Tuesday, 6 January 2009
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!
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!
Wednesday, 31 December 2008
Christmas 2008
We drove up to Radcliffe to my Mum & Dad's on Christmas Day morning, and stayed until Sunday lunchtime. Lara enjoyed herself a lot, being fussed over by Grandma & Grandad, and enjoyed all her new presents, she has her own pushchair with a doll now to push around, and her teletubby Po always makes her laugh.
Lara continued her good sleeping pattern even in unusual surroundings, which meant that Olga and I were able to go out for an evening in Bury for a few drinks on the Saturday. Mishka wasn't ignored - quite the opposite in fact, as he got hours and hours of attention from us while we hand-stripped his coat; he looks much better now, although he was a cute furball before, he looks like the elegant Airedale that he's supposed to be now - if only he acted like it!
We called in at our friends place on the way back - Rob & Lizz, who now have a beautiful brother, James, for Juliet. It's amazing how light little babies are when you pick them up!
Here are some photos from Radcliffe:
And a couple of funny videos - my Dad needs a frame to help him walk at the moment, but Lara thought it was fun to borrow it from time to time:
But she did bring it back...
Lara continued her good sleeping pattern even in unusual surroundings, which meant that Olga and I were able to go out for an evening in Bury for a few drinks on the Saturday. Mishka wasn't ignored - quite the opposite in fact, as he got hours and hours of attention from us while we hand-stripped his coat; he looks much better now, although he was a cute furball before, he looks like the elegant Airedale that he's supposed to be now - if only he acted like it!
We called in at our friends place on the way back - Rob & Lizz, who now have a beautiful brother, James, for Juliet. It's amazing how light little babies are when you pick them up!
Here are some photos from Radcliffe:
And a couple of funny videos - my Dad needs a frame to help him walk at the moment, but Lara thought it was fun to borrow it from time to time:
But she did bring it back...
Our Little Teenager
Lara has skipped ages 1 through to 14 and is showing some traits of your average teenager now - sleeping a lot and eating us out of house and home (oh, and going to the pub quite a bit recently!). Luckily that's all, there are no real temper tantrums, or staying out all night or suchlike.
Since just before Christmas Lara has taken to falling asleep without much help from us, around 7.30, and not waking till 7.30 in the morning. In fact there have been days where we've had to go and wake her up for nursery! She still stirs in the night, especially as she still has a cough (like the rest of us!), but we haven't had to to into her room at night for nearly two weeks now. Long may it continue!
And now she has started eating like a horse, too. We noticed it when we were up at my Mum & Dad's for Christmas, that she ate everything we offered her, at least everything that was on a spoon. She did really like helping herself to turkey, carrots, and sausages, but potatoes and sprouts were tried then chucked away. This has continued since we got home, I think she's eating at least 50% more each day than she was eating two or three weeks ago. It's a growth spurt, we assume. It's still mostly jar food (Heinz Globe Totters Chicken Paella is a favourite this week) with vegetable nibbles, quiches and bananas, although on top of the turkey at Christmas she tried salmon, and turkey will be back on the menu for New Year's Day.
Whilst we wouldn't say that she has started talking, there are hints that she is starting to understand more. She knows that the noise Mishka makes is "ooooouu-ooooouu", and when asked - in Russian, no less - at Mum & Dad's house, what does Mishka say, she did consciously reply "ooooouu-ooooouu". After spending the whole day with her in our office at work yesterday, I have also worked out that "Edda!" means give me that thing I'm pointing to (it was usually food!)
Since just before Christmas Lara has taken to falling asleep without much help from us, around 7.30, and not waking till 7.30 in the morning. In fact there have been days where we've had to go and wake her up for nursery! She still stirs in the night, especially as she still has a cough (like the rest of us!), but we haven't had to to into her room at night for nearly two weeks now. Long may it continue!
And now she has started eating like a horse, too. We noticed it when we were up at my Mum & Dad's for Christmas, that she ate everything we offered her, at least everything that was on a spoon. She did really like helping herself to turkey, carrots, and sausages, but potatoes and sprouts were tried then chucked away. This has continued since we got home, I think she's eating at least 50% more each day than she was eating two or three weeks ago. It's a growth spurt, we assume. It's still mostly jar food (Heinz Globe Totters Chicken Paella is a favourite this week) with vegetable nibbles, quiches and bananas, although on top of the turkey at Christmas she tried salmon, and turkey will be back on the menu for New Year's Day.
Whilst we wouldn't say that she has started talking, there are hints that she is starting to understand more. She knows that the noise Mishka makes is "ooooouu-ooooouu", and when asked - in Russian, no less - at Mum & Dad's house, what does Mishka say, she did consciously reply "ooooouu-ooooouu". After spending the whole day with her in our office at work yesterday, I have also worked out that "Edda!" means give me that thing I'm pointing to (it was usually food!)
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