I have to apply make up each morning to cover up the scars all over my face left from scratching- on purpose. Not to mention the lovely dark brown pregnancy mask spots on my upper lip. I look like I have a mustache. Ugh. And I have red welts on my face and neck from biting episodes. Luckily my hair hasn't reached the postpartum fall out stage or there would be handfuls all over the floor.
It's just one of those days.
But she's down for a nap and I'm going to take a moment to breathe. Cause the air here is spectacular, as is the view. And we're probably headed to the beach this afternoon if Dave can finish up his Greek homework. And he has Monday off. And I'm in the mood to practice being thankful. God sure has been good to us.
Biggest news around here is that our little one continues to walk and talk and surprise us all. In lieu of having a proper digital video camera, I've opted for a more exciting slideshow of what we call, the "Frankenstein Walk". Josie is just so funny, trying out her new legs with arms extended in front of her. Definitely a cutie.
Although, with her newfound legs, she's also discovered a more spunky side. She's now very confident in pulling things out of the cupboards and making very speedy messes. I went to the bathroom for like 30 seconds yesterday and came out to find she had swiped off ALL the magnets from the fridge and they were skewed all over the kitchen and living room floor. In 30 seconds. She was quite pleased with herself.
In pregnancy news, I'm 28 weeks today (on the 28th!) So far so good. Still have that horrible heartburn, occasional migraines, and muscular pain in the entire hip area when I exercise too much. Yesterday, after walking back and forth to the pool and swimming 1000 meters (in a beautiful outdoor pool) and then going for a bike ride with Dave while he ran pushing Josie on the trails, I was pooped. Gotta keep up the exercise, but definitely within limits. Although, I'm the same size now that I was when I delivered Josie! Well, no one seems to concerned. My midwife (bless her) says that she thinks that so far this has been a perfect pregnancy. That sure is nice to hear as around this time with Josie I was totally freaked out with the Chinese doctors and scares of placenta previa. But everything ended up working out ok, praise God!
Dave has a little over 2 weeks left of his intensive Greek. I sure will be glad when that's over. I feel like I'm missing summer! Josie and I do get out and about a little bit, but it's much better when Dave can join us. We have enjoyed lots of dinner picnics at the beach though. Josie LOVES the ocean. Much better than the pool that we take "swimming lessons" at each Saturday morning. She sits on the side of the water, playing with rocks and shells and giggles each time the waves lap up around her. She doesn't much mind if they splash in her face. And, if by chance we take her out in the water and toss her around a bit, she's as happy as can be. The only problem is that she gets cold very easily (and the water is actually warm these days), and her little lips turn blue and she shakes all over. But some time in the warm sand does wonders so we aren't too worried. However, during swimming lessons she spends most of the half hour pointing to the hot tub and wanting to get in. Which, on occasion, we do. If I don't, she really will become a smurf.
This is the adored Carl. And yesterday, Josie was so thrilled to see him that she forgot all about the aversion she's had to walking on her own and literally ran to him ALL ALONE to give him a big smackero on the cheek, and well, mouth too. I guess love can overcome all boundaries. I quickly grabbed my camera so that I could get the second set of unaided steps on film. And again, Carl (not Mommy or Daddy) is the inspiration for braving the one foot in front of the other with no hands. I guess she has something to give him here. He looks thrilled doesn't he? But she sure is excited. She's beside herself with glee. "I am walking!!!" "Here I come!" Such interest, but watch out Carl-- here she comes! Opps. Success finally. And so, when Dada walked into the room Josie had to show off. And he took the secret stash of chocolate cookies from the freezer and gave her some as bribery to walk to him. I was keeping those a secret from her for a very good reason. But apparently the cat is out of the bag. And she doesn't mind one bit.
But I'm sure this story is going to be one we will share at her wedding. Warning the groom. There's a kisser out there who will brave the unknown of steps alone to get to her love. Watch out!
This is our friend James. He pronounces his name James-si, I guess because the ending is more difficult to say. He's become a part of our family. Although he's on his way to Shanghai at the moment, for the last 2 months either Dave or myself have helped him with his English every day. While Dave is taking Greek, I've worked with James. He lives on the floor above us and responded to a flyer Dave put up in our building saying we could help teach English. At that point, he only been in Canada 2 weeks and really didn't know any English at all. I think he's come a long way! And, I must admit, I've been brushing up on my Chinese quite a bit as well.
Probably one of the most helpful skills we have living in Vancouver is the ability to speak and understand Mandarin. It seems that about 70% of our condo building are people who've moved here from China. And Vancouver itself has a huge Asian population. Makes us feel right at home:) It's like living in Tianjin only with fresh air, no traffic problems, extremely clean streets, snow capped mountains and ocean in view and trendy neighborhoods everywhere. Ok, so not really like living in China, but it's great to be here and feel like we can be part of a Chinese community in our own building.
James LOVES Josie. I try to time naps and English class at the same time but sometimes that doesn't happen. When Jojo is awake, James is thrilled. She babbles away to him and chases him crawling around the apartment. I make him practice his English with her which generally consists of "come here Jucie" (he knows the word for juice and thinks that's what her name is). It's cute. He often brings gifts too. We've gotten all kinds of fresh fruit, as well as baby clothes and even clothes for Dave and me from the factory that James' family owns in China each day when James appears for class. Some of the stuff... well, lets just say Josie's clothes are adorable. Dave and mine... matching t-shirts with sequined robots on them are quite interesting:)
We will miss our daily routine with James the next couple of weeks while he's gone. I've actually really enjoyed coming up with lesson plans and ideas for class. Funny thing. I've never actually taught ESL before. I've taught plenty of English in the context of the art room or on trips with my students, but not for its own sake. It's been a learning curve for me too. But with a 10 year old boy, drills aren't the best strategy. We learn words and often play charades or "Katie says" to get the point across. Can you guess what James is doing here?
Hopefully by the time he starts 5th grade in the fall he'll have some idea of what is going on around him. Hopefully.
Look who came crawling out of my closet this morning. I'm glad she's feeling better. We've been battling croup for the last 2 days. This is her second time having it and it's not a fun sickness at all. Dave and I haven't gotten more than a couple hours of sleep the last 2 nights as we've been up with Josie trying to help her breathe better-- whether it's rocking her so she's upright or holding her head up in our bed so that she can breathe better or taking her for walks outside a the sun is going down. I think that this virus is on it's way out though, thankfully. And little miss mischief is at it again!
During my first trimester of this pregnancy, I lapsed into sleep while laying on the couch watching Josie play on the floor of the basement we were staying in. Though I had thought I had made the play area safe, I didn't take the stairs into account-- she'd never tried them before. Well, I opened my eyes to see her ascending the stairs, with no railing or barrier on the side that dropped to the floor. And she didn't know how to get down! That started a "turn around and back down" teaching must for me. She quickly learned, and now LOVES stairs. She squeals with glee when she sees them and scooches up them quicker than you can say "stairs". Since we've moved into our new apartment, Josie hasn't had the joy of climbing stairs, but I've had the joy of not worrying about her climbing habits. Or so I thought.
Last Saturday she scaled the coffee table and fell down smacking her face and splitting her frenum. (That's that little piece of skin that holds your gum and lip together inside your mouth). She still loves to climb on everything and we've moved furniture away from windows for safety sake (somehow, Vancouver doesn't believe in screens on the windows or AC, and we live on the 10th floor!)
Her latest antic is using a bin at the foot of our bed to crawl up on the bed. She knows perfectly well how to get off again, but rather chooses to sit at the end of the bed and call for me to pick her up.
Mornings come very early here, and when it's 5 am or 5:30 and we don't really need to be up, we put toys and cheerios on the floor of our room for her to play with. Well, now it's impossible to keep her there! Just when we think we can snooze a little more, here comes the monkey crawling on the bed!!! (And though I've read "no more monkeys crawling on the bed" a hundred times, the message doesn't seem to get through!)
One of our stops during our summer travels was with my mom's side of the family in Wheaton, who then proceeded to spend a weekend at a family retreat house in MI. I grew up spending time with my cousins every summer, so being able to get together with them with our children is a special treat. Josie ate up the time with her first and second cousins (and every relation in between) and I was grateful because this Michigan gathering afforded me time to spend with my college roommates as well! Anyway, a few funny pictures to commemorate the weekend. It sure is fun to be with a bunch of cousins for the weekend!!!
