Half a Day Away

Posted by: sammatt | May 25, 2012

Journeys-Part Two

S: Well, against all of the odds (Matt being away, heat wave, baby who thinks that sleeping between midnight and 3am is for wimps-seriously) and with huge gratitude to my Mama who has ironed for England and endlessly entertained Indi this past week and to Mama and Papa L who are feeding and watering us tonight and lending us Muriel their sat nav (she got us lost in Jamaica but that’s another story), we’re ready to roll. Italy here we come.

I must say that the logistics are somewhat interesting and we could probably have chosen a less complicated path to Indi’s first foreign holiday but where would be the fun in that?! Who needs sleep-pah! M is currently in Germany and will be flying into Heathrow tonight, getting the bus to Oxford and then packing the car with all of our luggage and driving up to Birmingham. Indi and I are about to get the train up to Birmingham now to spend the afternoon at Granny Mo and Granddad’s where I’m hoping to sneak off for a sleep when no one is looking!

We leave for the airport at 4.30am with a (hopefully) sleepy baby, fly at 7am, pick up a hire car in Rome and will then put our faith in Muriel to navigate us into the depths of the Umbrian countryside where we will be reunited with our dear and fabulous friend BB and her wonderful family. We have planned a week of talking, eating, wine drinking, swimming, chilling and exploring, precisely in that order and much to M’s befuddlement…”but what are we actually going to DO?” he has been heard asking on more than one occasion. “What do you mean DO?” I reply. “You know, DO, activities…?” “talking, eating, relaxing, drinking wine…they are activities, I don’t understand what you mean…”. And on the conversation goes.

Indi has a fabulous selection of outfits packed-just as a girl should for an Italian holiday. Enough in fact, for at least two outfit changes a day, but don’t tell her Dad. I must say that I’m genuinely glad that I’m not going to be at home when he gets in and sees the size of the luggage pile! With any luck I’ll also be asleep when he arrives tonight and being that he’s most definitely not a morning person, he’ll forget that he needs to talk to me about the mammoth amount of luggage that a five month old seems to need when we open our eyes at 4am tomorrow.

Indi’s take on proceedings is documented below:

The Modern Man

Following on from the Green Parent shot…

Blissful Sundays

S: Sunday is my favourite day of the week. Whether the sun is shining, fog swirling or rain lashing, for me Sunday is a day for pottering, eating and family. This Sunday I got to do all three and was even treated to half an hour sitting by the river in the sun, drinking coffee, eating chocolate crackle cakes (thanks Mama L) and reading a magazine while Indi slept and Matt baked. Later, we met my brother and his family and my Mum at our local for Sunday dinner and the chaos that comes from having a (not quite) five month old on a quest for independence and a hilarious three year old at the dinner table. Bliss.

Remember the picture of M sprawled on the sofa in Northumberland reading ‘Bride”?

No you’re right, that’s most definitely NOT 85% cacao chocolate with Madagascan vanilla that she’s licking!

Row row row your boat, gently down the stream…

If you see a crocodile…

2 Comments

Posted in Family, General Happenings, Indira

Posted by: sammatt | May 18, 2012

Iconic Signs…

S: …or ironic signs? Check out the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s ‘What’s your story-Snapped: Signs’. Our cholera sign (snapped by myself and Mama L) at Port Moresby General Hospital features here.

And another thing…

I: Yep, I can now chat and blow raspberries laying on my tummy. Grandma says I look sozzled…maybe that’s what happens when you fight sleep all day after being awake for four and a half hours in the night playing.

I took Granny Mo and Granddad to the pub for lunch yesterday and had a lovely time playing with Granny Mo’s mashed potato. I even managed to smear it all over her cheek without her noticing-Mum was very kind and told her so before she took me for a walk into town…shame…

I’m sooooo tired…

…but I’m just not going to give in…

…I blow a raspberry in the face of sleep…

…lies, it’s all lies…

…alwight twinkle…I’m not going…I’m not…

1 Comment

Posted in Indira, Trials and Tribulations

Posted by: sammatt | May 6, 2012

Journeys-Part One

S: As we mosey on into our fifth month of parenthood with a weekend away in Edinburgh tucked under our drool covered belts, I suddenly find myself husband-less for a week. Yikes. M is, as I type, winging his way to Montreal to be busy and important at a tree hugging convention that is trying to save the lesser spotted turtle…or something.

Who am I kidding…mosey? I feel as though I have been whipped around in fifteen different directions by the seat of my pants and occasionally my hair, generously covered in drooly, gummy, chortling kisses, had raspberries blown at me at 5.30am and moved into a Chinese laundry…oh, hang on a minute…

This past week Indi has discovered her LOUD voice and learnt how to screech, oh and likes to practice A LOT and is ignoring all of my attempts to teach her how to modulate (!); has perfected rolling over from back to tummy and almost back again; has decided that she doesn’t need me to hold on to her while she’s feeding, she can manage perfectly well by herself thank you very much; is really getting the hang of sitting with very little support; almost got her toes in her mouth while she was in the bath earlier; may have begun signing ‘up’ and now most definitely knows the sign for ‘milk’. She also took part in her first stag do!

Yes that’s right, a stag do. We got onto the train to Edinburgh only to discover that almost our entire carriage was full of a Welsh stag party on their way to Newcastle for the weekend. To give her the credit she deserves Indi took most of it in her stride and only looked a little bemused at the stag and best man who were sitting behind us in full drag and hand-cuffed to each other, and were very hairy. She was also not at all impressed with the man who whistled loudly while she was sleeping. We were invited to join their stag do quiz and embarrassingly lost despite the fact that they had all been drinking since 8.30am when they had met in their local pub for a fry up to begin the weekend. How do I know this? Because someone had left his stag do itinerary laying around for general perusal and I decided to have a neb. It actually featured the word clunge…and I thought that they seemed like quite nice chaps!

If there was a down-side to our second holiday weekend for me, it could well have been the fact that it’s likely, due to the fact that Indi is 100% distractable while she’s feeding at the minute (ooohhh wow look at my hands and what’s that? And that? And that? If I just yank myself off of Mum’s boob fifteen times a minute I’m sure I’ll be able to see everything that’s going on and wow look I can stuff my fist in my mouth and talk all at the same time), that a thirty strong Welsh stag party, most of the people on platform 10a, most of the customers at Earthy and the majority of a wedding party including the canapé waiters saw my boobs, on several occasions. Nice.