So hungry

On Wednesday by 3pm I felt ravenous. While snacking on nuts and such I was musing that even breastfeeding can’t explain feeling so hungry. An hour later, while preparing dinner, I suddenly realised that I didn’t have lunch that day. It’s not that I didn’t have time for lunch, but somehow my mind was so preoccupied with meeting the needs of my kids in the timely manner to minimize the crying and screaming that I forgot about having lunch myself. This isn’t something that I thought would ever happen to me as I like eating. On the upside I had a shower on that day by 10am. Showering was on my “To Do” list for that day, eating lunch wasn’t. – maybe that is the reason it got forgotten and I should start adding it to the list, at least I’ll have something else to cross off at the end of the day.

Mouse for daughter

I made a mouse for my daughter, exactly the same as I made for my sister, because Katya adores her aunt and wants to be like her in everything.

Staying in UK

Malander had an idea and was trying to work it out, but it would take him time. Sometimes people never saw things clearly until it was too late and they no longer had the strength to start again. Or else they forgot their idea along the way and didn't even realise that they forgotten.
Trove Jansson The Summer Book

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Due to my husband's work commitments will be staying in UK for another 2.5-3 years. In the last few months (years?) I was trying to imagine how our lives would be on coming back to Australia. I guess now it is time to look at my life here and find that idea, which will make it more interesting, challenging, satisfying.

New in the kitchen

I lived without the microwave for about four years and didn’t miss it at all. However, at the moment the time difference between heating up my lunch by pressing few buttons on a microwave and actually having to stir it on a stove could mean the difference between having lunch at a reasonable time of the day or not.

I’m also planning to dye some white yarn that my mum left to me on her departure back to Australia and having a microwave will speed up the process.

Smile

It is incredibly hard to resist smiling back when a baby smiles at one. Therefore I hope that whenever you see this post, whatever your mood is (and maybe specially if it isn't so great) you'll smile, because many believe that smiling is good for your health and well-being.

Still can crochet

I discovered that I am able to crochet while breastfeeding and holding my sleeping son, which allowed me to finish the border around Chameleon Blanket.

This is probably the most time consuming crochet project I ever attempted. Details are on Ravelry

Seven weeks!?

On Wednesday I couldn’t remember how many weeks old Max was, so maybe it is time for an update before all the details disappear from my memory.

In the first two weeks I would occasionally forget for a minute or two that I have two children, while at the same time feeling that Max fitted so well into our family making the life without him seem like a distant memory. (At times I wonder if I truly remember how life before kids feels like – is it really possible that I was able to sleep in until 10? Or stay up all night to finish reading a good book? Eat a bowl of ice-cream and an orange for dinner? Travel to a different country for a week with a tiny backpack? Go out on any night of the week at the spur of the moment? Think myself super-busy when I could choose how to spend huge chunks of time?)

Anyway, back to life with two kids. Unsurprisingly I found parenting a newborn much easier the second time around, though at times I still wish they would come with a precise user manual. First time was hard as both of us had close to zero experience of taking care of a child and had no-one around to help out; not only the learning curve was the steepest I have ever experienced in my personal or work life, but we also figured out a lot of things by trial and error. The great advantage was that we were able to find the parenting style that suited us without having to sift through the overloading input from others. Nevertheless the first weeks of Katya’s life were hard, truly hard work made worse by the greyness of the English winter. Inside my mind the days and nights of those weeks turned into the never-ending exhausting dusk. Looking back I can tell that I was very close to sliding into the postnatal depression. This time around there was hardly a cloudy day since Max was born making it easier to get out, to stay cheerful, to enjoy life.

Of course the easiness of the taking care of a tiny baby is offset by having to find time, energy and wisdom to meet the needs of the older child and my mum was (and is for another two weeks) a great help with Katya, who is experiencing so many conflicting emotions towards her little brother and us, her parents, and is slowly adjusting to the changes that his arrival brought into her life. She is very eager to interact with him, to hold him, to play with him. In the first few weeks she would in turn get frustrated at his unresponsiveness and overexcited about tiny things like him holding her finger. Luckily he is changing so fast and the longer he is able to stay awake and happy the more positive moments they are able to have together. He loves her singing and stares and coos at the painting she did, which is hanging next to the nappy changing mat. She is eager to show him the world and cheers any new thing that he learns to do.

Max is growing so fast. At the six-weeks check-up he was 5 kgs and 61 cm, which puts him into 98th percentile for length. He has outgrown many of the 0-3 months cloths. He tries to put his fingers/fists into his mouth. He knocks over and bats at toys. He loves tummy-time. He looks at the world in fascination, instead of being irritated by bright light. He smiles and his smiles make our world a much more joyful place.