Dear Jade
September 6th 2010 -
Hello from 2010! You were two weeks old yesterday, just beginning to learn what your nervous system is telling you. I can tell it’s beginning to make sense, though obviously you have to sleep on it a bit more. Your Mum and I are delighted with you. You’re highly cute and your many moods are very entertaining. On the other hand, you do currently seem to enjoy crying at 2am. Never mind; I’m sure you have a good reason that you’ll be able to explain to us when you get older.
We’ve been one year at Conrad Street now, though (I hope) when you read this it will seem to you like we’ve been there forever. We feel lucky to have gotten such a nice, quiet location. I hope you like it too, and I hope the Eastern Water Dragons still hang around the pool in summer.
We just had an Australian election, but the end result was awfully confusing and nobody quite knows who’s going to be in charge yet. The Greens appear to be the biggest winners so far, which I think is good.
Your Mum and I have been talking about all the things that you might be interested in. Do you play piano? Guitar? Do you practice Kung Fu or ballet? Both of us think that would be pretty awesome. Your middle name Ying Yin (capable and smart) also has a nuance in Chinese of “kick-ass”. We hope you do. Speaking of which, can you juggle? Are you a film maker? A computer programmer? What are your favorite games?
We enjoy the speculation, but really, we’re just both looking forward to seeing what you *do* enjoy!
Anne from Adelaide Says:
September 7th, 2010 at 1:48 pm
I can tell you from experience that when they are almost teenagers (yes that little baby boy is now 12.5) they “don’t like to do anything” but they are still bored and it’s your fault. Oh and they didn’t ask to be born, that’s all your fault too.
BTW when you have number 2 (the baby, not the motion) the old tricks that worked for number 1 will not work and you’ll have to learn who to reaise another completely different person.
admin Says:
September 7th, 2010 at 2:47 pm
I am pretty sure I was like that as a teenager. I’m confident my sullenness and recalcitrance could have sunken ships. Small paper ships.
Anyway, Von and I have already started bracing ourselves for endless rounds of “I hate you!” and “I’m bored!”. I think we’ll wait until she can understand those phrases before using them on her, though.
Woooo parenthood!
marco parigi Says:
September 8th, 2010 at 4:17 pm
Kylie once again. It’s not the I’m bored or I hate you statements that are difficult to deal with, those you just learn to ignore. It’s when you aren’t fullfilling their expectations of proper parental behaviour and they say, please don’t do that Daddy, I thought you loved me, in their very serious not quite 8 year old voice, that the guilt kicks in and you feel about 3 inches tall.
admin Says:
September 8th, 2010 at 4:38 pm
Ooooh, harsh. Thanks for the warning – I’ll share that one with Von!