Not much really...I've been so so busy with work I actually don't think anything happened at all! Maybe a bit of news is that I'm thinking of changing my car. I have a 2004 Nissan Micra, still works and I look after her of course but it is a left hand drive import from Italy and on a couple of occasion, specially with Oliver in the car, I felt I really didn't have enough visibility (in Ireland they drive on the left hand side and so cars are right had drive). I always thought that my car was great if we were going to France on holidays, and we did go on an "on-the-road" trip to Europe a few years ago, but it's not something that it's likely to happen again soon. So I'm looking at some bigger cars, probably a crossover. I'm going to test drive one next saturday...that will be fun...with the car at the "wrong" side of me, I'll look like a newbie! I'll better practice in some parking lot with Mike's car first.
Today I sold part of my original stash of bamboo nappies (I sold 12 and kept 8....you know...just in case) and I know I'm still due a review on the bamboo ones vs the Charlie banana and I will do it soon. But what I wanted to talk about was the fact that the girl who contacted me about the nappies through a local board, is not due till the end of the summer!! Fair play on her, I wish I had her confidence at the time! She was lovely, actually, I didn't tell her anything about my story of course (you wouldn't want to scare the crap out of a mom-to-be!) but it was refreshing to see that there are people for which a positive test equal a baby and they don't know any different. It also sort of saddened me to remember how little I enjoyed my pregnancy, with the constant fear of something going wrong...and I wonder if it will be different next time (hopefully there will be a next time). I want it to be different but I am not sure my traumatised mind will cooperate.
I don't know if I ever told you that I'm collaborating on a research project with a paediatric surgeon. It's great to have someone I can talk to when I have a "fear-attack" on Oliver's health and generally he just says the right thing i.e. "don't be silly!". But last tuesday I went to his lab which is based in the main children's hospital. While of course I was no where near patients, it was impossible not to know that very sick children of all ages are in that hospital. I could have gotten a tour of the wards etc but that would have killed me. I never ever want to be there for any other reason than work and research. How do those doctors go home every evening and leave the horror behind it's a mystery to me. Anyway, I suppose someone has to do it.
In other, much lighter news, I'm really happy some of my favourite bloggers have the removed the hated word verification! Please join the movement!
Love to all
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Another week
Friday already! Can you believe it? We had a bit of a rough week, Oliver got sick at the weekend and eventually we went to the emergency doc has his temperature was quite high, he was crying a lot and no sleep at all. The verdict was a very inflamed throat and so we had a light antibiotic to make sure no secondary infection was setting in. He was much better within a couple of days. I stayed home with him till Tuesday and though this never happened before I found it so difficult to go back to work on Wednesday!! Mike came down with the same flu about monday evening so I had two to look after. I seem to have escaped the worse of it though I'm getting a cold just now...
Oliver is making steady progress with cruising, still needs at least one hand to walk but every wall, table or chair is a great "walking aid" for him. His new love is going up the stairs with me or Mike holding his hands and he goes up one full step at the time! Of course for him the steps are as high as his thighs so it's a big effort!We also got some locks for cupboards in the kitchen, mostly where I keep detergents as he seems really curious about that specific press! I bought him his first pair of "real" shoes which are very flexible and soft but will help his stability, in the shop the assistant actually took a pic of Oliver and frame it for us as a big milestone! One thing I liked is that they measured also the width of his foot (both!) to make sure they model was a perfect fit. He loves wearing them.
Oliver is making steady progress with cruising, still needs at least one hand to walk but every wall, table or chair is a great "walking aid" for him. His new love is going up the stairs with me or Mike holding his hands and he goes up one full step at the time! Of course for him the steps are as high as his thighs so it's a big effort!We also got some locks for cupboards in the kitchen, mostly where I keep detergents as he seems really curious about that specific press! I bought him his first pair of "real" shoes which are very flexible and soft but will help his stability, in the shop the assistant actually took a pic of Oliver and frame it for us as a big milestone! One thing I liked is that they measured also the width of his foot (both!) to make sure they model was a perfect fit. He loves wearing them.
I'm still very excited about our trip to the US and delighted I may be meeting even more bloggers! I have not decided yet when I'm going to the East Coast, and of course I don't have to go to Boston directly, could go to New York and have a couple of days there and meet a few more bloggers! So all is possible.
One final thing, I noticed that those blogs that are using the "word verification" thingy when you comment have now a new version of it, if possible even more annoying where you have to type two words which are often illegible! Do you guys get that many spam comments? I removed that check a while ago and eliminated the option for anonymous comments and never had a problem! I read a great post a few months back about how useless that feature is and how it limits comments (if you read from your phone for example), so I invite you to give it a go and see how it goes without it!
Have a great weekend you all.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
California here we come!
What is better than planning holidays to unwind from crazy working days?
And so I started looking at flights, dates, places to stay etc. and as of yesterday we have booked our flights and we have a place to stay!
Here are the details. Between Mike and I, we will be attending two conferences when in the US so the timing was crucial. Mike has a conference in San Francisco (CA) around the 15-16th of June, I have one near Providence (RI) from the 8th of July till the 13th. Mike doesn't want to be away for more than 3 weeks and so our journey back is going to be different.
We are all flying out of Dublin on the 13th of June, Mike and Oliver will travel back from San Fran on the 4th of July while I'll fly out of Boston on the 13th of July! Wow! One month in the States! We have been so so lucky that one of Mike's relatives lives just outside San Fran and has insisted we stay at her house when we go there. She even said that she can go and stay with some friends if we want more space and freedom! Can you imagine? On top of this she has also offered us her second car to go exploring. So our budget has suddenly increased for the whole holiday and we decided to spend a bit more on the flights and travel Premium Economy with British Airways (direct flight from London to San Fran) with a bit more room and a carrycot booked for Oliver. We'll see how it goes. I just cannot wait to see again our Ultimate Vet Hero and another dear friend who just relocated there in Januay, meet one of my long time cyber friend BWUB and hopefully a few more! I also have some time to spare between the 4th of July and my conference, I have not booked yet the internal flight from San Fran to Boston, I could stay with a friend in San Fran or just go to Boston on the 5th (no way I'm missing whatever will be going on on the 4th!), but I'll be on my own and with no real contacts that I can think of at the moment. My sister, who was at Brown University for a while said that actually Providence is not a place to stay at all so Boston would be way better if i decide to spend a few days on the East Coast and to make sure I get myself a place on campus when I'm at my conference (Bryant University).
Soooo I cannot tell you how excited I am about our trip, sure occasionally I'm thinking "oh my God how on hearth are we going to manage a 12 hours plane trip with a 17 months old AND 3 weeks away on our own AND Mike doing that mammoth journey back on his own?" but mostly I'm super super excited.
Please let me know if you would like to meet up if you happen to be somewhere near where I'll be!
And so I started looking at flights, dates, places to stay etc. and as of yesterday we have booked our flights and we have a place to stay!
Here are the details. Between Mike and I, we will be attending two conferences when in the US so the timing was crucial. Mike has a conference in San Francisco (CA) around the 15-16th of June, I have one near Providence (RI) from the 8th of July till the 13th. Mike doesn't want to be away for more than 3 weeks and so our journey back is going to be different.
We are all flying out of Dublin on the 13th of June, Mike and Oliver will travel back from San Fran on the 4th of July while I'll fly out of Boston on the 13th of July! Wow! One month in the States! We have been so so lucky that one of Mike's relatives lives just outside San Fran and has insisted we stay at her house when we go there. She even said that she can go and stay with some friends if we want more space and freedom! Can you imagine? On top of this she has also offered us her second car to go exploring. So our budget has suddenly increased for the whole holiday and we decided to spend a bit more on the flights and travel Premium Economy with British Airways (direct flight from London to San Fran) with a bit more room and a carrycot booked for Oliver. We'll see how it goes. I just cannot wait to see again our Ultimate Vet Hero and another dear friend who just relocated there in Januay, meet one of my long time cyber friend BWUB and hopefully a few more! I also have some time to spare between the 4th of July and my conference, I have not booked yet the internal flight from San Fran to Boston, I could stay with a friend in San Fran or just go to Boston on the 5th (no way I'm missing whatever will be going on on the 4th!), but I'll be on my own and with no real contacts that I can think of at the moment. My sister, who was at Brown University for a while said that actually Providence is not a place to stay at all so Boston would be way better if i decide to spend a few days on the East Coast and to make sure I get myself a place on campus when I'm at my conference (Bryant University).
Soooo I cannot tell you how excited I am about our trip, sure occasionally I'm thinking "oh my God how on hearth are we going to manage a 12 hours plane trip with a 17 months old AND 3 weeks away on our own AND Mike doing that mammoth journey back on his own?" but mostly I'm super super excited.
Please let me know if you would like to meet up if you happen to be somewhere near where I'll be!
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Work work work and more work
My dear readers, I am swamped with work and so don't get much time to blog. I do read you though from my phone! Please activate the function of mobile format, it's soooo much easier to see!
In bullet points here are the latest:
Oliver has settled nicely back into the new wobbler room in the crèche which is great. He has learnt this very cute "Oh-oh" sound which he makes anytime something falls! He's almost exclusively on organic cow's milk (though we still add some organic formula to the night bottle) and loves it.
He's learning to self-feed and you can imagine it's quite messy at dinner time.
Sleep is good, we realised that if he was waking up at night and couldn't find his soother, he would not settle and we had to go in, find the soother for him, hope he hadn't waken up too much and that he would go back to sleep. This may happen even 4 times a night. It is tough to get to work with such a disrupted sleep. So we foun a solution! We are now putting him to bed with his soother plus two more in the bed and you should see his happiness! One afternoon I saw him seeping with one soother in his mouth and one in each hand! Anyway this has been a life saver for us.
We had some sort of a virus just one week after going back to the crèche and of course we all got it. This delayed a bit Oliver's 12 month jab but thankfully he had no problems at all this time.
We think it won't be long till he's walking! Stay tuned!
In bullet points here are the latest:
Oliver has settled nicely back into the new wobbler room in the crèche which is great. He has learnt this very cute "Oh-oh" sound which he makes anytime something falls! He's almost exclusively on organic cow's milk (though we still add some organic formula to the night bottle) and loves it.
He's learning to self-feed and you can imagine it's quite messy at dinner time.
Sleep is good, we realised that if he was waking up at night and couldn't find his soother, he would not settle and we had to go in, find the soother for him, hope he hadn't waken up too much and that he would go back to sleep. This may happen even 4 times a night. It is tough to get to work with such a disrupted sleep. So we foun a solution! We are now putting him to bed with his soother plus two more in the bed and you should see his happiness! One afternoon I saw him seeping with one soother in his mouth and one in each hand! Anyway this has been a life saver for us.
We had some sort of a virus just one week after going back to the crèche and of course we all got it. This delayed a bit Oliver's 12 month jab but thankfully he had no problems at all this time.
We think it won't be long till he's walking! Stay tuned!
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