Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Isabel's LiveJournal:

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Thursday, August 20th, 2009
8:55 pm	Night walking I just got back from taking the dog for a brisk half-hour walk, and it was great! It seems like ages since I was able to walk at my own (rather fast) pace, without a pram or baby sling or a child holding my hand. I really enjoy my meandering walks with the boys, finding treasures and pointing out interesting things in other people's gardens, but tonight was satisfying in a different way. It's a lovely time of year - the air is cool, still with the tang of smoke from people's fires, but overlaid with the scent of early spring flowers: jasmine, magnolias, freesias. Noushka makes a very cheerful walking companion and probably enjoyed it more than I did. I am definitely going to do this more often! (Comment on this)
Thursday, November 13th, 2008
8:46 pm	Stuart is exploring words that rhyme. Just after breakfast a few days ago, he went and got a pear from the fruitbowl and carefully put it on the bottom stair. Then he found a teddy and put it with the pear, and last of all asked me to help him move a dining chair over there as well. I suggested one of his little plastic chairs. A few seconds later I was invited to come and see the result: a pear, a bear and a chair on the stair! Later that day, visiting his grandmother and playing with a big old red teddy bear that's been delighting Palethorpes for at least 30 years, he made up this poem: Big Red Ted, Are you going to bed? No I'm not. Are you going to stop? Okay, the last two lines don't quite rhyme, but I still think it's lovely! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
10:11 pm	The babe leaped Following a recipe tonight, I was about to start finely chopping some nuts by hand, but then decided that it would be easier to put them in the food processor. I'd forgotten how loud this is - when I turned it on, the poor baby (who had been still for some time, probably sleeping), gave an enormous jump and then started a steady kicking. I felt rather guilty and quickly sang some lullabies to calm it down! It hasn't gone back to sleep, but I'm sure that what I'm now feeling is contented kicking. (And when the sound of the food processor came upon my ears, the babe leaped in my womb... do you think this means there's something special about my food processor?) (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 19th, 2008
9:23 pm	The Owl and the Pussy Cat (and the Peanut) A few days ago I recited 'The Owl and the Pussy Cat' to Stuart for the first time. It was wonderful to see a huge smile spread over his face as he listened, and to hear 'do it again, Mummy' at the end of each repetition. By the next morning, less than 24 hours later, he could recite the whole poem (with the odd prompt when he got stuck) and takes great pleasure in doing so - especially the last few lines: And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand, They danced by the light of the moon, The moon, The moon, They danced by the light of the moon. (with such a huge grin that he can hardly get the words out). The whole thing was such a delightful experience that now I'm wondering what other poems might have a similar effect. Any suggestions are welcome! We've also just discovered that Stuart is at the perfect stage for 'The Muddle-headed Wombat', and he is really enjoying that in installments at bedtime. It's quite exciting to have moved on to this stage. And I think... although I could be wrong... that I felt the baby move for the first time today! I'm 15 weeks pregnant, so it is not too unlikely since this is a second baby. (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 4th, 2007
3:02 pm	Strange conversations This morning at 9am there was a knock on the door. It was the man who had been mowing the empty block of land next door (for the first time since we got home - it had been looking really wild). He said "I've got your window". It turns out that one of our upstairs winding-out windows had been ripped off by the wind last night and flung several metres into the empty block. We were lucky that the long grass was cut today and not yesterday, because the long grass obviously cushioned the fall and the glass is intact! We are now planning to change to double-hung windows upstairs, which seems stupid in some ways, since they are only five months old, but it might be safer in the long run! In other news, Stuart has learned how to say 'um'. For about a week he prefaced every reply with this useful word, and as a result Hugh and I have realised how much we must be using it ourselves! We have started to clean up our speech and Stuart now only says 'um...' if he doesn't know the answer to something. He is saying quite complex things at the moment (e.g. 'balls all rolling down one by one', singing 'Happy birthday to Grandad' complete with hoorays and blowing noises for the candles at the end). (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
1:01 pm	Stuart's latest song Old farm, Ee-i-ee-i-o. Dog. Ee-i-ee-i-o. Woof woof here, woof woof there. Woof, woof, woof woof woof! Old farm, Ee-i-ee-i-o. Current Mood: amused (Comment on this)
Monday, May 7th, 2007
10:11 am	It is starting to feel very weird. In three days we will be on our way home, via England. I have been looking foward to this for ages and I'm very excited, but it is still weird! I expected to be frantically working in my last few weeks, and of course to a certain degree I am, but since Hugh and Stuart are both sick and have required antibiotics and multiple trips to the doctor, I have spent less time at work over the last two weeks than most of my time here! Or at least, it feels that way. Oh, and by the way, this morning I have a really sore throat... It has been hard being here in many ways, but there are lots of great things I will remember. The work has been very interesting and I will miss it and my colleagues - I have definitely learned a lot. We have lived in a beautiful part of Munich, right opposite a huge park that looks fabulous in any season and has very cute squirrels (lots of colour varieties, from red to black, but all native and so we are allowed to admire them! No introduced grey squirrels here). I also had the chance to really see what a wonderful father Hugh is. He has done a great job. And lots of other things as well, too numerous to mention. IT will be so great to be home! Most of you will see us soon, so I don't really need to tell you about what new things Stuart is doing, but I will anyway. He is putting together words more and more. A few days ago I was typing at the computer and he wanted a turn. So he said "Type! Type!". I told him that he had to wait because I was typing, and he insisted "Tu-tu type!" (that is, "Stuart type!"). He also says things like "Mummy here. Daddy here. Tu-tu here." Oh, and we are leaving just in time, because yesterday he worked out how to open the front door to our flat - the door that opens out onto the landing and four flights of stairs that he really needs help with (not in his opinion, of course). (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 14th, 2007
9:08 pm	You do the hokey-pokey... Have a look at the three intrepid travellers on auditorsrgr8's journal. I still haven't spent the time to work out why I can't post photos, despite all the helpful advice given to me last time! I really will do it when we get back. We have only 26 days until we leave! They are going to be abolutely frantic, since I have huge amounts of work to get through still. It is difficult because I just can't work non-stop as I would have done before Stuart was born. As it is, when I leave for longer than usual (I went to work today, for example, even though it is Saturday) I feel absolutely dreadful. He needs more time with me - but very soon now he will have heaps of it, and I really look forward to that. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 24th, 2007
1:06 pm	Snow! It has been a very warm winter here so far, often as warm as 15 degrees during the day. But now we finally have proper snow! It snowed yesterday, then all night last night and all morning, and it is still snowing now. I walked down by the park to the train station this morning marvelling at how beautiful it was, only to discover when I arrived that it was also very inconvenient. There were all sorts of problems with the trains, and it is difficult to know what to do when all you can understand of the announcement coming over the loudspeakers is that it mentions your train line. However, I did finally make it to work, and now I can sit in the cosy office watching the snow build up in the courtyard below. Oh, and working, of couse... (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, November 7th, 2006
10:19 pm	London We went to London last week, and here are some fun things that happened. PAcking: the morning that we left was pretty busy, and Hugh and I were running around doing things. At one stage Stuart was playing in the living room where our case was, putting some of his books in and taking them out again. When we came into the room a little while later, he was surrounded by the contents of a bag of baby muesli that had been packed in the case. It had spread absolutely everywhere - it was as if it had snowed inside the room. On our first night in the hotel in London, there was a fire alarm. We stumbled out of bed, threw on some clothes, grabbed Stuart and some clothes for him and went downstairs. We were kept outside for one-and-a-half hours. Unfortunately I hadn't grabbed Stuart's socks or hat (he just had woolen pants and jumper plus a jacket over his PJs), so I had him zipped inside my coat, but he was still cold and unhappy. After 45 minutes we tapped on a car window and asked the people inside to let us sit in the back seat. They kindly did, and we spent the next 45 minutes discussing Kerry Packer (the guy's ex-fiance was one of his stewardesses) and watching TV in a heated car! Very surreal. Stuart can count! Without help, he can count to about three (he is very good at one and two), but he repeats numbers up to about eight. He also does colours, but is mostly wrong. Hmmm... ACtually, he often gets purple right, but blue, red, yellow and orange seem pretty random, and I haven't heard him say green. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 22nd, 2006
9:31 pm	Stuart is walking! Stuart took his first unsupported steps today! I'm really glad it happened when Hugh and I were both at home. I was with Stuart in the kitchen, making his dinner. He took a few steps alone and I called Hugh, but he had stopped by the time Hugh arrived. Then he did it again, and this time when Hugh came in Stuart walked for the third time towards him. He is wobbly, but he is walking! Current Mood: excited Current Music: X-files theme song (we are watching dvds) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, October 21st, 2006
8:08 pm	Knitting success! I have finished the green and white stripey jumper and trousers I have been knitting for Stuart ever since we arrived in Germany. See Hugh's journal for a picture - for some reason he can post photos and I can't. Don't they look lovely? We took him to the doctor on Friday to check that the tonsilitis was all gone, and he wore his new clothes (over tights, a singlet and a long-sleeved t-shirt, and topped off by a jacket, hat and warm socks). The doctor said that they were perfect for the cold weather. When I told him I had knitted them myself, he said "Bravo! Congratulations!" and shook my hand! I call that a very positive knitting experience! Today, I have ordered some lovely Anny Blatt wool for my next two creations (again for Stuart). Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: Cloudstreet - the wine song (7 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, October 13th, 2006
5:14 pm	Achievement I have just submitted a paper based on work from my PhD to the journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. This is the first paper I have submitted from my thesis! This is really exciting, but also slightly depressing, since it is more than a year since I handed in my thesis and I have about another 6-7 potential papers to extract from it ... hopefully, before I have to start writing papers from this year's work! But mainly, it's exciting. Even a small step forwards is an achievement, as well as something to cross off your list-of-things-to-feel-guilty-about. Stuart is slowly recovering from a horrible attack of bacterial tonsilitis that came on top of bronchitis and an ear infection. He had temperatures of up to 39.6 degrees for a couple of nights, but the antibiotics seem to be working now so his temperature is closer to normal. I peeped at his tonsils over the doctor's shoulder today, and while I was being quietly horrified at the extent of the swelling and the huge white pustules was amazed to hear the doctor say in a satisfied voice that it was looking much better. The doctor is a lovely man who came out at 2am to make sure Stuart didn't have meningitis. We are having a lovely time with Hugh's parents here. They have been travelling around and are also both a bit sick. I went to our GP today, who has seen Nick and Sallyanne and Hugh in the last week, and he said I was the healthiest of the family but still prescribed lozenges, fizzy stuff for the slime (delightful, isn't it? schleim is their word for mucus, and they translate it directly as slime) and a throat spray (but no antibiotics, luckily). Nick and Sallyanne have decided to cancel their trip to PRague and stay in Munich for an extra 5 days to give us support while Stuart is sick. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 11th, 2006
8:18 pm	Stuart's birthday I keep planning to post about things and being so busy that I don't do it straight away, then it gets left longer and longer until it seems irrelevant and I don't do it at all. So even though Stuart's birthday is more than a week ago, I'm going to post about it anyway! I was really excited in the lead-up to Stuart's birthday, and I wasn't disappointed. We had a lovely day. But in the typical way of things, something small and unexpected had to happen, and it was this: Stuart gave me his cold the day before his birthday, so that I hardly slept the night before, then he woke at 5am (this is meant to happen when he is older and really gets excited on his birthday!) to two really bleary parents who could hardly prop their eyes open! As a consequence I felt sick and spacey all day, but still had an absolutely great time. We had decided to follow all our family traditions, even though it was a bit early for Stuart to understand them. As with many things about the day, this was for us! So we wrapped his presents and put them on the end of the bed to find when he woke up (my family), and we made a card with a picture of him on it (Hugh's family), and we drew a big number 1 on paper and got him to colour it in (my family). However, when he woke at 5am it was too dark to see the presents, so I took him out and fed him breakfast and played until a more reasonable hour for waking Hugh and opening presents. In the early morning Stuart and I also watched a bit of the video footage from the hour after his birth. The whole thing was such an amazing occasion. I will never forget our long, red, crying baby being placed on my stomach for the first time, and unwrapping his blanket to discover that he was a boy (the best present ever). Stuart was most satisfactory when it came to opening pressies! Everything we gave him was closely examined -in fact, it was really hard to interest him in the next wrapped parcel. He got a complicated rattle with bits that turn in different directions, some wooden blocks that fit together for easy building, a lovely wooden train that makes click clack sounds when you pull it along (he opened it and said 'Choo choo'), some bath toys and some books. Then from his grandparents there were more books, and a little motorbike with a rider whose limbs move and a dog in the sidecar, and some clothes. All these presents (and the cards) were also greatly appreciated by Stu! He opened them while we were on the phone to Australia with the webcam up and running, so the grandparents and one aunt got to see his reactions. We had my aunt, uncle and cousins around for lunch, and had a lovely afternoon. Stuart didn't have mch interest in his carefully crafted teddy bear cake (looking a lot like Felix, Stu's favourite teddy), but we all enjoyed it ourselves! The only slight drawback was my bizarre memory lapse that resulted in me cooking an entire meal that my gluten-allergic uncle couldn't eat. Luckily Sibby brought along a few contributions to the meal, all designed of which Frank could eat. Stuart got a great toy from them - a stand with little balls that can be hammered through holes on to a ramp. He currently prefers to bang the balls together or push them through the holes with his fingers, but is also quite keen on banging the hammer. There are so many wonderful wooden toys in Germany - hugely different to the range of toys available in Australia. Overall, it was a really lovely day. I think Stuart had fun, and Hugh and I certainly did. I just want to record a few of the things that Stu is doing at the moment. He has eight teeth and according to the doctor, molars on the way. He can crawl (still with one foot and one knee) and can stand well. He pulls himself up and moves around the furniture in a standing position, or walks with his hands held (really loves doing this), but not by himself yet. HE can climb stairs and can climb from his high chair to the table. He loves hearing the word 'NO!' and repeats it with great pleasure. Today, he was in the high chair while I cooked dinner for him. I heard 'Mama!' and replied without turning around. At a more insistant 'Mama!' I turned to see him in the process of standing up in the high chair, looking expectantly at me and waiting for the 'No!' that he knew would come. Stuart is really communicating. The list of words that he spontaneously attempts is quite long now - including 'Mango' for a character from one of his favourite books, and recently, 'hishies' for the fish on the screensaver (or any other fish, for that matter). He also has quite a few words that he recognises and tries to say whenever he hears them, including blueberry, snail, snake, better and quite a few others. He is doing a couple of baby sign language signs (bath and dinner), but still doing them to me rather than to himself. He also says bath-time. Stuart likes to put both hands on his head and announce it to us if we aren't looking (Da!). This started quite spontaneously - I mean, we had demonstrated it before, but the first time he did it himself there had been a gap of at least several days, if not weeks. He just decided it was time, I guess! Stuart is a very friendly boy. He actively makes friends with people on trains - looking at them until they meet his eyes and then smiling and turning his face away, then peeping up again and smiling - he really flirts! He is also obsessed with the stuffed owls near my office at work and only wants to eat his lunch while we stand and look at them. Oh, I forgot all the sound effects he can do - broom broom, choo choo, hoo hoo (the owl), woof woof, meow, roar (lions are his current favourite). There, now I feel much better! Of course, I haven't brushed on trying to get Stuart to bed or doing his teeth (very difficult), or on the delightful subjects of bath time, cuddles and nose-kisses, but I have a great sense of relief at having documented some of his one-year-old behaviour and also finally managing to post something! I am very busy now and I really don't want to trust all the facts to my brain alone. The memories I can trust myself with, but the dates I am less confident about! Current Mood: cheerful Current Music: baby monitor (5 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
8:45 am	Birthday season Happy birthday to Hugh for yesterday! I think Hugh had a good day, with presents, phone calls and emails from Australia as well as (of course) presents from me and Stuart! Stuart behaved himself very well. He helped decorate the wrapping paper used to wrap his present for Hugh (he is just at the stage of being able to scribble with a pencil), helped Hugh unwrap his presents, and didn't wake up while I was cooking dinner. When I was pregnant Hugh felt that once the baby was born, his birthdays would always be overshadowed by Stuart's. I hope this hasn't happened too much, but I must admit that there is a lot of preparation going on for the little one's first birthday! We are having a party with Frank, Sibby and family (my relatives) and I am planning to make a teddy bear cake. As well as the excitement of presents and parties, I am thinking a lot about this time a year ago. On this day a year ago, I was thinking that I should do some work on papers from my thesis, but I had been working hard and decided to have one relaxing day off before starting. At 3am the next day, my waters would break and I would be glad that I had relaxed for a day! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, August 7th, 2006
8:57 pm	Babies and things Stuart has another tooth! That makes five new teeth since we arrived in Germany just over two months ago (making a total of seven), which I think is pretty good going. I expect number eight to arrive within a week as well. Wow! He's also crawling, pulling himself up (usually only to his knees), and saying lots of things (mostly incomprehensible, but more words emerging all the time). He also now mostly yells things rather than saying them - pointing at something and yelling "DAA!!!!" in great excitement. The only really distinct words are Mama, Daddy, teddy, nana (for banana), knee, and then there are less distinct things that we can usually interpret correctly like 'Da' for dog or duck, 'boo' for book, 'ma' for more, etc. I think I heard an attempt at 'vegemite' the other day. I realised recently that my Famous Five book is not by Enid Blyton at all - it's a fake! It took quite a lot of detective work to find the actual author's name, though - they have made it really difficult to find. I was quite disappointed to find out that my book wasn't authentic, but since it is good for my German I'm ploughing ahead anyway. Although perhaps 'ploughing' suggests a little too much speed - I'm only at the end of chapter 3. On the other hand, I have finished knitting Stuart a lovely pair of green woollen pants and have made a good start on a matching green and white stripey jumper, so some things are going quickly! But having a full-time job and a beloved baby and husband really doesn't seem to leave me much spare time. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, June 28th, 2006
8:27 pm	Welcome, Adam Palethorpe! James and Sharon have a son, a baby brother for Will, born Tuesday morning! We are eagerly awaiting pictures and details. (Comment on this)
Monday, June 26th, 2006
10:13 am	Good old Genid! I am currently reading a book called ´Fünf Freunde retten die Felseninsel´. That´s right, it is a Famous Five book in German. I am trying to read a page a day (remember that my German is very bad!) and hoping that I won´t end up being able to speak solely about adventures, bathing, ginger beer and tinned tongue. So far all I can report about the story line is that it is very windy, and they are having trouble hearing what Dick is saying, and Anne´s hair is blowing in her face (I won´t tell you how long it took me to get this far!). One other funny thing: the characters are called Julius, Richard, Georg und Anne (und Timmy der hund). I wonder why they changed the boys´ names? Current Mood: amused Current Music: theme song to Famous Five TV show (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, June 19th, 2006
4:04 am	German birthday celebrations We finally have our internet connection at home! This makes a huge difference and is very exciting. Today I have had a lovely birthday, even though it is my first birthday away from Australia. I woke up to cheerful baby sounds (that is, not counting all the other times I woke in the early hours of the morning to less than cheerful baby sounds!) and Stuart and I shared a nectarine. This was messy but fun, since he insisted on eating it whole rather than taking slices from me. It somehow reminded me of the sharks trying to eat the peach in 'James and the Giant Peach'! I got some lovely books from Hugh and a phone call from Mum, and then we had breakfast in a cafe around the corner, where we ate way too much (this was a characteristic of the day!) - fried potatoes, eggs and bacon, fresh orange juice, and chocolate brioche. After a fun morning of phone calls from family and friends and playing with Stuart, we had a picnic in the park across the road with my German relatives and some other relatives that are visiting Germany at the moment - in all, two uncles, two aunts and four cousins. They gave me some great German cookbooks, which was exactly what I wanted. As well as giving me the chance to learn some local booking, it will be a good incentive to improve my mastery of the language! Unfortunately Australia lost the game against Brazil, but you can't have everything! I should mention that our flat, which we expected to seem really small (it's 50 sq metres), is really great. It has four rooms off a single corridor: living room, bathroom/laundry, kitchen and bedroom. All the furnishings are new or no more than a year old. It is in a lovely part of Munich. In our street all the houses are huge - some are divided into flats and some just really big houses! All down one side of the street is a big park with lots of trees and a couple of playground areas. On the other side of the park is the river (the Isar) and on the other side of that is the enormous English Garden, the biggest inner-city garden in the world (I think). It's a lovely part of the world - so come and visit us! Current Mood: relaxed Current Music: birdsong and cars (Comment on this)
Friday, June 9th, 2006
10:46 am	Stuart has german measles ... ... not an allergic reaction to the antibiotics! This is great, because it means he isn´t allergic to Penicillin. Also, he has been allowed to come off all the other drugs (throat drops, ear drops, etc) and will finish the antibiotics in a few days. I haven´t had the chance to mention our lovely flat where everything is brand new, but I´ll wait until I can post from home. Current Mood: relieved (1 Comment |Comment on this)