The day we squealed with delight…

Another month, more milestones!

Aria has discovered her vocal cords.  She now squeals like a dolphin at everything, from the cats to food to her favorite stuffed animal.  Sometimes she doesn’t even need any motivations, she just screams.  Yeah, it’s cute for about a minute then it gets REALLY annoying…to think those squeals are going to eventually turn into, ‘but mommmmmm!!  But whyyyyyyy???  But I don’t wannnnaaaaaaa!!!’ Gosh, parenthood can be so fun…

So let’s recap, what have we both been doing the last 30-40 days?  Aria’s learned a handful of skills and it looks like her learning ability is accelerating at an exciting rate.  In a short 30 days, she’s FINALLY learned that she can roll over but she’s just too lazy to do so.  She’s doing these baby push ups when she’s on her front.  She’s also becoming quite an avid traveller in her crib.  I can put her in one corner and somehow a few hours later she’d be on the other side of the crib with her whole body twisted into some advance yoga position.  I am very tempted to put a hidden camera in her room just so I can see what in God’s name she’s been up to at night.  She’s tried many different types of food but has a penchant for avocado, sweet potato, and anything citrus.  She can now pass one object from one hand to another and proceed to throw them at my head.  She can’t move forward but she can push herself and wiggle backwards which resulted in her falling off the bed last week…yes, bad mother moment…I did laugh a bit because it looked so ridiculous how she got into that position.  She also grew a few teeth!  One came out so she’s got a buck tooth and another one next to it is coming out shortly.  And no, teething is not fun.  Apart from teething pain, I also inadvertently given her sweet potato with oatmeal porridge one night which caused a major wind problem. Yes, another bad mommy moment…she was in so much pain…I cried as she cried then she burped and farted and I laughed.  Oh the little things…

She is growing up so adorably fast and sometimes I feel like I can’t catch up.  Just when I was getting used to her being one way, she throws me a curveball and I cringe my nose thinking, ‘where in the world did that come from?’  Must admit…it is exciting though…

And what about me?  Well, last month I finished Jillian Michaels’ 30 Day Shred.  This month I completed her Ripped in 30!  It was not easy.  I was a lot less motivated this month and had to repeat Week 3.  I also had 2 rest days per week and forget about calorie counting!  I’ve decided…I don’t like calorie counting.  What I’ve been doing is just eating smaller portions but always eat when I’m hungry.  I didn’t cut out any food group, I didn’t substitute anything.  I eat real mayonnaise, real butter, real sugar, and CARBS.  Result?  Well…see for yourself…

Measurements:  

Not too shabby for being a bit of a slacker!  Lost 5.6lbs and 6 inches!

Now with photos…Jez said he can see ‘significant’ difference, I, on the hand cannot…so you be the judge!

Next challenge:  Couch to 5k!  Last time, I only managed 3 weeks then I got pregnant and had to stop.  This is a 9 week program and it’s winter already so this is definitely going to take some major self motivation and discipline!  I’m going to do this with Jillian’s Six week Six Pack.  I will only be doing this DVD 3 times a week.  I do love Jillian but the main reason is her workouts are only 30 minutes long!  Definitely the best option for a mom with a new baby!

I will do my best to do a few update entries along the way!

Good luck to everyone else!

The day I clutched my heart…

It’s been a while…

Aria is 7 months next week…I’ve been a mother for 7 months.  Some days I say that to myself out loud over and over again…I’m a mother…still in disbelief.

Aria is a pretty happy baby.  She’s healthy, she is developing somewhat according to schedule and Jez and I have been taking the chillax approach to parenthood so really, we don’t stress ‘that’ much since we became parents.

Tonight, after her last bottle and the bedtime ritual, I put her in the crib, gave her Oct-o-bear and waited for her to roll over to do her thing before she drifts off.  Except she didn’t do any of that.  Instead, she screamed.  She screamed so loud I thought something had bit her.  Tears came after the scream then came the body thrashing.  What was happening to my child?!  I examined her body and found her stomach hard and tight and as big as a little melon.  Yes, she has wind.

I know, laugh, it’s funny, the baby has wind, she probably needs a good fart or a burp.  That is all true except…she wasn’t able to do any of them.  So she was in severe pain.  I picked her up, I patted her back, I laid her down, I rubbed her tummy, I played bicycle with her legs, I sang to her but all just met with more crying and more screaming.  The crying and screaming I’m used to by now so I wasn’t phased but it was the painful look on her face that threw me.  She grimaced and lips shivering and she started gagging.  She looked like she was trying to burp but couldn’t and it was hurting her, tremendously.  She kept trying and kept gagging and one point her face went bright red and she just stopped and I thought she was choking.  I didn’t know what to do…at one point I shoved my finger down her throat hoping to help her throw up…it wasn’t helpful…I called Jez and said we needed to go to A&E because I had no idea what else to do.

I sat her up and she gagged more.  I laid her down and she cried more.  I honestly had no idea what was happening to my happy baby but my heart was in my throat.  I Googled frantically for information on how to relief wind and done everything everyone had suggested but still nothing.  I’ve never wanted her to fart or burp or crap so badly.

An hour goes by, she shoved her own two fingers in her mouth and let out a big burp…so loud it caught her off guard.  But immediately I could tell she felt better.  I pressed her tummy and it was now a bit deflated, hallelujah!  She still cried a bit more and another 20 minute goes by, she burped again.  By the time Jez came home, she was feeling infinitely better and even showed him a smile.

I know, it’s not a big deal, she just needed to fart, what was I getting so worked up by this?  It was the pain on her face. It was how helpless I felt.  It was seeing my own child in such despair and there was nothing I can do about it.  This made me think of Donna’s Cancer Story.   Donna Quirke was a beautiful little girl who was diagnosed with cancer at the age os 2.  After many tests and treatments she lost the battle at age 4.  HuffPost Parents have been posting a blog entry a day written by Donna’s mom for a total of 31 entries for 31 days depicting 31 months of Donna’s journey.  It’s heartbreaking to read…but I can’t stop reading it and everytime I read it I think about how it would affect me if this happened to Aria.  Looking at her tonight, she was just in pain because of a little gas, I cannot even began to fathom the pain a parent must feel to see their child going through chemo or brain surgery or worse, death…

I have a friend whose baby was quite premie.  She recently celebrated her first year birthday.  That little girl has grown up so beautifully and my friend still smiles in every picture updates she sent.  I always wondered how does she do it?  She’s watched her little girl go in and out of the hospital since the day she was born and she is still so strong.  I think she’s amazing.  I think Donna’s mom is amazing.  I don’t know how I’d cope…would I give up?  Would I crumble and hide in a corner?  God…I hope I never have to find out…

Aria is now deep asleep and I still can’t leave her room.  I just want to hold her and tell her how much I love her.  Chinese people don’t really show affection to their children.  I can’t even recall the last time my parents said ‘we love you’.  If there is one thing I absolutely want to do right as a parent is to tell her for as long as I’m living how much I love her and how I will always hug her and be there for her.

This is now my favorite quote…

The day she turned six months…and everything in between…

Yesterday was a big day.

A-Bomb turned six months old yesterday and I finished 30 Day Shred.  I’ve been a very bad blogger as sometimes eating/feeding/napping take precedent over blogging but I promise I have been diligent with my exerise and trust me, it has not been easy.

It took me 32 days in total to finish Shred as there were two days I just couldn’t squeeze in the time to do it.  It worked out quite nicely though since I started Shred when A-Bomb turned five months and finished as she turned six months old.

The last six months have been exciting, exhilarting, exhausting, frustrating, time consuming, self loathing, and all summed up in one word:  HARD.  I don’t know what I was expecting from motherhood but I sure as hell didn’t expect it to be this difficult.  I think the bigger accomplishment is the fact Jez and I managed to last six months not only keeping A-Bomb alive but also not have killed each other.

I had a really difficult time accepting my change of role in life and I did take comfort in food.  It was very conflicting, what was going through my mind.  I hated the way my body looked but I wanted to eat because I was sad and it just got stuck in this vicious cycle.  The good thing was I ended the cycle after 5 months instead of 2 years like last time.

So on August 2, as I walked up the stairs with A-Bomb in my left arm huffing and puffing, I decided to rekindle my romance with Jillian Michaels.

Jillian was obviously mad and hurt that I left her for over a year and then of course I tried to crawl my way back by doing jumping jacks, mountain climbers and that dreaded pendulent lunges…she took me back in the end and encouraged me all the way through, even though I called her many names in so many ways…

It has not been easy working out with a young baby in the house.  Last time I only had myself to worry about, this time I had to strategize my time very carefully.  I could only work out after I express breast milk and preferably when she’s napping so everything had to be timed quite perfectly.  It was great in the beginning of the month as she was still taking long naps but as she got older in the weeks that came, she napped shorter and demanded my attention more.  I can’t tell you how many times I had to pause the work out as the baby monitor went off and I had to run into her room, pick her up, put her in a bouncer and press play again.  I’m sure it was all for my own benefit since I must’ve been burning extra calories.

Some days were fun.  Some days I put her in her jumperoo and she jumps as she watched me jumps.  She also looked at my dubiously when I grunted and made some very unpleasant expressions at her…Some days were awful.  She’d be crying as I’m going through the last level and all I wanted was to finish and all she wanted was to be picked up…she’d cry as I screamed at Jillian and all I could say was, ‘just one more minute….’ then sweat and alll, I’d go and pick her up and apologize to her.

Nevertheless, I did it.  I don’t know how but I did and it did my head a world of good.  I have to be honest, I was not good at logging my food and I haven’t been eating the heathiest of diet or watched my portions but my goal was to see if I could work out for 30 days with a baby and I did so I considered that my Non-Scale-Victory.

Now the bit the people actually care about…RESULT!

I started at 155lb but gained some weight in the first week so as of today, I lost 5.8lbs.  I can’t be sure how accurate my first measurements were but if they were correct, to date I have lost 6.75 inches overall.  Here are the fun photos!  (yuck…stretch marks…)

what I did and let’s see what Aria did in the last 30 days…

She learned to drink water and hold her own cup…

Sitting up all by her darn self…

Eating orange and loving it…

Being fed yogurt by daddy…

Lastly, Face-Off with the cat…

And there you have it.  Our achievements!

My next challenge is Ripped in 30.  I was going to start today but I think my body really needs a rest day so will start on it tomorrow!  For Aria, I hope she can learn to crawl, learn to stand, sing a song, do some sign languages, possibly change her own diaper…is that asking too much?

What I learned about motherhood and working out in the last six months?

It’s freaking hard but it can be done and the reward is priceless.

The day I want to stop doing the planks…

Operation Hot Momma is not going so well…

I have finished 17 days out of the the 30 Day Shred so far and I don’t feel one bit different.

Yes, my diet could be better.  Yes, I should drink more water.  Yes, I should probably not drink wine.  Yes, I should have not eaten 4 slices of pizza on my ‘cheat day’.  Yes, I should just get on with it…

BUT IT’S SO HARD!!!

I don’t even remember how I did it last time around!  Was I this tired?!  Was I this whiny?!  Was I this unmotivated?!

Sometimes in the middle of Shred, A-Bomb wakes up so I sometimes let her cry (depending on the sound…) and finish the set or I run downstairs and ruin the whole groove and start it up again.  Afterwards, I don’t get to rest because I’m usually running to get her a bottle or getting her changed or just having to entertain her.  She’s recently learned that she could scream and that’ll get our attention.  This started three days ago…and she has been screaming…A LOT. Sometimes she just wants me to look at her and she smiles but the second I look away or try to have a conversation with someone else, she yells!

I’m not always envious of celebrity life but lately I can see why they’d want to have a nanny, a PA, a trainer, a chef, a cleaner, a therapist, a back up therapist and everything else!  Some days when Jez’s at work, I just want to hand her off to someone…anyone…for ten minutes so I can breathe.  I even thought about just running out to the street and find the next kind looking person and ask them if they can just hold her…just for a sec…

On top of all of that…I just want to be skinny again.  I know it’s so shallow and seems to be such a simple thing but really, that is what’s going to make me happy, is to be back into my skinny jeans, is to have my toned arms and when I sit down I don’t have this thick loose flab over whatever pants I’m sporting these days.  And don’t even get me started on the stretch marks…

Day 18 tomorrow…I doubt I’ve lost any weight.  I’ve asked Jez to hide the scale now because I just can’t cope with seeing the numbers hike up.  And don’t suggest measuring…I have measured…and one week I lost inches and the following week I apparently gained it all back.  So I was either really delusional when I first measured and jot down the numbers I wish I had seen or I realy ballooned up in a week.

This is oh so hard…someone give me a hug…

The day I feel the pain in the butt…

SORE!!

Wow, woke up with a sore butt, sore arms, sore thighs, sore tummy, sore eyes, sore ears, sore EVERYTHING!

I’m trying to remember if I felt like this when I did Shred the first time around. Good thing I kept a fitness blog so I think I will trace back and see if I suffered just as much pain as now.

A-Bomb (aka baby girl) has not been cooperative this week.  She was such a good night sleeper but now she wakes up at odd times during the night and won’t go back to sleep.  This really has taken a toll on my energy and my mood.  I love her, I do but when she won’t stop crying or fussing or screaming at 3am, all I want to do is shut the door and run out of the house screaming myself.

I have been such a hermit because my life basically revolves around her sleep schedule and I hate to say this, I resent her a little bit.  Some days, more than a little bit.

Yestery and today during 30 minutes of Jillian Michaels, I really let out my frustration and anger while screaming at her and cursing at the world.  As difficult as the work out was, It was a very nice stress relief.

I can feel myself getting excited about the work out again and like JM said, if I am diligent, I will get what I’m after so yes, word of the month, diligent.

And now, some very well deserved healthy lunch.

The day I screamed at the tv…

‘OPERATION HOT MOMMA!  SEXY HOT MOMMA!  HOT!  HOT!  HOT!’

No, I’m not crazy.

Okay, maybe a little bit…

Today marks my daughter Aria’s 5th month in this world.  She is growing rapidly, a strong little chica and can slap me across the face like I just stole her Louboutins.  While she’s been growing, so have I.  I was never ‘tiny’ to start off but a two years ago I started on MFP and after working out vigorously for six months, I actually had myself a fit little body that I was quite proud of.

Then I got pregnant.  And came the pizzas, the fried chickens, the cakes, the brownies, THE ICE CREAM, oh the holy tubs of ice cream.  You see, I’m slightly lactose intolerant so really couldn’t have much cheese or ice cream but for some strange reason during my pregnancy, I suddenly could tolerate them so a floodgate opened and I juggled between a chunk of cheddar in one hand and a spoon full of Hagen Daaz in the other.  Needless to say, the weight came piling back on and by the time I gave birth to this little one, I was 182lbs.

Did I mention I’m 5’2?  So imagine Pac-man with tiny hands and feet and that was me.  I waddled everywhere.  That’s right, waddled like Donald Duck except wasn’t as fashionable or as cute.  I didn’t work out because my back and knees hurt, surely because I was carrying a baby but mostly because I had gained an excessive amount of weight for my frame.

She came on March 2 at 3am on the dot.   My girl likes to be precise, my kind of baby.  After about two months of baby blues, two months of getting used to her erratic routine and another month of hating the mirrors, it was time for me to face the truth…I returned to my previous Butterball status and this time, Butterball has stretch marks and it ain’t pretty.

So I dug out my old Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred as it did me a world of good last time and did Level 1 today.

Bloody hell it was hard.  Was it this hard the first time around?!  Was she just as bitchy?  And is it my imagination but did her two little helpers jumped higher than before…?  To say I struggled was an understatement.  I’m 5 lbs less than my fattest weight two years ago but this time around, I’m also carrying two cantelopes I now referred to as working boobs.  I had to wear TWO sports bras  to stop them from smacking me in the chin.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen my boobs this big…and they don’t even look that nice!

So yes, I was shouting ‘OPERATION HOT MOMMA’ to the television (and mostly at Jillian Michaels) so I can verbally remind myself that is my goal.  I’m only 32, I don’t want to be a lazy momma.  I want to those moms where someone goes, ‘WHAT?!  YOU’RE A MOM?!  NO FREAKING WAY!’  Shallow?  Yes.  Vain?  Yes.  Necessary? Absolutely.

So here we go the second round.  I have to admit I didn’t eat healthy today. Hubby and I ordered a pizza yesterday as to mark the last day I eat crap and there are pizzas left but I only had a slice for breakfast and a slice for lunch.  I need to go out and restock with actual good food and need to bring out the food scale and measuring cups!  My god did I actually dedicate my life to this much work two years ago?  I must’ve…

So wish me luck, wish yourself luck, the battle is on…

The day I held her just a little tighter…

Can’t turn on the TV without seeing news on the Aurora shooting.

Can’t go past a magazine stand without seeing papers with headlines on the shooting.

Can’t help but think about where I was during the Columbine shooting 17 years ago.

This time, the event affects me more.  This time, I have a child to worry about.

When Columbine happened, I was a senior in high school.  Everything was such a blur.  Everyone talked about how similar our high school was like Columbine.  Small town, small community, everyone knew everyone, almost every student went to the same kindergarten/elementary/middle school.  It was a typical American high school and bullying did happen.  I was even bullied myself.  Being one of the three Asians in school obviously didn’t help.  I remember the day after the Columbine shooting, everyone started paying more attention to each other, just a bit more suspicious of one another.  There was this group of kids who always wore these trench coats but no one paid them any mind till Columbine.  Suddenly, we were all scared.  I was scared that maybe someone in school was crazy and would run into my French class and start shooting. It was a pretty awful couple of weeks but like any teenager, I forgot about it after a while.

This time around, I don’t think I’m going to forget because I have a lot more to worry about and a lot more to loose.

When I read the news that morning, like everyone else, I couldn’t believe it happened in a movie theatre.  As more news came rolling in the next few days, I’d read them in disbelief.  Then I read that not only young teens/adults had gotten hurt, a 3-month old baby was caught in the scene as well as a 6 year old.  Aria is 4 1/2 months old.  I can’t even go through her vaccination without crying.  I cannot imagine what it would be like to hold your 3-months old knowing he/she’s been hurt in a public shooting.  Thank god the baby survived but if I were the parents, I think that fear would stick with me forever.

I was scared when Columbine happened but I only had myself to worry about.  This time I have something else more precious, more gentle and fragile and honestly, I don’t know even if I do everything right, I’ll be able to protect her from harm.

In the last few days, all I could think was how much I want to see her grow up and how much I want her to see me grow old.  I don’t want to live in fear because that’s not healthy but if shootings can happen in schools, malls, camps and now theatres, where else can we go that’s suppose to be safe and fun?

I didn’t grow up with too many rules.  My dad was in Taiwan and my mom trusted me well enough to know that I wouldn’t do anything too stupid.  I’ve been to several midnight viewings myself, first one being the Rocky Horror Picture Show and I was 14.  We had a chaperon and I think it was amazing she managed to keep 5 teenagers in order in public.  We never had to worry about stuff like this…now I have to live in the world where I have to think twice when Aria asks me, ‘mom, can I go to the movies tonight?’

I don’t know if I’m going to a tiger mom, a strict mom, a relax mom or a paranoid mom.  Thank God I have Jez to keep me on the ground and stop me when I start going too crazy with my thoughts.

Since the day of the shooting, every night when I put her to bed, I hug her just a little tighter, just a little longer and I kiss her just a little more.

I hope she stays this happy forever…

The day I soaked in the sun…

And nope, not in London.  We don’t have any of those here this summer.  We have rain, flood, wind, thunder, lightening and more rain. Yup, it’s July and nope, this is not normal.

So on top of being at home all day in my pyjamas hanging out with Aria and feeling a bit depressed at how my life has changed, the weather does not help.  Then just like that, a random chat with a good friend, she invited me to visit her in Malta.  She’s been living there for the past 9 months and it would be her last weekend before she returns to Sweden.  I said yes, then no, then yes, then no, then spoke to Jez who told me to get my ass to Malta…so after feeling quite guilty for a few days…I packed my bag and was Malta bound for the weekend.

Jez took the day off and took me to the airport.  After a very emotional good bye (I know, how pathetic, I was going for 2 days!) to my baby girl, I hopped on the plane the excitedly waited for the sun to hit my face.  I finally arrived after 3 1/2 hours of sitting next to 2 teenage girls who wouldn’t stop yapping and basically causing breathing problems for me with their excessive make-up usage.  The second the door opened, I breathed in and coughed.  The combination of heat, humidity and lack of wind literally made me gag.  Oh my god, was I allergic to…good weather?!?

The weekend was a blur but in a good way.  We hung out in beach clubs and drank lots of cocktails.  We even squeezed in a massage by the pool.  I had a crazy Czech chick who twisted me into a pretzel while my friend got slightly molested by the creepy Italian masseur, ‘Alejandro’…(roll the tongue when you say it, it’s creepier). We ate lots of food, we shared lots of gossip, we did everything we used to do before I had a baby.  For two days, I felt like a woman again.

I may have taken four cold showers each day that I was there.  I may have gotten drunk just on one cocktail.  I may have sported a bikini even with the web of stretch marks.  But it got me out of my funk.  My hair was clean and shined on both days.  My face moisturised and rosy from the sun.  I wore normal clothes instead of bagging pregnancy costumes.  I wore HEELS and suffered the first blisters since July 2011.  I drank without abandonment because I didn’t need to make food for my baby.  I went to bed at 4am JUST BECAUSE.  I felt so good about myself…I felt normal…

Feeling like a sexy momma!

Of course I couldn’t have done this without Jez’s help and willingness to watch Aria.  He’s been an amazing dad.  I know many dads who’d be scared shitless to take care of a 4 months old baby on their own for a few hours, let alone for a few days.  I could tell he was tired and excited to have me back but I’m glad I did go.  He always appreciates motherhood so much more when he’s had a taste of it.  I think it’s so important for the dads to give your partners a break because a.  you can bond with your babies by learning their temperaments and b. your partners REALLY need a break from babyhood once in a while.

Now that I’m back, back into my pyjamas, back in momma mode, I feel slightly frumpy again but I think it’s time I snap out of it.  Aria is getting better at sleeping and I think we have a routine going so I need to start looking to how to ‘fix’ myself up.  I don’t want to be a frumpy mom by the end of the year so I think…put the box of cookies down…and maybe do some sit ups!

The day I returned…

It’s been a while.  In a blink of an eye, she’s four months old and I haven’t written a thing in nearly three weeks.  I can’t even figure out where the time had gone, it just went.  I’ve missed writing.  I think about writing all the time and always wanted to write  down all the funny little things she’d done on the day but it never works out that way because I end up being too tired or just couldn’t be bothered.

I admire all these other mommy blogs, especially this particular one, Le Zoe Musings.  She has an amazing blog where she talks about fashion, motherhood, her daughter, home decor and then some.  I often wonder how she does it.  She has a 9 month old and she has time to take amazingly beautiful photographs of her spotless home, edit them so they pop off the page, DIY stuff for her home, cook and write down the recipes and still looking fabulous?!  I love her and I hate her, mainly because I’m incredibly jealous of her.  I’m in my PJ 23 hours of the day.  I’ve even stopped washing my hair everyday because who’s going to see me?  How do these yummy mommies do it?  They’re not yummy mommies…they’re super mommies in my book.

I wish I could say I’m getting better at motherhood but I don’t feel like it.  Now that’s she older, she commands more of my attention which means I need to actually find things to do with her.  I feel like a bad mom since the tv is always on and many times I just plop her in front of the laptop playing Lion King or on the play gym so she can whack things around.  Is it okay to say I get bored of her?  I really do…I mean she’s cute and everything but my god she is so boring…every week I receive these emails from Babycentre telling me at what developmental period she’s suppose to be at but she never is at the stage she’s ‘suppose’ to be.  So then I feel defeated like I haven’t been stimulating her brain enough.  If she was doing the things these baby sites say she’s suppose to be doing, I might not think she was so boring…she won’t even play with her feet!  I don’t think she knows she has feet…

She doesn’t swipe at toys, not all toys, she’s quite selective about that.  She’s stopped talking unless she’s protesting about something.  She can only roll 1/4 of a way and then gives up.  She doesn’t try to sit up, she doesn’t try to crawl, she pretty much just lies there till I put my face to her face and sing ‘if you’re happy and you know it’ on repeat.

I can’t help but keep saying:  THIS IS SO HARD!  I’m sure a lot of people think I just do nothing all day and to be perfectly honest, sometimes I do feel like I’ve accomplished nothing all day but I’m exhausted at the end of the day.  I spoke to my grandma the other day which is rare for me because I don’t speak to my grandparents.  She’s quite sick so I thought I better let her know how I am before the end.  She said to me, ‘you must have lots of free time now.  It’s not like you’re busy.’  This woman’s had kids of her own, how could she think I have any free time?!

Maybe I haven’t been utilising my time enough.  Maybe I should join more baby groups.  I see these moms out the door at 8:30am with their strollers pushing their babies to god knows where.  Maybe I should be more dedicated to my blog…maybe I should go back making gourmet meals for Jez and myself and bake for his office…maybe I should stop all the bitching and get myself in shape…or maybe I should just find some damn time to shave my legs…

Babies are cute but babies are nothing like those ones you see in commercials, you know, the really happy ones.  They cry a lot.  They scream a lot.  They poo A LOT.  And you endure all of these because they’re your babies and you hope to god they grow up to love you just the same and will not one day tell you, ‘I hate you’.

Wow I need a break…good thing is that is coming!  I am off to sunny Malta on Friday, leaving my superman of a partner to watch over Aria all on his lonesome.  I’m lucky he’s willing to do such things…but I think he knows if I don’t get a break, I might end up hurting one of the cats soon…

Peace out. Till next post, whenever that may be.

The day I learned nursery rhymes…

Baby swimming, baby massage, baby yoga, baby sensory, baby sign language, baby blah blah blah…there are A LOT of activities out there to stimulate babies.  Whatever happen to leave them in the crib and let them stare at a mobile over and over again?  Or maybe just give them a stick?  Babies don’t know any difference anyway, right?  Well, apparently, it does make a difference.  Every week I get emails from all sort of baby sites teaching me how to stimulate my baby’s mind.  I can blow air at Aria’s face, I’d think that’d be stimulating enough!  But…when every other parents are talking about signing up their babies to all these different classes before their babies can even hold their own heads, I can’t help but feel like I need to keep up with the Joneses.

So the first official ‘class’ I have registered Aria into is Baby Sing and Sign.  I first saw it on Meet the Fockers and thought it was a joke.  Jez also saw it on the same film and thought it was an amazing idea.  We then got more exposure to it when we went to The Baby Show last year to check out baby goods.  The concept:  Teach babies basic signs so they can ‘communicate’ without having to utter any words.  We all know how frustrating it is when your baby is crying or screaming and you have no idea what it is that he/she wants.  I know I’ve shout at Aria enough times, ‘what is it you want from me?!”  so yes, the idea of my baby actually ‘telling’ me that she wants milk or she’s full is quite appealing.

I was lucky enough to be the last one to squeeze in through a taster class today so after a feed, a change and a nap, Aria and I were ready to see what this whole business was all about.

The instructor, Grace, was an energetic little lady!  She was fun, animated, probably a bit overtly enthusiastic but I guess you’d need someone like her for a class like this.  There were babies EVERYWHERE!  I’ve been quite used to my NCT group babies who are all still under four months so apart from screaming for food, nothing much else happens.  But in the taster class today, there were mostly 6+ months old babies so some were sitting, some were crawling, some were even having shouting matches at each other!  It was all very intimidating and entertaining at the same time.  Aria was quite apprehensive, I think, as she held a fist the entire time.  I’ve noticed she only does that when she’s a bit nervous in her surroundings.  She was looking left and right being very quiet.  One mom said she looked very alert for her age, I think she was just freaked out.

A normal class is maximum 12 people.  There were more today because it was a taster class but I can see why she can only have maximum of 12.  There were at least 15 moms (and grandmas…) today and it was manic.  Babies crawling all over the place and some of the moms just let them do their things.  I thought we were all going to sit nicely together and sing!  But no…some moms just sat there and watched their babies grab toys off of other babies…

Grace started singing a few songs and showing us some basic signs.  Something I learned about myself today?  I know SQUATS about nursery rhymes.  All these moms can sing along and I was there humming like an idiot.  Apart from ‘Old Mcdonald had a farm’, I knew nothing.  Actually, I didn’t even know what Old Mcdonald had at the farm!  Yes, the obvious choices would be cows…horses…pigs…but I said sheep…I don’t know why I said sheep…thankfully I only muttered it under my breathe so apart from Aria hearing me, no one else did…

All in all, the class was fun.  I spoke to one other mom who was sporting a big shiny diamond ring so I was more fixated on the ring than what she was saying.  Aria was more fixated on her son than the class.  That girl is going to be some boy-chasing broad…we played with some instruments and some toys.  The only toy I got my hand on were this giant octopus which Aria did not appreciate and gave me a very dubious look before she did a raspberry and spat all over me.

The official class doesn’t start until late in September so Aria would hopefully be sitting on her own and probably take in a lot more enjoyment than today.

Ahhh the things we do for our babies…

Doesn’t seem complete without a photo…

My drooly monkey…so ladylike…(how is it she has a receding hairline at 3 months old?!)