Miles In Between

Maybe some of you caught the latest NYT 36-hours edition…about Penang!  Well, last weekend we did one of the must-do items, and made a trip to Monkey beach.  It was a great day.  We went with Grandma Linda & Grandpa Wally who were visiting and another family in Penang who have a 2 yr old and a 4 month old.  We took a boat over to the beach, spent a few hours on the sand, had a delicious barbeque lunch, and all the babies fell asleep on the boat ride home.

The boat ride over:

Tim playing Tarzan, Hazel with Grandpa Wally, boats & airplanes:

Taking Miles for a swim:

Hazel & Theo nap in the sun tent while we’re having lunch.

Hazel hollering, it’s what she does best:

Asleep standing up on the boat ride home (I LOVE photos of my children asleep, it reminds me of happy times )

My Dear Hazel,

There will come a day (when you are about 6) when you will want to look just like your momma.

Then there will come a day (when you are about 14) when you will deny any genetic link to me.

And then there will be a time (when you are about 21 and need professional clothes) you will curse your abnormally long torso and arms that won’t fit dresses or jackets and thin feet that aren’t quite narrow and limit your shoe selection, and know it will all come from me.

And then, hopefully, there will be a day (when you are 28 and recovering from the birth of your first baby) that you will be proud of your good-looking 58-year-old momma and proud you passed on my genes.  Even the double-shot deep belly button.

Love,

Momma with the belly button abyss.  You have it too!

P.S. I read an article online about how we should be proud of our postpartum bodies.  So, here I go posting mine online, stretch marks and all, belly to belly with my baby girl.

Thought this made an interesting compare (bathtime at 6 weeks):

Somehow, miraculously, most days I get both Miles and Hazel to coordinate at least an hour of sleep time.  This time is golden for a sleep deprived momma.  It helps that right now Hazel can’t stay awake for more than an hour and spends about 16 hours a day in slumber.  Miles is still dozing for 2-3 hours most afternoons (the off times he doesn’t nap I supplement with youtube).  Miles really wishes they could share a bed.  Here’s a shot after naptime one day, when Miles invited her in.

This is our fifth superbowl overseas, our 5th time watching the game in the wee morning hours.  Although we don’t get to see the good commercials (this year advertised the same all-celebrity billiards tournament over and over), it’s always a good time to bond with other Americans and try to explain the American obsession to people of other cultures.  We’ve had a different experience each year, from a full on pork-fest breakfast buffet with free flow beer at a bar in Shanghai to a New Zealanders-hosted party last year where we were the only Americans in attendance and everyone swore to keep the game outcome a surprise until the evening hour of the party.  This year we had a quiet morning at home, ate cinnamon roll french toast as our sin-food equivalent of queso and guacamole, and hit the pool at halftime.  Hazel’s first superbowl was spent swinging away to the din or sports casters.

Today I turn thirty. I’m older, yes, but wiser. I was reminiscing about the day I turned 20 and cried for the loss of my teens. Yes, to cry for a loss of innocence is ok, but I think by now I know that life just gets better and better with time (at least it has so far). I meet this decade with great peace and calm anticipation. And a little bit of sleep deprivation.

In review: the last 10 years represent a third of my life, and from what I already mentioned, the best yet. I married the perfect man for me, and together we built up to a family of four. I got a passport and proceeded to completely fill the pages traveling the world, enough to require extra pages to be put in (a personal goal, more easily achieved if one has so many full page Chinese visas). I lived in 4 countries, five if you count Texas separately (many do ) I learned to speak Mandarin. I finished my degree and had a 5-year career that was accelerated to where I experienced enough to be OK leaving it to go on to other things. I have made wonderful friendships all over the world, creating what I hope to be lifelong bonds with great and interesting people. I achieved far beyond what I ever thought I was capable at with running, and injury free! I learned to bake, and enjoy cooking more than ever. It was a good 10 years.

Status check: From a time when I placed an undue amount of pressure on myself, creating illness through stress and unhappiness through worry and anxiety… to today, where I feel in harmony with my situation. I am happy. I feel almost guilty writing that (see, I’m not there yet, still need to work on that guilt …). I don’t dwell on the past and I don’t stress about the future. Each day is just that, another day. And of course there are moments of frustration, tears, worry and stress, but (in my advanced age) I have learned to deal so much better with those times. I am happy where I am now, and it’s part of the reason we’ve decided to stay put. Tim just signed an extension of his contract, so we are in Penang through at least early 2013.

Looking ahead: I don’t do a lot of looking ahead. I want to grow with my family, see who my baby girl is going to be, and enjoy the little kid years with her and Miles.   Be a mother, be a partner, be true to myself. I could never have imagined the path the last 10 years took, so I won’t try to imagine the next. I can only hope to come out of the next decade with a similar outlook, no matter what may come.

This ended up being a bit cheesier than I was hoping for, but I think at heart I am a sap and not built for clever wit. If you are reading this, I bet you are family, a friend or acquaintance, or maybe we’ve never met. In any case, thank you for being a part of my 30 years. Love, Laurel.

Each Thursday morning, a group of us mommas, usually about 4-8 of us with toddlers, get together at someone’s house or playground to meet up for a playgroup. There is always coffee and always cake. I used to call it the “Gurney Crawlers”, and then they started walking, and then slowly they started kindy, while some of us started growing new bumps.

Remember this?

A couple months later, and the playgroup has taken on a slightly different dynamic.

There’s still coffee. There’s still cake. We’ll call it the “Gurney Breastfeeders”. Here’s Hazel’s welcome, playgroup style (Thanks, Liza!):

Here’s Miles and Ada crawling around in the garden.  The game they are playing is “catch”.  Basically, Ada throws the ball to Miles and he goes and hides it in the foliage, then they crawl around searching for it.  Super fun, I’m sure.

Another fun game: hauling around coconuts:

A gorgeous Sunday morning at PG1.

We had a little help after Tim had to go back to work.  My sister Mariel (aka: Aunt May, May-may) came to visit for 10 days, and was super helpful.  She cooked, ran errands and held one of the kids while I held the other one.  Or while I went for a swim.  So nice.  She got lots of bonding time with Miles while Tim, Hazel and I went for a passport run to KL.  Here they are making pizza:

She also became the champion baby-soother.  Her trick? Side laying position while bouncing on the ball:

Looking forward to more time together in March!