Long time no speak ...
Jun. 24th, 2006 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
percivalIndeed, long time no update. Well, you know, I've been busy watching the World Cup! Of course, I'm happy that Germany has been performing so well, but if they have to face Argentina in the quarter finals, they don't really stand a chance.
And before the World Cup, I was busy working, falling ill (spent two days in bed with a fever), and holding down the fort when my husband was down with tonsillitis. It helps enormously that at least, our daughter has finally settled into nursery. Granted, she still complains when I leave her and when I pick her up, but she settles literally one minute after I've vanished from her sight, and she usually plays quite contently until she sees me arrive for her pickup. Babies ...
She has also begun to be extremely sociable. She flashes huge grins at random strangers on the bus. She prefers animals with faces to all other toys, squealing with excitement at their sight. She loves watching cats and dogs. When she sees one, she will again squeal with delight, and when she is on the floor, head towards the poor animal at full speed. She is undistractable when it comes to furry friends.
Her motor development is also continuing apace. She is very good at feeding herself finger food, working on her pincer grasp along the way. She cruises very confidently and will sometimes stand unsupported for a second. She isn't walking yet, and I don't know how far off we are, but she will often crawl on her hands and feet as opposed to hands and knees. When we are visiting a bookshop, she will crawl to a shelf, pull herself up, and start pulling out books.
She has also figured out that small things can be put into larger things, and that things can be picked up as well as dropped. She also loves playing peekaboo. One of her favourite games involve covering Daddy or Mummy or Baby with a shawl. We then ask "Where's Daddy/Mummy/Baby?" , and off comes the cover. She has also started turning the pages of her books, and we are getting some squeals of recognition when we come to favourite bits.
Apologies for only posting baby-stuff recently, but all my fundamental thoughts and values are currently being filtered through motherhood. One issue that I have been mulling over more and more has been ethical living - how to preserve the planet for my daughter's generation and beyond. A lot of attention is being paid to food: It is all over the news, most of the relevant books preach the virtues of independent shopping and organic produce. I'm afraid to say that I can't start there. When it comes to food, the biggest change that I have to make is to actually prepare my own meals. This has several reasons: price (sandwiches and muffins each day are costly), health (I tend to subsist on muesli and sandwiches with the odd tortellini thrown in, and that leaves me nutrient-deficient), and the offspring (I want her to eat at the table with us, and if she does, she will want to eat what we eat.) I'm still trying to figure out how to work this. My biggest problem is that when I come home at night I need my meal NOW, and oatcakes etc just won't do. So I need to pre-cook and freeze. (Preparing dinner in the morning won't work either. I need all the sleep I can get.)
However, what we can do is:
- recycle. Currently, we are recycling paper, and I need to set up systems for recycling plastic and cardboard, too. They are collected by the council, now all we need to do is collect them in house.
- switch to environmentally friendly household products. I'm being torpedoed by my husband there, who will by Spar's own brand washing up liquid, but in the long run, I hope that sense will prevail
- switch off the television when we are not watching
We do fly to Germany quite a bit, but we don't have a car. Even if we had a car, we would still be flying as frequently as we do, so our carbon footprint is still lower.
What do you do to be more environmentally friendly?
And before the World Cup, I was busy working, falling ill (spent two days in bed with a fever), and holding down the fort when my husband was down with tonsillitis. It helps enormously that at least, our daughter has finally settled into nursery. Granted, she still complains when I leave her and when I pick her up, but she settles literally one minute after I've vanished from her sight, and she usually plays quite contently until she sees me arrive for her pickup. Babies ...
She has also begun to be extremely sociable. She flashes huge grins at random strangers on the bus. She prefers animals with faces to all other toys, squealing with excitement at their sight. She loves watching cats and dogs. When she sees one, she will again squeal with delight, and when she is on the floor, head towards the poor animal at full speed. She is undistractable when it comes to furry friends.
Her motor development is also continuing apace. She is very good at feeding herself finger food, working on her pincer grasp along the way. She cruises very confidently and will sometimes stand unsupported for a second. She isn't walking yet, and I don't know how far off we are, but she will often crawl on her hands and feet as opposed to hands and knees. When we are visiting a bookshop, she will crawl to a shelf, pull herself up, and start pulling out books.
She has also figured out that small things can be put into larger things, and that things can be picked up as well as dropped. She also loves playing peekaboo. One of her favourite games involve covering Daddy or Mummy or Baby with a shawl. We then ask "Where's Daddy/Mummy/Baby?" , and off comes the cover. She has also started turning the pages of her books, and we are getting some squeals of recognition when we come to favourite bits.
Apologies for only posting baby-stuff recently, but all my fundamental thoughts and values are currently being filtered through motherhood. One issue that I have been mulling over more and more has been ethical living - how to preserve the planet for my daughter's generation and beyond. A lot of attention is being paid to food: It is all over the news, most of the relevant books preach the virtues of independent shopping and organic produce. I'm afraid to say that I can't start there. When it comes to food, the biggest change that I have to make is to actually prepare my own meals. This has several reasons: price (sandwiches and muffins each day are costly), health (I tend to subsist on muesli and sandwiches with the odd tortellini thrown in, and that leaves me nutrient-deficient), and the offspring (I want her to eat at the table with us, and if she does, she will want to eat what we eat.) I'm still trying to figure out how to work this. My biggest problem is that when I come home at night I need my meal NOW, and oatcakes etc just won't do. So I need to pre-cook and freeze. (Preparing dinner in the morning won't work either. I need all the sleep I can get.)
However, what we can do is:
- recycle. Currently, we are recycling paper, and I need to set up systems for recycling plastic and cardboard, too. They are collected by the council, now all we need to do is collect them in house.
- switch to environmentally friendly household products. I'm being torpedoed by my husband there, who will by Spar's own brand washing up liquid, but in the long run, I hope that sense will prevail
- switch off the television when we are not watching
We do fly to Germany quite a bit, but we don't have a car. Even if we had a car, we would still be flying as frequently as we do, so our carbon footprint is still lower.
What do you do to be more environmentally friendly?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-06-24 10:00 pm (UTC)I could definitely do better for the environment. I recycle paper products like newspaper and cardboard but that's it. I don't even buy too much organic anymore.
I sent you an email, btw. :)
no subject
Date: 2006-06-25 01:34 am (UTC)We also are growing some of our own vegetables this year.
no subject
Date: 2006-06-25 02:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-06-25 08:08 pm (UTC)On the recycling front, our council collects, glass, metal, paper, cardboard, plastic and garden waste. We also have a compost heap. I also get a lot of the childrens things second hand and when they grow out of things I pass them onto friends or charity shops. I have also started passing our old books to our work book depository so that others can pick them up and take them home.
I am now glad that I can put my washing on the line so I have stopped using the tumbledryer and we have had the heating turned off since spring.
Personally I need to use the car less.
But I find that organic food is too expensive.