Chillin out

So, I was supposed to go to lunch with my friend John from Yass today, but he's only got an hour for lunch and I really like to spend more time with him. So I cancelled, which was sad, but he wanted to meet in the city, which involves traffic, expensive or non-obtainable parking and travel time. His preferred time was 1pm, by which time Kate would have been screaming with hunger and general mayhem would have ensued. Of course my main reason for cancelling was that D has decided that he's allergic to going to the city and didn't want to go for just one hour. He's probably also mindful that Kate is terrible in restaurants.
I mean terrible. Our lovely little girl turns into a raging monster at restaurants. She gets bored, frustrated and generally a bad time is had by all.
So we went to Balmain instead. D wanted to see if there were any markets nearby, I said yes, but it really depends on what you want to buy. The ones in Rozelle, where we popped in for a bit, are really a second hand market, and the one in Balmain is more giftware. So we ended up going to the Rozelle markets, or more precisely I stayed in the car while Kate slept and he went to see them. Coming back disappointed he said they were full of second hand rubbish... I did tell him that.
So in the end we went to Birkenhead point, listened to some free music and generally chilled out. D managed to buy some stuff by wandering off solo, I fed Kate. I got the impression D didn't want me to spend money today. \oo/
Anyways, got home and I had a nap!!! Rah!
Now D has gone to work and Kate has passed out. Which is unlike her to have two sleeps these days, but she took herself off to bed, so she must have wanted it.
She'll probably wake later and never want to go to bed.
Think I'll take the opportunity to do some study, now the blog is done. Of course I'll fire up the computer and she'll wake up immediately.

Things of note: It's earth hour this evening. Turn off all lights between 7.30 and 8.30. Note to self - don't forget and get the candles out.

Oh yes, I saw a lovely little animation by Nick Hilligard (I know that name from somewhere) on the ABC. Stop frame, environmental in theme. Done by the Natural history unit. Nice. All about anteaters and termites. Me likee.

New Threads

I have some new trousers. They are way cool. They have a dragon on them and they're black. They tie up at the ankles. Need I say more? I look very cool in them.
Yesterday I bought them, after an unsuccessful trip to get K some posters for her wall. Very depressed at the lack of range in the baby shops, so went to Chatwood Chase and spent my hard earned dosh instead.
So today I take K to get weighed, because I'm under the impression that she's not put on any weight for quite a while. WRONG! I thought last time I weighed her she was 9.4, but she was 8.4kg and she's put on ONE whole kilo and a hundred grams since. She's well on track. I suspected she was ok cause she looks a little chubby and her tummy is big. She's eating for England at the moment. And she's grown out of her hats.
Take her to play on the green at Lane Cove and notice some posters for sale at the local newsagents. And they have exactly what I'm looking for. Yay! So now she has an alphabet and an underwater poster (to match her quilt) for her wall. Very cool.
Okay, enough skiiving, back to study.

Presenting...

Well I did it. A presentation of my work at uni. Lots of questions, quite useful and good to clarify the thinking. I've got a long haul ahead, but I think I'm on my way. Well maybe anyways. The questions were insightful and revealing of weaknesses in the method, which is good.
That combined with the ink covered return of my proposal on Monday, I'm really at water on this. Don't really know how I'm doing. Sometimes I think it's ok, others I think it's all rubbish.
Watched a bit of tele with the Berber tonight and then got up and cleaned the kitchen. I usually do it in the mornings, and Berber was surprised, he said I'd woken up and was doing some housework at last. As if! I do it everyday! Humph.
Keeps the cockroaches at bay, anyways. Not that the population has diminished much.
Oh yes, dear reader, our kitchen is positively infested. Yuk.
K was gorgeous as usual today. Too in love with my own child. Is that wrong?
Enough of this self indulgence. Goodnight.

Sleepies

I think it's the change in the clocks, the little one has been way sleepy today. I took her to the park this morning to play with her pals from mother's group. Dragged her home kicking and screaming, fed her, and he slept for (wait for it) 3 hours!
This evening noticed she looked tired and put her to bed early. She's usually not alseep full till just before 9, tonight it was 8. Yay!
Cleaned the house today. Mostly taking the opportunity afforded by a sleeping infant. Did lots of washing. Bored.
Stressing out over presentation tomorrow. Must do some more work on it.
Did my prep for teaching tomorrow also. No problemo.
John Y rang - he's in town and sounding extremely chipper. Hope to catch up with him later in the week.
Oh yes, little one is also eating for the olympics so I suspect a growth spurt. She's overdue one as she hasn't put on any weight in a while (shhh). Way too active, this one.
Note to self - stop eating chocolate and lose some weight.

Grasshopper

Spent the day at uni struggling with my presentation for this Wednesday. It's coming together but I see gaps in the thinking.
My supervisor gave me feedback on the proposal and the ink flowed freely. The email he sent was quite damning and I'm a bit down about it all. What's very difficult to tell in how bad it is, whether it just needs a spit and polish or if the whole thing needs throwing out. Can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear or whatever.
I'll bow to the master and be a good little grasshopper.
In other news - well the Lane Cove Tunnel is now open, happily shovelling the mindless into a new revenue making machine for the govt/private alliance that seem to be monopolising the roads here in Sydney. Came home over the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the traffic along Longueville Road is SUBSTANTIALLY reduced. So it looks like we'll get our suburb back at long last.
The Berber was happy when I came home, having had a chilled out morning with his daughter. The weather has turned for the cooler, overcast today which is quite nice.
Went to a wicked seminar at Uni too, a dude who works in visual effects and is also an architect. Me likee. Makes me wonder why I'm doing this e-learning bollocks when all I really want to do is sfx.
I guess life is what we make it, eh?

Weird Weather

So, yesterday. Blisteringly hot and as humid as a soup. I took K to pick up the Berber from soccer yesterday and wandered around trying to find him. We nearly expired from the heat. Ironically he'd walked home, so we missed him. Oh well.
Today, cold enough to wear a jacket. I mean chilly decidedly cool.
So boiling one day freezing the next. Very weird.
On a brighter note, I got all the ironing done last night. Was at it at midnight when hubby came home but it's done now. K crawled into the empty basket this morning.
It seems that K and I won't be going to Algeria later in the year. The dates of school term don't match up with D's leave and he doesn't really want us to go during Ramadan. Or due to the terrorists. He also doesn't want to spend the money. So he'll probably go and we'll stay here. Sigh. Of course two weeks before he'll want us to come so lord knows what's going to happen.
In other news, in case I didn't mention it, the house in Brissy will settle on April 11th. So onwards and upward to the rest of our lives. Health wealth and happiness.

Calm with stormy waters ahead

Wednesdays are always insanely busy. Up around 6.30 (well actually it was 5am - I managed to get K to go back to sleep), feed baby. She's eating cereal now, real grown up stuff with no farex (rice cereal) in sight. Sultana Bran with good old sun filled aussie sultanas. Then get ready, go to work and teach the TV students their 3D class. They're actually getting the hang of it now, I'm pleased.
Today I rushed back home cause the Berber wanted to go into town, picked up he and K and raced into Uni in time for the seminar. Then (take a deep breath) I had to give a practice seminar for the real thing next week. I'm nervous, those guys don't give much quarter, being the keenly intelligent types that they are. One hole in your arguments and they'll dig you ever deeper.
Anyway, finished after some brilliant comments from Andy and Lucilla (supervisor and fellow student) I should be on track for next week.
Went back to the car to find the Berber and K playing in the park nearby. It was lovely. Simply lovely, K gave a big "HI" and then decided she'd run away from me. Hilarious. The Berber greeted me with the most loveliest of smiles. (Awww).
Back home and they went to do a shop while I did the speediest clean I've done in ages. K doesn't like me to do the dishes. She wraps herself around my legs and whinges at me. So it's best I do them when she's out.
Then little person's bath, to bed and I sneak out to watch a DVD with the Berber. Really good one, a true story about one man's struggle in apartheid South Africa.
Tomorrow promises to be equally as busy. Deep breath.
I've got so much work to do with this PhD I'm feeling like I'm sinking before I start. Calm right now, stormy waters ahead.

Le Petit Manipulator

I have come to a sad realisation. My baby manipulates me. Which really isn't a surprise, but the results of my experiment in anti-manipulation have resulted in the best night's sleep I've had in over a year.
After two nights of denying the boob during the night, more due to the fact that I've run out of milk than anything else, she now has been sleeping through the night.
Which leads me to think that I've been a sad mug all this time.
Anyways cheers to good nights sleep and may many more come.
Today we bought some new tyres for the car. It's something that we've been aware of but they really needed changing. So we're all safe now.
K and I went to the shops this morning and I let her run around on the green with the other little monsters. She likee.
That's this little mother signing off - off to do some study.

Tidd

Linen Mountains

Today I washed. Unremarkable really, but I washed 3 loads, and still have another at least one to go. I think this type of mundane dull boring bulls**t is what blogs don't really need.
So I'll wrap up this week. Good, with upchucks in the middle with a frenzied cleanup on a Friday. K and I both had gastro on Wednesday. Actually she got it Tuesday night and I got it Wednesday night, so I have the nasty suspicion that she gave it to me. But not knowing the incubation periods, can't be sure.
The Berber came home with a new DVD the other night. Blade Trinity. Pity I was too ill and tired to watch.
Hot today 34 Degrees Celsius. Tomorrow we're due to drop ten degrees.
We went to the library today and picked up some more books for my baby's addiction. I ran into Wanda at Coles, she was plugging salad dressing, which was actually nice. Hope to have her and Ian over to dinner soon.
It's actually been a really full day, but nothing special, if you get my drift.
Note: It's the Sydney Harbour Bridge's 75th birthday this weekend. The city is gearing up for celebrations. Wonder if I'll participate.

Tired

I don't know what's wrong with me. I am incredibly tired. (shakes head)
Of course it might have something to do with the fact that Baby K woke up 3 times last night and I didn't get a good night's sleep on top of the trip to Brisbane.
Sighs.
Or maybe I'm not getting enough exercise.
I can't take a nap because my brother and his missus is coming up from Canberra to go to a cocktail party tonight. I'm supposed to be going too, but I really need to prepare for TAFE and get some study done.
The Berber gets a good nights sleep, I make sure he does with much sacrifice of my own because he needs to work and he's on double shifts Mondays and Tuesdays.
Anyway - we went to Mother's group today and K played with her little friends. The other mothers were amazed when I suggested that she go home for a sleep, and she waved and headed for the door. I heard someone mutter "she's good" as we left. They're a lovely group of ladies. Me like them.
K is getting her 5th tooth. She's quite good about it really, and there's another on the way. It seems that they'll all come quite fast now. She had mango for lunch which we succeeded in eating and not getting it all over Jodie's carpet. Well, we'd done such a good job with the cheese slice that I was extra careful with the Mango.
I'm having a coffee with the lovely Natasha and Baby Olivia a bit later on, when all the babies have had their sleeps. K is sleeping now, hence me having the time to write this.

Trip op norf

Went up to Brisbane on the weekend. We're buying an investment house up there, we've had it built and will be settling in about 3 weeks or so. So Baby K and the Berber and my brother and sister-in-law all tracked up there for a very quick trip.
Bribane is beautiful. The house is lovely and my brother's house is just around the corner and equally beautiful.
K doesn't like going on planes. She becomes a bit of a monster. The Berber gets all stressed when she's bad. All in all not nice.
What was nice was catching up with some of my brother's friends, who I haven't seen in something like 20 years. Wow. We had a lovely day down at a kids park at Wynam. K went for a swim and the Berber rolled up his trousers and went in with her. He got soaked.
Paul and Linda have a gorgeous daughter who just loved playing with Kate. All in all it was a bit special, but it's taken me 2 days to recover. Exhausted.
You can see some pics here

Chair dives - inexpertly done

This morning I took K to the soft play place in Gladesville. Our mother's group decided against the beach again and went there instead.
K had a riot, running around like a mad thing, climbing on everything and generally having a ball. Which there were plenty of, by the way, she collected them and deposited them in the back of the little push cars dotted around the place. The jumping castle/slide was a riot, and she went down by herself a few times.
Right up until I decided she should have lunch. Grabbed offending infant and plonked her on a chair, told her to sit down while I got her lunch out. She stood up - and the next moment the chair was falling backward, baby K face planted into the floor.
Not nice. She cut her lip and grazed her chin. Unhappy puppy. Blood everywhere, for a wee while.
Gathered her up and plonked bottle in offending oriface, asleep by the time we got home.
Woke up and of course didn't want lunch - her mouth was sore, wasn't it.
We went in to Uni to see Mary Lou, who is very busy, but managed to give us half an hour of her time. She said my research was "very interesting". She'll help assess it in July, she says.
Ducked into Birkenhead on the way home and K scored a new pair of jeans and some pyjamas. I think it's a guilt trip over her getting hurt.

I'm such a guilt ridden softy.

Bathroom blues

Our shower has been leaking. The kind of leaking that seeps through concrete and causes nasty brown stains on the loungeroom carpet.
As a result we've been using the bath for the past few days, which is hilarious, because every time we have a bath, K wants to have one too. Three baths a day is not good for baby's skin.
So she contents herself with throwing things in, and splashing her hands in it if she can reach.
So I set out this morning to regrout the tiles. Nasty boring backbreaking. I regrouted, resealed most of the tiles in the shower, and found the problem - where the water was pooling to soak out. Now all that remains is for it to dry thoroughly and to rubber seal the suspect seam.
K is currently screaming at me because I'm using the computer and not paying her 100% attention.
Now we're playing the "hat" game where we both have to wear hats.
Of note from the world outside. It's mardi gras tonight - so all the lovely boys (and girls) are dressed up in their skin exposed glory. Thank goodness it's warm.
Maxine McKew, an old colleague who resigned from the ABC recently has decided to run against John Howard in the seat of Bennelong. Today she received death threats. My lord! Maxine is one of the world's lovely lovely people - why would anyone want to harm her? It's the big boys playing nasty power games again, but really it does bring out the ugly side of humanity, doesn't it?

Looking inside in tiny iterations

I think this blog is pure self indulgence. A bit like looking inside in tiny iterations. You know like the fractal, where you keep on going in and in and in and never quite finding that true heart, the kernel of truth or understanding.
My life has become smaller, yet at the same time richer, more fulfilling. I'm contented, sorted - hell, I'm happy.
Of course I do have occasional guilt trips over the "I should get a real job" and stuff, but the cost (and I'm not talking currency here) of putting a 1 year old into childcare, especially the soulless places I've looked at, simply chills me to the bone. I'm happier and I suspect so is she with the current situation.
However, I must do more on my PhD. Not that it's the beginning and end of all things, but it is a pleasant diversion. I suspect I'd go mad without it.
I miss my friends in London. But at least I can catch up online I guess. Not really the same, is it?

I got Thursday on my mind...

K is a gorgeous child. Is it wrong to be in love with your own child?
I didn't love her too much this morning when she grabbed fistfulls of my hair and pulled. Hard.
She has the most alarming habit of going into superwhinge mode when I do one of two things:
Wash the dishes;
Use a computer.
Doesn't matter whether it's my uni laptop or the home machine, she won't let me use it. All she wants to do is bash the keyboard.
Today we had a quiet morning at home - with a refusal of breakfast - not interested, but considering she had so much to eat yesterday, I'm not overly stressed on it. We did the usual reading of about 20 books, well not 20, but about five or six, over and over and over. She rather likes the Sandra Boynton books, which is good, because I do too. And Spot. Despite the desire to rip the little flaps off.
This afternoon was teaching. Rather liked it, my this digital media class has some wonderful artists in it. I'm so going to enjoy seeing what they will come up with. The TV class is good too, but they're not artists. Each has their strengths, the TV folk know the visual narrative and story telling, whereas the Digital folk know the software and art.
While I was teaching Berber took K to Balmoral beach for a swim. *So jealous*.

C'est la vie.