Witch

God what an awful day, and I get the feeling that the day is not yet over…
(WARNING: contains long nagging rant)

Last night Wolf woke me up quite a few times, thus leaving me really tired in the morning. I fed him, and then woke Bart, so he could take him. No go there: he was ill. Great. So I got up and played with Wolf, and then we took a bath together. Fun, but tiring. He played in his box a little, just enough to let me clean up the mess from the evening before and empty the dishwasher. Since he started demanding attention, I decided to go grocery shopping with him. Didn’t hurry, didn’t mind there was an awful crowd at 10.30h in the morning on a Saturday. I got his picture taken there, since I had a coupon for a free picture. Too bad his eyes were a little red from crying and being tired (he didn’t want to sleep) and he has mosquito bites on his face. Came home, hurriedly made his lunch (red beets with rice and beef) while he was in his chair crying. Fed him, and then Bart came down, feeling all faint and queasy. Started on lunch, but Bart wasn’t hungry, so I decided to leave that one till tonight and have something else instead. Luckily I brought two danish (Diksmuidse boterkoeken, dropen van de honing, yum) to go with the coffee, so we could have one of these each and have some bread or yoghurt or so.
When I finished feeding sprog, hanging up the laundry and cleaning the mess in the kitchen, I managed to get Wolf to sleep for like half an hour. Just the perfect moment to have my danish I’d been looking forward to, have a coffee and read the paper. Too bad Bart, ill as he was, thought I had had lunch already (like, when ???) and ate both pastries. No lunch here. Had a quick little waffle while folding up clean laundry and setting up stuff for the new cat. Since Wolf had started crying again after playing a bit more, I took him out in his buggy, so he wouldn’t bother Bart too much who had installed himself on the couch. Went to return a DVD Bart forgot to return, payed the fine, passed by the Oxfam store and got me a necklace, rice, two bracelets for my little cousins, and two cups, came home, fed Wolf his baby yoghurt, tried to make him sleep some more. No go, so no working in the garden for me in this beautiful weather. Played with him a bit, eventually put him in his bed where he kept crying for half an hour, cos I really needed a break. After that, I fed him upstairs in our bed, since Bart was sleeping on the couch. Wolf enjoyed the milk and was quite a happy little bugger after that, so we played, I made him laugh and laugh and laugh… till he choked on something, started coughing, and, while laying flat on his back, sprouted out a fountain of milk, yoghurt and beets. Looked like strawberry milkshake, smelled quite differently. It was all over his face, in his eyes, over the bed, on his clothes… So I sighed, picked him up and gave him another bath. Luckily now he sleeps. Changed the bed, put all the pink stuff in the washer already. Now need to take inside the laundry (hope it’s dry), feed the dog, fold more clothes, finish preparing that quiche I was making for lunch, ease that cat who hides under the guest bed, forget about the garden, try to make Bart feel better…

Maybe tonight I’ll start reading my paper. Yay.

Spent a most pleasant afternoon 🙂 Taught untill 1 PM, then left to meet up with Faust for lunch in this little Italian restaurant, had to wait for half an hour for my mom and gran to arrive there too (poor Faust, three generations of women of my family) and then we sat outside on the little terrace (she hadn’t planned on setting up the terrace, but since we nearly begged for it, she did it anyway :-)) and had our lunch in the sun. I treated everyone on dessert, which was gladly accepted, and then we parted our ways. Did some grocery shopping, passed by a good friend to talk a little and have coffee, and then went to collect my little treasure. PLayed a bit with him, fed him, changed him into his nighties, and put him to bed. So now I have some time all for myself (Bart is still out for coffee, his Friday ritual) and I must say I don’t mind.

Kinda hungry now. Must restrain from munching cookies, might take a sandwich already. Later on, Idol 2004 to watch, fun ! I did buy some Pringles to go with that, hehe, mindless entertainment. After that I will most probably fall asleep, pretty tired here.

*hugs all*

Had a most pleasant day today. The weather outside is downright glorious: bright blue sky, bright sun (but not the real hot middle-of-summer sun), gentle breeze, 26° Celcius… I taught some classes this morning, and I really enjoy being back at school. I started to feel numb at home, and no matter how much I love taking care of Wolf, I really need more than that. I missed the social contact, I missed teaching, I missed making a difference to a bunch of people, I missed feeling useful, and – no point denying – I missed the money.

It felt great to come home at noon too though. Bart was trying to feed Wolf, but the little one was struggling and crying. Until he saw me: I took over, he calmed down immediately, and ate all of his veggies. Good boy 🙂 Then we both sat outside in the shade: he was sitting on this playing blanket with a lot of toys, and I sat on a cushion, correcting stuff. It was so nice… At 6 PM Bart joined us and we went for a little walk along the canal with the dog. Weather was gorgeous 🙂
Wolf hardly slept today though, so after I had fed him, I put him to bed, and he didn’t even protest, he fell asleep right away.

Sweet little one 🙂

I am home all alone for the first time in 7 months, and I just LURRRRRRRRRRVE it !!

Gonna take an ice tea, the paper, and gonna sit outside in the sun and enjoy having no one around.

Wow. Feels good.

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There was no ice tea in the fridge and I couldn’t find the paper (Bart had taken it upstairs into his office, he has never done that before, and since he wasn’t home, I couldn’t ask), but still I enjoyed my precious little bit of freedom…

Yet I was very happy to see my little sprog again. He did very well at the day care 🙂

It’s strange… People kept telling me about maternal feelings, yet I could never even begin to conceive how much I’d love that little helpless creature. It’s a totally different love than the one I feel for Bart. Oddly enough our love has deepened a lot too, something I didn’t deem possible either.

Yesterday some guys came with a couple of tons of equipment and trucks and the like, planted a giant generator the size of our garage, and cut off the power in the entire block. After about an hour and a half power came back on, thanks to that terribly noisy generator right in front of our house, across the street. The power company had issued a warning that the power was going to be cut for half an hour.
Great ! We shut all windows, let down the shutters, closed all curtains, and still we could hear the roar of the generator throughout the house. Needless to say sleeping was just great. Ugh.

For today they had announced a power cutoff from 10 to 12 and 15 till 16. Since we have a webdesign company, that could be a bit of a problem, but hey, there always is stuff to be done without internet, and the laptops could take over for 2 hours. At 9.25 power went down. Hmmm. Half an hour early, so no coffee made yet, and Bart hadn’t transferred the data he was working on to his laptop. Great. At 12 I went outside and asked a guy how much longer it was going to take. “Oh, at least another couple of hours”. WTF ? I found my camping stove and heated Wolf’s veggies, so at least he could have a decent meal. We had bread. By that time both graphic designers had already left the house and sought other workplaces, since power was really needed. For us there wasn’t much to do: Bart slept a little, I embroidered. No PC, no cooking, no telephone, no babyphone, no lights to go to the bathroom, no Olympics on telly, no hot water. We couldn’t even do the chores, like washing up, ironing, mowing the lawn…
Finally the power came back on at 15.45 ! Bart is filing a complaint and asking for a compensation for lost work hours. If he had known beforehand, they would have moved for the day. Hmmm. Grrr.

Back is broken once more 🙁 I can’t pick up Wolf, let alone change him or give him a bath. I sure hope this will get better shortly, annoys the hell out of me. Confined to the couch once more, ugh. Luckily it’s weekend and Bart can take care of him. I wanted to start painting though, I don’t have much time left before school starts again.

Tomorrow we go to this picnic at Gwen’s parents’ place, a big big garden with pool and everything. Her son Leander turns 5, so I just picked up some color books etc. for him. Yep, managed to do grocery shopping with this back of mine, although I had to ask a guy to put the stuff in my car, couldn’t do it myself. Next Thursday my niece’s eldest daughter turns 4, so I have to go there for cake and later on food too. Yay, I go to children’s parties now ! Of course it’s just because hanging with the parents is so nice, cos Wolf is still too young to really enjoy it. He loves watching older children though. And I must admit, they never asked me to come as long as I wasn’t a mom myself.

Went out to buy a bed for Wolf today. I had lent one (and a lot of other baby stuff) from my best friend, whose son is 5 years old already. She was waiting for an adoption to come through though, they wanted a child between 1.5 and 3 years from South Africa. Thus she kept all stuff for 1.5 years and older, giving the rest to me. After nearly a year of waiting, they finally got word, and the baby is called Ernest, and 10 months old ! A lot younger than expected, but just as welcome.

For me this means returning a lot of stuff, most of which is not a problem at all, since I got a lot from my cousin too. The only thing that I didn’t have double, was the baby bed. I called around a little, but as my mom says: beds are not that expensive, and is used quite a long time. Moreover, if we want a second child… SO I went out and bought this beautiful dark iron baby bed, much more my style than all those wooden things. Me happy, and only a mere € 45 spent. 🙂

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Spent most of the day grocery shopping, and varnishing the cupboard I’m revamping.
Tomorrow I have a big dinner here at home: it’s my mother-in-law’s birthday, and she and Bart’s dad, brother and his girlfriend are coming over for elaborate lunch. Usually she would do the cooking, but she has too much on her mind (and nerves) these days, so I’m doing it instead. She didn’t feel up to doing it herself, and didn’t want to go to a fancy restaurant because of Wolf. When we offered, she seemed very relieved, but insisted that I would get it ordered and ready-made. I said yes, cos she wouldn’t take no for an answer, but I’m cooking the whole shebang myself. The menu:

* Champagne with cheese crackers, deep-fried cheese balls and apricot halves filled with a ricotta-chicken-cinnamon-honey mixture

* grilled scampi with honey, with a side salad

* Boursin soup (boursin being a French cheese with garlic)

* pheasant (which my dad shot) (rolled in bacon, stuffed with French cheese) with mushrooms, chicory and pommes pins

* tiramisu

* espresso/cappucino with home made coconut cake

Do you think this will suffise ?

Just had roleplay evening, and it went quite well, despite the fact that we were all nearly killed by two stupid zombies… It seems all we can roll are checks and fumbles, no normal rolls. Bizarre.

My eldest brother just called from this major festival, he and my kid brother are ‘dying at the Cure’ right now, and he called to let me hear a part of ‘Pictures of you’. Seen the Cure like 6 times now, even attended the Trilogy Concert, but still… My heart yearned, if it weren’t for Wolf…

I had too much juice and way too many marshmallows, feeling sick now. Bleh. Going to bed, gonna take the sprog along, hope he continues sleeping.

Feeling pretty blah now, and all because of my sweet little obnoxious one…
I had to go to school today, last day before two months of summer break, so I had asked Bart to feed Wolf. At 11 I could sneak away so I fed him myself, before going back. After the first reception, I sneaked away again to my old school, where I was invited to the reception too, since one of my old colleagues/friends was retiring. Felt so good to be back there, to see all those people, to feel loved and appreciated again by my colleagues. Anyway, the reception was followed by a barbecue, and they all invited me to stay (there was plenty of food anyway), and insisted when I declined at first. I phoned Bart, and he said it was ok, he would defrost some milk and bottlefeed the little one. Just as I was saying that I was having such a good time, enjoying myself and chatting away, my mobile rang: Bart practically begged me to come home cos Wolf refused his bottle. WTF ? He had a bottle twice before, and drank it without hesitating. So I drove home, reheated the bottle, but indeed, no go. I ended up breastfeeding him again, and feeling pretty blah, since it was no use going back. Hmmpfff. I really was having a good time…

Went to this weird event last night: a party in a highway tunnel 🙂

They upgraded a main road to a highway, and turned a crossroads into a decent intersection. This week was the grand opening of the intersection, so they turned the so far practically unused tunnel into this big party area. We had a big reception with a pleiad of small munchkies like scampi, goat cheese wrapped in bacon, etc etc. Then there was a walking dinner, and then this concert by a famous cover group. It was… unusual, but since tunnels are hardly designed to have great acoustics, we left at 23.00u cos of the noise.

All in all a special night, moreso since it was our first night out together without the baby. My brother and his gf came to babysit, and they enjoyed it, they said. Wolf did cry quite a bit though, but that is mostly due to his teething, I think.

My eldest brother just popped in too, with an orange T-shirt, flashy sunglasses and this big black curly wig: ready to go to the city parade 🙂 Last year there were 100.000 people, now they expect 350.000 cos Berlin doesn’t have a city parade anymore, and this is the last major one in Europe. I can hear the beats up here even 🙂