Sunday morning blogging

I don't actually have much to write in this blog but I thought it was about time for another post.  Mat is back at work and working very long hours so Popsicle and I have had a lot of quality time together .. I've managed to keep her alive and (mostly) happy!  We got our first real smile out of her last night, which was very exciting.  

We haven't had any more catastrophic journeys in the last few weeks.  Poppy has been quite well behaved in public!  It's a different story at home but at least she puts on a happy contented face when we're out and about :)

I literally have nothing else to report so here's Poppy being cute.  I try not to bombard Facebook with pictures so I save them up for blog posts :)

Me and Pops being in love. We spend a lot of time like this.

SO TIRED.

Enjoying the sunshine in Canary Wharf!  We had about a week of beautiful sunny days in London.  It didn't last.  Yesterday I got off the bus early to walk home because I thought it was nice.. halfway home it started hailing!  British weather...

So stylish. And we're really good parents strapping her into the rocker... oops!

Me as a baby on top, Poppy on bottom.  She normally looks like Mat but when she's sleeping peacefully she looks like me :)

I think she has an overactive startle reflex because she often sleeps like this, with her hands straight up in the air. So cute.

Gazing out the window.  "Wow Mom look outside!"

CHUNK.

She's always so tired in the mornings from keeping me up all night.  It's hard work!

Smiles :)

<3

Lazy Sunday morning photos.  

Mat is so jealous of how in love me and Popsicle are :)

We're venturing into Canary Wharf today to do some shopping because Mat actually has a day off!  

The end.

Another Blog, Another Guest Author: the Sister Edition

Since Allie is busy being mommy these days, I (Auntie Katie) thought I'd take over the blogging duties for this week. It probably won't be as funny as Mom aka Grandma Caryl's blog but I will do my best. As my Christmas/birthday/Valentine's present, my loving husband paid for me to fly over and visit Allie and Mat and little Poppy (really I think he just couldn't think of anything else at the moment and needed an out).

First things first. Poppy is the cutest, sweetest and at the moment, poopiest baby girl in the world. Right now she's sleeping on Allie's chest, facing the ceiling with her mouth wide open. And quite possibly pooping again. She's starting to figure out the whole 'I have the power to manipulate my parents and make them do what I want' and she's only 5 weeks old! So proud! Allie has almost figured out that it's okay to let her cry for a few minutes at a time but I think she's just enjoying the time when Poppy will willingly let herself be held without trying to wiggle away.

As with any new parents, there is a learning curve. Like as soon as you put a new onesie on a baby, they will vomit silently in their swingy chair. Or you have to fasten both sides of the diaper in order to keep the pee on the inside and not all over the second brand new onesie you just put on the baby after they vomited on the first. And the best one of all... the new baby will be a cluster-feeding, cluster-pooping, crying mess right up until the point dad comes home from work and then they will fall asleep while he's holding them while mom looks on like 'Really?!'

As a first time visitor across the pond, I wasn't really sure what to expect so I just decided to not have any expectations. Allie will tell you that I am one of the most laid back tourists she's led around England, which is probably just code for 'Seriously just tell me what you want to see.' But having already had a baby myself and knowing how stressful it can be to bring a new infant out and about in the city, I didn't want to put too much stress on her or Poppy. And this is my vacation from the real world for a bit so if I want to sit in the flat with Allie and eat crumpets (which are amazing.... like a pancake and an english muffin had a baby smothered in jelly) and just stare at Poppy, then that's okay with me!

That's not to say that I didn't do any touristy stuff. One of the first recommendations from Grandma Caryl was to go to Borough Market and get this amazing grilled cheese on crack sandwich. That is truly the only way to describe it. Until you talk to my husband who said and I quote: 'You traveled halfway around the world to another country and the first thing you eat is a grilled cheese?' Yes. Yes it is. But he's just jealous because Borough Market sent my foodie senses off the chart. There were so many things that smelled amazing. I could have spent all my money in one day. Which brings me to my one piece of advice for traveling to London that both Grandma Caryl and I failed to realize would not happen.

Do not think you can come here and lose weight with all the walking you'll be doing.

That was my plan when I came over here and I'm pretty sure I've gained at least 5 pounds (and not the good money kind of pounds). Grandma Caryl said the same thing: 'I'm going to do so much walking... I'm sure to lose weight!' Neither of us took into account the sheer abundance of good food that just begs to be eaten. And you will eat it. You think you won't. But you will. My downfall started with fish and chips at the Folly and then a cupcake stop after St Paul's Cathedral. Anyone sensing a theme here?

Sunday was a whirlwind walking tour of the big sights. Mat had the day off so it was a family affair with everyone out. We started on the South Bank where Allie experienced, for the first time, the inability to take a good picture of either the London Eye or Big Ben because THE SUN WAS IN THE WAY!! Grandma Caryl goes to London, it's rainy and cloudy and windy. I come to London, it's sunny and warm. We managed to get a decent picture of Big Ben after crossing the bridge by Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. A leisurely stroll next to a park led us to Buckingham Palace and finally Trafalgar Square. The tour was only interrupted by a few Poppy feedings and one ice cream stop for Mat.

It was Monday morning that Allie realized the problem with commenting on how much Poppy slept and only woke up to eat and worrying that she was constipated. After Poppy woke up almost every hour starting at 1am, she then pooped 5 times and had 2 baths. Gotta love that learning curve. She'll never complain about not enough poop and too much sleep again!  Monday night ended with (surprise!) more good food at Jamie Oliver's Barbecoa. Poppy decided she wanted to eat with the grownups at the restaurant. 4 times. All the good food put us in near food comas!

Monday was my trek out on my own day to Westminster Abbey for the tour and the British Museum. I couldn't get into the Abbey because it was closed for an event which I later found out was my chance to catch a glimpse of the Queen. Yeah. Like Her Royal Majesty the Queen. If only I had been there two hours later!

I think this is long enough for one blog entry. The rest of what I could talk about is just more food we've eaten and at this point most of you are probably headed toward the fridge anyway. Poppy and Mat have gone off to dreamland and I'm sure the tired momma is not far behind. Good night from across the pond!

Tired Mom (or Mum) here - I have about 10 more minutes before my eyelids become too heavy to hold up so I'll quickly add some photos!  

First off, Mat and Poppy in dreamland:

They are so cute.  She loves him.

Katie and Bump with the London Eye. Note the blue sky!

Katie and Bump with St. Paul's Cathedral. 

Poppy helping Auntie Katie pick out nursery furniture/bedding.

Sleeping off another all-nighter.

So excited about dinner at Barbecoa!

That's all for photos tonight!

Someone else come visit me so I can have another guest blogger! :)

A post that's not as funny as Grandma Caryl's guest blogs..

I'm writing this blog when I should be napping. "Sleep when the baby sleeps!" they say.. but I'm not a good napper so I'm blogging instead :)

In this blog, I'm going to do a comparison of having a baby in London (with public transport) and having a baby in America (with a car).  Here is an example of an outing in London with a tiny baby:

This morning I got up 2 hours before I needed to leave after having approximately 2 hours of sleep last night.  Poppy was surprisingly cooperative this morning so I actually managed to shower and shove a crumpet in my mouth before we left.  Before we left, I fed her and she immediately projectile spit up all over the couch.  So now my smooth morning has turned into a frantic scramble to take the cover off the couch to wash it before running out the door. It gets so much worse....

I make it to my lunch meeting with my NCT group unscathed.  It's Shrove Tuesday - aka Pancake Day - so we all eat pancakes one-handed while feeding/holding our babies (it's really quite impressive!).  Poppy was happy and alert before we left so I thought I'd chance it and wait until we got home to feed her... MISTAKE, Allie, HUGE mistake.

We make it as far as Waterloo Station (approx. a 4 minute walk) before Poppy goes into complete meltdown mode - screaming, red-faced, lip-quivering meltdown.  I get on the train hoping the motion will calm her down but no dice.  So I get off at Southwark Station (one stop from Waterloo) with the intention of sitting on the platform and quickly feeding her before getting back on the train.  Since I'm breastfeeding, feeding her requires a chair or seat of some sort.  As adept as I am at breastfeeding, I haven't quite mastered the logistics of doing it standing up in public.  As I now know, Southwark Station has no seats or chairs of any kind ANYWHERE in the station.  So now I'm in panic mode and Poppy is absolutely inconsolable.  

Two very slow elevator rides out of the station later, we ended up in a pub outside the station.  I go in and try to find a seat.. the only seat available is literally on top of a heater.  So we do a quick, sweaty feed and head back to the station.  We make it as far as the platform before the little bugger loses it again - serious meltdown mode!  There's a train sitting there and I think "Wow what good luck! The train is here!".. get on the train only to realise there is a lady collapsed in the next car over so they're waiting for a paramedic.. which means we sit there for 10 minutes.  The entire time little Poppykins is absolutely wailing!  

Finally, the train starts moving and we make it back to Canada Water station (which is only 4 stops from Waterloo, where this journey started).  Poppy falls asleep and we walk the 15 minutes home with her getting mildly wet because I haven't figured out how to put the rain cover on the buggy yet.

Poppy pre-meltdown.  So deceptively peaceful.

Now... here's how this journey plays out in America with a car...

Leave lunch, Poppy cries, then I:

A. Drive home and then feed her. Everyone's happy.

...or

B. Pull over into a parking lot and feed her in the comfort and security of my own car, then drive home. Again, happiness all around.

SO MUCH LESS STRESSFUL. 

(p.s. I wrote the top half of this post on Tuesday and it's taken me 3 days to finish it.. I'm on Mom-time now)

Rant over.  

As she gets older, it does get less stressful to take her out in public.  And I'm getting better at manoeuvring the buggy aka stroller for all you Americans ;) on and off of public transportation.  

Now for the fun part - photos of my adorable child :)

So proud of herself after keeping me up all night..

Staring at Daddy and working on her neck muscles!

She was hungry...

LOOK AT THOSE CHEEKS!

Poppy is gaining weight like a champ - she's over 10 pounds now!

That's all. It's 1 pm and I haven't showered yet.  Katie (YES KATIE'S HERE!) and I are going to Borough Market to stuff our faces today - hopefully little Popsicle behaves herself!

Last guest blog from Grandma Caryl!

Finally made it back home.  Made it out of Minneapolis/St. Paul in spite of the crappy weather (although a couple hours later than expected) and rolled into the airport in Madison about midnight.  The Delta flight crew tried to inspire confidence starting with the gate agent making the boarding a free for all to get us on the plane quickly before the pilots could change their mind about taking off.  Then we got an explanation about de-icing procedures and had to be de-iced twice.  Not a very relaxing 38-minute flight!  But they got us on the ground safely (although the hardest landing I have ever experienced)!

I managed to say goodbye to Allie, Mat, and Poppy without too much awkward sobbing.  (Truth be told, I secretly cried at the thought of saying goodbye to Poppy about 5 seconds after she was born)!  I am definitely going back to my sneaking out in the middle of the night way of doing these goodbyes.  It has served me well in the past!  The wind on the walk to the train station was my excuse for the teary eyes after I left their flat (it, along with the rain, was also my excuse to not attempt to have good hair the entire time I was in London).  Couldn’t find any sad movies to watch on the flight, so my fellow passengers probably thought I was crazy when I was crying during ‘Bridesmaids’ and a couple ‘Parks and Rec’ episodes.

Poppy and I hung out a lot over the three weeks I was there.  We pulled a couple of all-nighters together watching some late-night television…some of it good (‘To Kill a Mockingbird’) and some of it that might give us both nightmares (the show where they find people with weird body problems – I don’t remember what it is called, but people have some really gross things going on with their bodies)!  Although we did decide we could endure a couple more episodes of that as long as we didn’t have to watch any more Olympic curling!  I taught Poppy ‘the wave’ (see photo below).  It was a little awkward doing it during curling, but she will at least be prepared for the day when Grandpa Randy takes her to a Packer game!

We also talked in the wee hours about how the training of her parents is going.  So far, we give them a grade of A-.  The minus comes from that time they wheeled her around Soho with the vomit on her chin going unnoticed for what seemed to Poppy like hours (probably only 30 seconds in reality).  So embarrassing for our little Princess!  Also, they have been a little so-so on the whole dressing thing.  Some of her outfits have a little too much pattern mixing going on (striped socks, flowered shirt, etc).  We don’t know what they were thinking with that bird hat and the ‘Pope’ hat!  And it was Fashion Week in London for heaven’s sake!  Anyway, Poppy has decided to let them continue to be her parents.  She thinks they are showing signs of impending awesomeness : )

Had to learn a little bit of new terminology being an American Grandma of a half Brit…a nappy is a diaper, not baby talk for Grandma is tired and going to take a little ‘nappy’; a buggy is a stroller, not something the Amish cruise around London in; a dummie is a pacifier.  So when Allie said ‘is the dummie in the diaper (nappy) bag, I stopped myself from telling her that Mat was doing the best he can with being a new daddy, and of course he is not in the bag! Haha!

After boasting about being mistaken for a native Londoner in the last blog post, I was reminded that I still had a ways to go.  Someone asked me for directions again and I was not able to help them (I did have a pretty good guess, though, as to where the street was they were looking for), and a London bus on a rainy day reminded me that I do not know the protocol of standing way back from the curb when waiting to cross the road.  My hairspray, makeup, and all-weather jacket were no match for the full-frontal assault of water that came flying up from the puddle on street as the bus passed.  Hopefully, the ubiquitous cameras on the London streets captured that moment and you can all look forward to seeing it on YouTube at some point in the future.

Anyway, all good things must come to an end.  While it was hard leaving little Poppy, I am not sure Randy could have muddled on without me much longer.  I didn’t hear any reports of him wandering around the neighborhood in his pajamas in the middle of the day or anything, but why chance it!

Thanks for those few sunny days, London, and for making it so easy for me to get around on my solo journeys around the city.  I will miss you a little bit, but will miss the Horvath threesome about a thousand times more!

Allie here - I think I'm going to let Grandma Caryl do all the blogging because she's way funnier than I am!  Once again, I'm just here to add photos of my tiny human.  

Here's the above mentioned 'wave' photo.

And the above mentioned 'Pope hat' (seriously the cutest Pope ever).

Finally, we got our photos back from the photographer today.  I already knew Poppy was adorable but the photographer (magicrainbowphotography.com) did a great job capturing her adorableness!  Here are some of my favourites:

These photos are all adorable and amazing but you would not believe the amount of wee and poo that comes out of an 8 day-old baby with no diaper on during a 5 hour photo session!  Poo on Mat, on the wall, on the floor, on our bed and wee in my lap.  But look at her ridiculously long legs!  She doesn't fit into most of her tiny baby pants anymore - her little feet are smushed because she has her Dad's legs!

There are more super cute photos but I can't post all 75 of them.  Maybe next blog post.. which may not be for a while because I'll be busy keeping little Pops happy and fed (and trying to get more than a minuscule amount of sleep).  

The end!

Guest blog by Grandma Caryl!

Hello, Mates!

This is Grandma Caryl guest blogging for the new Mommy!  Whew!  It has been a whirlwind of activity since my arrival on Friday morning.  Allie collected me from the airport with a "Hey, Mom.  So I think I am in labor" (or 'labour' if you are British -- they use so many extra letters here!)  I replied with "Do I have time to take a shower?" (it was a long flight, okay!) and "Why are you here?" Turns out, I did have time to get myself smelling a little fresher, and her journey to the airport distracted her a bit from thinking she had to race to the hospital.

So, long story short (or not), she updated Mathew on her status throughout the day, he raced home at an appropriate pace, we all hung out for awhile then hopped in a taxi bound for St. Thomas's Hospital.  (Side note -- the taxi ride was super scary.  At one point the cabbie was playing chicken with an ambulance and I was wishing I had Allie's 'just in case my water breaks in the cab' absorbent mat in the front seat with me).  Luckily, I did not pee my pants and Allie's water did not break in the taxi.  I did want her to pour her bottled water on the back seat just to make the guy THINK she messed up his back seat.  Oddly enough, she just wasn't in the mood for retribution for the cabbie almost giving her mother heart failure.

We arrived at the hospital and she was put in a room with large windows and an ok view of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament  -- looked like we could almost reach out and touch them (Mat probably could with his fantastically long arms).  After Allie laid around twiddling her thumbs for a few hours (haha - she is never going to let me guest blog again), little Poppy Renee Horvath made her way into the world and, surprisingly, neither Mat nor I caused bodily harm to the midwife delivering her : ) Her bedside manner was not quite up to snuff in my book.

Mummy, Daddy, and Poppy went home on Saturday afternoon.  They don't let the new moms and babies hang out too long in the hospital, do they?! They do, however, send out midwives to check on baby and Mummy a couple times in their first week, which is nice.  So far the Horvath family has passed with flying colours (see that extra letter auto-correct added in 'colors'?!)

Since I am a dispensable member of this threesome caring for Poppy, I have been venturing out on my own now and again to do a little exploring.  I almost feel like a native Londoner -- I have an Oyster Card and keys to a flat in my pocket, I walk to the grocery store if it's not raining instead of taking a bus, I get annoyed at people who don't stand to the right on escalators, and three people have asked me for directions and I have been able to give them!  Geez, I have only been here a week!  (I did hail a bus from the wrong side of the street - but that has surprisingly only happened once in this land of everything being opposite)!  

I will now turn this blog I have pirated back to Poppy's mom for the posting of pictures!  Cheers!

The new Momma Keys here - I have nothing exciting or funny to add to this blog post but I do have some pictures of my adorable child. You're welcome :)

Poppy and I going out on our first walk!  She didn't even notice we'd left the house.

Hanging out on the quilt Grandma Caryl made her.

Sleeping with Daddy.  Just melts my heart.

She does this 95% of the time these days (at least one of us is sleeping!).. but seriously.. how cute is she?  We think she is the best thing since sliced bread and we spend most of our time just staring at her.

I have nothing else funny or clever to say because I'm too tired.

The end.

A very boring post with some awful photos.

I suppose it's time for another blog post.  I wish it was a "OMG WE HAD A BABY" blog post but it's not.  Instead it's a "look how horrible the chalkboard picture choices were this week" post.  There are some gems this week.

My personal favourites:

I have no explanation for this one.

"Mat take the picture so you can't see my chins. Should I smooth them down? Does that help?"

"I give up."

There were about 20 other photos and Mat was ready to kill me by the end of this photo shoot.  For his sanity and our relationship, I hope we don't have to do another one!

Not a lot else to report.  We finally have internet so I've been steadily catching up on TV shows on Netflix.  OH.. and I had my Masters graduation :) It was nice to finally get some recognition for all the hard work I've put in this past year (like that time I wrote a book).

Other than that, I've been doing a LOT of baking and cooking. My freezer is full of food so our little family doesn't starve when all we're doing is catching flying poos and feeding the tiny human.  And I've been doing a lot of walking, which has not resulted in labour but which has resulted in one very swollen ankle/foot.  Just one.

We made short ribs last night and Mat would like everyone to see his mise en place:

They were really yummy!

That is absolutely all I have to report.  We got a new vacuum cleaner so I'm off to do some cleaning!

Being British and moving house

I'm happy to report that my visa application was approved so I'm officially the spouse of a settled British person!  That means I'm practically British unless I want to vote or claim benefits from the government - I'm not British enough for those things.

We're all moved in to our apartment.  A huge thank you is in order for Mat's parents, Ollie and Uncle Steven for coming to help us move this past weekend. We couldn't have done it without you!  I was completely useless because it's hard to carry/move boxes and furniture when you're carrying around a growing baby in your stomach.  Plus Mat wouldn't let me do anything strenuous.  He didn't know that I was trying to go into labour early so I was lifting and moving things when he wasn't looking ;)  

We spent the weekend unpacking and organising our new house.  Poor Mat was exhausted! We have a lot more things than we realised so the organising bit took a long time.  For example - the bathroom:

I have big plans to keep this apartment much cleaner than the old one (you should've seen all the dust when we moved out.. yikes!).  I made myself a weekly cleaning chart.  Now that I'm on maternity leave I have lots of free time to do things like make cleaning charts and clean :)

We managed to build Baby's moses basket stand and put together his/her buggy yesterday so we're fully prepared.  Baby can make an appearance any time now!  Actually Baby should maybe wait until after Wednesday.  We have a scan on Wednesday to make sure Baby's head is down where Baby's head should be (the midwife couldn't tell at my last appointment).  If it's not, he/she can wait a few weeks and get into the right position before making an appearance!

I'm in the library using the internet because the absolute earliest the internet people could come to our house to install the wifi was the 24th of January (I called them on the 6th - ridiculous).  The library has free wifi but they've blocked Netflix! Why can't I come to the library and watch Netflix?!  What's your problem Southwark Council?!  And I'm trying to download an episode of a TV show on iTunes and it says it's going to take 5 hours. I realise these are ridiculous first world problems but I have so little going on in my life since I'm now on maternity leave and my visa and apartment are all sorted.  I didn't realise how much I used the internet until I didn't have it! Guess it's time to ween myself off a bit…

Finally, here's my belly.  Mat informed me yesterday that I'm also getting wider these days, not just growing straight out the front.  Men of the world - this is EXACTLY what your 8 and a half months pregnant wife wants to hear.

That's all!