December 8th - a rainy night

The tree just outside our house was decorated with lots of sparkling drops of rain. Beautiful. I love the way the silouhettes of the branches look at this time of night. It rained all day today and just stopped before we came home. On the way to work Babó was amused by the sound of rain on the umbrella and liked looking up at the blue and white pattern on it.

Today I wasn't really in the mood for taking lots of pictures. Babó was awake at 5, with a diaper leaking onto the bed, then an hour later when I changed her diaper she peed on her clothes. By 7:30 we were both back to sleep until 10. After that I did a little of this, a little of that, not really finishing anything or feeling like I'd accomplished anything. I hate how that happens. The time just sort of flies by. Writing it all down like this helps a little because I remember the little details. I attempted a few Sun Salutations - it's incredible how stiff my body is. I did yoga all through my pregnancy, and the loose joints it caused made me feel so good and flexible. After the 12 plus hours I spent working very hard on getting Babó born, plus the super saggy bed I slept on in the first night in the hospital, extra weight on my front, and all the other ways your body works with a newborn I had the most terrible back ache of my life. It's possible that I pulled a muscle in my back during labor, hard to say. It hurt. Since then I have been wearing Babó on my front basically everytime I go out. Now I am really really starting to feel it. She is heavier now, I spend more time than before travelling with her, and carrying her during the day, like when the dog is in the house for example.

This plum tree is just at the start of our street. At this time of night that building just behind it always looks so warm and cozy. So nice to always be home at this point.

After my little bit of stretching I tried to figure out how to wear Babó somehow on my hip. I did put her on my hip in the hotsling, but I think it's really too big for me and she wouldn't be safe there generally. For a little while I kept her there with one of my arms holding her the whole time. She LOVED this position, I think because she can really see everything I'm doing. I have a woven wrap that's too short for wearing in the front that should work for the hip-carry. I hope to learn it soon! I also saw on youtube that you can use the stretchy wrap for a hip carry too.

This picture is taken just below the Matthias Templom, on Hunyadi Janos, where we have to walk every evening from the bus to home. I used the fiddly things on the picture thing to make the silhouettes stronger.

I'm really starting to enjoy the way people on the bus talk to me, because of Babó. I know it's just about her, but this kind of exchange of pleasantries really helps my mood. It's sort of depressing being in a city around so many people who don't smile, don't make small talk. Like this I hear 'have a nice day' sort of stuff all the time. Ok, I also hear 'aren't her feet cold' all the time too, but I figure they're just trying to be nice. :-)

Here is just above the bus stop, from the stairs. By the way, just to the right there is an apartment whose windows are super easy to spy into. I can't help it - I like to look at people's windows, see how the apartments look. Though I haven't gone so far as to actually stop and stair at what's going on in there, I have seen that: they have a baby, they have a huge tv, they eat dinner sitting down at the table. And they have nice lamps. The whole Viziváros is full of windows because of the view toward parliament and it's just way too tempting to peak inside.

Parliament in the distance.
I made chicken soup with barley tonight. I think hearty soup is really one of my ideal dinners. I want to come up with 9 or 10 recipes that I can just cook quickly anytime, that I have the ingredients for most of the time, that I can cook without looking at a recipe. I think maybe I've started to get a little better at cooking. At least, I've learned I like tarragon. And that apple pie is an easy dessert.

Steps leading up to Fisherman's Bastion. I would come down these stairs to come home, but there is a tunnel part and this time of year it's full of homeless people living there. the steps are also kind of slippery and it's hard to walk down stairs with Babó because I can't see where I'm stepping. I'm a little afraid of falling, so we take the better lit street.