Happy New Year! Justin and I started to write our resolutions while driving through the snowy Connecticut countryside over Christmas vacation and we could only really come up with one thing. “Make our move”.  Which basically means, decide what the heck we are going to do with our lives…stay in CA? Move back east? I don’t know yet, but the goal by the end of 2014 is to be able to answer that question and start working on making it happen.  We want out kids to go to grade-school all in one city, we want them to know just ONE home, though Desmond will always remember our current apartment I’m sure.  We want a lot of other things for ourselves too but let’s face it, it’s about the kids and our ability to provide a healthy and happy childhood for them.

January was a month of adjustments.  Justin started teaching TWO nights a week, with a whole heck of a lot of prep in between, plus the ever increasing demands of his job.  I started working 3 days a week as well for a new firm, bringing Jules in with me to the office and working at night to make up the hours as needed.   It has all been very overwhelming for the whole family, especially since we’re on our own here.  But I’m hoping we’ll get into a rhythm that feels a little more balanced and work out the kinks soon.

Julian turned 4 months old and he became a whole new baby.  He’s funny, he’s so giggly, he’s got a little personality that’s starting to shine now.  You can already tell he’s not a complainer.  If he’s feeling a little sad, hungry, tired, etc he tends to use humor to get his way rather than crying about it.  He looooooves eye contact still and will start you down without blinking for hours so don’t even try to win.  It’s actually kind of hard for me to bring him to work because he wants me to look at him all the time.  He thinks his brother is HI-larious, though the feeling is still not mutual, poor little guy. At least he still doesn’t know that Desmond is really trying to poke his eye-balls out and is not actually just playing a fun game of tickle-my-face.  Oh well.  There are definitely some good days so I just hang on to those moments!

Desmond has been a little off this month, probably due to post-holiday let down, back to school, mom and dad working a ton, etc.  I have to keep reminding himself that he’s a three-year old boy…he’s not going to sit down and start talking about his feelings to me over a glass of Pinot, er milk.  He’s going to whine, he’s going to cry, he’s going to yell and kick and disobey.  This is how he communicates his discomfort, or confusion, or whatever it is he’s feeling.  We’ve also all been sick a lot so that doesn’t help.  We had a parent/teacher conference and expected them to be super concerned but the director basically told us the only concern she has is that he doesn’t express himself enough at school and that he needs to cry more.  So basically he saves it all for us.  Poor kiddo.  She also said he has a tendency to be ‘dreamy’, which is a really nice way of saying he doesn’t listen to what people say.  Anyone that knows Desmond has noticed this about him and it’s incredibly frustrating to deal with.  According to his teacher, this is common with thumb-suckers and you just need to act on your request asap so they don’t expect to hear a command more than once.  And never lose your cool or yell as this only makes him feel worse.  Ok.  Got it.  So was that before or after I sprinkle the fairy dust? I love his school but they sure make everything sound a LOT easier than it is, especially when there’s a 4 month old on my hip.  Joking aside, it was great to hear her speak so sweetly about Des and I think it helped to boost our patience level a bit.  Afterall, one day he’ll stop climbing into our bed at 6am to snuggle. One day he’ll stop asking me to stay and hug him tight after I say goodnight.  One day he’ll stop wanting to be right under my feet all the time and one day he’ll stop plopping into my lap for a cuddle and a kiss before racing off to play with his trucks.  And I’ll be heart-broken.  I’ll wish for my little wild 3-year old and everything that comes with him.  Tantrums, tears, trucks and all.

As far as big events go we had a mellow month with the exception of Uncle Chris coming to visit! What a great time we all had hiking in Marin, making delicious meals, walking through Golden Gate Park.  Desmond and Chris really bonded this time – Chris was such a good teacher and Des was so happy to have someone paying attention to him other than us!  I’m looking forward to the time we can go visit him in Hong Kong, hopefully before we have to pay for Julian’s ticket.

We also had lots of fun playdates this month with Izzy, Graham, and Lilly too – see pics. Courtney took a great little video of the kids playing in our house, check out the link below.  It makes me so happy to see Graham and Des playing as if they still spend everyday at school together.  It’s funny, the two things that Desmond really misses (and talks about all the time) from his old school are 1) Graham and 2) Chicken nuggets.  In that order.  🙂

https://www.sparkcamera.com/v/ngMZlG2zYK

Enjoy the pics and we’ll see you in February!