Get in touch

Vivat Veritas

Custom Wedding Dress & Kimono Upcycled Clothes | オーダーメイドウェディングドレス&着物ドレス

/ Archives for motherhood

motherhood

Mommy’s Diary 49

By

Hello everyone, I’m back! I’m so happy to be back to be with my family. It was a quick trip, just two nights. I arrived in Beijing late at night and left there very early in the morning. Still, it felt long and I kept looking at the pictures of Kiko and Andy on the plane and missed them even before the wheels left the ground.

Kiko was with my parents while I was away and seemed to have enjoyed her time with her grandparents.

Kiko is a year and two weeks old, and here are this week’s up and downs in parenting..

UP
– She can blow kisses!
– She can also kiss me on the cheek ! It is so sweet. At first I wasn’t sure what she was trying to do. She came up to me with her mouth open, with a lot of drool, and I thought she was trying to bite off my nose or something. After about five minutes I finally figured out that she was trying to give me a kiss. She seemed happy that I finally got it:)
– Walking more, loves to practice walking and getting praise!
– We bought her some washable crayons that she can use on bathroom tile.  I think she is enjoying her bath time more with these!

DOWN
– She only obeys one parent…. she listens to Andy better than me. I’m not sure why, but it seems that Andy is the bigger authority figure in her mind. I don’t mind her listening to her father, but I’m not sure what I am doing (or not doing) that makes me someone to be ignored. Any thoughts? Andy is of the opinion that he does more “beating” than me. He does the feedings generally (usually involves a beating), and has a fair amount of one on one time with her during his days off, which I guess, involves many beatings. Whatever he has done his voice and frown get immediate compliance whereas my voice and looks of displeasure get met with laughter and a smile.

Mommy’s Diary 48: Pink & Piggy 1st Birthday Party

By

I can’t believe it’s already been a year! Kiko is certainly not a baby anymore, one day I woke up and she is a toddler. I’ll wake up tomorrow and she will be leaving for college.

Prepping for her birthday party was a lot of fun. I got a lot of inspirations from sites like the sweetest occasions and Spearmint Baby (my prego photo was featured there by the way!). The theme was “Pink and Piggy”, and I saved money by making a lot by hand: piggy pinata, pink cupcakes with DIY flag toppers, pink balloons and pink paper ribbon streamers (both bought from 100 yen shop), party favors (I made the bags for the candies using my scraps), and paper cup labels. Most of the food, save the cupcakes and cheese cakes were bought at Costco, so that it I wouldn’t be overwhelmed with preparations 🙂 My friend Kaitlyn, kindly sent me the pretty pink dress from baby Gap that was perfect for her party.

I was hoping for a bright sunny day, but unfortunately the day of the party was very cold, rainy and windy. So, some people could not make it because of the weather, but we still had plenty of people and were able to have a great time.

I must say that this past year was the best year of my life (to date, except for the delivery, which was beyond painful!!).  The joy Kiko has brought to both Andy and me  has been so unexpected. I mean, I was looking forward to her arrival as during pregnancy, but I didn’t really know what it was like to be a mother until she started to exist. She brings out more emotion in me than I thought possible. I laugh and smile with the small things Kiko does, but at the same times she makes me angry or frustrated when she is bad. She is able to bring my emotions to peaks and valleys in just a moments time I really enjoy seeing her grow and change. I’m really blessed to have a supportive husband and parents, especially my mom. Without them I am not sure if I’d have survived the first year with my sanity in tact!

Anyway, some of my friends have already begun asking “when is baby 2 coming?”. For baby #2, we are hoping to adopt. Andy and I have talked about adoption for as long as I can remember. We both want biological kids and adopted ones. We’ve been exploring different options for adoptions, and hopefully it won’t be too long until the baby #2 will come to us. More to come!

Daddy’s Diary 6: A Year That Felt Like a Day

By

Hello, my VV friends. Chie thought it’s time you all get the chance to read  some more of my thoughts on little Kiko Duncan. I cannot believe it has already been a year. It is said by every parent but the first year flies by. This is partially the case because for the first 3 months your world is so turned upside down from lack of sleep and learning to take care of newly arrived baby that all time blurs until 3-4 months when you get your first full night of sleep and think to yourself  “Hey, it’s September now…and I have a  baby….and she is 3 months old…cool!”

As I reflect a little, I must say I feel Chie and I did ok! Kiko managed to survive our initial failures. She didn’t have any terrible reactions to the food that we gave her that we were not suppossed to. Kiko’s many falls did not lead to massive head trauma. She sleeps well…eats well…and is pretty pleasant (depending on the day) to be around. I don’t know what others think of her but I’m quite fond of her! Just kidding, I love this little girl to death.
She has grown so much over the year and I love to watch the changes. Many parents say they wish they could keep the baby forver but I don’t think I share that feeling. As I watch Kiko grow and watch as she develops it seems wrong to wish it to stop. Each growth spurt, each developmentmental milestone she reaches is a wonderful thinng to be a part of and enjoy. I love this time she is 1 year old just like I loved the time when she was first born. To be honest I love her more now than I did and believe I will love her more next year than I do now.
As I look back over the year I find it hard to imagine the time before she was here. I wonder what I used to do with my time…Probably nothing imoprtant or interesting. I love this kid and cant wait to see what happens in this next year. Check back in a year when the “”Terrible Two’s” have started, the tone of my writig may have changed significantly!

Gif maker
Gif maker