Discovering the world: wobbly squashy jelly

Everyone, thank you for your good wishes. The little girl is feeling better, though she still rather play with food than eat it.

Another sickness

On Monday night Cat was very eager to get to bed and just as I put her down she threw up. She did finally fall asleep after another quick bath, change of bedding and lots of rocking. But 40 minutes later she was awake and vomiting again. And that is how the next unpleasant 24 hours started destroying all my good intentions of writing about York, knitting or working. Poor thing couldn’t keep anything down except the tiniest amounts of water for most of yesterday. And she couldn’t understand that breastfeeding won’t necessary make her feel any better and therefore kept on signing for it. Being drenched in breast milk brought back some memories. Eventually what seemed to work was giving her some water and then breastfeeding about 30 minutes later. But once she got better breastfeeding became the greatest and easiest solution for her need for comfort, re-hydration and nourishment. She is on the mend and I got a tiny reminder to be grateful for our health and to appreciate the good days.

Talking progress

Naree, who is between jobs at the moment and therefore spends a lot of time with us, came to visit yesterday and Cat tried to say her name. We both thought it was super cute. Cat also says tickler for tickle-tickle while tickling mostly herself and occasionally others, iggl (or something similar) for Igglepiggle (yep, we are horrible In the Night Garden addicts. I very rarely watch TV myself and don’t feel comfortable with letting her watch it, but she loves this show and it gives me 30 incredibly wonderful minutes to make dinner or tidy up or do some work or just rest), мяу-мяу for cats and гав-гав for dogs. But Bah is still her word for everything, though she pronounces it differently depending on what she is trying to indicate.

Whinge

I don’t have anything new to show you as I caught a cold and been sick for over a week now. I tried to do some knitting, but had to undo most of it due to silly mistakes (like missing whole rows!). I feel tired and overstretched. My brain functions seem to be slowing down to a crawling place and some of the mistakes I’m making may indicate that my brain is actually asleep. I suspect that during last few days the rest of me should’ve spent more time in bed sleeping as well. Tomorrow we are going to York for a short break. On one hand I’m looking forward to the excitement of travel, on the other I would love to spend all tomorrow sleeping. We’ll be back on Sunday afternoon, but I still have to do 7 hours of work for this week so it will be a very long hard day for me.

Spring cleaning

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
If a job is worth doing it is worth doing well.
English proverbs

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From the beginning of setting up this blog I considered changing the layout to better reflect who I am. But worried about turning it into a confused jumbled mess I left it be. As our scheduled guests left, Clive and I moved into the guest bedroom hoping to get some peaceful uninterrupted sleep away from the babe. This move and the warm spring air brought the desire to spring clean our flat, my email archives, computer files and the blog. And serendipitously Rachael posted her tips for blog make-over.

Since trying to re-organize my files ended up in dead hard disk, I thought I’ll warn you that I’m finally ready to tackle updating the design of my blog – new header, different layout, more appropriate labels, that type of thing. So be warned and for the next few weeks tread around here with care.

The happiness of twirling

One of the ways to make Cat giggle was to twirl to the music and this week she learned to do it herself. And now she spins around with and without music, singing her own songs and smiling. Watching her delights me. I love every one of her giggles, smiles and fits of laughter as characteristically she has a serious thoughtful expression. Her smiles lead me to smile and my smiles encourage hers. With each passing day I understand her better and enjoy her more. The playfulness and interactions are becoming more natural and the smiles more plentiful. Let each day bring you some smiles as well.

Seven Facts

I’m usually a silent lurker, quietly admiring the clever writing, gorgeous photos and unique work. But on rare occasions I decide to show my appreciation of others’ blogs by commenting. Most of the time it goes unnoticed, but occasionally I get a new virtual friend or someone decides to tag me (but how could I resist to comment when Aunty Shabby is struggling with creating a baby blanket, while I myself started a blanket for Cat about 4 times before deciding that I don’t like the chosen patterns)

So here are seven random facts about me:
1. I’m uncomfortable with heights, staircases and confined spaces. Therefore I really dislike narrow spiral staircases, but still insist on climbing them to get to the top of cathedrals, castles, lighthouses, etc.
2. Though walking up and down the stairs at least twice a week while carrying a 5 kilo stroller with 10 kilo baby inside seem to be curing my stair-phobia.
3. I like to travel light, but accumulate possessions extremely fast.

This is a photo of me in the airport flying to Chicago in 2005 for one week and this is the entire luggage I had with me. A very nice lady at O’Hare airport stopped me with a reminder to collect my baggage and struggled to believe that I have only one tiny backpack.
4. The most peaceful moment I experienced was while sitting on the shore of Lake St. Clair listening to the tiny waves and watching sunset.
5. Next year I can celebrate living outside Russia for as long as I lived in there.
6. I don’t like heat and I don’t like snow, so London’s climate is perfect for me and I actually like London’s weather.
7. I think of Melbourne as my home, but I would love to live for few years in Chicago, Vienna, Edinburgh or Bright/Porepunka.

Here are the rules (copied from Aunty Shabby):
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

I’m going to bend them and not tag anyone, but if you want to, please play along.

Knitting progress

After few demonstrations from my mother and aimed with Debbie Bliss How to Knit book, I practiced knitting and purling.

Soon simple practice became boring and I tried to decide on a knitting project: I didn’t want to make yet another scarf (even though I have perfect yarn for one), wasn’t sure about the practicality of knitting a woollen pillowcase, toyed with the idea of knitting Cat a jumper or a blanket, looked at many fantastic patterns that are beyond my skill level and eventually ended up at Knitty. Mmm Knitty – so much loveliness. Since I wanted to do something super-easy I decided to knit a flower and ended up having to brave figuring out how to use four double-pointed needles. Now I know that there is a very good reason why beginners aren’t usually taught to knit in the round. I cursed my choice, was convinced that I need few more hands and contemplated how much more suitable crochet is for making flowers.
But I liked the look and feel of the final product and got one step closer to being able to knit socks and hats (though I’m still not convinced that someone who knows how to crochet should be making knitted flowers.)

And after having a break from knitting in a round I finally figured out what my first real knitting project should be. Here is a glimpse of work in progress.
P.S. Sorry about the horrid colours

is Spring really here?

“But Mother Bear,” said Alfie, “when will it be Spring?”
And Mother Bear, already half asleep, grunted, “When the sun is bright and the air is warm, then it will be Spring.”
“When will it be Spring” by Catherine Walters
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We had two wonderfully warm days here in London and I’m wondering if Spring is truly here or if this is just a short preview before the usual February cold snap. Nevertheless yesterday we went for a long walk in the park and enjoyed feeling warm, seeing all the new flowers and listening to bird songs.

Green bracelet for Anya

I used bead spinner to string the beads, so the actual making of the bracelet took almost no time. But once I finished crocheting it, I spend forever agonizing over how to do the closure and doing it took disproportionably long time. I’m not sure if I’ve done it correctly and how strong it is. Since I never done any beading previously I’m sadly lacking the most basic skills. I looked through all the available beading books in the local library and closely studied many of the beautiful jewellery creations on FLICKR, but I guess I’ll just have to try making few different things to get comfortable with various skills I need to create durable work.

The sorrow of my joy

When you are joyous, look deep into your heart and you shall find it is only that which has given you sorrow that is giving you joy.
When you are sorrowful, look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight.
Kahlil Gibran The Prophet

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My baby sister arrived today. She changed in the past year: somehow she is cooler, funkier, more confident, more beautiful and all grown-up. And I only have one tiny week to enjoy and to get accustomed to her newness.

New Laptop

All of the sudden I’m a proud owner of an Apple Mac. I never had one before; I never even used one before. I don’t know much about Macs, but I guess their advertising campaign works. It’s all about the Image: all cool artistic types have one and as wannabe artist I must own one as well. Now I just have to figure out how everything on it works.