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Shoo shoe!

I live the small land of big yellow clogs. Not that anyone actually wears them, but don�t tell the tourists that.

(image removed, evil people stealing bandwidth using that picture)

Anyway, my point.

Some weird fashion trend floated all away from across the ocean to my tiny country. It�s clogs little sister: the Crocs.

(image removed, evil people stealing bandwidth using that picture)

It must be my bad taste in fashion � like I never understood the thing about UGG boots, I thought that was short for ugly � but I just do not get it. Shoes with ventilation holes?? I get if you�re wearing them on holiday, to the beach, to the swimming pool, if you work in an aquarium or cleaning your bathroom! But I see people wearing them underneath formal office clothes. What is up with that? How can I seriously talk about contracts with someone wearing pink plastic shoes with holes unless you�re trying to sell me the latest Barbie swim wear?

Am I fashion dyslectic? Should I buy more Elle magazine? Watch Oprah? I am confused.

Stress!!

My lovely mother in law comes to our place two days a week to take care of Tim. But as of Monday, FreezeM’s parents or on a 6 week (?!) holiday. So jealous. And so in need of a sitter! Fortunately, my sister in law and her husband offered to take care of Tim during these weeks. What a great family I married into! They live a 10-minute walk away from us. I promised to be there at 8 AM.

This is the first time I have ever had to “ drop him off “ somewhere. I never realized it would take SO freakin’ long to get ready and get Tim ready. This is what my ‘somewhat’ stressed morning looked like yesterday:

5.45 AM: alarm clock, FreezeM hits snooze (did I really sleep 6 hours already?)
5.50 AM: alarm clock, FeezeM hits snooze
5.55 AM: alarm clock, FreezeM gets up
5.56 AM: Our cat, Simba, comes in bedroom, gets on bed
5.57 AM: Simba chews on my hand (does anyone want a red cat?)
5.58 AM: Simba bites. OUCH! Throw cat away.
6.02 AM: Get up, almost trip over Simba
6.05 AM: Get into shower
6.15 AM: Get out of shower
6.20 AM: Dress, make-up & hair
6.30 AM: FreezeM serves breakfast (gotta love that man!)
6.35 AM: Eat breakfast
6.40 AM: extract milk for Tim (I feel like cattle in nice office clothes)
6.41 AM: spill milk on clothes (OH NO!)
6.42 AM: clean clothes
6.43 AM: go on extracting milk
6.45 AM: FreezeM leaves for work
6.50 AM: clean Tim’s food cups in microwave sterilizer
6.55 AM: pack Tim’s toys, clothes
7.00 AM: Is it 7 ALREADY???
7.01 AM: get Tim’s purees in food cups, sterilize some more
7.05 AM: Wake up Tim (way to early for him)
7.06 AM: Dress Tim
7.14 AM: Nurse Tim
7.35 AM: Feed him a bit of pear puree
7:40 AM: Run around like crazy packing Tim’s diaper bag
7.42 AM: Where the… are all the pacifiers? We have a gazillion!
7.45 AM: Call sister in law I’m not going to make it on time. SORRY SORRY SORRY. She tells me it is OK. We’ll meet at their children’s school, even closer to our house.
7.46 AM: Pack bag for work.
7.47 AM: Where’s my phone?????
7.48 AM: Where’s my wallet?????
7.49 AM: Put jewelry on
7.50 AM: Put Tim’s coat on
7.51 AM: Oh! Forgot to feed the zoo. Feed cats, feed bunny.
7.51 AM: Spill cat food. Leave it.
7.52 AM: Get all the stuff in stroller.
7.53 AM: Get stroller downstairs (I can’t wait to move into our ground floor apartment!)
7.54 AM: Get Tim downstairs
7.55 AM: Run up & get sun umbrella for stroller (just in case the sun shines)
7.56 AM: Run up & get rain screen for stroller (just in case…)
7.57 AM: Walk out door
7.58 AM: So stressed out, I keep looking at Tim thinking I must have forgotten something. Jacket? Check. Pants? Check. Is he even wearing a diaper? I think so.
8.10 AM: Drop off Tim (almost cried)
8.20 AM: Get into crowded tram. Feel like canned tuna fish.
8.40 AM: Arrive at work. Drink horrible coffee.

Do people seriously do this every day? I would not live past 29!

A chip of the old block tooth

My body is showing the early symptoms of break down. OK, that’s just the hypochondria in me speaking. But I did lose a piece of my front tooth last week! A little chip on the top of my front tooth just disappeared while I was eating a chicken sandwich. Luckily, it was barely visible. Although I did walk around half a day with a poppy seed stuck in it. Very graceful, as always.

This morning my dentist fixed it, and I can smile again.

Before the dentist did his thing, he asked I wanted anesthesia. I trembled asked: “Dddodo I need too?”.

He answered it could hurt a little bit. Hmmm. I asked “Do most people use anesthesia?”

“About 50%”, he replied.

Now, that answer is just to NO use at all. But I teamed up with the chickens, just to be safe.

While he was poking around in my mouth, I felt silly for choosing anesthesia. I gave birth to a baby without any pain relieve and for a little poking around in my tooth suddenly I was afraid. That doesn’t make sense. At all. But I was pretty happy I did it. When he was drilling, it didn’t hurt, but it felt a bit like fingernails on a chalkboard. But with teeth. Teeth on a chalkboard!

When he was done he complimented me on the rest of my teeth (hooray!). And I went off to work. Where I walked around with a funny numb mouth for a few hours. Try eating soup!

The unexpected giant who cleaned our heating system

Have you ever made an appointment with a maintenance company and they didn’t show up?

Annoying, right?

What is REALLY annoying? When maintenance guys come uninvited.

This morning. I just had a shower. I’m relaxing, playing with Tim. Wearing my relax clothes (not suitable for outside): pants very low waist that aren’t supposed to be low waist (bought in the early months of pregnancy: way to big now) and a tank top revealing way to much top & tummy. Apartment a bit messy. Tim’s clothes on the table. Toys, everywhere... About to have my first cup of coffee…

When.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

I take that back, it was more a BANG BANG BANG on the door.

As I already overheard (overheard, not eavesdropping, seriously I can hear EVERYTHING in this building!) my neighbors talking with a heater-guy, I suspected he wanted to look at our heating system too.

I opened the door and saw this huge (like GIANT, at least 71 feet tall, at least!) maintenance guy. He explained he was doing maintenance on the heaters in our building.

He was wearing the same uniform as our usual maintenance company and I heard him going in & out the apartments of our neighbors earlier, so I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to attack me with a chainsaw after I let him in. So I made a bitchy remark that it wasn’t really convenient, and that he should make an appointment next time let him in.

After 15 minutes he was gone again. Leaving us with a ‘clean’ heating system.
I’m not even sure it was dirty to begin with, but hey, I’m not paying for the maintenance, so really, who cares. Someone’s money has to roll.

I finally got to have my cup of coffee. Oh, should I have offered him a cup? Really, I felt way too uneasy to be that social to giant maintenance guy with shoe size 3987298.

Math

A= Buying house = very stressful when your mortgage advisor is on holiday

B = Work = a bitch.

C = Baby + teething = not enough zzzzzz’s

D = a very successful trip to the mall

A+B+C+D = a sleep deprived bitchy stressed out but well dressed – hot lookin’ - Nadine

Happy birthday to meeeee

This morning my two men surprised me with a beautiful necklace and a jewerly case. But truly they are my every day gift.

28 years. Getting close to 30 now. Does life indeed change dramatically at 30?

EW DEAD MOUSE HELP

I never thought our cat Simba would have the brains to catch a mouse. I mean seriously, Simba is one VERY dumb cat.

But against all odds he surprised us. And not just because we've never had mice!

Yesterday I found Simba on the living room floor, with a little dark thing dangling from his mouth. I initially thought it was a toy mouse. But when I looked closer I saw blood, and realized, it was not a toy.

I’m very easily grossed out. And after I did my best impression of a Jamie Lee Curtis scream calmly said EW DEAD MOUSE HELP, the hubby came to the rescue and got rid of poor little Mickey. That was after a struggle with Simba, because he just wouldn’t let go of his prey.

Even though I was a bit upset with Simba (killing an innocent mouse) he did step up the circle of life – ladder. He’s now somewhere between amoebae and flee.

Oh, and I still avoid stepping on the place where I found the mouse. I should draw a little mouse on the ground with white chalk. Like they do in movies.

6 months

Last Sunday Tim turned six months! It was also my dad’s birthday.

My sweetest Tm,

You turned 6 months on your grandpa’s birthday. You have grown so much, so fast. These were the shortest, but best 6 months in my life.

You’re a happy little boy. You laugh all the time, sometimes loud, sometimes just a small grin. You figured out rolling a while ago. You roll from back to belly, from belly to back. You even seem to crawl a little. Or attempt to. I bought you a box with colorful blocks. No matter where I put the big shiny yellow box, you manage to get there and put it in your mouth. Oh, that’s a whole other thing. You put everything in your mouth. Evvv-ryy-thing. The cat, the blocks, my fingers, your toes, your bath tub, your diaper, your cloths, your spoon and since about a week: solids.

We still enjoy nursing 5 to 6 times a day. But after your 11 o clock feeding you get a little homemade fruit or vegetable puree. And after your dinner milk, you get a few teaspoons baby rice. Even though you’re very brave and so into this whole solids thing, you already know what you like: pear and mango (mmm here comes the choo choo). And what you don’t like : sweet potato (don’t keep your mouth closed!). And when you eat rice? It gets everywhere! In my hair, on the couch, on the wall, on your bib but more on your clothes, in your ears, nose, on your head. I’m confident that ten years from now, we’ll find some very old baby rice stuck in furniture!

You’re less afraid of strangers than you were a few months ago. You even flirted with girls on the baby shower we went to last Sunday. And Monday you used your incredibly cute smile to charm a girl at the bakery.

You still don’t like to go to bed at night. Daytime naps are not a problem, but you hate going to bed between 7 and 9 a night. You cry, and cry. Sometimes it helps when I nurse you a little bit, and sometimes you’ll just cry yourself to sleep with me, or your daddy, beside your bed.

I ADORE the funny faces and sounds you make. You often make a little fishy face and blow bubbles with your lips. I don’t think I have ever seen anything cuter. You also scream a lot. But in a good way. When you’re enjoying yourself. You like to kick your little legs and wave your arms. Especially when you’re really content or when I’m reading you a book.

Your grandma put you on your tummy in the bassinet. That you really liked. I did it a few times too, and we sure did get a lot of attention. People saw a little head just peeking over the bassinet and thought it was the funniest thing they’ve ever seen. We did change your stroller a few days ago. We switched the bassinet for the stroller chair thing for BIG boys! You like sitting up straight and looking around.

You spend 2 days a week with your lovely grandma. You very much enjoy it and you have all these special little things and games with her. I do miss not being there at those moments but I am confident your quality time with grandma will help you grow into the person you’ll be. I only have to look at your wonderful dad, and know, your grandma did a more than great job. You’re a lucky little boy, Tim.

I don’t think I have ever prayed as much as these last 6 months. Months could go by between prayers. I have only seen the inside of a church a few times (or on holiday, as a tourist but that doesn’t count ;) But every day I thank God for you. You’re a true blessing and you make me happy beyond words. Thank you for being you, my little Tim.