Tag Archives: jsr

Babies love iPhones

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Lots more social times recently! Mary and Soames came over to play Rock Band on Sunday, Megan and Danielle and Bobby visited Monday, and last night we went out to Satya with Caycos and Fishie and Muggins. It’s almost like before we had a baby! But better, because we also have a baby.

Side note: I often have a hard time deciding what name to use for people. There are lots of folks who I associate with their nickname, even if I’ve known them for years. Occasionally this leads to a conversational fumble where someone will be talking about an unknown guy named Mark, and it takes a long time to twig that they mean good old MrSpookyDoomPants! (Though I made that example up, I no longer hang out in the gothic newsgroups so having a friend called MrSpookyDoomPants is not likely.) This came to a head when we were putting together our wedding invitations, and had to do an embarrassing amount of facebook snooping to come up with everyone’s full name… anyway, I could have said we had dinner with Catherine and Andrea and Colin but that just sounds weird!

Bringing Willow together with another baby is always amusing. Her social technique is based on full body contact and tends to be a little overwhelming for the recipient… She and Bobby are only a few days apart in age so they’re at very similar stages, and both very keen on iPhones as it turns out. Ah, the irresistible lure of Apple products. We had four for them to choose from, but they definitely preferred Danielle and Megan’s chewable rubbery cases.

Willow and Bobby

Willow nomming iPhone

JSR also brought some flip-around-and-raspberry action, which always goes down a treat. I don’t get to take many photos of him with Willow because he rarely wears a shirt around the house, so I treasure each one!

Willow and JSR

I finished my annual accounts for N&B yesterday, having lots of fun with spreadsheets and fixed asset registers and depreciation. (I genuinely do find that stuff quite enjoyable.) The numbers are a little bleak, though the silver lining is I don’t have very much tax to pay, ha ha! I’ve been getting into some good work routines lately so I’m hopeful that this financial year will pick up a little. I’m still getting hammered by the exchange rate, but as I cannot change that I have a firm policy of not worrying about it too much. I sometimes envy the regularly-salaried, but this is a much better life for me, so I just have to make it work.

Quiet

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I have a number of friends and acquaintances with babies of a similar age to Willow, and recently several of them have been expressing plans for another child. Their excitement and anticipation is a joy, but also reminds me how different from normal our experience must have been. I love Willow madly, but our bond was hard-won, and I cannot begin to fathom trying to do this again.

It might be different the second time, we might not find ourselves so lost, but I have absolutely no desire to find out, and fortunately JSR and I are in firm agreement. Even setting my depression aside I don’t think it would be a good idea, as we both need a lot of quiet time and have little patience for the tumult that would come with a larger household. Lest anyone ask why we had a baby in the first place, my need was so strong that not doing it was not an option. But those feelings have been fulfilled, and show no sign of returning. Stigma about only children be darned – JSR is one, I was raised as one, and we turned out fine. We’ll be a little family of three, and I will satisfy any further need for babycuddles with all your new additions ;)

I am happy that I can talk about this without being upset, because that would not have been the case nine months ago, when I was regularly reduced to tears by any mention of enjoyment of motherhood. I’m not out of the woods yet, but I’m recovering.

Things have been quiet this week as I’ve been laid low with a cold. A sneeze or two on Wednesday afternoon turned into head-of-exploding-demon-goop by evening, followed by a couple of days of sniffling, hoarse lethargy.

Cold medication relieves the pressure but gives me vivid dreams, most of which are quite unpleasant, with the exception of a romp where Anita Blake, Fictional Vampire Hunter and Amanda Palmer, Real Life Rock Star were conflated into one supernatural artistic dynamo. JSR said “I’d watch that show!” and I would too.

Seriously, what’s with those Anita Blake books? I picked up the first one looking for some light reading, and it was so bad I ended up skimming only the first and last paragraphs of each chapter to get through it quickly. After mocking on Twitter I was told the series improved from book #10, so I gave that a try, and now I’m nearly done with #12 and have #13 on my reserve list from the library. They are RIDICULOUS – every one of Anita’s problems can be solved deus ex machina by having sex with one or more of an increasing list of vampires, wereleopards and werewolves – but I’m invested in the characters now. Perhaps it will get boring after a few more volumes. Oh well, at least I’m not reading Twilight ;)

Scary Papa

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More pictures of our lovely beener-weener:

Willow, Thoughtful
Looking thoughful, with her beautiful eyelashes.

Willow, Multi-tasking
Some sunny morning multi-tasking with a book and my iPad.

Willow, Master of Noodles
Noodles are serious business.

Willow, Bathing
Everyone gives their babies comedy shampoo hairstyles in the bath, right? ;)

I recently complained on Twitter that we couldn’t opt out of phone book deliveries, and ours would be going straight from letterbox to recycling bin, but I’ve since seen a couple of good ideas for using them. @FitzMojoBob suggested that they are excellent for glue-sticking – using a fresh page for each piece would prevent getting residue on the front sides! – and @venzann mentioned his son would be making papier mache with theirs. I’m tempted to fish our ones out of the recycling bin again now, torn between the creative possibilities and the desire not to hoard stuff! Any other good ideas to sway me?

I’ve been watching lots of episodes of Mock the Week, and when I say lots of episodes I mean seven seasons. I have subsequently developed quite a crush on Dara O’Briain. Sparkling eyes, huggable build, an utter disdain for homeopathy – I am fanning myself as we speak! I previously only knew Dara from his appearances on QI and haven’t seen any of his other work, so I’ll have to keep an eye out for it.

Now I need a new show to work my way through. I’m not a very dedicated TV watcher, but I usually have something on the go to turn on for a few minutes here and there when I’m crocheting, drinking my afternoon coffee, etc. I’m trying Alias, since we have a good chunk of it, and I’m only halfway through the pilot so far but it looks like it should be interesting enough. I think I missed the last season of Arrested Development too, which I’ll re-watch from the beginning when I pick it up again, and I’ve heard good things about Veronica Mars but have never seen any. Hmmm, I’m not short of options!

This afternoon JSR got a hair cut and trimmed his beard in preparation for upcoming job seeking, and when Willow saw him her bottom lip quivered, she whimpered a little, and frantically crawled over to me on the verge of tears! It was one of those sad/hilarious moments babies excel at. He won her back over with some head-snorfling and verses of Pop Goes the Weasel, but for a little while he was a big scary stranger. Poor beans ;)

MORE Teeth

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Spotted in Willow’s mouth on Friday: the tips of teeth 11, 12 and 13. Yes, at once. That makes five teeth that have partially emerged but aren’t completely out of the gum, no wonder she’s been fractious and not taking naps this week.

JSR is between jobs now, and I thought that would mean lots of time together (and opportunities to get the odd thing done by myself in the day) but he’s been sleeping from breakfast until dinner so… it’s actually like he’s at work seven days a week instead of five, and I have to sleep alone as well.

I have absolutely no news, apart from finishing my last session at the dentist. Nice to have it all done, but ouch, another $590. I am consoling myself with the thought that I hadn’t been for about eight years, so the total of $1600/8 is $200 a year… that’s probably what checkups and cleanings would have cost anyway? (Not to endorse slack attendance, I do plan to go regularly from now on, as I’ve been scared with warnings that two of my teeth have been filled very deeply and may need root canals if they go wrong again.)

It’s only 7.40am, maybe I should go back to bed even if I don’t get any more sleep. I might be able to entice a cat to join me. Otto’s usually quite obliging, he loves to knead my blankie with his big smooshy lion paws and he has a lovely comforting purr.

Catching Up

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I woke up on the proverbial wrong side of bed this morning. Before I finished breakfast I had revised my goals for the day, from a list of work and household jobs to simply trying not to yell or break anything unnecessarily. Luckily a nap and some reading helped a lot and I ended up quite cheerful later on in the day. Actually who knows if that helped at all, I don’t pretend to have any idea what’s going on with my moods these days, apart from missing doses of my brain pills being a significant mistake.

That happened over the weekend, and by Sunday afternoon I was harrumphing terribly and telling JSR I was going to train in accountancy. He knows the score, as his first comment was “For real, or are you just in a weird mood?”. My consideration of the matter is actually moderately serious, even now I have my thoughts straightened out again, though I don’t think I’ll go ahead as I can’t face the thought of more years of being a student. I would be a jolly good accountant, though!

It’s nice having the house to ourselves again after 10 days of nearly continuous house guests. (Did I mention JSR’s mum was staying here before my nieces?) Having people around is not a bother, and I enjoyed catching up with family, but they frighten the cats terribly. We barely saw Pippin the whole time, and Otto was also rather scarce, but now they’re back to lounging around the house all day and joining us in bed at night. Lovely lovely kitty cats. I just don’t understand anyone who isn’t a cat person. They are the best ever.

Here’s Willow talking to Pippin with her cat noise. “Ga” is nothing like “cat” but she uses this intonation very specifically, we know exactly when she’s talking to a cat and when she isn’t!

Last night JSR and I made popcorn and curled up on the couch to watch a movie, the first time we’ve done so in months. Hot Tub Time Machine was a silly comedy, but I would have watched just about anything with him. Couple time is hard to come by these days, amongst all the fussing the bean requires and our completely out-of-sync sleep cycles. I’m hoping we’ll fit in plenty more while JSR is between jobs and home every day, for he is my best snoogleboo.

I don’t think I’ve updated about our garden before! I’m in the process of refurbishing it from super boring “low maintenance” planting that resembled the side of a motorway into… well, I don’t have a set plan, but there will be lots of fruit and flowers in a semitropical jumble-style. I like gardens that are lush and rambling, and I don’t have the motivation to tend lots of fiddly annuals, so it will be trees and shrubs and ferns and things that can mostly look after themselves. (Plus some spring bulbs, which I adore.)

I’m currently working on the bed next to the deck, which isn’t very big but was filled with many layers that needed to be removed before replanting: soil -> black plastic -> red chip stone -> black plastic -> river stones, and all those layers were twined through with old tree roots and other random bits of weed mat and whatnot. I go out after dinner most evenings and clear another few buckets worth. About three quarters of the bed is down to the soil layer now, and I’m hoping I can finish it this week and get onto PLANTING! That’s what I really want to do!

One last thing, I’m trying to be mindful of my spending, so I’m going to list my outgoings here (apart from business stuff and groceries and household bills) and when I buy something unnecessary you can tell me off. I’m not focused exclusively on saving money, though that is important, but also trying to think more about the where and who and what and how of what I buy. If I’m going to spend money I may as well have it go somewhere I feel good about! I’ve actually been doing well lately, helped by keeping a list of things I really do need and giving myself a cooling-down period every time I think about proceeding to checkout, but public accountability is a powerful force. Nothing to report so far this week :)

Hectic

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These last few days have been… hectic!

JSR had to go to Christchurch on business last Thursday morning. I was not impressed at his work for sending him into the seat of a national emergency, but he returned safe and sound on Friday night. Being sole charge of Willow for a couple of days isn’t much different from my usual schedule (because JSR works hard and often long hours, not because he isn’t helpful when he is here!) and Otto kept his side of the bed warm, but I miss him even just for one night.

I also had more dental work on Friday, top cleaning and two fillings. 45 minutes, $550. Is the dab of stuff they put into my teeth really that expensive?! This session was much better than the last, and the only really unpleasant bit was feeling very faint and shaky after the injections. I don’t normally have a problem with needles but my body seems to have endless capacity for unpleasantly surprising me. Now I only have one more appointment to complete my treatment plan, and I won’t let my teeth get this bad again.

Saturday was Amy and Ross’s wedding. JOY! The weather was very wet, but as they had a church ceremony and restaurant reception it didn’t matter at all. I feel so bad for people who have their hearts set on outdoor weddings that are spoiled by rain! Amy and the bridesmaids were beautiful, I got a little teary at the speeches, and I hope they are very happy with how the day went because as a guest it was lovely. The only photos online so far are on facebook so I can’t post one directly here, but you can click through to the happy couple. (I hope that link works!)

On Sunday Amy’s parents hosted a friends and family lunch, which we were kindly invited to. Afterward Annie came back to our house to visit Otto, and I hope she was pleased with how he is settling in. He and the other cats are getting along well now, he goes in and out the cat door without wandering off and getting lost, and he seems very relaxed. He visits me in bed each night to do some serious kneading on my blankie, and he loves to climb on our shoulders despite being Quite A Big Cat Indeed. We love him so much already!

Otto and Monty asleep
Otto snuggles the disapproving monkey while Monty occupies the beanbag.

Anniversary Amanda Palmer

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Christchurch continues to dominate my thoughts. The initially abstract news is starting to sink in as first-hand reports of loss and ordeal emerge. Every now and then a photograph or report plucks a heart-string particularly strongly and I cry a little more. My three older nieces are going to come to Auckland in the next couple of days to escape the aftershocks and lack of services, staying with us and my parents however it works out best. I am looking forward to seeing them, and I hope the break helps them recover a little (and eases the strain on the rest of the family who are staying in Christchurch).

Last night we had long-standing arrangements for Willow to stay at my parents’ house overnight for the first time, while JSR and I had an anniversary/birthday dinner and went to see Amanda Palmer. It seemed very frivolous to be going out, but it wasn’t as if staying home would actually help anyone, so we went ahead.

I had not seen Jason Webley play before, though I was mildly familiar with his material, and I have to say I fell in love a little bit. He is charming and talented, as of course is Amanda. The show was chaotic and wonderful and we had an amazingly good time being out with each other as a couple, which we have barely done in the last year. It felt like our ‘old life’, and while I love our new circumstances too it’s nice to know that we can have both.

(One of the issues that hit me strongly after Willow’s birth was grief over the irreversible changes we had made – not just the shallow trappings of lifestyle, but a real sense of losing our couple-hood in a way I never expected. I know now, with the benefits of hindsight and treatment, that my brains were well and truly scrambled with anxiety and paranoia and our relationship is as strong as ever, but it is still a relief to switch off from being parents for a little while and just be us again.)

Seeing that little bean when Mum dropped her home this morning was another joy, as I got to kiss her soft cheeks and smell her sweet baby breath. I really feel blessed, and once again so lucky that we remain happy and safe and well.

Potato Joint

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[JSR is watching a show about building kit-cars.]

Me: “Um… did he just say potato joint?”

JSR: “I believe it was rotator joint.”

Me: “Oh. That does make more sense.”

(I do not know much about cars! I was imagining a potato joint as a sort of ball-in-socket contraption, though it also sounds like a specialised diner that only sells fries, or baked potatoes. Annie and I once went to a weekend music festival and ate gleefully from a Spud-8-O baked potato van. That was definitely a potato joint.)