my first beijing car accident

Last Thursday my colleague P and I went out for lunch, and on the way back, our taxi got hit from behind, and also whacked the car in front of us. We were in the middle of a daisy-chain of 5 or 6 cars. It's not the first (minor) car accident I've been in, but it's the first for me in Beijing. It wasn't a serious accident, we both managed to get out of the car and catch another cab back to the office. I think it was worse for the other cars behind us, where the passenger couldn't come out of the door.

There's absolutely nothing to be alarmed about, the baby and me are absolutely fine. I saw a doctor on Friday morning, and he said that I might be a little sore, but some paracetamol and rest and heat on the slightly strained muscles on my back should be fine.

The slight shock to my back muscles which are already stretched out didn't do it any favours, so I took Friday off work, and am taking it really easy at home now.

Fabien has been an angel this week.

Recently, Sophie has been getting out of her bed at 5:30am and looking for us, and my dear husband has been the one getting out of bed, giving her some water and explaining to her that she can only come to look for us after 7:00am. How will she know that it is 7am? When the ayi comes to work, that's when it is 7am.

By the way in case you are wondering - Sophie's bedroom does have heavy-duty blackout curtains, even they are no match for the light and heat from the morning sun (which rises very very early in summer).

Our hypothesis is when she was sleeping in her crib, she probably did wake briefly in the early mornings, but managed to soothe herself back to sleep or sing and play quietly in her crib without any problems until the ayi did come to work (usually arriving 10 minutes before 7am), whereupon she'd hear the front door opening and say in chinese "ayi! come get me please! I am awake!".

Now that she can come out of bed and open the door by herself, the lure of the great outdoors is just irresistible!!

We're still figuring this one out. The current plan involves putting a glass of water and small box of raisins (her favorite snack) on a designated table, and pointing it out to her every morning, together with some of her toys. Then telling her that when she wakes up in the morning, she can have some water and a snack, but she has to play quietly by herself until ayi arrives and prepares her breakfast (egg, toast etc.. stuff that no way are we going to let her do by herself) and NOT wake Papa and Mama up until then. You have to repeat this every morning until she gets the idea, or until you simply give up and dump her back in a crib.

Fabien says putting her back in a crib is a last resort, because since she can't stay in the crib forever, you may as well start getting her used to the idea of freedom, and since this freedom naturally comes with boundaries, so you must start setting these rules early. This is especially because we will have a second kid to deal with soon, so it's just better to get this stage out of the way early.

All very sound reasoning, and I tend to agree - as long as HE is the one getting up in the morning to do this ground rule setting!