I hope everyone else is well too, I’d love to hear how you all are. I still pop back on here from time to time to read the comments, and I’d love to hear how everyone has been…

Much love,
Nin xx

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Alive and well :)

Yes, the Christmas season has officially begun and is already well-underway and we find ourselves with action-packed weekends all the way until the event itself. This past Saturday it was the local Parade of Lights which far surpassed anything we expected. The whole town turned out to line the streets as vehicle after vehicle drove by adorned with pretty, twinkling lights. We even had a live nativity and of course there was the not-unexpected giant illuminated RV pulling the not-unexpected giant illuminated cigarette boat which pretty much epitomises the mentality of the weird place in which we live (hellooooo, environment??).

It was actually a taster of what’s to come next week as the parade takes to the water- I really can’t wait for that one, it’s supposed to be an event that’s even more huge

As soon as the parade had passed our vantage point we hurried off and jumped in the car and headed down to the Peninsula to attend a holiday party. Yes, action-packed weekend. I worried at one point that it was going to be all too much for Baby Peach and that he would scream by the time we got there, but as always he was as good as gold.

I can’t believe he’s going to turn six months at the end of this week. Wow, the time has flown.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Christmas Mark 1

I myself am the opposite (although my husband would probably beg to differ). I am actually very easy to buy for as there is usually *always* something I can think of that I’d like. Note that I said “that I’d like” as to me that is what gift-giving is all about, giving something to somebody that they’d like, not necessarily what they need. It needn’t even be anything grand, it’s the thought that counts. If a surprise cup of latte brings a smile to someone’s face, then that’s a good gift in my eyes. But at the same time it’s nice to dream of the big things too- isn’t that part of what having a wish list is all about?

So, in case anyone (ahem) is wondering what might be on my wish list this year, here are some suggestions. Ok, ok, not all of them are exactly small but like I said, a girl can dream

1) DiorShow Black Out Mascara
2) Fortnum and Mason Hamper
3) The Pioneer Woman’s Cook Book
4) A selection of bath bombs from Lush
5) The Queen on Blu-ray
6) Canon G11 camera (although I’m happy to wait for the G12)
7) Dr Hauschka Rose Day Cream
8) Bare Escentuals Smoky Eye Kit
9) Family History Journal by Graphic Image (*hint hint)
10) Williams Sonoma Peppermint Bark
11) Chunky Fairisle Vest from American Eagle
12) Chroma Kimono Cardigan from Anthropologie (small)
13) Dr Hauschka Translucent Make-up (shade 01)
14) Wooden Tea Box (*hint)
15) Debrett’s New Guide to Etiquette and Modern Manners
16) Canon EOS 5D Mk II
17) Houses of the National Trust
18) Bootie slippers from Landsend (large) (*hint)
19) Starbucks Gift Certificate
20) Morning tea in bed

So those are just a couple of suggestions as to what I might like. That was easy enough. If only shopping for my husband were so simple…

So how about you? What’s on your wish list this year?

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Christmas Shopping

Something tells me this tree might have to be put up a few more times before Christmas itself.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as That would be three kittens

This is only my third one ever, no make that my fourth, but I think Thanksgiving might be my newest favourite holiday. I love that it’s on a Thursday so there’s a short working week, I love that Black Friday is the day after and everyone runs out to the sales, I love that after all the fun there’s still a weekend of relaxation making it a nice long holiday, and above all else I *LOVE* that when all the fun is over, there’s STILL THE EXCITEMENT CHRISTMAS TO COME! I love Christmas of course, but once Christmas Day is over with, the whole of Christmas is too…

This year we stayed local and went to visit friends in the city for a fabulous home-cooked dinner, *fabulous* being the word.

Turkey comas merged into deep sleep, and deep sleep led us into morning in San Francisco.

Morning football and morning play took us to a lazy late lunch in the mid afternoon.

And from lunch we went to Union Square where we waited in the cold…

…for this…

…to become THIS!

Followed by a trip around the sales (and a new outfit for Baby Peach), ending up on the seventh floor of Macys standing in line to meet Father Christmas.

All of that and there was still the weekend to go.

Yes, I love Thanksgiving.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Thanksgiving 2009

Over the last few weeks it’s become our little weekend routine to lunch our way around the free samples at Costco and then head homeward with a $4.99 rotisserie chicken for supper. Yumm.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Are you a Costco member?

My husband was never much of a hosteller…before he met me, that is. When I first presented him with the idea of hostelling a few years back he reacted with “But people take guitars to youth hostels” and feared that evenings would be spent to the accompaniment of tuneless singing. “Oooh no, don’t be silly” I said and a couple of hostel visits later this stereotype was proven wrong. Not a guitar or other similarly stringed instrument in sight. Or should I say within earshot. “Hostels aren’t like what they used to be” I reiterated.

Until we stayed at Pigeon Point, that is. And what a fine example…

But in honesty, neither of us actually minded that much really. They did indeed sing songs well into the evening (Puff the Magic Dragon was a particular personal highlight *ahem*) but all it did was add to the charm of the place and made for some happy, happy memories. And shhh, don’t tell anyone, but I actually rather like it when people bring along their guitars (sometimes they’re really good…sometimes).

PS keep a little lookout at around 39 seconds for Oliver’s latest little party trick. He’s been doing this for a couple of weeks now and is getting rather good at it, clever little boy xx

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Why do people take guitars to youth hostels?

But yes, this is where we stayed, Pigeon Point Lighthouse! Not in the actual lighthouse tower bit, but in one of the little converted lighthouse keepers’ cottages underneath. But it was lovely. Nice fresh air, beautiful scenery and a welcome little break from it all. We even got to see some seals at the bottom of the cliff which was very special, but not as special as showing my baby boy the proper big oceany ocean for the very first time xx

More photos will probably follow, but right now there are more important things to do like making a little person’s day as happy as it can be…

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Our Trip to Pigeon Point

But *somebody* is being rather demanding this week and is REFUSING TO GO TO SLEEPY. At 5pm this afternoon I officially gave up trying to get Oliver to take his morning nap and at 6pm started the bedtime ritual so that he would turn in for the night. Easy, I thought, no morning snooze or afternoon nap today, talk about something being a doozy. Wrong. Here we are at 10pm and the little one STILL WON’T CLOSE HIS EYES. If photos don’t appear here within the next 48 hours it’s because I’ve been admitted to the local psychiatric hospital for extreme sleep deprivation. Fact.

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Photos coming soon

In the meantime, here’s a quickie self portrait that I snapped this morning when we were standing on a cliff over the Pacific watching the harbour seals below. Ignore the hair, I was a bit windswept. And yes, I’m experimenting with a new hair colour. Experiment being the word…

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Just got back…

Not ten minutes away from where we live is a lovely lake, surrounded by wilderness, with miles and miles of hiking trails. We stopped in our tracks to take it all in, yes, ten minutes away from where we live. Apparently this place is famous for its tarantulas, but we didn’t see any. That actually kind of made me glad. We looked at each other and smiled and agreed that we could not be happier with where we have moved to.

It was a big day for Baby Peach too- his first outing where he sat up in his stroller instead of lay down.

But then he fell asleep, so we reclined it all the way back down again.

He’ll get to enjoy it next time we walk there, we WILL be going back.

It’s just one of the many things around here that make me so happy that we moved xx

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as A local jewel

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as This little person…

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as Go Blue!

Oh well. I probably won’t be getting much sleep anyway thanks to my third blocked duct in five days. At least it’s a different side tonight for a change but it’s proving to be a hard one to shift. Oliver and I worked together all day and I worked on it alone for two solid hours before turning in for the night but to no avail. Sigh. I’m now hoping that the sleep fairies will vanish it away by morning. But I suppose that can only happen IF THE BOYS IN THIS HOUSE WILL STOP SNORING. GAH!

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as And in return

1) After we introduced the kittens to Chester, Chester lost his voice, started to gag. Rushed him to vet thinking something stuck in his throat. No sign of irritation. Was told it was likely furballs. Seemed reasonable as ever since the kittens moved in he’s spent every waking hour licking them. Bought furball food and kitty grass, found grass-filled cat vomit in hallway next day (nice) but no sign of fur.

2) The next day Chester gets diarrhea, OH NO, made even more OH NO by the fact that he likes to wake me in the morning by sticking his anus in my face. If a cat-anus-alarm-call isn’t bad enough as it is… yes, you get the picture. I spend a whole day chasing him round with toilet paper after I’d heard him scratching in the litter dish. Nice.

3) By evening Chester is completely mute. And tired. Relaxing for me as he normally likes to give me a running commentary of his day (OHMYGOD), but pitiful at the same time. And comical. And sorrowful.

4) Google informed me that it was likely an upper respiratory infection, or worse, WORMS. And we all know that google is always right, ahem. Now, the vet had done a fecal screening in the kittens and it came back negative, but then google informed me that there is such thing as a false negative, and it’s pretty common. And that almost *all* kittens are born with worms (I did find it rather odd that he didn’t worm them as a precaution given that I already have a healthy cat PLUS A SMALL BABY IN THE HOUSE).

5) Marched back to vet, asked for worming treatment, battled with the vet as he said that the screening was negative, so then played the Small Baby Card, and left the vet considerably poorer but with three doses of worming medicine in my hand. Returned home, dosed the cats.

6) Cats a bit grumpy that night, but the next day all three cats are completely hyperactive (and have been that way ever since; makes me think I was right). Spend next three days shovelling and replacing cat litter like a woman with OCD so that they wouldn’t get them all over again. Then read on google that they would also purge the worms, so delegated the task to DrMrNin.

7) Chester’s voice starts to return. My quiet time starts to leave.

9) Where are we up to? Oh, ok. Over the past few weeks my back has been progressively stiffening up from all the baby lifting and the ever increasing boobage etc. Monday night I roll over awkwardly in bed and pull/strain some muscle around my right shoulder blade. OMG the pain, I was WRITHING. Now I have a pretty high pain threshold (17 hours of back labour, natural childbirth, no drugs) but this I could not take. Was like back labour all over again, but like one big continuous contraction with no respite, spasm after spasm after spasm. I classed it as #2 on my overall top moments of pain, of which CHILDBIRTH IS #3. You get the picture. FYI #1 was post-childbirth when the swelling aggravated an old coccyx injury and they had to shoot me up with morphine, but I digress. Yes, the upper right back pain was so bad I had to resort to double strength Vicodine which I was told to take during my post-birth recovery. Yes, narcotics are bad whilst breastfeeding, but it was the same decision I had to take during those moments writhing in hospital following birth: take some so I could breastfeed, or not be able to breastfeed at all. Decision made. Besides, still not as many narcotics as an epidural so hopefully Oliver’s exposure wouldn’t be too great after just one pill. Punkin needed to eat, after all.

10) The next day get marched to doctor’s office by concerned husband to get referred to physical therapy. I described to the doctor the physical pain and how it was #2 on my list of all-time pain, and he shot me a look as if to say OMG YOU ARE SO WEAK and I could see flashing through his mind the likes of here’s someone who demanded a needle in her back two minutes into labour when she was only one centimetre dilated (I’m just trying to make the point that I have quite a high pain threshold). Here’s another thing: I’d only seen him a couple of weeks earlier too as I kept getting hypoglycaemic. So in addition he must have thought I was a hypochondriac. Whatever. All I wanted from him was to find out what drugs I could take to manage the pain to prevent it getting to that AWFUL stage (800 mg ibuprofen), and he referred me to PT three times a week for the next month. Apparently it’s very common for mothers around this four-to-six month stage to start experiencing back pain. And it’s also common for new mothers to experience big drops in blood sugar. All that breastfeeding….which makes sense.

11) Anyway, whilst there DrMrNin enquires if they have the H1N1 vaccine and yes, it was delivered yesterday. The nurse walks off, comes back, can’t find it after all so maybe she was wrong as she only glanced quickly. Leaves room again saying that she was sure she’d seen it so goes off to look again, and it turned out someone had moved the box (to a safe place). Not many vaccines delivered apparently. Small box. So one minute they want me to have it, the next minute I’m not, then they want to give it to me again. Now I AM NERVOUS ABOUT VACCINES as almost every time I’ve had one I’ve had a pretty big reaction to it. I’m sensitive to chemicals in general- whenever there are ‘potential side effects’ listed on the box of anything, sure enough when I feel in any way not right after taking something, I read the box and right there in plain type my ailment is listed. It is for this reason that I have to be really REALLY suffering in order to take something. Here’s another example: I had teeth removed once with nitrous oxide and I was throwing up for an entire week afterwards. No, anaesthetics aren’t that great for me either. So anyway, despite my reservations and protests (I don’t exactly mix with the general public right now as it’s sniffle season so I’m deliberately being antisocial, so my only exposure would be my husband, and on the whole I’m rather fit and healthy and besides, I NEVER GET SICK) I get guilt-tripped into it, take it for the baby and all that. But I might react, I plead and then finally acquiesce to them. Take it for the baby and all that.

12) Next day, back still stiff. Can barely move. Picking up a baby isn’t an option. DrMrNin stays home from work in the morning to be my hands. He goes into work in the afternoon only to receive a phonecall from me whining that in the process of doing a diaper change whilst attempting not to strain my upper right back, I manage to have now strained my upper left back too. He comes home.

13) Morning comes again, whole upper back now completely stiff. Spasms have stopped but only because it’s so stiff that I can’t perform any movement to bring them on. Stiffness and pain now extending down my upper arms. Did I mention also that ever since I put my right side out of action it hurt to breathe? I can’t believe I missed that part. So basically it hurt to be alive, and was spending days dosed up to the eyeballs with ibuprofen, and the shallow breathing was making me all spaced out and light headed. Fun. The physical therapy I hear you ask? Scheduled for Monday, they were one member down as she’d just had a baby so there was a bit of a wait. And yes, once again my nice husband arranged to work from home to be my arms as I was not in any state to do any lifting. And he also had to take the kittens to the vet for their follow up boosters. (Me, heavy Oliver in one hand, heavy cat carrier in the other, I don’t think so).

14) Kittens go to vet. Chester goes into a grump and whinges.

15) Kittens return from vet, a little quiet, but Chester happier (and peace and quiet for me). They are promptly licked all over by The Large White One to cleanse them of all things veterinary.

16) Start getting really tired and headachey.

17) Wake up next morning (Saturday, Halloween), don’t feel like I’ve benefited from sleep at all, keep taking the ibuprofen. Spend whole day feeling cold. Notice that by afternoon I’m starting to get headachey again and out of interest take my temperature. ONLY A 101˚F FEVER! What on earth??? Brave it out during the evening, watch husband get all excited when trick or treaters come to the door (they were out in full force, I’m telling you!). Go to bed.

18) Wake up at 2am, completely burning up. Have managed to sweat through my pyjamas so get up, change, and settle down for the night in the guest bedroom as I didn’t want to wake the others up and I could have more control over the bed coverings. Settle down to sleep. Woke up again with a start. This time I’m FREEZING. Spent rest of night with a poorly tummy with very restless sleep, fluctuating between boiling hot and shivering cold. Sweated through second pair of pyjamas.

19) Spent most of today in a similar state, in the guest bed, except my tummy has calmed down. I’ve also ditched the ibuprofen for tylenol as I think it works better for me. Back spasms a bit better at least which is either from not having lifted anything for the past few days, or because muscle aches have gone, but my temperature is fluctuating between 100˚F and 104˚F. What on earth??? Did I mention that I never get sick?

20) Google this afternoon informed me that the H1N1 vaccine has side effects and what do you know….

The following are common whole-body side effects occurring in response to either [of the four different brands of] H1N1 vaccination[s].

• Headache
• Malaise (feeling out-of-sorts)
• Muscle pain
• Chills
• Nausea
• Fever
• Vomiting

Read more here

Even the US Government’s Center for Disease Control state these side effects too. Exsqueeze me? Baking powder? But is that not what I’ve been having?? Plus I found out today that a friend of mine and her son are also a bit poorly after having had their vaccines too. Of course I can’t be sure that I am having a vaccine reaction as I have no laboratory proof and I could have some completely unrelated bug, but I can’t help but wonder. Anyway, at least Oliver will be safer after all of this and that’s what matters (I am in fact pro-vaccine, but support a person’s right to choose).

So yes, quite a lot has been going on. The upside of all of this is that Oliver’s got to spend some rather quality time with his daddy and it’s really been incredible to see. He enjoys himself so differently when he’s around his father- I’m there to nurture and soothe, DrMrNin is FUN DADDY. It’s the cutest, most heartwarming thing to see. I never imagined that parenthood could be this awesome. Plus all the rest and relaxation has given me a bit of a break from all the baby chores and I’ve been able to sit back, recharge and clear out some mental cobwebs. At long-last I feel like I’ve stepped off the fatiguing treadmill that is new motherhood and in my mind I’m a lot more chipper and beginning to feel like my old self again. See, I even had time to get a new theme up and running on here- the old one although pretty with the big pictures was a bit hard on the eyes, especially when there was lots to read. Again, all part of the mental cobwebs that got cleared up as it’s been on my To Do List for yonks.

And that brings us to now, Sunday night, me sitting on the couch bundled up in layers of knitwear trying to keep warm whilst DrMrNin sits there in a t-shirt commenting about how mild the night is. But I have made progress- earlier I was in a long-sleeve t-shirt, my old faithful cashmere cardigan and dressing gown under two blankets and two feather duvets YET I WAS STILL SHIVERING. I even had blue lips at one point. How cool is that? Not. Obviously. But I’m feeling a bit better now and my fever seems to be stabilising at around 101˚F. Unfortunately I have to postpone tomorrow’s physical therapy that I have been waiting patiently all week for, but best be safe than sorry- if I have got some nasty bug, I don’t want to go spreading it around. If I’m still feverish tomorrow it’s back to the doctor for me to get tested for H1N1 itself just in case that’s what I have as I may have contracted it before the vaccine kicked in as if that’s the case, DrMr has to be quarantined at home for the duration of the incubation period as that’s what the rules are where he works.

So there we have it! I did warn you it was going to be long, but at least things are pretty much now up to date on here, hee hee! And now I’m heading back to bed. Where I should be. To sweat it out and hope that I will feel better tomorrow as DrMrNin has to return to work (exhibiting ‘social distancing’ as his work rules like to call it) so I’ll be back on baby duty tomorrow.

At least Chester is now fully better xx

© Originally published by Nin for |••• PeachyHollow •••| as What an awful lot going on