Evie's story

Well, there isn't much to tell aside from the fact that it was a perfectly planned birth and recovery. Long before this little precious one arrived I had an army of people praying for me, the baby, my little family and the birth. The ladies from my Tuesday Mother's group, my friends, my family, my Sunday school class, women in my playgroup. Because I had bled so badly with Tilly my main concern was how would I cope if that happened again. And then there was getting to the hospital on time and how would I do that if Steve was away at work. And what would happen to Tills if mum and dad hadn't arrived yet and she decided to come. Well, she did and Steve was away at work and something had to be organised for Tilly. On Friday morning I woke up and felt that my waters had broken a little bit and I had had a show. I wasn't too worried about it, as it was still early and I had read that this can happen, but nothing else might happen for another week or even two. I wasn't in any pain, nothing else happened. Steve fretted and fussed and I chuffed him off to work. So I told my friends, I messaged my mum. And everyone seemed to think I should be off to the clinic. Paula arrived at 11 to take Tilly (I'm so excited mum, she tells me - about going out with her mates....) So Tills went with her port packed and head full of the cool things she was going to do with her friends that day. When Paula was at work that afternoon she stayed with Kristie. Meanwhile I lounged at home wondering what all the fuss was about. At 3pm I decided maybe I should go to the hospital and have it checked out. Before the onslaught of the Taipei City traffic hit its peek. A nice leisurely drive to the clinic got me there at 4. Taken by a lovely nurse to a room and hooked up to a monitor to check if I was having contractions. Nothing.... ( I could have told them that) mmm what to do??? Taken to the delivery room, large tub, bed, sofa, TV, Fridge and bathroom - all rather nice. Warm water in the bath. 4:30 - "Do you think I've come to early? This room isn't cheap you know...." "It's ok, you'll have her today." 4:35 - bang. Here come the contractions. Indeed I did have her, four hours later. Daddy made it with 45 minutes to go - men always get out of it easily..... She was lifted to me, Daddy cut the cord. I got out of the tub, the Doctor did his thing, the whole while Evie was left with me on my chest, still all gooey and slimy! Then everyone just quietly slipped away and left us to bond with Evie. About an hour later I asked Steve to have them come wash her and weigh her and measure, that sort of thing. Within about ten minutes she was back in my arms. Weighing 2700grams and 47cms long apparently. Every finite detail was so perfectly planned. There were no other women delivering and so I had the one nurse the entire time and she was beautiful. The doctor even just happened to be at the clinic the entire evening anyway, as Friday evening he sees women at that particular clinic and not the older one. So he was able to pop his head in and out without much of a bother. My friends made themselves available for the entire weekend to take care of Tilly. She had barrels of fun with Sarah and Paula and spent her first sleepover there without so much as a peep. Fortnuately she loves them so it wasn't that much of a stretch, for her. Though a big ask for my friends. The room was big with a big double bed for Daddy and me, and another for Tilly to spend the last two nights with us. I spent the weekend recovering at the hospital and eating the lovely confinement foods on offer. Monday and back home, food was cooked, shopping was bought. The girls looked after me a treat. I'm very blessed. And then comes my sister in law, chicken and ginger and condiments in hand. Cooking up a storm in the kitchen, preparing the traditional confinement soups for me. And then comes Nanny and Poppy. Perfect. And not to mention that Evie is a wonderful baby and Tilly is a wonderful big sister.

Evelyn Chiang

Daddy's Little Girl....

Little madam...

.....had some left over M&M's in the fridge, the mini kind, and only about ten all up. She took them out and ate them. Then said she wanted more chocolate. Tills: I want more chocolate mum. Me: No Tilly, that's enough. Tills: I want more mum! Me: Nope, there's no more. But you could have a piece of Paula's fudge. Tills: Well, let me see this fudge! (after seeing it, tasting a bite......) Yep, I'll take it to the sofa. Me: No you won't.

This week

Koala is Tilly's favourite toy. Poppy gave it to her. She serves many functions, such as overseeing play time, being held at night, coming on trips to the market....

.... and as the family accountant. Here she is propped up on my stair machine with the calculator. Because Tilly has seen mummy cook the books for daddy she'll sometimes role play writing out invoices or crunching numbers. I walked out of the kitchen this morning and found Koala doing just that.

And here is Tilly in the kitchen, also this morning, helping me wash up. We made daddy's lunch this morning and dropped it off to him at work. That is the first time I have ever been able to say that. Daddy never works in the same place on any given day. But, recently, he's been in the heart of the city working in a brand new office location for a particular country's embassy/trade office whatever. No western country has official ties with Taiwan, so they call them trade offices. For two weeks he oversees ten staff and the moving around and placement of all the office furniture. The view from their massive office is spectacular - 101 and all that has to offer. Shouldn't I be working in one of these places? No, I'm happy where I am!

So Tills and I slogged it out in the kitchen all morning to prepare a 'rice box' for daddy. He couldn't just have something simple like a sandwich. Most, if not all, Taiwanese eat hot lunches, rice, veggies, meat. So I cooked rice, stir fried some bok choy with a little garlic (you can see it and the wok ready in the picture actually), grilled a nice piece of steak and some prawns. Put it all into a silver lunch box, cut up some fruit and even got together some cheese cake slice that I made earlier that day (hehe) and which he loves. He opened it all up and was most impressed. The prawns, his favourite, are done in butter and a little olive oil and sprinkled with a little bit of sea salt. I have to keep these things in the freezer to feed my man. And so we sat down together to have lunch as a family. Tills had a blast and of course Steve loves showing her off.

And here she is at the end of the day, all tuckered out.

That's how she goes to sleep at night. After our nightly rituals, she goes to bed with the books we've read just before and reads them again for herself. As she hadn't napped today, she only got through half of them. The books on her right are waiting to be read, the ones on the left are finished with. I move them to the end of the bed and in the morning she wakes and gets them and reads them again.

And this is the extention of the picture of the dragonfly she drew the other day. She confirmed with me it was indeed a dragonfly and not a butterfly.

In conversation with my little one

While colouring her Hello Kitty book and I was on the bed feeling off.. "This is a birthday cake Mama. It will help you to feel your sick away, ok?" On a particularly hot day during dinner with daddy and after mummy had failed yet again to turn the a/c on.... (one hand on hip the other with a/c remote pointing at the a/c) "I need the a/c on mum, to be my sweat away." (Daddy, who would have every a/c on in the house if he could, found this and the fact she turned it on herself, particularly impressive.) After one of Steve's workers came to the door to collect the storage key... "Who was that mama, was that daddy's worker?" "Yes, love". "Is he be dead?" "No, love. He's very much alive." (Not sure why but dead is the new fascination) After waking one morning. "Tills can you get me a drink of water?" "You come with me mum." "Sarah helps her mummy get her things. Can you be a big girl like Sarah and get mummy a drink of water?" "You be like Sarah and you get your drink of water mum!" (Cop that mama. Note to self: comparing with other children doesn't work.)

Father's Day

Yesterday was Father's Day in Taiwan. August 8th every year. The number eight is pronounced 'ba'. Therefore, the 8th of the 8th is ba-ba, get it? Baba's day. Steve had a rare day off. How convenient. In the past I would have shuffled him off somewhere so that we could get some 'quality time' in. But, now, I'm slowing down and was content to stay at home and have the quality time there. We all woke after 8 and then lounged around on the bed playing with our new set of Uno cards (kids version, with Winnie the Pooh printed on them - so cute). We played heaps of games and had the best fun ever!! Tilly knows how to play now, but she just can't hold all the cards in her hand. So we always get to see what she's holding. I have been having twinges and pains in my belly, not contractions, but just a lot of discomfort. So the opportunity to sit and do nothing was great. After Uno, I made a late breakfast and cut up some fruit and we ate it all in front of the TV (scandalous!), watching the adaptation of Roald Dahl's book Matilda, the one with Danny Devito. We three love that movie. It was a very slow day indeed. Steve and I were both loath to get up off the sofa and do anything and Tilly was just happy to have us both there together. It was a day well spent.