Fire and Ice

Let's play this game again : here's a recent photo of Jessica (aged 1): And here is one of me, roughly the same age: So who does she look like now? Shall we consider this game over?

As part of my D esign Thinking course , I had to take photos of objects I like and then submit them to the Online Design Studio. They are intended to act as practice for taking and uploading photos which I already have lots of experience on… but I still took a while to do it. Why? I just couldn’t decide on only 3 objects to photograph! In the end the three things I chose probably say a lot about me, so I thought it would be fun to share them with you and explain my choices further. The first object that I chose was a Smart car. I chose this pretty quickly because it is something that has always made me smile. I used to own one and even though I have nothing against the car I have now, if I could I would go back to my Smart in a second. The second object took a bit longer to pick. I was looking around the kitchen for inspiration and considered my blender (which I love but not THAT much), my slow cooker (which is great but let’s not get carried away) and finally settled on ...

I've done this before but it's time to play the game again: who does Jessica look like? Because I'm biased and I think she looks like her brother, here is my evidence. This is what Jessica looks like right now, at 3 months: And this is what Samuel used to look like at the same age: Very similar, don't you think? The same chin, same mouth, same nose and very similar eyes but Jessica does have bigger cheeks and her eyes look a bit more scrunched up. Also Samuel had bright blue eyes by this age whereas Jessica's are already turning sort of hazel (but they look brown on this shot). And of course Samuel was growing new, blonde hair by 3 months while Jessica still has her mop of brown curls. Unfortunately there isn't a photo of me at that age (not that I know of anyway) but trust me on this one - Jessica looks like her brother! Or what do you think?

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...

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!!