waiting in Beijing...

I'm almost at my due date now and really looking forward to finding out who will be joining our family soon. I am in Beijing staying with some friends until the baby is born. It has been two weeks already, because I thought I might be early like I was with Eli and Dana. This baby, it seems, is in no rush.

Why in Beijing you may ask? There is a very good international hospital here that I feel quite comfortable with. Originally I was planning to give birth at a local Chinese hospital, but I found myself not seeing eye to eye with the doctor there (the language barrier didn't help either). I felt I would be a horrible patient at a local hospital because of my nursing background and because I have had two very positive birth experiences already. The rate of cesarean sections in Chinese local hospitals is also very high which scared me. I wanted to be somewhere where I could have a say in what was happening rather than being told as is the norm.

I'm reminiscing the baby days with Eli and Dana, pictured above is Dana, sweetly surrendered to sleep. I wonder what it will be like with 3... soon I will find out, but it is hard to be patient and not be anxious about when. With every twinge or slight discomfort I'm asking myself, "is that a contraction? am I in labour now?" It's tiring to keep that level of alertness up, only to be disappointed over and over again.

Here's a picture of baby Eli. I just love how he has his little hands clasped together, and I love his little toque too (hiding his cone-head no doubt).

Thankfully, last weekend Scott came to visit me with the kids. It was so good to see them and we got to spend 3 days together. We were hoping that I would go into labour at some point during the visit, but it didn't happen.

We had a little scare with Eli, he fell off/jumped off some monkey bars and bashed and gashed RIGHT on the outside of his left eye. He just missed it. I was also thankful that he did not whack his temple, which can be really dangerous if not deadly I understand. We did not take him to get stitches, I just cleaned and bandaged him up. Aside from some swelling, it looked a lot better three days later. Phew!

Well, I will try to post again as soon as SOMETHING happens! People say that no woman has stayed pregnant forever, but I'm beginning to feel as though I may be the first...

Christmas and snow!

We had a wonderful Christmas! We especially enjoyed Skyping our families and chatting with them. The kids were pleased to receive Play Doh (especially for Dana)toys and Lego (especially for Eli). The best toy of all was the box the Play Doh Creativity Center came in: the kids are sitting in the box and it reminded me that they are two of the best gifts I've ever received!

We also had a big snowfall (after Christmas), the biggest in 20 years. I went around taking pictures of "typical Chinese snowmen." Here are a two examples.

Yep, just piles of snow, with heads on top, but points given for creative decorating of the heads nonetheless. It was entertaining to me (since I do not own a car) how upside-down the city was rendered by this snowfall. It really slowed things down for a few days there, and it seemed to clean things up a bit (rather refreshing to see clean white snow on the ground for a few days rather than the usual dirt and frozen loogies!)

i'm thankful for...

Eli because he is enjoying school and learning how to play board games.

Dana because she likes putting blocks away and putting things back in general.

Scott because he is easy to talk to and a great listener.

my breadmaker because it makes the house smell so nice.

AND....my pregnancy that is going so well (due in early May).

***

Chinese New Year almost here!

I am off school as of yesterday for the Chinese New Year holiday and tomorrow we fly to Thailand. A neighbour said it was good timing as there is talk of a blizzard coming on Saturday. In any case, we will really appreciate the warm weather, clean air and the ocean, not to mention Thai food...


They have been busy decorating our xiao qu (neighbourhood) and even supplied us with posters to put on the outside of our doors with the character fu (福) which means blessing. Red and gold posters, red paper cut-outs are everywhere, ushering in the year of the Ox.

We recently went for a walk to a park nearby which had some ice. You might be thinking, 'oh they went skating, how nice...' but no, we tried something we'd never seen or heard of before.

It's a cross between skating, sledding and cross-country skiing. The little sleds have two blades that enable them to glide along the ice, and usually they are self-propelled via two small ski poles. The ski poles looked a little dodgy to me, and frankly dangerous with the inch long spikes on the end of them, so we went without.

At least three of us could fit on at a time and I would push, or Scott would use the short ski poles. Eli preferred to push Dana and Dana liked being pushed in the sled so it really worked out well. Where we live is pretty flat, so this is as close as we got to going sledding this winter.

I was glad that I actually had a use for those winter boots I bought the kids this year. I bought them in faith that we would 1. get some snow and 2. be able to do some winter activities...plus they weren't all that expensive. Although it seems mild here most of the time compared to where we're from in Canada, the wind can get pretty chilly here, cutting to the bone as you walk or bike where you need to go.

As we walked back from the park where we went ski-sledding, we must have passed at least three of these roadside stands selling firecrackers. Chinese people prefer to start their New Year with a bang and it is LOUD...like, don't bother trying to sleep kind of loud! I didn't ask how much the different kinds were, but I couldn't resist getting a picture. The whole country will soon be erupting in firecrackers and fireworks on Chinese New Year, I hope you do your part in celebrating too, even if it's just ordering Chinese Food or shooting a cap gun.

homework

I'm trying to learn those crazy Chinese characters and my tutor highly encouraged me to do all my homework on the computer with characters instead of relying on pinyin (a Romanization of Chinese characters). So this is a short composition about sports and exercise which is mostly true (in some areas, I just wanted to use different vocabulary)...well, never let the truth get in the way of a good story right? Enjoy!

Sports

以前我平时喜欢做很多的运动。我中学的时候打排球，打篮球，滑冰，骑马，和踢足球。这些是我最喜欢的运动。现在我是妈妈，我的时间不够了， 所以我不能做很多的运动但是我还喜欢锻炼。在健身房，在家，都可以。在健身房我喜欢举重以后在跑步机上快走。我花半个小时走路。在家我跟朋友看一个DVD， 跳健身操和跳舞一起，有意思。我觉得锻炼身体帮我很多：我可以睡的比较好，学习比较好，我的态度比较好等等。。。如果我觉得我的压力很大，锻炼帮我忘了压力!

Translation:
I used to do a lot of sports. In junior high, I played volleyball, basketball, skated, rode horses and played soccer. These were my favourite sports. Now I am a mom, I don't have enough time so I don't do as many sports but I still enjoy exercising. At the gym or at home, both work. At the gym I like to lift weights after a half hour of walking fast on the treadmill. At home with a friend I like to watch (and do) an exercise DVD, it's a combination of dance and aerobics and it's fun. I think exercise helps me a lot, I can sleep better, study better, my attitude is better etc...if i feel under a lot of pressure, exercise helps me forget about it!

the BONKS

here's a new one:

the good news is: i'm not a battered woman...the bad news is: i might look like one.

i'd better explain:
i had been feeling sick for most of this week, kind of a flu, kind of a cold and was starting to feel better. i was preparing fruit salad like i do every morning for breakfast and i started to feel dizzy/woozy/lightheaded/and maybe a little bit like i might throw up, so i thought i would do the sensible thing and sit down. i sat in a kitchen chair right by eli and called softly "scott..."

the next thing i knew i was on the floor with a terrible aching sensation on my cheek, my forehead and my head. i had blacked out and fallen on my head! scott was standing over me looking concerned and reassuring me, and eli (bless him!) was saying "sorry mommy" like it was his fault or something!

ouch! what the hell happened? were some phrases that came to mind. i had broken my 500$ glasses in the process, and the frame had cut a little bit into my cheek. but scott took my glasses to get fixed which they did (for free!) and although i'm sore, i don't have really nasty noticeable bruises on my face, so i'm thankful for that.

eli (he's so funny) talks about how "mommy fell RIGHT OFF her chair!" and asks me if i'm going to do that again sometime! i tell him that i sure hope not, because it hurt and i only have one head!

p.s. so if you ever feel dizzy like that, sitting down in a chair is not enough, just lay down on the floor right away and save yourself the BONKS!

p.p.s. the bright side of having something like this happen to you is, at the very least you get a good story out of it.