We walked to Holyrood Park today to watch the World Cross Country Championships. I really didn't have high expectations, as my last cross country meet was back in high school and I was running it. I absolutely hated running, and one season of x-country in high school was enough to make me loathe the sport for years. But, I wanted to get out and about and this WAS the championship, so the best runners in the world were there. Not that I keep up with this sort of thing, but one of the favorites was this guy from Ethiopia named Kenenisa Bekele.
Anyhow, we found a reasonably good place to watch the race from up on the hill. Just seeing all of the people around made me sort of excited. It was so official and everyone had their country's flags and colors. It almost made me want to have an American flag and cheer on our guys. But I settled for sitting in the grass and eating some cookies while watching near anorexic men run at lightning fast speeds for 12 kilometers (7.5 miles). But I digress.... I was all excited when the gun went off and the men started running. They had this ATV going alongside the front runners to get them on camera. There was this huge screen down below so we could sort of make out the runners.
Then about 5 minutes into the race, the commentator got all excited and started shouting "Oh no! Bekele's shoe has just fallen off!" Apparently another runner had clipped his foot and his shoe came ripping half off. So this guy had to completely take it off and then put it back on his foot after a few footsteps in the muddy (it was raining all morning) grass and then take off again. I can't believe how quickly he got it back on, because he wasn't even the last guy when he got up and started running again. I figured he'd be a goner at that point, no matter how good he was. Given how he had to run extra hard to catch up to the front of the pack again and one of his feet was muddy and wet inside his shoe, he would have had good reason to trail off a bit. But he kept going strong and eventually won the race! Can you believe that?Needless to say it was an exciting race. I'm eating my words a bit to have to say that.
Simon was running around and taking photos of the guys as they ran by down below where Marius and I were watching from. Here are some of his photos.
Oh, and speaking of running... Marius still has the runs, so I'll call the Dr tomorrow to see what they say. I'll also call our landlord because there's water dripping down from our bathroom ceiling! This is the second time it's happened....
Here's a little video of the race. Note the piper on the rocks.... No event in Scotland would be complete without a bag piper in the background or foreground.
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Saturday, 29 March 2008
Sicky poo baby
(Warning! Non-parents may be grossed out by the following blog!)
So, I was out to coffee with some other mummies and babies on Tuesday - my standard Tuesday lunch date. And all of a sudden I smelt something funny coming from Marius's direction. So, I gathered my nappy bag and the kid and went into the bathroom for what I thought would be a routine changing. But to my surprise the poop had shot out the backside of the nappy and all over his back and shirt! I haven't seen a blow-out like this since he was 6 months old! I hadn't even packed any extra clothes for the boy in my bag, since it's been ages since we've had to change clothes due to a nappy! Luckily I managed to salvage his outfit with only taking of his shirt and leaving the sweatshirt. Anyhow, that was the beginning.... All week we've had explosions and the poor boy has had one really bad nappy rash.
It didn't seem worth calling the Dr. though, and since we only have GP's here and no pediatricians, I didn't want to deal with some regular Dr. But today it's gotten a bit worse. I think it probably has something to do with Simon taking care of Marius all morning while I was volunteering at a nearly new sale for a charity I help out with. While, I may get chewed out for writing this... I think he let the boy fall asleep for an hour with a dirty nappy... Hence the super red butt I am now dealing with. Then he gave Marius left over mashed potatoes for lunch! The potatoes were a bit overly milky anyhow, and the boy is allergic to cow's milk. What in the world he was thinking I'll never know... But the poor boy's stomach has been purging itself from the bottom all day. Oh, I could just ring that daddy's neck sometimes!!!!
Well, to make matters worse, pedialyte does not exist in this country. So I tried making my own homemade sugar/salt concoction. I even blended a banana in it. But the boy refused to drink it. Thankfully Simon's mom is flying over on Monday, so I asked her to pick us up some pedialyte. Marius doesn't seem dehydrated or really bad, but it can't hurt.
So, any advise out there mommies on what to feed a 14 month old with diarrhea? I don't want to starve the poor kid, but I don't want to irritate his intestines any more. I gave him chicken/veggie soup for dinner with plain old white bread (I'd never buy white bread otherwise, but I didn't want to give him much fibre). I think I'll just give him bananas for breakfast and then try with the soup again for lunch and dinner. Part of me is wondering if he's allergic to soy milk, and it's just taken a month or two to manifest in his poops.... As we've switched to soy milk for him when he turned one. I think I'll buy rice milk and make the switch to see if that clears things up. Oh gosh, I hope he gets better soon. One or two days is fine, but 5 days is really starting to push it. I know I'd be calling the Dr. if it were me.
I can't remember who told me that when I had a kid, poop would be a routine topic of conversation for me and that I'd eventually go so far as to put a poopy diaper in my purse one day to show a Dr! I thought they were crazy! Yeah, well, I've been there and done that! And I'm still talking about poop all the time.
So here's some fun videos of the boy. You can see a little bit of his walking skills in the first one, but mostly it's just him making a mess.
Here's another one of the boy. He loves pulling all of the shampoo bottles into the tub and then he throws them out of the tub. We have started to end "bath time" when we throws the soaking wet washcloth out of the tub though. Because that just leads to a very wet bathroom mat and floor.
So, I was out to coffee with some other mummies and babies on Tuesday - my standard Tuesday lunch date. And all of a sudden I smelt something funny coming from Marius's direction. So, I gathered my nappy bag and the kid and went into the bathroom for what I thought would be a routine changing. But to my surprise the poop had shot out the backside of the nappy and all over his back and shirt! I haven't seen a blow-out like this since he was 6 months old! I hadn't even packed any extra clothes for the boy in my bag, since it's been ages since we've had to change clothes due to a nappy! Luckily I managed to salvage his outfit with only taking of his shirt and leaving the sweatshirt. Anyhow, that was the beginning.... All week we've had explosions and the poor boy has had one really bad nappy rash.
It didn't seem worth calling the Dr. though, and since we only have GP's here and no pediatricians, I didn't want to deal with some regular Dr. But today it's gotten a bit worse. I think it probably has something to do with Simon taking care of Marius all morning while I was volunteering at a nearly new sale for a charity I help out with. While, I may get chewed out for writing this... I think he let the boy fall asleep for an hour with a dirty nappy... Hence the super red butt I am now dealing with. Then he gave Marius left over mashed potatoes for lunch! The potatoes were a bit overly milky anyhow, and the boy is allergic to cow's milk. What in the world he was thinking I'll never know... But the poor boy's stomach has been purging itself from the bottom all day. Oh, I could just ring that daddy's neck sometimes!!!!
Well, to make matters worse, pedialyte does not exist in this country. So I tried making my own homemade sugar/salt concoction. I even blended a banana in it. But the boy refused to drink it. Thankfully Simon's mom is flying over on Monday, so I asked her to pick us up some pedialyte. Marius doesn't seem dehydrated or really bad, but it can't hurt.
So, any advise out there mommies on what to feed a 14 month old with diarrhea? I don't want to starve the poor kid, but I don't want to irritate his intestines any more. I gave him chicken/veggie soup for dinner with plain old white bread (I'd never buy white bread otherwise, but I didn't want to give him much fibre). I think I'll just give him bananas for breakfast and then try with the soup again for lunch and dinner. Part of me is wondering if he's allergic to soy milk, and it's just taken a month or two to manifest in his poops.... As we've switched to soy milk for him when he turned one. I think I'll buy rice milk and make the switch to see if that clears things up. Oh gosh, I hope he gets better soon. One or two days is fine, but 5 days is really starting to push it. I know I'd be calling the Dr. if it were me.
I can't remember who told me that when I had a kid, poop would be a routine topic of conversation for me and that I'd eventually go so far as to put a poopy diaper in my purse one day to show a Dr! I thought they were crazy! Yeah, well, I've been there and done that! And I'm still talking about poop all the time.
So here's some fun videos of the boy. You can see a little bit of his walking skills in the first one, but mostly it's just him making a mess.
Here's another one of the boy. He loves pulling all of the shampoo bottles into the tub and then he throws them out of the tub. We have started to end "bath time" when we throws the soaking wet washcloth out of the tub though. Because that just leads to a very wet bathroom mat and floor.
Monday, 24 March 2008
I'm in self pity mode today
I know, I know, it's been forever since I've blogged. I was hoping I would have some exciting news about the interview. But, since I today received the standard "although you have excellent experience, we have decided to hire someone else, blah, blah, blah..." email today. So, I guess now I don't have to scramble to find some day care for the boy. That is a good thing I guess, as the one I went to last week really didn't sit well with me. Basically there's only one or two that I have seen that I like, but neither have space right now. Which reminds me, I should at least put in my application for the waiting list for the day care I like near the new flat.
So, there really isn't any new news here. It's cold, but it's been cold since I got here in July, so that really isn't too surprising. It was snowing today as I walked to the library to return some overdue books. And I walked all that way just to find out that the library was closed. Apparently it's Easter Monday! Who knew the day after Easter was a holiday? We didn't do anything special for Easter this year. Marius is still too young to understand or to eat sweets. So he didn't have any of the good stuff. Plus it was too cold for an Easter egg hunt. We did go for a nice long drive though, and we'll go back for a picnic when it warms up a bit - meaning in August!
So, there really isn't any new news here. It's cold, but it's been cold since I got here in July, so that really isn't too surprising. It was snowing today as I walked to the library to return some overdue books. And I walked all that way just to find out that the library was closed. Apparently it's Easter Monday! Who knew the day after Easter was a holiday? We didn't do anything special for Easter this year. Marius is still too young to understand or to eat sweets. So he didn't have any of the good stuff. Plus it was too cold for an Easter egg hunt. We did go for a nice long drive though, and we'll go back for a picnic when it warms up a bit - meaning in August!
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Jobs and day care
I shouldn't jinx myself.... but I will. I had a job interview this week. It went pretty well I think. It was for a part time (17.5 hours per week) research job at the University of Edinburgh working on a ground source heat pump project in the political science department. It would be a non sciency type job, which actually suits me just fine. But, I'm not getting my hopes up, as they had a few jobs advertised, and they told me they had several people applying to several of the jobs - meaning they might hire one person to work on two part time jobs. So, apparently I'll hear something after Easter. I also have some other interesting part time job leads, so I'm quite content to just wait things out and see what else pops up.
The most nerve racking thing about going back to work, or thinking about going back to work, has been figuring out Marius's day care situation. So, we're moving from the south side of town to the north side of town in May/June but if I start working sooner than that, then I'll need to do a lot of commuting before we move as I want a day care near the new flat. That's a pain, but it's just logistical and I can deal with that. The hard part is that the day cares that I like, are full or at least partially full at the moment.... Meaning I either need to hold off on looking for a job, or I have to put Marius somewhere less than ideal (not an option!) until August when spaces will open up, or Simon will need to take some serious time off during the week days to help out and then work more on the weekends. I think the later will be what we'll do and hopefully squeeze one day a week of day care at the place we like (but that's all the time they have until August) that's across town from us at the moment. Then, after we move, we'll be much closer to the day care and then by August we can have Marius there 2 full days a week and Simon will just take one half day a week to look after the boy. I am super happy about that, as it actually means Marius gets more "daddy time" than he is getting now. But, I need to get a job first don't I? There are lots of unknowns and what ifs at the moment!
We had a lovely weekend. Yesterday we went up to County Fife just north of Edinburgh and across the Firth of Forth. It was a nice sunny, albeit cold, day. We made the most of it by going to a nice park/garden in Dunfermline. We've been there before and knew they had a green house, so regardless of the weather we'd be OK. Marius got to stretch his legs a bit in the greenhouse and was loving touching all of the plants. I think we could have a budding botanist on our hands. His grandfather would be so proud, as Simon's dad was a botanist/biochemist. After the gardens we decided to go to Aberdour Castle. It was really beautiful there, and the views of Edinburgh were amazing! You could totally make out the castle and Arthur's Seat on the skyline.
The most nerve racking thing about going back to work, or thinking about going back to work, has been figuring out Marius's day care situation. So, we're moving from the south side of town to the north side of town in May/June but if I start working sooner than that, then I'll need to do a lot of commuting before we move as I want a day care near the new flat. That's a pain, but it's just logistical and I can deal with that. The hard part is that the day cares that I like, are full or at least partially full at the moment.... Meaning I either need to hold off on looking for a job, or I have to put Marius somewhere less than ideal (not an option!) until August when spaces will open up, or Simon will need to take some serious time off during the week days to help out and then work more on the weekends. I think the later will be what we'll do and hopefully squeeze one day a week of day care at the place we like (but that's all the time they have until August) that's across town from us at the moment. Then, after we move, we'll be much closer to the day care and then by August we can have Marius there 2 full days a week and Simon will just take one half day a week to look after the boy. I am super happy about that, as it actually means Marius gets more "daddy time" than he is getting now. But, I need to get a job first don't I? There are lots of unknowns and what ifs at the moment!
We had a lovely weekend. Yesterday we went up to County Fife just north of Edinburgh and across the Firth of Forth. It was a nice sunny, albeit cold, day. We made the most of it by going to a nice park/garden in Dunfermline. We've been there before and knew they had a green house, so regardless of the weather we'd be OK. Marius got to stretch his legs a bit in the greenhouse and was loving touching all of the plants. I think we could have a budding botanist on our hands. His grandfather would be so proud, as Simon's dad was a botanist/biochemist. After the gardens we decided to go to Aberdour Castle. It was really beautiful there, and the views of Edinburgh were amazing! You could totally make out the castle and Arthur's Seat on the skyline.
Thursday, 6 March 2008
walking walking walking
So, I have a video of the little tyke walking around, but You Tube is down at the moment, so I'll have to try to upload a video later. While you wait, here are some cute shots of the boy and some scenic shots of St. Andrews. We had a bit of a boiler problem last week.... had it fixed, had it broken, then had it fixed again, only to have it break down again a day and a half later. What a pain, but it seems to be mostly fixed at the moment. Anyhow, Friday night it was on the fritz, so we went to St. Andrews to stay with a friend over the weekend as we would have frozen in our apartment. We had a really nice time there. The village is so quaint and charming. Simon and Singer (that's our friend) were working on geology stuff in the morning while Marius and I took a stroll through the castle and nearby cathedral and cemetery. All are in ruins now, but still very cool to look at.
Our flat paperwork seems mostly done for the moment. I think our loan stuff is mostly taken care of too, although we haven't yet signed anything.... I'll have to call our solicitor and mortgage broker to double check though. We'll move in May 16th! Yeah!!!! First thing we're going to do it peek under the carpets to see if there are floorboards underneath worth sanding. Then we'll rent a sander and go to town before we move the boy in. It'll be a lot of hard work, but hopefully worth it in the end.
Our flat paperwork seems mostly done for the moment. I think our loan stuff is mostly taken care of too, although we haven't yet signed anything.... I'll have to call our solicitor and mortgage broker to double check though. We'll move in May 16th! Yeah!!!! First thing we're going to do it peek under the carpets to see if there are floorboards underneath worth sanding. Then we'll rent a sander and go to town before we move the boy in. It'll be a lot of hard work, but hopefully worth it in the end.
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