Happy Birthday, Síofra Maighréad!

Síofra turned 3 today! We had a great party with over 25 people in our apartment. Despite my worrying, we had plenty of food, and the Butterfly Cake turned out great. Some of her friends from the park came along, and Auntie Ann and Grandma were up from Cork. Síofra was in her element as the party girl--she has loved parties and excitement ever since her spectacular birth.

Here are a few pics...


The Cake (very easy to do, by the way)


The blowing of the candles
(Patiently?) Waiting for cake

Questions, blog-style

Oooh! Sarah "tagged" me to answer these questions...


Three things that scare me
1) illness and injury, especially for the kids
2) finding caterpillars in a broccoli-tofu stir fry (has happened to me twice)
3) Greed, mindless consumption, exploitation, supremacy, lack of conscience...ok, I could have just written George Bush but I didn't want to copy Sarah directly.

Three People who make me laugh
1) Daithi (but not always on purpose, God love him)
2) Sarah and Becky, for the past 18 years
3) Des Bishop

Three things I love
1) Saag Paneer
2) Payday (the candybar, that is, not available in Ireland)
3) Dublin City, on a Saturday night when everybody's "buzzin'!"

Three things I hate
1) vomiting viruses
2) cleaning up throw up
3) self righteous religion, and those who try to impose it

Three things I do not understand
1) commuters...is your big backyard really worth it when you only spent 6 hours at home a day?? I'm going to the park...
2) Folks who drive big smelly toxic cars a half mile to pick up their kid from playschool
3) how I ever thought I was tired before I had kids

Three things on my desk
1) A "Flint, MI...more cars than people" sticky notepad
2) takeaway menu from Jewel in the Crown (bring on the saag paneer)
3) about 30 birth announcements for Pádraic that I never got around to sending. Too late now, I guess. He is 14 months old and I think everyone knows about him now.

Three things I want to do before I die
1) go back to Paris; it was so much more fabulous than I'd even imagined
2) give birth again
3) see my kids becoming independant, happy people

Three things I can do
1) sing every song from Anything Goes, 15 years after my high school production
2) breastfeed, type an email and talk on the phone all at once
3) fit the top of a pint glass in my mouth (I had to stop doing this trick at the pub back in 2000 after I developed TMJ, but I'm sure I'd still be able to do it)

Three things I can't do
1) use left-handed scissors, even though I'm left-handed
2) pick meat off a pizza that was accidentally put on there and then eat it (there is residue), but luckily Daithi can...
3) wear a thong. It's just not comfortable, I'm sorry.

Three things I think you should listen to
1) Sigur Rós
2) Yo La Tengo; always great.
3) Eric Eckhart!

Three things you should never listen to
1) People who tell you breastfeeding is too demanding and isn't worth it...it is.
2) Skynews, unless you're good at deciphering truth
3) your inner negative voice

Three things I'd like to learn
1) patience
2) patience
3) patience in airports

Three shows I watched as a kid
1) Love Boat
2) Fantasy Island
3) The Great Space Coaster

Dancing Queen

I know...I haven't written anything here in forever. What can I say-it's election time here and our free time is getting less and less frequent.

We have, however, found the time to watch Celebrity Jigs n Reels on RTE. I'm not usually a fan of these types of things, but I have to say this programme is catchy. Maybe I'm harking back to my days of "Irish Dancing" (and, yes, the quotation marks are necessary here, because what we were doing probably wasn't very Irish, and technically wasn't dancing) with Becky and Sarah back in the day when we were queens. Anyway, my dancing gene seems to have been passed on to Siofra because she loves pretending to do Irish dancing, including bowing from the waist at the end of the performance. Then she gets her pretend microphone and makes Daithi interview her. Here's an excerpt:

Daithi: And tell us, Siofra, do you like dancing?

Siofra: Uhh, yes, I like dancing, but it's very hard.

Daithi: And did you like the music?

Siofra: Yeah...I liked it, but...it was very...music-y.

Daithi: And where did you learn your dancing?

Siofra: Well, my mommy is a great dancer.

Wow, she sings, she dances, and she's smart, too. What a kid.

Dziekuje!

I'd like to give a quick word of thanks, or should I say "Dziekuje", to the growing Polish population we're lucky to have in Dublin. There are now well over 100,000 Polish living and working in Ireland, and thanks to them I've discovered this treat...


Mmmmm, tasty. I can't exactly read the ingredients label, but I'm guessing from the picture on the jar that "Salatka" (seems to mean salad) is a pickled concoction of green tomatoes, red peppers, carrots and onion. Let's just say it tastes way better than it sounds. If you see it, try it.

Happy Easter

The Highs and the Lows

The highs: Last week began with a 5 night stretch of Paddy sleeping through the night. After 13 months of broken sleep, we were beginning to feel fully rested once again! We'd turned a corner! I didn't even tell anyone that this was happening until that fifth night. I remember one time he'd slept through back when he was about 7 or 8 months old, and the night after I told everyone about it he was up 3 times. So, determined not to jinx it this time, I held onto my excitement for a while. But he truly is growing up, and I'll enjoy a good night's sleep because of it!

The lows: It all started with rumors of this vomiting virus going around. It seems that all the babies in my breastfeeding group had gotten it, but we'd been spared. I put this down to my kids' superior immune system, and general well being-I mean, hey, Siofra is 3 years old and has only thrown up once! Obviously I have Superkids. Then I got a lesson in why you shouldn't be smug.

It started early Friday morning when Paddy wouldn't settle back to sleep after waking at 3 am. Daithi took him out to the living room to rock him, and he threw up. He seemed ok in the morning, so we dismissed it. However, he threw up at lunch...and a really bad one that night (that took me 20 minutes to clean up--not fun for a weak stomached person like me).

I was the next victim, being struck down on Saturday evening. However hard it is caring for a child who's sick, it's ten times worse when you're sick yourself. Poor me.

Sunday morning we heard a weird coughing noise from Siofra's room. Sure enough, Daithi was putting her sheets and blanket into the wash ten minutes later. That made 4 loads of laundry that day...

Somehow Daithi has avoided contamination. Probably because of his fanatical handwashing regime this week. But he did a good job of caring for us.

We all seem to be recovered, for the most part. Paddy had it the worst, poor guy. He's still not eating like he usually does. All he wants to do is breastfeed, but at least I know he's getting fluids that way.

And last night, as a gift to us, he slept from 8 pm until 6, uninterrupted. I feel like it's Christmas.