Thursday 28 June 2007

grrrr workmen

grrr just want the double glazing to be in and the workmen to leeeaaave (but not before doing the hoovering and dusting everything twice please).

had to get out today as felt like alien in my own home, plus doors open all the time made it all brrr chilly chilly cold. escaped in afternoon to a soft play area where jambeans invented new ways to fall off a slide into a ball pit and played flirty peekaboo with a boy toddler.

another bun is in the oven

ooooooooohhhhhh.

found out 2 days ago i'm pregnant again. given previous miscarriage, seriously crappy pregnancy and premature baby would have thought i would be more circumspect about it all, but that hasn't hit yet so am just enjoying the feeling of being very very very excited.

Still buzzing off bamjeans' birthday party

only 2 days ago our house was filled with 10 bubs, 15 grown ups, a whole lot of mayhem, some sterling muffins and one very happy baby.

wot a fab birthday party.

Monday 25 June 2007

A good death

Jasmine's Great Grandma died peacefully in her sleep at 3.30am this morning. RIP Granny.

Wednesday 20 June 2007

hard day antidote

jambeans has been an absolute treasure this evening - the perfect antidote to 3 days pure work-slog with evening time WFH thrown in to boot.

discovered a new game in the bath she couldn't get enough of - consisted of me holding her against my shoulder with my hand beneath her head and her legs around my tummy (i.e. the upright cuddling p'zish so mum doesn't get cold in the bath), then just letting her fall backwards into the water but supporting her head on the way down. instant giggles. again. and again. and again... you get the picture.

not much other stuff to report - saw nicky (siena-babymomma) today but feeling guilty as was in usual ruddy blush to finish up at work and pick up the bub so didn't really get to have a decent chinwag.

also not too proud of bitter, pain-fuelled mood and stony-hearted comments re. dying grandmas on yesterday's post but have decided not to delete/ amend, true to the warts'n'all/ keeping it real spirit i think this blog should be about.

Tuesday 19 June 2007

mucky pup

jasmine's been going to messy play - basically a big room with paint in it that someone else cleans after you've gone home. she's getting into the spirit of things.

avoid death this weekend

my back is so fucked i can barely move in the mornings. find it hard to haul my own sorry ass out of bed and wash/ clothe myself let alone do it all for the bub. just keep popping painkillers, being grumpy and trying to push on through it all. swimming makes it worse so am missing out on my weekly peace haven.

went to doctor's today to get a referral so sorting it out but totally stressed as means more precious work time wasted.

jazzie's party looms. the forecast is for torrential rain. it's the same weekend as glastonbury. we should have worked that one out.

we have word that bf's grandma is slowly slipping away. she's in her 90s i think so definitely has had a good innings but i will be so bloody angry if she chooses to die this weekend when it's jazzie-time.

Sunday 17 June 2007

the goddess is angry

after our muffin triumph we tried our hand at fairy cakes.

the cake bit was fine. the icing was a total disaster. we were so bad bf said we were worse than the losing team in the generation game.

either the goddess nigella pulled that celebrity chef lie on us, by making it sound oh soooo eeeeaaaasy (in the book she glosses through the icing part with a mere "i just use the back of a spoon and smooth it on") or we mere baking mortals have somehow made her very angry.

dear goddess - please spare us your wrath for the party next week. we will accept any punishment as long as it involves eating chocolate in a suggestive manner.

got my priorities all wrong but i don't care rant

i have house jealousy.

i just don't get how loads of people manage to get a beautiful house with the whole lifestyle thang going on. you know, woodstrip flooring, slate tiled bathroom, landscaped garden. our house is such a bloody tip in comparison (see photos in previous post for evidence) and 'cos we are strictly DIFM everything costs a small fortune.

work on the new double glazing starts in 2 weeks time which is so boring i'm finding it hard to get excited about ugly ugly UPVC.

Jailbreak Jasmine

just got to shimmy across this wall...


then pull the cord to release the escape hatch...


check the coast is clear...


make a quick run for it...


home free. paris hilton eat your heart out!

Saturday 16 June 2007

tough week. crazy at work and not sleeping brilliantly...

tough week. crazy at work and not sleeping brilliantly so feel cream crackered. pedro and lax came round for dinner that evening. v. cool and relaxed but i was tripping a bit on only 4 hours sleep so can't really remember much of it but bf said i was on good form. saw tina's new baby ava loridana today and remembered how much i had forgotten about the first few months, if that makes sense. ciaran came too. used to work with them both in 2000 but haven't sat down in a room with either of them for years. all very chilled. jambeans been very diva like lately. moaning a lot when she doesn't get what she wants. not eating much - unusual for a bub with a reputation for being trough monster (as previously mentioned). it's thrown us a bit so when she cries we tend to offer her food in case she's hungry, and she will often have a little bit. ends up with her having lots of small meals and us not knowing whether she's sated, or just fussy and is refusing to eat food unless it's cake. but we're not giving her cake so don't know if she's hungry and so on. mad keen to explore everything, even when tired so she's taking lots of tumbles too. bf feeling a bit out of kilter because the bub is quite hard to read at the moment, and it's tiring and frustrating when you get it wrong. am trying best to be sympathetic but know i'm not giving him full attention as am a bit self absorbed/ obsessed with work and bad back which is killing me so much that sometimes i can't walk, or sit, or lift a bag and i know it's melodrama but am getting totally paranoid about paralysis. but on the good side have uploaded loads of jambeans photos so can make blog look pretty again.

nous t'aimons la gitane

jasmine says bonjour just for you cherie. crappy may is over. you still managed to look beautiful in hospital. glasto is upon us. krusty's ant fetish can't last long.

(btw- if you want my words of wisdom from one who lives with a doctor - never never never get seriously ill at the weekend again. but i guess you worked that one out already.)

Sunday 10 June 2007

All hail Goddess Nigella

Yesterday

Made Nigella's blueberry muffins yesterday. Yet another triumph from the domestic goddess.

The motivation to bake is because we're having a floral-themed party in a few weeks' time to celebrate Jasmine's due date birthday. A flimsy excuse for a bit of a do really.

I've been panicking for weeks. It was my idea to have the party - it's been ages since I've had one - but ever since the invites went out and just about everyone said yes (why weren't any of them busy that weekend?) I've been mired in party paranoia. Food, entertainment, space (lack, thereof), decoration, what will I wear, is the house safe enough for all the little bubs, do we have enough space? all that worry has flooded in. But the panic has given us enough motivation finally to stow outgrown baby paraphernalia in the loft and offload boxes to the second-hand shop, most of which we hadn't unpacked since we moved in. Just don't open any cupboards in our house without a hard hat, that's all.

Today

Gloriously sunny today. We were planning tozzzz go buy stair gateszzzzzz at Brent Crosszzzzzzzzzzz (admittedly at my insistence - now the bub is crawling I am terrified of going to the loo without fear of her base jumping down the stairs) but such a boring plan didn't fit with such a beautiful day, and when boyfried made his usual joke about going to the zoo we both thought, why not?

Animals were on good form. Took the camera so finally have some more photos to upload. Jambeans' been running a fever today. We think, because of the MMR, but also she's dribbling like mad at the mo so there must be a tooth on the way. She enjoyed the zoo though. Particularly the fish. Man she just loved those fish. Her whole face lit up. I'm sure she thought it was like watching a zillion, enormous tellies, really close up, with no one saying no.

Saturday 9 June 2007

hamster latest

jamster hamster...

... is still big on cruising, particularly likes hanging on with one hand and bending down to pick up something else with the other

... eats like a horse ...

... but gets fussy at mealtimes, sometimes only eating if she can feed herself, which she does very inexpertly with a spoon, getting more on the chair/ floor/ me/ than in her gob

... doesn't quite get what scooping is all about yet so her favourite manoeuvre is to grab the spoon, throw it in the bowl then wave her arms about quite madly in an abracadabra type motion as if the food will then leap onto the spoon by magic

... prefers using her fingers to eat, even for soft, mushy food, which she daubs onto her fingers before shoving them into her mouth

... thinks bananas are great, her favourite bit being the banana skin which she bites into with relish? guess (hope) that's a teething thing.

... is also dribbling madly today so we guess #7 is coming soon

... is fascinated by 'in' and 'out' and will endlessly put something in the cup/bowl/box/etc. then out the cup then in the cup then out the cup, even (especially?) if the cup is full of water

... likes crawling around in the garden

... likes passing things to mummy and daddy then taking them back and passing them and taking them back and passing them and taking them yaaaawwwnn

... is still obsessed with clapping

... has started to copy, so will take the hairbrush and brush her own hair, or feed us raisins or will hold mummy's mobile to her ear

... has started to get onto her knees, or even stand up in her cot (grobag permitting) if she doesn't want to sleep at night

... throws tantrums, cries when we leave the room and is growing quite nicely into a right little diva

eight point nine kilo baby

we weighed jambeans today on the supermarket scales. i knicked the idea off a sitcom. like a true coward i tasked bf to do it and then walked off to spy on him from behind the cabbages before he could protest. he picked up the bub and hovered 'casually' around the scales, trying not to look guilty. unfortunately the place was crawling with staff and bf looked guilty as hell, and he hadn't even done anything yet. in the end i just walked up to the nearest shelf stacker and asked him if the scales would take my baby's weight. he looked scared that a customer had actually spoken to him in the first place, let alone asked something that wasn't in his training manual, so we just plonked her on before he could register and we were away.

eight point nine kilos. she's jumped back up to the 49th centile. she's doing well.

next time i'm gonna try the post office. it's a lot closer.

Thursday 7 June 2007

Jabs today

Took Jambeans for her MMR and 3rd Prevenar today. Not a pleasant task, and I'm not brilliant with injections myself. Like most cowards I do experience flashes of panic when they're coming up. But, whether its for me or her, I always try my best to put on a calm and fearless exterior.

I make a point of NEVER looking when they prepare the syringe, and I rarely watch when they stick it in. It's the only way I can really cope with the anticipation of pain. The nurse was in a chatty mood today, and kept up a lively stream of questions as she drew up the syringe, so I didn't have much choice today but to look at the enormous, glinting needle. I always thought that was also the one that went into your flesh. How wrong I was.

The needle that goes into you (or rather, the bub) is diddy.
Tiny.
Miniscule.

What a discovery. I feel cheated. Why did no one tell me that before?

jasmine's first blog entry

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Wednesday 6 June 2007

whassup with jambeans?????????

jambeans wouldn't sleep last night just screamed and screamed and screamed even when we brought her into bed with us she just wanted to be held wouldn't tolerate being put down at all she wasn't ill wasn't teething we don't think hadn't done a poo etc. we think it's probably separation anxiety combined with awareness of world rushing in and her not knowing how to control her mood state but in the end we gave her some food changed her nappy gave her some calpol and left her to it but i think she fell asleep at that point mainly because she had been screaming for about 4 hours then we caught some zees but only a few hours and were both zombies all day but bf had said that morning on the train platform whatever happens DON'T STOP WORKING and he was right cos otherwise i would have gone numb but when i finally did stop it all caught up with me and thought i was going to die or be sick from exhaustion but still had to pick jambeans up and get her home and now she is in bed and we hope she sleeps ok and i feel like poooooooooooooo

Monday 4 June 2007

addicted to crap telly

since telly is famously getting worse all the time i think it's best to rejoice in it's grubbiness, rather than moan about the good ole days, so here's the list of dross i'm series linking on Sky+ at the moment:
  • gray's anatomy (but it's gotta be series 3 on living tv - none of that 1-series-behind-shitey-stuff on five)
  • ugly betty (but it's gotta be the first viewing on wednesdays on e4 - none of that two-days-after-the-main-event-shitey-stuff on four)
  • the apprentice (that katie, eh? whottabitch)
  • gordon ramsay's f word (worth it just to hear the foodie gobshite tell gordon to f*** off)
  • countdown (i'll have an inverted T please carol)
  • paul merton in china (disappointingly crap)
  • shipwrecked 2007 (go tigers, go)
  • big brother on the couch (my concession to BB so far. i will not get addicted to BB this year, i WILL NOT get addicted to BB this year ad infinitum)
  • project runway (i really have sunk that low)
  • abbey and janice - the beauty and the best (and yet lower still)
tragic isn't it?

more mess than mat

jamster led a mammoth broccoli throwing session this pm, followed very quickly by toast tossing, grape chucking and water spilling - all over the seat, the balloon, donut the giraffe, the floor and, of course, herself.

rambling thesis about facebook

so lagitane and i have been parleying about facebook, and since it's one of those rare occasions i committed e-thoughts to e-paper in some semi-coherent form at least, here's the transcript. i'm not sure i agree 100% with what i've said, or more precisely, the tone with which it is said, since i'm quite addicted to facebook so i must enjoy it in some small way.

lagitane:

what the h*** is this facebook thing all about?!
babymomma:

you're obviously struggling to see the point of it so far.

basically facebook, like any other social networking site (and every time i mention facebook it is interchangeable with myspace etc.), is at its most powerful and, IMHO, only really works for social groups that meet in the real world - ie have a need to talk at least once every day. that's why it's such a draw for schoolchildren, students, 20 somethings and people whose work doesn't tie them to an office or a 9-5 (think actors, directors, scriptwriters, the unemployed etc). evidently, it's not exclusively the preserve of the young, but i suspect it tends to service their needs the most.

it's one-stop-shop-ness is one of the key benefits. it's a natural extension of both email and Instant Messenger, because the interface allows both one-to-one and one-to-many conversations, with the added bonus of being able to upload photographs, publish notes, import blogs and upload other networking apps for your whole social gang, immediate and extended, to see on one page. [separately, many IM, email, blogs, photo sharing sites offer superior service and better interfaces than facebook, but the convenience of doing everything in one place seems to be winning out.]

as a networking site, you can also use it see who knows who, and therefore who is popular (and cool) and who isn't. it's also creates the opportunity to use the network to add 'friend' after 'friend' and therefore increase your own aura of connectedness/ popularity/ coolness. but i think that only really works if you've met them in real life, so facebook becomes a public, post-event record of your real-world connections to people, and a way of expressing how many and what kind of people you like.

so what's the point?

to my mind, it's the 21st century equivalent of customising your bedroom wall/ school folder/ school bag. what it delivers isn't fundamentally new, it's just the medium that has changed. for decades people in society have sought ways of publicly expressing their personal tastes, identity and individuality with a view to impressing any other observer, casual or otherwise. facebook lets you do it in a considered manner so your virtual personality becomes the 'you' you wish you could be all the time. where bad hair days don't exist and you are never lost for wit... the premise is very alluring, particularly to young people who tend to care more passionately about what others think about them.

for facebook to really add value to your life, though, you have to have:
(a) time to waste socialising in the virtual world
(b) some latent need to express your individuality
(c) genuine need to interact with your social network on a daily basis.

without these three things, facebook will just be something to try out to see what the hype is all about and then quickly forgotten. within a few months i guarantee there will be a vast number of stagnant profiles - PLUs who have gone on to see what all the fuss is about, and then dropped it just as soon.

i'm sure the main reason you're probably unimpressed is because you're french, you have cool in your DNA so don't need to bother with all this.
lagitane:

as I suspected, it's just a virtual version of when we used to write in each other's notebooks at school...

well, so far it has put me back in touch with the wan**r that [censored] in hong kong and only told me 48 hours after the deed, leading me to believe I was [censored] for two days...so I suppose that's a positive!
am thinking of writing on his wall to warn all innocent ladies away...

Friday 1 June 2007

Stop start stop start

  • when did jamster-hamster stop blowing raspberries to mean 'no'?
  • when did she start faceplanting into the sippy cup to guzzle down water at every opportunity?
  • when did she stop with the "wa-wa-wa-wa-wa-wa" and start back on the "ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba"?
  • when did she start bursting into fits of laughter for no apparent reason whatsoever?
  • when did she stop trying to pull my hair out?
  • when did she start using her head and eyes to point to things she wants?
  • and when will she ever stop grabbing my specatacles?

i think i've been asleep for the last few weeks.

(no. can't believe i just said that. asleep for a few weeks? i wish...)

we've come a long way baby

found this email i wrote to the other babymommas when jambeans was 5 mths corrected. forgot how painful the learning curve was. hell, i might even pass for an experienced babymomma now.
ok i'm going to type this really really fast as i probably only have another 5 mins before the baby j wakes up & starts screaming again. she got a cold on monday, and was a bit grumpy and snuffly at the beginning of the week but yesterday she hit the "had enough" button and started screaming. and i mean proper screaming - like she's convinced i'm putting poison in the breast milk screaming. and she pretty much hasn't stopped since. i got so worried i even called nhs direct, but by the time i left my details and a nurse called me back she had just woken up from a nap, and seemed smiley and fine. so i said it was a false alarm and as soon as i put the phone down she started the "you're killing me" screaming again. yesterday the only thing that would quieten her was me carrying her, but i had to stand up whilst carrying her (sitting - not allowed) so my arms and legs and back are so knackered they're faintly shaking today. then she woke up every 2 hours at night for some food as she had barely eaten anything yesterday (doubtless too busy screaming), until 5 this morning when she refused to go back to sleep again. but she wasn't making too much noise until ali left at 7.30 this morning when she started screaming again. now i have a choice of "you're killing me" screaming if i lay her down, or "loud, moany-whimpering-type-screaming" if i carry her. silence is not an option. i keep taking long slow deep breaths in the mistaken assumption that she will pick up on my general aura of calm-in-control-ness. but she thinks that's a load of b***ocks and just keeps screaming.
oddly, the only thing that worked today was me putting her on her back on her changing mat on the bathroom floor while i took a shower. so that's my secret weapon and s*d the water shortage.
phew, just had to get that off my chest. in case you're wondering - i'm feeling alright bc i know this won't last, but thanks ladies for the release anyway.