The baby and the dog bowl

What do you do on a hot summer day with no pool or air conditioning?

Put water in the dogs’ water  bowl, set towels down, and let the baby go.

I will take her to the pool one day. Otherwise, my dogs won’t have anything to drink.

Still unpacking…

…semi active on Facebook, so for now I leave you with this…

Inara "watching" the Perth sunset from our hotel room.

Phew

I’ve been slack, yes I know. But as always, everything is coming in all at once. So for now, again, I give you the dot format.

• Mum-in-law is here for a couple of weeks. This means a free nanny, knitting tutor and house company for me all day. The knitting part is making me giddy. I still have yarn addiction, you see, and she’s been knitting for over 60 years so you can imagine how much treasure she can impart.
• Starting to exercise my working bones again. The up side of being a freelance journo is the ability to work from home. A PR company has contacted me but because of the holiday, I had to postpone it a bit. The rate is good (I mean AWESOME, if I work only eight hours a week I’d be in a fantastic position). Let’s see where this goes.
• I’m handling our little company’s online store and it’s been hectic putting up the site. Almost done but man, it takes a lot of work!
• Also working on another website for our little company — different purpose, more writing for me than managing. But again, it takes a lot of planning time.
• On top of that, we’re packing to move. Again. This time I’m really happy with the place because daddy is getting his own outdoor music room. This means more space inside the house AND no noise when he’s rehearsing! Inara’s crawling and walking and there are wires, music gears and guitars everywhere — not too safe.
• I wanted to promote the photography side of my job but with everything else coming through, I will have to delay that a bit.
• On the weight front, I’ve lost around 8kg but lost momentum during our holiday. Thankfully I didn’t gain anything back, even with the diet hiatus (Angus burger, damn you!).
• Sent bags and bags of donations to the Ondoy typhoon centre in Sydney. Great timing for spring cleaning and it makes me feel better that it’s going to people who need them (and I don’t have to go through the hassles of eBay).
• For now I leave you with this pretty photo of Inara. I want to shoot her outdoors once the weather gets warmer. I love this pettiskirt! eBay rocks!

brb…

…on holiday again

Man phobia

The first time we left Inara with “strangers” was very nerve-wracking and exciting at the same time. I clutched on to her, in my black leather boots and cleavage popping dress (that I thought I would never have the chance to wear), wondering whether I was sending my nervous vibe to her tiny little body.

Kat’s family was warm and welcoming. The moment we placed Inara on the floor, she was suddenly surrounded by toy “offerings” by Kat’s kids, like a tiny little deity. It was all well and good until she saw Kat’s husband. No matter how good looking a bloke you are, it won’t make any difference. She is at a “man-fear” phase, where only Daddy and Lolo can hold her without her crying her head off.

We left her still a bit teary, but thankfully Kat can read minds and sent us a text message about how she stopped crying the moment we left the house – and managed to finish all of her food. We enjoyed our night without worry. When we came back to Kat’s place, we were stunned at the sight of Inara clutching Rob and happily being carried around by a man – gasp. What happened to the man phobia? Must be Rob’ dimples. She slept on the way home. Next stop, a night at Mimm’s so Jake has a playmate.

First word?

Inara said her first words.

Arf Arf Arf

Does that count?

Because she’s been crawling around with the dogs, she gets a direct view of them when they’re playing. Now, when the dogs play, she barks along with them. Stitch seems to understand because he answers back. The scene goes on and on until they all get tired.

But I only realised what Inara was trying to do when I saw her crawl to the door with Stitch and bark at the people passing by. It was hilarious to say the least. Here I thought she was trying to say something but it turns out, she was saying something – just in dog speak.

My baby’s been raised by dingos.

Guarding the door with Stitch

What’s in a name?

The meaning of the name Inara is illuminating, shining, an Arabian name that means ray of light, heaven sent.

Jayne originated as an Indian name that means victorious. In Hebrew, it means God is gracious.

However, our choice has nothing to do with these meanings. We picked it from Joss Whedon’s TV series Firefly. People still can’t believe we got our daughter’s name from a sci-fi show but yes, we did and we’re trying to find a way to let Joss Whedon know about it. Anyone know how?

Inara is a companion while Jayne, who is a man, is a thug with a heart of gold (sometimes). They’re not really our favourite characters, we love all the characters equally. But I fell in love with the name the first time I heard it. So there you go. Check out the TV series and the movie — you won’t regret it.

Inara from Firefly

Jayne from Firefly

Ack!!!

My work is on the cover of a magazine!!!

WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!

That's daddy and Inara's feet

Mummy updates

Mama K is….

• …happy that her resolve to be healthy (finally) is paying off. Four kilos down in less than a month.
• …amazed at how fantastic Wicked was. Awesome musical. Better ending than the book.
• ….addicted to Nickelodeon (Spongebob and iCarly – you rock).
• …rushing to get her website done. Eight of her photos on her first ever wedding shoot made it to the Wedding and Bride magazine and she’s getting an entire spread of free publicity. Her publicist is damn awesome.
• …going to buy more Shop 4 Kids magazine spring/summer edition (check out that beautiful baby girl on page 100)
• …wondering when she’ll have time for a haircut.
• …knitting up a storm. She finished three sack hats while on holiday, then a headband and now an elf hat. She has a yarn addiction and she’s loving it. Domestic much?
  

  One of the sack hats mummy made.

• …an Aussie citizen, with passport and all. Yay! No voting next year for the Phils election. Sorry Noy.

…

Busy…really busy…then just busy again.

Then off for a holiday….again.

Then busy…really busy…then busy again.

I will be back. Pramis.

a day at the park...breaking the busy schedule