nov, 16th - west london....

day 624:

our beautiful bridge......i hope that if i ever leave London, i will come back and visit this bridge.

sep, 18th - last days of summer....

day 565:

with everything so severely regulated these days....it's surprising when you see something open-minded, slightly reckless, and certainly fantastic like this Summer, water installation on the South Bank. you are almost waiting for the grumpy man to descend and order you all home with a dose of lemsip......but this fountain, by Danish artist, Jeppe Hein, called 'Appearing Rooms' is built especially for children to immerse themselves in.

'panes' of water appear in squares, so you can leap from room to room and stay relatively dry.....but hey, what's the fun in that.

Limi was in there with the boys, dashing from room to room and almost getting trampled in the stampede.....but stubbornly refusing to be held back.

i think that this may just be her dream house.

hope you had a wonderful weekend too. x

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, 4th - a renaissance scene....

"Renaissance art has a deep reservoir of emotion behind it.....it was rich in detail, but it did not lose itself in detail; it was characterized by a feeling of the whole, of unity. Each part was felt in relation to every other part and in relation to the whole. The result was a harmony which has not been achieved since classical times and has not been equalled since."

Fodor's Modern Guides. Italy 1957.

day 173:

sometimes you stumble across a scene that makes you stop. stare. and smile inside.

walked in to find A. bathing Limi in the Travetine basin in our bathroom.

jul, 25th - weekend....

day 163:

sunday. walk along the river. blankets on the banks of a stream. ginger floats. tummy time.

jul, 23rd - swimming....

[sadly, due to child safety, we can't take any pics of the lesson...so, here's a bath shot instead...her eyes are still blue but they seem brown here....she's not wearing contacts!]

day 161:

for swimming i am definitely missing two arms and a dry pouch (kangaroo style)....actually, it's not for the swimming part but for the pre-swimming and post-swimming part. for the actual in-the-water-swimming part, i'm missing a foot in height (although don't tell A. as I've convinced him that i'm really tall.....i wish!)

it was limi's first lesson today...we tried to find a dry spot in a very wet changing room; squeezed into a costume....hopping about, trying not to get the dry outfit on the wet floor and managed to drape around a warm towel...all whilst holding a baby (yes, that was just to get me ready)....

the next challenge was to negotiate the diving pool steps with limi taking up a vital arm (okay the teacher helped on this one) and stepping into a very deep 'shallow' end (the height issue....and i wasn't even the shortest in the class....although spending 30 minutes treading water whilst holding a baby afloat is going to get them back into their skinny jeans at a much faster rate.)

so finally, we were both dressed (undressed) and in the pool without extensive flashing or swallowing of water on either part. hooray!

the rest of the lesson was pretty uneventful in comparison. some of the tips the teacher handed out at the start:

1. don't try and get into/out of the pool without her help.

2. make sure that you don't walk the length of the pool with your babies' face in the water (it was happening...especially by the shorties in the class)

3. don't feed your baby less than an hour before swimming

limi Loved it All. 

she splashed vigorously from start to finish...i had to try and keep her away from the other dry-faced babies...she was literally dripping from eyelashes, nose, mouth the entire 30 minutes....(i may even have to wear goggles next week). when it came time for the teacher to splash water over their heads, the other babies were slightly startled (but bravely no-one cried) and limi thought that it was hysterical....AT LAST someone else was joining in. they also did floating on their backs while only supported by the head...which she also seemed to enjoy (and luckily inherited from me as A. cannot float....a surprising fact that he hid from me for years......i would have questioned having babies with someone who can't float!!!!) and finally had to reach and hold a rubber duck(the start of the safety lessons although you'd be unlikely to throw them a rubber duck in a time of crisis.)

anyway, having successfully negotiated the change pre-swim, post-swim, we all made the fatal flaw of dressing our babies first and then trying to get ourselves ready whilst stopping a dry, warm baby from rolling into a puddle (a mistake we will NOT be making again.)

next week it's the big dunk....limi is going underwater for the first time in the outside world (well intentionally anyway...think that there may have been some unintentional dunking during bath-time with A.)

jun, 28th - hot, hot, hot....

day 137:

it's hot, hot, hot here at the moment!

limi had her first bottle of plain water today (although....i may learn from my sister and call plain water 'juice' instead, so that when other kids are having REAL juice she will also be having 'juice'....let's see how long we can fool her for!) 

she also munched her gums on an ice cube wrapped in a muslin cloth. great for cooling and her teething gums they say. she just looked startled but mightily please at how cold her cloth was! we're still trying hard not to gather too much limi-related stuff and gaudy gadgetry. but i may consider getting something like this mesh feeder if the hot weather lingers.

may, 8th - turning up the heat.....

day 90:

after 82 days of negotiating winter in London with limi.....muggy Hong Kong requires a rethink on:

- the sun....carrying sunscreen, a hat or seeking shade during the day

- hydration...making sure that she doesn't get dehydrated

- temperature of her room at night...optimum temperature for a babies' room is 16 - 20 degrees. so, when outside is 30+....bringing it down requires some effort

- mosquitos....lots of lunging at flying mites and making sure that you resist your natural urge to whack them as they land on her

on the plus side.....the best remedy for the heat is swimming. so limi had her very first swim...

which she loved!

mar, 21st - rubber duck....

day 42:

A video from bath-time a couple of days ago. Limi now loves her bath and sits in a trance....but wails loudly when we pluck her out. She hasn't discovered splashing yet and still grips our hand tightly throughout. Loves her ducks though....

mar, 1st - first bath....

day 23:

After a couple of weeks of just top and tailing (aka washing Limi without submerging her in the tub... whilst waiting for her belly button to emerge), we tackled her first proper bath. First there was the shock of getting naked, followed closely by being placed in a tepid puddle of water. Well...she screamed...i recalled her first 20 minutes of life...Nix recalled why she stopped after two kids....Limi, didn't seem to recall at all....that she happily spent 9 months floating in liquid.

She screamed so hard that she turned puce from head to toe and even held her breath!

And then, once she was out...dry...dressed...and warm....it was over!