Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Balancing act



Photo credit: Naomi Wei's feet, taken by Naomi Wei

It's been a hectic past couple of weeks. Work has completely crazy, Naomi has had a neverending cold/cough, Austin's job has kept him a complete stranger (to me at least since Naomi sees him in the morning), our house is complete chaos since we're too busy to clean and we're getting our basement done so there's a nevernind film of dust on everything. Phew I'm tired. My one saving grace has been my mom. She's been here since April, taking care of Naomi when Naomi needs to stay home from daycare, or when I'm so exhausted from work after a long day. She's had dinner ready for us every single night. She's kept me company after Naomi goes to bed and I'm on my own since Austin rarely makes it in before I've completely passed out. Shen even helps fold all the piles of laundry that continues to pile up. She's leaving on Tuesday to go back to Shanghai though and I'm completely dreading life without my mom. I foresee many nights of takeout/fast food to say the least.


Anyway, enough whining and onto Naomi updates.
What can I say. She's 23 months. That's ONE MONTH away from being 2 years old. She's fully embraced her terrible two's. It's amazing to me how in the span of 1 minute I can easily see two completely different children. In one moment I'll have a child who's so sweet, singing a song about how she loves mommy, and 2 seconds later, she's trying to scratch or hit me, throwing her body flat out on the floor and yelling at me to Go Away. Sometimes I feel like i'm living in an episode of Super Nanny where I'm the parent who's failing miserably at keeping her child under control. Yet all in all she's a good, sweet child, who's quite the charmer and already knows that how to turn up the sweetness factor when she's trying to get her way. On numerous occassions I've seen her work her charm on Austin as she runs to him to cuddle, sweetly say, "hi daddy", rest her head against his shoulders, then look up at him with those huge brown eyes and say, "cartoons daddy? watch tv please"? Poor Austin doesnt know what's hit him and before you know it, they're both in front of the tv flipping through the channels as Naomi dictates when she's had enough of each program. (yea we sorta fell off the whole, 'no watching tv until you're 2' wagon).
She's also developed an incredible case of shyness. Our once outgoing child has turned into a complete introvert when it comes to anyone outside of our immediate household. It takes her much longer to warm up to friends and relatives, even ones that she has seen every weekend for her entire life! Hopefully it's just a phase and will pass soon because as it stands right now, she'll bury her head in my shoulder for a full 20 minutes rather than look up at an unfamiliar face.

Ok that's it for now. I'm finishing up my last day of work in my 20's. As of this sunday I will officially be entering the new...unmentionable...decade. (yes i've taught naomi to say that Mommy is turning 29). I'm off to a spa/girls only weekend, and will be back home on Sunday afternoon. Hopefully I'll be completely refreshed, beautified and ready to face a new decade.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Picture Day

A couple of weeks ago, Naomi had her very first picture day at school. Here's her first shot. I can't help but smile when I look at it.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day

To Mommy (Amy), the most amazing mother (and wife) anyone could ever ask for...

We love you very much!
Daddy and Naomi


Saturday, May 8, 2010

Independence

Naomi is all about being able to do things on her own. We probably hear the phrase "I DO IT" about 50 times a day....actually that's being conservative. As she realizes she's capable of more and more things, she desperately wants to have more independence. Her teachers at school try to encourage this by giving them tasks and chores while in class. At home, it's worked to our advantage in many situations...when she doesn't want to take a bath, we can say, "Ok i'll turn on the water". Sure enough you'll hear little stomping feet running towards the bathroom followed by a, "NO, I'll Do it!!" It's also annoying at times, like when we're trying to cross the street, and she wants to be able to walk on her own, without holding onto our hands, or when she wants to climb up and down the steps all by herself. And sometimes, it's hard not to get frustrated or impatient when we're in a rush trying to get to the next thing we're supposed to be doing in our overly busy lives, when all Naomi wants to do is to be allowed to do something on her own...like brushing her own teeth, or putting on her own clothes and shoes.
It's definitely hard, and we have to remind ourselves that her wanting to do things on her own and for herself is a good thing. But it's easy to remember cause when we find ourselves getting frustrated, she'll do something oh so cute....like pulling her skirt on over her head and yelling out, "I DID IT!!!"

Friday, May 7, 2010

An Early Mother's Day surprise

I have my own laptop!!! For my early mother's day gift, Austin and Naomi surprised me with a macbook air.

Saturday, May 1, 2010

Trying something new

Naomi has been taking her naps on her makeshift "cot". This is a cot I make out of blankets which I lay on the floor. For some reason she likes this so much better than being in her crib. We still haven't gotten around to buying a bed for her, mainly because we can't decide whether to get a twin bed, or a toddler bed. In any case, tonight she kept saying, "no crib, no crib no crib" over and over again, and kept asking for her cot. So finally Austin and I gave in. She's fast asleep, and hopefully will staying lying down rather than trying to wander around in the middle of the night. I'm a little worried simply because if she decided she wanted to get up, she could, and she would have free reign of our upstairs area (we'll put close the baby gate leading downstairs). She knows how to open all the doors in our house, including her bedroom. We'll see what happens!

Tomorrow, we're off to look at more beds and hopefully buy one since she clearly wants to be done with her crib.