Fire and Ice

I guess there are few things in life as disruptive as having a baby . There are of course events like getting married, moving house and others that create chaos but somehow, at least in my case, babies are definitely at the top of my "things that make me go argh!" list. Sure, they are cute and all that, but all hell appears to break loose around them and, because I do not do well with disorder, it drives me nuts. But anyway, the good thing is that what at first is disruptive after a while it becomes routine. Things start to settle down and while they may never be the same again, a sense of order re-appears and predictability ensues. I'm at that point now where I can actually plan my days, when I sort of know what will happen and when I can make decisions that go beyond the next three hours. This means I can carve out a little of time to myself a bit more easily. When it comes to filling that time, the possibilities are endless: I could spend it in a warm, relaxing bath or...

A week ago today I landed back in Heathrow with my baby girl and we came back home after being away from the UK for more than two months (or, in her case, for her whole life!). It was of course incredibly nice to see my boys, to be back in my own house and to have the whole family on the same continent again. It was nice to get into a routine again and to take things more slowly. Being back made me realize that I don’t only miss things when I’m here but I also miss more than a few things in the UK. Obviously I miss my boys and being among my own things, but there are also some surprising things that I found myself almost pining after… First of all, I really missed the UK attitude towards the environment. I’ve posted before about the shocking amount of plastic shopping bags I was using in Mexico , but I also found myself having to throw away paper and carton because there is no easy way to recycle it over there. I guess I’ve been on this side of the Atlantic too long but I found attitud...

Ok, the baby's asleep and hopefully I have time to share this story (and photos!) with you... In another life, when I lived in Florida and worked as a Cast Member I got the chance to do some amazing things . One of them was an after-hours walking tour of Spaceship Earth and we got the chance to see the attraction up close and learn lots of things about it. But the best part were the photos we were able to take! Remember this was 1995 so the attraction has changed a bit since then. So the tour started and there were about 7 of us if I remember correctly and we started by walking along the track, very carefully as there isn't an awful lot of room there! The good thing is that we can see perfectly as all the house lights are on which means that all the atmosphere is gone. But all the sound effects were still on so it was a weird mix of reality and fantasy. Before long we found some maintenance guys starting their shift. They have a special cart thing that goes along the track and ...

You know those reality TV shows where people live for days or weeks at a time, pretending to be living in some historical past? Where they spend time being Victorians or children in a 1950s school or whatever? Well, sometimes I feel that I am in something like that... Somehow it appears that here in Mexico having a baby means that the mother immediately goes back in time to Victorian times and there are hundreds of things she mustn't do: top of the list is leave the house. Mothers are expected (along with baby) to basically never leave the house for 40 days unless there is some dire emergency. Needless to say, I would go crazy if I did that. The day I left the hospital we took a quick detour to the local supermarket as there were things we needed. I also felt the need to be outside for a bit after 4 days inside the hospital and it was a nice day and I was feeling pretty good so we went. Didn't think anything of it but of course I have had nothing but negative comments about tha...

When babies are born, there are a lot of surprises: date of birth, the baby's gender and who does she look like? In Jessica's case we already knew she was a girl and when she'd be born (and even roughly her weight!) so the main surprise is who does she look like? Everyone has taken the question quite seriously and there have been lively debates to try and settle the issue. It seems that everyone has different opinions, depending mainly on which side of the family you're in. Just in case you've already forgotten what a cutie she is, this is a photo of my little girl Jessica: Everyone thinks she looks just like I did when I was a baby. What do you think? To help you along, here is a photo of me as a baby: Other than the obvious hair color (and the fact that we're both infants in the photos) I really can't see the similarities. I actually think that Jessica is the spitting image of her brother Samuel when he was a baby: What do you think? Is she like me or like...

Aren't these two adorable?? Once life settles down I should be able to continue the usual service, in the meantime here's another baby photo!!

About a year ago, I finished a marathon and I am very , very proud of that accomplishment. I still feel that my head goes a bit higher when I tell people about it, when they see my photos and when I show my medal off. Sure, my time wasn’t fast but I finished didn’t I? This year I feel like I’m finishing another marathon, of sorts. In a few days I will, if all goes well, give birth to a little girl and these last few weeks have been like the last stretch in the marathon. You know, you start off strong and confident (but a little queasy inside), until you find your pace. Slowly you feel that you can definitely do this, it’s actually easy and you’ve already covered so much mileage. You feel yourself smiling and think “hey, I look quite good!” Everyone cheers you on. But somewhere in the last third you start flagging again: suddenly not only your legs hurt but everything seems to. The really comfortable pace you’d set is becoming too much so you slow down. You feel heavier and heavier. T...