Friday 9 January 2009

You can keep the rabbit, but I want my kidney back

This story is unfortunate but I couldn't help but smile when I read it. Where will it all stop!?

Thursday 8 January 2009

10,000 up!

After 16 months, 16 days and 303 posts, we've reached the 10,000 hits mark :-) Imagine how many hits and posts there'll be before Lara can start reading and writing her own posts!

Wednesday 7 January 2009

Lara's Day with Dad


It was a long day for both of us yesterday, starting with dropping Mum off at the railway station at 8am so she could go to work in London, then it was back home for porridge and a nap (me, not Dad). Then there was a busy morning of playing with my toys with Dad, before an early lunch at 11.30. There was time for a second nap between 12 and 1, then we took Mishka for a walk round the block; it was lovely outside, with clear blue skies and still some of that nice white stuff on the floor. I couldn't see much because Dad had squeezed me into that carrier thing which holds me to his front, and I had to breathe in his smelly breath for 10 minutes. Then we went to a pub, which isn't unusual but this was one I'd not been to before. Dad says it was The Stag in Flackwell Heath. It had a lovely view from the beer garden over farmer's fields, and Dad had a hot chocolate with marshmellows while we sat outside and I had some snacks. A little furry fella came and sat on our table, I think he was after my snacks, I tried to talk to him but he doesn't speak Dog, which is the only language I know. The barmaid in the pub was making very complimentary noises about me and my new hat; it is lovely and warm.



I had a third nap while Dad drove me somewhere else I've not been to - the huge Tesco superstore in Slough. He takes me to all the best places, you know! He even remembered to feed me in the cafe before pushing me round in a trolley for two hours. Whenever I got a bit bored I'd just entertain the people around me with a song, and I even grabbed the arm of one nice old lady, who gave me a big kiss in return. I didn't mind Dad wandering up and down each aisle twice though because most of the things he put in there are for me anyway! Shopping is a tiring activity, and I had to have a fourth nap while we drove back to High Wycombe to meet Mum, who gave me my tea before Dad showed me how to fall asleep in my cot by falling asleep in the chair next to me.
Just for good measure I woke up and screamed 20 minutes after I heard Mum and Dad go to bed, but Dad came down and persuaded me it that if I went to sleep quickly then Mum would buy me a pony when I'm older. I tried getting Mum to come to see me at 1.30am so we could discuss what colour of pony, but I only cried for a few minutes before I got bored and went back to sleep on my own.

Today is Mum's Day with me, so we can discuss it at length and at a very high volume then....
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Tuesday 6 January 2009

The teenager might be back!

Fingers crossed, but hopefully Lara is back to sleeping well again. Last night she slept the whole night in her cot, and although she stirred briefly at 11pm, she didn't wake, and we didn't need to go in to soothe her at all. She woke again at around 5.30, and there were tears this time, but we stuck to our guns (and pillows) and she fell back asleep until Olga was out of the shower at 6.30.

Today is my first "Dad's Day" with her, I'm having the first Tuesday in every month off work to look after her. It's a lovely day outside, so naturally we'll go shopping indoors somewhere :-) Nah, only kidding, we'll go for a walk in the park first, then head off to the shops. And maybe a pub lunch!

A farewell to Woolies

We did our bit for Woolies on Saturday, we went to their shop in Wycombe. I was surprised how empty it was, they are selling everything - the shelves, the desks and chairs from the offices, ladders from the stockroom... the only thing I could buy were some ex-display DVD cases at 10p each, so I bought 15 in case I ever put together DVDs of our various holiday trips!

Monday 5 January 2009

Not to leave Mishka out

It seems like some time since I gave Mishka some space on here, so here is how he saw New Year in on Wednesday night... with his favourite toy - the one he likes to give to Lara to play with when we're not looking!

3 New Years in One Night

Lucy and Sergei came round on Wednesday night to say goodbye to 2008; Lucy brought lots of Russian salads, I provided my signature salsa and guacamole, and there was plenty of other nibbles to keep us going past midnight. We weren't quite expecting how far past midnight we'd go!
Lara stayed up long enough to say hello then goodnight to our visitors, then we tuned Sky in to the Russia Today channel to see if they were showing the New Year celebrations in Moscow... we got there just in time to see Uncle Dimitri Medvedev giving his New Year speech (dubbed into English!) and the fireworks above Red Square... here's a photo I've pilfered off the net:

Then we popped the cork on some champagne at midnight, and Lara still didn't stir...

So it was Hello! to 2009, and as usual the fireworks in London were spectacular, although we were happy to watch them on TV rather than stand outside for 7 hours waiting for them. Sergei wanted to go and see them in person next year but I think now he'll be happy to watch them on TV with a glass of bubbly. (Lara is still asleep at this point...).
At this point "we" (I don't know whose idea it was) decided it would be a good idea to stay up for midnight in New York. We had enough food and drink to manage it, and the music channels on Sky provided the entertainment (and Olga and her moonwalking).. and STILL Lara slept on.
So we made it through to 5am, and watched the celebrations in Time Square on one of the news channels, it looked just like this photo also pilfered from the net (it seems to be from 2007 though!):

By now it was getting on for 5.30am, and Lara still hadn't stirred. I took the executive decision to walk Mishka now rather than sleep, then get up to walk him, so it was getting on for 6am before Olga and I retired, at which point.... Lara stirred. Very loudly. We tried taking her to bed with us, but she was having none of it, she'd missed the party and wanted to start her own, so poor Olga drew the short straw and had to stay up to feed her and play with her, until she decided it was time for a shift change at 11am. Having had 5 hours undisturbed sleep, I was feeling relatively OK, and was more than happy to take Lara off to Anton and Becca's in the afternoon for lovely mulled wine - and I'm sure the mince pies that were on offer were equally nice, but I'm not a fan for some reason. Lucy and Sergei had left by the time I was back, and we had a nice quiet evening. Until Lara decided that her New Year's resolution for 2009 was to forget what a good sleeper she'd been for two weeks, and decided it was time to scream her little head off whenever I tried to get her back off to sleep after she woke about 11.30pm. She just wouldn't let me stop stroking her back while she was in the cot, if I stopped or moved away a little, the screaming started again. In the end I got my book, turned the lights on in the nursery and let her play between 1am and 2am, until she started to show good signs of tiredness. Even then the only way I could get her to sleep was in her pram downstairs in the lounge, so I slept on the sofa.

She's been perfectly fine during the day, but since new year she just hasn't slept properly at all, and has been in the pram downstairs each night since then, with Olga and I alternating who was staying with her. We assume it's her teeth that are bugging her, it seems that she can sleep for an hour, maybe two, then she is racked with discomfort for 5 minutes, then she goes back to sleep. It's a coincidence that her cold finished around new year, maybe without those symptoms bugging her, all she notices now when she sleeps is her teeth?
That said, tonight - Monday - she has gone to sleep in her cot, and has only woken once in the last 3 hours, and is asleep as I write, so we're hoping that the latest stage of teething is passing and she might return to the wonderful nights of 12 hours sleep! Her new Po Tellytubby is a great help too when she needs to sleep, providing 5 minutes of soothing (for Lara) music then shutting itself off, allowing us to creep out of the nursery without waking her, so thanks Grandma!