Love is in Stiles

October in Hong Kong is pretty great weather. The beginning of the month was still hot as the dickens, but it started cooling down nicely to where you actually enjoyed being outside. On Halloween I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and still sweating during the evening when we were strolling around. Halloween was almost always the first snow of the season in Heber, at least to my recollection.

Hikes

View from the top, including some of the many small islands around Lantau.

We went on several hikes. This one was to an abandoned building in Nim Shue Wan, a small village right outside of Discovery Bay on the water. My brother in law David has been looking into turning this building into either a school or a community center, as it doesn't get much use now because of its remote location. We hiked up from the back where this only a trail, and when we stopped for thirty seconds to take some photos Jumanji-sized mosquitoes started ripping into me and Maverick. We took the concrete path on the way back, much better decision.

Secreting behind some apartments to get to the trail.

The view from above the abandoned building. The baby is in that hiker that Scott is wearing- what troopers they both are!

The abandoned building.

The gate to the abandoned building, overgrown as you can see.

The village of Nim Shue Wan, with the bay close by, and the island of Peng Chau in the distance.

The many faces of Maverick

Our little ray of sunshine.

His favorite interaction- putting his fingers (hand) in your mouth so you can pretend to eat them.

Halloween

The weekend before Halloween we went to a carnival in a park near our house. We met Sunnee and David's family there.

I used to have dreams about the baby animals I would dress my baby as. Have you seen babies dressed as penguins, or sharks, or owls? I die. But we decided that this year, since Mav has no opinion or say, we would dress him as something that we both wanted. So for the (probably) only Halloween in his life where his parent's choose the costume, Scott Maverick Stiles was a never-nude. I know that 99% of people I know are shaking their heads right now. "A never-nude you say?" Yes. On the tv show Arrested Development there is a character, Tobias Funke, who has this 'disease'. It means he can never be naked. Under all of his clothes, and even in the shower, he wears a pair of cut-off denim shorts.

To us, if no one else, it was hilarious. Since he always wears a diaper, he is technically almost 'never-nude'. And so chubby. Observe the comparison below.

Tobias Funke

Maverick the never-nude. Complete with mustache (not meant to look as Hitler-ish as it does), and cut-offs.

Hazel and Kale in the middle waiting for costume awards.

Lola, David, and Scott.

Hazel as Little Red Riding Hood.

A cute family.

A better view of the never-nude. Mustache gone now though.

On Halloween evening we had a mini trick or treating with some friends in the park. Then we went to Headland Drive, a road behind our flat that has town houses. Since this is one of the only places in Discovery Bay where you can walk down a street to ring door bells for trick or treating families flock there by the thousand. Literally. Thousands of people roaming this one street, so many people it got hot and sweaty, and it was hard to maneuver the stroller. And the trick or treating started promptly at 6:30. By the time I pushed my way in at 7:20 only a few houses had candy left. And none of that good American "fun size" chocolate stuff. Mostly gross small hard candies and gummies. But for a Halloween in a country where it is really not a holiday for anyone but the ex-pats, it was fun.

Since it was evening we decided not to go the never-nude route, and instead dressed Maverick in his Captain America jammies. The kid is adorable in everything!

Sunnee and the Bishop kids. Hazel the witch, Sunnee the cowgirl, Lola the Belle, and Kale as Draco Malfoy.

Braden as Batman and Maverick as Captain America. Superheros unite!

Cousin Lola as Belle.

The trick-or-treating crew.

I told you I wore short and a t-shirt!

A few more for the road...

Every morning he comes out and pulls every single book and toy off of the shelves.
Every night I neatly line them back up for him.

Hey everyone!
I know, it's been months. Sooo sorry! Life just really gets you sometimes, you know? I feel like I am always so busy. But I have finally caught up on some stuff now that the holidays are past and wanted to post a bit about what we have been doing the past three-ish months. So here we go!

Me and Scott amidst the protest crowds

In September the Yellow Umbrella Protests (or the Umbrella Movement) started here in Hong Kong. I am not going to go into super detail about why, but it is a civil disobedience movement with the goal of democracy in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a Special Administrative Region of China (SAR for short), which means there are lots of different laws here, about; trade, finance, religious freedom, more freedom of press (supposedly), and more democracy (supposedly). Anyways, the government of China ruled recently against proposed reforms to the Hong Kong electoral system. They refused to give increased democracy in the 2017 elections, as they had previously promised. So a movement was started, spearheaded by a high school student named Joshua Wong. While many people here support the movement the ones participating actively are high school and University students. In September they moved into three areas of Hong Kong, setting up barricades and flooding the streets with people. Just walls of people for blocks, shutting down the roads in important parts of the city, like the financial and government headquarters.
That is the really basic version of what has been going on.

Part of the cityscape from that night.

On the first night of the protests the police had a standoff with the protesters, and were spraying them with tear gas. This is where the protest gets its name, the Umbrella Movement, because the people used their umbrellas to stand their ground and create a blockage from the gas. Outcry from that first night brought many more protesters, comparing the event to Tiananmen Square. If the police had left them alone that night media coverage would have been minimal and the protests would have dribbled away pretty quickly, in my humble opinion. But alas they did not.
On the second night Scott and our brother in law, David, went to the protests for a few hours. Scott was so impressed he came home that night and asked me to come with him. I was pretty apprehensive and told him that it sounded much too scary to me. He said that it was so non-scary that I should come, and should even bring the baby.
The baby?!?!
My baby?!?!
No way, Jose!

Finally, I agreed to come on the third night of the protests. I did get a babysitter though. Partly because I still didn't believe it would be that safe, and partly because we weren't going until eight at night, so the baby would be very grouchy.

All of those tiny dots are people taking over the streets, and on an upper walkway. This went on for blocks in all three areas.

This song from the musical and book 'Les Miserables' has been a theme in the protests

It. was. incredible.
The atmosphere was spiritual. We went to the protest in Central, the financial district of Hong Kong, and in that area alone there were more than 200,000 people that night. People were packed in for blocks. They were in the streets, on the overpass, setting up sleeping bags on the ground. Everyone was so kind. You could tell they were all there for the same reason. I hope it's not sacrilege to compare it to a type of Zion. I have only felt that same type of cooperation and peace when my family participated in the Hill Cummorah Pageant in New York. People have called the protesters in Hong Kong "the most polite protesters in the world", and I agree. People were helping others over the cement street dividers, picking up trash, sorting recycling, giving away water, umbrellas, and cookies to other protesters, even staying off grassy areas where they were asked not to step.
In America this would never have happened. It would have been so different. First of all, a few idiots would have come to the protests and started doing graffiti, or breaking into buildings, or harassing the cops, and the peace and cooperation would have ended. Or the main center of the protests would be in control but with so many people there, pick pockets would be going crazy and people would be getting mugged and raped in the dark alleyways. Not to mention the paraphernalia and souvenirs that would be sold with the umbrellas on them everywhere. It was a once in a lifetime experience. That many people in one place, that feeling, that peace. I really can't say enough about how much I enjoyed being there.

A road overpass filled with people

P.S. Please forgive my pictures. I am not used to shooting at night, and brought the wrong lens.

A man climbed up on a bus stop to paint over graffiti.

A close up of the road barricades the protesters put up, held together by zip ties and plastered with signs apologizing for the any inconvenience they might be causing.

This Monday Scott Maverick turned 8 months old!

Time is flying by so fast, and he is only getting more fun by the day. And don't tell anyone, but we also think he is getting cuter by the day. I know, I know. I already have bragged about how I believe him to be the cutest newborn, and then the cutest baby. And looking back at our pictures, he WAS stinking cute. But he just keeps on going! We didn't even think it was possible!

He's also even more fun. And to me, that is surprising because in my book sleeping 18 hours a day is about as fun as it gets, and that is what he was doing previously ;) .

These days Maverick loves to:

crawl (in the past week he has advanced from army crawling to full fledged knee crawling)
he still hates to eat solid food. Acts like he is gagging and choking every time, and won't swallow it
still spits up like a crazy man
loves to sleep on his belly
he LOVES to stand, particularly when he is holding on to me
hates the Ergo, because he wants to turn around and look at everything. He stands on my lap and turn in circles looking around
he loves to go out, especially in his stroller, or when he is held
enjoys toys! Everything goes in the mouth. Ev.er.y.thing.
wants every wire he sees
realizes who I am, and cries whenever I let other people hold him and he can still see me. Luckily he still doesn't understand object permanence, so as soon as I go 'round the corner he is perfectly fine

Now enjoy some of my favorite pictures of the baby so far!