An unexpected loss

I’m waiting on pics from J on one our adventures, to the aquarium, but she took a ton, so that will have to wait a bit.  Maybe next post.  Mostly, what we did was play with Kiddo all break.  Had some adventures.  Kind of just hung out as a family.

Back in Cali, Kiddo had magnet tiles and loved them.  She was reminiscing one day just before break about those and how she wished with had brought them with so she cold build and make things for her friends…. A school or a restaurant our whatever her little imagination was dreaming up that day.  So, for a CNY gift, we got her some magnet tiles.  They’ve been a big hit and she spent a lot of time during the break just building and playing and imagining.  It was fun to fall into the world with her and just sit on the floor and play.

We walked a lot.  Went to a lot of little parks around us.  We found restaurants and little eateries around us or near where we were exploring and just tried food.  We’re yet to find a place and not like it.  We got to explore that.  Eat.  Try.  Noodles and spring rolls were great, but we also found a really good spot for Indian food.  We also found an American Style BBQ place.  Even Kiddo dug on that.  Surprisingly, she really got down on coleslaw.  

One day, when I had a therapy session, J and Kiddo headed out and went to the Illusion Museum.  I’m bummed I missed it.  Some pretty cool stuff.  It was a lot of fun for them and Kiddo wouldn’t mind going back, so maybe this summer that is something that I could join them for and see.  

The foreign language book store was cool.  We did that during the main days on CNY, so most things were closed, but the bookstore was open.  Everything else around it was closed, so that was a bummer, but the car there took about 20 min.  On a normal day or weekend it would be over an hour.  So, the plus was a quick trip.  

We also learned that Shanghai empties out during the New Year.  Everyone goes back to their home cities or areas and the big cities are mostly empty.  It was cool though.  We kind of had the place to ourselves.  We could travel quickly and there was zero waits anywhere.  

It’s just been a regrouping for us.  We’d hang out.  We’d go and just read together.  Eat.  Love.  Bond.  Be us.  It wasn’t like the summer, though.  We didn’t have a rental place and a beach or things around us in LA, SF, GB, Zihua, etc.  It was at home.  In our city.  Our things.  We could eat at home if wanted… or we could go explore.  We could wake up and make coffee and just have a lay morning reading or magnet tiling.  We watched some movies and Kiddo got to see Jurassic Park (it was a hit, she loved it) and just do family things in our own place.

I think that was the biggest take away for me.  Not the doing and the adventures.  The being.  The family unit just being that.  Just loving and being around each other.  Walking and exploring a park or a new place.  Walking with Kiddo as she chattered at us and told us Kiddo things or asked us her odd and curious questions (would you rather eat Zihua tacos for a week or Pho in HCMC, What if Koala’s were the size of people, What would you do if; instead of watching a documentary on tigers, tigers filmed a documentary on people) as we explored and wondered.  Even if was just a hair trim, it was just us and being us.

It was a nice break.  Next year, though, we are discussing Vietnam again.  Or Kuala Lumpur.  Somewhere warm.  Because for all the fun we had, it was cold.  Some of the days and the highs weren’t high at all.  2-5C some days (35-41F) and the good days were about 8C (46/47ish F).  Add in wind and (some days) drizzle and it was cold.  Kiddo, however, made the most of it and leaned into the being cold of it and even got some sand pit time.

Before I go, I need to take a minute to recognize 24 yrs.  

I feel bad for the brownish mug, J got the in Hanoi and I’m bummed that it broke, but the glass mug I got in 2001 from Wilson’s Coffee and Tea in Racine WI.  It was one of their original mugs, they’ve since gone to ceramics, but the original glass mugs that they had for coffee is what I always think of when I think of Wilson’s.  It’s traveled (literally) around the globe with me and us for the last almost 25 years.  I was tasking around the house and I just caught something wrong and down it went.  Things break, it happens, but a very small piece of me broke for a second as well.  More than half my life I’ve been drinking my coffee from that mug and now it’s gone.  It served me well and made me smile more than once.  It will be fondly remembered and missed.

Let’s go, Kiddo… It’s back to school.  Back to the routines.  But also back to friends, learning, fun, and being you.  I’m beyond happy that we got to explore like we did during the break and I can’t wait for summer to come so we can do it all again.