Random Tuesday Thoughts - Grandparents, Husbands who use too much internet, and other randomness

Let’s talk breast feeding. It was never easy for me but I still kept it going in the mornings. In the middle of August I had to go to Sydney for a conference and both Eric and I wondered how the baby would do without getting her normal cuddle and morning feed. I brought that hateful breast pump to Sydney and diligently tried to keep up what little supply I still had.
In my absence Eric gave Madden an AM bottle and just put her on my side of the bed for this morning meal.
When I returned from Sydney, I woke in the morning and got Madden to feed her. She slipped into bed between us and smiled sweetly at me. Then she bared all 8 of her vicious little sharp teeth and bit down HARD. I cried, she wailed, and breast feeding was discontinued from that moment forward.
And so it ends with the same drama at which it commenced.
It lasted 10 months and 2 weeks and I can’t believe we continued that long.
But now we are done. Done, done, done and I’ve got the teeth marks to prove it. Done.

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My former employer was Guidant. They were bought out by Boston Scientific in 2006 and we changed names at that time. The bag I still cart around the hospital has the Guidant logo branded on the side of it. The Guidant tag line is “It’s a great time to be Alive!” I loved the company but hated that tag line. I looked at it again the other day and thought about how silly it is. “It’s a great time to be alive!” Isn’t that just another way of saying, “It’s a crappy time to be dead?”

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The traffic here is bugging me again. Rush hour is not an hour, it’s an entire afternoon and evening. There is satellite navigation in the car and its reading calculated the distance from my primary hospital to home at 8.2 km. Not far. So, why does it take me an HOUR to get home? The traffic is mainly congested just getting across the city. I watched the sat nav the other day and it took 30 minutes to go that first 1km. I could run home faster.

I change up the route home from time to time, but it always ends up taking the same amount of time. One of the routes is along the river. In the summertime, the rowers are out on the water and I watch them go up and back along the banks. I think I actually take in at least half of their practice session.

Sometimes, I wonder if they’d give me a lift.

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Eric remains a stay at home dad and enjoying his time with baby girl. I went away for conference in August and after spending four days away in Sydney, my normally quiet husband couldn’t stop talking when I got home. He proceeded to tell me about everything that happened on TV for the entire weekend. I think the highlight of his weekend was “So you think you can dance.” Based on that, we both agreed that he should probably get a job. He needs more stimulation…and I can’t listen to him talk about contestants on a reality show as if they are friends.

Sometimes we lie in bed at night and talk about how we would like to trade places. I would love to be home with Madden and he would love to go off to work. It’s just a grass is greener kind of thing and truthfully, I think we would both just welcome more balance in our lives.


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My lovely, dear, charming, enchanting husband used up all our Internet connection downloading all things Vikings. The last two games and every podcast associated with his team are now available for viewing/listening on his computer, but we are now over our limit and cannot log on to check our email.

Oh, dear Eric, I appreciate you and your need to see your home team, but please leave me just a little bit of Internet plan so that I can log on to my work email.

Yes, we do have the maximum plan, but even though it’s quite costly each month, they still limit our usage. I never thought I’d miss Comcast and the unlimited plan that we had in the states. Go figure.

Our usage kicks over soon and so it is likely I will be able to post this in the next week. Until that time, we are incommunicado...

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Today is September 23rd. That was my due date last year. I can distinctly remember the anticipation and tremendous fear that I felt at this exact time last year.

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Eric’s parents were supposed to arrive this morning. I took the day off work; we got up early, took baby girl to daycare, packed Eric into his loaner car, equipped the loaner car (parental chauffeur vehicle which doesn’t contain 500 kilos of medical equipment) with the automatic toll deduction from my car and headed out on the 45 minute trip to the airport. Eric’s parents’ flight was in but there was no sign of Eric’s parents.
The normally crowded international arrival area began to thin out. A flight from China arrived. 60 minutes passed. Everyone from the China flight departed the terminal. No more flights from LAX were arriving. It became apparent that something was not right. Where were they?
Unable to check the Internet from home (see above entry); we couldn’t be sure that they hadn’t sent us an email.
No, they would call. Certainly they would call.
On the way home, Eric got a call from his sister. Apparently their parents connecting flight out of Dallas was delayed and they missed their international connection…..over 24 hours ago…
They are stuck sitting in the LA airport. UGH. UGH. UGH.

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We are enjoying watching Eric’s folks play with Madden. She took about 24 hours to warm to them and now she has realized that they will always read to her or pick her up and play with her. She has mastered the art of the fake cough for extra attention.
For Eric and me, we have a new sense of freedom that comes from someone else entertaining our child! We also appreciate the extra help cooking, cleaning up, and help with the constant stream of laundry.

Madden is a really easy baby. She falls asleep easily and sleeps through the night, she isn’t a fussy eater, and she only cries if she’s hungry or tired. She can play by herself and is entertained easily. We were really proud when Eric’s dad asked us if she is always this good.
Yup. She is.

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This time of year in Melbourne is spring and it is usually dry and somewhat warm. Ever since Eric’s folks arrived, it’s been raining and unseasonably cold. They have an entire selection of shorts and T shirts, but packed no sweat pants or sweatshirts in their luggage. After a trip to the market on Saturday, they are now the proud owners of Aussie brand sweat suits. I had an entire weekend of activities planned – the outdoor farmers market, the Collingwood Children’s Farm, hiking and exploring in the Dandenong’s. After sitting around all weekend and trying to wait out the rain (I’ve never seen rain like this here), I forced everyone out of the house for a trip to the mountains to go hiking. We set off in a cool drizzle and by the time we arrived, it was a full downpour. We got Madden out of the car and into the stroller – the wind was whipping around us and the rain was blowing sideways. We ducked into the very first café we could find and decided we’d have an early lunch and wait out the rain before we hiked. An hour later, the rain was still coming down hard and we all just packed into the car and drove the hour home.
At least the view from the steamed up car windows was nice.

Ad of the Month

Unleash The Man Leather. Not sure what that means, but this one makes us giggle.

Ad of the Month

Did you know that Melbourne is home to the largest population of Greek people outside of Greece itself?
This TV commercial has been running for some time here. Safeway is one of the local grocery stores and they have this fantastic marketing campaign. This is their appeal to the local Greek population. It doesn't have subtitles because you will discover that you don't need to speak Greek to understand it.