Leila Kosiba's Journal

hot teeth
for the past 2 days the temperature has gone up to 95° (35°C), too hot for the girls.
last sat we went to an island 45min boat ride from Nouméa, where there was organized a lunch buffet and some Tahiti dancing. Got a little too much sun.
sunday evening and monday morning we went to a family friends house further north. there i got to ride a jet ski to a small island with steph's dad. we walkd around it and hen he drove back. i had a cramp in my hand from holding the accelerator.

2 days ago we notced that Elisa has 2 teeth on the bottom.

i've sent out a few resumes. I aplied to Enterprise rent a car and HSBC. Both do business internationally and i can start entry level.

i also sent a resume to the french school, with a coverlatter in french. i haven't heard back from her yet.

grey
found gey hair number 2
with my new post baby hairs growing in, they stick staight up so they are noticable, and one of themin the front is grey.

this week i'm taking an intensive yoga class, 4 days mon-thurs, 3 hrs each day.

i'm trying to cook some thai food now that i have a mini cookbook from the cooking class i took last week.

going grey
aaaaaahhhhh!!!!!
i found my first grey hair yeserday
its a postnatal hair, bout 5 months long

N Y E
11pm, new years eve.
the hotel had a spacial dinner, buffet, with several small shows. i had to go the the room so that Elisa could go to sleep. Daddy is still downstairs with Omilia.

yesterday was the zoo. we walked around for 5 hours or so. today we went to the pool after breakfast. then we walked a little while looking for soy milk and baby food. we found the soy milk in a 7eleven. i didn't find the pureed vegetables i was looking for. i thnk we'll have to take a taxi to a big supermarket outside of the city to find that.

then i got a foot massage. 150 thai dollars for an hour, that equals about 3 euros or 5 USdollars

i see fireworks out the window

ready set go
Mom and dad left this morning. They took the 6:30am train up to the airport at Paris CDG, arriving at about 11:30 for the fight at 2:30pm-ish. Should be arriving in chicago right about now.
Been sick today so i slept alot. Tomorrow i start going through all my odds and ends to start the packing process. we leave the apt around friday the 19th, and leave france the 24th.
Steph's brother's new job will be moving him (i.e. us) for free to his new apt close to his job. YAY!!!!! Its about 2hrs from Brive. He is working for Michelin tires in Clermont-Ferrand.

this and that
It's getting cold here, I had to turn on the heater. Yesterday while making dinner, I hadn't noticed but Omilia had turned on one of the stove's electric burners. I put my plastic cutting board on the burner to cut some vegetables. So now i have a layer of plastic on one of my front burners; I don't think i'll ever be able to use it again.

mom and dad just bought tickets to come here. Nov 18 to dec 6th.

I sent my ballot to the States on monday
I finishd my postnatal reeducation on Wednesday.
And this monday we are leaving to go up to Les Vosges to visit with steph's family. It's a school break and we need to show his grandparents Elisa before we move to the USA

I have lost so much hair postnatal that i almost have bald spots and looks like i'm suffering from a receiding hairline.

4 months
Elisa turned four months old on saturday.

I ran into a spanish teacher at the park last thursday. She was pregnant at the same time as me, we even had the same expectant date. Her son Alexandre was born one month early (Nov 9). She has thursdays off and thursdays are my hard days with both kids all day to myself, so we might have park play dates on a regular basis.

The new assistants have arrived in France. I haven't met them yet but there is a dinner organized tomorrow night for the assistants and language teachers and i'm invited too. I heard the english assistant is canadian.

My friend Nicole just move down to Ventura Califonia. She was hired today for a pretty nice job.

I usually have dance class on monday night but it got moved to thursday this week because they have a guest teacher coming in for the weekend.

I've been keeping up on the election online. I've watched both pesidential and the vise pres debates. I'll be sending my ballot in my mail sometime this week.

Thats all the tidbits of info i can think of for now.

8hrs
For the first time Elisa slept for 8 consecutive hours, yay!!
For the last 2 night she slept 7. Yet i'm still so tired. Anyways Steph's mom is here this week. it's nice to have a grandma around. today i was able to go get my hair cut all by myself.
Started dance class on monday. class was ended early because a student fell and hurt her ankle.Thats okay, when i got home Elisa had woken up from a nap and just started crying. good timing for mommy to arrive.

I'm wearing my engagement/wedding ring. pics...
http://groups.msn.com/AdventuresofLittleDancingLeila/may102008andbeyond.msnw?Page=3

Green card: the tax info needed arrived form the states so now we have all that is needed for steph's interview. 2 days ago we sent to the embassy the Form of Readyness.

And today we gave a notice to our landlord giving our 3 month notice for moving out.

passport
Today Elisa's passport arrived. There was also her "Consular Reprt of Birth Abroad". I had to sign for the package and i was still in bed when the buzzer rang.

Stephane's mom arrives tonight so taday is Clean Clean Clean!

8-8-9
i'm going to be a bridesmaid in my friend Laura's wedding Aug 8, 2009, in the chicago area.

ring/ dance
I finally bought a ring. Bout 200 euros. Simple but not the classic engagement ring. It's being resized and will be ready on Sat..

On friday Steph's mom arrives and will stay with us for a week.

I'm officially signed up for dance class this year. (modern/contempoary) yay!! Classes start on the 15th, 7:30-9:30pm. i'll have to leave Elisa at home with daddy for more than 2 hrs each monday.

reeducation
Last week i started reeducation of my Perineum. I was perscribed 10 sessions.
Is this done in the states?

After Omilia i was perscibe reeducation too but i did the sessions with a kinesiotherapist, and i did mostly crunches and other exercises.
This time i'm with a midwife( the same midwife that led the prenatal pool classes), and we cocentrate on exercising the internal muscles, and i get computer feedback. i asked if this was new, and she said this is her 13th year doing the redeucation sessions.

Anyways summer break is over. tomorrow steph works from 8a-6p and omilia doesn't heve daycare on thursdays. i'll have both kids all to myself for the whole day. we might go to our local McD's so omilia can burn some energy. they have the best playarea i've ever seen. it's indoors and airconditioned and it's supercool americanglatiator style.

papers 3, etc.
It turns out that the Sponsor for Stephane's GreenCard applic. has to give Tax history for the past 3 yrs. So I got to fill out another form to get my US tax transcript.

We got back yesterday from a short trip with Unky Hugues and his gf Katia, in the mountains somewhere.
Tomorrow we leave for the beach, they announce good waves. This is the last week of summer break so we need to take advantage.

It'll be hard when Steph goes back to work.

Papers encore
I just realized that i was looking at the Poverty Guidlines for year 2006, and the numbers have gone up since then.
I need to talk to Stephane anout the new sum we need to reach.

On another note Steph bought a refill of liquid hand soap, and to me it smells like cat litter, yuck!

Papers
To do list:
*Renew my Carte de Sejour (like a green card)
which means collecting papers evidence of this and that)
get yet another set of passport style pictures
yada yada

*I also need to fill out yet another form as part of the long application preocess for Stephane's US Green Card. I have to prove that we "are not likely to become public charges in the United States". Form I-864 is to be filled by a Sponsor. Normally the Petitioner (me) is the sponsor but since i have no income, i thought i couldn't be it.
So i asked my dad if he could be the sponsor. No prob. Then i looked at the 10 pages of form instructions more carefully and found a way that i can be the Sponsor.
I can use mom and dad's address since i still have a credit card bill that goes there, and bank statements, and i'm registered to vote there, plus i voted. I need this to show that my time abroad was temporary. Any because Stephane is my spouse we can use his assets to prove our unlikelyness to become public charges. But to provide supporting evidence we/i have to Collect Papers (evidence of this and that)
So now i have to wait till mom sends me the paperwork/proof I need..
then Stephane can send the US embassy the form that says he is ready for his Interview, which will be in Paris

*Sign up for Dance class
...Collect Papers (evidence of this and that)

Voila

Elisa was born
Elisa Charlotte Egly was born June 11th at 11:11am.
During this pregnancy I fiddled with the idea of trying to give birth without an Epidural. My aunt Carol gave me a subscription of Mothering magazine during my pregnancy with Omilia. Inside the issues are often stories of women giving birth naturally, by decision or circumstance, and surviving. Most of all each new mother said it was hard but doable, and in the end were glad to have done it naturally. (Not to mention that women have ben doing it for centuries, and still do all over the world.)
So contractions started at about 4am.
By the time we got to the hospital and i was examened by the midwife, I was already at 7cm. It was decision time, now or never. I said no to the epidural and there was no turing back. I was taken of the monitor and told I could walk around and do what i want, she’d be back in an hour.
She came back and put in an I V. After another hour or so of contractions and some yelling, I was fully dialated. She broke my water and Elisa was born!

Nervous
I've been taking Contemporary (modern) dance classes this year. Usually when you're a kid, at the end of the year each class prepares a dance for the recital. Well this school puts on the show in Jan. So I get to be in a small dance, which is nice. I haven't danced on stage since college when i was in the University Dance Theatre. So i'm a little nervous.

It's nice that this show is Jan 20th, cause it's right before i leave. I leave Feb 2nd, with Omilia but not Stephane. A whole month without the Babydaddy makes me nervous too. Especially since the flight will be at least 9 hours and Omilia doesn't have her own seat. She's a lap baby, which is normal for children under 2 yrs. And it costs a bit too much to buy her a seat too.
So i'm the most Nervous about the flight!

One last thing to be nervous about is if I or Omilia get sick while in the States. I don't have American health insurance, so if something happened i could get majorly screwed! So i have to buy either Short Term health isurance or Travel Insurance. Neither of which covers anything related to the pregnancy. yay!

Current Mood: nervous

on the move
We just got home a coupla days ago from a 25 day roadtrip up north and back down again. we spent one week in the Alps then one week with family in Les Vosges. I saw lots of Stéphane's family and they were all glad to meet Omilia. She was a a clam baby as usual. She did cry one night but thats because a tooth came in and it hurts. While in the Alps we did a few days of camping with Hugues (stéph's brother). No probs except it rained most of the time. We also did some rockclimbing in the Verdon. It's a beautiful green canyon. I put some pics of the trip on my msn group page
http://groups.msn.com/AdventuresofLittleDancingLeila/franceplus1.msnw?Page=7

ps become a member and you'll know automatically if i put new pics

And its official ! Omilia is crawling.
video here:
http://www.dailymotion.com/HubertSkip/video/4349818

we just had a visit with the pediatrician and Omilia is healthy. she is now eating lots on baby food and chewing on slices of baguette... well she is half french :)

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