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i took this quiz and the oucome really made me laugh... defo worth posting. i'm not really like that, am i? i mean - i know i'm rather sarcastic and can be a real mental case when i want to be... but a bad girlfriend? who, me? at least it said i was preppy.
-Bad- You're the exact opposite of what any guy
wants or needs, unless he happens to need a
quick lay. You're cruel. You toy with people.
You're probably a bitch, and i don't think i'd
like you if i met you.
What Kind of Girlfriend Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla
i owe i owe it's off to work i go... will update today hopefully. :)
yesterday we tried again with the pot roast... only this time, andrew made it. and i hate to admit it - gosh i hate to admit it ... but it was really good and far better than the grey lump of meat i attempted. now to be fair - i just threw the stuff in the cooker - andrew lovingly sauteed things and seared the meat first. which, in my opinion, totally goes against the rules of pot roast. but hey - it was tasty and he can do it from now on!
mary catherine and i had a really great day on friday - we went to the one o'clock club with our friends shay and ihsan. mary catherine loved crawling all over the place and even helped a stranger celebrate his 3rd birthday. but hey - cake is cake! after that we all took a trip on the DLR to greenwich and had a coffee at ... wait for it.... starbucks. as we left the train, we were thrilled to see the last flight of concorde overhead. what an amazing site - it left me a little sad that they're going out of service. below are some pictures from the one o'clock club.
 
 
this weekend was pretty normal.. we had mary catherine's last swimming lesson for the term saturday morning. she's a superstar in the pool. i think her favourite activity is 'humpty dumpty' where she sits on the wall of the pool and then 'falls' in, turns, swims for the wall and grabs the safety bar. she's like a little monkey with that bar - man, does she hang on tight. i love that she's not afraid of the water and seems to really enjoy swimming. we then went to bluewater and walked around.
have i mentioned that mary catherine is going through a rather annoying phase of wanting to feed herself? i mean, i know i'm supposed to be thrilled that she's showing such signs of independence, but it's such a production getting her to eat anything. last night she did like andrew's pot roast and she'll eat raisins, srambled eggs, cheese, cheerios, apricots, cooked apple .. i tried her on all natural, organic chicken strips (100% chicken with breadcrumbs) but she wasn't into them. oh well. tonight we're going to try the fishy version.
Oh! most importantly, mary catherine has spoken! well - sorta. last night she dropped her dummy and looked up and said 'uh-oh'.. does that count?! we watched fantasia 2000 as a family last night - i think we have one musical baby on our hands. she was glued to the screen and enjoyed dancing along to the music - but was mostly transfixed with the combination of music and animation. i found myself watching her more than the telly and the whole time i was thinking, 'please let her be creative'... did i mention that i think i'm going to look into suzuki violin at age two and the royal academy of dance at age four? am i overbearing already? am i a 's'mother?' ha - i used to call my mother that. oh life is such a funny circle!
i've just been sitting here going through old pictures of mary catherine.. and i can't help but post one. she was about 10 minutes old when this was taken. seems like so long ago, it's hard to believe that she's almost 11 months old! this time last year i was waddling around quite pregnant and we were just about to have a surprise visit from my mom and dad. as i remember i was feeling quite sorry for myself that i wouldn't see my parents again before giving birth and it was such an awesome surprise when they just walked into my inlaws house. i wept. not just cried - i wept because i was so happy. that doesn't happen often enough in life, does it?
anyway - today is wednesday and the office is running relatively smoothly. i'm probably 90% happy with my job at the moment. the missing 10% is due to the sheer amount of varied work that i have on my plate at the moment. to be honest, i've asked for a raise and i have a feeling that my missing 10% probably lies in the outcome of that request. i'm happy to be employed and working hard - but i put in long hours and do the tasks for about 3 roles worth of work .. i'd just like to see some financial gain from it.
not to totally whine - but our finances are pretty shot. we seem to be living paycheck to paycheck and it's driving me nuts. i guess we all want more money in our lives and while i KNOW money doesn't buy happiness, it does pay the nursery fee and grocery bill. let's see if i can put my feelings into perspective - i feel like i work so that i can pay nursery fees.. but i pay nursery fees so that i can work. logically, i know that i have to work and that our paychecks go for more than nursery fees - i just get bummed out about it at times. lately, all the time. the changing english weather isn't helping. i can FEEL the lack of sunlight already taking effect. i'm very pleased that in my new office i'm right by a window. at least that means i'll be able to experience the 9a-330p sunlight every day. winters here are really dark. it's already darkish when we leave in the mornings and well dark by the time i leave the office at night.
on the up side - this friday is a flex day for me... so that is nice. i think mary catherine and i might go to andrew's office to have lunch with him. we haven't done that in a while. i'm also thinking we might see if there's room for us at musical bumps class - mary catherine seemed to really enjoy that last time. okay - enough for now. things to do. here's that picture of brand new mary catherine.
we went to ikea a few weeks back and i totally had forgotten that we'd taken these pictures of mary catherine in the the big basket of blueberries that they have for 0-3's to play in! i found this image on my camera and thought i'd share. and yes - i knew we were going to ikea and yes - i dressed her in their corporate colours. i'm a woman with her finger on the pulse of fashion, you know.
when my parents were here two weeks ago they went ahead and gave me my birthday presents.. a slow cooker/crock pot and a most excellent schoolhouse rock cd. andrew and i were stoked to try out the slow cooker and had the brilliant idea of making a pot roast. easy enough, eh? meat, potatoes, onions and carrots - toss 'em in the cooker, turn that baby on and presto! pot roast when we get home. we both had visual images of meat that just falls apart into delicate savoury strands, melt in the mouth potatoes and carrots with gravy made from the liquid lovingly essenced from the roast. (is that a word, essenced? anyway, you get my idea, right?)
oh. hell. no.
it was more like half cooked potatoes with fully cooked carrots, slightly wilted onions and this grey meat sitting in a puddle of greasy water. it was vaguely edible - but not very good. okay, i admit it - it was AWFUL. so.. anyone have any ideas? i've ordered the same stuff for next week with hopes that we can somehow figure out what went wrong. man, oh man was it terrible! help! i want succulent, no work needed pot roast!
you know .. today my friend melissa paid me some really nice compliments and it was really really (sorry mina!) nice to read. so why don't you take 3 minutes today and email someone and tell them what you think of them? i am, of course, speaking of emailing people you know and like .. a random act of kindness really goes a long way in today's world.
sometimes i scribble
and this is what happens
more pictures
from our nursery halloween party..
  
from the weekend
we had a great time at our nursery halloween party... see?
oh - there are new pictures up... here and here
my immune system is shot. kaput. a goner. i have a very severe cold and don't seem to be getting any better from it at all. i've had it since sunday and think this is about the worst cold i've ever had. of course, i can't take cold remedies as i'm breastfeeding - so that's a bit of a bummer and means that i just have to ride the wave of it as best i can. there's been something wrong with me for the better part of three weeks and i'm tired of it. lung infection, headache and now the cold from hell. frustrating
anyway - it's friday. the nursery halloween party that i've helped organise is tomorrow and i'm not very in the mood to go and do. but i will because i've said i will. i'd rather have a usual saturday with andrew and mary catherine. sunday we have a 1st birthday party to attend. we're looking forward to that and can't believe that our mum & baby friends are turning one. wasn't it just yesterday that all the babies were just lumps of cuteness lying around? and now they're active little people full of personality and life. amazing.
i think motherhood has changed me - i look at things differently. and i see the world with very different eyes and i think about mortality, which i never really did before. weird.
anyway - happy friday. here's the five:
1. Name five things in your refrigerator.
milk, eggs, butter, coca-cola and chocolate from this past easter.. uh - i think it's time for the chocolate to go!
2. Name five things in your freezer.
lots of homemade baby food, vegetables, ice (can you tell i'm american?!), frozen pizza and the boo-boo bunny's ice cube thing.
3. Name five things under your kitchen sink.
a bucket, cleansers and all the crap Ludmila uses to clean our house. i think there's also a pair of marigold gloves there as well. honestly, i never open that cabinet!
4. Name five things around your computer.
work computer: my mobile phone on it's little deck chair thing, picture in a frame of mc and andrew, my mini zen rock garden (for stress relief) my office phone and a tube of white tea & ginger hand lotion.
5. Name five things in your medicine cabinet.
our medicine cabinet is in the kitchen, of all places. calpol (like baby tylenol), nurofen for children (like baby advil), adult versions of the same, wind-eze (i'll blame those on andrew!) and diralyte, that awful rehydration stuff, i think it tastes like sweat. ick.
okay now that things have calmed down a bit i can blog in peace.
the office is moved.. a few kinks to still iron out.. but i worked my ass off getting it done. i have received a few thank yous, which are always nice to hear.
mary catherine's hand is now almost fully healed. they've taken the bandage off and the remaining dead skin is just kind of flaking off. thank gosh there will not be any scarring.
last week she went on a nursing strike and i listened to a bunch of people telling me that maybe it was time to stop nursing. i almost did! but thank goodness we stuck it out and the biting has calmed down and she's now nursing both sides again. if i didn't have such an established milk supply i am pretty sure things would be over and done with and she'd be on formula until she gets to have cow's milk at a year of age. whew, i'm so glad that we're back on track.. you have no idea!
my parents visit was wonderful - although i feel like i didn't get to see them very much, even though they were here for 10 days. i am very much looking forward to seeing them for christmas starting 17th december. i'm excited to be going home for almost half a month. walmart here i come!
long story short.. office moved.. everything relatively smooth. am working on two hours sleep. mc has a terrible cold and fever and i feel like a crap mother for being in the office for almost 48 hours straight while andrew and my parents deal with her. at least i'm taking tomorrow off.
:)
okay - quick update... headache lasted for over 24 hours. was a nightmare. took some insulin and was relatively gone. hmm.. memo to self you need to take better care of yourself
moving office day today - hopefully it'll go super smoothly. or at least my parts of it will. say a quickie for me.
my.
head.
is.
going.
to.
fall.
off.
my.
shoulders.
it hurts so very badly.. i've had this wicked headache since last night.. absolutely terrible. and there seems to be NOTHING that will make it go away. not sleep, not caffeine, not tylenol/paracetemol, not anything. it hurts when i move my eyes, or my head, or do anything really other than sitting very very still.
i came into work today - and it was more out of guilt than anything. i was out last week for a day with my lung infection and i'd feel pretty low being out today - but i just might have to go.. because i can't seem to do anything other than sit here with my head in my hands. man this hurts.
oh forgot to mention that we had the nana and grumps sponsored birthday party (albeit 2 months early) yesterday.. it was chaos but a lot of fun. i've never seen so many people in one very small space!
a very good and interesting article on breastmilk: hot milk totally stolen from aimee
speaking of breastfeeding... we've been having some problems with it in our house since about wednesday of last week. problems to the point where i'd pretty much decided that we might be weaning sooner than planned. mary catherine had been biting, thrashing about and generally refusing to nurse and it was incredibly frustrating for both of us. not to mention painful for one of us!
she's now pretty much back on track and i'm wondering if my being so ill last week had anything to do with it. i'm just keeping fingers crossed that we pull through this little rough patch, because we've made it too long to start dealing with formula and bottles! she's still biting me but i'm not sure she knows that she's doing it. any experienced mums care to comment on the whys and hows and ideas to get her to stop? i'm all ears.
well i'm back at work and feeling a lot better than i did two days ago ... so that's something. mary catherine went to the A&E yesterday morning to have the dr look at her burns and we ended up being filmed for a BBC show about life in the A&E .. so that's another something. my parents get here tomorrow morning.. another something.
so unless i'm hit by a truck things are looking up! thanks to everyone who had kind words to spare the past few days - i really appreciate it!
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