Category Archives: Personal

Letter To My Son – Adam – 10 Months Old

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Dear Adam

My goodness, 10 months already.  Not too far off a year, my son!

This past month you have been developing like crazy.  You can stand, if you hold on.

Now here I look like my daddy!

You can slide backwards and will crawl soon.

You have started to clap and play peek a boo with your blue blankey.

And you have 4 teeth and possible 5, 6 and 7 coming in!

You sit up nice and tall and can twist down onto your tummy.

See? Sitting.

I forgot to mention a milestone last month; the new notebook!  You see, when you came home from SCBU there were 3 of us taking care of you, Mummy, Daddy and Grandma.  It was making Mummy nuts that no one could remember what time your bottle was made, and they are only good for 2 hours, or how much you had eaten.  So she started a notebook and every time a bottle was made, the time was written down.  And then, after 2 hours, how much of it you had eaten.  Also whether or not you had pooed!!  Anyway, it helped Mummy and Daddy figure out when to increase or decrease your milk.  And when to throw a half full bottle away!

And last month we finished the first book. So sort of a milestone.  9 months of milk records finished.  And not kept.  Mummy may be starting a scrapbook for you, but she thought that was a bit over the top!

Still no word on the surgery to remove The Lump.  But hopefully we will hear soon.

In a few weeks we are going to Grandma and Grandad’s house for their 40th Wedding Anniversary Party.  Aunt A, Uncle J and Cousin A will be there!  Its gonna be so.much.fun!

Love

Mummy

I Need To Have A Good Whinge

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First of all, let me once again note that my son is an awesome sleeper at night.  He goes down with minimal fuss and sleeps more or less through the night now, at nearly 10 months of age.

But naps. Oy!  You would think he is expecting a call from President Obama the way he fights napping.  Most days he eventually gets there, for 30 – 45 minutes in the morning and sometimes as long as 2 hours in the afternoon.  But getting him there can take, literally, hours.

And its during those hours that I get the most frustrated.  That I need a break the most.  That I wish I had family closer so I could ring them and say ‘He won’t nap.  Can you come look after him for 30 minutes so I can pee/shower/fold some laundry/have a full cup of coffee?’  I often IM my mum to tell her I’m putting stamps on his butt and sending him to her on days like that.

But oh, to actually have her near by!  I am envious of people who have family near by.

My mum is coming to visit the first two weeks of June, so she’ll be here for Adam’s first birthday.

And for at least one morning? I’m handing him over and walking out the door!

So Simon is Out Of Town On Business

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he is ‘staying in college’ at Cambridge and his rooms are ‘dead posh’.

My day so far?

4 am dummy cry

430 sounds of shuffling

445 come get me mummy

446 in bed with me

500 no no no I want up up up

515 MASSIVE Poo.  Teething is fun!

530 back to sleep, Adam, not me, I’m awake now

615 reaching for peanut butter knock down baby rice.  Baby rice is about the consistency of baby powder. Grab GTech carpet sweeper.  Battery dead due to Simon not charging it all the time to save the battery.

630 baby back up.  Toast cold.  Coffee, however, hot.

7 Simon rings to check in.  I explain new battery £20.  My sanity? Worth much more, plug the fucking thing in!

705 Simon agrees

717 baby playing in bouncy chair with car attachment.  Mummy drinking coffee.

Today has got to get better, right?

Right?!?!

Back On Weight Watchers

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As the title says, I am following Weight Watchers again.  Not going to meetings, just online.

You see, when I did the program online about 8 or 9 years ago I was very successful at it.  I lost a ton of weight.  And then it started creeping back on so I started to go to meetings.  And didn’t lose a pound.

So for some reason it really only works for me online.

I’ve been seriously following it for about 2 weeks, with a break for my Manchester trip, and have lost about 2 lbs.  Which is a step in the right direction.

I have nearly 50 pounds to lose to get to where I want to be.

Let the meal planning begin…

My Day/Night Off

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was awesome!

Highlights: –

Realizing on the way to the airport that I had never tested the phone number I had put into my mobile for one of my friends.  So I sent her a text from the taxi.  I had the number right!

Almost getting on the wrong plane because they said what door but not what gate at the airport and I just joined the first queue I saw.  Belfast City Airport really needs to finish the damn construction already.

Having no seat mate.

Going up to the ticket counter a the airport train station to be told that the next train wasn’t for 15 whole minutes.  Um.  Okay.  So?  Am I suppose to turn and walk away and head back to Belfast?!

Hoping I had gotten on the right train because there was only one sign and they never made an announcement.  I had.

Phone ringing as I go to the street.  T’was my other friend.  She was there and checked into the hotel and we were roomies and come on up!!

The instant chat and gossip.

Others arriving avec champagne, chocolates and cake.  Let the party begin!

Dinner at Wegamama.

The Comedy Store new comedy night.  Glad it was only £3.  7 acts.  4 made me laugh.  1 made me smile once.  The other two sucked rocks.

Sleeping until 8!

Not being able to get the other girls’ room on the phone and theorizing that they either a.) had been abducted by aliens or b.) that one had murdered the other.  We even knew who had killed whom.

Meeting more friends (and some of their wonderful children) at Slattery.  OMG THE CHOCOLATE!

Yet another friend driving me to the airport.  And naming my new company (more on the company in a later entry).

Going to the wrong terminal at Manchester airport.

No seat mate!

Home to a big grin from my boy.

Had a great time.  Can’t wait for the next one!!!

My Time Off

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So this Sunday around 1245 I board a plane bound for Manchester England.

Once there I will be meeting up with 8 very good friends of mine.

Its our night off.

I know these women from the internet.

We are all over 40.

We all have small children.

We started planning this before Christmas.  We were going to try to do a spa thing.  Only every spa we spoke to wanted a deposit and had no cancellation policy.  Um, did I mention we all have small children?  Yeah, we need to have a way to cancel.

So we picked a city.  Manchester.  Its sort of central for the rest of my friends.  And we picked a hotel.  And a restaurant.  And a comedy club.

And so we are gathering on Sunday.

And taking the day and night off.

I will miss Adam.

I will miss Simon.

But I will so love my day off. 🙂

Letter To My Son – Adam – 9 Months Old

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Dear Adam

9 months today!

This month we have learned to sit up when someone puts us on our bottom: –

I can sit up!

and cut our two top front teeth, although there is no picture because its very hard to get you to show anyone!

We have also learned that you will be having The Lump removed surgically in the next 2 months or so.  At first the surgeon thought it might be treatable with Beta Blockers, but on further review of the ‘films’ (I don’t know why they still call them that, since its all digital now) it has been determined that they still don’t know what it is and its is best cut off.

In other news you have outgrown your Stage 0 car seat and Mummy and Daddy are shopping for a Stage 1.  We think we’ve found it.  Now we just have to buy it!

You’ve been being bathed in the big bathtub for at least the past month, and you love it:

Need more toys!!

Your favourite toy is a measuring cup, but hey! We already had that and don’t have to buy any other bath toys!  Seriously, you do love that bucket, as we call it.  But also like to play with your ducks!

In bad news for Mummy you seem to be dropping your morning nap most days.

And on that note I have to go get you.  As you’ve just woken up.  After 5 minutes.

Love

Mummy

As Much As I Admire Charles Darwin

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the way my nights are going right now disproves his theory of survival of the fittest.

Let’s go back millions of years.  There is a little cave family, Urg, the male, Arg, the female and Blargh, their baby.  Blargh is about 9 months old and had been sleeping great.  Then one night he wakes with a resounding wail!!  Urg and Arg jump up to see what’s wrong and discover, Oh Joy! Oh Rapture! A tooth!!

But wait, there, in their cave, there is no Calpol.  Or Nurophen. Or Children’s Tylenol.  Not even Nelson’s Teetha powder.  Or a ‘fridge to stick a wet cloth into to make it cold.  Poor little Blargh just has to suffer through.

And suffer he does.  And so do his parents as every night’s sleep is broken by poor wee Blargh crying his eyes out with the pain of the teeth coming in.  And then it stops. Oh Joy! Oh Rapture…dammit here comes another one and it starts over.

And then one morning, after being up half the night with Blargh and Arg, Urg realizes there is no meat in the house. He grabs his spear and heads out.  Arg realizes she must gather while he hunts.

During the hunt, Urg eyes can barely stay open and therefore he does not notice the sabertooth tiger sneaking up behind him.  Poor Urg, eaten by a tiger.

During her gathering, Arg can barely keep her eyes open.  She falls asleep by the river.  Blargh falls out of her arms and drowns (I never said this was a happy story).  When she awakens and finds him dead she goes to find Urg.  She finds him dead as well.  She goes off and finds a new mate.  One whose previous children had no teething issues.  Oh wait, there is no such thing.

My point, and I do have one, is if survival of the fittest was true, babies today would not suffer so much with teething.

Because their ancestors who have teething problem babies would have died from exhaustion.

Another Worry Off My Mind

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So Adam is thisclose to being to big for his Stage 0 car seat.

We don’t, of course, have a car.  Part of the reason we have the car seat we do is because it can fit into any car using the 3 point regular seat belt.  This was proven very successfully while we were in the US.

But what the hell were we going to do now? Granted, the law states that car seats don’t have to be used in taxis, but that’s because the taxi lobby (or whatever they call it in the UK) is so powerful.  A taxi is no safer than a regular car.

So we were in our local pram shop today, getting the ripped cover replaced on Adam’s pram, and I mentioned my concern to the lady.  She said, no worries, Maxi Cosi makes a Stage 1 that’s almost as easy to move from car to car as the Stage 0 you’re using now.  And she’s right.  And it isn’t even all that heavy.  Its not light, but it would be possible for me to hold Adam in one arm and carry the seat in the other, for short distances.  Such as to the Children’s Hospital for his surgery.

And the best part? Their price is the same as online.  So I can continue to give this shop with the great service my business.

So Adam’s next car seat, which I think we will order this week, will be the Maxi Cosi Pirori XP.  In grey.