Wednesday 22 December 2010

For good measure

Les Noisy Ones. ;-)

Oof!

Whoa! As I read this back before hitting ‘publish’ I realise it is a loooong post. Apparently a lot going on these days. Don’t bother to read it all if you don’t feel like it. It’s just what has been going on in my little corner. :-)


The guy and I are getting tired now. The kiddies are 5 months and I have been working three days since October. I get up at six on Wednesday in order to get the kiddies (and me) ready to take them to daycare. We have several inches of snow now so I’m literally plowing the big baby carriage through the snow. At the end of the day we bring them to my parents’ house where they spend the night (and we SLEEP during ours) and my parents don’t need to get through traffic to get to us in the morning of Thursday when they babysit. The night’s sleep is great but on Thursday I end up missing the kiddies a lot so I am always happy to see them again on Thursday evening.

These past few days, maybe a week, have shown that the ladies are getting older. More specifically, their brains are making the connection between cause and effect that was not there before. On one hand, that is amazing and wonderful and all that. On the other hand, it means that they realise that they can manipulate situations with their behaviour. “If I do this, then that happens!” More specifically, the kiddies won’t go to sleep because calling out will bring papa and mama to their room to tuck them in again and that is such great fun! Argh. By the time one realises it is not working anymore, the other one hasn’t caught on yet and so they keep each other awake. And us. Plus the whole shebang is repeated at… (wait for it…) four in the morning. I am a lousy sleeper anyway so I have been living on about two hours a night for the past four or five days. I think I will collapse today somewhere halfway a project report. This morning, after two hours of calling and crying and screaming from two disgruntled young critters, it was time for me to get up anyway. I was not pleased with them.

That said: I only whinge and whine here because this is my place to whinge and whine. I don’t do this in real life. In real life I don’t like parents who bitch about how annoying their kids are with their sleeping and eating problems etc. That happens a lot! I notice that it is often expected of me as a new parent to complain to other parents. Like it is some kind of professional code among mothers to bitch and moan about how the children changed their lives and how they don’t behave sensibly etc. Only to close off the rant with “but you get so much in return you know?” Maybe, just maybe, they should put that in front of the whole monologue – it might change the whole thing.

Ahem.

Sleeping: a new policy is called for, methinks. Recently the guy and me have gotten used to responding to a kiddie’s cry in the night immediately, if only because it often happens that one wakes up the other. As described above, changing this policy is not easy because ignoring them does not bring about the desired effect yet. We’ll hang on and hope like hell it will get better. Also we have been trying to keep quiet in the evenings after putting them to bed but so far this only meant that they have been noisy themselves. We tried of course to be quiet so they would sleep but now we realised that maybe they are noisy because we are quiet – some time ago we would just talk, have the tv on, etc. and they would go to sleep. I don’t know if there is a direct correlation between these but we’re going to give that a try. The pudding for proof will be Christmas. We’re spending Christmas at my brother’s. We’re taking the kiddies and putting them to bed there. They have three kids who are usually noisy and very, um, active which is normal for kids aged 8, 6 and 3. I hope that will work out.

Hey, at least Lisa is eating again! For a while she refused anything more than 50 cc which is not nearly enough. Now she is eating 150 to 200 cc per feeding so that’s good. We learned that if she starts pulling the “nodontwannaeat!” thing again we’ll just wait it out. She’ll get back on.

Further news: as I said we have several inches of snow here in the Netherlands. Now for you folks in Canada and large parts of the US this may not be anything special but I can tell you that for us Dutchies it is. Big time. We usually have a kind of moderate weather with temperatures between 0 and 25 degrees C and rainy so a week of heavy snow and freezing too – it is remarkable. As a consequence society as we know it comes to a complete halt. Trains no longer go, traffic forms a big fat jam the size of a small country (oh wait, that would be our whole country…) and people are advised to stay indoors. It’s insane.

The snow brings more than chaos however. It brings a beauty that is sometimes literally breathtaking. I was working in the centre of Amsterdam on Friday when the heaviest snow came down. My office is close to Dam Square. It looks out over the old rooftops in the centre and towards the seventeenth century canals area. Church spires, tiled roofs, everything covered in a soft blanket of snow. When I stepped outside into the street which is usually messy and noisy and packed with tourists, everything was soft and quiet. There was ten inches of snow on everything, including bikes parked everywhere. I decided not to bet on trams anymore and walked home. On my way I passed the canals (now Unesco World Heritage) and part of the Jordaan area. Good gods, that was beautiful! Here is a picture of the Bloemgracht. :) What you don't see is the fire truck stuck on the other end of the canal, unable to tackle the bridge. I met three of those on my way.
So when I got home I was cold and exhausted from dragging my feet through the snow but also delighted with the place where I live. I dropped off my heavy backpack and headed out the door again to go pick up the kiddies from daycare. On my way out I ran into the boy next door who had walked home from school. He looked exactly the way I felt. I told him I had to go out to pick up the kiddies and jokingly invited him to join me – and he actually hesitated. He is a great kid and absolutely in love with the kiddies. He is thirteen or fourteen and in keeping with his age plays the ‘tough guy’ act but ask him to do anything with the kiddies and he melts and lights up at the same time. So sweet. He didn’t join me in the end. Poor kid deserved to curl up on the couch after a school day like that anyway.

So now I am at work, have a ton of stuff to do, and can’t be bothered. I need to do things but more than that I need sleep. Maybe what I really need is a bit of coffee, some banter with my friend Rob, and then kicking my ass into gear. I will now do just that.*

Thanks for listening. :)

*If anyone from works reads this: sue me! ;-) Why are you reading this now anyway? You should be working too!

Tuesday 14 December 2010

African Babes

It is now quite some time ago that I received a package from South Africa from a friend. In it were two beautiful little outfits for the kiddies, with fun colours and animals on them. I promised her I would make pictures but it took me too too long to do so. When I finally did get to making them, I didn't upload them for a while, then went and lost my camera for a months, etc. etc. blah blah. So these are pictures made on September 26 (!): Esmée on both of them because at the time Lisa was sleeping and I didn't want to wake her up.

Thank you A, you are absolutely wonderful! And so are the clothes. The kiddies are still wearing them although the pants are now a bit too short. Lisa is not growing as fast as her sis so she enjoys them a bit longer. Doesn't Es look marvellous as an African Babe? :-)


Sunday 12 December 2010

Thank you Abs for this wonderful video

I will certainly use the "Great job, here's your cookie" line the next opportunity I get.

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Just a little rant, please forgive me

Twins get you reactions from people. It happens. Apparently it is unusual enough to make people stop and stare, and come over and comment. Apart from endeared smiles, what I got a lot – and I mean A LOT! – is people telling me that it must be hard, twins.

This in me triggers a variety of responses. Let’s sum some up, in a random order.

1 – *Gee thanks! And how will this make me feel any better, please?* This is my reality and whinging and whining about it will not change it in any way. Besides: I do not wish to change anything about this situation. I like this situation. I wished and worked pretty hard for this, I am enjoying every single moment of it.

2 – *So?* It seems that this reaction is designed to serve no other purpose than to press upon me my serious misfortune of bearing twins instead of just one baby like sensible people do. I must be mad but I actually like having twins. I think it is really nice. If it means hard work then so be it.

3 – (This is a nasty one:) *If you think this is hard, then your single kid must be an absolute nightmare.* You see, twins is only hard if you think it will be hard. For me, I don’t know any better so for me, having twins is the same as ‘just’ having kids. From what I hear from pretty much all new parents, it is never ever ever like you’ll get a lot of sleep anyway. My kiddies are really sweet and I love them to bits. Sure they cry sometimes and sure I want to paste them behind the wallpaper sometimes but oh sweet lords and ladies: I will be the absolute last to complain. As should you be, shocked parent of only one, since you knew what you were getting yourself into. Or you should have known anyway before you decided to have kids.

4 - *Do I look like a wreck to you?* Seriously, do I? Because you are pretty much telling me that my body must be worn out now and my mind gone blunt. Guess what? My body is absolutely fine, I do whatever I like with it and I think it looks good too. At least I like to think of my mind as as sharp as ever. What do you think?

5 - *Did you even look at their little faces?* Do they remind you of hard work and suffering, or do they look like the faces of beautiful little miracles to you? Because they do to me, especially – but not only – when they smile. How can you look at my precious kiddies and think only of the hard work they cause?

And yet I smile and tell people that it’s okay. I treasure those instances when someone comes up to me and tells me “Congratulations, such beautiful babies, you are truly blessed”. “Thank you,” I tell them, “I think so too.”

Saturday 25 September 2010

Pink for grown-ups

I’m not a very girly girl. I’m no butch either but much of the girly stuff passes me by unappreciated. I can’t walk on heels all that well. I feel more comfortable in trousers than wearing a skirt. I choose green over pink any day. I don’t do frills. Etc.

That said.

Sneakers should be nice, not clunky. Trousers should fit, if possible showing that I have a nice behind and that my legs are not stumps. This summer I bought my first pink shirt in years and it looks okay. It has ribbons. (Funnily enough my mother, who for years has hoped both openly and secretly that I would show a little more girliness, didn’t like the colour on me much. It’s a strange old world.) The frills are still a no-go – except for a small thing for Japanese Hello Kitty phone straps, as long as they’re not pink.

Still, not overly girly.

Today I found myself in the Bijenkorf (Holland’s only real department store) and it was like a little trapdoor opened itself in me. It had been closed for quite some time, what with me being whale-sized for a large part of this year. I tried on shoes with heels as high as anything. I went to the lingerie department and looked at frilly (!) things. I looked at pretty jewelry, shiny stuff with beads. The only thing I skipped was the make-up department. I am pretty enough already. (Hah!)

Felt nice.
Me so womany.

Standing at the lingerie department, checking out some frilly cute bras, suddenly a man sidles up to where I’m standing. Juuust within my personal space he starts to check out the same bras. Not a likely-looking female partner in sight and something about him makes me move away. Is this how some men find girls: by approaching women who are looking at pretty underwear in the appropriate size? Ew.

Wednesday 22 September 2010

Alone

A very very short entry, not even worthy of the space it takes up. But it needs to be said.

Even though I have not been very 'hormonal' throughout my pregnancy or after and I'm pretty relaxed when it comes to people holding or taking care of my kiddies, I am now really sad that my kiddies are staying at their grandparents' house and I'm all alone. I haven't been away from them for more than three hours since they were born and now I won't see them for a whole night and most of tomorrow and that. just. sucks.

That's it. I'm sure I'll feel better. Tomorrow. When I'm holding them again.

Tuesday 21 September 2010

NaNo

It's weird but true: I'm already looking forward to November. November is NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. The 'Na' (National) is a bit silly because it is now all over the globe but the idea stays the same. Participants aim to write a 50,000 words novel within the 30 days of November. Everyone who makes it to 50,000 - regardless of quality or even coherence - is declared a 'Winner'. And yep! I was a winner last year. So proud.

The idea behind NaNo for me is to get into the habit of daily writing. In order to produce the daily wordcount one really needs to focus, accept any idea that comes into one's head, and most of all one needs to silence that creepy inner critic that usually smacks dead anything in the area of fiction writing one ever does.

Not that it needs to be fiction, by the way! People on NaNo write whatever they like, sometimes not even novels but essays or whatever else strikes their fancy. This is all hearsay from the participants themselves because you don't share the actual text of the 'novel' (or whatever else) online. All you do is enter the text you have every day and the wordcount shows up. Neat stats do the rest.

The NaNo provides participants with a drive, a goal, and a way to hold themselves accountable. At least that's how I use it. Besides: it's fun! It is incredible fun to laugh at that aforementioned critic and write down the most hideous excruciating toe-curling piece of word-crap imaginable and just don't care as long as you get the number of words required for the day. Let the story tell itself, introduce a new character here and there and when the going gets tough let something silly happen, or allow the characters to say the cheesiest things, or describe the meal they are having even if it has no relation at all to the story... It doesn't matter! All we need is 1,666 words a day. Huzzah!

Can't wait.

Monday 20 September 2010

Tough?

Twins get a lot of attention. Not individually and not necessarily from their parents but as a set and as a phenomenon they make heads turn wherever they go. People on the street will peer into the carriage and sometimes even start talking to me. I don’t mind being talked to by strangers; often it is quite pleasant, especially when it is other twins parents or when people are being nice.

But oh! some of the things people say.

Particularly strange are people who tell me that having and raising twins is hard. This started during my pregnancy. When I would tell people that I was expecting twins, very often they would tell me that I was going to have a hard time. How they knew this I have no idea because most of them were parents of singletons. Probably they had a hard time with those as well, I guess. Or they know people who know people with twins and they heard it was very hard. I really don't know.

After they came into the world, the whole twins situation became of course a lot more obvious. This just means that people often just leave out the ‘congratulations’ – something that was still done during pregnancy – and immediately launch into telling me that I must be having a hard time.

I must? Well I suppose so. Only because you’re telling me though.

For me, I really feel I am the absolute last to complain about this situation. My first association with twins, even now that I have taken care of them for full two months, is that they are an absolute joy. Sure things can be difficult and frustrating but by the sound of it this is true for pretty much all new parents, no matter how many kids in one go. And yes I often think how having ‘just’ one kid must be a breeze compared to this. Still, my first thought upon seeing them or seeing other twins: how amazingly wonderful! Lucky me.

Isn’t it strange how these things make it clear that people often do not stop to wonder what exactly they are saying or asking? Even if I were to have a hard time with the kiddies, does it really help me or contribute to my life if you tell me how tough it was for your daughter/neighbour/sister/yourself when they/you had twins? Don’t you think that if having twins were such a hellish endeavour, I would already know by now? Maybe I could use some support instead of nightmare stories? (Ergo: are you telling me this to be friendly or are you just using this as an opportunity to display your own – supposed – understanding?)

Another example would be the question some people asked during and even now after the pregnancy. I mean: “Was it a natural conception?” I know that since I am ‘already’ 35 years old and they are twins, people will wonder about this. And I really, honestly don’t mind this question from friends and people of whom I know care about me. (So don’t worry if you ever did!) Yet on the other hand, doesn’t it make you think that it may be a rather intimate question to ask someone? I mean, it’s not like I ask you how your kids were made.

“On a picknick table? Really?”

Monday 6 September 2010

The Pirate

For those of you who don't know this yet: I tend to have some strange hobbies. One of them is playing host to a plastic little pirate figurine by the name of Dread Pirate Gavroche (after a Misérables character apparently, never read it myself) who travelled across the North American mainland and the Atlantic Ocean all the way to Amsterdam to wreak havock on our shores. And other shores, since so far he has been to places as far away as South Africa (thanks to our good friend Rob), Cyprus (thank you Fiona) and Japan (... that would be me).

The Dread Pirate Gavroche has been hiding for a while these past months, making a brief appearance last February when he visited Budapest, but otherwise keeping a low profile. However now that he has found two new crew members, things may be looking up again for him.


To keep track of his adventures, the Dread Pirate Gavroche has his own blog: http://dreadpirategavroche.blogspot.com/. Be sure to visit now and then as he explores new lands and new civilizations and boldly goes where no little plastic pirate figurine has gone before!

Friday 3 September 2010

Life is unfair

Please note: Taking care of two kiddies takes time. It is a precious thing to be doing, and of course my girls are the most beautiful girls in the whole wide world so they are very much worth it, but the time it takes to care for them is kept away from other worthy endeavours such as writing. Therefore: my apologies for the gaps between blog entries. I didn’t mean for them to happen and I will try to keep up the frequency in the future but I can’t make any promises. Life is unfair.

First things first: the girls are fine. They are growing healthy and Рhopefully Рhappily. They have very distinctly different personalities which matches their different appearances: blonde Esm̩e en slightly darker-haired Lisa, but fair-skinned Lisa and red-faced Esm̩e. Esm̩e is the impatient one, going from deep sleep to indignant screams for food. Lisa is the slacker, first crying to be fed only to fall asleep half-way through the bottle. Life is unfair, for us parents.

There have been more births in my immediate surroundings and recently I have made two visits to meet their new babies. Both are now the proud mother of a daughter. Only one. And this brought me to a realisation the other day: that having twins, as well as being part of a twin, is definitely different than having or being ‘only’ one.

I only really noticed this when I saw the other mothers and their babies. All their attention was directed at the one child. Their whole world, centred around this one little creature. And this is clearly how nature intended it. These mothers are alert for every little whimper from their baby and cannot stand to let her cry for more than a few minutes, if even that.

My girls have had to share my and their papa’s attention from the day, the hour, the very second they were born. They need to wait for each other to finish eating, to have their nappy changed, to be comforted. Crying from a baby is a call for attention but for them their cry is not the only one sounding through the house. (As is emphatically shown here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEMezlyi6cw&feature=channel.)

At best they take turns in calling us, at worst they seem to vie for our attention at the same time and at the top of their lungs. They are becoming increasingly aware of the world around them and therefore also of each other. This means that when one cries loudly, the other will wake up and often join in. Separate rooms is only an option at times, usually they hear each other anyway. This proximity of the other, of your sister, is something inescapable for my kiddies. This will be clearer to them as the weeks and months progress and they become even more alert.

That they sometimes cry at the same time, are hungry at the same time, need their nappies changed at the same – it doesn’t change the fact that I can only take care of one kiddie at a certain time. I have yet to master the art of simultaneous nappy-changing, for example, and although it would be possible to feed them both their bottle at the same time (I tried it!) it is really uncomfortable for all of us. Better to feed, change, comfort one while the other one waits. And cries.

There is no helping it, my kiddies’ cries often go unanswered for some time unlike those of their singleton fellow babies. And that is what I realised today. It seems a little cruel but I guess the first pearl of wisdom my girls acquire in their lives is this: life is, indeed, unfair.

PS By the way, they are not always so unhappy as the video shows. Check this one out as well to see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40OUdkPYEVk. See? I’m not that bad as a mother. ;-)

Friday 13 August 2010

Oh my... What to say?

It has been quite a while since I last made an entry here. My only excuse is that I have been a little bit busy. My kiddies were born two days after I made the last post. Water broke actually the very night after I made that post, at two in the morning. The girls were not born until Sunday afternoon though. It took a while. And after that I have been busy mostly with taking care of the little ones, and resting, and eating, and breastfeeding, and phasing out on Facebook.

So far taking care of the little ones has been delightful. Of course there are moments of frustration and moreover exhaustion (never far away) but overall I absolutely love it. There is no other way of putting it: I am In Love.

However, to keep you updated: here are my past four weeks in pictures. All of these were taken with my iPhone and simply 'on the go snapshots'. (This also explains why not everyone who has held the kiddies so far is on here...)

Hope you like it. (If you do, feel free to leave a comment. I always wonder if people actually read this thing...)




Friday 16 July 2010

Dear postal service,

Thank you for delivering the stamps to our mailbox. They’re just what we ordered.


As a customer to your service I thought I’d give you some feedback or advice. Hope you don’t mind.

You are in the mail business. Delivering things to people’s mailboxes is your trade. It is therefore a little puzzling that getting an envelope with stamps in it to our house should take you THREE FULL BUSINESS DAYS! Just as a reference: if I order a t-shirt or other random item from another random online store, I usually have it in my hands by the following day. And their business would be t-shirts or other random items, not MAIL.

Just thought I’d mention it.

Best wishes,
Really Ninja

Saturday 10 July 2010

Let's try this out shall we?

Yes it seems that I may update this through my iPhone as well! It's a bit bothersome to type like this though so it'll be only for very short posts. :)

Thursday 1 July 2010

Elderblossom (Vlierbloesem)


A few years ago I was at the organic food shop and decided to try the elderblossom syrup. It was nice: not too sweet but sweet enough to tempt me. So I’ve been buying it ever since. A bottle goes a long way and I can adjust the taste (sweetness) to my mood. Perfect. Fed it to my parents as well as my little nephews and niece and everyone liked it.


Now what?

Just this weekend I read in the paper (Saturday’s-not-very-important-but-everyone-reads-it-all-the-same section) that on the terraces of Holland (particularly Amsterdam) it is all the rage to have a glass of elderblossom bubbles. With sparkling water or wodka or even champagne. It is said to be soooo refreshing, soooo different, and soooo hip ‘n happening.

What?

Yes, I was so ahead of my time, it’s unbelievable. I, Really Ninja, turned out to be so hip ‘n happening that I didn’t even notice it – which is the best kind of hip ‘n happening of course. Ahahahar! Who’d have thought? Usually it only happens because I refuse to let go of something for so long until it becomes hip again. For example: converse shoes.

So what does this elderblossom rage mean?

It means that Every. Single. Bottle. of elderblossom syrup in organic food shops around is sold out. Empty shelves. Big gaping holes where there used to be neat rows of bottles waiting for its rather peculiar specialist audience wanting to make its own soft drink. The shops were never out of of elderblossom syrup!

It must be the scourge of every avantgarde hip ‘n happening person: by the time everyone else catches on, you absolutely need to move on. How tiresome.

I bought grenadine instead this time. Will wait for the rage to blow over and buy some new elderblossom when everyone else is tired of it. Won’t be long, methinks. These things rarely last.

Friday 25 June 2010

Ah... in that case: update

It has appeared to me that some people use this site to see how me and the kiddies are doing these days. Ah. Well in that case: here's a little update.

We are doing fine.

Haha! Okay, more of an update perhaps:
We are doing absolutely fine. :)

We were at the hospital a week and a half ago where the ultrasounds (echos) showed that the kiddies were happily and healthily growing along. Their size is now about average or even a little over average compared to other kiddies, even singleton kiddies. Their weight was at the time about 2.2 kilos when 2 kilos is average. I'm talking 2.2 kilos each though and they are growing about 200 grams a week so by now they're about 2.5 kilos each making it 5 kilos for my poor old body to haul around.

That would make you think that I'm huge but actually, although I do resemble an elephant seal to some degree by now, I am not that big. When comparing myself to other preggers women, most of whom have 'only' one kiddie to carry, I am still relatively modestly expanded. (Will post picture at some point, I will.) That doesn't mean I am still fully mobile though. It is starting to take its toll and walking to the supermarket and back can be quite an excursion, on a bad day. Still, as long as I have and take all the time in the world, I'll be fine. Besides, biking is still easier than walking so I can get around better that way. Except climbing on the bike can be a nuisance because my belly is in the way.

The kiddies themselves are moving around a lot, especially by the end of the afternoon and into the evening. The movement varies from little plops similar to bumblebees flying into flower petals, to full-fledged migrations (or seemingly so) with what appear to be knees, shoulders and elbows, heads and sometimes maybe even spines travelling across my stomach like miniature continental shifts or tsunamis. Sometimes they rest for a little while and then it starts over again. It is quite funny. At least it tells me that everything is okay in there.

So currently I am at 34 weeks (out of 40) that means just about 8 months. My official due date is August 6 but with twins they're likely to be early. I certainly hope so because if they really grow 200 grams a week each... It is unlikely that my body is going to carry them to the full 40 weeks. The average for twins is at 37 weeks meaning that I still have about 3 weeks to go. And then I get to find out what it is like to be a mum for two little girls. Eek! :)

So that's it: today's update. Hopefully I'll be able to get back to making pictures etc. again soon. They're likely to be of things close by or even in my home for the time being because I'm not really going places at the moment but that's okay. The weather is good, the shops are close by if I need anything, there are people to help me if I need it, and overall life could be a whole lot worse.

Cheers!

Monday 14 June 2010

The Laundry Exercise

As of today I’m (not entirely) on leave. Officially. That means that I’m (not entirely) done with working and (not entirely) focusing on resting and the months to come.


Aw don’t tell me you noticed that ‘not entirely’ thingie there… Okay, I’m still finishing up some reports this week so I’m not entirely on leave yet. sigh

So anyway, leaving aside the ‘not entirely’, what does a person do when all of a sudden not working? Don’t know about you but I always end up doing laundry. Every holiday or vacation starts with the Laundry Exercise for me. Except this time I’m doing kiddie laundry; I’m washing all the stuff I bought for the kiddies as well as the things I got from other people. We’re talking clothes, sheets, bibs, everything.

And it turns out it’s a lot already.

This Wednesday I’ll be going to the shops with my mother and buying all the stuff I still need because apparently I need even more stuff than what I already have. It’s amazing.

And that new stuff will need washing too.

Then again, I though I’d get my washing machine into gear. It better get used to working long hours.

Sunday 13 June 2010

Bibs et al, part IV


From Ontario, Canada
From Croatia!
From Quebec, Canada
From California, US
From Finland
From California, US!

Monday 7 June 2010

Kitten

Last night I had a dream that one of the kiddies had been born already and that it was a kitten. This is why no. 2 had not been born yet because it takes longer for a human baby. (Duh! Dream logics.) It was really sweet and small and I carried it around in a little pouch on my belly. There was nothing strange about it at all. Only I kept thinking that we had to change the order for the baby carriage because we ordered a Duo for twins and obviously you don’t put a kitten in a baby carriage! (Duh!)


How strange our minds are. Well, mine is.

Monday 31 May 2010

The Next Generation


As I was refilling the paper drawer of the printer at work yesterday I noticed that the wrapping around the paper said "The Next Generation in Office Paper". My first thought: "I didn't know there was a first generation in office paper."
Seriously, that was my first thought. Of course there must have been earlier versions (or, if you prefer, 'generations') of office paper. All kinds. I guess I was a little thrown off by that phrase "The Next Generation".

As if office paper procreates and makes, nurtures and raises a whole new generation of young up-and-coming paper that faces this Brave New World with the wide-eyed expectations of Youth.
A paper that knows for sure it will never die.
A paper whose only fear is to grow old, like those who gave birth to it. Afraid to become obsolete just like generations before it, like the paper with holes in it for the fax machine or with last year's logo on it. Not this paper! This Next Generation in Office Paper knows it will Stand Tall and dodge adversity for years to come!

I almost felt sorry for sticking it in the printer and hitting the button that said "Proceed printing job".

Saturday 29 May 2010

Bibs et al, part III

From Scotland
These blankies were hand-knitted by someone in Baltimore, US. That is just SO sweet, I don't have the right words for it. Speechless. (The Croc & Bear are for show... they'll be the kiddies' guardian angels.)