Fortune Telling Agnes

Elmer vs. Vika the turtle

They love each other really.

See.

Unfortunatley, she's had a cold since Thursday.  But fortunately she doesn't get too bad when she gets them.  This time she's got a dry cough and struggles breathing through her nose at night but that Olbas oil (for children) works wonders immediately and I like to burn lavender oil in her room as much as possible til it runs its course.  And that's all her symptoms.  She doesn't even get cranky about it.

Otherwise, updating my last post; she now sits up on her own for up to five minutes at a time, you know, until she looks up at me.   

6 1/2 Months

I did forget about my blog.  Routine is not my forte.  But here I am and look, Eliette's got a new activity centre.  Isn't it marvelous?  It is stationary which is what I wanted.  She can spin round in her seat to reach different things but she can't roll around the floor. 

She's not sitting on her own yet but she has figured out how to roll front to back now as well as back to front though she does not perform either often.

Her favourite foods are banana and avocado but she'll eat anything really.  I'm just stopping mixing it with baby rice or cereals and am now feeding it all to her neat.  It's hard to get water into her because she'll just play with it in her mouth unless she gets to sip it from a tiny mug so we're messy but happy.  I'm looking forward to 7 months when she can have baby biscuits to hold herself.  At the moment she gags herself with spoons and finger food.

Grrrrr...

2012 is unbelievable so far.  We've finally had a plumber round to fix all the taps in the house that spun round at the basins and the plumber seems to have detached the drain pipe on the tub so we emptied a full bath onto the kitchen ceiling which, of course, leaked onto the countertops and floor.  (Mind, this isn't the plumber we need to sort the boiler.  He's supposed to come this week.)  This is on top of the power in the house being shorted every time we turn on the kitchen light because somebody (bless him) drilled into the wall at the wrong place.  

We've found a nursery/daycare that we want to put Eliette in come March but it's the only one we'd have to drive to instead of walk.  It is by far the nicest and cheapest, actually, but I will have to get very specific work hours to make it workable which my job should give me.  Our first problem is that there are only three spaces left at the nursery which could dissapear by Friday and the second problem is that my boss hasn't got time to talk to me about my  new hours.  So I could go register Eliette for £25 anyway to hold the place but we lose that money if we can't send her there and everywhere else is £50 registration so we could end up paying £75 and not send her where we want.  And all I can do is growl out loud when I think of it several times every day while I wait.  I hate waiting!  I can contentedly queue forever but I hate not knowing how long you could be waiting for when you can't see the queue.  Grrrr.....

Now, I'm trying to get my head around maths to install a postive attitude about them for Eliette as I'm one of those people who just shuts down when you start throwing maths at me at random though I'm not too bad at sitting down and practically applying them.  So far the book is simple and interesting enough but I'm only at chapter one, perceptions of counting in different cultures.

Through The Nose

BLIMEY!  IT'S COLD!  27F.  Proper cold.  I wish I had my Wisconsin parka with the orange lining and fur trim hood.  (Not that you can't find a replica here but you'd pay through the nose for it (what does that even mean 'through the nose'?).  We've just been hit with a massive heating bill that's six times more than normal and we think it's because our boiler hasn't been working properly the last month (nor our shower) but the estate agents keep saying they're waiting for the landlord to get back to them.  Where does that leave us?  Paying through the nose, again!!!

Yesterday we went to see Jaime Nanci and the Blue Boys in a tiny village quite near us with one church and one pub (I don't even think they have their own post office).  The frontman is an Irish friend of mine whom I know from living in Galway and it was pure chance that thay ended up playing obscurely so near us.  It was a great gig; they are brilliant (I recommend Youtubing them)!  It was Eliette's first you gig, you know, though she didn't seem all that bothered.

Fancy Nancy

Look how excited we are about getting two more Xmas boxes in the post!

There is nothing wrong with belated gifts or wishes.  They are, in fact, more fun because they're so unexpected.  Awesome, awesome, awesome!

And 'we' are napping again.  Good times.

P.s. Fancy Nancy isn't dressed because I was measuring her for tailor-made clothes.

Double Pointed Needles

She's changed her schedule on me.  It was all going so well until I started to anticipate things.  Now I need to create a new flexible routine for myself so I'm at the ready to meet her new schedule.  Saying that, she's slept through the night the last two nights that I had expected to be dreadful.  She's still better than gold.

Last night she was in bed by 6.30pm so Tom sat on the sofa with me watching Bridgit Jones's Diary, eating chocolate and learning how to knit (I can now do double pointed needles; that means socks! eventually).  He had watched Die Hard 2 and played XBox the last two days so it was my turn and a lovely evening we had and I think he'll agree.

Ketchup

B-limey!  What a ridiculous day.  The weather's been crazy too; high winds and proper rain (which is a rarity) but mild out. 

So, the car would not be jumped but our lovely local garage came to me and got the car started but also had to sit in the car for 20 minutes to keep the car alive then drive it to the garage.  (Mind, the garage is only on the corner but still; I must drop some beer in as a thank you to the lad who came.)  It's sorted anyway.  Then, Tom rings me from the local hospital where he was being treated for a newly developed allergy (his first ever) to cheap ketchup.  Seriously; he was purple in the face and covered in welts that were growing together.  Ketchup.  Do you know how much Tom loves ketchup?  It was that or the bacon.  He's not sure which would be worse.

Carrot Flavoured Baby Rice

 

 

2012

What a rubbish end to the year.  Our shower only runs cold lately and a plumber popped round to sort it but said it was the boiler and left the bath tap with a serious leak (basically on).  I got a text from Lee saying a stranger dropped our divorce papers into his door as they had been posted to the wrong address three times now so I had to collect them off him and need to sort things Tuesday (Monday's a stupid bank holiday).  Tom did his centurian and then went out 'on the town'.  I didn't hear from him until 1pm the next day when I rang him and woke him.  I was due to collect him but the car battery was dead somehow so he was stranded in the city and had to ring his poor mum to collect him.  So, he was useless the rest of the evening and I was too tired to stay up for the new year (HAPPY NEW YEAR anyway) but Tom let me sleep in til noon which was all-forgiving.  Things are normal today but we've not done anything at all; haven't even left the house.  We did watch the London fireworks on playback today which was brilliant actually though after 10 minutes you can't help thinking, 'how much did that cost the taxpayer?' and 'where could they have used just half of that money in this economic climate?'.

Happy Birthday Tom Tom

Mmmmmmm, just made my own eggnog with brandy.  Quite nice if you can get past the lumpiness.

Happy birthday to my Tom tom; 28!  He's gone out with his mates to complete a centurian mission.  A centurian is 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes and good luck to him, as long as he is capable of going into the city the next day to help mind Eliette while I do the post-Xmas shopping and errands.  Even if it's hair of the dog (alcoholic drink taken to cure a hangover) that gets him through it.

And for his birthday, I legally changed my name to Annalisa; it's done!  Finally.  I feel somehow more settled in general.  I'm legally required to not answer to anything else.