Tomorrow will mark the end of Robert's lengthy vacations, I mean business trips (although the last two consisted of cruises to various ports in Northern Europe) for a while. I think all three of us are relieved. Despite our daily telephone conversations with Daddy, both pretend and real-life, it is not the same as having him here when we wake up and home in time for supper and wind-down time for Andrew. I feel great that I accomplished a lot of things on my to-do list while he was away (including follow-up on health insurance claims, receipt of my new passport (and I am now officially Karen Lee Chamberlin), major Spring cleaning, preparation of our wills, catch up with some friends and family on the phone, major revamp of Andrew's closet, boxing up the loads and loads of clothing he has once again outgrown, updating the baby book including the letter in previous blog, and catch-up on my favourite American tv shows and recent movies) and feel that we will be able to relax and enjoy the next several weeks and weekends as a family before our next vacation. In addition, I feel much more prepared to begin working part-time for my former employer, which will be in the very near future.
The past few weeks have been amazing on all fronts, with exception to our missing Daddy. Andrew has been continuing to sleep extremely well and I am usually up and about for two hours in the morning before he begins to stir. Gone are the days of the (somewhat) dreaded 5 AM cries; now I find myself excited at his first mumbles in the morning and anxious to pick him up from the crib. There is nothing better than the feel and smell of my happy and snuggly little bear first thing in the morning. He continues to make new sounds on a daily basis and is very fond of pointing at every object with which he is familiar. (the teddy bears on his walls, and especially the cats, dogs, birds and flowers that we encounter on our daily walks) He has started to hold brief telephone conversations with himself, with the cordless phone tucked around his ear that is always upside down and backwards. The conversations however are of the toddlerese language and are not yet decipherable by me. I have been reading some books and internet research on language development and supposedly he should be saying at least 10 words by now. So the worried flag sorta went up, but then it went back down after discussions with my friends whose babies have accomplished the various "milestones" at significantly varying ages. And then I remembered how dumb I used to be as a child, the fact that I almost failed kindergarten and the teachers thought I had a learning and social disorder and then I realized that my little boy still has hope!!!
This past week was a social one for us, and my friendships with several of my new mom-friends are really developing. There is a special bond shared amongst new mothers to begin with I believe, and I feel very fortunate to be literally surrounded by such high quality women/friends. I already feel that I have a TON of people I can depend on, be it an emergency, some wanted advice/useful information regarding both raising a child and/or living in France, an ear to listen to me, a shoulder to cry on, and of course a social gathering, be it the whole family, a mom and baby get together or a mom's night out event. I can no longer leave my apartment door without running into somebody I know. Robert finds this all rather amusing, given our history on moving here.
On Monday, Judie (aka Jaz) came over for lunch and a visit. Jaz is an Australian lady my mother's age who I met while out on a walk with Andrew one day back in May of 2006. After our first exchange of pleasantries (namely about how cute Andrew is), we kept bumping into one another, which was somewhat coincidental as we were both only in t own for 4 weeks and both searching for a place to call "home" in France. After our third run-in, we decided that it was fate and we were meant to be friends. We've kept in touch via email and she just moved here last week from Sydney. We had a great visit together on Monday, and I look forward to many more.
On Tuesday, Andrew went to the babysitter's for his first FULL day in preparation for my working part-time and also so that I could get some things off my to-do list. I know it was a little hard on Andrew and it was a lot hard for mommy, but he's in good hands, and has wonderful little Maya to play with all day (who is one of my working friend's daughter).
Wednesday was the third of our official weekly beach day outings coordinated by my very good South African friend Jane, and the group is getting larger each week. Andrew discovered the water for the first time (previously he just stayed very close to me, entertaining himself with beach toys/sand for several hours). He had a little fall in the water and wasn't too happy about the temperature of the water, which is still on the rather frigid side. So after his little swim, he decided to hang a little closer to mom and/or run around naked with the other kids while his clothes were laid out to dry. (next time I'll remember to bring a change of clothing or two for him!)
Thursday (today) Bec and Pierre came over for a play date and lunch. Bec is from New Zealand and I felt an instant click when I met her. She's funny as hell and fun, and we have a lot in common. She is also the middle of three girls and is also very tight with her sisters. Her son is 3 months younger than Andrew but nearly half Andrew's size so I referred to him as the "baby" because Andrew LOVES babies, and was totally adorable with Pierre, giving lots of kisses along with a little (unintentional) roughness. Bec and I got to talking about #2 and she is ready to start trying now. Jane is due in November. Heidi is due in July. Edith is due in June. Claire is due in July. Sarette just had her baby. ALL THESE PREGNANT friends are really giving me the itch! Hmmm...note to self...talk to Daddy when he gets home. Maybe end of summer would be a good time to start trying, why wait til the end of the year??? I shared with Bec that if my second child was a boy that I would probably want to go for three, otherwise I would probably want to stop at two. However, she shared that for her the reverse would probably hold true, ie. she would stop at two if it was another boy, yet try again for a third girl if the second was a girl. Her reasoning being that a girl needs a sister. I never thought of it like that before, but she's right. Almost every adult woman I know who has a sister is very close to her sister(s); almost every adult woman I know who does NOT have a sister has shared that they always wanted one. I cannot imagine my life without my sisters. I need them. I love them. They rock my world. Perhaps we will have three children after all!
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