Sweet Memory

I can't remember what I was doing this morning, but I suddenly remembered something that Jeremy did for me when we were kids.

Jeremy was in The Tygerberg Children's Choir when he was a kid, so he must have been about 9 or 10 at the time. His first trip with the choir was to Durban, South Africa, and he was so excited to go. My parents gave him a very small spending allowance while he was gone for "just in cases". Well my dearest little brother came back from his trip, and handed me a small pair of beaded earings. I was touched at the time, but sitting this morning and thinking back, I realized that he had used his meager allowance thinking of me. Even from a really young age, he always thought of me.

And suddenly I'm all misty eyed. I love you too little brother!

Isn't She Cute?

She's a month old already. I can't believe it.

Family Picture

A Little Mixture

Mack as a baby...

Leith as a baby...


Combine the two and you get - a little Tazling.

Knackered!!!

How can something so small, take up so much time? That is my question. I feel like I get nothing constructive done on any given day. And when I say nothing, I mean a big, fat, NOTHING!!

Tamsine is still on a 3hr feeding routine. Let me break those 3hrs down for you:
1st hr - sitting on the couch feeding and burping her.
2nd hr - sitting on the couch trying to rock her to sleep, giving up, letting her kick while lying on the floor, then eventually getting her to sleep.
3rd hr - Taz and I both completely conked out trying to get any sleep we can.
And then it starts all over again - woohoo.

Here are a few things about myself right now: -
* My new daily wardrobe consists of me wearing my underwear the whole day, and then throwing on a t-shirt and stretchy pants just before Mack comes home from work.
* My brain is completely fried, so if you call and leave a message expecting me to call back, its most probably never going to happen.
* I still feel like I should be a contributing member of society - more fool me.
* I have about 20lbs of baby weight to lose, and am very depressed that I don't fit into my normal pants yet - fat pants, its just you and me again today.
* My newest hobby is sitting for hours staring at the cuteness that is my child.
* I have found out that I'm not really good at typing with one hand, and that I get bored and invariably give up, hence the lack of posts.

And that's all for now.

My Cousin

Smiles, Happiness and Contentment. What more can a mother ask for? Maeve, Ethan and Taz, the cousins first picture together.

And then...reality hits!

Tarr Family

Darren and his little family. Aren't they just adorable? Mack and I need to get an updated family photo.

Two Weeks Old

I can't believe my munchkin is two weeks old already. She is growing so fast. See for yourself.


I know the photos are a little soft, but thats what happens when your subject won't stop squirming.

Sainted

I believe my parents in law should be sainted for all the help they gave me yesterday.

I'll start at the beginning, shall I?

A few weeks ago I got a letter from Homeland Security requesting evidence of mine and Mack's marriage over the last two years. They needed this information for my greencard renewal. Well I was expecting to get the packet done last week before my due date. Needless to say, our little bundle of joy's early arrival completely wiped the need for me to put my packet together from my mind until yesterday. Not a problem some might think. Well, the packet was due by today - no exceptions. I went into full fledged panic mode. Full fledged! Thankfully I had gotten most of it together, but still needed a few notarized affidavits from friends and family. Mack called a friend and his parents, and I called a friend. Mack's parents then picked up the notarized affidavits, brought them all the way to our house for me to get them into the packet, and then waited around while I finished off my statement. We were planning on having the packet to Fedex with time to spare, but Mack's dad realized that all I had was a P.O. box number and that Fedex then wouldn't work. So they rushed to the post office to priority overnight it, only to be told that the deadline for overnighting had passed a mere 10 min before. When Linda called to let me know I just wanted to cry. Anyway, Mack's dad looked online, found a street address for overnight shipping to UCIS, and then rushed to Fedex to ship it so that it reached its destination by today, just in time for me not to be deported.

Add a colicky baby to the mix and my not having gotten any sleep the night before, and you can see why Saint Jon and Saint Linda has a nice ring to it.

Phoebe's Grand Day Out

We took Phoebe to Mack's parents house to give her a little bit of a change from our tiny little apartment. She LOVED the yard and spent the whole time we were there exploring.

At one point I couldn't see Phoebe anywhere, but noticed that this large cherry tree in their yard looked like it was having convulsions of the upper leaves.



On closer inspection guess what we found?




What a crazy cat!

Back in the Land of the Living

Well I'm back, and feel surprisingly good considering I have stitches in my most tenderist of bits. I am thoroughly enjoying my little girl and have taken to just sitting and staring at her. I can't believe that barely a week ago she was inside me, and now shes a living breathing little person with preferences to certain things already.

Mack and I still can't figure out who she looks like. She has my cleft chin though. I got it from my mom who got it from her dad, and now my little girl has it - strong genes that cleft. Sometimes when I look at her, she looks like my cousin Jason, and other times she looks like my brother Jeremy. I asked Mack's mom if she looked like anyone in their family and she said that she looked a little like one of Mack's cousin's kids. Anyway, maybe she's just the perfect combination of the two of us. I like that idea.

She's a curious little soul who loves to look around (even though she can't focus very far and still goes cross eyed at times), and listens intently when we make a new sound. She also never stops moving her little legs. No wonder I was so uncomfortable those last few weeks of pregnancy, every part inside of me was most probably bruised in the wake of her legs and feet.

Mack and I are slowly getting used to not having too much sleep. Well at least I'm slowly getting used to it. Mack on the other hand really needs his sleep, but is trying really hard. Tamsine loves her daddy and responds to his voice, and just stares at him. It melts my heart to see the two of them together.

Despite all we need to learn and all our inadequacies, Mack and I are ecstatic to have our little girl. We're one happy family.

Welcoming the wee one!

This is Mack posting on behalf of Leith. Our little Tamsine was born on Sunday morning at 4:32. She weighed 7 pounds one ounce and was 19 and 1/2 inches long. Both Leith and Taz are healthy and will be coming home tomorrow. I came home to feed the cat and wanted to post some photos for Leith's friends. Once she's home she'll organize the post and add captions and stuff.

Latest Preggie Pic

Update

I know I haven't written in what feels like forever, but I've had very good reasons not to. Reasons like, "I've just been way too tired to sit down and think of something to write," and "I don't really fit in front of the computer anymore," and "there really hasn't been anything that exciting to write about," and "I've been too busy nesting."

Its really true about that last one. I've had this uncontrollable urge to put my house in order before Taz arrives. So Mack and I spent countless hours at Home Depot and Ikea getting closet organizers and cupboards etc. Then I sat back and made Mack assemble and mount the stuff we got. I've been thrilled with the results, but still have a bit of work ahead of me, because now I have to organize those assembled cupboards and closets.

I was also finishing up with work and trying to get things done there. My last day was supposed to be Friday, but there was just too much I wasn't able to do, and so now I have to go back in for a couple of days. I don't mind really, I was very sad to leave.

And thats about it. I'll post pictures of my nesting, I just need to take the pictures. promise.

Fantastic Dream

I used to have this recurring nightmare when I was pretty young. It was rather traumatic, and as a result I just stopped remembering my dreams. I have only remembered a handful over the last 20 odd years. Its quite sad really. When I got pregnant everybody told me I would have these fantastic, super-crazy, pregnancy dreams. I just smiled and nodded.

Well, the other night I actually remembered a dream, and it was fabulous. In my dream I was told that I had an unlimited budget to build the house of my dreams. to me, that in itself is pretty cool, but my imagination took it one step further - its true - in my dream, I built my dream house inside of a BIODOME. I know isn't that spectacular? I had the perfect house, with the perfect weather, and the perfect pool, and the perfect garden, and orchard and vineyard and veggie garden, I even had a couple of cows, goats and chickens. I was going for the whole self sustaining thing apparently. AND, I had all this perfection around me ALL THE TIME! I was SO disappointed when I woke up and it wasn't reality.

You see I live in Utah, where the license plate reads "Greatest Snow on Earth". And, it is - if you don't have to go outside - EVER! (except to go skiing of course). This last winter was the worst, and driving on the frozen roads were treacherous. Everybody had horrible cases of cabin fever. You feel like you want to go crazy. Now if you lived in a biodome that wouldn't be an issue, and you would only have to venture out of the biodome when you really had to, and, you could pick the days you left. Wouldn't that be fantastic?

My point being - I'm stuck on the idea of having my own biodome. (reality isn't an option)

Does it Suit Me?

No the baby is not mine, that is my two week old niece Maeve. I babysat her on mothers day so that Allyson could take Ethan to church.

So I got the chance to test out my mad mothering skills for 3 hours while they were gone. This is what we did. Napped together. Ate a little. Belched a little. Napped some more. Went to the loo. Changed a diaper (hers not mine), and then napped some more.

It went great. If those 3 hours are anything to go by, then I'm going to be a fabulous mother. Okay, so don't start worrying about me. I do live in the real world and know it won't be like that all the time, but thats when I get to hand her over to Mack. Yay!

Checkup

I had another checkup today, and was given a very enthusiastic thumbs up with everything. The Tazlings heart rate was really strong and she behaved herself this time and didn't kick anything. My blood pressure is great and apparently there is nothing abnormal in my pee - thank goodness!

I asked the doctor if there was anything I could do besides putting my feet up to help with the swelling in my feet. He went into this long explanation about water retention and how putting my feet up isn't going to reduce the amount of water I'm retaining. He said that whatever I'm doing its just going to drain to the lowest point of my body, so if I lie with my feet up, it just means the water will drain into my butt. To which I replied, "Yes, but my butt is used to being that size, my feet aren't!"

Tagged - I'm it.

My good friend Jen Salisbury tagged me. Its a good thing she's so high on my most loveable peoples list, or I'd be grumpy at her. Here goes:-

1. What were you doing 10 years ago?

Hmmm let me think...10 years ago I was living in London with Gillian and Isandi in a really dodgy hole in the wall about a block away from Portobello Road. We worked nights looking after crazy old grannies,and slept and pretty much acted like zombies during the days, but oh what good times were had.

2. 5 Things on my to do list today.

- Lie on the couch like a beached whale
- Dream about getting my waist line back
- Take the cat for a walk/waddle (she walks, I waddle)
- Try to reduce my sugar intake so that my baby doesn't go into a sugar coma
- Wish my husband were home

3. Snacks I enjoy.

- Ice cream
- Chocolate Nesquick
- Banana Nesquick (if I could get some in this country)
- Fruit (any kind goes,but I just ate a small, sweet, watermelon and it was so yummy!)
- Werthers Original sweeties
- cake
- and, more fruit

4. What would I do if suddenly I were a billionaire?

First, I would faint, and then I would spend, and then I would definitely give to those who might need it more than I would, and then I would spend some more, and then I would start a scholarship program for kids who can't afford an education, and then I'd by some shoes, and then I'd take a nap from all the spending.

5. List 3 bad habits

- Being self righteous
- picking my nose while driving
- Did I mention I'm really stubborn

6. List 5 places you've lived

- Cape Town, South Africa
- Sidmouth, England
- Tavistock, England
- London, England
- Rexburg, Idaho, USA
- Provo, Utah, USA
- Saratoga Springs, Utah, USA

7. List 5 jobs you've had

- Bookkeeper for an accounting firm
- Dishwasher at a restaurant
- Waitress
- Bar maid
- Granny sitter
- Producer for a Stock photography company
- PA on a movie set
- Production Co-ordinator
Wait thats more than five

8. List 5 things people may not know about you

- I'm blind in my right eye, so have absolutely no depth perception - so don't throw things at me, I'll scream and duck.
- I once sailed (with a skipper) in the Western Province Finals Hobie Cat regatta and placed 10th.
- I have an associates degree in broadcast journalism.
- I would love to write and illustrate children's fiction.
- I have long conversations with my cat, and don't think I'm crazy for doing so.

And that is it. I hope you enjoy this little tidbit of info about me.

Baby Ticker

I am down to my last few weeks of pregnancy, so decided to add a baby ticker (on the left) for everybody to anticipate and count down the days with me. Woohoo!

Pork Sausage Toes, Cankles and Dents

I must write a disclaimer at the beginning of this post. If you are in anyway squimish - look away now!

This is what my feet have evolved into over the last couple of days. I still can't believe that they actually belong to me. I have a hard time recognising them as feet at all. And, I must admit that I lament the loss of what used to be my ankles. I will never take them for granted again.



I was showing the girls at work how deep I can stick my finger into my poor swollen ankle, when one of the guys walked in, took one look at my foot and proclaimed, "whoa, you're dented!"

And its true, just take a look at this:



(Jeremy this post is for you - now stop laughing. I know I have granny feet right now, but the doctor promises me they will go back to normal eventually, one day.)