Josh

...or Matthew if you ask Robert. This is the big news in our family, the new bundle of joy that will arrive at the end of May! I am now 20 weeks pregnant and aside from a rather large and uncomfortable ovarian cyst that was detected on my first ultrasound and subsequently removed (no fun at all), the pregnancy has gone very well and I feel totally amazing and so incredibly happy. I do not know the gender with certainty, as I have decided to wait until its birth for that, (against Robert's desires!) but that being said, I am 100% convinced I have a beautiful little baby boy growing inside me and I am quite happy with that notion for many reasons. There is not one iota of a difference between this pregnancy and the previous two, so I guess that is the main reason why I am convinced of the gender. I am desiring all the same foods; olives, oranges, fruit in general, salty stuff, Coke, rotisserie chicken, asian food. I have the same (lack of) sleep habits. My hair is thick and shiny, my skin is smooth as silk. The hair on my legs does not grow. I glow! I started feeling the baby a few weeks ago and it's the same euphoric feeling as before. I love being pregnant! I guess actually there is one difference with this pregnancy and that is that I am behind on weight gain, but after indulging for two weeks straight over these holidays, I think I am well on my way to catching up by the way my jeans are starting to feel! And also, I attribute this lower weight gain to the cyst, as I probably lost 5 or 10 pounds after surgery.

I am not really sure if it's because of the hormones running through my body or if I have just found total peace with our stage in life, but I am just so at peace and content with my life. We still don't feel that France will ever be our permanent home but we are truly happy living here and I have learned to really adjust well to those things that drive me nuts. (I STILL have some days though...and doubt that will ever change!) There are days though when I really miss family, for my own benefit and also for that of the boys. And wish that France wasn't so far away. Susie is due with her second baby 3 weeks before me and how awesome would it be to be able to share her maternity leave with her. However, I will satisfy myself with frequent phone calls, like her last leave where we talked pretty religiously. This summer was one of the greatest ever, as we got to spend a month of it at the cottage and Andrew really got to know, and fell in love with, each and every one of his cousins and I really hope we can find a way to replicate last summer again even though Robert is rather opposed to me travelling on my own. He would join us of course but would have to come later and leave earlier than us. We shall see! With respect to the baby's name, it is all a joke really, as Robert claims he will never accept Josh, and I cannot see myself every accepting Matthew for the name. But Andrew mentions Josh daily now so I wonder if it will ever grow on Robert??? And should it be a girl, there are so many names that I love that I am pretty confident we would be able to come to a quick agreement, unlike with Ryan where he was named at the last minute practically!

Happy New Year Part 2

Ryan is 2 years and 4 months old and continues to be an absolute angel. He is just sooooo easy! He goes to bed shortly before Andrew (around 8PM) and doesn't wake up until we go into his room to get him and can often be around 9 or 10 am if I don't have to wake him earlier. (he is often already awake, and just lying there happily snuggling his many doodoos). We have given significant thought to moving Ryan into Andrew's room but he just sleeps so well now for naptime (usually 3 hours) and at night time and Andrew is actually sleeping better than he has in a while too, so why fix it if it ain't broke as they say! Eventually we will set up bunk beds in Andrew's room (which I know both boys will love) but for now, things are working out pretty well status quo. Ryan pretty much potty trained himself right after he turned 2. Once we got back from Canada, I put out several potties around the house and told him that if he had to do a pee pee or caca to go in the potty and he did...just like that. No accidents, no more diapers, even for naps and night time. He does eat everything, but he too has a sweet tooth, and unfortunately eats way more sweets than Andrew did at this age. With Andrew, I did not even introduce him to much in the way of treats until well after 3, but Ryan sees whatever Andrew is eating and wants it and quickly realized that the treats taste better than the meal being served and has often frowned at his meals and requested "ikey" (aka ice cream) instead, so funny as he doesn't know the difference, obviously, in nutrition between his chicken and broccoli and an ice cream cone and is unhappy to say the least when his request is turned down! But as I said, he loves to eat what Andrew is eating so fortunately he sees Andrew eating a proper meal and he follows suit. He also helps himself to Robert's breakfast every morning which is either muesli cereal with fruit or ham and eggs and Robert has now learned to serve himself enough for the two of them! When we are at baby groups, he is never the child instigating trouble and does his own thing and loves to paint and do play-doh and crafts, etc. He goes to creche two days a week and loves that also. We were so incredibly lucky to have had the good fortune of both boys getting accepted into this creche, considering how difficult it is here in France to get in. It is such an amazing atmosphere and so different than the usual style of creche whereby every child is somewhat forced to adapt to the rhythm of the rest of the children. I like that he gets an early exposure to French among many other things. At home, his favourite toys are cars, balls and Lego. Funny that to this day, Andrew still has zero interest in cars and it is Ryan's favourite thing to play with. But he also loves to play with whatever Andrew is playing with. We have gone through countless markers now, as that is the only writing instrument Andrew wants to use (that is what he uses at school) so Ryan doesn't want anything to do with regular crayons. The problem is that Ryan doesn't put the lids back on, so after each use, they dry up, unless I catch it before they are put away. Ryan also has a tendency to draw on all things not paper and has decorated several of our furnishings and walls with his own personal artwork. As much as I look forward to living in a nice house, with nice furnishings, I am so glad that there's really not much of value in this place and am therefore not worried about all the spills, and stains, etc. that take place on a daily basis. As I type this, the boys are hard at work with Play-doh and I know full well there will be some smothered into the carpet when they are through with it...and the carpet is pretty much all ready for the dump now so who cares?!!! Just like Andrew, Ryan LOVES to help. Whether it's me in the kitchen or doing housework, or Robert taking down the recycling and trash, or assembling a toy, or fixing the sink, whatever, Ryan (and Andrew too) are right in there, with their own tools and supplies, helping along. I love to have their company though 99% of the time, it takes 5 times as long to accomplish a task, and usually involves more mess, but their look of pride on the finished product is always worth the efforts. Ryan's vocabulary is slightly ahead of Andrew's at this stage but only marginally. For the most part, only the three of us can decipher his language. For example, Spiderman is "biya", Mickey is "Miya" and Andrew is "Ya-ya". Over these holidays though, he's added several new words so I think it's on the verge of coming together. For now, I adore the way he communicates, and aside from the occasional frustration on both parts when I can't guess what he's saying, it's absolutely precious. Like Andrew, Ryan loves, loves, loves the water and always has. We try to go to the pool as often as possible and I have stepped down from the water wings to the swimming belt and will soon remove that altogether as I did with Andrew. We are very excited about the new aquatic facility recently built in this area which will open on Jan. 4th and will likely get a lot of business from this family.