Since You've Been Gone

I haven't been signing in or writing in this account/blog of mine for some time. There are several reasons for that.

One, I've started an exercise regime, because I have a lot of "baby" weight to lose, so to speak. I've started attending one on one Pilates classes in the studio across the street from my house. So far so good, as I am learning to rebuild my abdominal muscles that have been non-existent and pushed to the back of everything since the start of my pregnancy. In three one hour sessions, I know have the beginning of some abs where before there used to be an abscess!

Two, I've caught up on my reading, namely my Sandman and Cathy comics that I asked my brother Jay to bring from Manila. These two collections could not be more different, as the former is a dramatic tale of a more-than-supernatural being called Dream, written by a wonderful surreal writer named Neil Gaiman. He is one of my favourite writers, and he is known in the mainstream for writing the books behind the movies "Stardust" and "Coraline". Dream is a somber character, who boasts of not having friends and has loads of adventures in his own realm and the real world. It's a good escape from real life of baby feeding, nappy changing, etc.

The second comic is a woman's viewpoint on life as a single woman in the late 80's and 90's... Cathy is a woman who has a hard time dating, balancing work and finding time to exercise, tries all the diets in the world, has a strong love-hate relationship with her mom and the sales clerk, never listens to her dad, loves her dog more than she loves walking it and yet has the wondrous optimism that never dies. It's a good reminder of life as it once was, and a reassuring read because humour is a good cure to new-mommy-related frustrations.

Finally, I've also been immersing myself in my "new" family structure, as it is no longer just me, Christian and Warrick. It's now me, Christian, Warrick and Sophie, and the latest addition to the family requires the most time, care and attention, so we can make sure that she settles in well. So far we've gone past the feeding on demand change to a relaxed schedule of nappy and feeding every three hours or so. We've also started becoming more relaxed parents, and we are looking forward to taking her on our first holiday of the year so far - I'll keep you updated, sooner rather than later, I hope!