The boys get their blog names

Now that I've been writing a bit more regularly again I find it annoying to keep referring to my two boys as either "the preschooler" / "the eldest" and "the baby" / "the youngest" so, since I still don't want to use their real names here, I decided to come up with names I could use on this blog and that would be more or less accurate descriptions of them.

So please meet

Monsieur Sensible
(pronunciation and meaning in French, i.e. Mr. Sensitive in English)

M. Sensible is 3.5 years old, goes to (pre)school and won't be easily tricked. He's curious and sweet, but also a very sensitive boy. His balance can be easily disturbed if he's in a new situation, with foreign people, or if he's tired or not feeling well. He can wrap his mommy around his finger but also make her pull out her hair!

and

Monsieur Gourmand
(i.e. Mr. Glutton)

M. Gourmand is one year old and almost always in a good mood. He'll be smiling even when he's sick.  He likes to eat all the time and he'll eat everything! He'll only refuse food when he's really really sick or when his emerging teeth are causing him too much pain.

Winter Shed: Week One and Two

Kathy over at Bereaved and Blessed started a new blog hop called Winter Shed. Here's what she says about it: "This is a  support group/blog hop for those trying to be accountable for the positive changes we intend to make in our lives in 2013. Whether you are trying to shed weight, find more balance or let go of something else that is dragging you down in the New Year… We can do this — together! Once a week, on Fridays, from now until at least mid-March/Spring, I will check in and share how my week has gone in the key areas I am working on. My hope and intention is that knowing I have this self-imposed report card to file will motivate me to stay focused on my goals." The full back story can be found here.

I think this is a great idea, as there are many things that I'd like to improve or change, but that often don't get done because I'm not actively sharing it with anyone else. Of course as as I was behind with a number of blog posts that were either in drafts folder (whether on my blogger account or in my head), I failed to write my Winter Shed: Week One post on time, so here are week one and two combined.

As I commented on Kathy's original post, the general idea is to get out of what I call "mommy mode isolation" and try to pick up some of my former activities that have fallen by the wayside since the birth of my children (3.5 and 1 year ago).

These include:

1. Read more novels.
2. Follow the news more (including reading the New Yorker).
3. Pick up regular blogging again and start a series/hop on Cultural Differences.
4. Get my professional website up and running.
5. Find more clients / pursue more paid projects.
6. Start playing the cello again (I forgot to mention this in my comment to Kathy's post, but it's a very important one).

Now to report on how I did during week one and two:

1. Read more novels.

I have to give myself a zero here. I haven't read one letter of literature in the past two weeks. I'm halfway through a French novel (been in that state for the past six months or so), but I got turned off when the writer introduced himself in the story, however I do find that despite that the writing is good, so I'm a bit in limbo on whether to ditch it and start a new book or continue reading until the end.

2. Follow the news more.

Well... two days ago I read the newspaper that my husband had brought back from the plane and I listened to (Dutch) news during breakfast a few times this past week. But next week I want to have read at least one New Yorker article!

3. Pick up regular blogging again and start a series/hop on Cultural Differences.

I think I did pretty good here! I had some serious catch-up to do and wrote/finished four blog posts, not including this one, and one already scheduled for next week. My goal is to write and publish at least one blog post a week. Regarding the Cultural Differences series, there are many empty posts (but with topic ideas) in my drafts folder that I hope to fill in the coming weeks. I also commented on a few blogs, but can do better, because I haven't commented on any of the posts of the other December Perfect Moment Monday participants...

4. Get my professional website up and running.

Another zero... Hope to have a better report next week.

5. Find more clients / pursue more paid projects.

Today I followed up on a quote I delivered last month and I contacted a client to see if there might be any projects in the pipeline. So not much, but it's a start...

6. Start playing the cello again.

Another zero... I haven't played since our second son was born a year ago. I don't really know why, there are just always so many other things on my to-do list that I forget, or am too tired. I used to play in a piano trio with two neighbors, who are eager for me to pick that up again, but I recently got very frustrated with one of them over something else and he could drive me crazy too sometimes during rehearsals, so I'm not sure if I want to give up precious weekend time for that...

So... not such a great score. I can say I have an excuse because our youngest son was sick with the stomach flu for a few days, but I know I can do better. Tune in next Friday to see if I can stick to my goals!

Good intentions

I feel like this blog is getting into the same category as my New Yorker subscription. I still have it, but don't have/take time for it, so the rational thing to do would be to close it down/not renew my subscription. But doing that would mean (at least to me) to me I'm stuck in my own little mommy-world. No more connections to my bloggy friends, no more insights into the world's news. And I say to myself that not having time is actually a lame excuse. Because apparently I have a lot of time browsing aimlessly around the internet. And it seems it wouldn't be so hard to say 'I write a blog post each Tuesday, I read the New Yorker on Mondays and Fridays' or something along those lines. So maybe I should just do that. Because even when a kid is sick, and I have to cancel my shopping spree (sale has officially started yesterday - yes, here in France the government decides when the sale starts and ends, ha!) or lunch with friends (that I already had to cancel last time because of a strike at the school restaurant), these are things I can do when said kid is asleep. I just have to decide not to take a nap myself... So watch this space, something might be happening on Tuesday (or whatever day I decide to write a blog post - at least this is it for now, because said kid just woke up)!

Trying to get out of the mud

I'm hesitant to start writing again. It's been such a long time... I've been reading all the blogs I follow, but mostly on my phone, and even though many times I'm thinking I should write a comment, it only rarely happened. I thought I would have more me-time once our oldest would start preschool and the baby would go to the sitter. That I would go out and find new work projects. But there was so much to unclutter first - the apartment, the admin, but especially my head... (I started playing Su.doku again, does that make any sense...?)

Our toddler has changed into a preschooler. It's amazing how a child can grow in such a short period of time. He loves it. It also wears him out (he goes there four days a week, of which two days are full days including 'cantine' and the two other days he has lunch at home), so it's good that he can recharge his batteries during the 2-week school holidays that will start this weekend.

Routine has changed too. We now cannot linger around in the morning, the school doors close at 8:40... If I'm lucky, hubby can walk our son to school and then take the bus to work. But more often than not he's either on a business trip or has an early morning meeting, so I'm left to drop off both kids. I don't do this by car or public transport. I don't walk either. I'm Dutch, so I do this by bike. But Holland is flat, and where we live it's not. I cannot afford an electric bike, so you get the idea where I get my work-out from every day (oh, and yes, after three of four times I decided I don't need to bother taking a shower before I drop the kids off...). First it's downhill to school (with a portion uphill too - either at the very beginning or at the very end, depending on which route I take), then back uphill to the sitter (she's in the complete opposite direction of the school, but I didn't want to start searching for a new sitter again when I'm very satisfied with this one - but yeah, organization-wise it's not the greatest solution). Then relatively flat back home (and to the shower).

It looks like this:

The baby is changing a lot too. He's sitting up by himself, army crawling and slowly getting on hands and knees (he makes about three to four moves before he goes back to army crawling). He eats everything you give him (all still pretty much in the baby food area) and is wearing the clothes his brother wore when he had already celebrated his first birthday (the baby is exactly nine months today). He is showing some signs of separation anxiety, but still smiles at everything. But of course no-one can make him laugh like his brother can.

There are many blog posts brewing in my head. It is my intention to finally write them down and bring this blog back to live. One step taken. I'm slowly getting there, now getting some paid work in would be nice too. 

Summer

My two kids have been kicking my ass these past few weeks. I've composed many blog posts in my head but there was never a time when I had enough energy to turn them into something real.

So... I guess I'm resorting to some bullet points before I will write something eloquent again (which might not be before September).

The highlight:

• Celebrating the toddler's 3rd birthday at the beach. It was gorgeous weather and there were enough adults present that there was always someone to run after the toddler or cuddle with the baby, so mommy had a great relaxing day too. 

The good:

• Our three-week vacation in Holland. Better weather than predicted, bike fun with the kids and seeing the toddler fall in love with the sea.
• Meeting fellow blogger Valery
• Starting the baby on solids - and especially being able to go to the market and buy all the great summer fruits and veggies and turning them into baby food! So far he loves carrots, green beans, zucchini, peach, nectarine and apricots. 
• Switching from breast to bottle. After initial refusal (which made me a bit nervous, because he had taken the bottle occasionally before without problems and now that I wanted to start the switch he didn't want to anymore - but it only lasted a few days). Still nursing mornings and evenings but very briefly. Seems the baby's now getting frustrated with how much effort it takes to get something out of the breast, while the bottle is quickly gulped down.
• Apart from the teething episodes (see below), the baby is slowly starting to sleep longer stretches at night. 
• My sister and her family arriving in the area (and staying for a few weeks).

Edit: the switching from breast to bottle should actually be under its own header called 'bittersweet'. The switch is complete now. I'm happy it wasn't such a struggle as with our first one, but still have very mixed emotions about being done with it. 

The bad:

• Baby's tooth #1 and #2 breaking through. Lots of horrible screaming, especially at night. And I'm thinking #3 is on its way too, because he's still very fussy and refused to eat his veggies two days in a row.
• Toddler deciding a good way to get his mom's attention is to start wetting his pants again... (at the sitter's he is completely dry, all the time). I've started with reducing time he can watch videos on my phone, but I think I need to take more drastic measures - taking away his pacifier (yes, he still has one, ugh) might work better.
• Toddler being wide awake at 6:30 am, tugging at my arm and telling me to get up because it's light outside, after a night where the baby would have woken me up at least three times.
• General sleep deprivation - I just don't want to be this tired anymore.

While most of the French have now gone on summer holidays, we're staying here until the 21st, when we will go camping for ten days near the Mediterranean (giving the toddler some more sea/beach time). My sister will be in the area until the 17th. She has done a home-exchange with people in the area and that house has a pool, which is great. I'm a little nervous about the camping, with the baby still not sleeping through the night (how on earth am I going to give him a warm bottle in the middle of the night...? will the kids be able to take an afternoon nap in a tent? etc) but also looking forward to some real family time again.

I have this idea about doing a blog post series about cultural differences. Hope to start that sooner than later, but I won't promise anything...

Private blog for the little man

I finally got my act together and started a private blog with info and photos of our little man.

If you want in on it, please create a wordpress account and email it to lostintranslation73 [at] gmail [dot] com, together with some info about yourself (if you've never commented on my blog and I don't know you) and your blog URL, if you have one. If all's well, I will then grant you access and send you a link to the private blog.

As I'd like to keep this blog anonymous, please do not reference to it or to my user name here on the private blog!! Thanks!

Trying to multi-task