It's a Blog...

Amy Brown

...how hard can it be to update once in a while? I don't know why I don't just do little updates often instead of trying to write huge big updates less frequently. I guess because what I want to write about doesn't want to come out in small chunks.

Here's a piecemeal breakdown of what's going on, to get caught up:

Delphine

Delphine is fourteen months old. In addition to two incisors on the top and four on the bottom, she has one molar, on the bottom, which has come in entirely out of sequence. It's rather charming, and allows her to chow down on all manner of things. She eats everything except peanuts, but she especially likes strawberries and tomatoes. Yesterday she learned how straws work, which will make sharing drinks with her easier, when we're out.

She took her first unsupported step today. She's been pushing her little pushy thing around for months now, but is still reluctant to walk without it. By the time she takes the plunge she will be pretty secure on her feet, though.

She loves to climb stairs, and when we go to the park she will often forgo the boring old slide in favour of just climbing up and down the stairs.

She babbles in her own little language. She makes declarative statements of varying length, often waving her hands or thumping the table for emphasis. I frequently feel like I am the idiot for not understanding her.

I'm trying to wean her a little more. We went a couple of days last week without nursing during the day, just at night. She doesn't really mind as long as I keep her distracted by other things. I'm also trying to teach her to go to sleep without nursing, with an eye to eventually being able to put her down (!) in a crib (!!) and have her sleep through a full nap or overnight. One day that will happen, right? Ergh.

Work

I've been looking at daycares with a mind to going to work part time, two or three days a week. So far I've seen the city-run daycare in the local school (institutional) and a private daycare (slick, expensive). I suspect we will end up going with the city daycare because they will let me and a friend buy a full-time spot and split it. But we'll look at some more options first.

I will probably work for my father-in-law at least for a while. If that doesn't pan out I have four other options I would like to explore:

  1. Construction: I am interested in working in construction, so I'd look for an entry-level position in the field.
  2. Temp Work: easy but I don't know how well it would work in terms of reliable part-time hours.
  3. Work with the city: I love Toronto and I'd love to be a part of the running of it, so I'd look for something at City Hall. Yes! I want to be a bureaucrat.
  4. Back at ANGOSS: I bet they would give me part time work if I wanted it.

It's comforting to have so many avenues to investigate.

Food

I'm doing a little better cracking 2K calories. In fact, Fitday says my two-week average is 1920. Not really where I want it to be, but not terrible. I'm thinking starting next week I'll cut my upper limit down to 1800 calories and really start working on that. (Right now I'm just eating whatever and entering it into Fitday, but not using Fitday to decide what I should eat.)

I weighed myself at my friend's house the other day and it claimed I was 197 lbs, which is 7 more than I used to be. I'm going to go with her scale is busted. Ironically, I had been feeling really slim and I only weighed myself because I thought it would come up low and I could feel all smug. Hah!

Life

Life is pretty good. We're a little short of money, in that we seem to eat away at our ING savings account every month -- we're running a deficit. If we only spent the money that we budget for each month we'd be alright, but we don't budget for broken vacuum cleaners and trips to Las Vegas. The dishwasher is also broken, and I don't know if we're going to replace it or what (everyone thinks it's pretty much beyond repair, and also it's ten years old). I also should visit my parents some time.

Other than the money thing I'm happy. We have some friends who just moved a few blocks away, and they have a little girl Delphine's ago, so I've been hanging out with them a lot which is good. I'm happier and happier with Delphine; she's so much more interesting as an almost-toddler than she was as a baby, so much so that I'm kind of dreading having another baby -- it takes a year before they get to this fun stage! Good thing they're so cute.

I'm excited about going back to work, and I've just decided this minute that when I'm working I will pay someone else to clean the house. There's no way I'm going to be away from Delphine for twenty hours a week and waste time vacuuming on top of that. I'd rather buy time with my baby than new clothes. Well. I'd really like to buy both, if I can manage it.

I think that's pretty much the big update. See you in another two months!