The interim weeks.

A few short weeks after we arrived home from Vienna Chloe and I were off to Nova Scotia, however in those few weeks a couple of noteworthy things happened.  Chloe turned two and we found out that Baby Eros #2 is going to be a boy!  

It is hard to believe that it's been 2 years.  My baby is definitely growing up.  It constantly amazes me that we made her.  She is funny, she is bossy, she is beautiful, she is cheeky, she is surprising, she would give an adult with OCD a run for their money, she is tempestuous, she is the most precious thing in my life.  I just want to smother her in hugs and kisses (almost*) all the time.  I could go on ad nauseam but I shall refrain and show you some pictures instead.

First ride on her first "bike" - thanks Winkie & Bruce!

As to the second bit of news, yes the bump is a boy.  Bit of a shock that one, still slightly freaked out by the news.  I know what to expect with a little girl (as much as you can ever know what to expect with different children) but a boy?  I'm scared.  It also feels kind of weird, in a totally illogical way, that a male will be coming out of my body.  I don't know why that feels different to having a girl but for me, it does.  It isn't bad, but it is weird.  I'm sure when he arrives it will all feel as natural as it did with Chloe.  Ironically, when I was pregnant with Chloe I was freaked out to find out she was going to be a girl because I thought I'd deal with a boy more easily.  Just goes to show, you can get freaked out by anything if you try hard enough!

A boy's name is proving a bit more difficult that a girl's, much to my surprise.  I'm pretty sure we had Chloe's name more or less picked out by now but we aren't there with this one yet.  Alex has fielded many suggestions, few of which bear serious consideration.  All along he has jested that if it is a boy we will call him Ruediger - a nice traditional Austrian name.  Chloe even caught on to that one, insisting "Baby boy Ruediger" whenever she was asked what his name would be.  Fortunately that phase has passed.  She has chosen a different name for him all on her own.  Now, I'm not saying it is a great name, or even a good one, but it does beat Ruediger in my books.  One day I asked her if the baby was going to be called Ruediger and her reply was: "No baby boy Ruediger. Baby Bobo."  She is 100% consistent with this since it first popped into her head.  And yes, given the choice between Ruediger and Bobo, I will take the clown's name.   However I am hoping for some further inspiration in the next 3 months or this baby may never forgive us.  I'm not sure telling him "Blame your 2yr old sister for your name if you don't like it" will be much of a defence... 

*all the time, apart from when I am tearing my hair out at another epic meltdown due to the fact that I dared to stir the banana into her porridge instead of just laying it on top, or because I didn't put the pesto in the pasta the right way (until now I didn't realise there was a wrong way to do that....), or because she didn't want to get into her carseat and she had to, or because 30 mins later she had to get out of her carseat and didn't want to, or a million other unpredictable triggers... I think nature has contrived to make babies & toddlers so darn cute just to make you look into their eyes, melt inside and forget all of the above frustrations - they'd never make it to adulthood other wise.