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Morning Antics

Posted by cafebebemama on Aug 29, 2009 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

 

Here are some of the antics Little Miss gets up to every morning!  I have a funny Little Miss!

It's just a little bit squeezing my brain!

Mummy, get off of the computer!

How do you like my new hairdo?

Yes, My Name is Igglepiggle...

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The Yuck Factor

Posted by cafebebemama on Aug 29, 2009 in Uncategorized | 0 comments

As I was wiping a bit of snot off my daughter’s nose the other day, I began to wonder…at what point did this become OK?  I have been thrown up upon, bled on, snotted on, drooled on; I have had all manner of food smeared onto me and my clothes; I have cleaned up poo in all sorts of places.  I am a Mummy.

I remember when I used to get all upset over little stains.  If I did this now, I’d never leave the house!  Now, I measure the reuse value of the clothes I wear by how MANY stains are on them and how blatently obvious those stains are.  I suppose I have become a bit of a Slummy Mummy in that respect. 

But isn’t it funny, or perhaps a little OCD, that I won’t let Little Miss go out with stains on her clothes or snot in her nose or messed up hair?  I like Little Miss to be clean and pretty!  This doesn’t mean that she’s in ruffly taffeta dresses and patent leather shoes…no, no, no.  My Little Miss is a wash and wear girl.  Comfy trousers, onesies and t-shirts with the very occasional comfortable cotton dress.  She always looks presentable, my Little Miss.  And I suppose the reason for that is because I wouldn’t ever want someone to look at my daughter and judge me as a bad parent.  You’ve seen those children who have crusty noses, dirty faces and ice cream stains around their mouth and down their shirt?  I have!  And what do I tend to think?  I think that perhaps their Mummy should take a little more care.  But maybe that Mummy is a better Mummy than me because she’s letting her child be A CHILD.  Getting dirty is a part of childhood, isn’t it?

I don’t know?  Do we have to be REALLY dirty?  Maybe just a little dirty is ok but not too much.  Get the wipes!  Get the Carex Hand Gel!  Quick, quick!  Some of my quirks may have rubbed off on Little Miss, however.  When she gets dirt or dog hair on her hands, she holds her hands up to me and goes “aaaccckkk” and sticks her tongue out.  She digs in the dirt in the garden and whilst saying “digga digga digga” she’s brushing any dirt off her.  When our dog has pooed in the garden, she readily points it out to us until we collect it off the grass and put it in a bag.  When Little Miss was wee, I painted her hands with paint to make a pressie for Daddy and she absolutely screamed the house down!  She didn’t like the feeling of it and most certainly did not like the fact that her hand and foot were now covered in red paint!  Is this a bad thing?  Maybe it is!  

I’m doing my best to come to terms with my obsessive compulsive habits and trying NOT to let it totally rub off on Little Miss.  I do let her play in the rain after all!  So, if you do see Little Miss and me out and about, she’ll be looking lovely and I’ll be the Mummy with a few too many stains and the Milton wipes at the ready!  Just gently take the wipe from my hand and say “Let it go, Mummy”.  And we’ll all feel better for that!

Wordless Wednesday 26 August

Posted by cafebebemama on Aug 26, 2009 in Uncategorized | 6 comments

Fill in your caption below!

Changing Bag Dilema Solved

Posted by cafebebemama on Aug 25, 2009 in Uncategorized | 1 comment

The lovely postman made a delivery this morning!  I love it when the postman rings!  He came bearing two gifts:

1) A SnugBaby sling from the lovely Claire.  She is one of my Mumpreneurs featured on my main site, Cafe Bebe, and asked me to trial one of her gorgeous slings.  I’m quite intrigued to do this as Little Miss is nearly 15 months and has never been “worn”.  We’ll have great fun trying this out.  A review will follow on Cafe Bebe.  Thank you Claire!

2) A SkipHop Duo Deluxe changing bag!  For a second I thought, “Hey- some wonderful company out there read my Changing Bag Dilema post and sent me a Skip Hop!  But then I realised from the label, addressed to my husband and myself, MY MOM sent me the Skip Hop!  My Mom, who’s all the way in Wisconsin in the US.  How wonderful is my Mom?  So thank you Mom.  We’ll put the Skip Hop to good use and will show it to you when we come to the US in October.  Love you!  A review of the Skip Hop will follow on Cafe Bebe.

What a great way to start the day!  Any more presents are more than welcome. 

NHS versus Not

Posted by cafebebemama on Aug 24, 2009 in Uncategorized | 6 comments

There’s been a lot of brouhaha in the US lately regarding National Health Care.  The poor NHS has been dragged through the wringer by under-informed US politicians and citizens and I just thought I would dip my toe in as an American expat permanently living in the UK. 

In case you’re not aware, US President Barack Obama is struggling to bring about the idea of a National Health Care programme in the US.  There is no National Health Care in the US.  If you don’t have your own insurance, either through your employer or out of your own pocket, you are not insured and therefore, are not eligible for medical care.  If there’s a major medical emergency and you have no insurance, you might be lucky enough to be cared for in the A&E (US Emergency Room) as a “charity case” but for regular medical care/treatment/prescriptions you’re out of luck.  And even when you are insured in the US, it all depends on what’s “covered” in your insurance policy which will determine how much extra you’ll have to pay. 

For example, when I worked in 1999-2002, I had the joy of having an employer who paid 75% of my insurance premium.  The additional 25% came out of my salary, which I never really saw anyway so that was fine.  That didn’t mean that I didn’t pay for medical care/treatment, however.  For every doctor visit, I paid a $25 office visit fee (a normal rate for many doctors is around $100 per visit).  If I had any prescriptions my insurance policy required a $10 co-pay fee for all prescriptions.  Prescriptions are VERY expensive in the US.  If you have no prescription coverage you will incur the full cost of the prescription which could be very expensive ($50-100 sometimes).  Strangely enough, birth control was never covered in any of the insurance packages I had whereas in the UK, it’s free.  Seems like a much better idea to me! 

When I went back to school in 2003, I became a STUDENT again, which meant that I had no insurance other than the ability to be treated at the University Health Centre.  Prescriptions were full cost and any additional medical care would be out of pocket.  Most students, when they are traditional age (18-22), tend to still be under their parent’s insurance so this helps with medical costs, but ultimately, the parent’s are paying for it.  What this ends up boiling down to is that many US citizens are not insured.  They simply cannot afford the costs of an insurance premium, their employer (if they are employed) doesn’t foot the bill and general medical and health care is unavailable.  You’d better be a mostly healthy person in these cases because otherwise, you’re going to be very miserable. 

When I came to reside in the UK in 2005, initially I couldn’t get signed on with the NHS.  My chronic allergies and asthma were flaring up and I had to seek medical care.  We did have to pay out of pocket for an office visit but prescriptions were still the standard rate.  Once I had my fiancée visa and subsequent Leave to Remain visa, I became eligible for care through the NHS.  All I had to do was register!  I was then entitled to any and all medical care and any and all prescriptions at the standard rate and birth control for FREE.  The UK is a wonderful place! 

This, by no means, makes the NHS the most wonderful service.  I have felt very much like a “number” when visiting my GP.  I know they have targets to meet- something like not spending more than 10 minutes with each patient- but come on…pretend you care about me!  The medical care received in the UK is far, far different than that in the US; much less invasive, much more about getting you out the door.  However, any time I have needed anything medically, all it took was a call to my local surgery and I had an appointment, if not the same day, within a day or two of ringing.  In the US you can wait weeks to see your doctor in regular office hours.  Thanks to the NHS, I have regular treatment for my allergies and asthma, free birth control when I needed it and a gorgeous and healthy daughter.  My birth experience and subsequent hospital stay was  rather miserable  but ultimately, both of us came out of it with little ill effects.  It’s easy to fault the NHS and criticise, which I have most definitely done but the bottom line is that if you need any kind of health/medical care and/or prescriptions in the UK, you will get it.  Sure, maybe you’ll be in a queue, but you will get it.  My daughter was visited by health visitors in the first few days after her birth IN OUR HOME!  In the US, you have a baby, they shovel you out the door and wish you well.  Unless your baby is poorly, you won’t see medical professionals unless you make an appointment and go to a clinic or to the hospital.  There’s no one coming to your door to make sure you’re alright. 

The NHS is not perfect but in my humble opinion as an American, a National Health Service is far better than having nothing at all.  Before you criticise the NHS, Americans, you need to understand what the NHS is all about and what it does for people.  A National Health programme can work and is not the creation of socialists.  Barack Obama is not a socialist.  He is just trying to do what many previous Presidents have said they would do…he’s trying to take care of America.  And there are a lot of people in America who need taking care of.  I doubt it will happen, a National Health Care programme in America.  I, for one, am very grateful that I live in the UK and have access to the NHS (I do pay taxes, fear ye not).  So, while I can’t quite say “I LOVE the NHS”, I do say “Thank You NHS” for being there when I needed you.

American Wishes

Posted by cafebebemama on Aug 23, 2009 in Uncategorized | 3 comments

I’ve been living here in the UK for the last 4 years.  I found the love of my life in my wonderful English husband and have decided that this is the place we will live.  Obviously, from the title, I am an American.  A lot of people ask me what I miss from the US?  Well, not a lot, truth be told.  Of course, I miss my family a great deal and particularly on the holidays.  Thanksgiving isn’t quite the same over here.  Not sure why?    Most of what I miss are conveniences, food items, certain stores…material things really.  Shall I share a few?  OK, I will:

1) I miss my family.  I miss being able to ring up my dad or mom and pop over for a visit.  I miss being able to meet one of them for lunch.  I miss the fact that they can’t spend an afternoon with Little Miss while I run errands.  I miss that my family misses out on all of Little Miss’ milestones.  They have to read about it here or Skype with us to see her.  I am grateful for that, though.  I do get to see them, at least and that makes the distance seem a little less than the 3000 miles between us.

2) I miss wide open roads!  There are no roundabouts where I am from.  Well, truth be told, they have now added 2 mini-roundabouts in my hometown but it’s on the right side of the road and they don’t know what they’re doing.  But they try.  The roads, though…so wide, no cars clogging one or both sides, no one folding in their wing mirrors.  There’s a lot of room!  Driving somewhere worth going takes more than 6 hours.  A 2 hour drive in the car is nothing to most Americans.  A 2 hour drive to Brits puts you in another country practically. 

3) I miss being able to shop at stores until 10-11pm every night.  Quite a few grocery stores are open 24 hours!  You need custard in the middle of the night?  You’ve got your pick of places to get it.  Sundays are not sacred…shops are still open until 10-11pm!  You don’t have to plan everything around 4pm on a Sunday.

4.) I miss Target (it’s a department store), I miss Panera Bread (a yummy fast-food restaurant with the best bagels ever), I miss Dairy Queen (ice cream!).  Other foods I miss: Cheetos, Jif peanut butter, Butterfinger bars, A&W Root Beer, Twizzlers licorice and REAL ICE CREAM.  If you’d like to send me any of these things…comment with your email and I’ll email you my address!

5.) I miss national pride.  Where I am from, every other house has a flag hanging from it.  There are no “bank holidays”.  There’s Memorial Day in May, Labour Day in September, Flag Day in June, Independence Day in July, Veteran’s Day in November.  After 9/11, everyone put their flags out, everyone wore American flags.  There are a lot of times when it’s not always great to advertise that you’re an American (like the years 2000-2008 for instance) but more recently, it’s a lot more OK to be an American.  I’ve got my shirt with a flag on it and I have my Obama shirt…I’m proud to wear them.  American pride is probably one of the things that foreigners get sick of, but it isn’t such a bad thing to be proud of where you’re from.

6.) I miss Customer Service.  Now, mind you, not every single business establishment is the epitome of customer service and happiness, but most companies pride themselves on the “customer always being right”.  If you’ve ever wondered what makes good customer service, take a look at Disney. 

But, don’t get me wrong…I love my new country.  So much so that I have taken the British Citizenship Test and one day will become a dual-citizen.  I think it’s important that if I live here, I should take part in what this country is all about.  I just need to win the lottery to be able to afford the Citizenship fee!  I’m very happy here in the UK with my husband and daughter.  It’s just every so often that I get a twinge.  Just every so often though!  Thanks for taking me on, UK…you’re a very lovely place to live.