aug, 31st - 200 day report-card....

day 200:

the 100 days since our last report-card have flown by.....it still feels like we are just starting out with this discovery and i'm already saying to limi: 'slow down, slow down....stop growing so fast, i can't keep up...and then in the same breath.....i can't wait for all the exciting times ahead'. i mean, it's not like we haven't heard this a million times before, friends and family saying: 'savour every second.....they grow up so fast'.

so today, i am going to take a breath....put away the long, out-of-control todo list and just enjoy spending time with limi....

since day 100, limi has achieved the following:

• Been on her first family holiday to Greece (day 109)
• Enjoyed a first alfresco bath (day 105)
• Braved two sets of jabs (day 113 and day 165)
• Wore her first frock (day 120) 
• Had her first taste of formula (day 129) 
• Said Mama (day 132)
• Gave up the swaddle (day 133)
• Met her Nanna and Granpa Bill (day 153)
• Started rolling (day 143)
• Started swimming (day 161)
• Tasted solids for the first time (day 164)
• Learnt to bounce in a doorway (day 168)
• Grabbed a bit of la dolce vita (day 170)
• Met her lola (day 182)
• Learnt to sit (day 175)
• Started her shoe collection (day 194)

we have achieved the following:

•        200 days without breaking her or each other
•        an average of 6.5 hours sleep a night...and even a bit of a routine
•        a sense of humour (even on days like these....day 186)
•        let her escape our clutches (day 183)
•        managed to entertain a baby on a 5 hour car trip (day 155)

aug, 30th - freeform crawling....

day 199:

crawling is still pretty freeform......and not currently compliant with the Baby Standards Regulatory Board (BSRB)....

limi is managing to get up onto her knees and rock backwards and forwards 

but the slippery wooden floors are proving to be a crawling hindrance...... 

she still manages some distance though....by rolling and leopard-crawling across the room.....

very commando-baby!

....and she's....turn-your-back-and-she's-across-the-room-and-under-the-couch quick!

aug, 29th - autumn is here....

day 198:

new hat....better not let her crawl in the grass or she may get eaten by a lion!

aug, 28th - sad day for the locals....

day 197: our wonderful neighbourhood deli/coffee shop/restaurant closed its' doors yesterday. when i have recovered from the shock of wondering how i will spend my mornings.....especially a saturday, like today,.....i will write about all our memories that are intertwined with this gem of a place....

aug, 27th - graduating...

[still not able to take pics at the pool, so another pic from the bath]

day 196:

today, limi graduated from her first term of swimming (yes, it is that serious...even at 6 months). next week, we have a mid-term break and then we're back for term 2.

so, from day 161 she has learnt the following:

• to catch a duck....i learnt to say: reach, reach, reach....hold, hold, hold
• to close her eyes when anyone says Go!.....which may not be useful one day when she's doing the 100 metre sprint....but for swimming it helps because Ready! suggests that she's about to get splashed in the face or plunged under the water....and Go! means the splash or plunge is now happening
• to float on her back (while only being cupped by her cheeks) and listening to a gurgling, underwater version of twinkle, twinkle little star
• to play water polo...okay, slight exaggeration....to pad away the ball when it comes towards her
• to Splash....and Splash some more
• to swoop under the water from the teacher towards me (amazing to watch, especially below the surface)
• to be plucked from the side of the pool and plunged under the water for 2 seconds....and not cry
• to kick....again, this may be a slight exaggeration as it's quite freeform.....you could say that she currently has an interpretative swimming style
• to hold onto the side of the pool.....which usually has an attention span of until she sees the duck/frog/ship float past

i definitely think that swimming is the highlight of her week....she fizzes with excitement as soon as we walk in the door.......bring on the next term and triple twists from a diving board.

aug, 25th - click three times.....

day 194:

my sister sent these shoes for limi......they are definitely ones to wrap up in tissue (once her feet have outgrown them) and keep for her.... 

there's a bit of a theme....for my wedding, my sister had these spectacular numbers custom made for me....

i needed wedges, to negotiate the farm roads

and undulating lawns....

sadly, these have been soundly danced-out and unless we send them to the shoe-clinic (hmmmm, maybe an idea!) they are currently in no state to wrap in tissue and keep for her one day....

aug, 24th - dream feed....

day 193:

so....we've introduced a dream feed. 

as the name suggests, it's a feed that the baby has whilst still sleeping (haven't we all wished that we could manage this at some point). here's a bit more info.

anyway...the idea is to give the baby a warm bottle between 10:30 and 11pm, just before you go to sleep and preferably without waking them...in the hope (beg, pray) that they will sleep for longer.

up until now....although the yoga mums have all been advocating the dream feed since week 3, i've been a bit reluctant to introduce it. to me, it seemed a bit foie-grasesque to feed a sleeping baby, especially when they're not hungry, just to get them to sleep longer for your own benefit. i liked the idea that limi was setting her own patterns and waking and eating only when hungry.

but...*groan....over the past week, she's started waking up twice a night (2am and 4am) instead of just the once (4am)....and i'm feeling the pain....i need sleep and that's more for HER benefit than mine.

so, after debating for awhile, i decided to give the dream-feed a go. and.....my foie-gras-baby is now sleeping through the night (well, except for the strange dream that she's having at 11pm of being chased by a bottle). the interesting part for me is that although i am waking up with a bounce that's been a bit stunted for 6 months,  limi also appears to be enjoying the longer, uninterrupted sleep and is waking up looking very rested, with an even bigger smile....

now, we just need to discuss the 6:30am start time!

aug, 23rd - those cushions....

day 192:

those cushions from The Old Cinema, that i mentioned on day 188.....

and limi in her french-mime-artist inspired outfit.....

let's see, perhaps we can send her off to Paris.....

aug, 22nd - another word for no....

day 191:

i'm trying desperately not to overuse the word No! with Limi. it's probably a case of thinking about it all a bit too hard (you know....lots of time on my hands at the moment and a companion who is only mastering the vowel sounds.) but in these hard-thinking times, i've decided that it would be very easy to become a No household. 'No limi, don't touch!', 'No pulling!', 'No, you can't eat that.' I don't want her overriding memory to be the word 'No'.....In a very Obama-esque way, I want a 'Yes' house. 

now I just need to figure out how to say: 'No, stop yanking out my hair'...without sounding like something out of a New Age parenting guide: 'Limi, i would really appreciate it if you didn't pull at my hair in that fashion'.....hmm....that just doesn't cut it.

aug, 21st - 28 weeks (letter to limi)....

day 190:

aug, 20th - looking back....

day 189:

looking back.....limi on day 6, the day we named her....for months before she arrived, she was 'the bump' and for 5 days, she was 'bumpkin'. now, it's difficult to remember a time when she wasn't called Limi or more formally - Lissom

aug, 19th - T3L: the old cinema...

day 188:

T3London - The Old Cinema (Chiswick)
(*description of T3London on day 160)

i love rooting around a market, especially for vintage house finds. i seem to have a passion at the moment for rusting/rustic-French-countryside chic (i have been longing to go to the infamous, Braderie de Lille, just across the channel, for ages and ages) and i also drool over mid-century industrial polished steel furniture. The Old Cinema in Chiswick, has a good collection of both. it's not exactly a market...more like a market-meets a shop-meets a salvage show-room but it has a wonderfully warehouse 'rooting' (there's that word again) vibe about it. 

it's on Chiswick High Road and as the name suggests, is in an old, cavernous cinema building.

the wares change fast (and are also hired out for shoots) so it's good to go often, or to check out their stock online. recent purchases have been some old typewriter-key-cufflinks (limi gave them to A. for his birthday) and two French grain-sack cushions.

i'm also coveting a galvanised steel-framed mirror (now just to find a spot for it in the Shoebox)

Basic Info:

The Old Cinema

160 Chiswick High Road

London W4 1PR


Open Every Day 10am-6pm

Sundays 12-5pm


Tel: Int 44 (0)208 995 4166

Fax: Int 44 (0)208 995 4167

Highs:

- easy to reach

- a wonderful collection of the vintage industrial polished steel furniture

- old camera table lamp stands

- French grain sack cushions, reupholstered chairs, bench cushions

- small treasures in the cabinets

- London bus signs

Lows:

- buggy-unfriendly steps to the second floor (altho' there is plenty on the ground floor)

- lack of space in the Shoebox for all the amazing pieces

Tot Tips:

- there is a ramp on the ground floor

- no loos (although there are plenty of cafes in the vicinity where you can grab a coffee and change a babe)

See you there!

aug, 18th - nostalgia.....

day 187:

so, it's clear that i'm currently a bit obsessed with Hipstamatic and Polarize (see day 115)...especially the nostalgic quality of the pics....and then there is the ease with which i can sneak a shot with my phone instead of hauling out the beast which proclaims: 'i am about to take your picture'

i also like a bit of Photoshop! 

after spending 4 years in a darkroom (is that retro yet?) as part of my degree, it's interesting just how many of those darkroom skills are transferrable to Photoshop. but, given that i majored in Photography before the digital age.....i still have loads to learn....and i'm having a great time practising with my mite sized model.

i stumbled across this fabulous photoshop tutorial yesterday (you know...there i was wandering around Google....). it explains in detail how to turn normal pics into vintage, Hipstamatesque (new one for the Oxford dictionary) prints. Hooray! Thanks, Carrie.

so, here's one i did earlier (how pale is Limi next to this just-been-to-Greece sister of mine):

aug, 17th - could do better....

day 186:

if limi was marking me out of 10.....today would have been a 4.5....could do aLOT better.....

she didn't like her freshly made pear and raspberry breakfast (to be fair....it was very, very sour and what do you use to sweeten, when sugar, maple syrup, and honey are all off limits), so we had to move swiftly onto breakfast plan B....then she face-planted out of her Bumbo because although, i was sitting RIGHT there....i wasn't watching. it was more of a slow motion stunt-roll but did include a forehead meeting the floorboards with a Bump! sound.

things did get better after that....but i ended the day thinking.....yikes!!! will have to try harder tomorrow.

aug, 16th - my sister...

day 185:

my sister is the best.....if you want to borrow her then you need to join the queue....my friends are already in it.....she's always protected me and even though i'm younger.....i never had to run snivelling to my mum saying 'nix won't play with me', i was always included in her games, even when her friends were around.

once, she even let me try out a short hairstyle on her doll first (she may not have given me permission...but hey...she didn't get too angry)

[recorded voice: if you have just dialled the borrow-dee's-sister line, you are now no. 486 in the queue]

she has taught me how to be a more responsible person and to trust my own decisions, even if it means going against my peers (quite a feat when you grow up in a small town). she even instilled in me a rigid cleanse, tone and moisturise routine that stuck after wild-university nights out. my most wonderful times have been when we are together doing something creative: planning her wedding, planning my wedding, 

making head-pieces for our Christmas Eve celebrations, making a change table from scratch......she is an incredible friend, an amazing cook, the most generous person i know and makes every special occasion into a wonderfully, decadent festival. i promise...you want to celebrate your birthday around my sister!

[recorded voice: if you have just dialled the borrow-dee's-sister line, you are now no. 489 in the queue]

i have to admit a dark secret though....(no, this is not about her missing strawberry patch purse...that i may or may not have buried in the garden). when my sister had her first baby......i felt quite (shamefully) jealous. not that she had a baby but that i, as her baby sister, would no longer take priority...who was going to look after me?

but...somehow, she's managed.....

and she just gets it!

with limi...she flew in just as that initial euphoria started waning and the tiredness kicked in.....she cooked, cleaned, rescued us in the mornings, taught me how to bathe a baby, gave me the confidence to go out and about, threw a fantastic head-wetting party and once again ensured that i felt comfortable in my own ability. she is also the reason that limi has the most fabulous wardrobe and that i had clothes to wear post-baby (and didn't have to live in pyjamas).

she is the best.

[recorded voice: if you have just dialled the borrow-dee's-sister line, you are now no. 521 in the queue]

happy birthday, my sister!