first post of 2013

Hendrik was playing in our walk-in closet this afternoon, and when I went in and found him sitting and panting and doing these kind of spazzy shoulders-forward tucks, I had to ask him what he was doing. “Exercises,” he said, very matter-of-factly. “Abs? You mean, you’re doing some abs? Like Daddy?” (We sometimes pick Steve up from the gym downstairs and catch the tail end of his workout, which Hendrik observes very closely.) He responded to my question by lying down on the floor and continuing his spazzy-tuck-abs. "Yah! AB. You're doing AB," he said. It was hilarious - he was so sincere.

 on the left, a portrait of Daddy (big face) and Alana (small face to Steve's left); on the right, the two eyeballed faces are Hendrik and Mommy. Love it!

New Years Eve-ing it up: Pizza Party, and watching The Gruffalo's Child

Happy happy new year! 2013. Yikes. We weren’t too sure we’d make it til midnight, but we did. On NYE we had a pizza picnic dinner party on the floor in the living room, and then Hendrik and Steve watched The Gruffalo’s Child while I gave Alana a bath. The kiddos went to bed, and we went downstairs to have a drink with Carolin, Salvador, Freddie and Shanti; Skype sat in while we – very shortly – went out (downstairs). Once home, we reviewed our New Years Eve plans of the last 12 years and then realized that it was 11:56 and quickly found a countdown on TV (an outdoor Shanghai party - much like any other big city made-for-tv par-tay, but in Chinese). Christmas and New Years plans since Steve and I have been together:

2001: Roeselare, Belgium and London (with Rachael)
2002: Tenerife, Spain (I came from Portugal) and then something or other back in Castelo da Maia (what, I can not remember…)
2003: Brussels (we both came from Tenerife), and I celebrated NYE with Carmel and friends in Tenerife (there were crazy crazy fireworks) – Steve was somewhere with Team Canada
2004: Christmas in Prague and NYE in Calabria, Italy at a mountain summer house (it was rustic and freezing) with friends of Steve’s teammates
2005: Christmas in Sardinia and NYE for me, in Cannes (I broke my toe running into the water at midnight with Christian and Marie-Eve); Steve was still in Sarda
2006: Patras, Greece! Bob and Marg and Erin and Fred were with us for both occasions – home for the first, at teammate Bernardo’s for NYE
2007: Vancouver for Christmas, house party at our place in Winnipeg NYE
2008: Bowmanville XMAS, Toronto NYE house party
2009: Japan: Christmas dinner at our place (Steve backpacked a turkey home from Costco – from one side of the city to another) and NYE with the Fab Four at a nearby temple (amazing)
2010:B-ville and B-ville: it was our first Christmas as parents!
2011: Trento: Christmas dinner chez nous, with Sarah, and NYE with Bob and Marg and our Antonella and Luciano and the next-door gang
2012: China – home and home!

Ouf… what a list! I really should have more air miles.

Happy New Year!

And speaking of miles, Steve sure is collecting a few over the course of the next week and a half. The guys are gone for TEN days! It started yesterday, and if every day is a carbon copy of the one we just had, it will all be a-ok. We might not ever leave the building or the 17th floor… but hey, whatever. Nah, we’ll make it out - it just didn’t happen today. Here is where BAIC is going:

Liaoyang January 1-4; Luoyang January 4-8; Suzhou January 8-10/11

Some snapshots of our cutest-ever kids, and then I’m going to continue reading Roald Dahl’s Going Solo and then I’m going to bed. 2013!

jamface

sporting some Christmas-gifted new clothes (above and below)

four months old today!