what a life!

with and without (much) pollution - what a difference!!

There are two three big ticket news items: 1. BAIC WON! They won this afternoon and forced a third match, and play for the championship tomorrow. If you’re interested in watching, I think it’s streamed live on the CCTV5 site; game time is 4:00 here, which means... middle-of-the-night at home in Canada. 2. The last two days have been sunny and clear and nearly pollution-free - eeeee! It’s been fabulous. Obviously, we left the house both days, with a Fundazzle trip yesterday (playgym) and a long walk outside this morning – soaking up some sunshine:

3. We’re coming home! Our flights are booked and sealed and dealed for February 11th… eeek! I’m so excited. We fly to Toronto, and that’s as far as we’ve made it in terms of planning. Depending on surgery dates (which I should have nailed down in the next week or two) and a few other things, we’ll go on vacation or go back to Gatineau or travel and visit. We are one with our suitcases.

And this isn’t so big ticket but it is kind of a big deal – BOTH kids slept for TWELVE hours last night - !! I put up an ad on a Beijing yahoo groups page (for moms and dads mostly; it – by the way – has been an amazing resource living here – Beijing Mamas), and had someone coming by this morning at 8:30 to pick up the Ikea chair that Hendrik sat in maybe three times. Anyways, she woke us up at 8:45…. !!! Crazy. Needless to say it was an ah-mazing sleep for all.

Mmmm okay, what’s next. Shanti and Carol came over the other night to watch The Little Mermaid, and – so many things to say. I loved this movie when I was little, and hadn’t seen it in many many years – since I was 12? Who knows. Anyways, it's funny, the parts I remember and the parts I don't, and too, how watching with adult eyes makes me question some of the content. “But Daddy, I’m 16!” Hehe. And whatsername the evil octopus? In her raspy devilish super-duper suggestive voice: “Never underestimate the importance of body language!” PFfffft. Anyways, what I really wanted to say is that Ariel’s song “Part of Your World” is stuck like super glue – I wanna be where the people are, I wanna see, wanna see ‘em dancing etc etc etc. I sing it, Hendrik sings along (sort of) and then we just sing the tune in gibberish – all except for one line: “what’re they called again? feeeeeeeet”, except we don’t say can’t say feet (so says Hendrik). He was interested in parts of the movie, but attention fizzled after an hour or so which was convenient because it was bedtime. I’ve been hoping to watch the second half by myself – I won’t force it on him and anyways, he’d rather watch The Gruffalo’s Child (trailer here). He LOVES it! And we love acting out and talking about different scenes: we build “logpile” houses, he makes owl eyes (which involves doing something with his eyebrows that I can’t quite imitate) and we substitute and switch lines like this:

me: out slunk the creature! his hair was short, and he didn’t have whiskers of any sort! YOU’RE not the mouse!
hendrik: hoohoo, not me! he’s somewhere nearby drinking mummy pee!

Yes, he says that, and I giggle to myself and then say something like OH Hendrik that’s silly, eeeee no, not mummy pee, he’s drinking Gruffalo tea! or green tea! or lollipop tea! or something like that. - Mummy pee? Really?

Two other quotables:
1. In the bathroom, wearing just his big-boy-undies (no more diapers during the day!) the other morning: hendrik, touching his nipple: “I have a nipple. It’s small. Daddy has nipples.”

2. In the bath:
me: how old are you hendrik?
hendrik: I’m 2!

me: and when’s your birhtday?
h: november 28

me: ummm and do you know where you were born?
h: (pause…) in a hospital
me: yes, yes you were born in a hospital. do you know what city you were born in?
h: (pause…) Trento
(we haven’t talked about Trento in ages; Vela, yes, but Trento, no.)

If only I had a headcam on to record his sweet little voice and all of the funny, sweet, interesting, intelligent things he says… and then I’d be able to non-stop-film Alana’s perma-smile too - it’s the best! She is such a happy baby… I love it! And I also love cloth diapering – I sure didn’t see that coming. It really is amazing what and how much those suckers can hold. Alana is in the Assunta diapers (which are crazy cute and affordable) but I started stuffing them with bigger inserts, and we’ve had zero leaks since then. She’s growing fast though – they are on their biggest snappy setting and they are none too big at all. Most of her sleepers are 12-monthers and I had her in 18-month MEC pants today; she is five months old aujourd'hui. Smile, grow, eat, sleep, pee, poop, repeat. What a life!