On Saturday night we went to a dinner party at Mark’s friends’ house and had soup (very yummy french onion; I want the recipe), beef stroganoff with rice, and pavlova for dessert. On Sunday, we went to Mark’s dad’s for lunch, and his step-mother served us soup, beef stroganoff with rice, and pavlova for dessert. How weird is that? It was like Groundhog Day.

Tami sent me this email and instead of sending it around, I will put my answers on here:

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Mother to crusty-headed 2 month old child
2. Development Manager for Community Learning, Westminster Adult Education Service
3. Shelter staff, Shepards of Good Hope, Ottawa
4. Camp Counsellor & Counselling Supervisor, Shadow Lake Centre, Stouffville

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. BBC 1995 Pride and Prejudice
2. Bridget Jones’s Diary
3. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation
4. The Burbs

Four Places you have lived:
1. Dagnall, Bucks., UK
2. London, UK
3. Whitby, Ontario
4. Ottawa, Ontario

Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Eastenders
2. ER
3. Desperate Housewives
4. Ready Steady Cook (even if Ainsley is super annoying)

Four places you have been on vacation:
1. south western Ireland
2. Athens and Poros, Greece
3. Barbados
4. Egypt

Four websites I visit daily:
1. Hotmail
2. my blogs
3. BBC
4. Toronto Star

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Hot chocolate pudding with vanilla ice cream
2. Pad thai
3. Tami’s nachos (made them last night with chicken, yum)
4. Grilled goat’s cheese

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Barbados (so sad I am not there this year with my grandparents)
2. Oshawa (wash my mouth out! but my parents live there now)
3. Ottawa
4. In bed asleep with no one to wake me up

Four things I would rather be doing right now:
1. Sleeping
2. Shopping
3. Eating
4. Travelling
(mostly copied Tami’s list)

Fun ways to spend your afternoon: picking yucky scaley skin off of Oliver’s head. I couldn’t have imagined a few months ago that this would be my life. But thanks Lisa for the encouragement – the oil is beginning to work a bit. Mark’s cousin, a paeds nurse, has also recommended emulsifying ointment which worked on her daughter.

I should have gone to pick up that ointment from the chemist today but I was too chicken to drive to the surgery on my own. My GP called yesterday and told me my blood results from the 6 week check weren’t very good, meaning that my iron stores are really low, and I have to go on tablets for a few months or something. I will pick up the prescription next week although I should have gone today.

They did give me iron tablets when I left the hospital, but I took one and threw the rest out as I felt fine and I didn’t want to more constipated than I already was. I understand that I lost a lot of blood during labour and that’s why this has happened but I did think that I was fine. Oh well.

I’m very aware that I still haven’t written Oliver’s birth story down so I am going to try to do that in the next week. I’ve opened a file on my desktop to remind myself to add to it when I get the chance, anyway!

I am trying hard to get rid of the cradle c(r)ap as we have a busy social weekend and I’d like him to look good! – tonight, dinner at Mark’s mums; tomorrow, dinner at Mark’s friends in Ruislip, and Sunday we are going up to Warwick to see Mark’s nan and dad. His nan had 3 strokes last week and has been in hospital. Everyone was very worried about her but we had been told not to bother visiting as she had been pretty out of it, but apparently she’s back to normal now so we can cheer her up with her great-grandchild.

It’s been snowing fluffy sticking flakes all day, which makes me happy – unlike yesterday’s icy wind-ridden conditions – so I decided we would try to go for a proper walk.

The snow (the Chilterns are very snowy – we’re a bit warmer down in the valley):

The unimpressed co-walker (slept in the Baby Bjorn):

The resulting filthy dog:

It wasn’t that fun actually. It’s pretty hard to carry the kid in the Bjorn and keep a tight hold on the leash at the same time as we went on the one public path around here and it’s right beside the main road and I can’t let her off the lead there. Which means Piper is unhappy and pulling, and I’m pissed off and pulling her back again. And now my back hurts. But at least we all got our legs stretched.

It’s currently snowing sideways – nice. It’s good to be indoors today.

However, as nice as the view out the window is, it was a pretty big mistake to move out here I think.

Mark felt that last autumn was the right time to sell the house as there is continuous speculation about the state of the housing market here and he was worried he wasn’t going to get a better price. It was probably unfounded, but I don’t think he would have sold it for much more if we had waited, and to be honest I am just happy that someone took it off our hands as there were many problems with it (mould, damp and lots of unfinished DIY).

This meant that we would be looking at renting somewhere, as we didn’t want to buy another house here in anticipation of sometime in the near future moving to Canada. So we decided to look more rurally as (a) we have a dog who needs space and a landlord that will put up with a dog and (b) with the baby on the way, we thought that it would be good to be closer to Mark’s mum so that we could get some help.

We ended up taking the only property that we ever saw because it had a HUGE yard for the dog to run around in, and it’s a 5 minute drive to his mothers. Which seemed like a good idea at the time.

I know that we would have found it difficult to find the right rental property in London (with garden and allowing pets) but oh how I wish we had. We were on our old street on Sunday, visiting a neighbour to show off Oliver and it really struck me how much better off I would be if we were still on that street. I would be able to walk to the GP. I would be able to take the dog for a great huge walk on the conservation area without having to drive her somewhere to take her out (there is no appropriate dog walking at our current house as there are no public rights of way without the sounds of gunshots, and there is no pavement/sidewalk on the busy main road). And I would be able to hop on the tube and go anywhere – e.g. visit work, see other friends, go to Borough Market, go do other decent shopping.

I’m trying to get comfortable driving here. Well, I was until the car decided to break down. It’s been off the road for 3 weeks but I think it’s okay now – passed its MOT, Mark put in new brake pads (the cause of a very strange noise) and has 3 new tyres. Driving will enable me to get Oliver to the GP in an emergency, to pick up something from the store if I really need it, and possibly get me to a post natal group or class. But it’s still not going to get me into London and back into civilisation. Unless I really splash out and feel like facing the M1. As much as I used to enjoy highway driving in Canada, I am not so sure about it here.

The other issue with this is that we came out here so that Mark’s mum would help us out. In her own way, she is being helpful by taking us on trips – to Ikea, to Mark’s nans, anywhere we want to go within reason is offered. But it’s not really the help that I need. We are getting on okay, but wouldn’t it be great if someone heated up some food or cleaned something up while I sat with the kid or something. Or THEY could do the entertaining or holding of the child. There is only so much time I get in a day to do things without having a baby attached to me. So right now I have made the choice to go online, which means sacrificing having a shower or just sitting quietly for a bit. When he sat in his chair entertaining himself with his toy this morning, I chose to wash bottles and sterilise them, and get some food for me. So this means that all the cleaning that I could be doing isn’t going to happen, and it’s not like Mark is going to do it or facilitate my doing it when he comes home.

So, all I can do is look forward to the prospect of emigration home, hopefully at the end of 2006, and the fact that I will be returning to some kind of civilised life, and the helpfulness of family and friends.

Had our 6 week check up yesterday and everything is fine. Our GP was astounded by the growth in Oliver’s head circumference, though they didn’t weigh him, so I am assuming he is gaining weight well. It doesn’t help that he comes from the big headed Bowmans so he probably won’t be able to wear normal size hats when he’s grown up either. The only concern I have is that he has a nasty case of cradle cap and despite using almond oil on it, it’s only getting worse. He’s crusty!

He definitely feels bigger, can’t quite do the one-handed hold anymore, and he’s actually fitting into 0-3 month size stuff now. I even got him in a sweatshirt and trousers on the weekend – his first time wearing real clothes and not just sleepsuits. However, all baby clothes should consist of snaps in the crotch to enable better nappy changing – taking trousers off everytime is just too annoying. It’s funny how it’s so positive at this time in life to be gaining weight; me, I’d like to start losing the loose tummy I’ve been left with, so perhaps I need to start using him in some sort of sit-up with weightlifting (him being the weight) scenario.

Mark took the afternoon off to take us to the appointment, and we had a little jaunt around some local towns afterwards. We found a great shop in Tring that carries naming ceremony/day accessories and have found a photo album of paper pages that we are going to ask guests to write a message in on the day. I thought that we wouldn’t find anything relating to a naming ceremony as they are pretty new here and no greeting cards exist, but they even had invitations for them. We made our own; I didn’t bother looking for some already made up. The store had loads of cute baby gifts but I resisted!!

Either the naming ceremony planning is really on my brain or I’ve just gone mad – I just placed an Amazon order consisting of:

• Oliver! the musical on dvd (never seen it)
• Oliver Twist by Dickens in paperback (never read it)
• the story of a train named Oliver from Thomas the Tank Engine (Mark is going to be so exicted! He already bought him a book of Thomas stories and has even started reading it to him!)
• oh and something for me (even though it’s for kids too)

This is what happens lately – I go out looking for something for myself, such as in the January Monsoon sale, and end up with little or nothing for me and just stuff for him. And, I am happy about it. Very weird.

Ah, he stirs from an afternoon nap in his cot. Longest he’s ever slept in it actually, which is good. I think we are moving to that from the moses basket very soon.

It’s terrible feeling so completely out of touch when your computer isn’t working. Anyway, it is now, and we are back in the world and I have a lot of blog reading to catch up on…

Oliver is changing fast. Since we’ve been offline, he’s developed his dad’s eyelashes (long and dark), started to get darker eyebrows, and is losing his hair in male pattern baldness places (on top first, also like dad). Most of all, he’s mega filled out – he’s not a skinny little thing anymore, but a hefty kid. Okay, some people give birth to bigger babies than him, but still, he seems huge to us!

We are sort of in a groove as far as sleep goes, too. We’re not anywhere near sleeping through the night, but he is getting most of his sleep at night, and I manage to feel human in the daytime. Sometimes he even goes for a 4 or 5 hour stretch – and then I have to make sure he’s still alive! Which of course wakes him up – and I only have myself to blame .

He’s fascinated by light – light coming from the windows, light from the tv in the dark. He’s spending more and more time looking at the Whoozit toy and even gurgling and grinning at it. We’ve had a bath that came without screams – that’s pretty good as he’s only getting bathed about twice a week, so he’s not actually had that many in his life. And most changing table times are also without screams, unless he’s really hungry – he’s just too busy looking at stuff. Today, I feel confident that he’s managing to achieve that social smile as he focussed a lot on both Mark and I and gave us proper grins. It’s been fairly elusive until now. But I did manage to capture it on film:

He’s overdue for his 6 week check – both of us will get checked over at the doc’s – but we have that booked in for Monday. And now we are in the midst of planning a naming ceremony (like a civil christening) for 11th March when my mum is here. Well, actually, I left Mark to plan it as it was his idea and I’m a bit busy – which means that nothing was done until I recently started to intervene and do things like actually send out invitations. We have a little problem in that we don’t know who to name as the ‘supporting’ people – equivalent of godparents – as I don’t have anyone here who would be able to attend, and he’s not actually that close to anyone he feels comfortable naming in that capacity. My idea is that for Oliver he will have UK people, and any future children can have Canada people. Yes I must be mad if I am considering future children.

Thank god we are cooking with gas once more; we had a hardware problem AND a virus so now it’s all fixed, and we invested in Norton again.

Last night, for the first time ever, we went out for Valentine’s Day to a restaurant. They all do set menus here, and it’s actually really difficult to get a booking, but Mark surprised me by making a reservation, booking his mum as a babysitter, and taking me out to the Banana Leaf thai place in Hemel Hempstead. And I even managed to have a shower that involved shaving and exfoliation! (of course this meant I sacrificed having lunch, but what can you do) There is, however, a reason that we don’t normally go out in V-day, and why I’d already had the ‘staying in’ nice dinner planned – it was pure cheese out there. Bad music, busy restaurant, a free polaroid of us framed, a rose for me…UGH! On top of that, the food wasn’t great and I had an upset tummy when we got home. Hopefully my dinner tonight that was meant for last night will upstage it – pasta puttanesca and Nigella’s molten chocolate babycakes in heart-shaped Le Creuset pots.

Thankfully daytime television viewing is halfway decent right now due to lots of Winter Olympics coverage by the BBC! Hurray! And we know who we are supporting:

However, this is what happens when the Canadian athlete/team doesn’t finish so well:

We are off to watch the men’s hockey team thrash the Italians now…

Our computer seems to have imploded – somehow all the USB ports aren’t working and I fear some nasty virus is at work, or there’s a serious hard drive failure. It sucks not having internet access at home right now, but there’s enough other crap to do to keep occupied…

We haven’t fallen off the planet but alas our computer has imploded and am not sure when we’ll be online at home again – currently at my mother in law’s on dial up while she coos over him behind me…
Hope to report in again soon but can’t say when.