher, Luk Lo-si, just before the crowds arrived.

Sarah enjoyed it. If she ends up with a career as a politician, we can blame it on this.

I walked into the living room yesterday to find Emma shouting on one side of the room, and Sarah looking rather downcast on the other. When I asked Sarah what had happened, she struggled for a while to get the right words, then tearfully told me 'Emma eat me all up'!.

That evening Grace told me the full story she'd got from Ching-ching - Emma had been trying to 'walk' past Sarah, holding on to the edge of a shelf. Sarah had objected, bumping her back with her bum - so Emma registered her disapproval by biting her. Grace then admitted that she also had a reputation as a biter when she was little. Can Emma claim she is a victim of her genes?