Year of the Ox

Chinese New Year has come around again. Just like Xmas's and birthdays, they certainly come round faster each year. This year is chinese year of the Ox. Mum's birth sign. Ox's are hard working, caring, nurturing and kind. Isn't that right mummy?

Pop Aimee Idol Factor

Here's a little Xmas video I only just got round to posting online:

And here's something we're saving for the next X-Factor audition:

Top of the mornin'

It's not all sweetness and light. Sometimes being a top model can be a downer when you are not in the mood! to be fair, Cat took this picture first thing in the morning for work reference purposes, not for the family album, and Aimee is not at her best at that time. This actually is the best of the batch!

Good Lord and I nearly forgot to mention...Dylan now sleeps through the night, ta da!
Every night for 14 months the wee lad has yelled out at the top of his voice twice, sometimes thrice nightly and poor old mumma would drag her tired bones to tend to his whim. Not now. Oh no. And you know the trick? Daddy time.
Yep, all last week we switched from Cat putting him to bed to me doing it, and you know what? He must have thought, oh darn, no mummy time, might as well go to sleep properly...and he did, crossed fingers. maybe it was a coincidence of timing (Aimee also slept through at the same age) but I can;t help feeling a large sense of achievement on my part.
Mind you, our travails are nothing compared to many parents I speak to. One Mum reminisced at how her 8 year old (EIGHT) year old son finally went to sleep all night without waking and crying out for his mummy. That's not the worst, Cat's work mate's daughter would not sleep on her own until she left...FOR UNIVERSITY! Man, that takes some beating!

Diction

Aimee's chickenpox doesn't seem as bad as Dylan's, however her surface marks are nothing compared to her general emotions. So far since we've been back, she's been a lot more irritable, whingey, clingy and upset at the littlest things. She sleeps poorly and eats barely at all. We do our best to help her recover, with applications of 'magic' itchy cream and 'magic' biscuits. Everything has to be 'magic' or 'fairy' in order for her to accept them.

Oh yes, almost forgot to mention the biggie news of Dylan so far is that he can talk. Yep, I got witnesses to prove it. His first proper word came out over Xmas in front of Granny and Mummy. I fed Dylan some yoghurt and he blurted out the word 'Yo-Urt'. I was stunned. He said it again. And everyone heard. I got him also to say Grandma (gan ma) and then more words but by then he got bored and started fiddling with his straps. So far, Dylan can say just those words, plus mama and dadda, but I'm working on Nainai and yeye.

I also noticed that in between his squeals, screams and yelling, Dylan has started humming tunes. Yes, actually humming little dittys. How cool is that?

Aimee of course has a pretty staggering vocabulary now. But every now and then we giggle at her cute mispronounciations. Like; chickenpox is 'chicken pops', ABC is 'ab seed', the chinese cake ji-way-bao, is 'Jimmy Bao' and so on, too numerous to mention. It is so cute I am torn between correcting her every time and letting her continue with the error just as it amuses me so much. Evil dad eh?

Oh yes, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!