belgianwaffle

Family

How we brought the bad weather from Ghent to Brussels


Posted in: Family

We went to Ghent this morning. It was a bright sunny morning at 8.00 and it is the last day of April, we dressed accordingly. Need I tell you that it bucketed down? Or that the Princess and I took a ride in an uncovered boat while Mr. Waffle strode the damp cobblestones with two chilled little boys? It was 7 degrees in Ghent this morning. Tomorrow is the first day of May. Global warming indeed.
In fact, it wasn’t as bad as that makes it sound. The Princess loved the boat trip. We heard about the 55 illegitimate children that Charles V left in Ghent. We saw a lot of ducks (always thrilling). The only difficulty was the woman in the front of the boat with the microphone “When will she stop TALKING, Mummy?” Mr. Waffle, as befits a man who took 3 small children to the doctor for injections while his wife was off on a “work trip”, was unfazed by the difficulty of trying to entertain seven month old twin boys in an unexpectedly cold and damp environment.

After the boat trip, we ran to the car in the pouring rain pushing our buggy cavalcade at speed over the cobblestones. Possibly in consequence, the double buggy appears to have expired. I’m trying to work in the phrase “I gallop’d, Mr. Waffle gallop’d, we gallop’d all three” into the text here, but it’s more difficult than you might imagine.

Oh and yes, it was fine in Brussels in the morning but the rain followed us back from Ghent and we spent the afternoon gazing dolefully out the rain battered windows.

Conversations with my Family


Posted in: Family, Siblings

My mother: Really?
Me: Yes, that wardrobe is surprisingly narrow, I’ve measured it.
My mother: Have you considered that you may want to open it?

My brother: So I was thinking that I might come and visit.
Me: That would be lovely.
Him: When does your holiday end?
Me: In April.
Him (in tones of deep shock): My God, you’re not even protesting anymore.*
Me: I’m too tired to protest.

*You will be aware that I am on maternity leave not on holidays.

Comments
kristin
(Homepage)
on 06 February 2006 at 15:57
holiday, pah.
Locotes
on 08 February 2006 at 15:32
Free holidays are great aren’t they?*backs away slowly for fear of getting a clatter*
belgianwaffle
on 15 February 2006 at 12:50
Duck!

Nemesis the Avenger


Posted in: Cork, Family, Ireland

A letter from my father:

“I was amused (not quite the right word) by your account of your troubles with people parking outside your garage today.   I remember your mother’Â’s story.  She found a car parked outside the gate when she wanted to go somewhere.  There had been a few similar episodes, and she lost her temper and telephoned the guards.  They sent a guard to investigate.

It appeared the car was registered to a woman in mid-Cork, some distance away, and she was telephoned and told to remove the obstruction.  The car was being driven by her daughter, who had business in [town], but she (the daughter) could not be found, so the registered owner had to make the trip into [our] road and remove the obstruction.  Revenge, satisfaction, removal of an obstacle… all very well, if one was not acquainted with the culprit.”


Posted in: Family, Middle Child, Princess, Twins, Youngest Child

The boys were christened. Rejoice. Mr. Waffle got two blankets from Marks and Spencer to serve as spotless garments. By the time we got to the church, one of them had been trailed in the mud. Alas.

The boys were very virtuous and slept and were therefore left in the hall. In fact the poor mites spent a lot of Christmas sleeping in halls.

As promised earlier, please admire photograph of me breastfeeding twins and maintaining a
semblance of decency. Yes, I know you were all desperate to see that.

The Princess eats eggs. My parents-in-law are the proud possessors of one egg cup.  One day it went missing.  My mother-in-law said, “Don’Â’t worry, you know what makes a great egg cup? A toilet roll”.”  She scurried off to the bathroom to get a roll of toilet paper. I said defiantly, ““I am not feeding my daughter an egg from a roll of toilet paper”.” ““But it’Â’s a fresh roll,”” she said.  The
Princess started to wail. I conceded defeat and gave her the egg from the roll of toilet paper.   It works perfectly.  I said to my mother-in-law, ““I’Â’m almost afraid to ask but how do you know this?””  ““Well,” she said “”when I was an air hostess in the 60s and we went to New York overnight, you would get a breakfast allowance. We wanted to save the money, so we would buy eggs and boil them in the hotel kettle and eat them from the roll of toilet paper.  That woman is determined to ruin my vision of the glamour of the glory days of aviation.

Comments

jackdalton

on 09 January 2006 at 11:13

All of life is, in a sense, about one of two blankets trailing in the mud. 😉
Lovely pics: I particularly like the one where Cha is sleeping among the wine bottles…

Friar Tuck

on 09 January 2006 at 16:07

After drinking all that wine, it is no wonder that they were snockered!
Great pics though. Your breastfeeding pic is even decent enough to be shown in America. It was surely a disappointment to the NSA folks, who, I am sure, have set a filter to find all references to ‘breastfeeding’ passing through the air.
Ha ha. Just kidding. I’m sure they are only looking for terrorists. No, really. I love America. I love G.W. Bush. Please don’t arrest me.

Diva

on 09 January 2006 at 16:49

Wow, haven’t they grown! They look smashing :o)

Lilo

on 10 January 2006 at 21:16

So THATs how you breastfeed two – I’ve always wondered – they’re very accommodating little chaps aren’t they?

belgianwaffle

on 11 January 2006 at 10:03

Lilo, yup, they are what is known as “good babies”.
Thanks Diva.
Friar Tuck, where have you gone? Why are you wearing an orange jump suit?
JD, profound.
Ta Norah.

dmts

on 11 January 2006 at 20:15

I love Friar Tuck. Perhaps this is the wrong thing to be saying about a man of the cloth and all that jazz and I may be going straight to hell, but I shall quote him come the day of being judged….

ali

(Homepage)

on 12 January 2006 at 01:54

you definitely are a wonderwoman! i have enough trouble breastfeeding one!!!!

belgianwaffle

on 12 January 2006 at 09:52

HJB, quite. I think he should start his own blog..
Ali, forget breast feeding, am deeply indebted to you for the info that Angelina Jolie is pregnant.

https://www.belgianwaffle.net/2006/01/500/

Relaxing trip to Ireland


Posted in: Family, Princess, Twins

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.

Comments

geepeemum

on 21 December 2005 at 15:46

Your fil sounds hilarious. Unless, I guess, one is feeling at all hormonal at the time. Make the most of the babysitting. We expect to hear of lots of glittering soirees…. 0
Sweetie(s) given ���

Minkleberry

on 21 December 2005 at 19:29

What a great blog- tonnes on action in there!
I’m a Medela electric woman all the way. All that handpumping gives me rsi. 0
Sweetie(s) given ���

kristin

(Homepage)

on 22 December 2005 at 04:20

giggling over the breastpump issues. i just found my old handpump (by the end, i liked it better than the medela electric because it was so much more portable). should you need a backup, i have a complete avent one, sterilized and in an adorably anonymous little spongebag. and of course you can share these things, lol, you’re right, once you’ve whipped out a tit in public, what’s a little boiled plastic between friends?? ���

Friar Tuck

on 22 December 2005 at 16:13

Thanks for keeping us abreast of these issues. ���

KateEvans

on 22 December 2005 at 18:53

I’ve found Avent hand pumps to be next to useless, but then my body is slightly reluctant when it comes to milk production. My New Year flight to visit friends will see me dragging along a heavy, bulky, much-bigger-than-a-breadbox electric pump, which doesn’t quite match flying with three children I grant you, but it’s the best I can do. Merry Christmas, waffle. 2
Sweetie(s) given ���

Lilo

on 25 December 2005 at 21:30

You forgave your fil for saying THAT2 (Sorry, I have questionmark problems these days).
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 0
Sweetie(s) given ���

beachhutman

on 31 December 2005 at 23:25

Oh, THOSE boys………. 0
Sweetie(s) given ���

belgianwaffle

on 09 January 2006 at 10:23

Gosh, there is a lot of knowledge about breastpumps out there… belated thanks for the sweeties KE. 0
Sweetie(s) given ���

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Christening


Posted in: Cork, Family, Ireland, Middle Child, Princess, Twins, Youngest Child

My sons will be baptised in Cork over Christmas thus ensuring for my mother a lifetime of retrieving ecclesiastical paperwork for her grandchildren.

We’re hoping to be more prepared than we were for the PrincessÂ’’s christening. We didn’Â’t know that you needed a candle.  When the crucial moment arrived, I hissed at my aunt, ““You’Â’re very religious, why didn’Â’t you tell us we needed a candle?””  ““I thought you knew”,” she hissed
back. Her highness was christened under a night light retrieved from a side altar. Your baptismal candle is supposed to enjoy further outings at your communion and confirmation.  That’Â’s probably why they donÂ’t use night lights. We knew that she needed a white garment alright and proudly produced a white cot blanket.  We were somewhat abashed to see that the little overachiever being christened at the same time as the Princess had an elaborate lacy number with her name embroidered on it.  It was probably vomit free too.

My religious aunt is to be godmother to Daniel. I phoned her the other day to confirm dates
and times and she told me tartly that she has purchased two christening candles. Now, who will buy lacy garments and embroider their names on them?

Comments

Manboobs

on 09 December 2005 at 15:22

Dirty Nappy; Clean Soul. Congratulations

Minkleberry

on 09 December 2005 at 19:13

Bobble, that’s such a relief- my poor Nanny has been so worried about mine and my sisters’ eternity in limbo.

Friar Tuck

on 09 December 2005 at 19:28

Minkle, only infants get a pass. Unless you are a precocious two year-old, your Nanny should continue worrying, not about Limbo, but worse!  But back to the baptismal garment, I know someone who makes their living selling handmade ones. It’s too late for flapjack and pancake, but I can put you in touch for any subsequent progeny.

kristin

(Homepage)

on 09 December 2005 at 23:06

My daughter was christened in a haze of high, high episcopalian incense, and my poor baptist mother still hasn’t recovered. She only stood the christening dress because lucy looked so adorable in it, but once the recitation of the saints started, she looked very pale. the event was particularly memorable because my sister’s hair caught fire from the candle she was holding during the procession to the font. the mom of the other baby who was being baptised that day offered to give us the videotape of kera on fire, for posterity. i think she was just jealous that lucy was such a cutie.

beachhutman

on 11 December 2005 at 10:36

If you think THAT’s a palaver, wait for first communions !

belgianwaffle

on 14 December 2005 at 09:13

Bob, Minks, MB, aren’t you glad that we have FT to sort these things out for us? FT, start your own blog in the new year or face dire consequences.
Kristin, that’s hilarious, superb story.
BHM, I know, I know.