Versatile Blogger Award

Thanks to Mama Lola for awarding me with the Versatile Blogger award! 

 
Rules for the Versatile Blogger Award:

1. Thank the blogger who nominated you and include a link to their site.
2. Add the Versatile Blogger Award picture to your blog post.
3. Nominate 7 fellow bloggers who you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly and include a link to their site.
4. Let them know you have nominated them.
5. Share 7 random facts about you.  

Seven random facts about me:

 

1. I don't like marshmallows because of their weird smell and strange texture.

2. I have a weird pulsing sound in my left ear that won't go away. 

3. I look at grocery ads and cut coupons all the time... except I always end up shopping at the same place, and I usually forget my coupons at home.

4. I have been going on 3 hour max. sleep stretches for about a year.  When I finally get to sleep through the night again, I won't know how I'll react!

5. My favourite ice-cream flavour is Blue Bunny's Bordeaux Cherry Chocolate.

6. I'm scared of heights.  My first recollection of this is when I was climbing up the Leaning Tower of Pisa with my Mum and my brother.   It was slippery and the outside first level didn't have a barrier.  A girl behind me slipped and pulled on me when she fell.  It freaked me out and I got scared.

7. I love Burger King's sausage, egg and cheese croissanwiches but I don't eat them very often because they're so unhealthy!

 

Seven versatile bloggers worth checking out:

 

1. Mushypea - chronicling her life with a 17 month old toddler and preparing to get married in the summer.

2. Cathysvoicenow - writer, college student, grandma, alcoholic/addict in long-term recovery and true friend who blogs from the heart about the trials and tribulations that have made her who she is today.

3. Denise - a twitter friend / new penpal and fellow preemie parent who thrives no matter what life throws at her.  She's just restarted her blog so go give her some support.

4.Victoria at Busy House Big Heart - fellow commiserator of low breastmilk supply issues and 3am friend when we're both up feeding our new babies.

5.Kylie at Kykaree - I was drawn to her because she lives in my hometown in UK! She has a strong following online so I feel like this is about as close to knowing a famous person I'll get.  She's funny and personable, and bares her soul about how she manages, copes and survives the abuse and trauma she has experienced in her life.

6. Sonya at somusti - I went to school with this smart gal.  She's a great writer and I love reading her blog.  It's fun to feel connected to someone who I haven't seen for over a decade!

7. Arlo's Dad - A Dad who writes to his son by blogging.  His posts are funny, heart-warming and a wonderful way to connect to his child.  I just think you should check out his blog. 

Spinning Plates

The kids were sick the entire month of January, passing colds back and forth, culminating with a week of 'cold-cough-fever-vomit' for Lydia.  Luckily it was my last week before returning to work full-time in February.  At the very least, I was very efficient in a very inefficient 'do half a task here and there inbetween feeds and sick children' kind of way. Lydia also informed me that 'sick kids get to watch lots of cartoons and eat pancakes'...who knew? 

Of course, after the first week back at work, I was poorly myself.  I told myself to 加油   because it was evaluation time and I needed to get stuff done!!  Thankfully, my cough is finally getting better and I'm not having fits like I was.  It's been hard though as it's a training month which means 2 weekends away from the family.  One minute, Lydia is brimming with tears that I'll be gone.  The next, she's happy that it'll be just her, Rhys and Daddy.  It's hard to reconcile really.   

My house is a disaster zone.  Kudos to you parents who keep your houses spic and span.  You're welcome to criticise the cleanliness of my house; I'll be more than happy to hand you a vacuum and a load of laundry to show me how it's really done - no sarcasm intended. Truly, you're welcome to clean my house!  It's not that I don't notice the mess, I just efficiently wait for it to pile up then methodically work on one area at a time.  The fact that I seem to be cleaning up the same area whilst the others get increasingly worse hasn't escaped my notice, but it's the effort that counts, not the end result.  These days, losers are winners too, you know.  Or at least that's the parenting book I'm going by... when it suits me, of course.  Otherwise I'm going by Tiger Mama 101 - I'm Chinese, it's in my nature.  Whatever, call me a flip flop parenter.  This is what you get when you're trying to marry east and west philosophies.  I might have a dirty house but I do it really, really well.

Rhys is 3 months old already.  It's amazing how quickly time passes.  He grows so quickly.  A full-term baby makes such a difference.  He just...does things.  He grows, and gets sick, and gets better, and just is.  It's weird yet wonderful to not be a preemie parent.  It's also really great to have a second baby because we feel like we know what we're doing this time!

I Love You Because You're You - Virtual Book Club

Lydia and I are excited to participate in a virtual book club this month.  We could choose any David McPhail book and then create an activity inspired by the book.  I think it's a great way to encourage the kiddo to think about the theme of a book and what it means to her.

We chose to read this book:

It's such a beautiful book about unconditional love.  The mother always loves the baby fox no matter how she acts or how she feels.  Lydia and I have always lived this truth; Lydia would be in trouble, yet she would say, 'And you still love me.'  Cheeky monkey.  Of course, it's true.

We read the book and Lydia was inspired to make a dress...that is, whatever the book was, I think she would have been inspired to make a dress!  Now I can sew up a storm but I've never made a dress!  Luckily, google is my friend and I followed instructions (roughly and as well as my patience would allow) from Lana Tran's blog.  Here's Lydia in the dress we made - and apparently this was the pose because 'this is what princesses do'.

On one of the pages, the baby fox gives his mother a paper cut-out of a heart, then on the last page there's a heart too.  

Lydia did a great job helping to cut the heart out (with a lot of help!) and we tried hand sewing but she couldn't quite get the hang of it so I whipped the sewing machine out and Lydia was in charge of stuffing.    

We can't wait for the next time we can participate in the virtual book club!

You've made it to the end of the post, so here's a completely unrelated photo of baby boy.  He's 2 months old and doing wonderfully.

Losing Sleep

There's nothing like losing sleep to look after your child - it's a special kind of love.  Just the other week I thought to myself, 'This is the best type of sleep deprivation'.  It's like a rite of passage for new parents.  It really doesn't last for very long. I don't mind losing sleep for the good of the cause (you know, making sure the baby's not starving), but there are disadvantages to being awake at 4am.  The one that tops the list for me: My husband's snoring.  I have such a visceral reaction to it that I've taken to complaining on twitter just so I don't smother him with a pillow.  He is the best husband and Dad, just not when I'm awake at 4am...and he's not.

If you're up at 4am EST, think of me. 

Termie after a Preemie

I'm back!  I haven't blogged for a long time because I was growing a baby!  Rhys was born 14th November at 38 1/2 weeks weighing in at 7lbs 2oz.  I would have chronicled our pregnancy, but for the first and second trimesters I didn't want to talk about it too much.  I was hopeful that the baby would make it past 28 weeks, but there was a high probability we would have another preemie this time around too. 

Having a full-term baby after a preemie is such an incredibly healing experience.  We held our breath, waiting to reach certain milestones.  We went about our normal everyday life for the first 20 weeks.  The doctor said I would probably be on bedrest anytime after 20 weeks, so I just willed myself to get there.  There was no, 'This week your child is the size of a fig' excitement.  I actually hardly read or thought about anything to do with babies until we reached the end of the second trimester.  We were so relieved and shocked when we reached 28 weeks.  To think that this baby was staying in there longer than Lydia had, and would be bigger too!

Experiencing the third trimester was truly wonderful.  It was such a healing process and I enjoyed every bit of it.  I don't think I was as uncomfortable as many pregnant people seem to be.  I thought it was incredibly funny that complete strangers would approach me and ask when the baby was due.  At least I didn't look like I had gotten greedy and put on a ton of weight!  People would also say, 'Oh, you have a girl?  Well then you know what to expect!' and I'd really want to tell them that I had no idea what to expect as we were in unchartered territory! 

Now, I have a beautiful baby boy at home.  We're all adjusting to a different routine and schedule, but it's a termie routine and schedule.  There's nothing like it.  It's hard to describe how much easier it is to be present with my baby when there's not the constant worry and stress of what tomorrow will bring. 

 

Lydia described it the best.  She said, 'Rhys is home!  Now we're a whole family!'  We're so incredibly lucky and I can't believe I have TWO kiddos at home :)  LOVE!

Changes

I'm currently fighting off a cough.  I thought it was just allergies, but then I started getting that heavy chest feeling yesterday.  Today I'm on the verge of either getting better or getting worse!  My body betrays me in ways that it didn't ten years ago.  My immune system laughs at me and says, 'Long hours, late nights and working on weekends is TOO FUNNY...here are a few germs to remind you of how ridiculous you are!'   

My job is changing.  Today, four different people at work and my husband asked me, 'How do you feel about that?'  Really, they should go through that volunteer training for the hotline.  They might be good at it or something.  In answer to that question, it's quite sad yet exciting at the same time.  I just realised that it's been nine years since I first got hired!  It's funny to think of how grown up I am now!

Lydia's changing too.  I'm always laughing at Lydia.  I asked her to mimic her Daddy's 'bad face' to which she replied, 'I can't do that because I'm too nice'.  When I think of Lydia, 'nice' isn't exactly the first word that comes to mind.  Cheeky, sassy, animated, dramatic, stubborn, fun-loving... these words come to mind.  Nice?  Not exactly the top of the list.  We just moved her from a home daycare to a development center type setting a couple of weeks ago.  She seems to be taking to it quite well and she's enjoying herself.  I've found that the biggest things she's learned so far are, 'But why, Mummy?' and 'I don't know'.  I wouldn't exactly say I'm proud, but I've been told these are just traits of an average three year old so I'm trying to roll with it!

At this very moment, Gary and Lydia are sleeping outside in a tent. They were supposed to go to a Father's Day sleepover at the aquarium but it got cancelled because there weren't enough people signed up. Gary decided to put up the tent in the back yard, get the sleeping bags out and sleep under the stars. Lydia is loving it. She's been incessantly talking about camping since the Legend of Pinkfoot show she watched. I love watching my husband and child together. Gary's a really great Dad.  Lydia is just perfectly Lydia.

Until next time!

Turning 33

I can't believe that there's not just one generation following me, there's two!  I've gotten to the stage where I have no idea how old I am.  Someone asks, 'How old are you?' and here's what goes on in my head, 'What year is it?  2011?  Oh, no it's 2012.  What year was I born?  1979?  So...1979...2012...21...add...12...' until finally I figure out how bloody old I really am.  I'm not really bothered about turning 33.  I don't really feel old or young although I'm sure I'm one or the other to some of you.

Life has been amazing lately.  Some of my best friends from school are getting married, celebrating anniversaries, or looking forward to the future.  My brother and sisters seem to be happy.  They're also getting married or looking forward to the future.  My parents continue to be the essence of who I remember them to be. 

The future holds so much for me, Gary and Lydia.  Our 3 year old girl loves life, whines, moans, cries and will give you attitude at every turn.  One minute she needs help for everything, the next minute she wants to do everything herself.  She can be incredibly loveable and full of laughter.  She can also be mean, say she doesn't want to talk to us or just tell us she wants to be on her own.  It's all quite humourous. 

We travel to Washington state at the end of next month for my mother-in-law's memorial.  We've all come to terms with what happened,and we're beginning to recall fond memories rather than the times when she was so sick.  Today, Lydia wanted peanut butter with her apple and she remembered it was the lady who was in the room with grandma (where she was getting physical rehab) that gave her some.  Who knows what she'll remember when she's older.

Anyway, just a short update on what's going on in my life.  My hope at 33 is to live long enough to watch my child grow up and have a life of her own.  I'd like to travel a bit more, spend more time with the people I love, do more of what I enjoy.  I'd like to be kinder to my husband and not nag so much (you know, maybe after a few more years he'll actually be trained!).  For the time being, I have a billion projects I'm working on at home.  I'd like to finish one of them!  I'll let you know what it is when I finish one :/