belgianwaffle

Princess

Malingering and packing


Posted in: Ireland, Mr. Waffle, Princess, Travel

This morning my baby was in poor form. She had a cough. She pointed pitifully at the bathroom and said “malade”.  She wouldn’t eat her breakfast. She lay feebly in my lap muttering “sucky thumb”.  Alas, today was a busy day for the parent Waffles as it was our last day at work before heading off to Dublin. What to do?  We were saved by our cleaning lady who also babysits for us who arrived to clean and then agreed to childmind. Mercifully she was free for the afternoon as well. The Princess was delighted.  So delighted, in fact, that she hopped off my lap, where she had been reclining dolefully and into the arms of our babysitter.  I explained that I had to go to work.  She was blithely indifferent and waved me off with a “bye-bye Mummy, nice day” while hurrying to show our babysitter her latest acquisition – a book on a flying bunny.  When I got home she was jumping up and down on the spare bed. Well, at least she isn’t sick, I suppose.

I am blogging and I should be packing.  Packing for a Summer holiday in Ireland is such a challenge.  The weather forecast is rotten but
you never know, it might just, surprisingly, be fine.  Have packed shorts and woolly jumpers but feel that I will need more than this to
survive. Just said to Mr. Waffle “Do you think I need a coat?”  He replied, with feeling “You are visiting Ireland in July.  Are you mad?  Of course, you need a coat.” Maybe I’ve been away too long.

Comments
poggle

on 06 July 2005 at 10:35

Coat, bikini, fleece, brolly – and don’t forget the sherpas.

Locotes

on 06 July 2005 at 17:37

Just to confirm, weather’s been pathetic over the last week or so. Welcome home!!

jackdalton

on 06 July 2005 at 19:50

This coming week will be better. I’ll organise that.
And anyway, it never rains in The Stephens Green Centre or Liffey Valley, or Dundrom, or the ILAC…. 🙂

sus

on 11 July 2005 at 12:15

Well, I heard they had a heatwave yesterday…better bring the bikini too.

belgianwaffle

on 14 July 2005 at 20:45

Bobble, it was hot. Yes, Pog, reallly it was. Locotes, unbelievable eh? JD, warm, warm, warm. Sus,your source was correct. According to the national organ of record (the evening herald) Kilkenny was hotter than Rome, Madrid or Athens on Monday. Extraordinary.

poggle

on 15 July 2005 at 10:04

Kilkenny? I’ve been there, you know. Lovely castle. And I didn’t misbehave with a blue-eyed Celt at all. Not me, guv, no guv.

jackdalton

on 15 July 2005 at 17:03

Everyone’s been to Kilkenny at some point. Either physically or mataphysically.

belgianwaffle

on 16 July 2005 at 07:26

Pog, how intriguing. Was it very warm? Right as always, JD.

poggle

on 18 July 2005 at 10:57

Well …erm …. oh – you mean the weather? It wasn’t bad at all Waffley – and it was only March.
The Celt was very warm. Very warm indeed. Ahem.

belgianwaffle

on 18 July 2005 at 19:16

Pog, you lead such an exciting life…

poggle

on 20 July 2005 at 10:29

Yes … well …. just occasionally.
Ahem.

Language Regime


Posted in: Princess

Princess: Feck!
Me: Who says that sweetheart?
Princess (indignantly): Maman dit ça.

Look, I’m improving.

Comments
Mikeachim

on 29 June 2005 at 00:02

Good grief.
Or maybe she’s been watching Father Ted when you haven’t been looking.
🙂

jackdalton

on 29 June 2005 at 01:04

Wonderful! It’s the Locotes afeckt 🙂

Bobble

on 29 June 2005 at 11:23

Wonderful child.I was in your fair city last night Waffly, my flight from Stockholm was diverted to Brussels as all the London aiports were closed due to storms. Got home today about an hour ago on Eurostar… I declare Brussels as one of the hardest to sleep in airports ever. Zzzzzzzz…

poggle

on 29 June 2005 at 13:54

Sure it wasn’t ‘farque’? Sure?

Locotes

on 30 June 2005 at 11:13

I’m so proud…
*sniff*

belgianwaffle

on 01 July 2005 at 21:47

Kristin, hmmm….
Mike, that’s it, I knew it. Clever you.
JD, clearly.
Bobble, am awaiting full account with bated breath etc. Think Bxls airport is ok myself, but I suppose I’ve never tried to sleep there.
Pog, positive. No really.
Loc, rightly so!

Cough, cough


Posted in: Princess, Work

Last night I had to decamp to the spare room as my cough was keeping us both awake and, at least, once I left it was only keeping me awake. Alas, the Princess’s cough woke her up a number of times as well, so when I wasn’t keeping me awake, the Princess was. She awoke definitively at 6.15. We were all tired and cranky this morning. I felt that slightly dizzying exhaustion you get when you have a very small baby and you would give anything to go back to bed. This was a most unwelcome foretaste of what is to come in September.

Struggled into the creche. Largely stayed awake at work.
Picked her up a bit early to visit L and new baby F. They had a paddling pool and the girls played happily until I decided it was time to leave about 7.15. Things plummeted downhill from there until I tucked her up in bed still roaring hysterically at 8.10. She collapsed in exhaustion about 10 minutes later and I am about to do the same.

Rejoice, from tomorrow, the days get shorter.

Comments
Bobbleon 21 June 2005 at 23:36

When I move to Amsterdam I’ll come down and offer my babysitting services x

Mikeachimon 21 June 2005 at 23:37

Aw.
You are a saint.
Sleep well…..

Minkleberryon 22 June 2005 at 07:50

ouchy!

belgianwaffleon 25 June 2005 at 20:12

Oooh, JD, barley sugar, my favourite, you are kind.
Bobble, can’t wait.
Mike, dunno about that, but thanks for the thought.
Minks. Yes.

Home alone with her highness


Posted in: Princess

Despite the inauspicious beginning we had a really lovely
morning.  The weather was beautiful and she was so good. We went to the park together and she chatted away feeding me pretend food “tiens maman, du saumon et des pommes de terre, do you want a lollipop?”  One of the other mothers said “she speaks like a three year old” and my heart filled with unbearable smugness though it is unclear to me how this woman would know as her own child is only 20 months and she was certainly far too young to have any older children.

Then we then went for breakfast together (yeah, well, we had to try again after the earlier disaster). She spent her time between mouthfuls of yoghurt intermittently chatting to me and to her father (via her large green plastic mobile phone). It was a pity she wouldn’t actually talk to him on the real phone when he called this morning, but you can’t have everything. I could hear the people beside us talking about her and saying what a good child she was and how much fun it must be going out to eat with her. Let’s not push it here people, but still, all very gratifying. She was even good at mass which unprecedented event was noted by the kindly priest when he chatted to her on our departure.  I found this a little alarming as it clearly means he does notice her, ahem, slightly less
virtuous behaviour on other Sundays. He asked whether she had been baptised and I was able to set his mind at rest on this point.  Does he really think that I would take my two year old to mass every Sunday and chase her round the back of the church yet somehow not have got around to christening her? Humph.
When we got home, I found that I had two little black  handprints on my back from where the Princess had given me a hug in the sandpit after I had applied suncream. Otherwise I am sure I presented an immaculate appearance at breakfast and at mass. As I put her to bed for her nap, I decided to
apply some wisdom from Supernanny which was given to us by the publishing exec on her last visit (no hint intended, I am sure) and which I had been flicking through during the Liveaid extravaganza and told her that I had had a lovely morning and she had been really good. She seemed most pleased. I hope she will like as much the firm but fair “voice of authority” which I intend to try out next time she unloads her dinner on the floor.

Comments
Bobble

on 19 June 2005 at 20:14

Lovely images Waffly x

poggle

on 20 June 2005 at 11:22

The little black handprints sound kind of stylish …..

belgianwaffle

on 20 June 2005 at 16:22

Locotes, well we live in a flat so we’d actually have to put her outside the front door for a naughty step so that seems a bit extreme – we’ll see how we get on with the voice of authority.
Bobble, you are very kind and, quite clearly, half Italian.
Pog, no, truly, I promise you.

Fun, fun, fun


Posted in: Family, Princess

The publishing exec is over for the weekend.  The Princess is beside herself with glee. We have all snaffled a range of exciting books. It’s just marvellous. Let me tell you about the wonderful weekend she’s been having.

By the time the pub exec arrived at the station to greet her welcoming party on Friday, I was in a somewhat frazzled state for the following reasons:

1. My glasses had broken so every time I looked around to see what the Princess was doing, they went flying across the car.

2. Hop Hop has sealed his reputation for unreliability. He came unstuck at the creche.  He is filled with tiny marble like things and one of the other children had got some stuck up her
nose and given herself a nose bleed. In the back of the car, the Princess painstakingly unpicked the network of clips holding Hop Hop together and proceeded to eat them. Then she started on the marbles.  I stopped the car and took him, the marbles and the clips from her. Much wailing.

3. To deal with the Hop Hop problem, I gave her the Father’s Day present she had created to mind. She unwrapped it and
threw the mug around the car.

4. The station car park is really complicated.

5. I ran into a work contact at the station who insisted on chatting about work while the Princess clapped my hands together and ran round the station.

So then, when we got home the electricity had gone so we sent Mr. Waffle out for chips for dinner and spent the evening doing a jigsaw of the London underground by candlelight. I
think I may have mentioned before that I see these weekends in Brussels as a kind of calming retreat for the publishing exec.; when in London she and her film producer and ad exec housemates go to parties featuring famous people, it must make a nice change for her to do jigsaws. The rest of the weekend she spent entertaining the Princess, doing some mild shopping and cooking and cleaning for us. Her days began promptly at 7.30 with the Princess banging on her bedroom door looking for a story. She’s just gone off with her brother to get a video for this evening. You can really see why she loves her visits to Brussels. Ahem.

Meanwhile up to date illness report. The one mosquito in Belgium this Summer (it’s a bit chilly) has lodged in the Princess’s room and taken great chunks out of her little hands
which, in reaction, have swollen up like the Michelin man’s.  Oh
dear.

Comments
belgianwaffle

on 13 June 2005 at 17:01
(
Comment Modified) I have nothing other than that a famous glam cookery writer is very glam in the flesh but wears a lot of make up…hardly earth shattering.

Minkleberry

on 13 June 2005 at 17:23

Is it the childrens cookery writer? She also wears cakeloads of the stuff and her hair is made of wire wool.
*Minks then discovers that children’s cookery writer is best friend of Belg and blushes furiously*

belgianwaffle

on 14 June 2005 at 21:17

No, no, even more famous than children’s cookery writer…though is mother of a number of sprogs.

Minkleberry

on 15 June 2005 at 19:23

Ooooh oh oh oh. Yes, really? Does she smell?

belgianwaffle

on 15 June 2005 at 21:51

Well, not that was mentioned.

Still stalked by illness


Posted in: Princess, Twins, Work

Our poor baby girl was sick again Sunday afternoon. It was pathetic, she just lay in my arms between 5 and 8, when she wasn’t throwing up. She was too scared to leave the bathroom so we moved the bean bag in and sat there. She only raised the faintest glimmer of a smile for her father who put on the duvet cover and sang (something that has to be seen to be fully appreciated). Then she went to bed at 8, slept the night, woke up Monday morning full of beans, ate a full breakfast and played snap with me before departing for the creche in excellent form. Absolutely baffling. We dropped her off with some trepidation and instructions to call us at once, if she seemed even faintly miserable. Picked her up last night and she was in great form. Creche said she had an excellent day and her toilet training appears to be complete. Went to bed no problem. Woke up at 3.37. Got sick. Woke up at 5.08. Got sick. Woke up at 8.00. Got sick. She’s now sleeping in our bed a sad little scrap and Mr. Waffle and I have arranged our day thus: 8.00 he goes to work and picks up stuff; 10.30 he returns to us and I go into work and pick up stuff; 14.00, I return home with my papers and he scoots off.

It’s all very tiring for everyone.�

On the good news front, I had another scan yesterday morning. Would you say that the dominant twin is the one sitting on the other’s neck or the one that weighs a hefty 410grms as opposed to the little one that weighs 375? And, fascinatingly,the doctor suggests that I bring a video casette next time so that I can have a complete record in addition to the stills captured on diskette. Does this mean that I will have to tape over “Notting Hill”?

Comments

Minkleberry on 01 June 2005 at 18:36
(
Comment Modified) In the case of my husband and his twin, the dominant one was definitely the little ginger one who grew up to be a policeman and bodybuilder.
I married the other one.
Poor little sausage-I hope the sickness passes soon xx

belgianwaffle on 01 June 2005 at 19:09

Um, pog, thanks for sympathy. Like you I am confused on the dominant twin issue.
Minks, you are definitely going to have twins. Hah. Thanks for sympathy, she seems to be completely better now. Fingers crossed.  

Minkleberry on 01 June 2005 at 19:29

belgian- not this time round ;0)  

belgianwaffle on 04 June 2005 at 13:03

Aha, you’re coming out…