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.