In a little over a week, our Little Hacker turns one year old. One year since he was born in Tokyo. He is still the cunning little baby that hides in the hamper, and fiddles with the wires on the computer. Lately, his focus has switched from Troublemaking of the Techological Kind to the walking type. Un catastrophe ambulant as my husband says. In a matter of days, Conor has become completely mobile. His favorite game is making various items crash- books, lamps, kitchen utensils. I walked into the kitchen to find the drawers opened and all my pots on the floor.
Conor is making an orchestra, my daughter informed me in Spanish before the imminent banging began. She had been doing her favorite activity of Conor Watching which involves a giving a running commentary of his mischief. From a safe distance.
If Conor unable to find mischief of the common sort, he claps his hands and yells “BOON!” which we have learned is a balloon. A small Disney Cinderella balloon that Carmen inherited is Conor’s best friend. Our good family friends from Japan who were present at Conor’s delivery- and gave him their family name of Takao- will arrive in Brussels tomorrow for Conor’s birthday party. Michael and I haven’t told them yet, but we are asking T & A to be Conor’s godparents.
On the 7th February, Declan turned 6. My mother and father were unable to make it to his party as they are staying in Mexico City to help with my brother Javi’s newest baby. My husband’s parents traveled down from Nantes to be there, and Declan invited 11 francophone and anglophone students from his international high school, and his friend Lucas from Spanish Club. His guest of honor was Mayako-chan from school who has recently moved to Brussels with her aunt and uncle, and who often speaks Japanese with Declan.
Declan was spoiled with gifts including language books and DVDs in all sorts of languages. Dec’s speaking in all his languages has flourished of late. He has perfected the Spanish ‘r’, has acquired new vocab in English, and has learned hiragana and some katakana thanks to the educational DVDs he watches. I am told he understands a lot of Dutch, but it is difficult for me to judge as I speak none. It is like that when your child speaks more languages than you.
For his party, Declan asked for a ‘Cars’ themed cake, and the kids made a fort where they could play party games. We had a ‘Cars’ piñata which Carmen adored. By the end of the afternoon, we had crepes with the adults while the kids watched a DVD.
Last week, Dec had brought home a composition from school where he had written about his family in French.
“Ma mere est Ashley, elle aime les etoiles. Mon pere est Michel. Il est au boulot. J’ai une soeur elle est sympa et j’ai un frere il est mechant et un bebe qui va venir. Le bebe est dans le ventre de maman.”
I can’t believe my little baby is writing already. It doesn’t seem like 6 years since he was a newborn baby in France.
As for the pregnancy, things are progressing well. Last week, the baby measured ahead giving a new due date of July 17th. We have already ‘booked in’ my mom for 3 weeks. Michael’s mom’s health is better than expected, and we are blessed that she is still doing well, and will be able to meet her newest grandchild. At 17 weeks, I am “huge.” With this pregnancy, I seemed to swell almost immediately, and am now almost bigger than I was full term with Declan. We are sure that it is a singleton, gender unknown. Do I have a “feeling” for which gender? I feel that it is a boy. Michael feels that it a girl. I have had an easy pregnancy as I had with my boys, not the all-day sickness I had with Carmen. Michael read books on belly shape, and has concluded that it Must Be a Girl. My husband being the expert, of course. At the baby scan, Gender Unknown was sleeping (another reason Michael is determined it a girl, as Dec and Conor were always on the move.) We have another scan in 2 weeks. Due to the miscarriage of the twins, I have scans often to make sure everything is okay.
As for names, our family have nicknamed the baby That Which Must Be Named. As discussed before, our families begin the name debate while the baby is still a zygote, and the debate doesn’t stop until the name is written on the birth certificate. Even then, we are careful that Michael’s dad doesn’t get there first. For a girl, we are tossing up over Aurelie and some form of Lily (Liliane looking likely). Middle name will most likely be Marthe after Michael’s aunt. Michael and I both like Susanna, but have promised a “French” name for our daughter.
For a boy, Lucas Daniel is our choice. We experimented with Luc, but decided that he needed something more substantial. Daniel had always been our first choice, so there is a possibility of Daniel Lucas. Lucas and Daniel fit into our “transcending language boundaries” criteria.
We will be leaving Brussels in November. Michael’s assignment will either be Kuala Lumpur or Tokyo again. He was asked to move to London in August, but we figure that it will be too difficult moving with four kids, one of whom is a newborn. There is always the option of Paris, but Michael wants to wait a few years before moving back to France. I’ll keep you updated.
Now that Conor has stopped feeding, I can go back to bed.
Libellés : birthdays, Children, pregnancy, prenoms., travel
