Twas some Season

Of Family

A flurry of activity brought Grandpa Yi, Grandma Yin, Auntie Yi, Cousin Miao Miao and random friends from China and Beijing to our apartment during the past few weeks. For moments, one could observe 6 people hovered around one small 10-week old catering to his every need. Is this where the phrase "Little Emperor" comes from. I'm guessing there are some diseconomies of scale with that many people caring for one person. Luckily, his daddy keeps telling himself that when the time comes he will be able to say "No." We'll see how that goes. 


Of Festivities


Well since we can't dream of a white Christmas in Hong Kong, what do we dream of? I'd say it was pretty green especially since we spent the afternoon in a beautiful park listening to the sound of birds chirping, waterfalls flowing and leaves rustling. There was no pomp and circumstance but those that celebrated did end up with gifts. Although don't tell Myles his was actually a week late and was shipped to New Jersey. He'll never know the difference. Most thankfully, we didn't make him wear a "My First Christmas" santa outfit.  Most thankfully because that is one outfit you can only really wear once and probably not worth the price for the mileage it will get.


Of Farewells


But with the festivities of the season came a time of valedictions. Besides the end of a year and a decade, Dec. 31 marked the end of Eliza and Myles stay in Hong Kong. They zoomed off on a grueling almost 24 hour journey through Korea and back to NYC. Greeted with sub-zero (celsius) temperatures and a blanket of fresh snow.  For some reason, I don't think they made the effort to stay up another 3 hours to welcome in the new year. Mostly they made the effort to turn up the heat and the water heater and find a warm place to settle for the night.


Photos from the past weeks can be found here.


Of Forlornness

No crying. No Baby CD's. No sizzle from the frying pan or whir from the kitchen fan. No play time.

Suddenly time is no longer the scarce resource it has been. Meals, rest, grooming, bathroom breaks, travel...all revolve around "The One." Now I'm swallowing the bitter cup that is long-distance fatherhood unable to render any physical assistance to mitigate the inherent stresses of life. How then can one enjoy meals, rest, travel, etc. when one's ability to freely pursue those activities further diminishes others ability to carelessly engage in those activities. My coworkers ask if I'm "free" now. Well yes, but each moment of freedom comes entangled with pangs of loneliness and guilt, for each free moment I have there are three people across the sea with diminished free moments.


So all I can do is launch as much virtual help as possible and hope to make of my free moments lasting value. One attempt can be found in the video below:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKpRynUMAtg
(go for full screen mode)