Well 3 weeks into it, but I suppose we are almost at the lunar new year and this is my first visit to Minti in 2009 .. eek where has time gone? I guess I have myself to blame as I spend way too much time on facebook at the moment  and my time has been spent on other ventures. I have set myself the mammoth task this year to finally compile and organize all my photos of James and create photobooks for each year. I seriously wish I had done this earlier but I was too busy enjoying him to worry about that  I guess it is better now than when he turns 21!

We have also been getting out and about seeing more of Seoul and Korea. James is now walking long enough to not require me to take a stroller and he loves riding the bus and subway system and I am getting to know my way around the road system here so we are being adventurous! I tried to upload some pics of our trips but for some reason it will not allow me? 

Anyway I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanzaa and New Year!

1. Whats the main thing on minti that make you so addicted?

The extremely friendly people and so much info and advice!

2. whats something funny thats happened to you recently?

Hmm I guess watching James dress himself, he just learned this new skill and it makes me laugh every day watching him

3. whats a word you kid/s say/said thats pronounces funny / cute?

James can say everything fine now, but on 4th of July he did say 'Mommy look fuck' referring to the fireworks.  I should not laugh but it was funny for the few days that he could not pronounce the word fireworks. He recently just learned to say strawberry properly as he used to say strawbaby!!

4. if you could be someone famous for a day who would it be and why?

Ansel Adams (I know he is deceased) but I would love to take photo's like he did.. find out his tricks of the trade and learn from the master!

5. sum up what minti means for you in 5 words

Friendship, advice, information,  support, camaraderie

After 42 days of living in hotels we are finally in our new home  It is an 15th (top) floor  apartment and I hate heights... I am sure I will get used to it!  JB is loving the space and all his toys arrived on Friday hours after we moved in so it is like Christmas for him all over!  He has settled down and I am a little calmer now so all is well!  I never realised how much I relied on the internet.. I have not had internet access for 3 loooong weeks but it is good to be back on-line  

This is the first (of many) weeks that hubby is away with work and it has been awful! How can 4 days seem like a month? I have insomnia, no matter what time I go to bed I am still wide awake at 2-3 am.. then I wake at 6.23 every day. It is like groundhog day!!! I feel like I am constantly saying 'No', 'don't do that','stop', etc to JB, basically I feel so negative with him. It is like he realises Daddy is away and is throwing tantrums constantly, he has started pushing his food out of his mouth, he refuses to feed himself and generally being a 2 year old!  I guess it is due to fatigue on my part, but I am finding it really hard to step back at the moment and understand that the poor little mite has been through so much... I am the mother from hell and I so want to break this pattern   

Yep my little ray of sunshine turned 2 on 17 June... the day after we arrived in Korea... we celebrated the best we could under the circumstances. He got a lot of 'cars' items (from the movie cars), a cd player, bubble machine and a whole bunch of other stuff ,some presents he got early and some he will get when our goods arrive. After finally uploading his birthday photos to the laptop, I have been trying for ages .. (well about 30 mins) to resize them in photoshop but as the laptop has a different version than my pc I cannot do it!  Anyway, here is a pic of the birthday boy, a little view of Seoul and (a very jetlagged ) Mommy the morning of his birthday.

Once we are settled (and his shipped presents arrive) I hope to have another birthday for him!

Well finally we have arrived... we have been here almost two weeks and have seen some of the city.. but not much! We are living in a hotel as our housing is not available for another two weeks!!! The novelty of hotel living has definately worn off as we have been living in 3 different hotels over the past month and still have two weeks to go!   Internet access has not been available as the hotel wants to charge $10 a day for it and we are so cheap! I just realised someone nearby us has a wireless connection which luckily reaches our room.. Yipee!! I am in contact with the world again! 

Seoul is a lovely city and the people are so nice.. the driving is a little eratic but thankfully the car will not arrive for another month so I will worry about that then! The subway access is not stroller friendly at all so I have to wait until the back pack arrives to venture out on my own. My grasp of the language is nothing short of pathetic! My first encounter at the department store resulted in me responding in French and then in Italian!!!! Languages are not my forte but I have kinda mastered three 'phrases' Hello, thank you and 'do you speak English'!!! There you go.. pathetic! Once I have moved into the apartment I will begin lessons!

JB has handled the move pretty well, he keeps saying 'home' and we have to explain to him that this is home... tomorrow Daddy leaves for work and will be gone for a week so I am not sure how that will go  Anyway, I will try to make it to some lounges this week!

Leading on from my blog of 29th April, I was convinced I had a 3rd miscarriage this year with this pregnancy, all the signs were telling me that and I did not feel pregnant at all. I had some blood tests taken to check the HCG hormone but as the lab screwed up the results I never received any feedback from my OBGYN.

On Thursday I started having what I can only describe as 'labor pains' and I just put it down to the miscarriage. However, yesterday the pain was still there and I just knew something wasn't right... I went to the ER and with further blood work it showed my hormone levels had increased!  I had another transvaginal scan and it showed both ovaries were abnormal but nothing else. My OBGYN thought it was an ectopic pregancy so did a laproscopy (I think that's how it is spelt?) Anyway, it was an ectopic pregnancy and it has now been removed. There is a possibility not all of it was removed  so I still need to have further HCG test to make sure. The good news is my tube has been saved, bad news is it increases the risk of a futher ectopic pregnancy in the future. 

I am so shocked that I was not aware I was still pregnant, and as my Dr said it could have been life threatening had it ruptured... I am just so glad to be able to spend Mother's day at home with my family. 

I started baby boot camp classes today..it was really enjoyable but I KNOW I am gonna feel it tomorrow... I am already feeling it in my hamstrings! I felt so bad as I was trying to remember the last time I did regular exercise and apart from aqua aerobics and walking, the last thing I did was kickboxing prior to getting pregnant with JB  I am going to make sure I do as many classes as I can before we move in a month! Today is the start of my 'get back in shape' quest! 

I don't tend to blog about things too personal, but this is frustrating me, stressing me out beyond belief so I've had a change of heart ...

I had a miscarriage in January (at around 6 weeks), I then found out I was pregnant again, but had another miscarriage the day we left for the UK (just before 6 weeks). With both pregnancies I had symptoms really early on (within days of conception) then  prior to each miscarriage I had a loss of these symptoms, started spotting I then took another pregnancy test and it was negative. 

We were hoping to wait for a couple of months, however, last week I found out I was pregnant again! I am 6 weeks and 1 day today, I know this is dated from my period, it is only 3 weeks since conception, I started spotting again today and went to see my OBGYN. I had a transvaginal ultrasound and he saw nothing... (he did warn me prior that this could be the case), but surely there should be something there?!?!? All he saw was a cyst on my right ovary, the Dr said it is the type that does the job of the placenta until it is formed.  I have had blood tests to check the HCG levels (no results yet) and I have to go back Thursday to have another blood test to see how things are progressing. I took another pregnancy test this morning and it is still saying positive and I still have the pregnancy symptoms, yet I am not gonna fool myself as I know the spotting is not a good sign

I am the worlds most impatient person , I want answers as to what is going on?!?! I know the pregnancies have all been too close together, and unfortunately my body longer believes me when I tell it I am only 28 so age is against me too.. but I just wanna know why?  What is going wrong and I want to know all of this NOW (lol now I see where JB gets his temper tantrums from)