The Dance of Life

Baby Wyatt turns a month older and daddy turns a years older!

Boy, Wyatt has really seems to have hit a growth spurt. Whenever I feed him he grabs the spoon out of
my hand, sticks it in his mouth, licks it clean starting from the handle, and
then throws it on the floor. He grabs everyone’s food and whatever you’re
holding and even your dress if you come near. He no longer sits placidly in my lap
when we’re out. Instead, he lurches for everything in his reach, and nobody’s
hair or jewelry or food is safe.

He still
wakes up once or twice in the middle of the night for feeding but also now
spending less and less time napping which sometimes creates a conundrum for me
cuz I can’t get all my lists done. But
no matter, I am glad that Helena is a very helper.  She’s just as crazy for her little brother, she loves playing with him but when she gets her hand on the Wii game… she’s like, "Go to mommy, Wyatt" or if she can’t get Wyatt away from her, "Mommy, Wyatt keeps grabbing my Wii remote!" or "Wyatt, NOOO!"
And well,
that’s the end of that, LOL.

Wyatt is
becoming more and more active and growing admirably but mommy’s gotta get a
little work done each day, right? Or we’ll be living in a pigsty, haha. He is sucha good boy though, when he is not being held, he’s on the floor crawling
his way around reaching things like he’s playing treasure hunting. He’s got this really cute way but looks
rather hard of crawling, he uses his hand to support his body as he lifts
himself up and moves his knee forward and suddenly drops his body to the floor. You would think he’s hurt but he just giggles
and starts crawling forward agilely. He’s very alert and he knows how to entertain himself.

Wyatt
knows how to communicate with us, too. It’s
so amazing what a simple child’s stare to a mother would do. It’s like magic, perhaps it’s the
“child-mother connection” but when Wyatt is tired of screaming, he’d just stare
at me and I’d know what he wanted, just like that.  He “talks” to me constantly, he responds to us
and just like his sister, he loves to be kissed, he even sometimes grabs my
hair and strongly pulls me closer to him for a kiss, it’s so funny….. exact
same thing happened when Helena was a baby his age.  He’s very delighted when he’s showered with love and care and that’s the way should be.

Children
are really a blessing to every couple’s home. I can’t ask for more!

Happy
Birthday, Big Daddy!

Today is
also Mike’s birthday. First, we were
planning to have birthday dinner for Mike at our favorite Chinese restaurant in
China
Town but Mike requested that I cook his favorite Indian Chicken Curry so this morning I went to buy all the things I needed for the party and Helena and my dad-in-law helped me with the groceries.

Helena
and I spent the rest of the morning and noon cleaning the house and finally it was time to cook.  Since I was running out of time before Mike comes home from work, I asked Kazuyo, my sis-in-law, to come help me prepare for Mike’s dinner party.

Everything
turned out great. We had the curry for a
main dish, I baked Mike’s birthday cake, and he loved it. I also made some cookies but I ran out of
flour so even if they turned out very soft, Kazuyo added ice cream as toppings
and it was really nice. And of course,
when Nora is the host, coffee is always served with dessert.

Everyone,
especially Mike had a wonderful time. It
was a fun party! Once again, happy,
happy birthday to Mike, the one great dad and great husband!

So I got
a new job at HSBC bank and I am now on my third week of training. Working for a bank is an enormous
responsibility that must not be taken for granted. As a trainee, I am starting with a low amount
of withdrawals and deposits whether be in cash, drafts or cheques but
regardless it’s a ton of money and transactions must be handled very
carefully. In our team as bank tellers,
there’s a lot of teamwork which helps me tremendously with my training. It’s a friendly, helpful and easygoing team
and environment we have there.

Of
course, as a trainee, I make a couple of mistakes but mostly typos or
miscounting. I love it when I am always
balance with my transactions but when I am not, it’s really a pain in the ass,
especially when I realized it was a typo or accidentally mixing USD accounts
with CAD’s. Another thing that bugs me
is when I get transactions over my limit and everyone’s busy to give me an
initial or when I get stuck from a transaction that’s new to me. I hate to make clients wait for me just to
get an initial or ask my supervisor or co-workers for help because I know how
it feels to be waiting in line especially when you are in a hurry. But then it’s always better to wait a little
and make sure that transactions are done properly and correctly to minimize
mistakes or losing your money, right?

But most
often, the supervisors are always there behind us and the teamwork within co-workers
are really excellent otherwise. Teamwork
really helps big time.

I have
been on my station alone for a while now, at first, I was a little nervous but
when you get to know your product well and you know what you’re doing it helps build
up your confidence so I am now more comfortable with my job. I still have lots and lots to learn, it’s an
ongoing, continuous learning process and that is why when the bank is not so
busy, I, as much as possible read on because it’s one of the best ways for us to be
knowledgeable of our products and services. I can’t wait for when balancing become quick and easy for me and become
a pro at it. I’d like to think that I am
getting there. I really love the way tellers
are required to count and assort money, it trains my brain to think in a neat
and mathematical manner. It also benefits
people who often have trouble with it and I have encountered a lot of them.

So if you
are organized, efficient and are good at interacting with others, you might
want to consider a job in banking. Most likely you would start out as a teller,
this entails a long week or so (depending on the bank) of bank teller job
training. Almost always this training is paid for and it really helps
significantly in making you feel comfortable enough to go behind a window and
serve customers alone. You’re going to
love the challenge and excitement of being able to help people, being trusted
with their money and being appreciated with a job well done by your supervisors
and co-workers.