Tag: wife

Solo Travels here I Come

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As I prepare to take my first solo travel adventure in a very long time I am realizing a few things.

Firstly that I’m terrified to be away from my sweet little love for so long. But I also know that this will be so good for both of us. She gets some time to be alone with daddy which will definitely be so good for both of them. And I will get to be, well, myself. I will get to focus on my training (yes it’s a work trip) and not have to constantly be worried about what she’s getting into.

I’ve also learnt that I don’t remember how to pack for just myself. Why is my suitcase so empty? Oh because I’m not packing clothes for 2 people. I’m not packing diapers, bedding, toys, books and everything else. I get to use MY pretty hand luggage bag and not the dirty old backpack because I only have to take stuff for myself. I will have a free hand to carry a cup of coffee because I’ll only be carrying my bag. Not 3 bags and a teddy. I don’t need snacks, water and everything else that’s needed to occupy a toddler on a flight. I am actually taking a book, because I may get to read!

So while I am so sad and dreading the moment I leave my house without my family, I’m so excited to fly by myself. To eat by myself and to worry about only myself.

But there’s lots to do before that moment! To get myself ready and to get my family ready. Make sure the fridge is stocked with all the favorites and make sure I get as many loves and cuddles as possible.

Why is potty training so terrifying to me?!

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Little Love was 2 in April and I know that she is ready to be “trained” but I am struggling to fully commit to this and say goodbye to diapers forever. Part of it is that I feel that my baby isn’t a baby anymore and I’m in denial. And part of it is just well … It’s a big pain in the butt!

It all started with Little Love signaling to me that she had a wet diaper. She didn’t care that it was wet and she still fought when I tried to change her, but she was noticing that something was happening. So of course I jumped on Amazon, bought a potty and a couple of books and waited 2 weeks for them arrive (FS Life) so we could get started on this!

The books had me terrified and I think that this is where my problem started. I really believe that as with all things parenting and child related, you have to find out what works for your family and your child. Surprise! All children are different! We lead a pretty busy life. We both work full time and our weekends are often jam packed with activities and/or events/ so the whole three day potty training boot camp thing just seemed impossible. When would I be able to find three full days to stay at home and clean up pee puddles? And three days is if things are going well!

I know, I know, I should put my schedule aside and focus on her needs etc etc but there’s enough mom guilt happening here so no need to point that out.

I decided that we would use some of the advice and ditch the rest and eventually we would find something that worked.

We started with random nakey time around the house. After bath and in the mornings and pretty much whenever we were at home.

I looked for the signs that pee-pee was coming and tried to get her to the potty in time. Of course there were lots of accidents and lots of “Mummy I Peed!” and pointing to the floor. But eventually she started to realize what the signs were and “Mummy I peed!” turned into “Pee coming!!” We celebrated every trip to the potty and rewarded (also read as bribed) the successes. Once we were seeing more successes than failure’s and consistent potty use during nakey-time we progressed onto phase 2: Commando or Big girl panties! And that’s where the road block happened. I don’t know if she associated panties with diapers and didn’t see the difference, but she just would not pee on the potty when she was wearing panties / shorts / pants / anything other than a bare naked booty.

There is a huge possibility that we are confusing her by being naked sometimes and wearing diapers at others but that is just the reality of our life. We kept at it. I started putting just t-shirts and dresses on so that she would still be “dressed” but she could get used to the thought of using the potty with clothes on. Thanks Mom for this suggestion. She got it. She started peeing in the potty with “clothes on”. We then progressed to loose shorts. She got that too. We put on tighter pants and she didn’t get that…

So this is where we are now. 100% potty trained, depending what she’s wearing…

My next step, when I get the guts, is to just ditch the diapers. Deal with accidents and apologize to those whose floors we pee on over the weekends…

Where in the World?!

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Husband and I managed to stay in one place for 9 years! That’s almost long enough to call D.C home.

It was a very long time in the making but work has now picked us up and dropped us in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Yes, I know, I had not heard of this place before I was told we were moving here._100986820_tajikistan

Tajikistan is located in Central Asia. Bordered by Afghanistan (nothing to worry about – probably the safest place I’ve lived in a while), China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

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That little tower over there … That’s the Afghanistan Border

The main languages are Russian and Tajik so it’s been a bit challenging communicating at times but I’m taking Russian lessons and maybe by the end of the next two years I will be able to form a full sentence. Zoe of course is picking up the language super quickly and already has 1-10 almost down along with her new favorite word – нет (Nyet = NO)

We are living in the capital city, Dushanbe. The people are friendly and the nearby snowcapped mountains are beautiful. We’ve had the opportunity to go exploring within the country and beyond and are definitely looking forward to travelling loads more while we are here.

We still have loads more exploring to do and I promise I will (try) keep up with sharing.

PS – We use the Osprey Pogo Ag child carrier and so far it has been great!

Baby’s 1st Birthday

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I know this happened a while ago but I am yet to to share the joys of my little munchkin turning ONE. I may have a habit of over planning things and of course a first birthday party was going to be no exception.

I don’t think anyone prepares you for all the feels that come with your baby turning one. For me, there was a flood of, “Holy Shit, we made it this far!?” It was also a harsh reminder of that specific night > day > night when my beloved made her slow and challenging entrance into this world (but we won’t get going on that again…). I definitely think that kids birthday parties need to be re-branded as parent award ceremonies or something like that. Definitely anniversaries of the hardest nights > days > nights that some of us have had to endure.

But I digress. My princess deserved nothing less than rainbows and unicorns and sparkles. And that’s what she got.

There was lots of pink and lots of gold. If I ever manage to find the pictures I will share , but rest assured, there were unicorn cupcakes, pink rice crispie treats and so much more! Of course the most interesting part for the birthday girl was the beer tub and eating ice.Zoe2

With any first birthday, there obviously has to be the smash cake moment. Little Love was mostly sugar free up until this point so I tried my best to come up with something “healthy” but something that she would still eat. I did a banana bread cake with cream cheese frosting. She like it – success.

A proud mommy moment watching my little girl interact and grown and as always steal the show. But it was her show to steal.

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My (I mean Baby’s) Dream Nursery

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The minute I found out I was pregnant I sprang into action creating Pinterest Boards for the nursery that I Knew my baby would love! I had the idea set from beginning and had planned to keep it pretty gender neutral so that I could start planning prior to finding out the sex of the baby. I also still have residual trauma from my all pink (anglaise) childhood bedroom… Sorry mom!

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Trying to find the perfect shade of Neutral…

I decided to pay homage to my African roots and go with a “Chic” Safari theme. I have a guilty obsession with animal print and a not so secret love for Zebras so I was excited to get planning.

Much to my fear and hesitation, hubby decided that he was going to take on the task of painting the room. Me, being just a little OCD and controlling had to really let go (or pretend to) and trust that this would get done (perfectly) at some point before the baby arrived. I definitely had the phone number of the professionals in my back pocket just in case.

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He Knew what He was up Against

 

I am super lucky that hubby let me run with this nursery and was available to execute whatever ridiculous request I came up with … like when I told him the baby needed a functional walk in closet … I used Rubbermaid Configurations Set and it’s been great.

 

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Mama’s Happy Face

 

 

 

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Handy-Man

I knew that a comfy rocker was something I really wanted and also learnt that an important thing to make sure is that you can get up out of it with no hands as most of the time you will be holding baby! Who knew!!

And a little over a year later, mama and baby are still loving this nursery. Thank you to everyone who supported me during my pain-staking decision making process…

Hello World, it’ s Me – T… Again!

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Hello world it’s me… again… I’ve decided to get back onto the blogging bandwagon, for some reason I feel like there may be some people out there who are actually interested in the random (and often crazy) thoughts that swim round in my head…

So who am I and why should you care? I’m a career woman, a wife, a mother and an immigrant far away from home. I’m just trying to figure out this thing called life. Most of what I write about will be things that come up from being one of the three things mentioned above or all three at once and how each one makes the others just that little bit harder.

And why should you care? You shouldn’t… well you can… but don’t feel like you have to. If you would like a glimpse into my world and my head then keep reading, even if just for entertainment purposes or to make yourself feel better about your own life, or if you’re just bored and scrolling through Facebook.

This blog will be IMG_3852all me. My honest and raw thoughts. My sarcasm, my potty-mouth and my correct use of the English language. Those who know me may be slightly terrified at the thought but will laugh with me because they love me. Those who don’t know me will probably laugh at me but will hopefully learn to love me… either way it’s ok with me.

But deep down I do hope for the chance to relate to other likeminded and similarly crazy people. People who are dealing with or have dealt with similar things, people who will giggle at the shit that I talk about because they’ve stepped in it too.

Here’s to a long relationship of open and honest conversation.