Another year

It has been an awfully long long time since I last posted. Is there anyone out there?  out there?   out there?    I love a good echo :) Well the good news is, I'm happy to write even without an audience, this is mostly for posterity anyways. But if you're still there - great! And if not, no worries.

I can't remember where I read it - but it is said of parenting "the days are long and the years are short" or something like that. How true. Just making it to the bedtime hour can sometimes seem a tremendous effort, especially after a day of whining and not enough sleep. And yet, we're now fast approaching William's 2nd birthday, and, before that, the birth of baby number 2. Which is incredibly surreal. 

My baby boy is now a toddler, learning numbers and the alphabet. His vocabulary is increasing all the time, and doesn't seem to be hampered too much by the fact he's learning two languages - English from Andrew and me, and Chinese from his babysitter. He speaks mainly in English, but a few words have stuck in Mandarin, like "mei?" which is the short version of "mei you" which means "don't have" but in our case it means "where has it gone?". He calls his belly button "du du" which is short for "duzi" which can also mean stomach. We also use the word "juzi" for small organes/mandarins/satsumas because it's easier to say and understand than orange. When we run, he always begins with "yunbei - pao" which effectively means, "ready - go". Our helper is "ayi" which means aunt. And of course he calls Andrew and I, "Baba" and "Mama" respectively. We're starting to learn colours.  He can count (with help) from 1-10 in both languages. And likes to go through the alphabet with his magnetic letters, or flash cards.  He can point out any number of animals or things, or body parts if you ask him, often he'll say what it is too. Being the biased parents that we are - we love how he pronounces everything. 
He knows the shape of a star - it's his favourite. Though he is still learning the other shapes names. He still loves dogs, OSU marching band music, dancing/conducting music, fruit (any kind), playing with the ipad/iphone, bathtime, swimming, going outside/for walks, visiting Papa in his office, hugs, snuggles and tickles, juice, milk, and percy pigs :)  He also loves his accessories - hats, shoes, gloves, sunglasses. He can be quite particular about which of them he wants to wear, though he's less worried about which clothes, just the accessories!  It's been interesting and fun to see his preferences for certain things develop. 

Lately we're going through a time of testing and independence, as he realises he has a choice in things, and an opinion. The whining can drive me crazy - but I try to be patient and remind myself, he is probably just as frustrated as I am, and he's trying to tell me something - I just have to figure out what it is!! Trying to convince him to do something he doesn't want to do (or at least doesn't think he wants to do) can be an uphill battle, one I'm sure all parents are familiar with. Reasoning and negotiation don't always work. Bribery is not totally out of the question - although we try to maintain some kind of standards so he doesn't learn to completely manipulate us :) and isn't rewarded for bad behavior.  It's a hard balance, but we've found when we're consistent about things, he eventually learns, and we're all the happier for it, even if it is a hard slog in the meantime. I imagine it will only get more challenging as he gets older, but that is the joy and pain of parenting right?!

William truly is such a joy to us, despite the trying days. We love our little man, for all his quirks and charms. He makes us laugh, and I love telling Andrew, at the end of each day, what he did that made me smile, or things I've noticed about him. We still love sneaking in his room at night before we go to bed to check up on him, reposition the blanket and make sure he's ok. He's still the best thing we've done together to date, and we count ourselves lucky he chose to come join our little family. 

And now we're anticipating the arrival of baby girl in about 6 short weeks. My pregnancy has been good. Slightly different from William's. I had less food aversions this time around, but more discomfort, especially at night. But I really can't complain, I have it pretty easy when compared to some good friends who suffer for weeks with nausea and worse. I'm getting to the stage when I'm looking forward to the pregnancy being over and the baby time beginning. Then I look at my to-do list and all the things I want to finish before the baby arrives, (including getting my blogs up to date) and I'm glad I still have a few weeks to go. Even if it means having cankles in the meantime. :)

I've wished at times I was more like some of the women I know who felt connected to the babies in their bellies, or who had feelings of the spirits contained within them. My babies, tend to keep to themselves until they arrive. Although having said that, I knew William was going to be a boy, and I had a dream this one was a girl. Because of the placenta placement this time around, it seems baby girl moves a lot more than William did. But I also have a terrible memory, so don't take my word on that. Nevertheless, I have a feeling this little one is a determined one. She definitely wanted to come to earth right now, because she took the very first opportunity we gave her to come. For that I'm grateful. And I'm excited to meet, and start learning all about her.