Has it really been that long?

We are back from our Hong Kong visa run over the weekend. Apparently you cannot apply for a resident's permit from within China, so we had a great excuse to get Fab's company to pay for our weekend away (HK is considered "overseas" for this purpose). We arranged it to coincide with our 2nd wedding anniversary, so we had an excuse to go out and generally have a good time. Check out Fabien and Sophie jumping on the bed (mummy was doing the sound effects). She was laughing so hard you can hear her hiccups!



We've only been married 2 years, but feels much more because we were dating for double that time. Having Sophie around just accelerates time, because she is growing so fast. I remember her as a little bundle squalling every 2 hours just wanting to be fed. Now she sleeps through the night, even when we are travelling. But she's still a nap monster (i.e. becomes a monster if she doesn't have at least 2 silent, motionless naps in the dark each day).

It causes some constraints because we don't let her nap in a stroller, so we were stuck in our hotel (in the dark!) for much of the day. Fab and I ended up calling the toilet our "conference room". If we needed to read something, make phonecalls or just look at each other in the light, we would adjourn to our "conference room"!

It was important for us to have a quiet family time together because Fab is not going to see Sophie for a month. He will be freezing in Chang Chun and Sophie and I will be missing him in Singapore (for Chinese New Year) and Korea (the rest of the time) for the month of Februrary. At least my parents will get to spend that month with her.

She is saying "papa" all the time now and Fabien is really chuffed. I think she says it because it is fun and we make a lot of fuss whenever she says something intelligible.

She only says "mamamama" when she's tired or generally upset. When she's hungry, she says "mamama" and makes the ASL sign for "milk" at the same time.... I am torn between being really proud of her and happy that all my signing efforts are paying off, and feeling slightly taken for granted!!