Month: March 2007

Looks like another glorious sunny day is brewing. Lola and I were
listening to Mozart as we prepared for the day, but it’s just switched
to The Kink’s, “All Day And All Of The Night”. We’ve done breakfast:
a whole (well, peeled and seeded) papaya liquidised with two dried
apricots which have been soaking in water all night and with the
remaining (couple of eggcupsful of) amaranth and apple porridge from
yesterday’s brekky. Bright orange and very sweet: Lola loves it!

Lola’s now pulling everything out of her toybox and her (floor level)
book shelf. Yesterday, she spent almost the entire day outside, as happy
as Larry, playing by herself as Isa and Manisha chatted. At one point,
while she was playing with her mum, Lola stood on her own for a few
seconds. Aparently both she and Isa just stared at each other in that
cartoon-style, just-walked-of-the-cliff-but-haven’t-started-falling-yet
way…

Right — to the grindstone.

It’s a gorgeous sunny afternoon, into which I may stroll briefly to see
if I can shake off this post-lunch stupor which is enveloping me. I’m
sure a nice cigarette would work 🙂 I jest. The cravings are lightening
a little, actually. No doubt that means I should be extra-vigilant as it
would be easy to fall into the “well, I’ve given up, so I can just have
one” trap.

Wonder how Isa and Lola are doing; Isa said Lola fell asleep by herself
today, as opposed to nodding off while feeding — that’s good news as
it’s rather limiting having always to have a lactating boob around when
Lola needs to nap.

Jon has finally mastered and encoded the rehearsal recordings we did on
his new digital 4-track thing last November. He’s uploaded them to
the fangled site — I must have a listen.

Well, enough blather; let’s see if this works…

Haha! We’ve tricked Lola with BST — she didn’t wake till 07:10 this morning. In a particularly good mood, it should be said, bouncing and grinning as she gazed towards us over the rail of her cot.

I’ve left Mum with her in bed and had a shower; come back to find Isa reading “Where The WIld Things Are” to her. What a lovely start to what looks like a lovely, sunny day.

Shame I have to go to work.

Though, as I peer blearily through the window into an overcast Sunday, it seems the larks are, in fact, absent, leaving Lola and me to entertain ourselves. Lola is wandering around the house in her beige canvas trousers and red bear jumper (recently arrived from Nonna); I’m preparing her amaranth brekky (see post passim).

And now we’ve done brekky and are approaching nap time. Lola wolfed down her porridge — I think she must have put on that extra kilo, given the amount she’s been eating lately: three ‘solid’ meals a day, plus all the booby.

[big gap, during which the day happened, including a nice session on the swings at Stationers park]

And thus to bed, failing once again to complete an entry properly.

Isa just got Lola to sleep. It’s the third try: she wouldn’t sleep at 9, as she usually does, so she got back up and played a bit more and came down to M&S with us to get a couple of last-minute items (grandma and Mike are coming to lunch at 1:30). Isa gave her another feed and put her back down at 11:20, but she wouldn’t have it and stood in her cot crying and getting more and more distressed. Eventually, Isa went in and calmed her down and stayed with her until, eventually, she dropped off at 11:55.

Now the new upstairs neighbour is moving in; banging up and down the stairs. Hope Lola doesn’t mind…

Our little lass has been waking this evening, sounding a little pained. Hope she’s OK.

Lola is so incredibly good natured these days. She goes through entire days chatting away to herself, pulling scarves and hats out of the basket in the hall, strolling along the sofa, playing peek-a-boo around the corners of doors, inspecting her cubes and other toys, being pushed around on her wheeled mouse (brrrrm, brrrrm, eek! eek!), sitting in her high chair munching carrots, rice cakes, chicken soup, or lamb casserole, splashing and laughing in her bath.

She’ll sit on her mouse and grip the handle with great concentration as you push her around, obviously loving every moment. Isa has had her out on the patio (we’ve had over a week of wonderful sunny days) sitting on her see-saw and rocking back and forth, hanging on with a similar concentration. When Isa stops rocking her, Lola urges the see-saw on…

Heather came to visit on Saturday, looking very well. She brought Lola a fantastic monkey which she absolutely loves; she took to it straight away, laughing and squealing as Hev made it play peek-a-boo with her. We had a great day and I think Heather really enjoyed Lola’s company. Fab.

Her name is Lola, Lola Canola
She’s got a shmola, and a little bola.

(To the tune of Mr Manilow’s Cocacabana. It’s hard, having parents who are completely bonkers in the nut. And have no taste in tunes. There’s also the following, to the tune of Duran Duran’s, “Rio”:)

My name is Lola and I’m really rather cute
I think when I grow up I might just play the flute.

*sigh*

• 1/4 cup amaranth
• 1/2 cup water
• a big apple

Bring water and amaranth to a boil and simmer very gently for 24 mins, covered.

Add the big apple peeled, cored and cut into thin slices and a (very) little extra water and simmer for a further 12 mins. Blend and serve.

Lola’s verdict: double yum!

Take one tiny onion, a small carrot, and half a medium-sized red pepper and dice finely. Gently fry the onion and carrot in some olive oil, adding the pepper after a minute or two. When softened, add about half a pint of fresh stock and a handful of sweetcorn (I used frozen); simmer gently for 15 mins or so. Add about half a boiled chicken breast (eg, the chicken from the stock pot), finely diced, and about half a teaspoon of ground cumin. Bring back to a simmer then remove from the heat and add a big pinch of chopped corriander. Allow to cool a little before liquidising and passing through a sieve (to remove corn husk).

Lola’s verdict: yum.

Lovely springlike weekend. Buds pushing through on the trees; new growth breaking out in the garden. Lola in excellent humour, spending more time on two legs than all fours, though no independent steps.

Computer seems to be staying up. I should not be staying up, having done that all weekend and suffering now.

Suddenly, I’ve forgotten everything I was going to say, anyway. Did I mention Lola is really into pointing at the moment, as evidenced here. She also likes to point up at the flowers round the mirror in the sitting room and suck in air through her teeth in an excited manner.

You can still catch her saying “brava” (or “bava”, “bwava”), and she’s very close to a ‘mama’. And she has a fantastic repetoire of “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa”s.