Another Bunny

I already gushed on about how Eleanor has changed my outlook on life previously. While I consider myself a fairly imaginative fellow I cannot begin to fathom how special we are going to feel with the addition of another baby to the household. Thankfully I'm not going to have to try, as Eleanor is going to have a sibling in March 2014.

We officially broke the big news to Nell when we came back from our 13 week ultrasound and she's been running around the house shouting "I'm a big sister" at the top of her lungs. It's gorgeous and we think she's going to be nurturing and caring as long as we avoid giving her blankets to put the baby to "sleep".

The scan was uneventful, which is exactly what you should hope for at this stage I suppose. I must have been confusing the 19 and 13 week scans that we saw with Eleanor as I expected to see a little more on the screen. Even so it was so rewarding to see the baby moving around and listening to a strong heartbeat. Seems like all the bits are there so I guess that's a good sign.

Once again this baby refused to perform for the 3D pictures. I guess we'll just have to wait a couple of months till the next scan for more happy snaps.

Current due date is the 16th of March so I guess we should be getting ready for a Pisces in the family. Still no new Taurus but I'll learn to live with that. Grand Parents are of course ecstatic and mum has already made plans to come out for the birth and stay on until Eleanor's birthday.

Sounds like we're going to be pretty busy next year.

Second Year of the Father

I've never really paid much attention to Father's Day before. It's not that big a deal in Malaysia as far as I knew and my family situation at the time didn't leave much cause for celebration. Of course as one would expect, Eleanor has changed my outlook on this point. Though I have only had the fortune to mark two such days in my short period as a parent, I've come to appreciate the opportunity for reflection and thanks to all the wonderful intangible gifts that children give you.

So to commemorate my second Father's Day, I thought I'd share some recent musings and observations of my daughter.

A Shared Love for Food

I can't imagine how any child in our family would grow up without an appreciation for food and dining. Even so I'm grateful that Eleanor has exhibited a healthy (matter of opinion) interest in different types of food and ingests most new dishes with gusto, albeit with minor protest initially at times. Sharing a favourite dish is especially rewarding whether it is a bowl of ramen (or noodles of any sort), pancakes with bacon or in this case; a mountain of shaved ice, sliced mango and ice-cream.

An Interest in Games

Eleanor's dexterity for using the iPad has come leaps and bounds in the last six months. I can play a half decent game of Fruit Ninja with her now and she has grown quite adept at finishing puzzle apps that I have downloaded. Introducing Nelly to board games was something that I've been looking forward to though I imagine that I'm going to have to be patient for a while longer. Initial tests with Snake and Ladders proved to be challenging but to my delight she seems to really like playing with my Go stones and board. She isn't learning any Joseki yet but she does enjoy building pictures with the black and white stones so I guess that's a start.

A Great Sense of Humour

It's a constant surprise to me to discover how witty my two year old is. She takes delight in making us laugh and exhibits what I think is a sophisticated sense of humour for her age. Eleanor always seems to find interesting ways to showcase her creativity, whether it's coming up with new lyrics for a song or twisting the rules of a game that we play. Something that we find rather amusing is her peculiar and somewhat morbid technique for putting her dolls to sleep under "blankets".

We had a really nice Father's Day weekend this year. It started off with a special dress up Friday at Day Care for the kids with Superheroes being the theme. I'd like to say that we put a lot of effort into Eleanor's costume but it ended up being a matching top and bottom with red underpants and a safety pinned tea towel. Budget and effort aside I think she pulled off the look with moderate success.

On Saturday we drove up to Toowoomba to spend the weekend with the Grandparents. I woke up on Sunday to receive a hand painted mug, new jammie pants and a trendy belt from my girls. Most of the morning was punctuated by shrieks of "Happy Father's Day Daddy!" from Eleanor which was just wonderful. I couldn't be luckier or happier.