From the mouth of a babe

Eliza and I were driving in the car today, when out of nowhere, came this exchange.

Mama?
Yes dear?
I happy.

Aw. I didn't even know that a not-quite two-year-old knew what happy was!

Better than valentines day

Rather than give my dear husband a hard time when he forgets to give me anything for Valentines Day, because I do actually think it's a cheesy holiday, we've come across a far better tactic. We celebrate the day we met, February 11th which is close enough to Valentines Day that we will remember it each year but means that if we're going out to dinner that we're not going to be faced with hordes of other couples feeling obliged to do something romantic. Last night we went to a seriously delicious dinner at Buon Ricordo, which was appropriately Italian since that is where we met. Not that we could have afforded anything nearly this nice in those days, but as I remember it, everything I ate in Italy was divine regardless of the price.
Anyway, the food was absolutely beautiful, from the deep fried gamberetti to the orange tart I had for dessert. Unfortunately baby #2 is encroaching into my stomach space so I couldn't eat as much as I desired, but I still stuffed myself silly. As we left I was wondering about all of the patrons hovering around the laneway beside the restaurant when S informed me they were chauffeurs. A-ha, I thought, squeezing behind the wheel of our crumb-and-dog-hair-infested '97 Subaru. Who needs a chauffeur when you're the Designated Pregnant Driver anyway?

First day of school

Pre-school that is. And sort of a pre-pre school for Eliza and Sylvie, they are in the same class together (under 3's) at a lovely little pre-school up the road that Finbar goes to. He said today that when he wasn't working he'd go and check on the girls. Eliza's only going one day a week from 9-3, but still, I hardly slept last night. What with labeling her clothes and packing her little lunch I felt as if I was sending her off for weeks. And yes, we both cried this morning. At least I managed to wait until I left the building.

Time for lunch

Some days I dream of starting a food blog, but then I don't have to, because I've found the perfect one. Chocolate and zucchini is just up my taste alley these days, and not only are the recipes delicious, but the pictures and stories are wonderful too. This salad is what I'm eating for lunch as I write this and it's divine. And I have to say that her broccoli mimolette soup is one of the simplest, most delicious soups as well. It doesn't hurt that there are plenty of zucchini recipes and we have an abundance of those gorgeous vegetables in the garden at the moment!
Yummy.

And in other news...

Due to make an appearance in early June, 2009.

Something that moves me

I just finished reviewing a book about Dr Catherine Hamlin - an Australian woman who moved to Ethiopia in the 1950s to open a school for midwives with her husband.
They soon became aware of women with fistula - something that is unheard of in the developed world - and opened a fistula hospital that has since treated over 30,000 women, free of charge. Fistula occurs when a woman has an obstructed labour (often because there is no birth attendant - like a midwife) and delivers a stillborn baby. Many times this causes a fistula (a hole) in the bladder and/or rectum, and urine and/or feces continuously leak out of them.
As if this doesn't sound horrible and painful enough, the women become completely alienated from their communities and often are abandoned by their husbands. There are hundreds of thousands of women with fistula in the developing world. And it only takes a short (though difficult) operation to heal them.
The book I read was called Catherine's Gift, written by John Little who co-authored an earlier book with Hamlin called The Hospital By The River. And if you're one of those people who prefers to spend money on worthy causes rather than unnecessary clutter over the holiday season, you can donate to the Fistula Foundation at www.fistulafoundation.org or in Australia, www.fistulatrust.org.

new (& not so new) pics

Here's Eliza on a weekend trip to Melbourne a few months ago - brrrr!



Post-babycino at a cafe:



Dining al fresco with the cousins:



Hamming it up in the car





A blustery day by the ocean