Dana's birthday!

Had a birthday party for Dana, which was totally fun even though she won't remember anything about it! We invited some of her friends (and I told them they were allowed to bring their parents), chatted, ate and opened some gifts. I like that her birthday coincides with Mother's Day, she's the best Mother's Day present ever!

I probably have a little bit of whatever my mom has that makes her run around like a headless chicken preparing food and ensuring guests have more food than they could possibly eat. It's not a bad thing, it just may not be apparent that I am also actually really enjoying myself at the same time. Now I understand why my mom wanted to prepare my wedding cake PLUS do all (or most) of the food preparation for my wedding gift opening! I love that mom of mine, I really hope I can be more like her when I grow up.

I prepped lots of different fresh cut-up vegetables with homeade hummus, potato leek soup for lunch, and then a banana chocolate cake in the shape of a flower for dessert.

Tasted great, couldn't for the life of me get the icing to whip up properly, but whatever...Dana sure didn't seem to mind, here she is helping herself:

Here's to many more years Dana! You've been nothing but a joy to all of us! We like the way you can not only walk now, but dance as well. It's fantastic the way you are starting to talk too.

Watch this birthday "interview" with Dana featuring her first sentence: "mommypleasepickmeup". Impressive!

eventful May...

As mentioned before, Scott made a quick trip to Canada to be at our friend Jeff's wedding. Here's a picture of him with the groom (right) and another excellent buddy Zeal (middle): A definite highlight for Scott was seeing his family. He got to meet his sister's boyfriend Mike, spend some time in the mountains with his dad, as well as see his grandpa. Wish I could have been there! I love this picture of the three generations of Brimacombe men, if I knew how, I would splice a picture of Eli in to make it four. I can just imagine Scott coaching his mom on how to take the picture which explains the expression on his face.Meanwhile, back in Canada, Pam and I were having a great ol' time. Poor girl though, she didn't get to see much in the way of tourist sites (next time, I promise!). Instead, I gave her the tour of parks and play areas since we had "tire out Eli" on the agenda every morning. When Scott returned we did do a little sight-seeing and souvenir shopping though. We had loads of fun, went for bikerides and walks, watched movies, got massages, took a boat ride, had a picnic...we packed a lot into the ten days. Here's one of our more serious (well Pam's anyway) shots:
And here's Eli on a tank. There was a sign that probably said "Don't climb on the tank" but my Mandarin reading is still not there yet so we took the opportunity for a photo. It was one of those cases of "don't ask, just ask for forgiveness later if necessary" courses of action.
Same with the cannon, he freakishly blends in with the statues behind him don't you think? Hopefully there weren't any almost-3-year-olds involved in (or anywhere near) the battles!

missing Scott...thanking God for Pam

Wow, it has been ten days since Scott left for Canada and I am really looking forward to him coming back. I want to hear all about his news, who he had a chance to talk to, how the wedding was, how his time with his family went. It will be great to see Eli reunite with his pops too. Eli likes negating everything you say these days but one thing he is not saying "NO" or "it's BAD" to is when I ask him if he misses his dad, he breaks out of his tough little boy routine and softly says "Yeah".

It's been better than I anticipated though, I was worried about how I was going to juggle the care of two kids under three on my own, but a little planning and not trying to do too much each day makes all the difference.

I didn't end up going on the school trip to "China's Hawaii" (Hainan) as it was cancelled due to lack of interest and the alternative trip was decidedly not child-friendly. However I did get a chance to play tourist in Beijing for a couple of days. The best part of that was my best friend Pam flying in and meeting her at the airport. Yep, she is visiting me right now, sleeping on the couch while I blog. I didn't realize how much I missed her until this afternoon, listening to a Sarah McLachlan CD that she bought me, sitting in the living room with Dana and Eli in my arms, and chatting with Pam just as though she lived next door and had dropped by for a visit and to borrow a cup of sugar or something. It's so easy to pick up wherever we left off.

I don't think it's a bad thing but I have somehow kept myself just busy enough to not think too long and hard about all I have left in Canada. Every once in a while it hits me right between the eyes. A wise friend has told me that it is important to give yourself the space, time and grace to mourn the life you won't live even as you celebrate the one you do. I guess I am learning how to do that.