Friday, July 27

reijmerstok



cows and donkeys in the fields outside our window
apple orchards with farmers greeting us like an old friend
smalltalk with the owners of the only village shop (the village school still teaches sixty children)
picking summer flowers in the sloping fields
my child gazing, gazing at everything new with big and serious eyes
taking pictures of the wayside holy crosses at all the crossroads that we pass
baby babble from six in the morning, afternoon naps to take us through the rest of the day, and stargazing at night
walks in the blazing sun through fields of gold and with a beer in the pubs that we happen to pass
attempting our french buying cheese and fruit and macaroons at the belgian sunday morning market
walking, more walking through the sunny fields, growing freckles, eating cherries, marveling at the foreign beauty of this our country

Thursday, July 26

away we went



boyfriend and i like our holidays to be adventurous. and most of all, we like to walk a lot. what's more, we like to walk all day and for many days in a row, rain or shine. to sleep in a different bed each night and have breakfast under a different roof (or under a different sky) every morning. we only bring the bare necessities and off we go.
except for the same early mornings, things were altogether different this summer. we packed lots and lots of stuff, and we drove down to the south of our little country with our equally little imp. we stayed in the same place all week, did bitesize pieces of walking through the most beautiful countryside every single day and that was pretty much it. and it was lovely and wonderful and a time to remember for ever.

Wednesday, July 18

answers and questions



places like these make me feel alive. they make me understand mysteries that i normally struggle to unravel. they give me the energy and the effortless time to take better care of myself and my whirlwinds of thoughts. it even pays off to sit down for a minute and look at the pictures. to simply remember and feel what it is like. but then the questions come too. it seems to be how life goes. an endless array of answers and questions. difficult and beautiful.

Tuesday, July 17

food for the little ones



wonderful: a book about feeding small children based on vegetarianism and supportive of breastfeeding. new adventures have begun (and i cannot begin to explain how messy it can get: if the weather allows it, we put little imp in the garden with his high chair and veggies so we don't have to clean half the floor afterwards).

Saturday, July 14

milk for thought



on the days i work, i go home to pump two or three times. even though it will never become one of my favourite activities, it has given me one thing except milk for little imp: time to read and learn. i often sit with my laptop and read the stories of other mothers who are breastfeeding (useful and, in my case, good for production). and i - a true virgin mary enthusiast - discovered maria lactans, beautiful and often quite hilarious depictions of mary nursing her son. i have learned about the malpractices of nestlé, who cause terrible situations with their aggressive marketing techniques in countries where mothers cannot afford formula (i understand the boycott nestlé actions now). i have read about america's schizophrenic behaviour towards public breastfeeding and i now rest assured that nighttime feeding is completely normal, even at little imp's age.
all in all, i have learned a whole lot while sitting with this crazy little machine attached to my body.

Thursday, July 12

small empties



i decided to finally start using all those sample-sized products that i was saving for someday. my favourites were:

~ biotherm biosource total and instant cleansing micellar water ~ works easy and fast.
~ biotherm eau vitaminée refreshing mist ~ a bit too alcohol-scented, but very luxurious on the skin.
~ laboratoires filorga iso-age absolute rejuvenation day cream ~ gave the nice illusion of fighting the damage of all these too short nights.
~ weleda wild rose smoothing facial lotion ~ simple and natural.
~ the body shop buriti baby body butter ~ when i smell this now, it brings me straight back to the first week of little imp's life, when i used it both for him and myself.

Sunday, July 8

sunday sentimental



nine or ten months ago, i was sitting at the same table, stitching labels into all these tiny clothes. i couldn't for the life of me imagine how a few months from then, my very own baby child would be wearing these tiny clothes. now, my very own baby child has outgrown all of them. i am cutting the labels out again and returning them to the friend who lent them to us. goodbye to the tiny imp-stage...

Friday, July 6

millions



ah yes, supposedly it's quite usual to walk around with a brain stuffed with cotton wool half the time during that infamous first year of parenthood. i hate feeling like that though. i try to get rid of it by going to bed at nine, and little imp undoes it expertly by waking up for a drink three times a night. i try being active to get rid of it: mopping the living room floor fervently and working away in the garden. feels good but doesn't rid me of the cotton wool. i try ignoring it. works for only a few minutes at a time. if you enter mother young children tired in google, you get 186,000,000 results. ok, that does make me feel a bit better.

Thursday, July 5

pink chores



emptying the dishwasher surely makes me happy when i see these colours.

Sunday, July 1

notes to self



i thought about the subject of my previous post, realizing something funny. i happen to be the queen of to-do lists. i make one at work every day and i have them stuck to the fridge at home permanently. now i noticed that these to-do lists (at least the ones at home) have never been shorter. i love that (i always keep up some vague hope that they will be pristinely empty one day). of course i know why they are so short these days. you simply adjust your expectations of the amount of things you will ever be able to find the time for once there's a little imp in your life. the result is good though. it keeps me calmer. let's aim for a to-do list free fridge.