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My hair was slicked back, wet with purple hair dye that was dripping on to my back. I was wearing only my nursing bra and bikini bottoms while cooking pancakes on Christmas morning. I hope none of the neighbors could see me through the windows, it must have looked like a crazy house! Usually when I dye my hair, I wear old ugly t-shirts and put old ugly towels around myself. I was not at home though, and I didn't have any old ugly shirts, and the only towels were nice hotel bright white ones. I don't think my Mother in Law would have appreciated her nice towels suddenly turning purple. The Sister in Law wanted to live vicariously through me and suggested I dye my hair. I thought it would be fun to have purple hair (that goes away after 8 washes...) for Christmas, so I thought, why not? We had a good Christmas, lots of good presents, good food (prawns on the BBQ, chicken skewers, pasta salad, fruit salad, gelato, fruit flan), and a nice lazy day.
Hannah loves opening presents. She does, of course, want to eat the wrapping paper. I think she likes the paper better then the actual present inside. She's no longer allowed to chew on paper or cardboard as she has learned how to take bits off with her gums and then tries to eat them. After fishing a few bits of paper out of her mouth, I banned paper and cardboard from her list of toys. I was actually able to get some smiling photos of Hannah. We were out to lunch one day when she went a bit hyper and started squealing, yelling, jumping, and giggling. I got out the camera, and to my amazement, the hyper activity didn't stop, she didn't stop and stare at the camera like she normally does. I was able to get lots of smiling photos, and since that day, she smiles for the camera like she's been doing it her whole life.
I hope no one looked at me through the window of the car on the drive home. They would have been in for a very big shock. I'm sure it's not everyday that you see someone in the passenger seat of a car using a manual breast pump while going down the freeway. I didn't really have a choice, Hannah was refusing to nurse (too much to look at, it was very hot and sticky, who knows really), and I am not really a fan of exploding boobies, so I pumped. Yes, I could have done it in the bathroom at a rest stop or something, but 1, that would have added extra time to the already long journey, and 2, is pumping in the filthy bathroom at Macca's any less weird then pumping while in a moving vehicle? I think not. I was very worried about the drive home from Byron Bay. Hannah has never really been a fan of car rides, and we were going to drive from Byron Bay to Tamworth the first day, then Tamworth to Sydney (via Penrith) the second day. She never fails to surprise and delight us though. She was wonderful the first day. Even though she didn't have much sleep in the car (she can't sleep very long in the car seat, I think because she usually sleeps on her tummy and obviously can't do that in her seat), she was happy, didn't cry, and was quite content. We stopped frequently to let her out of her seat, and to give her some food. By the last couple of hours of the journey on the second day, she had had enough. She pretty much screamed for an hour straight, until we stopped in Windsor for some lunch. Poor Bubba.
I know my blog is a day late. Monday I didn't even realise it was Monday. Aaron has the week off, so it felt like it was Sunday. Then Tuesday I meant to do it but the camera was out of batteries so I couldn't get the photos on the computer to put on the blog (and I forgot to charge it until the evening). Then yesterday I was too busy. Oh well, I'm sure you'll live.
Hannah
I don't really know what's going on. It's 5:30 in the morning and Mommy and Daddy are getting things from my room trying to be quiet but not succeeding. I wake up of course, and to my surprise, they pick me up, change my nappy, and put me in the car. Grandma is here too. I'm really excited. I know they want me to go to sleep in the car, but how could I?
We went in a really big room with lots of windows with strange huge car type things (only very funny looking) outside. Mommy walks me around the building pointing to the strange cars. She tells me they are airplanes and that we are going to ride on one with Grandma. I'm a little confused though, I thought I was an airplane? Mommy and Daddy often lay on their backs and put me on their knees and move their legs around and say I'm an airplane (or aeroplane if it's Daddy) bubba. So if I'm an airplane, how can this giant car be one too?
Someone says that the airplane is delayed because it needs to do a "high powered engine run." Whatever that is. "Lucky I brought her food." Mommy says. We go in the mothers room and Mommy tries to give me some booby. I'm still so excited for whatever we are going to do, so there is no way I'm going to have booby. I eat the avocado and apple that Mommy brought for me though. I can eat that and still look out the window at all of the big giant cars (airplanes?) going up and down.
A loud voice comes on again and says that we can't ride the plane we were going to ride, but that we have to ride a new one, from a different gate, so Mommy packs up me and all my toys and off we go to a big room next to the one we were in before. They say our take off is going to be 3 hours late. Lots of people around us are very cranky and saying rude things and being mean to the people behind the desk. Mommy gets excited though because they give us all meal coupons to use while we wait. I'm even more excited because now I can get away with not taking a nap.
Mommy spreads out my blanket on the floor of the big building and puts my toys on it. I'm having heaps of fun, I get to play with all my toys, Mommy, and Grandma, all while getting to look out a giant window full of giant cars going from the ground to the sky and the sky to the ground (maybe we were in giantville? Am I going to turn into a giant?), and I get to look at all sorts of funny looking and interesting people who all tell me that I am cute and have such beautiful blue eyes. I finally get hungry enough to have some booby just before we get on the giant car/airplane, and when we sit down in the giant car/airplane.
Grandma tells Mommy to have the window seat so that I can look outside while we take off (I wonder what take off means?). "This seat belt is useless!" Mommy says. She attaches it to her seat belt and then fastens it around me. It's really uncomfortable, and I don't think it's really doing much. I wonder why I have to go in that special seat thingy when I ride in Mommy and Daddy's car, but in this giant car/airplane, I get to sit in Mommy's lap with a funny useless seatbelt? I have some more booby and fall asleep.
I wake up and smile at Mommy. I'm happy that I'm still in her lap. Usually when I fall asleep on Mommy, I wake up in my cot. Mommy holds me next to the little window and takes lots of pictures. She says she wants to document my first plane ride (is plane the same as airplane/giant car?). A loud voice comes on saying that we are about to start our decent (whatever that means). Ouch! My ears start to hurt and I cry. Mommy puts her finger in my mouth and I suck. Huh, all better. Mommy always knows what to do! I stop crying. I look out the window and all I see is white. It starts to get bouncy. Mommy says we are going through a cloud. Oh, I get it now, Mommy pretends I'm an airplane when we play airplane bubba, and we are going through clouds! What fun!!! So I'm not an airplane after all, this is an airplane, and Mommy and Daddy just pretend I'm an airplane for my amusement sometimes. Clever.
Mommy and Grandma keep telling me what a good girl I am. Grandma said that if I was older, she'd give me a treat for being so good. I can't wait until I'm older so I can get a treat! That sounds good!
Sheri
I put my feet on the edge of the platform and hold on to the side. "Now reach out and grab the bar," the man says. I know I have to extend my arm to do so, but it won't budge, it's stuck in the L position. The man assures me he has a hold of my special belt and once again prompts me to lean forward, extend my arm and grab the bar with my right hand. I look down. I'm about 2 stories high, standing on the platform. I'm not afraid of heights, but did I mention that I'm afraid of falling? When I was little, Grandma (not the one in Hannah's story, that is Aaron's grandma) used to take me to swimming lessons. When I passed all of the normal lessons after a number of years, I took diving lessons. Not like SCUBA diving, like diving board diving. I was fine with the normal diving board, but put me on the high dive and I would freak out a little. They had to give me a rubber ducky and tell me to throw it under the diving board onto the side of the pool just to get me to dive off it. I guess it distracted me from the falling part. It worked, but only when I had to throw the ducky.
When I was 18, I went to West Virginia with my Dad. We went white water rafting, but stopped for lunch at a spot where people jump off huge rocks into a deep pool of water below. Everyone did it. I went last. I ran in hopes that I wouldn't be able to stop and would just have to do it. Nope, I stopped dead just before the end of the rock. I stood up there for a good 5 minutes, trying to will myself to jump, but I just couldn't. I had to walk down the long way. How embarrassing....
Now I'm on a platform, 2 stories high, about to try out the flying trapeze. That's right, I'm at circus school, a Christmas present from The Jess. She is here too, as is Trish, Jimmy, and of course, my little girl is watching me to. I can't let her see me fail. The man assures me he has a hold of me, and against my better judgement, I lean forward and grab the bar. He says to reach out and grab it with both hands now. This is even harder. Now I'm completely at the mercy of a random man whose name I don't even know, to make sure I don't plummet face first into the net below. I know, there is a net, and I'm also attached to a rope on both sides of the special belt, but tell that to my fear of falling.
Ok, I have both hands on the bar. "Hup!" the man calls. That means I'm supposed to jump off the platform. I don't go anywhere. He reminds me the call means jump, and calls it again. I close my eyes, and my feet leave the platform. I'm flying through the air, a smile wide on my face, while hanging from the bar. "Hup," he calls again. That means I'm supposed to put my knees over the bar. I hesitate just a little and then find I can't put my knees up. It's too hard if you don't do it at the right time because then you don't have the momentum to do so. I keep trying and trying anyway, but can't do it. I'm really disappointed.
It's my turn again, and this time there is a woman at the top of the platform. Once again it takes me longer then it should to grab the bar, but when the man calls "Hup," she pushes my feet off at the same time. I like this method much better. No room for hesitation. "Hup," I don't hesitate and before I know it, my knees are over the bar. "Hup," I let go with my hands and arch my back. Now I'm hanging by only my knees, 2 stories up in the air, flying on a trapeze. I feel amazing.
It's my turn again, and now we get to try a catch. Everything is going smoothly. "Hup," I'm flying through the air, my knees holding me to the bar, my back arched, my hands reaching. I'm not even sure how it happens, but somehow, my knees leave the bar, my hands reach out, and then I'm hanging by a monkey grip by a man who is hanging upside down from another trapeze. Now there is no containing my smile. I think if it were possible, I could power an entire city with my smile right now.
Other things that happened this week:
I took Hannah to the beach a couple of times, and she loved playing in the sand, but for some reason, even though she loved the water before, she cried both times. The theory at the moment is that maybe her bottom hurts when the salt water touches it. She has nappy rash for the first time in her entire life, and it looks very sore. Poor baby.... She is trying with all her might to crawl, and can now put herself and push ups position, only her hands and the balls of her feet touching the ground. She can easily move herself backwards, but can't quite go forward yet. This morning I saw her go in the proper crawling position, knees under her, arms extended. It's only a matter of time now.... I gave Hannah a rusk this week as she just wants to chew on everything. I gave her paper or cardboard sometimes, but now she has figured out how to get chunks off in about 2 seconds flat and a few times I've had to fish them out of her mouth, so no more paper or cardboard for her. She loves rusk though. As soon as I gave it to her, she put it in her little mouth and chewed and chewed and chewed like she had been doing it her entire life.
Sorry there are no pictures, but we are on holiday and I'm writing this from a borrowed laptop. I will put photos up next week (when you will hear about our 12 hour road trip home. Fingers crossed that Hannah won't mind it too much. She isn't a huge fan of the car).
The UFC is finally coming to Australia. FINALLY!!! Aaron said he wanted to buy me tickets for Christmas (which I think is an awesome present by the way). SNAP!! They sold out the day they went on sale. How rude! Now most people wouldn't pick me as a UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship for those of you who don't know) fan, but I love it! We even went to one in Las Vegas. We flew from Paris to Frankfurt to Los Angeles, then drove (ok, Aaron drove) straight to The Palms casino where it was being held. No hotel stop, no shower, only a quick trip to taco bell (why is there no Taco Bell here, it's very sad), then straight there. We were very late too, we only got there in time to see the main 2 fights and the tail end of the fight just before them. So when we found out the UFC was coming to Australia, we got very excited. I can't believe they sold out already! I think I'm going to scour e-bay, and if that doesn't work, then we might go on the day and keep the scalpers in business. At least with the success of ticket sales, maybe that means the UFC will be back here sometime.
After last weeks night out, I was keen to give it another go, hoping that getting away would be a bit easier this time. I fed Hannah early, The Jess got here on time, things were looking good. Unfortunately, Hannah didn't think she should go to bed half an hour early. She started bawling her eyes out as soon as I put her down. I thought she'd settle and sleep with a little patting, so I left The Jess to it and went on my merry way (after putting on my dress of course). I told her to message me when Hannah was asleep. 15 minutes later I still hadn't heard anything, so I texted The Jess. Still bawling. Oh Hannah was ripping my heart out. It was hard enough leaving her there bawling her eyes out, but to know that she still was.... I met Aaron at the posh seafood restaurant where his work Christmas party was. I thought a cocktail was in order, so I ordered a chocolaty one that was frozen like a thick shake. Mmmmm.... I was still worried about Bubba though. I kept checking my phone and texting The Jess for progress reports. She cried for 2 hours and then finally went to sleep. Poor little Bubba. I think next time, I will make sure she is sleeping before I leave, even if it means I will be late. I just didn't want to miss out on all the yummy seafood. There was way too much food by the way. I had an entree of king prawn which was so so so yummy (best part of the meal I think), followed by a GIANT piece of salmon with mashed potato that I couldn't even eat half of. Plus, there was a seafood platter for the table, and lobster mornay. Then, there was desert, and I had another cocktail. Hannah wouldn't be needing a feed until at least 12, so it was safe to have another one. I shouldn't have after all that food though, my tummy hurt, so we went home early. I'm such a light weight.
I know babies aren't supposed to sit up until they are a bit older, but Hannah has decided that it's time. One day she could sit up for a short period of time, then fall over, the next she could sit up like a pro. I timed her, she sat up for 10 minutes before reaching too far for something and going sideways (and I caught her of course). She is so clever. She can also roll in all directions, front to back and back to front, but prefers to go to her left. One day she was supposed to be napping but instead decided to roll around her cot, give me a cheeky smile, then giggle hysterically. I couldn't help but laugh, it was so cute. Then of course she did it more. So much for nap time.
The day after tomorrow, Hannah will experience her first airplane ride. I'm so excited, I think she will love it. There are lots of people to look and smile at, a window to look out, planes to watch at the airport. I can't wait (except I will miss Aaron until he joins me in a weeks time).
If a baby vomits after trying a new food, it could have an intolerance. How do you know if your baby is vomiting vomiting, or just spitting up vomiting? It's like going into labour, you just know.
I was so excited to go out for our anniversary without Bubba. I even fed her early so I could get a move on. At 6:45 I was done feeding her, she was all sleepy eyed, and just needed a burp before I put her down. I put her over my shoulder and started patting. Nothing. I kept patting. She made a funny coughing noise that I haven't heard before, so I looked at her. And that is when it happened. Vomit was everywhere. It somehow made it's way around my entire arm. Not just the top , not just the bottom, all the way around. It was all over my shirt, all over my pants (which were my nice make my butt look nice jeans that I was planning to wear on my anniversary date), all over the floor, all over the magazine I was reading while feeding her, all over her wondersuit, all over her sleeping bag, all over my still exposed boob. How do you know if your baby is vomiting vomiting. Oh my goodness, you will know! But then there is the question of why. Is it food intolerance, sickness, fluke, who really knows?? I had to change Hannah, clean the floor, re feed her (she threw up her entire dinner, boob, and the carrot and zucchini she had at 5:30), wash myself. So much for my early exit.
What was I going to wear now? I had a nice outfit planned out, I wasn't wearing the shirt at the time (as I was sure I'd get milk on it if I fed her in it), but the pants were now inoperable. I tried the shirt with the only other pair of jeans I can fit in (I only have 3 pairs, and the last pair is the best, but was always tight before I got pregnant, so I can't even do them up now). Ugh, it looked terrible. Ok, plan b. But what is plan B? I looked in the closet. I got out the red dress that The Jess gave me and I haven't worn before. I tried it on. Oh dear, it showed every unwanted curve, underwear line, and belly pooch. Hmmm.... What to wear.... Then I remembered the "California Beauty Slim Lift Body shaping Undergarment" that my mother in law gave me while I was still pregnant. "You will love this after you have the baby." She said. I laughed at such a notion. Surely by the time I was going to go somewhere where I wanted to look nice and non flabby, I would actually look nice and non flabby. Before having Hannah, I was a size 8 and 48-50 kgs, so such a thing was quite foreign to me. I happily found the fat flattener (which I will now refer to it as) and put it on. Nice, it really works. I can't say that I've ever worn an undergarment that went from the middle of my thighs all the way to my boobs, but hey, I wasn't complaining. The only shoes (apart from heels, and I despise wearing heels and feel whoever invented them needs a swift kick in the butt) I have that go with the dress are shoes I bought and wore whilst pregnant when my normal shoes got too small for my swollen fat feet. Oh well, they'd have to do.
I shut the car door when I got out at Artarmon station and nearly screamed. Right there, on the door, was a very large, ugly spider, staring right at me (at least I felt like it was). It wasn't a huntsmen, so who knows what kind of poisonous freak spider it was. I quickly sauntered away. Going up the stairs at the station, I could feel my feet slipping around in my fat shoes. Darn those fat pregnant feet that stretched the life out of my shoes! I somehow tripped up the stairs and landed on my knees. Everyone looked at me. Yup, I felt really cool at that point. I'm sure my fat flattener was now showing as well. The night did not get off to a great start.
I met up with Aaron at Town Hall and we walked to the Japanese restaurant we planned to eat at. This particular place does yum cha but with Japanese food. And I love all the little dumplings and yum cha-ey stuff. Closed until mid December. Ok, well I guess we can't eat there. Next door was Seoul Ria. I'd never had Korean food before, so we decided to give it a go. When we got in, Aaron realised that he had been there with his old work before, and it was really good. We ordered a big sizzle pot thing (can't remember what they are actually called) where they bring all the food to your table and cook it right there. I really wanted a cocktail since I hadn't had an alcoholic beverage in over a year, but, they didn't do cocktails. Humph. They did have a Korean raspberry wine though. I don't usually drink wine, but I like raspberries, so we ordered a bottle anyway. It was good as far as wine goes. I just sipped it throughout the meal, and drank the equivalent of about 1.5 standard drinks. I think the combination of me being a lightweight anyway, and not having a drink for so long really made a difference. I was tipsy off 1.5 standard drinks (much to Aaron's amusement).
After dinner, we headed one street over to a cafe Aaron found on the net that also has boardgames. You order desert, and also a board game to play while you sit there. Who ever thought of that deserves a medal. Brilliant idea. I'm sure we probably already own every single board game they offer, but it's the fun novelty factor that entices me. Unfortunately, they were also closed. I guess we will have to go some other time. Instead, we headed to baskin Robbins where I indulged in some chocolate peanut butter ice cream. It's about time the peanut butter ice cream hit Australia!!!! Despite the hiccups, we had a really good night, and I can't wait to go out again sometime.
Other things that happened this week: Hannah started trying to crawl. When she is on her tummy, she puts her knees under herself. Not long now I'm afraid. Better get a playpen. She also rolled from her tummy to her back a couple of times, but doesn't do it regularly like she does back to front. We had a Christmas party with our antenatal class (the girls I meet up with every week). Hannah helped open her present and got some really cute outfits from her boyfriend. She sucked on his arm for a while too, cheeky monkey. I think Aaron and I will have to teach Hannah about sharing, she keeps stealing toys from all the other babies. The party was on a hot day, so we went for a swim for half an hour or so and Hannah absolutely loved it. I got the Christmas stuff out to put up but then couldn't find the tree, so I had to buy a new one. Lucky I'm the queen of bargains and picked up a 6 foot tree for $20. Score!
