We have been super lucky the last 6 or 7 weeks in that Tet has not had any overseas work trips. It has been lovely to have him home.
Sadly this week he has been in Jakarta. He left Monday morning and will arrive home again tonight after Scarlett has gone to bed. Usually Scarlett is better behaved for me when her father is away. Usually....
Scarlett has reached the stage of pushing boundaries - hard. She is particularly resistant to any restrictions put in place for her personal safety such as holding hands while crossing the street or wearing a seat belt while travelling in a taxi. This makes life challenging at the best of times. If you combine this with a week where she has ended up in my bed before midnight on three of the four nights it is a very tough week. I generally do not go back to sleep once Scarlett gets into bed with me. She is quite restless and flails around quite a bit while in bed. I am worn out.
Yesterday took the cake though. Scarlett had had two showers by nine thirty as she decided to use her mango yogurt for a hair treatment. The floor got quite a generous helping as well. Thursdays are the day our cleaner comes so I try to take Scarlett out to give the cleaner a good run at things. Yesterday Scarlett fell asleep on the first part of our walk in her pram. She woke up just before I headed for home. She slept for maybe 20 minutes. When it came time for a nap... no go.
Thursday is also play date day so we had to taxi to our friends' house. She was pretty dreadful on the way there but controllable and spent most of the trip in a belt seated. On the return journey she refused to sit and was trying to crawl all around the cab. Cue some restraining from Mummy and ten minutes of screaming from Scarlett. It was horrendous and took all my strength to keep her held and safe.
The long and short of it is I am having really major second thoughts about taking Scarlett back to NZ next month. I know she is going to fight being belted into her seat and I know that she more than likely will not sleep. I just do not think I have the energy to manage her for ten hours on the plane plus the two or more hours at the airport. This is compounded by the fact that my dad's house is not very baby friendly at all which is going to make just daily life a real drama. It is all just starting to seem too hard.
I had a bit of a meltdown on skype this morning to my poor husband who really cannot do anything about it from Jakarta. He wants me to have a weekend away from Scarlett so I can have a real clear head before I make any major decisions. I know I want to go home for Christmas but the thought of having a boundary pushing 21 month old in tow is just dismal. I have arranged to have lunch with 2 old friends and I know it is going to be awful as Scarlett expects the meal to end when she has finished. We have worked on that with her but at best she will tolerate about 5 minutes at the table before she starts to get boisterous.
Maybe a baby free weekend will help but more likely I will just feel guilty. No one else seems to have these sorts of problems with their children. People always comment on how active Scarlett is and I am increasingly aware this is not a compliment. She totally needs to start school or do something away from me to give us both a break. Up to 22 hours a day in the same room as each other is just too much.
Friday, 18 November 2011
Monday, 14 November 2011
Printing photos
I am still trying to find the best solution for printing photos as this is the single thing that impacts negatively on my ability to scrapbook.
Now I make no claims to being an excellent photographer. I do not have a DSLR camera. I have a nice little Sony point and click which takes a pretty decent photo and now that I have started to fiddle about with ISO and such can even cope with Scarlett at play. I take quite a few photos and we try and download everything off the camera and hubby's phone weekly. We do a monthly album on facebook for all our friends and family overseas and that works really well for us.
Printing pictures is a whole different kettle of fish. We have struggled to find anywhere very good in Singapore for photo printing. I am currently going to Harvey Normans and using their self print work stations but the quality is pretty hit and miss and it is surprisingly time consuming. The staff are really helpful but I need something better as we generally only get there every couple of months at best. By that time I have dozens and dozens of photos to print and it just takes forever. When you have a 20 month old forever does not work well.
We have been looking at the selphy printers but they are a lot more expensive here than the States. I think one might be a necessity with starting Project Life.
Does anyone else have this problem? We have a Canon Pixma printer at home and have never tried to print photos on that. We probably should but I suspect the results might be disappointing.
On the bright side I printed an 8 x 10 print of one of my current favourite photos of hubby and Scarlett. I love it because it shows how much they look alike and how much of a bond there is between them. I am off to the Studio Calico boards now for a bit of chat and to see the sneaks for December.
Now I make no claims to being an excellent photographer. I do not have a DSLR camera. I have a nice little Sony point and click which takes a pretty decent photo and now that I have started to fiddle about with ISO and such can even cope with Scarlett at play. I take quite a few photos and we try and download everything off the camera and hubby's phone weekly. We do a monthly album on facebook for all our friends and family overseas and that works really well for us.
Printing pictures is a whole different kettle of fish. We have struggled to find anywhere very good in Singapore for photo printing. I am currently going to Harvey Normans and using their self print work stations but the quality is pretty hit and miss and it is surprisingly time consuming. The staff are really helpful but I need something better as we generally only get there every couple of months at best. By that time I have dozens and dozens of photos to print and it just takes forever. When you have a 20 month old forever does not work well.
We have been looking at the selphy printers but they are a lot more expensive here than the States. I think one might be a necessity with starting Project Life.
Does anyone else have this problem? We have a Canon Pixma printer at home and have never tried to print photos on that. We probably should but I suspect the results might be disappointing.
On the bright side I printed an 8 x 10 print of one of my current favourite photos of hubby and Scarlett. I love it because it shows how much they look alike and how much of a bond there is between them. I am off to the Studio Calico boards now for a bit of chat and to see the sneaks for December.
Saturday, 12 November 2011
Cruisy rainy day
I love a rainy day when you have nothing planned. Hanging around home is a good choice instead of the last resort on a rainy Saturday.
To be fair we have been pretty busy. We took Scarlett to her weekly gym class this morning. She loves it and her two best buds were there too. They really do love playing together and it is good to see that Scarlett can hold her own with older, bigger boys. As she often does, she fell asleep in the car on the drive home so we continued driving to a mall to have some lunch and start our Christmas shopping.
We had our usual sushi lunch and as always it was delicious. The teka (tuna) maki was really good - so much so that I had to order another portion. I then managed to buy Scarlett a gorgeous winter coat and cardigan from Zara. New Zealand summers are not always that warm and we are heading back to Japan in March so the coat will be useful for both trips.
It really is a cute coat and purple is Scarlett's favourite colour.
I was getting a bit frazzled so my lovely husband took Scarlett off for an explore while I had 45 minutes of reflexology. Bliss! I feel so much better for it.
We have spent the rest of the day just vegging at home. We have watched some figure skating on TV and Scarlett has been playing with her jig saws. These have become her favourite toys again after a few months of ignoring them.
Life is about to change for Scarlett. She is about to have her first session at a drop off play group on Wednesday. She has never successfully been left for anything. This is going to be a very interesting attempt as it is run at her gym by the teachers who she knows and loves. We are hoping to start her in pre school three mornings a week next year so this is the soft lead in. One morning a week for two hours. I know she can do it but she is a stubborn wee thing and if she decides she does not want to it could be a very long two hours.
We were not initially planning to send Scarlett to school of any sort next year but we both definitely need some time away from each other. She needs more socialisation with other children and more opportunities to learn. I just need a little time to myself. We have not been apart for more than a couple of hours since she was born and while I don't think I would change it we could certainly do with some separate time. Now if the principal of the school would just return my call so we can finalise that she has a place for next year we would be all set!
I hope your Saturday has been a relaxing one.
To be fair we have been pretty busy. We took Scarlett to her weekly gym class this morning. She loves it and her two best buds were there too. They really do love playing together and it is good to see that Scarlett can hold her own with older, bigger boys. As she often does, she fell asleep in the car on the drive home so we continued driving to a mall to have some lunch and start our Christmas shopping.
We had our usual sushi lunch and as always it was delicious. The teka (tuna) maki was really good - so much so that I had to order another portion. I then managed to buy Scarlett a gorgeous winter coat and cardigan from Zara. New Zealand summers are not always that warm and we are heading back to Japan in March so the coat will be useful for both trips.
It really is a cute coat and purple is Scarlett's favourite colour.
I was getting a bit frazzled so my lovely husband took Scarlett off for an explore while I had 45 minutes of reflexology. Bliss! I feel so much better for it.
We have spent the rest of the day just vegging at home. We have watched some figure skating on TV and Scarlett has been playing with her jig saws. These have become her favourite toys again after a few months of ignoring them.
Life is about to change for Scarlett. She is about to have her first session at a drop off play group on Wednesday. She has never successfully been left for anything. This is going to be a very interesting attempt as it is run at her gym by the teachers who she knows and loves. We are hoping to start her in pre school three mornings a week next year so this is the soft lead in. One morning a week for two hours. I know she can do it but she is a stubborn wee thing and if she decides she does not want to it could be a very long two hours.
We were not initially planning to send Scarlett to school of any sort next year but we both definitely need some time away from each other. She needs more socialisation with other children and more opportunities to learn. I just need a little time to myself. We have not been apart for more than a couple of hours since she was born and while I don't think I would change it we could certainly do with some separate time. Now if the principal of the school would just return my call so we can finalise that she has a place for next year we would be all set!
I hope your Saturday has been a relaxing one.
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