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Sitting prettier!

Amelia feeling more confident with her sitting ability whilst playing with her toys. (see if you can spot her destructive tendency :))

Sitting pretty

Amelia's new facial expression! She loves making this face.




Amelia sitting up so well, playing with her toys.

First Supper

Amelia's first taste of solid food.




Awesome Amelia!

X-Plaining X-Factor

So Matt and I have become semi-avid fans of X-Factor. This is basically as close as the UK gets to American Idol. In fact, X-Factor is also the brain child of Simon Cowell, who is also a judge on this show. For those who might know, Leona Lewis was a previous X-Factor winner (she's the only one who's made it to the states)

But there are some key differences between the two shows, in X-Factor the contestants are divided up into four categories: Groups, Boys, Girls and over 25's. Together the judges narrow down the contestants and then the producers assign them a category to mentor. The judges pick the final three contestants in each category and then guide them through the live shows. They pick their songs and help them with their images and performances.

In the live performances, each act is voted on by the public (except they charge here, which is lame). The bottom two acts perform a song and the judges decide who will stay and who will go. Or if it's deadlocked, then it goes to who had the least amount of votes.

So it's kind of exciting to watch and see what happens. However, there is a particular group that is a complete joke. No one could believe that Louis Walsh (the groups judges) put them through. And what's worse, they have only landed in the bottom two once. And when Simon, who has hated this group since the beginning had a chance to send them home (and save a great performer) he didn't and sent it to the public vote. So I'm not sure which is worse, the fact that John and Edward (identical twins) had more votes than Lucie, or that Simon didn't send them home.

Of course he was being strategic about it, there's no way John and Edward (or Jedward as they're known here) will win, and Simon still has 3 acts in, so he's hedging his bets. By getting rid of Lucie, it makes it so there's only one girl left (all of Simon's acts are boys).

So to give you an idea, here's some YouTube clips of Jedward, as well as Lucie.



Louis always picks songs that they don't really have to sing. Past songs have been: Oops I did it again (with red vinyl suits), We Will Rock You, and Rock DJ (a Robbie Williams song).

And here's who went home instead:



It's kind of a long clip, so you can just watch some of it to get an idea.

But a travesty, isn't it? The theme last week was movie night, which is why the songs are from movies.

And just for fun, here are my two favorites (now that Lucie is gone).

Olly (again a long clip, you can watch just a portion to get an idea):



And Joe (I call him 'Little Boy Joe'):



So there you have it. On Saturday and Sunday nights, this is where you'll find us. At home, watching the X-Factor.

Any questions? Comments?

Happy Halloween!

Another Halloween has come and gone. Sometimes I miss the days of childhood when I'd ponder so seriously what I would be dressing up as for that magical night. It wasn't so much about the candy (though that was always good) it was more about the fact that Halloween night was a night of possibilities. Possibly you'd see a ghost (a real one), possibly you'd score a 'big' candy bar, possibly you'd have such a great costume, that everyone who saw you would compliment you on it. Possibly something exciting would happen. After all, if exciting things were going to happen, it makes sense that it would happen on Halloween night.

Since becoming an adult, I have to admit I've lost a little bit of that sense of anticipation for Halloween. Despite that, it's still a great holiday and I'm determined to celebrate it with my family, even though London (and the UK in general) don't exactly have the same traditions as the US.

Last year, when I was pregnant with Amelia, I had so much fun looking at various costumes for kids online. I couldn't wait for the next year when I got to dress up my child in some clever costume. If Amelia had been a boy, she would've been Superman, no question. Since I didn't have a definite costume for a daughter in mind, I spent several months wondering what would I choose to dress Amelia as (I say 'I' and not 'we' because my loving husband let me have this one, he didn't interfere at all...then again, he never really celebrated Halloween in Oz). I was disappointed in the selection of costumes that the UK had to offer, and disappointed at how expensive costumes were to order online.

Luckily, my sister saved the day, she sent us a great costume (that I picked out) from the states.

Now we had a costume, I was ready to show off my little tiger cub at our ward Halloween party. Surely there was going to be one. There are so many Americans in our ward, I didn't even consider the possibility that there wouldn't be some sort of Halloween party. Well there wasn't one. Which I still think is crazy.

So I decided we'd go trick or treating with some friends. Unfortunately stake conference (the night session) was scheduled for that night so Matt couldn't come with us, (he had to teach a priesthood seminar). So it was mostly mums and kids. I didn't plan on getting any candy for Amelia (there's always next year to steal...I mean share her candy), but it was fun to walk around with the other moms and enjoy the night.

Luckily where we live has a high American population, so there were lots of places to go and the streets were filled with trick or treaters.

Amelia looked so cute and had lots of oohs and aahs from various people, I think she was a little startled by all the attention because she started to cry after the fourth person peaked their head in and looked at her. Ah well, it's good for her, we figure it's preparation for Grandpa Ngai and Uncle Humphrey's visit in a couple of weeks.

All in all, Halloween was a great success. Amelia and I got some good exercise, had a fun time with friends, and it did feel like Halloween. I'm happy to report that the night didn't disappoint.

Sleeping beauty?

How Amelia naps (& sleeps in the night). (Apologies for the picture quality, we would appreciate a new video camera....thanks Santa).

The Great Debate

There is a very big debate in our house. One that has been going on since before Matt and I were married. One that might not ever come to a satisfactory conclusion. Unfortunately, due to the fact that Matt and I are both competitive, and very patriotic, Amelia is going to have no choice but to do just that, which is to make a choice. And this choice she's going to have to make will help determine whether she's more American or Aussie.

What is this choice you ask?

It's whether or not she'll prefer peanut butter or vegemite on her morning toast. Now, if you're a smart person, there is no debate. Peanut butter wins out every time. Unless you're one of the crazy few, who think that vegemite (which is yeast...ick) is the best spread around.

Matt is convinced she'll be a huge vegemite fan, and I'm guessing Grandpa K will actually pull for her to like it also. But I'm equally as determined that my daughter, though she's not actually been to America (yet...only 44 days left) will love PB&J's. And this is more than just her preference for peanuts or yeast, this decision will be the first step on the way to determining whether she'll prefer Australia or America, and this journey will only end when she decides which national team she'll play for when she becomes a world class soccer player.

Of course, overall we're both fine with whatever she decides, but we do each secretly wish she would choose our country.

Although, with our luck, she'll probably prefer marmalade or something very British.

A day in a life...

Amelia in the mornings.



Amelia during the day.

Rock 'n' Roll!

Amelia chilling out and her latest trick.

Because I'm So Generous.

Hello faithful reader(s). Today I'm going to give you a gift. Well, two gifts actually. If you remember a few months ago, I introduced you to the delightful world of CakeWrecks.

Now I'm going to introduce you to two other websites that can help whittle down any long hours you might have to endure in the office, or if you want to just kill time.

The first one is for all the mormon girls out there. It's a parody blog based on the 'perfect mormon house wife. One whose life is perfect and she's just a teensy bit shallow, while pretending not to be. It's hilarious. Start at the beginning. It's awesome. The site is called Seriously, so blessed! It's a great site, and I think many of my sisters will appreciate it.

The second site I'm going to introduce you to, is one where if you have any kind of trivia knowledge about anything, then this site is for you. Matt and I discovered this site before we were married and we often spend some of our evenings challenging ourselves on one, two or three of the many quizzes. It's called Sporcle.

So go, enjoy. Spend many an hour laughing and searching your brain for useless knowledge you knew you'd need some day.

You're welcome.

P.S. For those of you who mainly visit this blog for videos of Amelia. Check back soon, we've got a couple of really cute ones we're going to upload in the next day or two.

I Can Read Your Mind!

In order to give you a good understanding about the funny(ish) incident that happened yesterday, I'm going to take you through a little mind reading exercise. Maybe you've heard this before, if you have. That's great.

If not, give it a go, you might get a kick out of it. If you do decide to do it, be cool and don't look at the bottom before you're done, okay?

So here goes.

Think of your age. Now double it (so for example if you are 32, it's now 64). Now add 8 to the doubled age. Now divide that by 2. Need a calculator. It's cool. I can wait.


Ready to keep going? Now, once you've divided the number by 2, subtract your original age (32) from it.


Next you need to convert that number to the corresponding letter of the alphabet, so 1 would be A, 2=B and so on.



Got your letter?


Now think of a country that begins with that letter.


Got your country?


Now take the last letter of the country, and think of an animal that begins with that letter.


Got your animal?


Now take the last letter of the animal and think of a color that starts with that letter.


Got your color?


Now I shall attempt to reach through the internet and read your mind. I'm guessing that you came up with (put your mouse over it to highlight the rest of it after the word 'An'):


An Orange Kangaroo from Denmark!

Am I right?


If that's what you got, good for you! You're like 99% of the people out there. I know that's what I got. If you got something different than the letter 'D', you did the math wrong and probably need to go back to school.

So I did this magic trick on Matt. Thinking he'd be awed and mystified by my awesome mind reading skills.

You know what he got? An Aqua Iguana from Djibouti! Seriously, who thinks of Djibouti when naming a country that begins with D?

Needless to say, I didn't dazzle him with my psychic abilities, but he did dazzle me with his level of geekiness.

Raspberries & Rocketships

Amelia having fun at home today!

Who Are You?

As parents, we want to encourage our children (both current and future) to be whatever they want to be. We're okay if they want to be a doctor, lawyer, professional soccer (football) player or window washer.

Granted, we're new to this parenting thing, but we hadn't really expected Amelia to show her preference so early. Regardless, we'll do what we can to support her.

What is her future career you ask? Well, it looks as if she wants to be a rock star! She's already got the wardrobe and the attitude for it...but the trouble is, she can't seem to make up her mind as to what part she's going to play in the band.

Will she be a guitar player?

Or maybe a drummer?

But at least she's got the most important thing about being a rock star down. And that's how to party with her pals.

Sleeping Beauty

You would think that I titled the post 'sleeping beauty' because that's what I think Amelia looks like when she sleeps, right? Well, you're partially right. It's also because Sleeping Beauty the Disney character is quite often who I see most when I go to check on her.

Confused?

I'll explain. As most people reading this blog know, we've been 'sleep training' Amelia for the last month or so. Actually, she's already there. She pretty much always goes down without any problems. She'll only fuss if she's out of her routine and she's over tired (which has been happening a bit, due to us having appointments to look at flats almost every night for the past 2.5 weeks).

But during the day, she's just great. I still can't believe this child I put down, still fairly wide awake goes to sleep in her cot without crying. The fights to get her to nap are still fresh in my mind and I still consider it a miracle each time.

Now, from what I've read every baby has a way that they self soothe themselves to sleep. Well, Mia apparently has a few different methods. Some babies suck their thumbs. Amelia lifts her feet up really high and bangs them down on the mattress repeatedly. Or she'll bang her fists on her mattress. Or she'll alternate fists and legs. Sometimes she chatters while doing this, sometimes not. This can go on for quite awhile.

When she's getting really close to falling asleep she moves her head back and forth, really quickly. Like she's shaking her head no. She does this a lot and has since she was 2 days old. I can't help but wonder how she doesn't get dizzy. Maybe she does and that helps her sleep. Who knows?

And the last thing is something that she's started doing recently within the last month or two, but does it every day without fail. This is one area where she is truly her father's daughter, because I'm pretty sure Matt would sleep this way also if he could. He loves to be snug in his forts.

Very often when I check on her, I'll not find my daughter's face looking back at me, but more often one of the princesses on her favorite blanket.

Here's what I mean:



Cute isn't it? She's so funny, when she's really tired and we're putting her to bed, she likes to have her pacifier in (thankfully it's really the only time she needs it and doesn't wake up if it falls out), and the blanket up by the side of her face, so she can rub her cheek in it. However, after I leave, she usually grips the blanket in both hands and as you can see, places it over her head and quite often falls asleep like that. She's definitely shown a preference for this particular blanket, most likely because it really is soft.

I once read a quote from one of the Anne of Green Gables books where Anne learns about her parents and reads some letters they wrote about her when she was a baby. One has always stuck with me, its where her mom writes about the baby Anne: "I love her best when she's sleeping, and even better when she's awake."

I never quite understood that, but now I do. I love when Amelia sleeps. She looks so peaceful, and I can do things like shower or the laundry. But when she has been sleeping for a long time, I find myself anticipating her to wake up. I love playing with her and I so enjoy spending time with her.

And just for added cuteness, one more picture:


Also, these pictures were taken today, so they're about as current as you can get.

Laughing girl

Amelia's favourite pastime is hanging out with her "friends" on her playgym.

Amelia's toys

Our little girl is growing so fast, she loves playing with her toys!

Like a turtle on its back!

Amelia in calm retrospect, pondering the mysteries of the universe on her playgym....

Should I Be Worried?

I'm wondering if I should be worried that Amelia is lying on the couch, completely ignoring me and my attempts to engage her (which she usually loves) in order to watch TV?

Sweet dreams Amelia

...are visions of sugar plums dancing in her head?

Need to Update

So I'm aware that I need to update this blog (with something more than videos) but I have to admit, I'm just not sure what to write. I could write about the decent night's sleep I had last night, with Amelia basically sleeping from 10-4:30, and then back asleep until 7:30. That was pretty good. But then I'd have to write about going to the kitchen after her 4:30 feed and finding what I think was a small cockroach on our counter. We're on the ground floor, and sometimes the rain does drive in the occasional insect. But I have to admit, I've never seen one like that before. Maybe it was a beetle. Either way I grabbed a napkin and attempted to squish it, but I didn't feel any 'crunch' so I took the heavy kettle (still with water in it) and used that to pound the napkin flat. I'm pretty sure that killed it.

But then of course I had to clean up the mess and wipe down the counter etc. so despite the fact that Amelia slept late, woke up, fed and went back to bed quickly, I still was up for a little while. But better that than the worry about cockroaches in my kitchen. Don't worry, I inspected it closely and have seen no signs of any others.

So yeah, I could write about that. Or I could write about the fact that Amelia is still napping next to me on the couch. She fell asleep around 10:30am, woke up for a quick feed around 11:30 and is still going strong at 1pm. This is a rarity. I almost don't know what to do with myself. I am getting lots of things done though. Kind of. I suppose she's still young enough that if she wants to sleep, I let her sleep. If I'm wrong about that, please comment and let me know.

Hmmm...I could write about the fact that Amelia did pooh at all yesterday and I've fed her water today, hoping to get a blowout. I never thought I'd be so excited to change poopy diapers. She was doing so well and pooping on schedule. For the last two weeks she's pooped every morning around 8-9am and then was done for the day. But then she missed one day, had a huge blowout the next and then missed the day after that (yesterday). So here's to crossing our fingers. Luckily she doesn't seem to be straining too hard.

So yeah, I guess I could write about all of those things, but I'm just not sure I can be bothered. After all, I've got a sleeping baby, who because of her stirring, will be up soon. I should be folding laundry and not blogging.

I guess I'll just have to update later.

Darn Paparazzi!

This has got to be one of our favorite videos of Amelia. She's such cute girl and loves to grin and laugh. We have so much fun with her, and we really want to capture these moments of her laughing.

But like the diva she is, every time she notices that she's on camera, she immediately goes sober. This video is a prime example of that, notice at the beginning that she's looking at Matt and laughing and then watch how serious she goes as soon as she notices the camera. And also note that despite our best efforts, she won't smile again. At least until we put away the camera, then she's all smiles again.





So we tried again but by now she'd caught onto us. Watch out for the diva attitude at the end!

Mmmmm....hands...

Amelia enjoying licking her hands until she realises she is caught on camera!

10 Things I Love

Amelia is ten weeks old this Friday, so I thought in honor of her hitting the double digits, I'd post ten things that I love about her.

Now, please note these ten things are not the only things I love about her, that would be a gazillion, and this list is also not in any particular order.

1. Her smile that starts off crooked and then goes full blast when she's really happy.

2. Her chattering to her dangling animal friends.

3. How she very earnestly tells Matt all about her day when he gets home from work.

4. How she laughs and giggles to herself on a daily basis.

5. How I'll be feeding her, but doing something else, and when I look down at her, I see her grinning at me.

6. Her chubby little legs, arms and cheeks.

7. How she lights up when I hold her after not having held her for awhile.

8. How she lays her head on my shoulder and puts her other arm around my neck.

9. How she's so alert and always looking at the world around her.

10. How she's such a good girl, and doesn't cause us hardly any problems!

She's a great girl and we're so lucky to have her in our lives. She's definitely got an impatient side and a very wide stubborn streak, but I think we'll still keep her.

Watch for a new video to be posted soon of one of her favorite pastimes, sucking her fist.

Adventures in Babysitting

I am a really good friend. A really good friend and neighbor. I'd have to be to agree to watch Amelia's 'friend' (I put it in quotes because she's really too young to know what a friend is) for a few hours yesterday. Baby S's mom is someone I met at the baby clinic, S is only six days younger than Amelia, so once or twice a week we get together and go on walks or just visit. We like it because we're able to have grown up conversations with someone other than our kids and husbands.

The reason that S needed a babysitter is because N (the mom) was going to her graduation ceremony for her Ph.D. They didn't allow children under 10 years old and not having any family close by, she was in a bit of a bind. So of course I offered. I haven't participated in the graduation ceremonies of my last two degrees, but I think I would for a Ph.D.

The times that she needed were from 12:30-4:30pm. Only four hours and no big deal. So she dropped S off and the adventure began.

I guess I learned what it would be like to have twins. Except in this instance, I only knew one of the twin's quirks and how to read them. It was tough! Especially when they both cried at the same time, who did I attend to?

Luckily for me, Amelia was very good that afternoon. She slept for a good part of it and played on her play gym for the rest of it. She only really fussed when she was hungry. Baby S, on the other hand just liked to fuss when she felt like it. To be fair, she'd just had her shots the day before and was probably feeling a bit cranky, I know Amelia was the day after she had her shots.

The main thing that I got out of this babysitting gig was how different these two babies are. Amelia weighs a good 2lbs more than S and is so much stronger. Baby S is way more floppy, I honestly thought I was going to break her. With Amelia, you can practically swing her by her ankles and she'd be fine. S isn't even close to sitting up on her own (even with support) in the way Amelia has since she was 4 weeks old.

Amelia is also more physical. She really bats and smacks any dangling toy she sees, while S looked at them, she just didn't do anything else. I could go on and on, but it would start making me sound very biased towards my own child (well more biased). One thing I will say, S was so much nicer to carry around. She would just settle in the crook of my arm and she is so light! Amelia is such a chub, and kicks and moves all the time, it's hard to do that.

Overall it was a pretty good experience. I didn't like how S's mom was 2 hours late though, because S really started to get cranky toward the end and spit up no less than 4 times in those two hours.

Anyway, now we've got some credit in the babysitting bank for the next time Matt and I want to go out. I will say this though, I'm really glad I don't have twins.

Shot Through The Heart...Or Thigh...

Amelia got her first round of immunizations yesterday. She had to get two shots, one in each leg and I was so proud of how well she did.

The nurse had me hold her, and Amelia looked up at me with an expression of "Hey mom, what's happening (or does she say 'mum')? The nurse did the first shot, it was over very quickly and it took a second for it to register to Amelia that something painful had happened. She had this look of huge surprise on her face and then shot me a very wounded look which said 'Mom, how could you?'. Then she started crying. She cried through the next shot also.

However, after a quick cuddle in the office, she had calmed down before the nurse had even finished her paperwork.

She's been a little clingy/grumpy today, but despite that, she's still given me several smiles and has engaged me in several conversations. If only I spoke baby talk. She really does earnestly tell us all about what's going on. Especially to Matt when he comes home from work. She tries to tell him all about her day. We think she'll be an early talker.

Hopefully we'll get a video up with some sound and actually catch her doing it.

Wow, these blogs are so exciting. If only I wasn't so tired, I'd actually be more witty when I post these.

First Babysitter

On Saturday, Amelia had her first experience being babysat by someone that isn't a member of our family (my mom watched her for a couple of hours when she was here while Matt and I went to dinner). We have some lovely neighbors who have two kids of their own. Apparently their experience with their own kids has helped them be in tune to the needs of brand new parents, even if those parents don't know what they need themselves!

For a few weeks now, they've been insisting on babysitting for us so we can get some time to ourselves. We deflected them a few times, not wanting to fling Amelia on them, especially if it was a night that Lindsey was on her own (her husband is the stake president). However, earlier this week Matt got an email from Alan stating that they were going to watch Amelia on Saturday, no arguing.

So we dropped her off at their place and went to see the newest Harry Potter movie. It's really the only movie coming out that Matt and I both wanted to see in the theater, but we were planning on taking shifts (meaning I go one day, he goes the next). But this way we were able to go together.

I was a little nervous about leaving my little girl alone, even though I had the utmost trust in the people watching her, but it was still tough. But of course she did just fine and actually slept most of the time while we were gone.

And it was great to be able to do something without baby juggling and just the two of us. The movie was pretty good too.

So I guess we've passed a first milestone in our new lives as parents. I know, I know, soon enough we'll be anxiously looking forward to the babysitter coming over, but for now we're still pretty happy spending time as a family. We're still getting to know each other after all.

Amelia goes in for her first round of immunizations today, I'm sure it'll be harder for me than for her. I hope it doesn't make her feel unwell, poor girl. We do have the baby paracetamol on hand though, just in case.

See? I knew this blog would be so much easier to update when Amelia arrived.

Better Updater...

My goal is to be better at updating this blog. I should be, we don't have any family close by us so I should be regularly updating Amelia's developments. I'm so entranced with this little girl. I know that every parent thinks that their baby is the smartest/cutest/most perfect etc. But I really do think that mine is.

Amelia is getting to be so much fun. She's really starting to chatter and talk to herself. She's really alert and loves laying on her play gym. It has arches that go over her head and has little dangling toys that hang down and she will lay there for long stretches of time and just talk to the animals. The butterfly is her favorite, she loves to bat at it and talk baby talk to it.

She's also so alert! In fact the other day when we were at the clinic an older lady saw her and commented on how aware she is. She commented that she could be looking at a future Prime Minister. I didn't have the heart to tell her that unless Matt and I get citizenship here, then she won't qualify to become Prime Minister. But it's okay, I took the compliment.

The thing is, Amelia really is very alert. I don't know how other babies are at 8 weeks, but she loves to look around and holds her head up really well. It's hard to believe that she's only 8 weeks old, that's not that much time, yet it feels like she's been in our lives for forever.

On Saturday Amelia is going to have her (and mine) first experience of being with a babysitter. My mom watched her for a few hours when she was here, but this is the first non family member to watch her. We have some lovely neighbors who have insisted that they take Amelia so that Matt and I can have some time alone together, they wouldn't take no for an answer...so Matt and I are going to hit the Saturday matinee of the Harry Potter movie. We both wanted to see it in the theater, but we were going to take shifts, now we can go together. What a novel idea.

So yeah, I feel officially entrenched in the world of parenthood. Now if only I could finish dropping off this baby weight. I'm able to zip up my pre-pregnancy jeans, but they're still a bit too snug to actually wear out in public yet. I'm getting there though, Amelia and I enjoy our daily walks, they put her right to sleep.

Other than missing my family, my life is pretty darn good. Sometimes I still can't believe it.

Drink your bottle!

Amelia is starting to smile so much! Of course she didn't fully cooperate with the movie director...little diva ;)

Latest Video

The Mark of a Good Dad...

I know this is a little late for Father's Day, but I thought I'd share a story anyway. I think one of the true marks of a good dad is when his newborn daughter decides to have a giant poop in the middle of the night, not only does he wake up, assess the situation (i.e. mom trying to clean her up without waking dad), take the poo soaked clothes and rinse them out in the 'poop bucket', but he hums a happy song to himself while he's doing it.

This is just one of many examples I've seen over the last five weeks. I definitely married well.

Happy first Father's Day Matt!

Amelia the pooh!

A rare event captured on video, as Amelia takes care of personal business in her diaper.

Amelia's first video!

Already a superstar, here's Amelia!

A Matter of Perspective...

Every now and then I post on here about the differences in communication Matt and I have. Usually, it's not too bad, an Aussie and a Yank living in the UK can usually come to a good middle ground on vocabulary and accents. But every now and then, a little confusion still happens.

Today was such a day.

We decided to be crazy and adventurous today and see a matinee of Star Trek. It's a short bus ride from our flat and movies (and short distances) are some of the few things I can still do comfortably being 9 months pregnant. The theater is also located in the same complex as the large Sainsbury's where we shop.

After the movie, Matt headed down to Sainsburys to pick up a few things we needed, while I cooled my heels at a coffee shop also in the complex (normally I'd go along with him, but I keep getting dang contractions that don't go anywhere, but are intense for short spurts, I was going through such a time).

When we got home, Matt was in the front room/kitchen area putting things away and I was in our bedroom tending to the all important (and quite consuming) task of taking my shoes off my semi-swollen feet. Now our flat is very small, so it's not uncommon for us to be able to carry on a conversation while in these two spots.

I will now attempt to recreate our conversation as I heard it:

Matt: Oh, you know what I forgot to get?

Me: What?

Matt: More mince.

Me: Oh, (I'm not too bothered by that).

Matt: Oh! And you know what else I forgot?

Me (struggling with reaching down to take off my shoe): What?

Matt: Cod.

Me (puzzled because we don't really eat much fish and cod definitely wasn't on the list): You forgot what?

Matt: to get a cod!

Me: Cod?

Matt: No...COD!

Me (thoroughly confused): You forgot to get cod?

Matt (deeper in the kitchen): Yes, I forgot to get a cod.

Me (still confused): Cod? As in C-O-D?

Matt: No, a Cod! C-A-R-D!

Me (remembering that we needed to pick some up for weddings/birthdays today): Oh, a card!

Matt: That's what I've been saying this whole time!

So there you have it, people complain about communication in their marriages all the time, but in our case I think there's actually some legitimacy to the claim.

Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better...

There are few things I like more in the world than watching Matt watch football. He gets so into it, and it's pretty funny to watch him yell at the TV and be an armchair quarterback (though I'm not sure what you call it when it's related to soccer/football).

He's convinced that if given a chance, he'd be the best football manager in the world.

I've come to the conclusion that men never grow out of wanting to be firemen or policemen or professional athletes, it's nice to see the little boy inside, eh?

No baby yet, but we're anxiously waiting. Matt can't wait for the day when he can watch sports with our girl. He's convinced she'll be as into it as he is from day one. Personally, I think she'll need a few months.

Return of the Kate-I?

Hey all of you who might stumble across this blog. Sorry about the delay in posting. I've been waiting for Matt to take his turn, but the shine of blogging has lost its luster for my loving husband and he has not been able to come up with something 'acceptable' to blog about. Personally, I think he puts too much pressure on himself to come up with something witty and interesting.

So it looks like you'll be hearing from me mostly, which is okay. He's a hard working man who deserves to relax after work and I've got plenty of time. Because I'm just hanging out here, waiting to pop out our spawn.

Speaking of me being pregnant, I still am. Yup, no baby yet. Though I've noticed, since I'm now 8 months pregnant that I can relate to a character in the Star Wars movies that I never thought I'd be able to to relate to. But the other day, it occurred to me that I've become unfortunately like Jabba the Hut. Let me explain.

Like Jabba, I'm now of a large size. And like Jabba, I can't move around very easily. In our flat, our furniture came with it. Our couch is less than comfortable, and lately in order to be able to sit on it comfortably (we don't have much other furniture), I've had to drag in two pillows from our bed to be placed on my back and side (I kind of sit in the corner). And since my temperature changes every other minute, there is also a blanket. So it's not unusual for me to be sitting on my 'throne' all fat and sassy, much like Jabba.

I also have my hot slave whose only job is to fetch things for me. Because I'm having more and more difficulty getting up and down off the couch, my personal slave (much like Princess Leia) fetches things for me. Food, dishes, napkins, small toads that I eat live...whatever my heart desires. And just because it pleases me, he does it all in his gold, skimpy underwear.

And much like Jabba, I've become a bit of a messy eater, I slobber crumbs and sauce all over me and my large worm-like tongue whips around, licking all that's within reach. And also like Jabba, I've started speaking in a language that has only a few words recognizable in the English language. Like when I'm struggling to adjust myself, I may sound something like "grabba...ugha...back...ochy...sore".

So there you have it, my unexpected and uncanny resemblance to Jabba the Hut. I've accepted it, there's nothing I can really do about it. And honestly, was Jabba's life that hard? I'd like to put forth that it wasn't. Everyone came to him. He was ablet to conduct his business all from his own personal 'couch', he had his every need taken care of as well as some nice eye candy in his hot slave. I have all those things as well. So I'm not complaining, just stating a fact.

Though I'm honestly not sure how much I can milk this, I mean, Leia did end up strangling Jabba on her own chain. I think I'll try to get things back to normal as soon as Baby Jabba is born, so that my own personal Leia doesn't feel the need to do the same, except with a diaper instead of a chain.

So Many Diapers!!

So I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I'm pregnant. Pretty pregnant. I probably could qualify as 'heavily pregnant' at this point. Though I'm not sure, Matt and I had a long discussion last night over when a woman becomes 'heavily pregnant' versus just regularly pregnant.

Anyway, babies require lots of stuff. Apparently to be a good parent you have to do things like clothe them, feed them and for society's sake, provide some sort of poop and pee catcher around their bums.

Well Matt and I are very responsible. And yeah, we thought we'd try to be good parents first, before we go the route of being just mediocre parents. And knowing that babies like diapers, we thought we'd be smart and spread out buying them. So we have been. Every time we go shopping and see deals on diapers, we buy them. We thought we were doing pretty well. Sure our grocery bills are now almost double than what they used to be, but hey, we're good parents.

At least that was our intention. Until we found how many diapers babies actually go through a week. Apparently, it's lots. And with all our buying on deals, we realized that we maybe have enough for a month.

Yikes, already this kid is costing us more than we thought it would. We looked into doing a return on the baby, but apparently it's a no refund/no return type of situation. So we did the next best thing, we've decided to think of ways to keep our diaper bills down. Here's what we came up with.

*We purchase a large tarp that we spread all over the living room floor. Baby is free to crawl/run/walk on it and does so with a bare bum. When nature calls, she is free to go wherever she's at. At the end of the day, we take the tarp outside, wash it off and leave it to dry for tomorrow.

*We train the baby to go in a litter box. We can even use litter like for a cat (we'd make sure it's the finest brand though), that way we can just scoop the poop/pee clumps out and save lots of money. Plus, if we get a cat, they can share.

*When we go out in public, we're going to take a page from the Chinese way of doing things, see in China the kids wear open bum pants and just go wherever they're at. At the time I thought it was nasty, but now I see the wisdom. Plus, she'll be half Chinese, so we can totally get away with it without too many dirty looks.

*We teach baby to inform us when she needs to go, then we just hold her over the toilet and she lets loose. Kids are doing some amazing things really early on, so we're confident our smarter than average kid will be able to handle it.

So there you have it. Some fool proof ways of cutting down the cost of diapers as well as instilling a sense of freedom in your child. You'll thank me, I promise.

Plus being good parents is way overrated. Our kid isn't going to get on American Idol or Survivor with a story about being raised by 'good parents'. Not enough sob factor.

You Are What You Eat!

Despite living in the UK for two years, Matt and I are pretty pleased how how un-British we are. We feel comfortable in our objective point of view on all things relating to British pop culture. Every time we watch a 'The 50 most funny moments in TV' we weep for the British sense of humor. Granted, the Brits have given us some very, very funny things like the original The Office, Extras, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python and many others. But trust me when I say that there are so many 'funny' moments that aren't really that funny. And there is an obsession here with certain celebrities which make even this pop culture American scratch her head. For example, Kylie Minogue would be voted queen if it worked that way. We can't figure out how this British press, known for its scathing reports on celebrities, sees no wrong with this woman. I mean, she's not really all that great and talented. It is funny how they call her things like a 'national treasure' and very conveniently forget that she's actually from Australia! Americans will best remember her as the woman who sang the 'Locomotion' song from the 80's.

Despite our staunch efforts in maintaining true to our respective countries, it has occurred to me that in some ways, we are becoming entrenched in the UK lifestyle. For example, we know who Lulu is. We know who Mylene Klass is (and hate her). When the papers talk about Jade Goody, we know exactly who it is and lately we've been humming the hit single "Promise" by Girls Aloud, despite the fact we never listen to the radio.

We look at loud tourists and shake our heads. We walk very fast, like any good Londoner does. We're starting to know all the political players and what party they represent, and even what that party stands for.

And heaven help me, but I can't stop calling diapers 'nappies' and pre-natal things 'antenatal'. You can't help but get caught up in the things around you I guess.

Lately it's become apparent in some of our meal choices. Before getting married, I was not a good cook. Well, I don't think I was, I never actually cooked enough to see whether I was good or not. But since being married, I would now say I've progressed to a mediocre cook. I'm doing better and have actually put together some semi-decent meals. Matt is a fantastic cook. He can just whip anything up and it'll taste pretty good (with only one exception...which wasn't very good, but the concept was there). In fact, we had company over last night and Matt made his famous lasagna and everyone could not stop raving about it. Myself included. It was even his first time making it vegetarian, since one of our guests doesn't do the meat thing.

Lately we've worked in two meals that have quickly become our favorites. We've started incorporating sausages into our meat rotations, we found a brand that is cheap and very yummy. So of course, that leads us to making Bangers and Mash (bangers are sausages, mash is mashed potatoes). And let me tell you, yummy! Now you have to know that our bangers are not like the link sausages in the States, nor are they the brats kind that you can get either. They're just regular yummy bangers.

I even made the mash from real potatoes and unlike our Christmas dinner when I tried to make it then, they turned out fantastic. Very creamy and very yummy, I have to admit I was proud of myself.

We've also started doing what we call 'Breakfast for Dinner' which might sound complicated to some of you, but basically it's where we cook breakfast foods and eat them for dinner. See? It's pretty self explanatory when you hear it that way, don't you feel silly?

But do our breakfasts include items such as pancakes, waffles, cereal or hash browns? Not on your life. We've become too British for that! Instead we have what is called a 'full English' which includes eggs, bacon, sausage, and beans on toast (okay, I don't eat the beans, but I have toast). It's also often served with mushrooms and tomatoes, but we don't do that. It's not the healthiest meal, which is why it's a treat, but trust me, it's a yummy meal.

So that's it. Slowly but surely, we're becoming British-ised. Though no matter how long we live here, I'm pretty sure we'll always be the "Aussie and American" living in London. And I'm pretty sure we'll never, ever fall under the spell of Kylie Minogue. Or Kate Moss for that matter.

Where you poo matters.

This commercial is one we see all the time. It's a testament of how sophisticated our lives are in London.

It's actually one of our favorites, and we quote it all the time. I think after watching it, you'll see why.



We just hope that the little boy grows up to be a major movie star and then this can be played on one of those 'before they were stars' shows. It's just that good.

It's snowing!

Greetings from snowy London!


How good can this get, listening to Take That and drinking hot chocolate while it snows outside!


Famous Abbey Road....


Long may it snow!

A Face Only a Mother Could Love?

For those of you who just assume our baby will be cute because of her mixed heritage, I thought I'd see if your optimism was justified. So after extensive studies of our faces, features and backgrounds a company (that only cost us 10,000 GBP to do) came up with this rendition of our soon-to-be member of our family.

And all I can say is...yikes!



What do you think about my little new baby Baby Ngai?
MakeMeBabies.com - What will your baby look like?


While I dig the curly hair, I'm not sure how much I like the fact that my daughter has a five o'clock shadow in that picture. Nor the uneven skin tone...hmmm...

What do you think? Is there any hope for our spawn?

I Have A Vision...And It's In Euro!

Last night, Matt and I had the opportunity to go to a live television extravaganza at the BBC studios. Our friends had two extra tickets to this live extravaganza and we couldn't resist the pull of the bright lights and glamor of show business. It's always fun to see how things work on tv, and yes, we do sound very cool when we casually mention our night out at the Beeb. But there was another reason we were excited. Well, at least why Matt was excited. See, the live televised extravaganza wasn't just any ordinary show...oh no...it was to narrow down with act would represent the UK in the Eurovision competition.

Eurovision? You're thinking to yourself. That sounds like a 3D show you'd see at Disneyland or something! Trust me, I know. Before moving here, I'd never heard of it either. And since moving here, I'd heard of it, but kind of thought it was cheesy and a really weird waste of time and money. Let me give you a little history, Eurovision has been going on for years, like since 1956 and is one of the longest running programs in the world. It's also one of the highest watched non sporting events in the world (thank you wikipedia). Traditionally, the acts are kind of cheesy and usually the winner might do okay in their country and in some areas around Europe, but rarely do they make it really 'big'. the most notable Eurovision winners who have won are Abba, and Celine Dion (who interestingly enough was representing Switzerland, not sure why since she's French Canadian). And that's it. Like I said, in recent years, the Eurovision contestants have been kind of cheesy and laughable (in my opinion, Matt completely disagrees).

The UK hasn't won a Eurovision contest since 1976...at least that's the impression they gave us last night at the live extravaganza, but according to wikipedia and the official Eurovision website, the UK actually took first in 1981 and 1997...so I'm not sure what's up with the lies we were led to believe.

Anyway, no matter when the UK last won, they are determined to win it again (which made much more sense if they hadn't won for 30 years, not so much now). Andrew Lloyd Webber the musical genius who wrote Phantom of the Opera, Evita, Cats, Jesus Christ Superstar and a whole bunch of other musicals, is writing the song that the winning act will perform at Eurovision. He's teamed up with a really talented (American) lyricist who's name I can't remember, but has written a bunch of songs we've all heard of (Rhythm of the night, Nothing's going to stop us now etc).

The live extravaganza is called "Your Country Needs You" and consists of six acts total, one is eliminated each week. The public votes for who they like and the lowest two are in the 'danger zone' and ALW gets to save one of the acts. So yeah, it's like American Idol or X factor...except the voting lines are only open for about 20 minutes and you know that same night who will get sent home. Last night narrowed the acts down from five to four.

So yeah, that's how we spent our Saturday night. It was fun to see all the behind the scenes moments of a live broadcast. We didn't realize that our tickets were just for standing room. We'd already been standing in line and whatnot for about 2 hours and to stand for another 2 hours and dance or whatever (right by the stage) was not ideal for an almost 6 month pregnant woman. Matt flagged an official person and asked if there was a spare chair available (which were reserved for friends and family and people who know important people) and they were able find an empty seat for just me. So I sat with the cool kids, while Matt and our friends hung out down below and danced the night away. It suited all of us just fine!

So because of last night we can add to our list of celebrities we've actually seen with our own eyes and in Matt's case, he was literally two or three feet from them (since he was right between the stage and the judges area).

We have Andrew Lloyd Webber:

Graham Norton (he hosted):

Duncan (from the defunct group Blue, he's a UK celeb):

And of course, one of the potential Eurovision winners. Maybe they'll make it huge and we can say we knew them when...

Jealous? It's okay...you can live vicariously through us.

Overheard...

Matt is playing FIFA '08 right now and apparently in a very tough match. A referee made a call he didn't agree with and this is what I heard exclaim loudly from the living room (in all seriousness):

"Man! That is unfair to the max!"

I love that he's stuck in the 80's. To the max.

You can thank me later

Tonight I stumbled upon this...it can only be described as a jewel of a website. And I thought the three of you who are my sisters and mom who read this blog would get a kick out of it. The website is called 'cake wrecks' and that's exactly what the site features...cakes that for one reason or another could be construed as wrecks. There are lots of different categories, and I encourage you to head over there if you'd like to kill some time and have a laugh.

But I couldn't resist putting some of my favorites on here though.

Although there are all kinds of cakewrecks on the site, I mostly got a kick out of the ones featuring literal translations. For example:

Apparently the recipient was having triplets and the instructions were to write 'congratulations' three times. But it gets better, check this one out:

Obviously the instructions were to write 'welcome' on the cake. I especially love the attention to detail the decorator has, they even included the quotation marks!

I don't think this one needs any further explanation!

I love it, rather than taking the time to actually create firework explosions, they just wrote it. But it still gets even better, this is my second favorite one:

What a way to celebrate the Olympics, eh? But it's not my favorite one, this one really does, if I may, take the cake:

Apparently the person requesting the cake was having a Wizard of Oz theme party. She didn't want to over complicate things by requesting a cake with a yellow brick road or anything like that, so she just instructed the cake designer to write 'Somewhere over the rainbow' except that was taken a bit too literally! And they didn't even spell 'somewhere right'.

Of course it's not all about literal translations. Apparently, misspellings are very common as well. And I didn't realize this before, but apparently the most misspelled word in the English language is 'Congratulations'. Here are some prime examples:


Awesome, right? But these cakes aren't all about what's written on them. Nope, some of them are just funny in their own right. Like this one.

I'm sure Jerry's friends are really wishing him luck, look how happy they are for him! Or how about one which is a minimalist's dream.

You know it's a winter cake because it says 'winter' at the top and there's a snowman at the bottom.

Of course some cakes are just not right.

I mean, it's impressive that it's an actual cake, but could you imagine taking a big knife to that thing? It's just a little too life like for my tastes (pun totally intended).

And this one I couldn't not post. Sorry if some on here find it offensive, I found it very funny. Apparently this cake was actually brought to an actual office. I assume it was the Scranton branch at Dunder Mifflin.

And now a few bonus cakes...here are some more funny ones.

I wonder what Libby does to be so close to death. And their birthdays are so close! Cool or scary? You decide.

I love the literal translation of this one. I'm guessing it was supposed to be Aunt/Mom, but they've spelled out slash. Or it's one twisted family and they're encouraging their aunt to flash their mom. Who knows?

Anyway, head over to the site, you'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll be glad you did. And yeah, you're welcome.