Golden grapes

Saturday I walked into a new wine shop – or wine house which it’s called - to buy a bottle of wine for my parents. We had dinner with them on Sunday.

I walk in, see a small stack of wine boxes and big sign:
ON SALE: 85 EURO (that’s like 108 US dollar)

I thought, wow how many bottles do you get with a 85 euro box of wine?

I walked up to the bottles and saw cute little 85 euro price marks on each of the bottles.

WTF.

I love a good bottle of wine but, 85 euros...! I turned to go out and buy a nice wine at the liquor store a few shops down the street. But than the salesperson took a bee line from the counter to me.

NO ESCAPE! OH NO!

“How can I help you?”

OK Sweety, be calm. “I’m looking for a nice bottle of red wine to go with some after dinner cheeses”.

“Price range?”

Cough * around 10 euros * cough *

The man smiled and took me to the back of the store. No decoration, just stacks of boxes. A bit of a mess actually. I picked a nice Australian wine. “Excellent fruity & herbal wine. Goes very well with French cheese.” Got a nice gift bag with it. And went my way.

I felt like I just went out to buy one of those cute pine tree shaped car airfresheners in a Bentley car dealership.

3 days left until the j.o.b.

3 days! Nooooooo! Thank god, it's just for 3 days a week.

So I have to get Tim on a (MY) ‘working’ schedule. We’ve been working towards this schedule for about 2 weeks now. The schedule is really based on TWO things:

1. I have to wake up early
2. Tim has to wake up early

The first is easy: I get up when Mr. Sweety leaves for work. That is after we had breakfast in bed. That he made! (See why I love him so much!!)

Tim on the other hand is NOT a morning person.

Tim usually sleeps at 11 PM and wakes up at 9/ 9.30 AM. But little Sleepyhead has to wake at 7.30 A.M. as of Monday! So for the last 2 weeks, I’ve been waking him up like 15 minutes earlier than the day before, to help him adjust to his new schedule.

This has not been easy! And when he finally wakes up, he’s back asleep in less than an hour or an hour and a half. When I do let him sleep until 9, he has much more energy.

So I’m thinking, I could let him sleep until 9 and let his grandma feed him. But that means I won’t see my baby boy before I leave for work. I could also be selfish and wake him up before I go to work and nurse & play with him.

I think I’ll just be cruel and wake him up. Who wakes up at 9.00 anyway? He’s gotta learn sometime. Doesn’t he?

Watch how hard he tries to ignore me...

Watch the videoWhoops! Too late!

NO, that is not a dress, it’s a sleeping bag, or whatever they call it for baby’s (in Dutch we call it a “trappelzak”, we use it for safety instead of a blanket)
Yes, I have noticed he’s grown out of his PJ’s. Shut up.

The good, the bad and the ugly

The good
Remember our downstairs neighbor’s au pair playing Brian Adam’s “Heaven” over and over and over and over again?

She stopped.

The bad
Her newest favorite song to play over and over and over again is: ‘Don’t you wish your girlfriend was hot like me.’

The ugly
She sings-a-long. And she dances. Like loud. Very loud.

The mental image is killing me!

So Mr. Sweety went downstairs to ask if she could add a bit of variation to her show. It’s been quiet ever since. Ah. Heaven is back, for my ears that is.

Sad

Tim turning 3 months would normally be the moment I’d get back to work.

But I haven’t gone back. Because I quit! OK not really. I wish I could say I quit my job. But that’s not really an option.

In my country we get 16 weeks pregnancy/ birth leave, but we also get parental leave. For me that’s about 400 hours. I’ll take one full month of that, and I’ll spread the rest of it over the year. So I have another 2 weeks to spend full time with Tim! Yay! ☺ I am very excited I got like 6 months off this way, but I am SO not looking forward to May 29.

Mostly because I really hate to leave Tim for 3 days a week. I have seriously considered quitting my job. This may come as a surprise, but for me, the only career I ever wanted was being a stay at home mom. But like I said, not an option. Not if we still want to live the way we do.

Tim is a very lucky boy though. We couldn’t have a better babysitter: his own grandma is going to look after him for 2 days a week! We’re very grateful she wants to do this, and that she’s healthy & capable. Although there is nothing wrong with daycare, this for me, is a better solution. Tim will be brought up by loving family.

So me taking care of Tim 2 days a week, his grandma 2, the weekends together… that leaves us 1 more day!

We’ll just leave him home alone, that will learn him how to be independent ;)

Nah, Mr. Sweety only works 4 days a week, so every Monday = daddy day! Hooray!

A perfect solution. But I’m still sad. So sad I forget to be thankful we both get to work part-time jobs and still live the good life.

I’ll stop here before this post turns into a whining sob story about moms feeling guilty leaving their children for work. In stead, I’ll post my favorite picture of me & Tim.

And I’m now off to fully enjoy these last two full weeks with my baby boy.

Dot dot dot

• I got all the grades from last semesters school exams. I’m pretty happy:
English writing: 8.5
Human Resource Management: 8.6
Government communication: 8.3
I never expected it, since I did not have that much time to study! Yay!

• This last school period I only have to go to school one evening a week (instead of two). I don’t have to do the other classes because of my work experience. Yay!

• Clipping baby nails? Is SCARY!!

• Not clipping baby nails? Is even more SCARY! Tim scratched his poor little nose. He looks like he’s been attacked by Edward Scissorhands!

• Did I mention I have my old clothes size back again? I did a happy dance in the fitting room. I wasn’t even slightly embarrassed!

• So I no longer have to wear tents, but we’re still looking at houses to buy. But we can’t seem to find one we really like. I hope we find a new home with a big garden before summer. But that’s like asking for a miracle. And we already got our miracle in January!

• Speaking of houses: how does one keep the house totally clean and take care of a little baby? I mean, seriously.

• Speaking about cleaning house, where did all the laundry came from? Hello! Babies should come with a supply of laundry detergent.

• I treated myself to a pair of shoes!

• It's been very sunny & like 77 F for a week now! Yay!

Proud

Tim didn’t like tummy time. But babies have to lay on their tummies for a few minutes a day to practice their back and neck muscles.

At first Tim would immediately cry as soon as I even thought about the t-word. But we did it every day. I’d lay him on the table and when he lift his head, I’d clap and cheer ‘Yayyyyy, good, ooooooh, look at you!”

He definitely likes to be cheered. He smiles and coos. Look how proud he looks. Awwww. He makes my heart melt.

Mr. Sweety can hold is head up too! Wow!