Loves of The Week

It is 5am on a Sunday morning. Previously I only ever saw this hour from the other end, the tail end of a night out, with fried chicken and a cup of tea in front of me, heels thrown off beside the sofa and my pillow calling me for a rather long lovely lie in (or at least six or seven hours of straight sleep if I had work the following afternoon, thank you Sunday opening hours). Now there is no fried chicken, no cup of tea and a child bouncing in an exersaucer pressing on the keys of the keyboard and questioning why he can’t do his remix of Old MacDonald, Jingle Bells and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star on a loop like he has been for the last week. Mammy needed her off button. It can work again when the sun is awake.

Over the last six months I’ve gotten used to the sleep deprivation. I’ve discovered a fantastic, industrial strength concealer to cover the suitcases under my eyes, and the miracle that is a bedtime of 9.30pm on the rare occasion that I’m sensible and don’t decide a Netflix Marathon is a good idea. But at 4.30am, when I’m asking the child if he’s having a laugh as he smiles up at me with the clear “Hey! Mammy! It’s PLAYTIME” grin, and I know that in all likelihood he’s awake for the day (or at least until nap time), I have to start thinking of the positives, because no amount of concealer can hide my desire for a six or seven hour lie in like the olden days, with not an inkling of Old MacDonald, who for some reason had a farm, past tense, not has a farm, present tense.

With that said, here come the positive things, the things I’ve been loving this week.

Music

Taylor Swift – Shake It Off

Absolute ear worm of a song, but it is on my morning playlist, getting ready for work, dancing around the living room. It’s happy, catchy and has a positive message, so its good in my book.

 

All About That Bass -Meghan Trainor

She’s gotten a LOT of flack about this song being anti-feminist, and how her body acceptance at the detriment of the “skinny bitches” is really only due to acceptance by men. It’s likely to be a one hit wonder, and I kind of love it. It’s getting about the same level of attention for the anti-feminist stance as “Blurred Lines” did, which is a bit mental – but as this article in The Guardian states, “If All About That Bass is a body-acceptance anthem for big girls, relax: pretty much everything else in the canon of pop for the last six decades has been a an ode to the skinny girls.” While I wouldn’t consider myself a “big girl”, I’m in no way able to count myself among the “skinny bitches”, and think this is a fun, one hit wonder song that gets stuck in your head and has a beat that makes you want to dance, and reminds you that “Every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top”. And sure, what more could you want?

Proper Winter

Much as I HATE the rainy bits, as I may have mentioned before, I do love cold dry days. I don’t deal well with being too warm. Proper cold (but not like, hypothermic) weather is the ticket – as long as you can wrap up warm, and there is a hot coffee, or hot chocolate in the near future, all is well. Just let that rain STAY AWAY. Roll on the Seasonal coffees in Starbucks (Om nom, Toffee Nut Latte. So delicious!).

Winter Wardrobe

So with the winter weather, its required new clothes to come out. Since I was pregnant for all of last winter, there is very little that I can wear again – at five/six/seven months gone, I was not a small woman – so it means I’ve had to get new things to wear that are work appropriate. Having dropped two dress sizes since joining Weight Watchers in June has definitely helped with the mood while shopping, jeans shopping no longer fills me with as much of an impending sense of dread (though I’m not sure jeans shopping will ever be completely dread free). I seem to be developing a uniform of skinny jeans, boots, and jumpers, which I’m pretty okay with, as its much more on the way to the put-together-Yummy-Mummy look which I hope to manage some day (not in this snot-filled, baby-sick filled lifetime I’m sure, but we’ll see). There is also the obligatory winter coat, as last year there was absolutely no point in investing in a proper winter coat as the bump just kept getting bigger. This year, I wanted something that looked good, was warm and relatively waterproof. Not costing the sum total of my bank account would be a definite plus. Bershka came calling, with my lovely red duffle coat, not unlike that of Paddington Bear (but in a striking red rather than a blue).

(I tend to rock this look without the painted-on-look skinny jeggings, belly top and pout – I just can’t make any of those things work for me).

I am on the hunt for a second pair of winter boots though, so more retail joy (or lots of retail disappointment) lies ahead.

iPhone 6

I did mention I got this already. But oh wow the camera. I love it. It’s my baby, its never out of my sight, and while I understand that I again sound like one of those sheep, Baa baa baa, because its fab. Yay for material possessions bringing happiness!

Teeth

Now, to make me sound less materially obsessed – E has two little teeth! They broke through over the last week, both bottom front ones, and they were an absolute beeyatch to deal with – the poor pet, no amount of amber necklace, nurofen for babies or cuddles from Mammy was making up for the fact that his body was stabbing him from the inside over and over again. But we’re through now, it officially hurts when he bites you now, so I’ll no longer be checking for any more teeth until he shows them off!

Six Month Injections

I’d heard that the six month injections were the worst ones. There being three all at the same time, I found this easy to believe. As both the 2 and 4 month injections were horrible, I was dreading them. Both of those times, sleep was disrupted for weeks, he was grumpy, tetchy and out of form for about a week afterwards. As we’re already having to adjust to life with Mama at work, and growing teeth and all of these changes that we’re not too happy about (including sitting in the big boy part of the buggy, not a fan), I was really hoping and praying for some form of a miracle. Perhaps they’d announce a Calpol like substance that would give this immunity. Or something we could put in his morning cereal. Anything that didn’t include three sharp needles flooding tiny bits of lethal diseases into my babies bloodstream, thanks very much. We went in Wednesday, as he’s now six and a half months old, and the lovely Nurse Orla administered the three injections as I held my normally quiet less fidgety child as he channeled his inner Buckaroo to get away from these nasty needles, howling. Bottle given afterwards, he stopped crying within about 20 seconds, and was smiling at the receptionist by the time we left. And that was it. He didn’t nap much that day, but fell asleep at ten to seven and slept until about eleven, when he woke and didn’t settle for about half an hour, but after that then it was 5am before he woke again. His sleep hasn’t been disrupted much, he’s been in grand humour, my lovely smiling child doesn’t seem to have been impacted too much by them. And the best news is that there aren’t any more for the next six months, until he’s a year old. Definite win for Mammy’s nerves.

Reading

Not much chance for reading this week, it has been a bit hectic. However, if it counts, this is getting me super excited, despite there being nothing definite from it yet…

Absolutely love Marian, there is nothing like her sense of humour, and curling up with one of her books and a cup of tea is the best way to up-end a bad mood. So this is something I’d definitely be wanting to attend if it went ahead!

What is it that you’ve been loving this week? Check out the other things People love and what make them Cheerful at Ojo’s World – and join the linky!