Susie's Leaning Tower of Chocolate

Sienna is a little confused about the why and how of things. If you ask her why she is doing something, she'll repeat that she's doing it, as an explanation. Like so.

Why are you wet?
Because I'm all wet!

Why are your pants inside out?
Because they're inside out!

Why did the bear eat all the muffins?
Because he ate all the muffins.

You get the idea.

Today we went to Ocean Park, a theme park here in Hong Kong. Themed around the ocean, surprisingly enough. Halfway through Maggie complained that we hadn't found the Winnie-the-Pooh ride yet. Lucky her! If that was Disneyland, she gets to go twice.

Dalton loved the carousel. I guess he's over his temporary fear of rides, or maybe that was India-specific. He wasn't afraid of the characters (mascots) either, nor the Chinese women who wanted to hold him and comfort him when he cried because we had to get off the carousel. Maggie seems less afraid of people here, and even waved to the doorman. Maybe she's realized that her cheeks haven't been pinched in two days.

Ocean Park is in two sections, a lower one, then you take a gondola up over the mountain, or a sub-themed train through the mountain to the other side. One of my favorite rides was a rotating view tower. You sit on a bench looking out and it rotates and slowly rises up, then goes down. We had great views of Hong Kong and the ocean.

My other favorite part was the animals. There are several aquariums with fish, sharks, jellies, goldfish etc, but they also have exhibits of Asian animals. For example, Giant Pandas! yay! Maggie wasn't very interested (she didn't want to give up her stroller spot) and I told her, "you might never get to see a panda again, get up and look." I was wrong though; there was another one in a different exhibit just across the way.

John didn't believe me, but I remember seeing Giant Pandas at the LA Zoo growing up. Perhaps a postcard will soon come up, validating that. I was recently validated about my childhood elephant rides, so it's possible. Also, it looks like the San Diego Zoo has pandas right now. You can even watch them on Panda cam. He's walking around right now!

Anyway, I also loved seeing the red pandas. They were so soft and cuddly looking. They were more active and seemed larger than the one at the Hogle Zoo.

They also had a sea lion and seal exhibit, and Maggie got to feed the seals. She dove right in (figuratively) and did it. It's $45 to feed the penguins at the aquarium in Utah, but we only paid $3.50 for three frozen fish for the seals! Maggie kept calling them otters, then she'd correct herself and say "animals" because she couldn't remember the name. They had otters also.

Another nature adventure around our apartment building. We were taking a walk one morning and John noticed a weird looking bug in the street. As we examined it, we realized it was a caterpillar (or, I guess, a butterfly or moth) trying to get out of its cocoon. Maggie watched it for probably 15 minutes, and it also attracted the attention of all the other kids outside playing. The little guy didn't make much progress while we watched, but we made sure he was safely out of the street and Maggie made him a pile of leafy greens to have when he got out.

Last night was the talent auction, my favorite Enrichment. I've been looking forward to it for months, AEB finishing my donation weeks and weeks ago. I made two felt sack lunch sets. They were the first thing auctioned so they didn't go for much, but both people who won them told me how cute they were.

I won two dinners, a plate of brownies, and a painting of Mike Wyzowski done by one of the YW.

Today we went with the ward playgroup to the farm at Thanksgiving Point. Maggie has been looking forward to riding a pony all week. She did great, and enjoyed petting the animals and feeding the horses from her hand. She was afraid just walking by the goats, but she let horse eat from her tiny hand.

I think Maggie has been spending too much time with Jetta and Jazzy. The other night I went into her room when she was screaming. I thought she was saying "sick" - a good reason to be screaming in the night, and also Colette had just been to the ER. Nope. She was telling me firmly to "Sit!"

Tasha and I took the girls to the Hogle Zoo on Wednesday. It was raining a bit when we got there but the day kept getting nicer. Each time we visit the zoo Maggie is more into it. This time she was excitedly pointing out animals as she spotted them. We saw the penguins swimming, a giraffe trotting, a giant tortoise trying to escape (Maggie just about poked it in the eye, but I yanked her arm away) and the lemurs came right up to the glass to stare back. There were also baby tamarin monkeys and baby meerkats. Maggie really loves to read animal books, I think that's why it's so exciting when she sees an animal in real life now. She was freaking out about the sheep we saw on our walk the other day. She loves animals.

Brook and Erin (and Erin's entire family) left this morning to spend a week at Disneyworld. I guess I shouldn't say "the entire family" because they left a very important someone behind - a black furry someone curled next to me. I'm dog-sitting Jazmine while they're gone. It worked out really well because John is also gone. John left early this morning too for OC - he has a busy work week ahead of him. Jazzy used to be a very high-strung and easily-freaked-out dog, but appears to have mellowed in her old age. She is a very well-behaved dog, and a good snuggler. Maggie adores her, although I'm not sure the feeling is quite mutual.

Anywho, the really awful storm that was supposed to make the morning commute (and everyone's trip to the airport, and flights) miserable hasn't shown up yet, so I may get to see Grandma June today. If you recall, we got 14 inches of snow last Monday and didn't get to go visit.

Since John's office is moving he has been working from home the past two days. Since it wasn't too cold, we zipped off yesterday to get our family membership to the Hogle Zoo. Some of the animals weren't out in the cold (the elephants and rhinos), but all the kitties were out and playful in the snow, and the monkeys (which were inside) were happy to see some company. We also went in the giraffe barn and saw the new baby. One of the giraffes came over to check us out. John could have reached up and patted its nose, he was so close.

Maggie is now required to go 8 hours at night without being fed. She does this very well, but that isn't to say she doesn't wake up crying at night for other reasons. However, other than a few peeps at 10:30, she slept for 9:45 hours last night. Good Girl.

I was invited to a Recipe Swap with some girls in the ward. It was a lot of fun and I got a few cool new recipes. It was nice to feel included.

Maggie and I just got back from the Santa Ana Zoo. It was quite an effort, but I managed to make our trip last 2 1/2 hours. We visited all the animals twice and each of us had a snack. This zoo had a lot of monkeys, some llamas, an emu and various little critters. The best part was actually the farm because we could get close enough to the animals that I felt Maggie was actually looking at them. They had a "giant" rabbit which was actually very big (large cat sized), pigs, sheep, goats and a parrot that said "cock-a-doodle-doo" (I swear! It certainly wasn't the owl in the cage).

I was disappointed, but not surprised, that the "elephant pavilion" on the map did not house an elephant. In fact, it didn't house an elephant house. It looked like a place where you could ride an elephant, but I don't where they would have gotten or kept an elephant to ride on.

Anyway, the zoo was $6, which was a bargain considering you have to pay $5 to park at the park around here and it was shadier than the park.

I took Maggie for a walk to the park across the street just now. I hadn't taken Maggie across the street before because there's no crosswalk/light, but both times I got to the street there were no cars at all, so I crossed. I thought I could hold her on the swings, but this park is rather lame and has no swings. Anyway, two families were there playing on the playground and with their dogs. When I walked through the park on the way home, one of the dogs started following me. He thought he was being stealthy: every time I turned around he would stop. He even hid behind a tree!

Also, when I was changing her diaper, Maggie managed to grab a handful of her hair. I couldn't believe she wasn't screaming as I tried to get her to let go. I think her hair is coming in much lighter.

Jellybean had to be put to sleep today. She had fluid in her lungs and was having heart failure. This is sad because we love her and because, with Tonks missing, Rachel is all alone and very upset. However, Jelly was very old and now she doesn't have to live in an apartment with a screaming baby.

Mom got Jellybean in June of 1992, so she was just about 15 years old, pretty old for a tiny kitty. The poor thing was just heartbroken when Mom died - I think she took it the worst. Now our little Jealous Queen is resting in the eternal sunbath in the sky.

Update: Tonks the Wanderer has returned.

There is nothing like having a vibrating kitty wrapped in your arms while sleeping in under a puffy quilt with the rain pouring outside.

Well, Fun Stuff first. We had a good time in San Francisco. I especially loved that we were able to visit the Zoo. We got to see lots of fun animals, including the anteater (which doesn't eat ants but ingests a lot of sand), the albino kangaroo, the dancing rhinocerous, the whiskered hippo and the sunbathing lemurs. We also got to watch the penguins and the big cats be fed. And Big Cats! One of their tigers was HUGE! My favorite was Orkey the seal. Seals only live to be 25 in the wild and 35-40 in captivity, and this seal was over 35. His enclosure was rather lame, but the sign said they didn't want to move him or introduce a new friend because of his age- they didn't want to stress him out. I thought that was very considerate of them. He was a playful, friendly seal.

Rachel, John and I went to Chinatown on Friday morning. We parked on Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd. John got his sweet bread and some mango soy milks. We had a nice walk around. We also drove down to Jollibee in Daly City for John. Such a spoiled boy.

I also had a lot of fun playing games with everyone. John hopes I got my game fix, and I probably did. We also watched A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which was pretty funny. My favorite quote, of course, was when they were shooting each other with the Point of View gun and the President turns it on the girl and she says, "It won't do anything; I'm already a woman." Mom and Leonard said the book is funnier so I will add that to my reading list.

Traffic is singing along to the music John is playing on the piano. We had a fun night with the kids, making monster cookies (the frosting ended up being pea green, and the cookies tasted really bad (the kids loved them)) and watching videos. John took me to lunch at Del Taco, yummy!

Mommy, if I were home I would take care of your garden for you. I miss having a garden, and eating lots of fresh veggies.

I miss my kitty lots and lots. =( Wah!!! Plus, I haven't started my Shakespeare paper. grr

My kitty died. I am very, very unhappy. =(