Randomness on Wednesday

Well, I made it five days in a row blogging, I'm quite proud of myself, but there was no way I could do it on the weekend too, it takes me at least an hour to blog with photos!  Anyway I don't have a whole post to write about, so here are a few of my random thoughts.  Also, I've not downloaded my photos recently so I'll post them tomorrow or Friday.

1.  It turns out Chicken loves the park.  The only thing she's big enough (and not even properly then) to go on is the baby swing, and man does that make her laugh and smile.  She also loves watching the other kids, I think we could just sit in the playground watching the kids for a whole afternoon and she still wouldn't get bored!

2.  I lost one and a half pounds this week, 680g in normal peoples amounts, which is 12.5 lb total or 5.5kg.  And the good new is that I now fit into three pairs of three quarters that I didn't fit a month ago!! Can't wait to do some shopping when I get to Vermont.

3.  I am sooooo excited about going to visit Scott and Panda in two weeks, I can't believe its only in two weeks, I've already starting looking at websites for clothes and shoes for Chicken and I!! We're having a week or so in Vermont and then a couple of nights in New York, I love NYC and already have a long list of things to do that we didn't manage last time.

4.  I have to bake some biscuits tomorrow morning for a party.  My friend is finishing her job as a breastfeeding supporter tomorrow so we are having a farewell lunch and then a little party at our group.  I'm  sad shes leaving but I'm looking forward to having mussels for lunch!

5.  My computer isn't working at the moment so I have to borrow Andrew's which doesn't have a webcam which means no skype or skyping using my iPhone, which is super hard because Chicken wants to grab it all the time, and really who wants to look up a babies nose, not even me!

6.  I've joined a reading club online, and I'm really enjoying it so far, its one of the first books (not counting kids books) that I've read since I've had Chicken.

Happy Hump day everyone!

Friday Five - My little bro

I've been thinking about my brother a fair bit lately.  We don't see each other very often, only three times in the last six years actually but I'd say we were quite close and we get on well.  It hasn't always been the case, our late teenage years were a bit tough but on the whole he's a cool little brother.  So my Friday Five today is all about my brother Scott.

1.  He lives in the USA.  Scott lives in Vermont and is the Director of Tennis at Stratton Mountain.  I haven't been to visit him there but we are going in September and I can't wait.  He's also lived in Miami and Indiana.  In 2008 my friend and I went to Miami for a week and stayed with Scott.  We were driving over the MacArthur Causeway from Miami Beach back to his apartment when he decided to stop at Star Island.  Star Island is a private man-made island that loads of celebrities have houses on, Gloria Estefan, A-Rod, Rosie O'Donnell to name a few.  Anyway there is a gate and Scottie just leaned over and asked the guard if we could go and look around since we were from New Zealand, I was sooo embarrassed and was sure we were going to get told to get lost, but no, it worked.  That's my brother for you, bold!

2.  He was the MC at our wedding.  Scottles loves to speak in public, in fact, my Mum, Scott and myself all like to, doesn't scare us.  He told funny stories, made sure everything ran on time and generally did a great job.  He also read a beautiful poem during the ceremony, The Key to Love.  About a month before the wedding I had dream that Scott stood up to speak and to get everyone's attention he clapped his hands teacher style, and everyone clapped back.  He then started to speak just like a teacher, e.g. oh I can see that Bob's table is ready to go and get their food, they are sitting nicely.  Thank goodness he didn't do this, but I was a little bit worried.

3.  He's quite tall.  6ft 5in even, yep my little brother is a giant.  Being tall has lots of advantages, and these two stories show a few of them.  Scott used to threaten to give our mum, Marg G 'The Rack'  The Rack is when you pick someone up by their feet and dangle them out in front of you.  As Marg G is only 5ft 4in it was definitely possible to give her The Rack.  And apparently one day he did!!  NB this may just be folklore, I wasn't actually there.  Sometimes when Scottle Modottle and I used to catch up when I was away at uni he would stand on my feet (without me knowing) and then push me over.  If someone is standing on your feet you can't regain your balance and you fall over, which I did.  I then went to get him and he would put his had on my forehead with his arm out straight (can you picture that?)  Basically because he was so tall and his reach so long I couldn't get at him, rather comic really.

4.  He comes home for Christmas every year.  This is quite a feat really, Vermont is a long way from New Zealand!  He runs a business with some friends selling ice to festival goers in our town and then goes to the festival itself for NYE.

5.  He is incredibly generous!  As a brother, brother-in-law and as an uncle Scott is kind and caring and we (Andrew, Chicken, and I) are  very lucky.  He also buys great gifts!  So far Chicken has been given Crocs, a Dior shirt, a giant bear, loads and loads of clothes just to name a few.  Scott is very excited about being an uncle and can't wait to meet his niece in September.

Friday Five - Tips for flying with a baby

Today I am typing with a sick Chicken on my lap, so no photos sorry, my laptop got too full and now all the photos are on the external hard drive which is too hard to hook up, excuses I know! 

Anyway, in late April Chicken and I travelled to New Zealand for a three week visit.  That's four, eleven/twelve hour flights on large planes and two short (one hour) flights on much smaller planes.  Also, two days after we got back, we went on a family holiday to Italy which involved two short flights and one airport delay.  These eight flights, (six of which Chicken and I did by ourselves) have given me quite a lot of experience, and so here are my five tips for flying with a baby.

1.  Try and fly in super quiet times.  Chicken and I left London on Easter Sunday and our flight was very empty. This meant I got three spare seats (yes, very spoilt I know) on the way to NZ and one on the way back.  This was a godsend!  It meant that I could leave our bag of tricks (nappies, toys, spare clothes etc) out to get at whenever I needed it, which was lots!

2.  Make friends with the flight attendants.  As soon as I got on the plane Chicken and I said hello to all the flight attendants, thankfully she is a smiley baby, which made them smile back at her!  This meant that they were all very obliging, helping out whenever I needed them.  One lady, Ngaire was amazing, she held Chicken when I needed to go to the loo, came and checked on us regularly and even directed us to domestic check-in when I saw her in the terminal.  Without these lovely people our flights would have been much much harder!

3.  Pre-order food for collection.  Because I was only breastfeeding Chicken when we flew meant that this didn't apply but now since she is eating food (or if I was feeding her formula) I would definitely make an on-line order at Boots (UK Chemist) and arrange a pick-up at one of the air-side stores.  This means you don't have to open all the food and formula when going through security.  It also means that you don't have to pack as much, and have more space for other stuff, nappies, clothes etc.

4. Take a variety of new toys.  Even though Chicken was only four months old I still took two new toys for her to play with.  I chose ones that were fun but didn't make any noise, because a) I didn't want to make other passengers cross, and b) I don't like toys that make noise (grinchy mum huh?)

5.  Make sure you have all your documents in one easy access place.  I have a travel wallet and in it were our passports, tickets, my marriage license, our visa letters for the US, and a letter from Andrew approving our travel.  The reason I had a letter from Andrew was that Eilidh and I travel on different passports.  I am a New Zealander and while Eilidh will one day be one too, she currently is classed as a British Citizen.  We also have different surnames, which could have aroused suspicion.  Thankfully it didn't but having that letter made me feel much better.  I carried my travel wallet in the front of my rucksack, where I could pull it out quickly whenever it was needed.

6.  Oh I'm cheating I know, but my final tip is, have fun and go with the flow.  Babies are incredibly resilient and can cope with almost anything, its just us adults that have trouble!

I am a bad person, yes I am

Dear imaginary friends, and friends and family,

I'm so sorry I've not written lately, I've been a bit busy.  You see my parents decided that they couldn't not see their Possum (my Chicken) so they brought us a ticket home, which is where we've been for the last three weeks.  Yes, I am a very very lucky girl!  I had a great time hanging with Mum and Dad, and catching up with my friends.  I never realise how much I miss these fantastic people until I have to leave (cue many many tears)

The downside to this (but totally worth it, sorry) was that Chicken and I didn't get to see Andrew for the time.  Granted, he went to America (Texas and Chicago) for work and to Norway for a long weekend to visit Jon (his 2nd best man at our wedding) but we still missed him and he definitely missed his little girl.

I'll post more about our trip later but I've got to go pack.  Yep that's right, I'm off on holiday again, lucky, I know.  Andrew's parents Moira and Graham have come to visit us for a month and we are off to Italy for ten days tomorrow morning, very very early tomorrow morning!  We're staying in a town called Punta Alla on the coast, an hour or so south of Pisa.  I've never been to Italy before and I'm sooooo looking forward to it.

The house we are staying at also has the internet, so you never know, I may just blog from there.  Or if not, I'll see you in ten days!

Until then, I'll leave you with a super cute picture of Chicken on Easter Sunday.