Proud mummy moments

Today Nico is 2 years, a month and a day old. I have less than 2 months till the big day.

Went to a shop yesterday and the Asian attendant pointed out that Bean could have been born the year of the Tiger had Bastiaan and I had waited another 2 weeks. So I guess we'll have a little ox on our hands (better start reinforcing the furniture), and either a Capricorn or an Aquarius.

She's still quietly bubbling away under my skin. I'm starting to think that I've watched way too many horror movies. Watching my abdomen freakishly move like this, there just isn't a single time that I don't think of one movie or another where some monster parasite rudely bursts out of its host's body (anyone ever wondered why they always come out the front of the chest or the stomach, and never sideways or through the back?).

Dreamt last night that I gave birth at 29 weeks. Funny (or worst?) bit is that I was so focused on eating some foie gras (which I didn't even get round to before waking up!) that Bean's prematurity didn't really register.

Reflux is getting bad, it only takes 2 chocolate biscuits now :(

Joined the Growing Up in NZ study. Not really off to a good start, they called me so often even before the first interview it was painful. Better be worth it.

Nico's learning his manners pretty well. It only took a banana smoothie to teach him to say 'More' and a handful of grapes for him to understand that 'Pwease' goes a long way when 'More' by itself doesn't work. Cheese cubes took care of the 'Thank you' bit.

When Nico was a few months old we signed up with the Mangere Bridge toy library, and one way or another I ended up being the Committee's secretary. Had an interview with one of the journalists to promote the library, and of course we needed a model to show that the toys are fun. Yes, even stunned mullets have fun.

In the latest edition of Little Treasures magazine (Dec 09 / Jan 10). Even with the toys, it was incredibly hard to get Nico to stay on the green screen by himself, he just wasn't up for collaboration that day.

Daddy and I were cooking (well to be accurate I was cheffing and Bas was kitchen aiding) when every so often we heard in the background a little voice going 'bloow...' 'bloow...'

It didn't even occurred to me that before one learns to blow one's nose, one should first learn to tear off toilet paper.

Oh well you've got to start somewhere.

Apparently he should have 50 words to his vocabulary now. I wonder whether counting to 10 in 4 languages counts as 40 words, and the alphabet as 26, or would that be cheating? Let's count...

1. Family members: Papa, Mama, Ngoai, Oma, Thijs, Babiche, Karin (ok Karin's not a family member per se, but Nico sees her often enough to recognise her name)
2. Animals: dog, cat, fish, bird, frog, bug, chicken, horse, sheep, cow, duck, pig, butterfly, elephant, crocodile, snake, spider, bear, zebra, giraffe, bee, lion, monkey, rabbit, wolf
3. Food: cheese, grapes, banana, apple, pear, chicken (whoops I don't think he quite realises what it means), kiwifruit, dip
4. Objects: car, truck, slide, socks, shoes, shirt, phone, book, doll, tree, fork, toothbrush, bubbles, nappy
5. Body parts: head, shoulders, knees, toes, eyes, ears, mouth, nose, tummy, teeth
6. Common words: hello, bye bye, yes, no, more, please, thank you, up, down, baby
7. Verbs: sit, drink, pipi, caca, sleep
8. Plus whatever word he manages to mumble when singing along. But I can't quite make them out.

I think that should cover the 50 words. Too late to count, I'm going to bed while Bean's asleep and won't keep me awake hugging my bladder.