Busy

I don't have much time or energy to blog this days. Have started school again and it seems like studying and my energetic daughter is taking up most of my time. I will be having a busy schedule for ten weeks now. After that things will be a bit calmer.

So have patience with me, as I will not be blogging that frequently for a while now. While I'm busy doing other things than blogging, you guys can sit in front of the computer screen in amazement about what a gorgeous daughter I've got. Who will be exactly six months old tomorrow, by the way. I can't believe how time flies!

Mixed emotions

It felt really strange this morning. First I drank my tea with one hand, while the other one was jiggling a breast milk pump.

Then:
Packed my bag for school. Note book, iPod, wallet, pen, calender. No diapers, tissues, or extra clothing.
Got dressed the way I wanted to. Without caring about comfort, practicalities, or nursing bras.
Left home. Without a pram, harness, or a smiling Noam looking at me.

Spent five hours away from my precious daughter, for the first time.
Missed her like crazy and couldn't stop hugging her when I got back.
But I also felt free. It was nice doing something for myself, by myself.

I guess it's a mixed feeling that is difficult to understand if you haven't been through it yourself. Or maybe not. I don't know. Anyway, after all these emotions Noam and I went to a kind of drop in kindergarden and we both got totally exhausted.

A real girl

Four year old Tove, while watching Noam's hair flowing in the bath:

"Now she looks like a REAL girl"

I guess I was never a real girl, as a kid, considering my parents always kept my hair crew cut.

It's just like the answers you often get when asking kids what the difference is between men and women. They often reply:

"Men drive cars and women clean the house"

It's sad how early our kids are brainwashed in to believing in all these kinds of differences between men/boys and women/girls.

Noam has a crush

Noam has a crush on a guy.

There I was thinking that she would be gay and that I wouldn't have to deal with teenage boys in the future, but it looks like I was wrong. Damn, would have preferred to deal with teenage girls.

Anyway, this boy that she has a crush on does not have a crush on her. He is two weeks older and he more or less ignores her when she is trying to take his clothes off, eat his socks, pull his nose, suck his hands and hit his head.

The poor girl is pulling all kinds of stunts to get his attention, but he doesn't seem impressed.

I'm sure that he soon will realise what a catch she is though.

Fever definitely gone

Noam's fever gone. Definitely gone.

She started moving and chatting with lots of energy at 6 am this morning. Why I bothered setting the alarm this morning I don't know. It's not like Noam would let me oversleep.

Todays philosophical question: Are all babies total nutcases like mine, or is she extra odd?

A peaceful day

Well, if Noam was high yesterday, she was definitely low today. The poor little thing did get a fever. Still handled it much better than I handle fever.

She just talked a bit less and a bit less loud, didn't move as much as usual, didn't demand as much stimulation as normally, and slept more than a normal day.

To sum it up, home was a bit more peaceful than usual.

A mix up at the pediatrician's?

Noam got her second set of vaccinations today. Many kids get a bit sad and ill for a day or two. Not Noam.

I'm suspecting that the nurse injected her with the wrong stuff. Because for the rest of the day Noam behaved like a happy pill with a sugar rush.

I hope she doesn't start demanding to go to the pediatrician's to get high.

Eating porridge with Aunty Frida

This is what Noam looks like when Aunty Frida is feeding her.

My husband the fashion victim

I've realised that my husband is way more concerned about Noam's dressing than I thought.

The other day I dressed Noam in whatever I first could grab. Far from her nicest clothing, but comfortable and practical. I do not care much as my daughter is cute in whatever she wears.

I left home to do some things in town and an hour later I met up with Noam, my husband and a friend of ours at a café. Noam was then wearing something totally different.

"Did she crap on her clothing?" I asked my husband a bit discreet.

"No, I just wanted her to look cool" my husband replied.

And yesterday morning my husband dressed Noam in one of her few pinkish tops. Considering he hates pink I was a bit surprised, but I said nothing. Later, when we were going out, I realised what was going on:

"Maybe Noam should wear her All Stars today" my husband said.

Seems like my husband when he dressed Noam this morning planned her clothing to match her (still way too big) pink All Stars. That is heavy!

(On the picture above Noam is, of course, wearing her All Stars)

No longer for sale

Ok, I've decided to keep her after all. Because even though she drives me mad once in a while, she is just adorable most of the time. Don't you think?

Baby for sale

Does any one want to buy a, at the moment, grumpy child that spits from dawn til dusk. Anyone?

Christian indoctrination

When I was a kid, my favorite story was Disney's "The small one". The story is about a donkey, called "Small One", and his close relationship with a young boy. According to the boy's father "Small One" has to be sold because of old age. In the end "Small One" is sold to Joseph and Mary, to carry pregnant Mary to Bethlehem.

I watched the film this morning, for the first as a grown up. And I forced little Noam to watch it with me. The poor kid did not seem very impressed. Neither did her father.

"What kind if Christian propaganda are you brainwashing our daughter with?" he said.

"But it's a beautiful story" I said, while crying like crazy in the end of the film.

When hearing this story as a kid (had it on a cassette) I cried every time, and obviously nothing has changed. This as, in my world, carrying Jesus mother to Bethlehem doesn't seem as fun for the donkey, as playing with his dear friend, the boy.

I guess that's where I fail with my Christian indoctrination.

Too generous

I've been thinking. Maybe I'm a bit too generous publishing photos of Noam for free here on my blog, available for any Tom, DIck and Harry to watch.

I mean, Brad and Angelina got 90 millions SEK for the photos of their newborn babies. And as Noam obviously is cuter we should be able to get the double.

Right?

Poop - Noam's first word

What if the first word Noam will learn to say is "poop". Wouldn't be strange considering how often that word is being used around babies.

"Oh, you pooped again!"

"What is that smell, have you pooped?"

"That is a big poop!"

"Do you need to poop?"

"Strange that you haven't pooped today."

And it goes on and on and on...

Not my day

Not really my day today it seems.

Was sawing this morning. Well, maybe sawing is an overstatement. A button on my shorts was loose, and I fixed it with needle and thread. A few hours later, when I was sitting down with some friends, I felt something pinching me in my lower regions. After a while I put my hand in my shorts to find out what it was. It was a needle, hanging in a thread. I had just left it hanging there, hadn't cut the thread of after sawing this morning. How can someone be that distracted, dizzy, stupid, call it whatever you want.

Later, when I was boiling carrots and potatoes for Noam's pure, I totally forgot that I had something on the stove. When I finally remembered, the only thing left in the pot, was something black on the bottom. Hm, again, call it whatever you want.

Phase or schizophrenia?

My daughter is going through a phase right now. At least if you chose to believe a book that I've got. And I'm choosing to believe it. Because if it's not a phase, then it's probably schizophrenia. So a phase feels better.

Just had a bath on the photo above. Pretty obvious I guess.

Eight hours sleep, WITHOUT INTERRUPTION - luxury

People often ask mothers of infants if they get enough sleep. I've also gotten that question - many times. Funny how much people start caring about your sleeping patterns when you become a parent.

Anyway, I've always answered questions like that by saying that yes, I do get enough sleep, yes, Noam have been sleeping long nights since the start, and yes, she only wakes up to feed and then falls straight back to sleep again.

I've been lucky, I guess. But this morning, when I woke up after eight hours sleep without any interruption (as Noam slept all night), I still realized how much I've missed that. God it felt nice! I felt so alert and happy when I woke up. A true luxury that I had totally forgotten about during the last five months.

(Eight hours sleep, without interruption, means not waking up because of my husband watching TV or working until late, or waking up when he gets to bed, neither waking up from Noam lying in the bed farting and moving around like a helicopter, or waking up to feed).

A fun Sunday

Me to Noam with a cheery voice:

"While Dad is in the gym we will eat some sticky potato pure. And after we've cleaned that up we will fold yesterday's laundry. Then, when Dad returns, we will do some very late spring cleaning. Doesn't that sound great?!"

Still with a happy voice. I wonder if Noam managed to see through my fake happiness and excitement about those Sunday tasks.

Noam's first taste of solids - the movie

Well, I was planning on solely posting this film on the blog where I write things about Noam, but I thought I could post it here too.

Can it get much better?

Last night I decided to get serious. I took a couple of hours and compared all the kindergartens in the area where we live. This as Noam needs to be put in the cue.

The problem was, I thought, that I didn't really prefer any of them. I didn't think that any of them stood out. But I was wrong.

When comparing, I found that basically just next door there is a kindergarden that works a lot with gender issues and equality, a kindergarden that actually won the Stockholm Price of Equality in 2005. Can it get much better than that?!

Of course I had no problem deciding what Noam's (my) first choice of kindergarden is.

The second choice also seemed great as that is a kindergarden focusing on children using two languages, as Noam will be doing.

I must say I was happily surprised when I read about the different kindergartens. Many of them seem brilliant and made me feel pretty exited about Noam joining a kindergarden in the future. Can't of course be sure that theory and practice goes hand in hand, but I'm hoping for the best.