It's now end of January 2016 and I had to post a long overdue entry.
Honestly I just don't know where to begin because so much has happened and it's all a bit overwhelming for me, even up til now.
Let's start with December 2nd...
Alan was looking for a higher position at his firm. He sent me a list of all the opening positions they had at the time. Glancing through the list I noticed three positions were highlighted by him. They were one, two and three levels above his.
In the next couple of hours I received several emails from Alan. He seemed to favour the middle one - two levels above his. As his wife, I knew he was going for a challenge 'seems-to-be' option but in fact he needed some confidence to go for the highest position. So I gave him what he needed: self-assurance - something I sometimes have in abundance.
I almost forgot what it's like to apply for a job in a bank (!):
1. He had an informal meeting with the hiring manager. He submitted the god-damn lengthy application online with a CV and a cover letter.
2. Alan did three tests: numerical, logical reasoning and a personality one if my memory serves me right. I remember those tests were driving me crazy that evening as they took 3 hours from 9pm to midnight for him to finish. The personality test itself had almost 400 freaking questions that sounded exactly the same to me but apparently they carried tiny differences in meaning and that tiny differences make all the difference in the overall results (?)
3. Alan was then invited to a formal interview with the hiring manager that lasted for like two hours at lunch time. He was totally starved.
4. That's not it, round two was an interview with the boss of the boss of the hiring manager (I think) whose profile was like... unspeakable. Alan was a bit nervous with this one (who wouldn't?). Once again I gave him what he needed: confidence.
5. The last meeting was easy, again an informal meeting just for the hiring manager to give Alan some feedback, break the news of the job offer and talk about figures.
Alan called me when I was on the bus picking up Bing Bing.
"Hello baby, so just finished my meeting with Jerry..."
"And???" I couldn't wait.
"He gave me some very good feedback..."
"And???" (Come on Alan!)
"Oh and he offered me the job"
"Yay! I knew it. And???" (You know where I'm getting at Alan, to the point, to the point!)
"Guess." He was smiling at the other end I could feel it.
I could never guess it. It was totally out of my range. I remember myself either screaming or laughing out loud on the bus when he finally told me.
It's also the day I went for my first scan. I was 6.5 weeks pregnant. Oh if you could imagine the joy.
December 8th...
We bought a new house. Wait... What? (Yes, like a dream I know). We had been to about 30-40 open homes. We finally found our dream home in November and went for it without a single thought. The best primary school for Bing Bing. It's situated by a Kauri reserve and next to a bay. We could see the beach and the forest on our drive way. I could hear nothing but the birds. It's really a sanctuary of calm whenever I get home after a long hard day at work. It's got a huge garden that I always dreamed of for Bing Bing. It's got five bedrooms for our family to grow.
That week we had two exams as part of our PhD degrees. I just wanted to jot it down before all things fade. It was one of the most hard working week of our lives. We were preparing for Alan's interview. We were studying for our exams. We were working with the banks and our lawyers to sort out the settlement for the house. I was facing down the toilet three times a day with my morning sickness that seemed to last the entire day. I remember we just finished our three hour exam on December 11th and waiting for us outside the exam room was our carpet dealer bringing samples for us to pick out a colour for our new carpet. I had to throw up before I could meet her...
December 12th...
One day after our last exam, we moved in the new house. That sounded simple enough but moving house is never a simple task and we (mostly Alan) did it in one day. The whole house was packed and moved. Even with some help from our friends, we were exhausted after all that was happening. First night at our new house was incredible. Probably one of the best sleeps I'd had in months.
December 18th...
My mum came to visit. Well again that sounded simple enough but applying for her visa was a lot of work and hiccups but finally she was here. That's also when our 4 week Christmas break began.
Vietnamese
I spoke Vietnamese to Bing Bing all the time. Bing Bing went to daycare when she was about 4 months old. She started speaking English when she was 16 months old. Since then it didn't matter how hard I tried, her brain worked like a ping pong table. Whatever Vietnamese balls I hit at her, she responded in English instantly without pause. She spoke one or two words in Vietnamese but only because she didn't know the word in English. I was so disappointed. I couldn't understand how other kids in a bilingual environment like Bing Bing could speak both languages, especially Chinese kids. I began to think perhaps Bing Bing went to childcare a bit too early? Maybe I'm doing something wrong I don't know. I just had to keep it up and speak Vietnamese to her.
But in December, she was 33 months old and all of the sudden, yes, that's very expression, all of the sudden, she spoke fluent Vietnamese and Vietnamese only to us at home. How did that happen? All my hard work paid off? Oh my god, all the words I never thought she knew, all the right expressions she used, it's just too sweet for my ears to hear my baby speak my language, it's like we finally understood each other in every way possible. I couldn't be more proud (even more proud than her successful toilet training :)). She speaks fluent English at school and fluent Vietnamese at home. She even speaks Spanish when she listens to Spanish songs. She is learning Spanish at school. I'm like "Really? Are you a dream come true?" She truly is.
Music
Bing Bing has been fonder and fonder each day of Adele. Yes I'm talking about the British singer with Grammys and Oscar. She particularly loves the song "Set fire to the rain". She listens to Adele every single day, at home, in the car. She watches her DVD over and over again. She notices every single move. She distinguishes every single musical instrument: piano, violin, guitar, drums, and even banjo. She loves the song "If it hadn't been for love" because she loves banjo. She dances when songs are up beat. She sits down and looks totally down when it's a break-up song. She listens to the lyrics word by word, memorises them and she sings her favourite songs perfectly.
She often asks me "Mommy, why is Adele so upset?". I don't know what to say but tell her the truth "Because she has lost someone she loves." I'm not sure if she got it but I like telling her the truth and let her think about it.
Bing Bing has also grown fondness of Alicia Keys. She particularly loves the song "Girl on Fire". Seems like her favourite songs all involve some sort of fire element. She jumps on the piano, plays and sings at the same time like Alicia Keys. It was breathless to watch such passion from such a little girl. She was indeed the 'Girl on Fire" when it comes to music.
Role-play
Bing Bing has grown so fast now that I couldn't keep up. She reads a lot of books and she loves doing role-play. Like this evening, she had a paper cut when reading books. She lied down and pretended to be Martin - girl in one of the books who had a bike accident, broke her leg and had to see a doctor.
"Doctor, I am hurt, please give me a massage." She spoke to me in Vietnamese
"Here is it hurt? What about here? Is it hurt?" I replied just like the doctor in her book while pretending to examine her legs and arms.
"No... No... Yes... I hurt my finger". She replied.
"What happened?" I showed my concern.
"I was reading a book and the paper hurt me". She answered
"I see, it's a papercut. Here is a band aid" I replied
"Oh thank you Dr. I need milk and some massage please" She requested
"Oh no more milk, I will have to go buy some for the baby" She's now playing a role of "be Mi" - a girl from another book who was so brave to go out and buy milk for her baby brother when mommy was cooking. She ran to my Mum and said:
"Please sell me some milk. Thank youuuu". She rushed back and asked me to lay down like a baby and she fed me with a smile.
Like that we did the whole play for like 10 times before she agreed to go to bed. She said goodnight to me "Bye doctor" and to my Mum "Bye Milk Seller" all in Vietnamese!
There are so much more of her that I want to capture here. Maybe for some other times as it is getting late. I started to feel a bit guilty that I didn't write any blogs about this pregnancy like I did for Bing Bing. I'm just too busy and too tired I guess. Work has been really full on as well. Oh by the way Alan and I passed our two exams we sat in December given total number of hours we spent on studying those two papers was like 5 - what a month. We now can start... writing a thesis. Yeah, I know, PhD is like an endless journey to misery :))
I have my family. With it, I can do anything. See? My self-assurance in abundance ;))
