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I'm changing my name.
"Mommy"
"Yes, Mary Catherine?"
"Mooommmmmy?"
"Yes, Mary Catherine?"
"Moooooooooooooooooommmmmmmmmmeeeeeeee!"
"Yes, Mary Caaaaaaatherine?"
"Mommy Mommy!"
"Yes, Mary Catherine?"
"Mommmmymommmymmmmooommmeemommy!!!"
"YES, Mary Catherine?"
"I was talking to you."
"Oh, okay."
Welcome to my life. When I'm around my daughter, she prefers that my attention be tuned in only on her and heaven forbid I try and speak to anyone else or carry on a conversation that she's not interested in. She also constantly climbs, pushes, pulls and sits on me. While I find it endearing and try to think of it as most definitely affectionate - it's driving me nuts! Please remind me of how silly I'm being when she's 13 and no longer wants to be in the same room with me, nevermind sitting on my lap (or feet, legs, tummy, head, you get the picture).
I think I am going to slow down on the fake tan. I spent a lot of time this morning staring at myself trying to determine if I'm in any way ... orange. I think I'm safely un-Oompa Loompa like at the moment, however, a few more nights of reckless abandon with the self tanner could lead to certain doom.
Okay.. why is it that every time in the past that I've painstakingly applied a fake bake I've ended up with streaks and really dodgy looking ankles, knees, elbows, etc. Last night I slap on some self tanner and proceed to do just about everything it lists as a 'don't' and viola - I am reasonably sun kissed!
Now I'm sure I still look as pale as notebook paper to the untrained eye, but in my opinion I am the next Miss Hawaiian Tropic.
My knee enjoyed the five days off my daily grind and is actually feeling pretty close to normal. Go figure - it hurts like heck, I get an appointment with a surgeon and ka-bam, it's fine. Isn't that always the way? So now when I go in on Friday morning, I'll be vague and the doctor will think I'm either mental or a big faker. Who knows - maybe by Friday it'll be all wacked out again.
Yesterday we went to Marylebone high street with Kate, who's visiting from the States. We had lunch at what is becoming one of my favourite restaurants, Giraffe. Then we found the flagship Cath Kidston store. Man, oh man. Mary Catherine now has the hippy flowers sleeping bag which was, I have to admit, an investment! I am so in love with everything there and am slowly incorporating as much of it into our house as I can (read as much as Andrew can stand).
man today sure doesn't feel like monday. which is why i'm still up and doing nothing much at one minute to midnight. crikey. don't i realise i have to go to work in the morning? or be up in 5 hours and 46 minutes? have mercy.
the weekend away was lovely - we had a really great time with andrew's family and maybe i've mellowed, but i just enjoyed hanging out and going with the flow. mary catherine was, for the most part, charming and it was really good to spend five days with her unhindered by the pressures of daily life.
more later, i'm sure. i bought some self tan cream and i've lost the will to live waiting for it to feel dry enough to go to bed. i'm sure i'll look like a total dork tomorrow with orange wrinkle lines on my arms! why i've decided to try and be tan is beyond me - seemed like a good idea at tesco today when i saw all 'seasonal' items were on mega sale. i'm not really the 'tan type' if that makes sense - so i'm sure this will be one of those chalk it up to experience moments. we shall see in the morning!
I just got back from the doctor downstairs and I've been referred to an orthopaedic surgeon for my knee. The physiotherapy was really helping, but the fact that it seemed to be two steps forward, one step back was a concern of the therapist and now the doctor.
So off I go to meet Mr. B - apparently a very well respected consultant. Insurance has approved the consultation and my appointment is booked for next Friday. The gp was very nice - he said, 'just to let you know.. he most likely will have to do something.' Great.
For those of you not aware of the National Health Service (NHS) and it's wiley ways here in the UK - for emergencies, it's fantastic and I wouldn't hesitate to applaud the system. However, for minor (what a relative term) things like this, I would have to jump through a lot of hoops with my local GP and push him to write to a specialist on my behalf. Then I would have to wait what could be a very long time to see said specialist. I waited over a year to have my gall bladder out, which was a very long time to live with the threat of such intense pain. Thankfully, our family now has private health cover. It's been a real perk as I now have an on-site medical centre and physiotherapist. The best bit is that I will be seen by specialists much faster.
It is very different than my experience in America where I was covered under a PPO and could refer myself to a specialist directly. To be fair, I'm not sure what system works best. I certainly like not having a bill when I leave the hospital but the waiting times for 'average' (again another relative term) people are incredible.
Even though we have private cover, we still see our local NHS GP for ongoing things and regular check-ups. It's a bit mish-mash really. It took a very long time for me to get used to the healthcare system here. I am much more at ease with it now than I used to be.
Another interesting point is that Mary Catherine has never seen a paediatrician and has only been to the doctor when ill. From what I hear, in America she would've gone to the paediatrician every three months in the beginning for check ups.
We also don't have drug advertising like America. So you can't go to your GP and say, I've seen an ad for Drug XYZ and I think it would really help me. Our prescriptions are £6.50 and people with chronic conditions (like my diabetes), children under 16 and pregnant women receive theirs for free.
What's your opinion? What's better? What's healthier? My jury is still out..
My parents' cat died yesterday.
He was 16 years old. I remember when we got him, as I was just about to leave for Young Harris College. Hence why he was named Young Harrisian, but we all called him Boo Boo. 16 years. That's a long time in people years, not to mention cat years, I suppose.
16 years. 192 months. Our family has really changed in those 5,840 days. Actually, we're all different than we were 140,160 minutes ago. The world has evolved in the past 8,409,600 seconds and I'm not sure it's exactly a better place than it was when we found a tiny black kitten and his brothers and sisters down by the lake. I still remember them following us home and how much I really wanted my Mom to let us keep one.
all in all a good weekend - quite busy considering it was meant to be low key. we went to bluewater on saturday and to covent garden yesterday.
we saw oily cart's jumpin beans at the theatre museum - a show which we'd seen the version for 6mo-2 year olds last year. when we arrived, i thought the male lead sounded very familiar - turns out, he's the cute guy from razzledazzle, one of mary catherine's favourite television shows! was i ever star struck! you'd have thought elvis was in the room.. what has happened to me?! you can listen to him reading our favourite story, molly in the trolley here.
for those of you with toddlers, i can't recommend razzledazzle enough. the show is designed to develop the foundations of literacy in children ages 3-5. mary catherine is already to that level with language, so this show is fantastic for her. online you can find notes for every episode which provide the different phonemes mentioned. (here)
might i recommend the new goldfrapp album?
andrew brought a psp home over the weekend - and man, oh man (pardon my geek out) is that thing incredible. the screen is amazing and i'm in total nerd lust over it. who cares that i don't have time to play games, really? i so want one.
ahh.. friday. i'm stoked, i have an early friday at work today - so i'll be outta here at 3pm. very much looking forward to it. pity that the weather is dreadful.
next week my friend kate arrives for her annual visit. we'll be trekking to andrew's parents' house in northumberland in the latter part of the week. i've been looking at pictures of our trip last year and how much mary catherine has changed.
man, i so need a weekend. sunday we're going to the theatre museum to see oily cart's jumpin' beans - very much looking forward to that. i'm hoping i can convince andrew to let us go to cath kidston afterwards.
i love taking mary catherine to the theatre and oily cart's productions are really great since they're made for the very young. hopefully my knee will be good enough on sunday to allow me to jump around and play whilst we're there.
not sure what else we'll get up to. since we had such a full weekend last week and have a houseguest from monday, i doubt very little.
i know i'm completely late in taking up the hobby - but have you ever done sudoku? oh my gosh how much fun! nerdy fun, i know. i'm totally hooked. however, i'm hooked like i like solitare or gin rummy - on the online versions. i would imagine 'hard copy' sudoku would be much more difficult. here's the best web version i've found thus far. websudoku
i'm hungry today and have a case of the sniffles and a headache that won't quite leave me alone. mary catherine is a bit under the weather as well and was very emotionally fragile last night. i undressed her and let her lie down under a blanket on the sofa with a cup of warm milk and after she nodded off, i though i'd just leave her a few more minutes to make sure she was really asleep.
uh yeah - well. she was. so much so that she also wee'd on my sofa. totally my fault! after a quick shower she went back to sleep in her bed very easily. poor pumpkin. i wonder if she's having a growth spurt. if anyone has any great ideas of what to do with a sofa cushion that you can't wash that's been wee'd on - i'm all ears!
Man, what a weekend. Adrienne and her family have been with us since Friday evening. Whilst it's fantastic to see her, I know it's stressful for them being stuck in London. I think it's been hard to be at the end of their holiday and then suddenly have four extra unplanned days. Some of that stress has transferred to us and it's been difficult having four adults, two (willful) toddlers and an 8-month old in the same small flat. Actually, if it'd been anyone else other than Ade, we'd probably have killed each other by now.
Yesterday, for sanity's sake, we went our separate ways .. they went to Greenwich, we went to Bluewater. Mary Catherine was such a good girl - thank goodness - as the day before she'd been really tedious and at one point both she and I ended up in tears (as we were sitting in the car having a time out at the bowling alley while everyone else continued the game).
I think it was the deadly combination of a raging bout of PMS, unexpected houseguests, tired toddler and tired Mommy. Not very nice. So, yesterday's good behaviour/day was incredibly welcome.
My friend adrienne and her family are definitely stuck in London. I'm so pleased that we're able to help them out, because they are well stuck until Tuesday at the moment! This is all due to the BA strike action at Heathrow.
Apparently, when Andrew and Mary Catherine went to wait with them at the airport to see what was going to happen, BA had a band, clowns and entertainment for the children. I think that is so smart. Andrew said it was rather like a village fete! Mary Catherine came back with a balloon animal and her face painted. Not bad for forced airport time, in my opinion.
We had a very late night getting them settled in, fed, bathed and to bed. Mary Catherine and Oliva are both definitely in the defiant toddler stage and it was very comforting to have Adrienne fighting her own battle next to me last night. 2.5 is proving to be a very interesting age. She's so independent (Mary Catherine, not Adrienne) and can be so sweet and fantastic, but man - every now and again... it's a total showcase showdown of wills and I can sadly tell you that hers are at least 1% stronger than mine sometimes.
It's 6:19am - I've been up since 6 when Mary Catherine crawled into our bed. Considering I didn't go to bed until midnight, I should still be asleep or at least tired. Nope, not me. Wiiiiiide awake. Go figure.
My friend Adrienne is stuck at Heathrow due to the British Airways strike action. Crap for them but they may stay with us this evening! Oh how I would love that...
This week has really motored by quickly. I'm not complaining, mind you, and I'm super glad it's the weekend. I don't think we have any major plans, really. We're thinking about taking Mary Catherine to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. If you've seen it and think it's too weird for a 2.5 year old, please let me know!
For some reason - that comic just makes me laugh and laugh. Most likely because lately things have just been piling on ... However, I'm still smiling and even though i slightly feel like i'm sinking under the weight a bit. Well - that's okay and i'll just get through it. I have no idea why, but I'm feeling quite optimistic at the moment.
Belated birthday greetings to my dearest friends Andy and Kate!
Found this whilst doing a bit of earnest time wasting. officeslang.com I personally like CLM, Egosurfing, Mouse Potato and Ohnosecond.
More later..
latest obsession
for some weird reason - i'll say i do it in the name of stress relief because that makes me feel better - i've been obsessing about toys for mary catherine. not buying them, but looking at them and reading reviews and whatnot. now i know you may be thinking, "duh, you're a parent, that's what you're supposed to do.." but i can't seem to stop.
i digress. i've just discovered that my mary catherine is now very close to being in the published age range for favourites of my childhood - candy land, chutes and ladders, hi ho cherry-o, uncle wiggly, cootie, ants in the pants and don't break the ice!
next thing you know we'll be moving on to operation, toss across, perfection, rock em sock em robots and hungry hungry hippos. awesome.
the BGB has landed.
mary catherine has been refusing for about two weeks to go to sleep in her cot. she cited 'rails' as the main problem and has been insisting on going to sleep in our bed.
fine for a few days, but it was really dragging andrew and i down, as one of us had to lie down with her and it was taking at least an hour to get her to sleep. it was hard for her to settle, what with mommy and about eight toys in the bed with her.
so yesterday we made the leap. we gave her a very big story about how it was a special day - the day that all little girls have when they're old enough. the day daddy takes the rail off the cot. to be honest, her cot isn't built to be converted and we weren't 100% sure it was going to work... but it did, thank goodness. there are four small screw holes that aren't terribly obvious and now she has a very acceptable day bed style bed.
we'd been looking at BGBs (*big girl bed)for a while now but had been putting it off for various reasons. converting her existing cot has been nice as we've not had to worry about what will fit or go with the furniture in her room.
as soon as we took the rail off we piled into the car and headed to ikea to get a new duvet and other accessories worthy of her 'new' room. we also bought her a small table with two chairs to have in her room for tea parties, colouring and other assorted almost three year-old activities.
until now, mary catherine has never really had a concept of 'her room'. we mostly played in the living room and her room was generally for sleeping or changing clothes. now she seems to be very into playing in there and gleefully exclaimed whilst she was doing some colouring on her bed. 'i'm having a colouring picnic!'
last night she passed out in her BGB in about 5 minutes (i didn't even make it through half of dr. suess's sleep book) and stayed there until 12:38. now andrew and i have something to get used to as well - a toddler that can move about the house in the middle of the night!
i suppose we all have things to get used to - and i have to admit, that as excited as i was about her moving to a BGB, i still loved every second of her sleeping next to me all night. she's still small, warm and sweet. and most importantly, she still needs me.
ex·pa·tri·ate (k-sptr-t)
v. ex·pa·tri·at·ed, ex·pa·tri·at·ing, ex·pa·tri·ates
v. tr. To remove (oneself) from residence in one's native land.
Five years ago today I came to London on a one-way ticket. It was one of the scariest things I've ever done and in some ways, the most enjoyable. There are times when I dislike living here and I miss my family and friends immensely but I wouldn't trade the experience for the world.
In the five years that I've lived here, I've lived in two different counties and four different flats. I've gotten to know and love three chinese takeaways as if they were my own refridgerator. I've had three different jobs, one that really sucked and two that were/are great. I've met many people along the way and whilst I have few close friends I've enjoyed knowing them all.
I've called four tube/train stations home base, taken only 15 taxis and lived through two bombing attempts recently.
I've gotten divorced and married, although not to the same person. I've had a fantastic child and gotten to know the up and downsides of socialised medicine. I've actually taken better care of myself here than I ever did in America.
I've endured plenty of dumb American jokes, some which hit a little too close to home. On the flipside, I've told a few in my time and still have a real inner battle with liking/disliking America and some Americans.
I've been on British television twice, American radio once and dozens of websites.
For the past five years, I've gotten through it all with the help of a fantastic family and an amazing husband and daughter. To you all - I raise my glass (of water, of course).. Cheers.
i had another physio appointment this morning. this time with a new physio who happened to be male and quite good looking.
apparently the human body is an amazing thing that adapts when part of it is out of whack or injured. and get this .. the real source of my knee pain is (wait for it) my ass.
i've been told before that i am a tight ass, and at least on one side it seems to be true. my right buttock is very tense as is my right thigh leading down to my knee. these muscles being tense have caused them to pull my knee and knee cap out of alignment to the extent that my weak inner knee muscles can't compete to hold it properly in place. thus, my knee is strained giving me the horrid cracking (which comes from the back of my kneecap, apparently) and overall pain.
so - i spent time this morning lying face down whilst cute physio man worked his magic on my bum (and thigh and knee). unfortunately, it was so painful that it was in no way, shape or form enjoyable. good thing is that after he finished 30 minutes of muscle work i was able to bend and straighten my knee with much less pain and cracking.
back i go on monday for another session.. memo to self, must shave legs! for the time being i have to keep off it as much as possible and continue to tape it up. i am very pleased that the cause has been identified and we're working towards a solution.
on another note, it's thursday - four weeks since the orginal bombings and two since the failed attempts. i'd be lying if i said i wasn't anxious this morning on the train and from the looks of the people around me, i wasn't the only one. there are police at every station (have been all week) and that did make me feel safer. it's a new way of living, trying to keep a watchful eye out at all times.
it's also a very tough lesson in trying not to judge people by their appearance. however, i do find that i'm wary of any sort of backpack, not just ones carried by darker skinned males but it's so difficult not to inwardly panic when you see someone who, by your opinion, fits the stereotype that's been created. i cringe and then feel guilty for thinking that way. it's weird.
my friend amy bought her son drew a scary hippo walker/toy. for some reason whilst reading her ordeal with it, it reminded me that mary catherine's birthday and christmas presents are still undecided. (don't laugh, i'd already planned last years by this point, i think!)
so now i'm trying to decide.. leapster? learn through music? then i went to the early learning centre site and discovered that i can make a wish list! oh this is all very exciting...
last night - in an attempt to be adults we had a meeting with a financial advisor. he came to our house and drank tea as we went over our current and proposed financial future.
all he really had to say was that we need to make wills and that i might need to have one in america given that i have 'interests' there. (family, stocks, et all) he also mentioned that wills are extrememly important given that our families may fight over our estate when we're gone. funny enough, i just don't see andrew and my parents duking it out for their fair share of.... nothing much!
we were hoping to get advice on debt consolidation and a clear plan of how to pay off what we currently owe and move forward. when i mentioned that he gave this wise advice.. 'maybe you could ask your parents for the money' then proceeded to tell us that parents usually offer a nice low rate of interest.
now we're not talking the national debt, but we're also not talking about borrowing £25 for a night out at the movies complete with popcorn AND a giant soda.
i must say that after that bit of sage advice, i lost a bit of interest in what he had to say. fortunately, by that point he'd almost finished his cup of tea.
it's like we're trying to do better, be better and get on the straight and narrow and the best advice we can get from a person who's paid to help with these sorts of things is to bum some dosh from the parents. hmm. not very encouraging.
anyone have £25 they can loan me for a night at the movies?
now i'm not a badge toting member of the god squad, but i've been known to thump a few bibles in my time (and in my own special way, mind you). but i've just seen this site rejesus and i think it's pretty darn cool.
site totally borrowed from dave's blog
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