you'll take an eye out!

2008-07-24T12:42:00.002+01:00

that's my name, don't wear it out

This morning, Mia said "mummy." Paul and I sort of laughed it off, thinking it was a fluke. Then a minute later, another "mummy".

That's my girl.

2008-07-23T21:15:00.001+01:00

i wish

Jack: "What are you doing?"
Me: "I'm writing something up for work."
Jack: "What is it?"
Me: "It's my self evaluation."
Jack: [huge hopeful grin] "Is it a birthday card?"

2008-07-21T17:02:00.001+01:00

movies and soundbites

Some recent Jack gems:

"Did I come from the shops?"

(After I finished the Race for Life) "Did you win?"

(Talking about a toy car) Me: "Does it go vrrrrooom?"
Jack: "No. It goes left or right."

And a recent Mia gem, her wobbly steps:

2008-07-11T14:17:00.002+01:00

playing the spoons

I haven't really talked much about BLW (baby led weaning), mostly because there wasn't much to delve into. I gave Mia finger foods instead of purees and avoided baby rice completely (her first foods were slices of avocado, banana, sweet potato, green beans, and other assorted fruits and veg), waited until she was developmentally ready to start (she didn't really eat in earnest until around 9 months, for those curious), and gave her a spoon to "play with" during mealtimes. She gagged, threw up, and made alarming choking noises whenever she ate for quite a while. I know it had nothing to do with the texture, because I gave her a bit of yoghurt once and she had exactly the same reaction. Unlike my son - who devoured everything I gave him from day one - Mia took time to understand that food was for swallowing. I made sure she ate with at least one of us so that she could watch and learn. Sometimes I loaded a spoon up for her, and gave it to her to feed herself. She actually dislikes being spoon fed, and is much happier holding it herself...even if 70% never makes it close to her mouth.

So, at one year, she can use a spoon and is happily grabbing and gnawing on things she can hold. I'm also pleased that we pretty much avoided bottles (I think Mia got expressed milk maybe 5 or 6 times at most?), so we didn't need to transition her from bottle to sippy cup. One less battle is always good in my books.

I took some clips of Mia using a spoon. I'm not kidding myself, I do know that most times there is no food on her spoon. I'm just tickled to see her moving it from the bowl or whatever to her mouth, it's so cute. It's also slightly alarming because it's making my little baby girl look that much more grown up. *big sigh*

Race For Life 2008

2008-07-06T22:36:00.001+01:00

Yep, it's that time of year again - I did the 5k Race for Life this afternoon in Cambridge with a couple of friends and 1,000 other lovely ladies. And just as in previous years, I planned to do lots of training and run the whole thing, whooshing smugly past everyone with such ease that I could give myself a pedicure at the same time. I ended up doing no training whatsoever (and had a couple of physical hindrances today that I won't go into because it'll make you go EWWWW) and it was raining to boot. Amazingly, I managed to jog/walk most of it and finished the course in 36 minutes...a personal best! Oh, but I ache right now. Next year, I will - honest truly promise - train and run the whole thing.

I love taking part in this event. Last year, I was hugely disappointed that I couldn't do the walk because despite being 2 weeks post partum, I felt up to it on the day. I didn't want to sign up for it in advance (a necessity) because I had no idea if Mia would be late, how I would be feeling, etc. I could have done it with Mia in a sling and that would have been pretty cool. That would have made two Race for Lifes whilst carrying my children (1 in utero.)

Every race, I read the dedications on everyone's backs and choke back tears. At the finish line, people shouted encouragement and applauded everyone who passed. One older man in particular caught my eye, clapping enthusiastically and shouted at me "Well done!" If I wasn't about to pass out from pushing myself to run the last kilometer, I would have burst into tears. I did get quite teary, actually. I do this every year for my grandma and every time I cross the finish line, I'd like to think I did her proud.

If you would like to make a donation, you can still do so on my sponsorship page for the next couple of weeks here.

2008-07-04T21:59:00.005+01:00

two small steps for girlykind

Yesterday, my beautiful and incredibly clever baby girl took her very first steps from her daddy to me. She's getting braver by the day, tentatively standing on her own until she wibblewobbles back down bum first. She can toddle along for quite a few steps when she's holding on to one of my hands, so I'm sure solo walking isn't far off at all.

Baby needs new walking shoes.

Mia's Birthday Party

2008-06-23T16:05:00.001+01:00

Thanks to everyone who left birthday wishes and lovely comments in the post below. Another wonderful thing to add to her scrapbook. You know, that scrapbook I started 9 months ago and got up to page three? My baby shower? Yeah, that one.

Mia's party was full of sunshine, good food, and lots of laughs, which is everything a good party should have. She devoured her cake, two fistfuls at a time. She sort of had the hang of opening presents, but would lose interest and crawl off to go eat a leaf. She got brave and took steps with only the gentlest of hand holds, and even stood on her own for a second (i.e. until I shouted out "OOOH!!" and startled her.) She wore a pointy party hat for ages and kept her party dress surprisingly clean. She clapped. She danced. She made everyone smile. She is so beautiful and I'm so glad we celebrated her birth accordingly.

On to the next one.

(Click the photo to see more images from the party.)

2008-06-19T08:00:00.002+01:00

one princess

2008-06-16T15:50:00.002+01:00

one year past due

One year ago today was my due date. (I thought that) my waters had gone, and the sleepless nights of pre-labour had just begun. Mia decided to rotate to an anterior position (the little stinker), and the happy/nesting/organised phase had passed into the grumpy/irritable/exhausted phase. But it was all very, very exciting.

Reading back on entries from a year ago, I feel a sad longing in my heart because I so loved being pregnant and Mia's birth ROCKED. I don't want any more children, but I would like someone to invent a machine that allows me to go back and experience pregnancy and birth again. Apart from that big evil thing that was on my ass. We could fast forward over that bit. Maybe if I was 5 years younger and our house was 2 rooms bigger (we still need an extra room for guests), we would consider another baby in a few years' time. As things stand, it's just not in the cards, and reminiscing about this time last year will just have to do.

And yep, still breastfeeding.

2008-06-12T16:51:00.002+01:00

maybe they taste like chicken?

Last week, Jack was bitten by a classmate in his preschool. Nothing serious; it just left a little red mark. The following day, Mia was bitten - or gummed - by a baby in her room at nursery.

Perhaps I should start dipping my children in ketchup before sending them to school.

Kalila's Birthday Party

2008-06-09T12:24:00.001+01:00

Kalila's Birthday Party
Originally uploaded by Lisa Durbin

In brief...

-Went to a lovely, sunny, outdoorsy, BBQtastic birthday party yesterday. I sampled all the desserts because it would be rude not to.
-Mia's got a new toothy peg coming in on the top. I was starting to think she was only going to have 4 teeth forever.
-Jack is learning Spanish from "Dora the Explorer."

And finally, a Jack Quote of the Week...

[Playing football with Jack in the back garden, and the ball rolls into the bushes.]
Me: Oh, no! You'll have to rescue the ball!
Jack: NO! I'M NOT A TOW TRUCK.

Thurleigh Farm

2008-06-05T11:47:00.001+01:00

Thurleigh Farm
Originally uploaded by Lisa Durbin

Sorry ladies, Jack Durbin has been claimed by Miss Lucy Turner.

So cute, I could just cry.

2008-05-28T12:21:00.002+01:00

back again

Howdy do, we're back from our whirlwind holiday (details on the main blog) and no one suffered from major jet lag. I'm amazed at how our children adjusted to the time zones with no problems. By the time we got the kids to bed after we landed in Toronto, it was 1am UK time. They woke happily at their usual time (7am Toronto time), and Mia went down for her naps as normal. Fantastic; they did it on the way back as well. The night we came back to the UK, I collapsed into bed at 10, too tired to stay up for Mia's 11pm feed. I figured that she would wake as usual and I'd just wake up then. The next thing I knew, it was 8 in the morning. My boobs were about to explode but damn, it was nice to sleep for 10 full hours. I haven't done that since...hmmm...before Jack was born? Bliss.

So now we're back and this means the return to work looms over my head. Five days, to be precise. You know when you get on the computer or you start watching TV and suddenly hours have gone by and you can't figure out where the day went? That's what the past year feels like to me. It doesn't feel like I've been gone a year and I can't quite come to grips with my maternity leave ending. Mia still seems so small to me, not at all like her brother was at this age. She is still my little baby; she's not even walking or saying words yet. She doesn't have hair I can put into cute little clips or shitzu-esque bundles on the top of her head. I know it has everything to do with Mia being our last child and she looks very small next to her big brother. I've thoroughly enjoyed having this time with her and I'm incredibly sad for it to end. I'm grateful that I'm able to take one day off a week to be with her, but so bittersweet about returning to Working Mummy Land.

With Jack, I was looking forward to returning to work. I could make phone calls at my leisure, drink an entire hot cup of tea, and go to the bathroom whenever the desire strikes. I could nip out at lunch to run errands that you can only do sans baby. I could have conversations with adults - that is, as adult as you get around our office. I could use my brain again and do a job that I really love. Having this non-mummy time would make me a better, happier mother. The time spent with Jack would be "quality time" and doing something for myself would revitalise me. I was ready.

I am so not ready.

2008-05-06T11:43:00.002+01:00

Jack's Photos
Originally uploaded by Lisa Durbin

Jack got hold of my camera and snapped quite a few shots (something like 150 in the span of 20 minutes.) Paul dug up my old camera, which has now become Jack's. I love these because you can get a sense of life from Jack's height.

Click on Mia's image to see the rest of Jack's photos, or click here. Um...not all 150 of them, though.

2008-04-25T16:33:00.003+01:00

happiness is...

...looking down at Mia whilst breastfeeding and having her look at me and give me a little wave.

2008-04-20T00:06:00.002+01:00

observations from my boy

Jack: "Oh, look! I can see a lion!"
Me: "A lion? Is he nice?"
Jack: "No. He's a little bit rude."

...

Jack: "I'm having a dinner party. Would you like to come?"
Me: "What are we eating?"
Jack: "Hot dogs and gravy."

...

Me: "Say bye-bye to Daddy - he's off to the gym."
Jack: [wagging a stern finger at Paul] "You mustn't get any time outs at the gym!"

...

Jack: "You need to talk to my poo. You need to tell it to go 'splash' into the water so it can have a party."

...

Jack, upon seeing me get out of the shower: "You have a fluffy willy!!!" [points and laughs hysterically]

Toro! Toro!

2008-04-14T13:02:00.001+01:00

Toro! Toro!
Originally uploaded by Lisa Durbin

What kind of a cruel mother runs to get a camera instead of delicately extracting the breakfast cereal from her daughter's nose?

That would be me.

Hey. Come here often?

2008-04-06T21:59:00.001+01:00

Hey. Come here often?
Originally uploaded by Lisa Durbin

I have so much to say and almost every day I think to myself "Oooh! Must blog about this!" and yet here my blog sits, collecting cobwebs. Must try harder.

Mia is now pulling herself up to stand...using anything she can. Footstools, chairs, sofas, dogs, my legs (whilst digging her razor sharp nails into my shins to pull herself up), dog beds, you name it, she'll use it to stand. Today, she started crusing. This is a huge improvement over the Stand There and Scream Because I'm Very Annoyed About Not Being Able to Cruise phase. You can see how pleased she is about this development.

I've now entered "You're STILL breastfeeding?" territory, which seems to be of particular concern when people notice that Mia has four sharp teeth. She actually hasn't bitten me since she went on strike a while ago, and even then it didn't do any damage - it startled me more than anything else. I was trying to figure out the logistics of continuing to breastfeed when I return to work and have been very pleased (and relieved) to learn that I can simply drop the daytime feeds and continue to nurse whenever we're together without having to do anything special to prepare or compensate.

Jack and Mia are both taking swimming classes and it's going...swimmingly (sorry.) I'm so happy that Jack's enjoying the classes because he hasn't taken one since he was 10 months old. He's been in a pool a few times since then, but hasn't taken a proper class in a very long time. He's taken to them with no problems, and he loves having Mia and I there to watch. Mia has her class immediately following Jack's, so we sit and watch until it's our turn. Mia is fantastic in the pool. She's been underwater a few times now, and has even done some "swimming" when the instructor passed her to me under the water and let her swim to me a short distance.

I've got some great movie clips of Jack - I'll upload them to YouTube soon!

2008-03-19T22:36:00.002Z

Pretty in pink
Originally uploaded by Lisa Durbin

Today marks the beginning of your 9th month in the outside world. And look how far you've come.

You have four teeth.
You can commando crawl.
You clap your hands, and for one day only, you waved bye-bye.
You give real belly laughs.
Your eyes are still slate blue with just a tiny hint of brown lurking in there somewhere.
Your hair is most definitely dark brown, but not nearly as fuzzy as your brother's.
You've got a Pointy Investigating Finger (that usually ends up in my nose or yours.)
You love any toy...that's not yours.
Your favourite song is "Itsy Bitsy Spider."
You weigh just over 18 pounds and despite your big cloth-nappied bum, you only wear a size 6-9 months.
You're obsessed with our wooden doorstop.
You happily munch on anything I feed you. And things I don't.
You've discovered your "pinchy grip". Ouch.
Your big brother still thinks you're the bee's knees, except when you touch any of his toys.
You are my Princess Bunny McBun, my beautiful angel.

Happy nine months, Mimi. I love you so, so much. xx

2008-03-12T15:26:00.003Z

maybe it was for good behaviour?

So I was changing Mia's nappy yesterday and I noticed something glittering in the morning light. Wondering what sort of sparkly food item I gave her on Monday, I inspected her nappy more closely (because mothers are brave like that.) Shining brightly in her nappy was a tiny gold star. She must have picked it out of Liz's carpet on Monday (craft making fodder) and thought it looked tasty enough to eat.

You can tell that I'm a 2nd time mum because a) I didn't think twice about poking around my daughter's nappy and b) the fact that she ingested an inedible decoration didn't alarm me. Oh and c) I blogged about it rather than rush her to the emergency room.

2008-03-10T21:57:00.002Z

chucky's revenge

We were at my friend Liz's house this afternoon, which is always an exciting event for Jack because he adores her little girl Lucy and her toys. Or at least, he enjoys most of her toys. Lucy has a toy bear that not only looks like a polar bear in drag (I kid you not, the thing is slathered in blue eyeshadow, has false eyelashes and bright red lips) but it also blinks and talks. We always had a good giggle over it and admittedly found it a bit creepy ourselves, but I had no idea how much it would terrify my son. Jack took one look at it and backed away saying "I don't like it!" and Liz promptly put the Dragbear upstairs out of sight. Later on, Jack and Lucy headed upstairs to play and moments later we heard a bloodcurdling shriek as Jack came upon Dragbear in Lucy's room. He ran downstairs in floods of tears as Liz locked Dragbear up in a cupboard.

Trauma mostly averted, he resumed playing. Then he noticed Lucy's cat - a battery-operated toy that takes a few steps, meows, and sort of kneels forward and twitches its tail (although to me, it looked very much like when a male cat marks his territory.) He looked at it cautiously as I made all sorts of happy talk with incessant smiles about how fabulous and wonderful the cat was. Yes, that one was fine. He smiled and let it go on marking the room with its invisible spray.

Moments later, Jack came up to me and said "I don't like the lady" with that same worried look he had when he first saw Dragbear. "What lady?" I asked, as I followed Jack into the playroom. "THAT lady!" he said, pointing at an over sized doll's head used by little girls for decades to apply makeup (or in my case as a child, permanent marker) and style its hair. "It's only a dolly", I assured him but to no avail. Dollyhead was promptly relocated to Lucy's room.

It was at that point that I noticed writhing plastic limbs waving over the side of a toy buggy. Liz told me that it was baby Sophie, a doll that not only talks and moves, but it knows its name. It knows 80 phrases, none of which sound like something that would come out of the mouth of a small baby and goes on writhing and babbling as long as it's switched on. Lucy decided to put Sophie to bed, wrapped her up in a fabric bag and stuffed her in the buggy. So there it was, a lump of fabric moving around inside the pram while a muffled voice said "I'm sleepy!" Thankfully, Jack never noticed it. Me, I'm gonna have nightmares for weeks about that thing.

So it struck me today: girl toys are scary. They talk, move, and wee. They speak in high-pitched tiny voices, pleading you to love it, or they stare at you with lifeless blue-eyeshadowed eyes. Boy toys are objects that go bang bang, nee nah, toot toot, or vroom. Sometimes they go beep or bzzzzzzzz. Mostly they're on wheels and they don't do anything unless you push them around. They don't tend to come to life in the middle of the night and start talking to you. Unless of course you buy your son a Furby, which also scares the shit out of me.

That's it; Mia shall play with nothing but Lego and Playdough, and possibly a wooden spoon and saucepan.

2008-03-07T11:26:00.003Z

check out me widget!

Shameless solicitation for donations now commencing...

I've added a widget at the top of this page to take donations for the Race for Life 5k run. I'll be attempting to run the whole thing this year, and once again my lovely company will match any money raised. I was disappointed to have missed it last year, but I was busy giving birth and wotnot. Actually, I was doubly disappointed because the race date came and I did feel up to walking it.

This race is to raise money for Cancer Research UK, and I run it in memory (and to celebrate the life) of my grandma Yoshiko Hotta. If you would like to sponsor me, please do so either using the widget above, or using this link here.

Thank you. xx

She's a maniac, maniac

2008-03-05T14:42:00.001Z

Mia poses in her baby legwarmers
Originally uploaded by Lisa Durbin

Oh, look. Here's one of the bazillion pictures on Flickr that I uploaded with the intent of creating a blog post about it. Oops. I really need to start writing things down.

So yes, here's Mia in one of my fab finds, Baby Legs . They are the most adorable baby leg warmers, perfect for babies with big cloth nappied bums. They're supposed to fit for several years, and I think they'd look adorable on a toddler. So long, tights wrestling! Hello funky 80s throwback accessories with extremely cute patterns. I am officially addicted and now own 7 pairs. I mean Mia now owns 7 pairs. I think they're a bit small for me. I covet my daughter's wardrobe.

2008-03-04T10:13:00.001Z

words of wisdom

Some random quotes from the Durbin household:

[me] "Can you please not be a lion for a minute?"

[Jack] "I'm playing the beehive game!"
[me] "How does that game go?"
[Jack sprints across his room and crashes into his bed, and shouts] "BEEHIVE!!! I'm very funny."

[Jack, frustrated] "Oh MAN." (Courtesy of his hero, Lightning McQueen.)

[me] "We don't have any monsters in our house because they're afraid of dogs."

[Jack] "I have a little belly. You have a big belly."
[me, getting self conscious] "I have a big belly?"
[Jack] "Yeah. You have a big belly because you're a grown up. I have a little belly because I'm a little boy."
[me] "Ah, okay then."

[Jack] "Mia's trying to eat my racing car!"

BEHIND YOU!

2008-02-27T14:03:00.001Z

BEHIND YOU!
Originally uploaded by Lisa Durbin

Jack had a great time last weekend, although I have now sworn off organising children's parties involving more than 3 children. The kids themselves were lovely, but the headache of co-ordinating a group that large combined with a totally clueless staff at the party venue made for one stressed mama. Just to give an example, the bowling alley staff temporarily lost Jack's birthday cake. No, seriously. And here I am, unable to drink. Next year, Jack can pick a couple of friends and we'll go do something fun together. I might still order the same sized cake from Tom's, though. A woman's gotta keep up her strength.

In Mia news, another toothy peg has emerged today on the top. This has led to an interesting tooth-grinding development as my daughter discovers that she can gnash her upper and lower teeth together and make my toes curl with the sound. Nails, chalkboard, you get the idea.

We've finally started swimming classes at First4Swimming at the Huntingdon Marriott, and they are FANTASTIC. The teacher is Birthlight trained (keeping with the same philosophy about infant swimming that we did with Jack) and the classes are lovely and small. And the other mothers talk to me! Gosh. I'm a bit miffed that I started Mia this late (I tried to get her into a class at 4 months, but it kept getting delayed due to pool renovations) but I'm so pleased at how well she's taking to the water. I took her swimming in the same pool when she was 4 months old when my mom and dad were here for a visit, and she screamed unless I held her tight. She's not really been that keen on baths lately either, so I wasn't too sure how she'd react to the swimming classes. As soon as we got into the water, she was kicking her legs and splashing with her hands. She calmly observed the water and teacher, wriggling like a little mermaid. I'm so, so chuffed. And to top it all off, the classes are on Sundays which means I can carry on with them after I return to work. Paul will take Jack to the other Sunday class because I'd really like to get him back in the pool on a more regular basis again.

So, yeah...going back to work. Not looking forward to that one at all. Not a jot. I love my job and I love having non-mummy time, but I'm loving my time with Mia right now even more. I still have three months left, but cripes this year has gone by in a blink of the eye.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to stop my little girl from eating dog hair off the floor. Or is dog hair a food group? I can't keep up with this stuff.