Adventures in England

Making Christmas cards

Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:31:32 GMT

I thought of this idea rather late so only two were sent out but here is a video of Valerie making a Christmas card for her Grandparents.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-id3W5pIUt4

Christmas parties and teeth

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:59:47 GMT

Today was the Christmas party at the nursery. I showed up at 2:30 (when it started) to find that Valerie had just fallen asleep. I spent a nice while chatting with a couple people who work where I do. Their son is 2 weeks older than Valerie and I think he is Valerie's first boyfriend...or at least first 'friend'. He seems so excited to see her when I bring her into the nursery. He comes rushing over and points at her if I'm carrying her. If I put her down it looks like he's moving in to give her a kiss, but he just gets close to her before backing off a bit. It sounds like they play quite a bit and get along quite well.

Anyway, back to the party. Valerie woke up just as her room was going off to see Father Christmas. I picked her up and followed along. I think she was a bit confused to see me. She was definitely groggy and felt a bit warm. She's had a low fever on and off for the past couple days. If she still has a fever in the morning she has to stay home as they cannot give her medicine (or at least that medicine) for longer than 2 days. It turned out that her temperature was higher than it has been (over 39 in one ear) but I didn't know that until after I went back to work.

We all sat in a circle around Father Christmas. I was impressed that he knew the names of several of the kids. He was the father of one of the kids in the nursery but not in Valerie's room...but then it seems that everyone knows Valerie. Valerie was the second to get her gift (we were asked to bring in a small gift for him to give to our children). He held it out to her and when I sat her in front of me, rather than on my lap, to take the gift she gave a bit of a fuss and turned back to me wanting me to pick her up. It must be rough to be Father Christmas, when many of the little children are frightened by you. Valerie gets concerned around strangers anyway. She also wasn't interested in unwrapping her gift. She really didn't seem herself but I figured it was because she just woke up. It now sounds like she wasn't herself for a few hours between that nap and when I picked her up (early as they had given me a ring). She was tired when we got home but did seem more like herself. I put her to bed early and she went down without too much fuss, but she just spent a few minutes fussing at 9 after being in bed for almost 2 hours. I don't know that there is anything I can do for her.

She brushed her own teeth this evening...sort of. I tried brushing them but gave in and handed her the tooth brush. She brushed the bottom teeth and had a major fuss when I went to take the toothbrush to brush the top teeth (which have always been more of a problem than the bottom). Yes, our daughter has a temper to go with that hair. I think she discovered that in the last month or so.

She's quieted back down now and I hope she gets a good night sleep. I suspect she will want a bottle during the night as she was not at all interested in dinner.

Teeth galore

Sat, 19 Dec 2009 11:08:18 GMT

I got a decent look in Valerie's mouth today (as she was laughing at me) and I could see the molar that came through (I could first feel this yesterday or the day before so I think it had something to do with her head banging as it had to hurt. Combine that with being tired and it seems you get head banging). She now has 4 teeth on top, all in the front, and three on the bottom (the two centre and the one just to her right which is the latest addition that is easy to see) and now the second bottom left has poked through (but is hard to see) and her first molar on the bottom left has come through. I also notice that there are bumps just outside of the top teeth where it seems her next two on top will be coming through soon. The poor girl, it can't be nice to have all those teeth (a total of 5) trying to come through in such a short period of time.

She hasn't done any head banging at home tonight and I didn't hear of any at nursery (I hear they went out and played in the snow in the morning) so I am hopeful that it was a combination of molar (and other teeth) coming in and being tired. Tonight we gave her a bottle and put her to bed about 15 minutes later. Within an hour of going to bed she wanted another bottle. She didn't eat as well today as she had the past few days, but she may still be going through a growth spurt...either that or her teeth hurt more than her hunger did today. After the bottle, she went straight to sleep after I put her in her cot. She has seemed much more herself the last day or two. She managed to scoop a big spoonful of dinner (a meatball dish with sauce and rice that Greg made) into her mouth on her own today. She's getting better at that even if the food didn't stay in her mouth. I think she was getting somewhat full by that point. I was happy to see that she would eat the meatballs as it is another meat for her that wasn't too tough to chew.

I took some pictures at work of the buildings in the snow, but left my camera at work. I told Valerie she wasn't allowed to do anything cute this weekend, but she's already misbehaved many many times on that account.

Snow!

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 21:30:24 GMT

Here is our back garden at about 9:20 pm this evening.

Our front garden (yes, that's about all there is to it, just enough grass to lay down on and the rest is the driveway/parking area).

And then it started to get even more serious

Sorry Jenny if this makes you more jealous. Perhaps a few pictures of snow could help?

Snow!

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:17:11 GMT

It snowed yesterday...well there were some flakes in the air. While technically snow, it wasn't really.

It snowed today. It actually snowed quite heavily...for a short while. The ground was too warm and it all melted on impact.

They are forecasting snow for tomorrow (tonight and tomorrow). I've heard that we could get up to 8 inches. East Anglia was on the list of places to get snow, but considering they also listed several other areas, it could be the other areas that see that much snow if anyone does. On another local radio station they kept saying that the snowfall could be 'significant'.

Tomorrow could be interesting. Even if we don't get 8 inches...even if we only get 1 inch the city could be somewhat gridlocked.

A tired girl

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:37:50 GMT

I was shocked and appalled when Valerie threw herself on the floor and banged her head on the floor repeatedly. She did this 5-6 times (after very forcefully refusing to eat anything for dinner) during the 1-1.5 hours I had with her yesterday. We were able to give her a bottle before putting her to bed...actually a bottle and a half, but then she was hungry at 4 this morning, probably because she didn't eat dinner. This morning I spoke to the carers about it and she had done this once during the day at which point the carer picked her up and Valerie fell asleep in her arms which is something she usually doesn't do. I googled it today and it sounds like head banging is something somewhat common among children her age. They can do it because they are tired, frustrated, in pain (from teething or an ear ache) or for other reasons.

Tonight it sounds like she ate well for her Daddy and it seems like she had a good time playing with us and didn't seem so tired. Toward the end of the night she was starting to get fussy so I got her bottle and she did the head banging once rather than walking to where I was sitting with the bottle. We also started seeing eye rubs. We knew she was tired and it was the time we wanted to put her to bed anyway, but the odd thing is that she chatted for a bit after we put her in bed then started fussing a little every now and then before it started sounding more serious. We got her up after 45 minutes of this on/off fussing and gave her a bottle. She had 2/3 of it. I was surprised that she wanted more considering she had dinner. She did the head banging once at nursery (before she was willing to take a nap) and it left a small bruise on her forehead.

We tried putting her to bed earlier today hoping that would help her not be so tired, but it didn't work with the fussing and deciding she was hungry. Once I gave her the bottle she fell right asleep with no noise. I do hope she gets enough sleep tonight, but then morning comes early and she won't quite get 12 hours.

It's all just one big guessing game.

Something else I read was that early signs of autism are lack of pointing to get an adult to look that way, lack of looking in the direction an adult is looking, and imaginative play. They've discovered (I really want to see if I can locate the original article to see exactly what they looked at) that if the child does any of these by 18 months, the likelihood of the child becoming autistic is 'vanishingly' low. I know Valerie does the first two. The third is more difficult to see as I don't know what she is thinking when she plays, but I am pretty sure she does that too. This is a big relief for me as autism is something that scares me. I'm very happy that my daughter continues to seem healthy...apart from all the illnesses she brings home from nursery, but that's to be expected.

Valerie

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 20:36:34 GMT

It kind of weirds me out when Valerie, definitely tired when I put her to bed, is still awake and laying quietly (after a brief fuss of a few seconds) a half hour later in her cot rather than actually sleeping. It seems unnatural.

Earlier this week, Valerie held out a ball to us and said 'ball'. At the weekend she tried saying duck. Today I realized that she is also saying book. She doesn't put the k on the end of book or the l on the end of ball. With how the carers say ball, ball and book sound very much alike. She kept heading towards books and saying 'boo' 'boo' so I figure she must be saying book. We say it often enough to her but I had thought she was saying ball. I know she knows the difference between the two, we just cannot hear the difference yet.

After having a productive weekend, I'm taking the evening off from being productive. Apart from taking care of Valerie, doing some shopping and catching up on some of the dishes, I'm not doing anything else...sigh.

Sunday stroll

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:39:53 GMT

Today, after the pouring down rain left, Valerie and I went for a walk. This is her first time walking in shoes (the only other time she had the shoes on, all she did was sit on the floor and try to remove them but today I had her distracted enough to leave them be) and considering that, I think she did quite well. I also discovered today just how big on her this jacket is. She followed Daddy around to the back of the house where he was going to get his bike. She ended up trying to step off of the small patio but landed face down in the grass. After that she didn't make it any further than where the sidewalk crosses the driveway before getting distracted by a puddle, sitting down and, upon noticing the shoes, trying to remove the shoes. After that we went in to prepare a snack, drink and nappies to be away a bit longer and, with Valerie in her stroller, we went for a walk. We ended up going to Scotsdale's which is a large, everything you need to garden and more type of store. They had a craft sale going on in a small side building so we went through there first before going into the store to look at their Christmassy stuff. We browsed through some of the rest of the store before heading out. I noticed on the way out that the Cambridgeshire Raptor Foundation had some owls and a kestrel on display. I did think it was kind of funny that half of their birds there are found in the US, but they were all beautiful. I took a few pictures and can post them later if anyone is interested.

When I got home, I noticed my phone telling me that I had missed a call. We were gone so long (Greg had gone for an hour + bike ride and he beat us home) that Greg was a bit worried that we weren't there but I didn't hear the phone. Somehow it got set to 'soft' and a strange ring tone that I just don't hear if there is any noise around. Valerie did very well considering that we were probably gone for 2 hours. She seemed a bit tired when we got back so I gave her tea and tried putting her down for a nap. she didn't want anything to do with that even though we knew she was tired. I got her back up, we gave her some milk and she slept on Daddy for 1 to 1.5 hours, I think. That's also when we noticed that she had loose nappies. She still seemed groggy when she woke and just layed on me for a while before getting a bit of a second wind. When bed time hit she was starting to look a bit more energetic. Unfortunately we are trying to stick with a bit of a routine, so it was off to bed even though she had only been up from her nap for 1.5-2 hours or so. She wasn't real happy about it but didn't fuss too much. She's been sleeping fitfully though. Now, over 2 hours later she's stopped periodically fussing. I think she was sleeping, but not very well, would wake up and make a touch of noise before falling back to sleep. I hope she is sleeping more soundly now. Greg went to bed early because he isn't feeling well either. He is cold and I'm not. That is a sure sign that he is sick. Hopefully it doesn't get any more serious than it was just before he went to bed.

For now though, a video of Valerie setting out for her walk:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQZPajIjuHs

And a couple pictures:

She started out a bit unsure, but did quite well. If she lost her balance she was usually able to catch it without having to put her hands on the ground. I was very proud of her.

Sleeping on Daddy:

London

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:54:23 GMT

I left the house at 8 am Friday morning and didn't return until around 9:30 pm. It didn't go all quite as planned, but I would still consider today a success.

I ended up waiting for the bus to pick me up for 15-20 minutes, then it took a half hour or more to get to the train station on the bus. When I got to the train station, I realized that if I waited a half hour, I could pay the off-peak price rather than the peak price saving £10, so I waited and caught the 9:26 train to Kings Cross. From there it was to the Tube and across to Tower Hill.

Sundial on Tower Hill:

The sun dial is interesting because it has some of the key moments in London history around the base like:

When the Romans took over:

The first London Bridge

The founding of the Tower of London and a fire:

The first stone London Bridge:

The Gunpowder plot:

The building of the Globe Theatre:

The great plague:

The great fire:

The most recent notable time point is the Thames barrier:

With the number of times London has been destroyed by invasion or fire, I figure it must be due to happen again.

here is a section of the original Roman wall (just the bottom bit with the orange stripes. The top bit is merely medieval.)

And, of course, Tower Bridge (not London bridge as many Americans, including me, may think because this is the bridge we see most, but we hear about London Bridge)

After taking a few pictures outside of the Tower, it was time to go in. There was a queue to get in, but that didn't take too long. I entered the Tower at 11:30. There was a Yeoman Warder tour just beginning when I entered, so I joined that. The Warder was very entertaining and knowledgeable.

Tower entrance:

Yeoman Warder: Tourguide, Queen's body guard, Tower Security...etc. You have to have served in the military with good conduct for at least 20ish years and have received a certain medal (I don't remember what it was) before you are allowed to apply to become a Warder. It is then a job for life...well until you retire at 65. They live at the Tower with their families. Their family is allowed to be baptized in the Tower chapel and married there as well.

The Chapel:

After the tour, which ended in the chapel where many royalty is buried including Anne Boleyn, I started my wandering. I took pictures of the monument to those who were executed on (or very near) that site (which also includes a Christmas tree at the moment).

Monument:

Anne Boleyn:

Catherine Howard:

Picture back toward the Bloody Tower:

From there it was into the Jewel House to see the Crown Jewels. This had a few videos that you walked past at the beginning which explained some about the various items including some of the famous jewels. Then it was through a very thick steel door to where the jewels are actually held. They are very impressive and a bit gaudy. I do think it is cool that there is the crown that Queen Elizabeth II was crowned in (and her dad, and his dad) there along with the crown that she uses for State occasions. There was also the small crown worn by Queen Victoria after her husband died and others. In this area they also had other regalia some of which is still used for things like coronations and baptisms. Much of what was there dated from the 1600s. They don't allow pictures in there so I bought the book. In another building they had a few other crowns that had been used but the jewels had been removed as they had been hired.

The Jewel House:

Of course it had its guards:

Fusilier's Museum. I didn't go in as it didn't really interest me and there was so much else to see!

I paused for a few minutes to eat the lunch I had brought with me and then went into the cafe for a hot chocolate and sweet. They were expensive enough. I'm glad I had brought a sandwich rather than getting a meal there.

Cannon with Maltese flag:

Yeoman Warder: I think it is very cool that they still wear cloaks.

Then on to the White Tower.

It had this odd door (well oddly placed door) set into the side showing underneath a stair where the bones believed to belong to Edward V and his brother were found.

They had an impressive display of armor that belonged to King Henry VIII there. It was interesting to see how it changed over time. We tend to think of him as a rather large man, but he wasn't always like that. The down side to this grand display in the tower was that it was harder to pay attention to the building itself. After this display and failing to get an exhibition catalogue (they were sold out), I went to the palace. There is a nice path through the palace, over to one of the other towers, across a section of the south wall, through another tower and across a section of the east wall before going through a final tower and back into the courtyard. In a couple of these towers, where prisoners had been held, you can see various 'graffiti' where they had carved their names or sayings in Latin into the lime wash of the walls. Much of it was religious including pleading for forgiveness. Most of the graffiti dated to the 1500s...I think

The palace above Traitor's gate.

The Southern wall walk

The view of Tower Bridge from the south wall:

The contrast of old and new:

The Salt Tower from the southern wall:

Graffiti in the Salt Tower:

Henry Walpole was here:

Of course I saw other well known sights in the Tower like the ravens (should the ravens ever leave the tower, the Monarchy would fall...) and the Traitor's gate.

Ravens

This one was noisy as the Raven keeper was trying to round them up for the night.

All safe for the night:

Traitor's gate (formerly known as Watergate...because it opens on to the water. In fact, before the outer wall was built, I believe this must have been only accessible during low tide I know the current outer gate is partially submerged during high tide)

The steps from the gate up to courtyard level. More than one Royal personage walked up these stairs unhappily.

I really could have used more time as I wanted to go back through a couple of the buildings but I had run out of time. The tower was closing. I had been to most of the parts where visitors are allowed (the Warders live there so there are places that are off limits) but I felt rushed at the end. I exited, went through the gift shop looking for the Henry VIII exhibition catalogue again without luck and went to the river. It was full dark and quite pretty with all the lights on.

The White Tower at sun down:

The Tower Bridge at night. This turned out much better than I would have expected:

Colourful boats:

London Bridge:

The Tower from the water at night:

Although I had entered the Tower at 11:30, my hope of visiting the British Museum would not be fulfilled. I exited the tower at 4:45. The museum closes at 5:30. There was no way I could get there and have a chance to see anything. I could still get to the V&A as they are open until 10. While at the river, I noticed boat transportation. I've never been on the Thames and I thought this would be a good chance to travel along it a short way and it would be pretty with all the lights. The sign was advertising fares to Greenwich. I thought, "sure!, I've never been to Greenwich. I'll go there and catch the Tube back to the V&A". It only cost £3.30 with my Travelcard. The journey gives you a much better idea of how big London is. I only traveled a short distance (relatively speaking) along the Thames, but it was still a long distance. I don't think of it as much on the Tube even though it does take a long time to get from one end to the other as I'm usually too busy trying not to fall over if I don't get a seat and there isn't anything to see to give you a good idea of how far you've traveled.

A neat view of some skyscrapers at night wreathed in fog at the top. The picture really doesn't do it justice.

Once I got to Greenwich I remembered why I've never been there. The tube doesn't go there. Instead of doing the sensible thing and getting back on a boat the other direction, or the same boat to the O2 dock where I know the tube goes, I start walking. I knew there was a tube stop in North Greenwich. How bad could it be to walk there? I could see some of the area while I'm at it. So I walk, and walk...and walk. Thankfully some of the bus shelters have maps of the local area so I could determine that I was still heading in the right direction. I don't usually mind getting lost in London. It is a good way of seeing interesting things, however, I had woken up Friday morning to realise that my little handy map of London was at work...and I wasn't able to get to work to get it. Also, I tend to feel...not necessarily comfortable... but at least not endangered in most of the parts of London I've been to. This bit was a bit more seedy than I'm used to...which, compared to some areas of, say, Detroit still isn't all that bad. Well, I found a large Sainsburys and decided to go get a sandwich for dinner. On the map there, I discovered that I wasn't quite where I thought I was. I wasn't far off, but the road I thought I needed to take didn't have any place for pedestrians. I phoned Greg. After consulting a map, he assured me I was heading the right direction. I finished my sandwich and continued on. Eventually I could see the dome of the O2 arena. I've never been so happy to see a concert venue. I knew the tube station was under the venue. As I arrived I noticed a building that had rather unfortunate lighting.

Technically I had time to go to the V&A and look around for an hour or two, but I was getting tired. It has been a long while since I've done that much walking. If I went to the V&A it would mean taking the train to Great Shelford and walking a half hour to get home rather than going to Cambridge and catching the bus (which doesn't run all that late). As it was, I figured I'd be sore Saturday (and I was) so I just headed home.

On the tube on the way home, a guy with a guitar got on at one stop, played Blue Christmas ala Elvis complete with leather jacket and an appropriate hair style, asked for donations and exited at the next stop. It was actually pretty cool.

I arrived in Kings Cross just on time to find that they had just posted which track the next train that went by Cambridge was at and joined the crowd to get to it. It turns out that the train only had two stops before Cambridge so I made it there in record time...waiting for the bus, however... 40 minutes later, I caught the bus to Great Shelford. The Citi7 only runs once an hour starting around 6 it seems. Thankfully the bus stops only a few doors down.

In other news this weekend. Valerie climbed up onto the couch all by herself for the first time today. I showed her how to get her knee up onto it yesterday. She's been having fun playing on the couch, so we need to be very careful so she doesn't fall off. Now that she knows she can climb on things, nothing is safe.

I don't remember if I posted this, but earlier this week, Valerie looked at us, held out her ball and said "ball"! They said she did this at nursery a few days before, but she's starting to use words more. She says Mama more...usually when she's upset. I've also heard her try 'duck'. I also think that when she points to something she says 'dat' like 'what's that?'.

Videos

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 13:37:26 GMT

Since I've been having trouble getting video embedded so it will work right, here are links to the videos in YouTube.

Valerie eating dinner:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJYfkMEruSM

A different use for a book, but she was having so much fun.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afTxbY61X2A

Playing with Daddy. make sure you have sound for this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eofqIlmP5LI

Dancing. Make sure you have sound for this one too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ZQLDo0sCY

Playing with Momma's socks:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhZKHf3EVH0

Pictures

Sun, 06 Dec 2009 22:53:00 GMT

I still look so cute when I sleep!

I tried helping Daddy play his game. He looked like he needed my help, but I think he still lost

For some reason, Momma likes taking pictures of me when I sleep. This happens to be one of my favorite sleeping positions.

Sometimes the mouth is useful as a third hand.

I still like having books read to me

The yellow ring makes a good bracelet, but the blue fits my ankle better

I was tired and trying to get comfy but someone kept snapping pictures

I found a new toy! Thankfully they were clean. I liked taking them off and handing them to Mom to hold open so I could put my hands back in them. I tried putting them on my hands or feet myself, but couldn't quite figure it out.

Vroom!

I tried napping with Daddy, but he didn't move and wouldn't let me move. It got boring so I had to get off the couch to play.

Momma discovered that if she lets me chew on the brush a little, it will make my hair stand up if she brushes it backward.

Daddy found my tickle spot.

We had fun playing on the couch

I got up from my nappy change before Momma could get my trousers back on. I tried to put them on myself.

I couldn't figure out how to get it on my legs, but this worked for me.

I like my shape sorter, but I've discovered that you can put some of the blocks in through several holes. How clever am I?

Here Mom, have a block.

Tastes like chicken?

Momma really loves seeing me in this shade of blue

Here I am putting a peg in its place

Look! I got the peg all the way down.

Momma tells me that Nana didn't actually buy me this shirt, but she would have if she had seen it so she bought it for me instead. She says it's true.

Another day... more playing with Daddy on the couch. He sure does like playing with me. It's a good think I love it too!

Momma says the puzzle piece goes here and that I was being silly.

She did say that it doesn't go here

Here Mom, you do it

There, that's the picture update. The last of these pictures were taken on Friday. While she does seem to change every day, this should give you a good idea of what she's been up to. Today she woke up well from her morning nap and has been in the best mood I've seen her in for a week or two. Although she really hasn't been that bad, it was nice to see her happier.

I do have a video or two to post as well, but I need to upload them to YouTube.

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:59:55 GMT

It is so cute when Valerie tries to 'dress' herself. Lately it has been trying to put on her trousers without sticking her legs in first although at one point I did see her pick up her foot (with her hand) and try to get it into the top of the trousers.

Tonight we had a good time playing on the floor. There really is no better sound in the world than her laughter. She was a bit grumpy for a short while after dinner, but then she perked up. I think she has teeth coming in that are bothering her or perhaps a sore throat. She's been sounding hoarse the last couple days. It makes her cry sound very pitiful.

The weekend

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:35:44 GMT

On Saturday, I was ready to write up the weekend and declare it to be a great weekend. Plans change.

Thanksgiving isn't a holiday here, but covaithe and I took Thursday and Friday off. Then we got an invite to our friends for Thanksgiving. This made us very happy as we enjoy spending time with these friends and meant we got a proper Thanksgiving dinner without having to do all the work (and eat all the leftovers) ourselves. It was a good day. We had a slow morning with Valerie letting us sleep until 8. I had gotten the best night sleep that I've had in a while. Valerie did very well even though her day was way off schedule. I even got her to take a nap in the stroller after a brief walk.

Friday morning I took Valerie to nursery. covaithe and I took the opportunity to go see a movie. We went to see The Men Who Stare at Goats. It was very entertaining. I recommend renting it. covaithe then went home to relax a bit before picking Valerie up from nursery. I went to the Fitzwilliam museum. Apart from the Egypt rooms, which I'm always happy to browse through, and the armor display, which we had seen when we went to see the manuscripts a couple years ago, I was disappointed. Most of the rest of their collection seems to be paintings and porcelain which doesn't really get me that excited.

Friday evening we had an invite to go to another friend's for a pot luck. This meant more good food and more good company for Friday. Unfortunately it didn't start until 7, so Valerie was starting to get tired and we weren't able to stay that long.

Saturday I was starting to feel the pressure of getting things done. We have lots to do before we leave this country and I've had very little motivation to do it. I did get Lutr's shield painted which I've wanted to do before we left because we have the paint, so why not? It doesn't look quite as good as it did the first time around, but it still looks better than before the repainting. I really noticed how bad it was when I had the black and one bit of the white finished and saw just how marked up and yellow the old white had become. I also got an undertunic cut out for me. I have yet to sew this...perhaps tonight.

Saturday evening my Mom called with bad news. After failing to show up where she had plans for Thanksgiving, the police were called to check on my Aunt (my Mom's Aunt really). They found her in her bedroom in her night clothes. They (I'm not sure who this 'they' is) said she went quickly. This really hit us out of the blue. As far as I'm aware she had no serious health problems. This was my worst fear about being here, that I would lose someone I love and have missed out on opportunities to see them when I could. I will miss her immensely.

I want to go home.

We made it through the rest of the weekend somehow. Playing video games helped. Valerie was somewhat fussy on Sunday. I noticed this morning that she may have a molar coming through. She also sounds quite hoarse, so I don't know if she has come down with a cold or some other sort of sore throat. We went swimming this morning. It really looked like she had a good time and is becoming more comfortable in the water. She didn't nap at nursery (not surprising after swimming but frustrating) so we put her down for a nap when we got home. She slept for an hour, woke up wanting dinner, then was tired again. I hated putting her to bed after she had been up for less than an hour, but it is what she needed. She fell asleep pretty quickly and only fussed after a bit of coughing which again makes me think she's got a bit of a sore throat.

The end(ish) of last week we noticed a crack in the floor of our shower. This cannot be a good thing. The agent came over to look at it and says the plumber should be able to do something about it this week and to take short showers but if we notice the ceiling of the kitchen being wet to not use the shower. It wouldn't be as terrible as it could be to not have a shower for a few days (which we expect will be the case as it sounds like they will need to rip the whole thing out and replace it) as I can shower at work and covaithe can shower at the gym.

I've been meaning to post more pictures of Valerie as I have lots waiting. Hopefully I'll get around to doing that soon.

Grump

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:48:04 GMT

I know many people won't believe it but V was a grump today. She got her 12 month jabs this morning. I figured she'd take a good long nap at nursery as her jabs tend to make her sleepy. How much nap did she get today? None. Nada. Zilch, Zero. Instead of taking more than her usual nap, she took none. The nursery staff said they tried (which I don't doubt). I picked her up at 6, she fussed as I put her in the car and it appeared she had been fussing at nursery as someone was holding her rather than her usual playing at the end of the day. She slept most of the way home but wouldn't be put down for a nap when we got home because she was *so* hungry. She fussed as I was getting her dinner ready (one handed because I couldn't put her down). She fussed (loudly and thoroughly enough that she didn't notice the spoon I was holding out to her) between bites because I wasn't feeding her fast enough, but I couldn't go faster because the food was too hot. Once she took the edge off of the hunger, the real fussing began because she was so tired that she just couldn't cooperate. I managed to get an ok amount of food into her then took her into the living room once she started just swinging full force at the spoonfuls. We read a couple books and then it was snack, bottle and bed time as she was still being grumpy and somewhat uncoordinated between books and the other little bits of playing that she wanted to do. She was in full fuss as I tried to change her nappy and get her into her sleeper. I was somewhat surprised that she allowed me to brush her teeth (well as well as it usually goes) and then only fussed for a few minutes once I put her in her cot. She was in full fuss as soon as I tried putting her down so we didn't get our normal tuck in routine.

I am so thankful that she isn't like this everyday. The jabs just made her over tired. In the past she's been at home after them where it is so much easier to settle in for a nap. She always naps better here than at nursery.

Poor thing. She had a rough day.

Dinner

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:27:25 GMT

The weekend

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:53:01 GMT

I was somewhat productive today. I went to a 'nearly new' sale in the hopes of filling out Valerie's wardrobe a bit. She's about to outgrow most of her 9-12 month clothes. We didn't have enough 12-18 month clothes, so I bought some more. The sale wasn't nearly as good for clothes as the NCT ones, but this one had lots of toys. I came home with a different shape sorter as the one I had ordered was smaller than I had thought it would be and she can fit some of the pieces in her mouth. I also bought her another wood puzzle where you fit the shapes (animals this time) into the wood base and another puzzle that doesn't have a base, but large simple puzzle pieces. I've been wanting a few new books for her as well and found a couple that she might like. We spent some time this morning going through pictures in one of her old books and I think she tried to say 'bear'. I couldn't resist getting her this: http://superbackpack.com/Mega-Bloks-Block-Buddies-My-Magical/M/B000WXPXHK.htm when I saw it. It has a queen rather than the king shown otherwise it has all the figures, but none of the extra building blocks. That's fine as we have other building blocks. I mainly wanted this because she has a little duplo guy that she absolutely loves. I wanted her to have a few more figurines and she really took to these when I gave it to her. She likes that you can put a figure in the tower on the right and it 'disappears' (the room spins in where you cannot see the figure because of the back wall) when you switch the lever. She had me make the figurine disappear several times and then would take the figure out and hand it to me to do it again.

It's time to go through her old toys and work on getting rid of them.

Tomorrow we are meeting up with the mums and dads from the antenatal group (and their now one-year-old daughters). One family cannot come because their daughter is sick. She's been somewhat poorly from the start where eating has caused her pain and she's had reflux and allergies. It sounds like it has been acting up again and she's been refusing solid food and for a while was refusing milk and they feared that they would have to hospitalize her and tube feed her. It sounds like she started taking milk again at the hospital but she also gets very distressed when they spend much time away from home (it sounds like most of the time she wasn't at home, she was at the hospital, so I understand her distress). I hope she does better soon and am so thankful that Valerie is healthy.

Fireworks

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 22:03:30 GMT

I went to my first (and last) Guy Fawkes Night (also known as Bonfire Night) celebration. It was a day early, but they had fireworks at work (well work hired someone in) and put on a decent show. I also tried out my camera's 'firework' setting. I think the camera worked alright for that, but my timing was bad as there was quite a delay between pushing the button and the click of the picture...looking at some of the images it seems like it took two pictures to put in one frame. One picture when I pushed the button and one when I heard the click as some pictures have both the firework and some lights from the edge of the sidewalk. The camera definitely wouldn't be facing the same way for both. If any turn out, I may post some.

Valerie's birthday

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:09:21 GMT

was a rather quiet one. The alarm went off at 7 as per usual. Also at that time we could hear V being a bit chatty in her bedroom. She's been really good about not fussing right when she wakes up and entertains herself anywhere from 10 minutes to a couple hours (thank you so much for Saturday morning, Sweetie! She started being chatty around 7:30, but I didn't get out of bed until after 9) although she may have been dozing during that couple hours. We got up, got dressed and went downstairs for breakfast. Thursday was the first time we've tried her with Wheatabix although they've tried it with her at nursery (with mixed results). She ate better than she had been when we were feeding her the baby fruity cereal so that was a plus. She was really in a good mood Thursday morning and more smiley than she has been in a few mornings.

We opened the package from Uncle Marc and Aunt Tiffany, which we could tell was clothes from the customs sticker, to see if there was anything she would want to wear today. The clothes are quite cute, but they are a bit big on her right now. This is a good thing as we have lots of clothes for her that she's just about to grow out of, so we're set for the moment but don't have very much for her to wear in a couple months. Time to hit a nearly new sale! She had fun playing with the clothes, and especially the tags, while Mommy fixed a couple sandwiches for Mommy and Daddy to take to work. We dropped Daddy off at work and went to nursery where she fussed when I tried to put her down. That was the first fuss of the day.

I went to work and had a hard time getting things accomplished. I meant to leave a bit early to get Valerie and have more playing time with her, but one thing led to another and I ended up leaving around the usual time. It sounds like Valerie had a good day at nursery. She napped for over an hour and ate most of her food. It also sounds like she had fun. They gave her a birthday card which she drew in. They had written on the front and left the inside blank for that purpose. When we got home we fed her dinner right away so she wouldn't get fussy like she does if we wait and she ate well. We then lit one candle on a cake and sang Happy Birthday to her. She had brought back up a small amount of dinner and didn't seem at all interested in the cake. She must have had more than enough of the main course.

Either we have a strange daughter, or I chose well in gifts for her. The first thing she opened was one of those wood puzzles that only has 5 pieces (in different shapes) with little handles on them. She was much more interested in playing with that than the paper I had wrapped it in. She played with that puzzle for most of the evening. She did open her other gifts (a new book and a pull along giraffe) but didn't spend quite so much time with them. Eventually she did have some fun playing with the paper, but the puzzle was a hit. Towards the end of the night she even was trying to get the puzzle pieces back onto the base (but not in the right slots yet). I'm glad she likes it so much.

Pictures and probably video (if there is anything really good) to be posted soonish.

Dark

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:58:12 GMT

It was pitch black when I left work today. I was very not happy about this. The change was most noticeable because of the time change on Sunday. It seems like I'm not used to driving in the dark anymore. The days in the summer are so long that you usually don't have to drive after dark and last winter I didn't work so most of the time I was out was during daylight.

I'm really not going to like the commute home now. Part of it is on this very narrow twisty road where a coworker says she knows a couple people who have lost wing mirrors on this road. I was behind a bus on it the other day and the bus was wider than the lane most of the time. There is no shoulder, just grass and the speed limit on this road is 60mph...not that I ever do that but the traffic going the other way is moving fast too.

I had just been getting more comfortable driving on this road in the daylight. Unfortunately it is the quickest way to get from our house to the nursery as the other routes involve lots and lots of heavy traffic. I didn't take it today because I wanted to see what one of the other routes was like at that time of the evening, but I think I will try that road tomorrow.

A few more pictures of Miss V.

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:14:22 GMT

Here she was last night. She looked so relaxed.

Here she was this morning:

A close up:

And celebrating walking with Mom.

And a couple videos of Valerie walking(!). Of course we didn't get the best of it on video, but she did some proper walking where she would stand up, take a few steps, pause, continue with a few more steps...and then dive onto Mom. She's doing amazing with it considering it has been less than a week since she started standing without holding onto things.

V pictures

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:53:35 GMT

Look at all those teeth! (and I have at least two more coming in)

Here I am on my first bike ride. Too bad I couldn't touch the handles or pedals. Perhaps next time.

Momma knows where my tickle spot is:

Oh, wait, the camera's on me!

Here I am standing all on my own. I pushed myself up off of Momma.

Say, 'Yay Valerie'!

I heard a rumor that she took a couple steps at nursery yesterday.

V Videos

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 10:35:26 GMT

Here a couple videos taken earlier this week.

The slightly yellow colour of our walls throws off the colour of the video a bit.
She's been pushing herself off of me when I sit on the floor to standing. She's been doing that more and more. We managed to get a picture last night, but I haven't gotten it up yet.

V

Sat, 17 Oct 2009 13:51:07 GMT

Valerie just (well a half hour ago) stood on her own for like 10 seconds! She wasn't holding anything (other than her two Duplo blocks) and she wasn't leaning against anything! A couple days ago she showed me that she could put the two duplo blocks (they just have one big bump that fits into the bottom of the other) together! Man she's growing fast!

A new bird

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:42:28 GMT

I've seen another new (to me) bird. They are relatively common around but I've not seen one where I knew what it was, but the blue patches on the wings really give them away. I've seen them a few times since moving to the new house, but for some reason thought I was seeing the Green Woodpecker, but I got a good look at the one earlier this week and it is really a Jay :http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/j/jay/index.asp

Trap

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 12:08:18 GMT

I've fallen into the same trap that many of my friends have. It is so easy to post short updates in Facebook that I find myself mentioning little things there and not here in LJ. This is bad because I know my parents don't read my facebook... not that there is really anything interesting going on in my life.

Well, I have strep throat... the doctors called it Tonsilitis, but then they don't know if it is strep that is causing it. They gave me antibiotics which I've been on for 24 hours now and I feel better. I will be getting more food today than yesterday simply because it doesn't hurt nearly so much to swallow.

In V news, she definitely has a favorite book. I wonder if we weren't doing her any favors by reading books with stories. There is this little (probably about 3 inches square) board book that she just loves. It is on a strap that goes around the binding and out to a hook to be hooked on a pram. She will take this book and hand it to me repeatedly to read to her. It just has a few simple pictures of various things and all the text is 'Hello lion, hello pig...' under each picture. It ends with 'hello, you' on a page with a mirror that she likes getting up close to look into. One of the first days this caught her attention, I must have read it 20 times. She'll also pull it away from you while you're reading it to look at the pictures, close the book and get frustrated if she can't get it back open again. It is quite cute, but unfortunately I have the book memorized already.

We have a walker for V (as seen in previous pictures and videos). It plays different tunes when you press the buttons. She used to wiggle a bit when she heard music, but a couple days ago we got the first of what I would really call dancing. It included picking up her feet and really moving to the tune.