Add One Wheel

Adam loves baths. He loves watching, and catching, the water pouring into the bath. He loves being showered. He loves splashing.

Adam hates the pool.

o_O

So for a while now, trips to the pool have been annoying, to say the least. Emily loves being in the water, Adam will refuse to get in. How do I tear myself apart to be close to both of them, for safety reasons? It usually results in me dragging Adam in and having to endure however long of him moaning and screaming and trying to climb out.

But as we walked along the isles in Ace Hardware the other day, we spotted the holy grail of swimming gadgets. A baby swim seat... with a steering wheel.

I knew this was going to work.

He wouldn't come out of the water.

I have found the key to peaceful visits to the pool.

Our Summer

It feels strange to be writing here, like I've forgotten how. And in truth, maybe I have. Every day I've realised that each day that passes without an update makes it harder to do. If I'm honest, I haven't missed it. Not one bit. So I'm not back. At least I don't know whether I'm back or not. We'll see.

But in the meantime, while I'm here, here's what's been happening.

The House
We moved in and fell in love with the house all over again. We are so very happy here, it's almost impossible. It hasn't, however, been an entirely smooth journey. The list of things that have gone wrong is almost endless. Our brand new cooker hob didn't fit the granite cut-out, the fridge started leaking (and then mysteriously stopped), the oven only works when it fancies it, a new air conditioning unit worked for an hour and then stopped, our new water dispenser developed a leak while we were out (within two hours of it being installed) and flooded the kitchen - and there may be one or two things I'm missing.

And yet, we dealt with it all (mostly) with a smile on our face. That is how much we love being here.

Emily's and Adam's rooms are pretty much ready just waiting for final touches and then I will be taking photos and showing them off. I am incredibly pleased with how both rooms have turned out and both children visibly love them too.

Our bedroom and the living room still await furniture. You forget, after living in the UK and having everything in stock or available within a week, that waiting three months for a wardrobe or wall unit is normal here. And just like that, we become the numskulls who left it too late to order our furniture.

Seven Months
That is how long we have now been in Malta. It only occurred to me last night and came as something of a shock. We're adapting - and very well - but are coming to appreciate just how big a deal an international move is, even when it's back to the place you grew up. After seven years, it doesn't just come back naturally. We've been told it'll take a year and I'd have to agree. We're well on the way - there are no longer the daily comparisons and the pining for greener grass - but it's a long and sometimes bumpy road that needs to be travelled slowly.

Potty Training
I wish I didn't have to do this.

Shall I leave it at that? Says it all really, doesn't it? I hate it. It is the worst part of parenting there could possibly be. Worse than sleepless nights (ok maybe not that).

Then again, I say we're potty training but in reality I've done three (not consecutive) days of potty training, while living in denial and hoping it all magically happens on it's own to have me wake up one morning and find that Emily is comfortably in underpants and there is no need to have that bucket of water and Dettol handy.

We'll get there. Emily is a smart girl. So smart, she's bound to be picking up on my reluctance, so I need to get my act together and just do it.

I am only grateful to no longer have fitted carpets to deal with.

Weaning

This has begun. We are two days in - friends have been telling me to get cracking for weeks to be honest, but I have resisted. But after Adam sleeping 7pm to 7am for almost two months, him now waking up for not just one but TWO bottles a night is becoming something I can no longer ignore. He will be 5 months old next week, but he is the size of a 7 or 8 month old so that is probably quite a factor here. He is sitting up more or less unassisted, he sits comfortably in the high chair, he is quite clearly interested in what's on our plate and going into our mouths, and has on several occasions grabbed handfuls of my food while sat on my lap.

Like I said, I could no longer ignore it.

So I offered him a spoon dipped in baby porridge. He grabbed it and stuck it into his mouth and sucked off all the porridge and gave me the biggest grin I have ever seen on his little face. Later on, as I ate a banana, he reached out for it and pulled it towards his mouth and turned it into mush (which he then ate). Later there was a piece of potato. Today there was a baby biscuit and some pear puree. And every time it's like he's been handed the world. The boy likes food!

Summer
I thought to myself the other day, while watching Emily and Adam splash about in the pool, that this is exactly why we moved back. I remember last Summer, sitting on the sofa in the living room in Rochester during a heat wave, the point at which I knew we had to move back. This is Summer the way I know it. It's hot and sticky and on some days it's absolutely unbearable. But it's family and it's sun and water and bright colours and bathing costumes and wet hair almost every bedtime. It's so much raw happiness.

I had forgotten how much I love writing here. I guess maybe I am back after all.

PS: Don't forget to wear purple for Frannie tomorrow!

Kickstarting Summer

We've been planning this first swim of the year for weeks now. Every time we hoped it would happen, it was windy or one of us was unwell or something else cropped up that put an end to our plans. But last weekend - despite Emily's leaking nose which we are convinced is down to her very last milk teeth emerging - we went for it. By hook or by crook, we were going to get into that water.

It was still cold. But true to our word, we got in. Even Emily came in... for two minutes.

She then sat herself by the side of the pool and took it upon herself to keep David and myself well "hydrated".

There was a conversation that went like this.

Emily: *splashes me*
Me: *splashes her back*
Emily: NOOOOOO Mummy! Don't splash me!
Me: That's not very fair - you're splashing me, why can't I splash you too?
Emily: Noooo, I splash you, you don't splash me! *splashes me*
Me: *squeal*
Emily: It's OK Mummy, it's just water!

Little cow.

Adam slept through most of the fun. And when he did wake up we took mercy on him

and didn't subject him to the cold water... not just yet.

We'll be doing it all over again next weekend. Summer is officially here. 

Maltese Heat

I'll be lying if I said I hadn't hoped to come back to a rainy England after hot Malta. As high as the temperatures were - Maltese heat isn't impossible to deal with when most houses have air-conditioning and when you can jump into a pool or the sea if you feel too hot. Here, the houses just aren't equipped for the heat (Emily's had to move into the spare room this week) and my hayfever rages on, making it all very frustrating.

But then, when you can wash and dry four loads of laundry in a day, outdoors, and let the little ones splash around in paddling pools to cool down, have windows open all day (and night) long, and not need to do anything else in particular... well then's it's quite alright really.


I had 466 pictures to sort through after our holiday in Malta. And there were more to start with, but when with 3 days still to go, my memory card was full, I had to painstakingly go through them all and delete doubles or pictures that didn't seem great. I do take a lot of pictures of the same thing!

(And after doing that, I went online and ordered a larger memory card to be waiting for me when I got home.)

Here are my favourites from the holiday. Enjoy!

We did spend most of our time by the pool. There were no other motives behind this holiday: we wanted to chill. And that we did.

We had small gatherings of friends and family over, and some mornings we ventured out to the (air-conditioned) shopping centre for a change of scene.

David had a couple of boys nights out and I had a cinema and cocktails night with my girls (we watched Magic Mike - perfect girl's night out movie!). David and I had two date nights - more than we've had in months!

Emily loved all the attention, and she loved the water. But by day 2 or 3, when she realised we weren't going to let her "swim" alone (because she doesn't know how), she refused to get into the pool and took to having refreshing showers instead.

Best holiday in years!

Holidays!

We're just back from our holidays in Malta with beautiful, golden tans and big smiles on our faces. It was an excellent visit, mostly spent in the water with family and close friends. David and I even got two date nights (no, we didn't spend those in the water)! But more on the whole trip later - for now, here's little missy strutting her stuff.

Hope you're all enjoying the good weather if you're lucky enough to have it!

Eleven Days, Part 4

We'd initially booked an 8-day holiday. But when that was almost up, we decided we were having too much fun relaxing and since Emily had taken so well to the heat and the holiday in general, we should extend by a few days. So we did.

Return

And then all too soon, it was time to go home. And I had to pack. I hate packing. And when in Malta, we somehow end up with far more to take back up with us than we came down with (there's always the "oh yes, I meant to take that up with me five years ago" item...).

On the way down, we somehow managed to keep to our weight limit. Entirely unexpectedly, of course - I was sure we were a good 10kg overweight. But in the end, we stood at the check-in desk feeling like naughty teenagers, the numbers being added up, and we were at 50kg. Exactly our allowance: not a kilo more or a kilo less. We wouldn't have managed it better had we tried.

Considering, we were only 3 or 4kg overweight on the way back and the very kind check-in clerk let it go.

Also, note that Malta International Airport doesn't seem to have any restrictions on baby food. I didn't even need to taste the water in my flask this time round. (When one member of the security team pointed the flask out to her superviser, she got a pat on the back for spotting it on the x-ray machine and we were simply waved through.)

Air Malta, however, have no policy allowing families with children to board first, which is a little bit annoying when your baby is FAST ASLEEP and you know that having to board with the crowds will wake her up. This is something we intend to follow up on, however, as even Ryanair and Easyjet enforce this policy when flying out of Malta. Why not Air Malta?! A letter will be written!

Having said that, we were somewhat relieved to see that the policy is enforced for wheelchair users. We couldn't quite work out how that would otherwise work, not to mention it being entirely unfair.

So she woke up. Thus began the exhausting mental challenge of trying to (quietly) keep a 5-month old entertained while sitting down in a very tight space on an aircraft. It worked for all of four minutes.

Then I tried to give her some water for take-off and got screamed at (by her) as it was not milk. As previously mentioned, her feeds are somewhat predictable but this was completely unexpected. She'd drunk 7oz just 2 hours before! So we quickly threw together another feed and then she was happy.

Dinnertime on the plane involved David eating with two dinners on his tray while I entertained. He then held Emily high up over the trays while I quickly transferred the dinners onto my tray and he continued the entertainment while I ate.

We changed her nappy on our two open trays, with the small of her back over the gap.

I know we could have changed her in the loo, but there was something more fun about our way. Besides, I am the nappy changing queen. I can change a nappy quicker than you can say "she might pee everywhere" (she didn't), and I'm sure no one actually noticed.

And then, right on cue at her bedtime, she fell asleep in my arms, in a seat that was probably the only seat on the entire aircraft that was faulty and couldn't recline *shakes fist*.

An hour later, we landed and got off the plane and she woke up as the pushchair was unloaded and handed to us. And then there were the pretty ceiling lights again and she stared at them and at us with this huge silly grin on her face all the way to passport control.

We weren't worried, we knew she'd fall asleep in the car - and she did.

The next day, she was very obviously thrilled to be home. She seemed to be re-familiarising herself with every toy/piece of furniture/wall in the house with a huge amount of concentration all day.

We did very little else. She needed to catch up on sleep, I needed to catch up on laundry. It worked for us both.

I've got me a great baby.

Eleven Days, Part 3

We have learnt, in the 24 weeks since Emily joined us, that there is only an extent to which you can control life with a baby. Routine is important, but cannot be the be all and end all. Some fluidity is important too. When we tried to keep to a rigid routine, all that happened was that life became hell.

Routine

So instead we have a "pattern" which we keep in mind and attempt to keep to, for Emily's sake. We know that at the moment she naps approximately 3 times a day, one short nap in the morning, a good 2-hour (ish) one in the early afternoon, and sometimes another short one late afternoon. They ebb and flow, but the general pattern is always there. Her feeds are also somewhat predictable. Her bedtime is what we keep to with more determination. She bathes at about 6:30pm, and is asleep by 7pm. When this is not the case, it often results in a meltdown on her part which has her up and screaming until 11pm (something that we wish we'd recognised when she was 2 months old).

So while in Malta, we kept this in mind. Her naps did suffer slightly until she got accustomed to sleeping in her pushchair since we were out most of the day (she usually naps in her cot), but her bedtime remained sacred. More often than not, she was so exhausted from the bit of "swimming" she'd done, that had we wanted to keep her awake we'd not have been able to anyway!

She was asleep by 7pm every night. And on some nights, we transferred her from cot to pushchair (having seen how very deeply she sleeps at night!) and went out for a walk along the promenade with our parents, and there was ice cream to be had in that sweet summer, waterside breeze.



There were a few nights she even slept through. Again, I put it down to the huge amount of stimulation and activity she suddenly had added to her days. And she was loving it!

Eleven Days, Part 2

Our 11 days in Malta (our longest visit since we left 5 years ago!), was a hugely successful holiday. Our trips back usually involve us darting from one lunch date to another, followed by a couple dinner dates, allowing us very little swim or chill time, resulting in us needing a holiday once the "holiday" is over.

This time we were determined it would be different. Now that Emily is here, trips to Malta need to be mainly about her spending time with family and some very close friends. We did organise a generic "Meet Emily" party which was a huge success, but after that, our individual time was dedicated to family.

Swimming

We were lucky enough to have access to a private pool this time round, which also helped a huge deal. We were able to relax and enjoy the cool water in the hot sun while also enjoying family.

It was also to be Emily's first swimming experience. We weren't too sure what to expect as she has never quite been a fan of cool water. Her baths are nothing close to the recommended temperature... much, much warmer. I'd even go as far as to say hot.

So I wasn't too sure how well cold water would go down. But we were determined. She is Maltese after all, she can't not swim?! So we excitedly got her all dressed up in her full-body swimsuit, chuckled at how ridiculous and yet cute she looked, lathered her in sunblock, blew up her Zoggs ring, and pink fluffy towel in hand, headed towards the water.

Toes in. Face unsure. Splashed some water onto her legs. Face very unsure. Lowered her into the water some more. Face entirely unamused, frown growing by the second. But she wasn't crying so we brought the ring in and tried to get her into it. She was even less amused by that, especially when it turned out that despite saying it's for age 3-12 months, it was entirely too big for her and therefore completely useless. Zoggs ring was put to the side and not used again.

Back in our arms, she still hated the water. That day, her "swim" didn't last very long.

The next day, we tried again, this time armed with several of my niece's old sand and sea toys, but especially a bright red swimming lobster which she loved to bits. The bright colours kept her distracted while we lowered her further and further into the water until she was in up to her neck and not complaining.

She realised what we were up to a short while later and made it known that she was in no way amused and we were forced to take her back out.

Day three, I decided, on a whim, to use a regular swimsuit (ie not a full-body one). I am not sure whether that had anything to do with it, but that day, toys weren't even necessary. She was in, splashing and kicking away, loving it, for almost an hour!



Although the lobster was never very far away...

There was no turning back after that. We all swam every day, and she loved it every day. Our little water baby in the making!

Eleven Days, Part 1

At the end of June, we ventured abroad for the first time with Emily for what would be her first visit to the "Homeland", Malta. Everyone was excited to meet her, expectations were high. I was just glad the flight was a short 3-hour one, and not any longer. My expectations didn't really exist past that flight. I just wanted to get through it sane and preferably not hated by every other passenger on the plane. Having been those people who begged God and anyone else who'd bother to listen to ensure we were not seated next to a baby on a flight, we were about to be The Parents of Infant on Flight... the same people the old us shot poisonous thoughts at. (I might be exaggerating a little.)

In the end, it wasn't so bad. And it turns out many people are far more patient than I expected them to be.

Getting There

We chose to drive to Heathrow to be able to use our own carseat for Emily. The baby equipment used on this trip was planned with military precision. David's parents managed to get their hands on not one, but TWO, carseats Malta-side for Emily so we only needed to take our own pushchair (and had we wanted, we had one of those in Malta too, we just chose to take our own for comfort's sake).

Now let me make one thing clear. Travel Systems are the very antithesis of travel systems. They make travel harder and do not, in the slightest way, deserve the name. We've come back from Malta researching strollers, but that's another story.

Our flights completely clashed with Emily's usual bedtime. We did as much as we could to keep to her routine and left the rest to chance. Come 7pm, of course, she wouldn't sleep. There was far too much going on in the exciting, lit-up ceilinged airport to want to sleep. So we got onto the flight at 9.15pm with a wide-eyed, grinning baby being cooed at by everyone who passed.

Then she realised she was overtired and disaster struck. All the cooers ate their words and turned to the heavens for divine intervention for a quiet flight. The stupid air hostess came over to me and asked me if she could do something to help with the baby. I passed a snarky comment which she completely didn't get. What did she expect to do? Knock Emily over the head with a lifejacket to make her sleep?

She did sleep eventually, about 10 minutes which felt like a lifetime later, as soon as the engines turned on (yes, that's right - we hadn't actually left yet!). And then she slept for the entire flight on David's deader-by-the-minute arm.

She slept through the idiots idiotic applauding when the pilot DID HIS JOB by landing the plane safely. She slept through the loud Mediterranean journey off the plane. Through passport control near the Italian desperately looking for his lost sunglasses (how could an Italian survive without sunglasses?!). Through the conveyor belt's loud beeping to let us know our suitcases were on the way. Through the two moustached security guards' calling Gary Neville (he was on our flight) across the terminal to ask if they could get a (very early mobile phone camera) picture with him. Through the family welcome and obligatory terminal catch-up at 1am. Through the battle with the carseat (we are somewhat spoiled with our Isofix here in the UK and had no idea how to secure the seat using just a seatbelt... yeah).

She eventually stirred when we got to the flat in Sliema and I transferred her to David, who gave her a quick bottle while I set up the travel cot, we laid her down and that was that. She got up at 7am the next morning.

All in all, I'd say it was a very good first experience!

Notes: I was very confused about how to take her feeds onto the plane, and was hugely reluctant to waste anything. I decided against taking cartons of ready made milk, instead taking a flask of boiled, cooled water, and powder in a dispenser. I'd heard so many "horror" stories about getting feeds past security, and official advice seems to change by the week. I only needed to take a small sip out of the flask and we were through.

However, should push come to shove, and you need to use shop-bought mineral water air-side, just try and ensure that the sodium (Na) level is less than 200 milligrams (mg) per litre, and the sulphate (SO or SO4) content is not higher than 250mg per litre. (more here)