Twice Mice

Two thousand and eleven was an eventful year.

On 30 May 2011, Adrian’s brother Russell had an accident and passed away on the first day of his holiday in North America. Such a shock, a such great loss, such a gap left in the world by this energetic and generous man. We last saw Russell in 2009 when he joined us for a trip through the UK.

On 30 July 2011, baby Hayden was born. The first four months were tough, but now he has matured into a delightful little guy. He is full of smiles and always talking, so snugly and cute. I have watched Adrian become a great daddy, and I am at my happiest when the whole family is together.

Adrian and I also celebrated publications, promotions, grants, bonuses, and awards, travelled to Cyprus and Malta for our babymoon, and showed baby Hayden the countries of Norway, the Netherlands, England, Australia, Singapore and Indonesia.

The events of last year remind me to treasure every moment that I have with my family. After so many years of effort and struggle – finishing a PhD, completing a post-doc, moving to a new country, purchasing an apartment, acquiring a MPH, attaining a permanent position, and achieving a successful pregnancy, I think it is time to slow down. 2012 will be a year of resting on my laurels.

When Hayden’s parrain JT flew over from NYC, we took him to the quirky towns of Dutch Baarle-Nassau and Belgian Baarle-Haartog, all tangled up within each other like a jigsaw puzzle. Located across the Dutch border, twenty Belgian exclaves can be found here, with seven Dutch exclaves within the Belgian exclaves. This meant that Hayden could stand with one foot in the Netherlands and one foot in Belgium:

There is a “front door rule” that means that the position of the front door determines whether a house is classified as being in Belgium or the Netherlands. The nationality of the home is also indicated by a flag next to the house number. We visited the house in which the border goes straight through the middle of the door, and thus has two addresses (and two doorbells):

Loveren 2
2387 Baarle-Hertog
Belgium

and

Loveren 19
5111 Baarle-Nassau
The Netherlands

There was even a divisive border across my lunch, separating the savoury cheese and potato pancake from the sweet cherry crepe. I ate each in isolation and they were delicious.

Plus, JT hand-delivered to us a delicious Black & White cookie, all the way from New York City. Hayden is still too little, so I ate it for him.

I was on holidays for three weeks of December, so Hayden and I were able to spend lots of time together. This was exhausting and wonderful. He continues to be a great flyer, happily sleeping in our arms or the bassinette. With a dummy to suck on, the change in altitude doesn’t seem to bother his ears too much, and the flight attendants usually comment on his excellent behaviour. Strangely enough he hates the high-speed trains, though, and often needs lots of soothing on the Thalys and the Eurostar.

He is very sociable, and will most often burst into an enormous grin when he sees someone smiling at him. He was a big hit at Santosa Island and during immigration lines, with many Indonesians and Singaporeans asking to hold him and take his photo. One girl on the Tiger Tower simply held out her hands and tried to take him without even asking.

He is also very verbal, talking constantly in loud vowels, especially if other people are also talking. He loves being sung to, and being read to. My mother sent over some of my favourite books, and we are currently reading The House at Pooh Corner together.

His eyes are really turning from grey to brown. I think he will have the same colour eyes and Adrian and myself. I think I have some recessive blue eye alleles in me that I might have passed on, but it looks the brown eye alleles will dominate in him.

He is not yet rolling over or sitting up unassisted. He seems like a very uncoordinated baby for his age. He is still not that interested in eating food when we give him something to munch on. He gets a small cold every couple of weeks, but so far his health has been excellent, especially considering all the people to which he is exposed.

He is still waking up at least once during the night, but considering all the time zones he’s been through, I’m a little forgiving. For the past two nights he’s slept seven hours in a row, which has been wonderful. He still happily switches between formula, expressed milk, and breastfeeding. He loves his dummy.

Adrian continues to be his primary carer. Washing him, preparing his bottles, taking him to creche, picking him up from creche, soothing him, changing him, singing to him, rocking him in his bassinette with his foot as he works on his laptop. They have such a strong bond, and I love the way Hayden watches Adrian as he moves around the room. It is so fun co-parenting with Adrian and I really enjoying the fact that he knows Hayden as well as I do (or better).

Hayden has really blossomed from a screaming machine into a delightful baby boy. He is a pleasure to be with, and every day I look forward to the time in the evening when the whole family is reunited.

Our last day in Indonesia was Elephant Day. In the morning we went to the Bintan Elephant Park. We watched the elephants perform some impressive tricks (although they weren’t particularly good at soccer or mathematics). While waiting to line up for some elephant rides, I spent some time chatting to one of the handlers (bull men?). He also had a young child about Hayden’s age, who also was not sleeping through the night. I asked him if his son had ridden an elephant yet, but he said that the park was a 35 minute ride on a motorbike from his home, and that was not safe for a baby. I also asked him if he wanted his son to work with elephants when he got older, and the answer I received was an emphatic “no”.

When it was our time to ride the elephants, Hayden had fallen fast asleep. I think he liked the gentle bumping along the jungle paths while snuggled up against Adrian’s chest. I was told that my elephant was extra tall because his mother was Sumatran while his father was from Thailand. The two elephant handlers were really kind to us, taking a lot of extra time to line up the two animals, and then even hopping off to take some great shots. I was really impressed with their consideration and patience.

We also met a yellow python – Hayden’s second snake experience – though we didn’t let it get too close to him, as those strong muscles aren’t just for show. Hayden also slept through this encounter.

In the afternoon, Milly from the elephant park visited the hotel. I watched her give short rides to all the kids, and took photos for many families as they made a short circuit around the grass. Once the queue had vanished, the handler let me meet Milly and feed her tiny Indonesian bananas. She was very patient, stretching out her mottled pink and grey trunk and waiting for me to place the fruit in her finger-like projection. She never grabbed the banana from my hand, though she did snortle and sniff at me thoroughly after each one to see if any more were waiting for her. After stroking her hairy trunk I said good-bye and thanked her for being such a gentle and delightful creature.