38 posts tagged “qotd”

What's making you smile today?

Petra as always.  She's changing and growing apace.  Her first tooth has just appeared, which might explain her erratic sleeping habits recently and her unusual crotchetiness. 

She's still working very hard on becoming mobile.  I'm not quite sure how she does it but she's able to twist and wriggle all around her mat even though she can't crawl yet.  She can get up on her hands and knees, but she hasn't figured out how to go forward. 

Today she learned how to push herself up from her stomach into a sitting position.  Very casual about it she was too, as if she'd been sitting herself up forever.  She has so much more control of her body even in just the past couple of days.

Petra's also showing more personality all the time.  She makes her feelings known, complaining bitterly when we do annoying things like dress her but loving us extravagantly as well.  She's always delighted to see us and loves to spend time getting up close and personal with us.

How have you changed in the past year?
Submitted by littleduckling.

In the past year, I've gone from this

to this:
Pregnancy and motherhood are the most profound changes I've ever undergone.  Every part of me has changed - my body, my feelings, my sense of myself, my sense of my place in the world - my whole identity has shifted.  It's good change, although I would like to be a bit more svelte(!).  Being Petra's mother has always just seemed right, even in the first bewildered hours after her birth it felt like we belonged.

Why do you think it is some people don't get along with you?

What's with the QotD's recently?  They've been a real downer.  Questions like "what have you done that you're ashamed of?" and "what's the worst thing that could happen to you today?" and now this one seem more suited to an angst-ridden therapy session or an angst-filled journal entry, than to blogging.  Maybe I'm a wuss, but I prefer my writing prompts a little more upbeat.

What's the best thing about today?

Petra's laugh.  Hanging out with Karla for the first time in a few weeks.  Drinking frescas in the sun.  Eating lemon pie.

What are 10 things you've done that other people probably haven't? 
Submitted by Janette.   

I've had a look at some of the responses to this - Voxers lead exciting lives.  Me, not so much, but here goes anyway.

1) I grew up in a small hydro village that was tucked away in forested valley in New Zealand.  There were about 100 residents.  I knew everyone and everyone knew me.

2) We were evacuated from the village by the NZ army after heavy rains caused the river to top its banks and part of the hillside to slide away taking a house with it.

3) Submitted my MA thesis the day before I left for Canada.

4) Learned to ski at 30.  Took up rock climbing at 31.

5) Emigrated to Canada with no prospects, no contacts, and $8000 to my name.  It worked out. I got the very first job I interviewed for and met my husband and some good friends there.

6) Left footprints on a freshly cemented driveway in a small town in Morocco.  Accidently - we got off-track in the dark.  The town had no streetlights, no electricity even, except for individual generators, so when I say dark, I mean can't see the road in front of you, could fall down a bank dark.

7) Drove myself home from Whistler to Vancouver after having my collarbone broken by a reckless snowboarder on Whistler mountain.  It was my right shoulder and the car was a manual model.

8) Got married 4 August 2006 in Vancouver; packed up our house and moved to Costa Rica 12 August 2006.

9) My little family consists of a Canadian, a Costa Rican, and a New Zealander who also holds a Canadian passport.

10) Had a drug-free labour even though I was induced and had contractions every three minutes for the whole 11 hours.  This is not so uncommon perhaps, but it's something I'm very proud of.  

Oooh, I submitted a question of the day idea and it's today's question of the day.  I'll have to spend some time this morning coming up with an answer.

What won't you miss about 2007? 
Submitted by uncagedbird.

I won't miss being stuck at home.  I spent three months under house arrest in the middle of my pregnancy, resting so that my placenta could reattach and only leaving home when I had to see the doctor.  The world went on but I took a break from it.  When I was allowed out again everything was exciting - the progress at the construction sites on the way to the Multiplaza Mall, a new Bagelman's location, the locals going about their business, bookshops, the new Automercado in Escazu - all fascinating.

And I spent the whole year in San Jose.  I haven't left the country since our trip to San Andres Island in January.  And I haven't left town since we drove to Sarchi in February just before I found out I was pregnant.

I've done a lot of travelling in the past few years and am not used to being grounded for so long.  I had to get my fix vicariously, through Travis's trips to South Africa and Vancouver, and through Roewan's road trip across Canada.

This year I want to go to Vancouver and Saskatchewan and maybe even to New Zealand if we get really confident about travelling with the baby.

What movie did you expect would be terrible, but was actually really good?

12 Monkeys. 

My then-boyfriend was keen to see it, but the idea of a science fiction movie starring Bruce Willis and Brad Pitt didn't take my fancy at all.  I resisted for a couple of weeks, but Andrew was insistent and eventually dragged me off to the theatre.  And I loved the movie, loved its moral complexity, loved the way it looked, even loved Bruce Willis.  It ended up being my favorite movie of that year. 

I was in graduate school at the time and I brought my inner English student to bear on it, reading analysis and criticism, and poring over comparisons between it and the first Terminator movie (another movie I liked much more than I thought I would), which is the other big American film based on the French short film, La Jetee.

Today is Blog Action Day!  Take action by posting about the environment in your own way.

Since I'm all about pregnancy and the baby these days, I'm going to connect environmental awareness and baby raising.  I've been thinking for years that I'd rather use cloth nappies (diapers for the north Americans among you!) than disposable ones, having heard all the horror stories about disposables taking hundreds of years to break down in rubbish dumps. 

Of course, cleaning cloth nappies has an environmental cost as well - doing all that laundry consumes water and electricity in large quantities.  Not to mention all the detergent necessary to keep them clean.

It's a question of picking the lesser of two evils.  Dumps full of non-biodegradable material and human excrement seem to me the least environmentally-friendly option, so I want to try re-usable nappies. 

Since I know nothing about cloth nappies, I took myself off to the internet to do some research.  I found myself plunged into a world of prefolds and fitted nappies and pocket nappies and covers and liners.  These are not your grandmother's nappies; nor even your mother's.  They're high-tech items.  No flannel triangles, complicated folding, and sharp pins here.  I had no idea.  Fortunately I stumbled across a chatty, down-to-earth website run by a woman in Auckland, New Zealand.  She explains the different varieties, has videos of how to use them, and discusses the trials and tribulations of keeping them all clean.

I'm nervous about making the commitment and buying a starter kit because using re-usables does look much more complicated than using disposables, but I would like to do my small bit to reduce waste.  Has anyone used cloth nappies?  How did they work out for you?

What one year of your life would you like to re-live, if you were given the chance? 
Submitted by Ross. 

I would re-live a year from the late 90's before dad got sick, before my achilles tendon blew out.  We were all healthy, and I was having a fabulous time.  I was fit, strong, and busy, going to the gym, working full-time at a challenging job, finishing my thesis, and managing to find the time to socialise hard.  I felt at the peak of my powers, as if anything were possible.  The world was all spread out before me, waiting for me to experience it.  If I lived this year again, I would spend more time with dad and less time worrying about the inside of my head.  I would appreciate my body's vigour much more.  And when life got tougher, as it did in 1999 and 2000, I would give myself permission to slow down, to be sad and fragile.  I would take better care of myself.