All About Linnea

[ailbhe]

I wonder whether we were being watched today because Linnea was breastfeeding, or because Linnea was breastfeeding while doing pushups and twisting through 180 degrees on each of two axes (axises?)?

I'm a stay at home mother. That's why I spend so much time walking around outside the home with a buggy and bags of, um, errands of various kinds. It's such a misnomer. The working mothers I know (because stay at home mothers don't work) spend a much higher proportion of their with-kids time actually in the house than the so-called stay-at-home mothers. Between playgrounds and swimming and clinic and mother-and-baby-groups and errands and walking-outdoors-because-it's-windy and I haven't even joined anything yet, this is the little bits I was able to do while I was very sick! Now that I'm better I'm actually going to join things, and I expect to forget entirely what the inside of my house looks like.

But we're going to spend some time at home soon, because I want to introduce her to drawing - I will take some Christmas gift vouchers to the Early Learning Centre and see how she feels about crayons. If babies her age at nursery are doing finger-painting, it's got to be worth a try (but I know finger-painting isn't a good place for her to start; it would be indistinguishable from food for her).

We're investigating holidays in a more realistic way now. It's cheaper to go to Paris than Cornwall, and easier to get from the train station to accommodation in Paris too, and the journey is shorter, so we might do that. Neither Rob nor I has ever stopped in France before; we've been through it in coach and train, but never stopped. Um, unless that shed full of duty-free next to the ferry counts, and it really doesn't. Urgh. It will be interesting to see whether I have any French at all; Rob has some, I know, but mine hasn't been tested since I was 16. It will be sort of like the honeymoon - staying somewhere that's not with family or friends, only seeing people if we really want to, not sleeping in floors or sofas. A proper, grown-up holiday, in other words. Very exciting!

Comments

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

SAHM indeed (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0836278453). (If you don't know the series, check them out here (http://www.babyblues.com/). Very funny.)

Crayons are enormous fun but need good supervision - make sure you get washable ones as well as non-toxic (99% of crayons are non-toxic but not all are washable). It won't help when you're trying to get marks off a computer but it will help tons with fabric. ;-)

[clanwilliam.livejournal.com]

Based on G and my experience (and my previous Paris experience): just try to speak French and Parisians will be lovely to you. The most important phrase you can use is: Je suis desolée, je n'ai pas du francais, and Parisians will fall over backwards to help you.

Whoever said it was the unfriendliest city in the world had clearly never considered the politeness of at least apologising for not speaking the language...

The only people in the world I've met who have been even nicer than the French about my lack of comprehension of their language has been the Dutch. (If really really stuck in a country and you're getting snotty looks, start talking Irish. Most people are fine once they realise you've at least made the effort to speak more than one language in your lifetime!)

[ckd]

My experience matches clanwilliam's; if you make an effort (I had 1/3 of a year of French in a three-language survey class umpty-mumble years ago, and a phrasebook) you'll do just fine.

Anything. Bonjour/bonsoir, s'il vous plait, the aforementioned "I'm sorry, I don't speak French"...it'll make a big difference. I also love that the apology is cognate to "I am desolate".

Enjoy Paris. It's a wonderful, wonderful city.

[k425.livejournal.com]

I am a so-called "working mother" and I'd just like to say that I think that the title is patronising both to mums who go out to work and to mums who don't.

As for Linnea, if you get the right paints it doesn't matter if she treats them as food. YoungBloke's first experience of paints, at nursery, was to pick the brush up and suck it. He's not been too keen on painting since...

And Rah! for proper holidays.

[ailbhe]

When a mother says to me "Oh, you don't work?" I say "No, I'm a full-time mother."

I figure they deserve it.

[k425.livejournal.com]

You're quite right. Because as we all know, staying at home with the kids is just a case of laying on the sofa all day eating chocolates and watching tv...

[bopeepsheep.livejournal.com]

Chocolates! I knew I was missing something this morning... ;-)

[ailbhe]

I quite like the implication that they're part-time mothers, myself.

But I do find that chocolate is absolutely necessary, though I have no idea how anyone can watch TV with kids around; it's almost impossible to listen to the radio, even, or reada book with really short sentences. Something that needs to be looked at and listened to at the same time wouldn't stand a chance.

[k425.livejournal.com]

Chocolate is absolutely necessary for most of life, I find.

After years of nursing and keeping one ear open while reading/doing anything, half-watching tv and half-reading a book is okay. But I can't half-listen to the radio.

[pauamma]

Hey, lemme know if/when/where you come visit that armpit of Western Europeour beautiful country?

[tiggsybabes.livejournal.com]

I never see the inside of our house in the summer. We come inside to go to bed *g*