Being Parents

Today turned awefully hot but we ventured out at about 5:00 p.m. to shop for plastic bowls and spoons for Ethan. He also loves to steal our chop sticks during dinner so we wanted to get a shorter pair for him. When daddy got home early at 4:00 p.m. because of Memorial Day weekend, he decided to put baby girl on his back with his mother's baby sling, which is the Chinese style babywearing clothe you probably have seen old Chinese ladies wear with their grand child on their backs. Baby girl had not slept much during the day because I didn't have time to put her on the baby bione. Well, JK is not exactly a small person and baby girl is not exactly big but as soon as she was on his back, she fell limp and asleep. We started walking out and both his mom and I couldn't stop laughing because his mother's sling is at least 20 years old with another clothe that his mom stitched onto it bring up the baby's head. JK and the sling just look like a perfect mismatch - a modernly dressed man with a bright red heavily used Chinese lady baby sling. As could be expected, JK said, "A daddy's got to do what a daddy's got to do." So that was how she was carried for three blocks until I couldn't help worrying that baby girl is going to slip through the bottom and daddy is not fast enough to catch her. I put her on the bione and felt a lot better. Then we continued our quest to the inner depth of Chinatown.

When we got home at 6:30 or so, it was another battle of me in a marithon to nurse baby girl, who by then was VERY hungry upon waking up, and to make dinner. Now I am quite an expert and dinner was ready in 20 minutes - consisting of a fish, meat patty, rice and left over soup from the night before. Ethan has learned to refuse any help with his dinner and throws out anything we put in his bowl. Today, ten minutes into eating he was done and started his routine of pouring everything in his bowl onto the table and then pushing that food onto the floor. If he has a bowl of soup, he would submerge his right hand in the bowl and play with the content in a circular fashion until the splashing effect occurs. He also tries to grab our chop sticks repeatedly, which is quite annoying when one is trying to eat and finish dinner fast. We couldn't find the little wooden chop stick we bought for him today. Despite all the commotion at the dinner table, it's kinda funny when we look at Ethan objectively - he is a lively little human being.

Baby girl has her quirks when eating too. The typical nursing session involves her snapping away numerous times to look the other way to see what's happening, even if nothing is happening because we are basically alone. I must have talked to her alot in the past. Now she loves to chit chat and laugh during nursing. So nursing her takes 30 to 45 minutes and lots of "directing" her back to the task.

All in all, my last three months at home has been quite rewarding - I watched Artimus and Ethan grow and got a chance to get to know them. Artimus is really a girlly girl who is probably going to be a chatter box. Ethan is so full of energy and vitality he couldn't slow down to sleep without help. Yup, the king size mattress was nice and comfortable but the way Ethan swims in it there was no way baby girl and I could fit in. So JK and I are officially slaves to our children with no lives of OUR own. Another recent development that I noticed is that the first words out of Ethan when he wakes up in the morning and from his nap is "mui mui?", which meant little sister in Chinese. I wish it is, "ma ma?" but "mui mui" is fine. Ethan is also imitating the way we play with mui mui, like the exaggerated tone of voice I use and daddy's daily routine of exercising her leg muscles. It's kinda cute . . . until Ethan gets really excited that he grabs her little hand and put it in his mouth.

JK and I are still struggling to find time for ourselves. We absolutely don't have time together. Perhaps it is the acceptance of that that we each are just trying to find time to be on our own. My time to be alone is between 2 am to 4 am. It feels great but the morning is horrendous 'cause I couldn't open my eyes.

I didn't get to cross off much on my To-Do list for this maternity leave, like learn how to knit, learn how to use the oven, learn to record on the i-river and convert to mp3, design more earrings etc. But those are small things. The big things like moving to Manhattan, closing the Queens apartment, and finding childcare for Ethan and Artimus are all accomplished. Now, I can go back to work with the convenience of just going home to see them at the end of the day.

So all in all, it's not so bad being a parent - at the end of the day, I always get to laugh about what happened during the day.


JW

P.S. Excuse any spelling and grammatical mistakes because now you know when I write this blog. And thanks for keeping up with us via this blog. This is and has been a great way for me to feel connected to friends and family.