I still remember, exactly this time two years ago, I was just getting ready to be checked out of Queen Mary Hospital, ending my long and uncomfortable bed rest, being picked up by Mic, and being transferred to the Sanatorium to have my C-section at 10AM.
And two years later, our lives have been transformed by this little bundle of joy.
Yesterday we had a mini celebration at home for him with his Godmother, K and her family. I made a big pot of a beef bourguignon, roasted vegetables and a salad for dinner. She brought a nice banana cream pie. Jack-Jack's first real cake experience since this is first time he had a real whole slice of the pie (normally we kept him away from cakes and other sweets and only give him the occasional bite), and of course he devoured all of it in typical Jack-Jack style. Our other friend T whom we haven't seen for over three years was in town and joined us for a brief while as well. It was just the intimate set up I was hoping for and the dinner and celebration worked out perfectly. Jack-Jack was able to blow out the candles this time, compared to his first birthday, even though he looked a little clueless while we were singing him the Happy Birthday song.
Looking back, I am still sometimes just overwhelmed by how much joy life is with him. It is indeed very different -- We are now up at 630AM most mornings, going to bed around 930PM, no more late nights, rarely do we have long dinners with friends trying out new restaurants (since most people don't eat at 6pm when we eat and we need to be home to put him to be before 9pm), I have cut down on my tango and other activities and our days evolve a lot around him. That being said, it is truly a blessing that we have the time and the space in our minds to be with him in this way, which allowed us to thoroughly enjoy him and observe all of his little changes over time. Just this past week, his vocabulary has expanded massively, instead of his standard "car" "bus" "digger" "baba" "mama" "狗狗", now he can also tell us he got bitten by a mosquito by saying "疱" and wants some "藥藥", he can request for a pair of his Thomas the tank engine chopsticks at dinner, he can tell us he's hungry by pointing to his mouth and say "吃", and he even translated for me when I couldn't understand he was saying "cat" by also telling me it is "貓". His play has became a lot more imaginary and interesting -- his obsession with cars and buses continue, and he always needs to put them in the exact same line very neatly. 6 little vehicles is all he needs to be entertained for hours, moving them around and parking them in different ways. His opinions and personalities are starting to come out more vividly -- he really expresses a preference on who should play with him, help him wash his hands, take him to bed etc., but over all he is a child with great empathy and can listen to reason most of the time if we have the patience to outlast his complaints.
Today we plan to take him to Disneyland in Hong Kong for his actual birthday, another new experience for him since he had pretty much zero exposure to Disney's grand marketing machine thus far (so he wouldn't recognize Mickey, Goofy and other characters). I booked an overnight hotel so we could watch the fireworks and not have to rush back home exhausted afterwards.
The parenting experience has taught me so much, and I am looking forward to all the joy and challenges ahead with this little life came out of my tummy, this time exactly, two years ago.
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