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All of a sudden is already my birthday. Hello my virtual friends!

I wanted to post a nice update about the house renovation with pics etc, but we are still living in a building site without a kitchen... fun times...kitchen was gone by the time we came back from holidays a month ago and we won't have it for another 2 weeks...but we are nearly there.

Children have started school back again and they are delighted (I promise I will update soon on Oliver's saga which, would you believe it, it's still dragging on).

I went for a dream job interview during the holidays but while I would sell a kidney for it, I was not the perfect match and two other candidates fit better the job description, so unless of a miracle that is gone (but the process is very long, I won't hear for while a definite no). There's another good position going that I will apply for, and I'm also going for promotion this year. Work has gone quite well, one of those years where planets align and several very ambitious things have succeeded. So I'm going for it because it was really what I should have been offered 2 years ago when I joined this new Uni. I am telling myself that if I'm again caught in the bureaucracy of a broken system (not enough budget for the School, too soon to be promoted, etc), I'm packing up and enrol into a medicine degree which is what I should always have done. But that's not without other major consequences (assuming I'm not too old already and eligible).

My feelings in general are still very troubled. I feel very conflicted with Mike (who is his usual self, great person, great with the children, but zero ambition or drive to do much at all), I feel stuck, I day dream of other lives most of the time, but at times I dream of moving back the clock to when I felt happy with what I had. I need projects and plans...I'm one of those.

Health-wise we are all doing well, I had my usual anxiety about whatever, did all my checks, all is good. Till the next bout of anxiety. I am doing much better from that point of view but when anxiety strikes it's a beast. The one who is doing worst is Carlito the cat, who has not settled much in this new neighbourhood, the other cats are giving him a hard time, and on saturday he was hit by a car...one kind neighbour took him to the vet where we found him today. He should have (one very expensive) surgery tonight, poor pet he looked miserable...but should be ok.

I read all your blogs, you that are still writing, but sometimes my messages to you don't get posted and I don't know why. Know that I'm there for you.

6 months check-up and 28 weeks!

We have nicely settled back into our routine and Oliver is doing very well. No particular reaction to the vaccines (the 4 months shots were definitely worse) and we had a nice weekend.

Some more work was done to the attic (yes I know, still not finished!) and we changed all the windows too to triple glazed, high efficiency ones.

AF also made her appearance over the weekend and I hope to be back on track for September.

During the week I brought Oliver to the paed for a routine 6 month check up and he did very well. He's growing in weight (8kg!) and hight (67cm) which according to online calculators means he's between the 25 and 50 percentile so I'm very happy with that as he's on track, in fact probably getting closer to the 50%. Paed was very happy with developmental progress and said he can now eat everything he likes including eggs and meat. Nice!

I think he's getting much stronger in his upper body and can sit almost by himself (still needs a bit of support for balance) and rolling is now a very common thing. Still, he can't roll back and he gets frustrated when on his tummy for too long. My little man is 28 weeks today!

Oliver's best friend at the moment is Carlito. Carlito is our kitten and he loves licking and chewing Oliver's fingers! Oliver doesn't seem to mind (most of the times!) and could spend ours looking at the cats playing and caressing them. I closely supervise this, I don't want him to be too rough with the cats and of course he still doesn't have a clear idea of the fact that pinching is NOT ok!

Finally I bought another gadget... this is a kitchen robot which cooks as well as mixing! I love it! It was seriously expensive but I think I'll use it a lot and it's great also for baby food. Mom has it since Christmas and praises it on a daily bases. I've made pizza, bread, risotto and tiramisu, all super yummy!

21 weeks, the nursery and Carlito

Thank you all so so much for the outpour of love on my last post. Some of you were following me last year when we got the kittens so I truly appreciate every comment. You are amazing.

Oliver today is 21 weeks! Doing very well and I thought I'd post a couple of pics of the tiny nursery where he'll stay till he goes into the big boys room sometime in the future.

The Stokke sleepi bed and the corner of the changing table

A close up of the wall decorations and the wooden mobile

A shot of the other side with Oliver on the changing table and the cloth nappy covers!

It's been a week since Oliver started sleeping in his room and we couldn't be happier. Everyone is getting much more sleep. We bring him into our bed in the morning sometimes for a cuddle and he loves it!

Our room is now back to ourselves and the cats. Patches slept with us his last night (we didn't know it was his last night but it's nice to know he had lots of cuddles) and since then the Dude is spending the nights on our bed. We didn't allow the cats to sleep with us when Oliver was there too, I still wouldn't feel comfortable with them jumping in his crib while he's inside.

Finally, I mentioned we had adopted a new kitten from the vet clinic and he's with us since yesterday. We called him Carlito after much debate but now it fits him perfectly. He's about 5 weeks old but he's so active and playful, yet very well behaved and cuddly we are all very happy. Except the Dude who is still keeping his distance. It went this way. The Dude saw Carlito and went near him to smell him. Carlito hissed and made himself as big as possible (which means about the size of a Dude's paw!), the Dude took it badly and has hissed at him since. But then he runs away, never lifted a paw, so Carlito now knows he's a gentle giant and just want to play with him. The Dude acts like he's afraid of him and went on a hunger strike for 24 hours (back to eating this evening even though in a different room to minimise the stress). He's now quite happily in the same room (the kitchen) as Carlito but never gets too close. Carlito on the other hand is trying his best to get as close to the Dude as possible! Hopefully they'll be friends soon, I know the Dude has space in his heart for another friend. Once the loss of Patches is accepted.

Carlito 27th of May 2011, about 5 weeks old