Our Facebook Announcement

We noticed that most of our friends didn't even know we were expecting a second baby despite the fact that it's coming very soon. I started thinking of creating ways to announce our second blueberry on Facebook.

At first I considered just copying an image online about a baby.Then there's this video that I really like. I thought of posting that and say "that's how we're feeling nowadays"

Then we decided that it should be more personal and tried to do get creative with our shoes. Claude and I took about 60 photos, in the house, outside in the garden, with our feet in, no feet, with flowers, without flowers, and from multiple angles....it became a major project...

And then finally we decided on this one:

We got over 90 likes and multiple comments.

Now the world knows about you second blueberry. At least the world of Facebook....

Our second sweet blueberry is on its way!

It's seen ages since I last wrote a post on this account. I didn't even remember  my password. But it was time...

This is is my first post for my second blueberry...Yes, we are waiting for a new addition to our family...I'm 16 weeks....

This time it's different. With a full-time job, a 3-year-old running around, house chores, this and that...I barely have the time to sit back and reflect on how our lives will change within 5 months. 5 months, OMG!

Although the first blueberry has been firmly saying that he didn't need a sibling, when we announced him that he will have a little brother or a little sister, he seemed really excited and happy. He kept on touching my belly and saying "ma petite soeur".

I hear conflicting things about having a second baby;some say the transition from 0 to 1 is easier than the transition from 1 to 2; some say it doesn't change much, it's just more work; some say it's easier since they entertain each other and you don't need to play with them. We'll see what it will be for us, I guess it will be a combination of all.

Either way, we are excited...

We are here!

I know blueberry disappeared for a while...for  a loooong while...We've been busy, traveling, working, adjusting, readjusting, teething...So what have we done? So much.

We went to France to see the family and meet cows. Note the hat and the coat..Yep, it's always sunny in Brittany.

We had an allergy test...I had to really insist on getting one because here there's a belief that babies this young cannot have allergies. So here's a picture from our test. It turns out yes, he is allergic and highly to pollen, dust and a little bit to cow milk. All my suspicions were right. Take that pediatrician who was really  surprised by the results!



BB says a lot of words, mostly in Armenian, some in French and few in English. Then he gets confused, then we get confused...The other day he called me "mooo""(the word he uses for cow) instead of "mama". Given that I still breastfeed, I guess he is kind of right.

Everyday, there's a new adorable moment. The last thing is he hugs his dolls and sings them the lullaby we sing him every night. Cute!

He has more teeth, but they appear in no specific order. One comes from up left, one comes down right and another next to it. I don't understand.


We went to Portugal. Unfortunately, during a heat wave, so we spent  A LOT of time in our hotel room. Mental note: Don't go for a cheap hotel, you will be spending a lot of time in your room. Mental note 2: Go for a hotel that is not very central, you may need some quiet time.

I was so excited for him to swim in the ocean. We failed. First of all he was scared of the sand. He was pulling his legs up and looked completely disgusted. Then he was scared of the waves...He was right though, they were huge and very loud and nobody was swimming. Add to that combination, a very cold water so we decided to wait. But we went to the spa of the hotel together and tried the jacuzzi. And of course, he loved it. He could have stayed there all day.  You had to see him lying down completely relaxed with the warmth.

He had very, very bad food. Every morning he started with a croissant and some sweet pastry. Then we moved on to greasy food, which always included french fries on the side and we finished with more fries at night. He even had his first Happy Meal.

On that note, I noticed that here and also in France people don't mind giving sweet stuff to children. At the creche, they can give them a waffle for instance. I read that some (mostly Scandinavian) mothers are horrified by it and they require their children not be fed any sweet stuff. Should I be like that? I'm so confused.

We are trying to profit from the rare appearance of the sun by going to parks around.  The other day,when we went to a park, he even started playing with 2 girls. He was completely talking to them who kept on asking him ""Quoi?". There I was, sitting at a distance, watching him and thinking he grows up so fast.


I don't know where this came from but all of a sudden he is very much attracted by vehicles. Trucks, cars, buses completely fascinate him. And when he sees people play soccer...nothing can hold him back, he has to go and play with them.

He still cannot walk but can stand holding things. I stopped worrying about it.

Happy Parents

Happy Parents is up!

This mama entrepreneur officially signed her independence :)

As of July, I'm working as an independent and registered Happy Parents as the name of my company :) 

This is a very unknown land for me...It's scary, exciting, unknown, risky...

I have a website:

http://www.happyparents.be/

I'm very proud to say that all done by me. With no help from a tech pro. (I hate the tree image on the right with a family of dad-mom-child, I still have to figure out how to take that off). But have a look at it and please let me know what you think.

I'm starting my first classes next Thursday. It will be a pilot group. A very international group of 5 mothers with babies younger than 4 months who volunteered to come to my place 4 times next month and give me their feedback.

An American lady who offers a similar class here offered to "train" me and proposed me to "help" her run her classes. Not a partnership, I was going to be her grateful "intern"" for learning the job. I declined. She was trying so hard to hold her laugh back when she said I wasn't going to make any money cause I wasn't going to have any customers.  

She is an experienced lady and I think she might be right. And of course, I'm scared that I will fail. This may or may not work but being the fighter I am, I'm not forgetting that expression on her face...and that hidden grin is motivating me.

Perception

At the end, we didn't have another birthday party. He was going to have only one first birthday and I decided to make the most of it. Since I couldn't change the situation, I changed my perception. I decided to be more positive and celebratory and happy. And we were. He was tired, sick but happy.

His grandparents (and tati) came to celebrate this special day with him all the way from France and Turkey. We cooked, we ate, we had champagne, and a nice cake...he ate with us, then slept then came back and played with everyone. It was a nice day at the end. 

He grows up really fast. First of all, now that he has 4 teeth (he has very spaced upper middle teeth, too much breastfeeding?) , he decided to finally put things in his mouth. Like a good Belgian, he started with french fries and could not get enough. Now he very proudly eats bread every morning by himself :)

He is very communicative and started saying a couple of words now, ga-du (armenian word for cat when he sees a cat, bird, dog, well basically all animals), de-de (grandpa). Very impressively but not surprisingly he announces his poop (ca-ca). So then I have to take him to the bathroom and put him in front of a mirror so that he sees himself poop. Now when we are at home, it's OK and I'm happy to do it. But when we are outside as you can imagine it is challenging to find a mirror and hold him up.

Since he heard my parents call my name, he decided to call me with my name. Now when I leave him by himself he calls Da-Da..or De-Da, and sometimes Ne-Da. Great!

We are unsure how much English he understands but the other day Claude told me in English "I'm gonna go" and he started waving bye-bye. But most probably it was just a coincidence, maybe he associates that time of the day with his dad leaving, don't know.

He is a joker. He pretends to throw up and laughs hysterically at my reaction.

I kind of find a babysitter for him. She is going to start mid-May once a week. We will try for a month and see how it'll go. Then I think as of September, we will quit the daycare (we need to give 3-month notice).

I can't believe how big he is getting. He really looks like a little boy. But in my head, he is still my bébé.

1st Birthday

Baby's first birthday was today.

I was so excited...

He had fever and has been coughing for some time. We went to see our doctor today and , yes, it's yet another ear infection and the beginning of a bronchitis.

My poor baby spent his birthday in antibiotics and a 39 degree fever. We're starting the kiné tomorrow.

I am mad at the world for taking away our first birthday.

But on a positive note: despite everything he was still smiley, very tired and in pain but smiley... :)


How I love him!
Happy Birthday my love!

First play date!

Berry's upcoming first birthday is causing some emotional turmoil in this mama. Websites advising to keep your baby's first birthday low-key (!) and inviting 20 people maximum (!!) made me feel terrible about a. my social life (cause I don't know that many people in Brussels) and b. my berry's social life (poor bébé who was deprived from the play date world because of his lazy mama)

So I joined a group of English speaking mothers who meet twice a week with babies ranging from 3 months to 15 months. Since there were no hosts this week,  I said I would go for it. Apparently, at every meeting there are about 8 different mothers. I had only 2 since it is holidays here..and let me tell you 2 was enough!!!

This is the room after people left. The picture does not look that bad but it was bad!

When our guests came, berry was cranky, he refused to take a nap, complained without a stop, spilled his food all over the floor and himself, he finally broke the CD player...and nothing I did worked...

I wanted to be that mother who can quietly have a tea with her friends while her baby plays by himself on the floor content and happy. But I became this mother who is frantic and has to interrupt all conversation that starts because her baby is needy and always wants to be the focus of attention. How did this happen? When did this happen? What did I do wrong?