7 things

Apparently I have been tagged for a meme, and while I am unfamiliar with the etiquette, I am informed that this means that I have to write 7 weird/random things about myself. Ahem:

1. Approximately 10% of people seem to think that I am from the US, the UK or Canada when they first meet me, including a woman in London who, when I said I was from Newcastle (forgetfully), exclaimed: "Oh, I thought you sounded Northern!" Northern?
   
2. I have two first class Honours degrees (= three testamurs), a Master of Laws with Distinction (highest UK rank) and the Evatt Medal for the best graduating student from my law school. I missed out on a University Medal in Arts by .4 of a GPA. Oh, and I technically have a Graduate Diploma of Legal Practice too, with a bare credit average, but I never bothered picking it up from College of Law, although I might do if we ever run out of toilet paper.
   
3. An hour of my professional time will cost you $450 (excluding GST of course), but I'm worth it.
4. Despite the above, I'm currently proudest of the fact that I can pump 230ml of milk in one pumping session of half an hour (enough to feed my daughter all day). On one view that means Beth's milk costs my wurkplace about a grand a litre, but as I can often bill while pumping it probably evens out.
   
5. I've moved five times in two years, twice intercontinentally, twice while heavily pregnant and twice with a young baby. And because of this...
6. I don't know where my practising certificate is, although I am obliged by law to display it in my office. I also don't know where 90% of our other stuff is, including the Best Coat of All Time and the Best Cookbook of All Time but no doubt they will show up eventually. Did I mention I hate moving, and even though the current place has (huge) defects and is (hugely) expensive I am strongly tempted to stay here forever just to avoid ever packing again?
7. We currently live across the road from the first house we rented in Sydney. Fortunately it was detonated and replaced with a McMansion, or I might accidentally walk into the wrong house.

Bonus #8 - I am rarely, if ever, the mother I want to be, but fortunately Beth seems to like me anyway.

What the hell is a Meme?

Apparently we have been memed. I believe Karen cheated by tagging both Lauren and I, but here's mine anyway. I suspect this will mostly be a revelation of my OCD traits...

Rules: Link the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog. Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself. Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links. Let each person know that they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I don't believe there are ANY convicts in my family history.
   
2. I like to chew my food evenly on both sides of my mouth - you know, 7 chews left side, 7 chews right side, whatever. This has actually become less of an obsession lately.
3. My front teeth are as sharp as razor blades. They are half-caps. They broke off after being embedded in my parents' (ancient) stereo when I was about 12. Long story, suffice to say my brother was getting revenge. The original teeth were re-attached by a very excited emergency dentist. They were subsequently replaced by caps in 2 different incidents - one involving a eucalyptus lolly, and the other a forward somersault. It is these fake caps that have worn down to razor sharp incisors.
   
4. I almost always have a pair of baby socks in my pocket. You never know when Beth's feet will be cold.
5. I own 5 bikes, including a very sophisticated folding bike and a VERY high end dual suspension mountain bike, and yet the only one I have riden in the last 3 months is the steel single speed.
   
6. Beth assures me that my monkey impersonation is both impeccable, and hilarious.
   
7. My wife earns more money than me, I work part time and look after our daughter the rest of the week, and there is a chance I will become a full time stay at home dad - and I am more than ok with all of that :)

And now I shall terminate this chain-letter type thing here. Partly on the principle of the thing, but mostly because I don't actually know 7 bloggers...

Not going to win any updating awards, are we?

Maybe we were eating mulberries. I confess nothing!

Hi all

Clearly I am the world's least organised person, but in lieu of more regular updates:

1. wurk has been strangely quiet this week. Too quiet. Clearly they are plotting something.
2. my Blackberry continues to rule my life, however, even if it is just relaying information on the kind of muffins available in my wurkplace today (not that I ever buy the muffins, but it is important to stay abreast of these kinds of things).
3. I am probably going to be moving up to 3 days a week in the near future, which might make things at the wurk end a little easier to manage in terms of workflow, I think.
   
4. Grant has been riding to work every day since we moved back to Sydney, and has dropped something like 7kg in two months, which is a pretty good effort as well as partially justifying his extensive bike expenditure over the years. Go Grant!
5. Beth has been very busy in the last month or so, including:

• mastering hands and knees. Not crawling properly yet, but probably doesn't feel the need to bother as she goes like the blazes commando-style (of course, commando crawling is pretty harsh on the clothes, but eh)
• kneeling unsupported.
• pulling up to standing on every available object, which means I get pantsed several times a day. Note so self: no elastic waistbands!
  
• actually allowing us to feed her with a spoon reasonably often, and feeding herself with a spoon pretty well, although she hasn't quite go the hang of which way the spoon needs to face for this to work so wears quite a bit of it.
• being a bit more interested in solid foods and a bit less interested in the Mummy Milkbar. In fact, she ate a whole nectarine herself the other day. Put anything in a wrap and she will eat it.
  
• getting more independent! Grant warned me about this from his two days with her this week, but I didn't quite believe him until we went across the road to the park and she promptly crawled away from me like a shot rather than attacking me and nagging to be picked up per usual. She then proceeded to pull up on the fence around the play equipment, then to play in the dirt making "dirt angels" with her arms and generally (a) having fun and (b) getting incredibly dirty. Because there is no (a) without (b) as we all know.
• being generally more interested in toys. I bought her a monkey hand puppet last weekend, as she loves it when Grant makes monkey noises at her. Not only does she adore the puppet, and laugh hysterically when Grant gives her "monky kisses" with it, but she took it off Grant and held it up in front of the mirror, faced it at herself, then at Grant, then at the mirror, and looked at its face in the mirror, so clearly she's a genius, or at least a budding puppeteer.
  
• sharing. She keeps offering us pieces of her food. Sometimes she is quite forceful, like when naughty daddy declined to eat her banana in the backyard and therefore had it jammed into his mouth. Possibly a commentary on our slightly less patient moments of feeding her solids, too.
• really getting into her books. Grant reads to her every night, and she loves it, especially everyone's favourite daddy-knows-best book "Papa's Song," which I recommend, and her DK "peekaboo" books, ditto.

And now I believe I may need a nap!

Stuff

I fear that inertia will destroy this here blog if I don't post about something, so I am going to post about:

(a) Wurk

Wurk has been good lately. I am a month into return-to-office territory for 2 days a week, and while at first I didn't really have enough to do, or when I did get enough to do was getting it too late in the two days to get it done without risking an aneurysm, I have managed to bill 6+ hours a day for the last four days in the office. Which makes me feel well chuffed. Of course, the only reason I am billing that is because I am doing additional work from home while Beth sleeps, but eh, given that my job used to be a 10 hour day and now I'm only working 9-5, it's fair enough.

Wurk gets extra points for being in the silly season, with parties and free lunches right left and centre (so long as they are on Monday or Tuesday, of course).

(b) Beth (who else?)

Beth has been giving her daddy a run for his money this week, as she seems to have decided bottle = evil. While I seem to make about 250ml during the day, based on what I pump at lunch at work, she's currently only taking about 150ml on her days with Grant. This makes her hungry and because she's my daughter, YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE HER HUNGRY.

However, I am hopeful it is just a passing thing, as she has been doing some heavy developmental work this week, including:

• pushing up to hands and knees
• mastering the gentle art of pushing up to kneeling
• trying to pull up to standing
• going from kneeling/sitting and from sitting/crawling
• feeding herself with a spoon from a bowl (CUTEST THING EVER, she sort of stirs the bowl to get food on the spoon) although I confess to helping with the spoon loading process. I am very glad of this as while she could feed herself with a spoon at 6 months, she lost interest shortly thereafter which made us have to get far too creative with finger food, as she is still a BETH DO IT SELF kind of girl.
  

I have had a lovely day at home with her so far, although we have done very little other than hang out in the backyard. One of the nicest things about being back at work, apart from the cold hard cash, is how much I enjoy spending time with Beth these days. It doesn't feel like a job anymore!

(c) Grant

I happen to be married to this very sweet (but manly!) man, who changes nappies without a peep (if one disregards the retching noises we have both been prone to since Beth starting hitting the MEAT), will reliably get up at the crack of dawn with Beth if she wakes up early, invents hilarious baby games such as "couch jungle gym" and "face sucker," does the bath and book shift every night - and in addition to it all is a deeply romantic gentleman who never fails to pay nice compliments, even while I am, objectively speaking, a saggy, greasy-haired and mildly chewed up wreck. This life would not be half so fun without him and this parenting caper might be downright scary. HI HONEY!

By the way, Grant has been riding to work every freaking day since he started back 3 days in the office, including when it was 15 and when it was 36. But I might still win, because I once rode home from the city in 42ish temps. Grant has not however been doing any Wii Fit, and FOR SHAME. How am I going to get addicted again if he doesn't first?

(d) Travel

We got brave and took Beth to Brisvegas for Grant's brother's wedding, which was lovely. Travelling with a baby not so lovely, but she did sleep quite well in the Pram of Sleeping +8, just not in the Portacot of Doom.

How have you all been?