For five minutes there on Sunday, all was sweetness and light. Mother-in-law had taken the Princess for a walk, Mr. Waffle was at the supermarket collecting essential supplies, father-in-law was running up a mountain and the boys were asleep. Then they woke up and we haven’t stopped since. The Princess has acquired a miserable cold and is spreading snot and gloom about the house. And we need to recruit our energies, we’re still recovering from the considerable trauma of flying with three children. A vignette: picture me running back to the plane with Daniel strapped to my chest while Mr. Waffle comforts herself and minds Michael. Guess who left doggy on the plane? You will be relieved to hear that I found him. As we left the airport, my loving spouse pointed out that we would have to do this every week for the next three weeks. We are psychologically preparing ourselves for Saturday’s flight to Cork.
Despite exhaustion, it is nice to be in Dublin with its extensive babysitting facilities. The in-laws are being very virtuous. I have forgiven my father-in-law for saying “Michael is the man for me, he’s very alert but the other fella, he may have his virtues, but to me he’s just a blob”.
The publishing exec jetted back to her family home from exotic London, looked at me and exclaimed in horror “My God, you look exhausted”. She continued in this vein for some time and then noticing my expression amended “Exhausted but, er, really well”. The pub exec is hovering on the brink of promotion whereupon she hopes to do more literary fiction. At the moment she is stuck in the slough of celebrity biographies and TV tie-ins. I suspect publishing may be the only field of endeavour where people would rather deal with less famous people. I foresee a falling off in the quality of her gossip.
I have taken to breastfeeding the boys in public (well, the presence of my parents-in-law) with a muslin square draped over my person for decency. You may assess the success of this from photos to be posted after Christmas (possibly).
So that I could ensure continued breastfeeding and a certain amount of socialising, I brought my breast pump from Brussels. Imagine my chagrin when I realised that I had forgotten one of the six component parts without which it is useless. Oh bitterness. I was recounting my woes on a visit to my friend D who is the mother of a very sweet 8 month old baby. Before we had children, we spoke of other things but now we only speak of baby related stuff or as D pointed out, we may start on other subjects but we are always distracted by fascinating things like breast pumps. And is it not fortunate that this is the case? Yes indeed, because of this and the stranglehold which the Avent corporation has on the breastpump market, she was able to lend me the relevant bit of breastpump from her spare one. The publishing exec asked in some horror whether this was the kind of thing you can share. What can I say, when you’ve breastfed twins in public, sharing bits of breastpumps is really not a problem.
on 21 December 2005 at 15:46
Sweetie(s) given ���
on 21 December 2005 at 19:29
I’m a Medela electric woman all the way. All that handpumping gives me rsi.
Sweetie(s) given ���
Friar Tuck
on 22 December 2005 at 16:13
on 22 December 2005 at 18:53
Sweetie(s) given ���
on 25 December 2005 at 21:30
As ever, I’m in utter admiration of your stamina. Very Merry Christmas to you and all your family – I hope the princess makes a speedy recovery and that you’re enjoying a couple of hours off x
Sweetie(s) given ���
on 31 December 2005 at 23:25
Sweetie(s) given ���
on 09 January 2006 at 10:23
Sweetie(s) given ���
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All Quiet on the Western Front
The other night the boys both slept at the same time. Mr. Waffle arrived downstairs and announced to me, “Our gums are silent”.
UndercoverCookie on 22 December 2005 at 10:53
haha, that is great. does he blog?
belgianwaffle on 09 January 2006 at 10:20
Pog, mmm…UC, nah, he relies on me to transmit his bons mots.
Leaving on a Jet Plane
Yes, indeed we are off to Ireland for Christmas this afternoon with our mountain of luggage, as yet unpacked. As it happens, I do know when I’ll be back again. We will return to the kingdom of the Belgians on January 4 and I expect updates, if any, to be few and far between until then. Pause here to laugh cruelly at the duration of American holidays as opposed to European ones.
In the interim, I wish you all a very happy Christmas and leave you with a Christmas photo. Note the look of fear on the boys faces.
Comments
poggle
on 17 December 2005 at 10:06
Note the evil smile on the face of the Princess … oooh dear.
kristin (Homepage) on 17 December 2005 at 12:17 I agree with pog — not only the fear on the boys’ face, but the gleeful mischievousness on the princess. have lovely hols, waffley.
Friar Tuck
on 17 December 2005 at 16:21
They do have that “deer in the headlights” look about them.
Lilo
on 18 December 2005 at 11:32
I think your boys look like they’re trying to keep very, very still.
Happy Christmas Ms Waffle x
jackdalton
on 18 December 2005 at 18:12
‘Now if I just knock these together…’ thought Princess. But then she realised there was a camera present. So she smiled her big smile and waited for a better, less camera-prone moment.
🙂
Have a Happy Christmas, ‘waf and co.
Minkleberry
on 19 December 2005 at 07:37
Those pregnancy hormones have really kicked in. This piccie’s got me wailing. So adoreable!
Bobble
on 21 December 2005 at 11:07
Have a fabulous natale all of you – hope my card arrived?!
belgianwaffle
on 09 January 2006 at 10:20
Thank you all very much – have been poor at replying to comments recently but all is now restored to normal…
Local News is the Best News
Dec 15
Cavan Crash – Interview Sgt Jim Greene
He is warning motorists to exercise extreme caution if driving in Co Cavan near Ballinea where more than 5,000 chickens escaped from a lorry following an accident. The chickens have begun to lay eggs.
Friar Tuck
on 17 December 2005 at 03:03
Sounds eggstremely dangerous.
QWERTY
“Unbelievable as it may now sound, that keyboard layout [QWERTY] was designed in 1873 as a
feat of anti-engineering. It employs a whole series of perverse tricks designed to force typists to type as slowly as possible, such as scattering the commonest letters over all keyboard rows and concentrating them on the left side (where right-handed people have to use
their weaker hand). The reason behind all of those seemingly counterproductive features is that the typewriters of 1873 jammed if adjacent keys were struck in quick succession, so that manufacturers had to slow down typists. When improvement in typewriters eliminated the problem of jamming, trials in 1932 with an efficiently laid-out keyboard showed that it would let us double our typing speed and reduce our typing effort by 95 percent. But QWERTY keyboards were solidly entrenched by then. The vested interests of hundreds of millions of QWERTY typists, typing teachers, typewriter and computer salespeople, and manufacturers have crushed all moves toward keyboard efficiency for over 60 years.”
Friar Tuck
on 16 December 2005 at 18:36
At one time, you could buy Dvorak computer keyboards, which arranged the keys in the (supposedly) most efficient layout. I have not seen them advertised in ages, however.
on 16 December 2005 at 19:49
Of such absurdities are our worlds constructed. Of course the French decided to use the AZERTY layout, which is actually no better at all for typing French, but makes the point that at least it is NOT ENGLISH, which is the main thing for the Anglophobe French. “Ordinateur Individuelle” forsooth!
Sweetie(s) given ???
Maitresse
(Homepage)
on 03 January 2006 at 18:54
Ha! I remember hearing something like that once. In my world, I have typed so much that I’ve rubbed all the letters off the keyboard of my iBook G4 since I got it in February 2004, so I no longer can tell where the letters actually are… I have to rely on the memory in my fingertips. One day I’ll get around to fixing it but for now it looks kind of cool to have a computer with a mostly blank keyboard!
on 09 January 2006 at 10:24
Very cool!
Any News from the Ould Sod?
I only ask because this appeared in the Irish Independent on December 8:
IARNROD Eireann could soon have some competition on the railways, from cross-border
trains, or until a proposed tunnel to Wales opens up.
I think that I may have been away for too long.