Wooooo. The camera is here. Did you hear that? I said the camera is here! Thanks to some last-minute pushing by Don and a bit of courier-ing from Mike it arrived yesterday evening. The shame of it is that I've been too busy packing and doing laundry and things to play with it much, but I'm sooo excited about it. Particularly having it in the UK for a week where I might actually have the time to use it.

I'm being a typical girl and making the manual-reading a priority. I expected it to be more similar to the G2, but the controls are quite different so until I learn which buttons do what, my capability is going to be pretty limited. That said, even with the amount I've played around so far, I already prefer the conventional look-through-the-lens thing, with the ability to see the photo you've taken afterwards on the CCD. I appreciate a larger, clearer view, with the settings right in front of your eyes, and having manual focus on the lens rather than via a stupid little button on the side of the camera body is a dream.

Am nearly ready to fly now. 90% packed with just a bit of juggling to do to get the carseat base into the luggage. Very difficult to pack clothes for sub-zero weather (my dad was scraping ice off the car on Thursday morning apparently) when it's still 25 degrees in NYC. Where are those gloves again?

Jody's having a bit of a tantrum today, which I'm clearly hoping will disappear by 8:30pm, if not before. She needed feeding a lot last night so I'm kind of suspecting it's down to being over-tired. Unfortunately her curiosity gets the better of her at times like these because she's too interested in what's going on around her to give in to the sleep monster, so she just ends up crying a lot. Loudly.

We're going to miss Roj this week, despite all that's going on. It's been a while since we were apart for so long (last year when I was getting my visa in the UK), and I don't like it. Even worse now that Jody's part of the equation. I don't want to wish time away, but I'll certainly be looking forward to seeing him next Saturday morning when he gets to his mum's from Manchester. Roj might miss us a little bit too, but for him, it'll be an opportunity to get some uninterrupted sleep, train a lot and inevitably watch some bad TV. If he's extra lucky he might even get to the cinema (I've forgotten what that is) to indulge in popcorn, M&Ms and surround sound, but if he gloats too much about it, I'll stick Jody close to his ear in the early morning sometime when she's looking for a feed. If she doesn't start chewing his ear off she'll certainly bellow into it.

Nice to see Mike this week, and not just because he was kind enough to bring my camera back from CT. He's in really good form currently - looking very well and doing an amazing amount of creative stuff, both in work and out with Underhand Productions. And not only that but he also manages to pack in a ridiculous social agenda 7 days a week (seemingly). Is there no end to this man's talents!

What a nice weekend. I don't know why because we didn't do anything particularly special, but it was nice all the same. We went running on Saturday with Jody in the buggy and did a bit of shopping for wintry Jody clothes (avoiding pink this time, which is a good thing). I was most impressed to be in profit after the shopping trip since I returned numerous items I'd ordered online. Later on we ate homemade pizza (anybody making pizza at home needs to invest in a pizza stone, which revolutionises pizza crusts, and a pizza cutter, which revolutionises the ability of the toppings to stay in place while you cut neat triangles - ours was the perfect gift from Sam when she visited last year), drank [a small amount of] red wine, and watched 25th Hour which we both found rather random but quite watchable.

On Sunday we tried again to exercise - this time with me on my bike - but the Dalai Lama threw spanners in the works by being in Central Park and forcing closure of most of it (by the time I'd discovered this I was far too demotivated to do anything sensible like finding somewhere else to ride). I then conquered a few items from my endless to-do list including the vast and unsavoury task of going through my wardrobe and discarding unwanted items. This happens about once every five years because I have to be in the right mood, but it is invariably about four years overdue since many of my clothes at that point are worn out or utterly despised. After this chore was over (and my wardrobe space doubled) Roj made dinner to accompany the rest of the red wine, which was lovely jubbly (he's quite the cook actually, and it's always absolutely amazing to have dinner cooked for me), and all-in-all the weekend was quite relaxing.

Which is good, because next weekend I'll be in the UK with jetlag. I'm looking forward to it enormously, particularly for the chance to see Sven blast through the opposition in the Three Peaks cyclo-cross race, but the prospect of travelling trans-atlantic with no-one to help with the wee one is somewhat intimidating.

Though every time I say something will be intimidating it actually goes better than expected, so I'm sneakily holding out hope that everything will be fine. Friday's conference call, for instance, went brilliantly: despite being 1.5 hours long, Jody barely uttered a peep.

Had a great session of Baby Om this morning with Jennifer and Ethan. There were just 5 mums+babies in the class, so you even got some personal attention from the instructor - a novel experience for me in NYC. I've never done yoga before so a lot of my time was spent trying to keep up and get all the angles and things right. And I'm certainly not into the spiritual side of it, but as a session of valuable stretching, and as a chance to get out of the house and introduce Jody to something other than the bottom loop of the Park, it was fantastic. So fantastic, indeed, that I found myself purchasing a discounted 10 sessions on the spot. So much for my yoga cynicism!

The other exciting thing that happened on Saturday is that Jody seemed to recognise me. She's very cheerful and chirpy when she's with people anyway, but she almost seemed to turn to my voice and follow me to find out where I'd got to in the room. Whether this just exhibits greater curiosity in general, or a starting awareness of who her care-givers are, I'm not sure ... but a doting mum favours the latter!

I have neglected a couple of major events recently, including to congratulate Colette and Ted for the birth of their baby Thomas on 7 September in Brooklyn. With a little organisation I might even meet up with her in the coming weeks and swap baby notes.

Well I'd better get on with some work at last, or I know exactly what I'll be doing for most of next week. Plenty to do in the next few days, so hoping for some easy baby time. Which is certainly a more feasible hope than it might have been in previous weeks.

Huge congratulations to Dave and Octavia for their recent engagement. I'd say "about time too" but since it took Roj and I 7 years to decide to tie the knot (not 4), I really don't have a leg to stand on. Wonderful news, anyway.

Hurricane Isabel is supposed to hit us sometime later today. Sounds ominous but in fact she's reduced from a factor 5 to a factor 2 and will probably only be rated as 'high winds' when she eventually gets here. Nevertheless we have removed items from our balcony (temporary gear space for bikes and boogie boards) and are eagerly awaiting our first brush with a twirly wind.

Last night Jody finally reverted to her long periods without feeding with a 6-hour stretch (growth spurt over then?) Today I am determined to take advantage of one of her sleepy periods by taking a nap myself. Having been woken every couple of hours most of this week I have attained that level of zombie-ishness that I was familiar with in the first couple of months. But every time Jody sleeps I think "right, a chance to get on with so-and-so." Unfortunately my pace has reduced to a slow crawl so to save myself and all those other things that need doing, I'm gonna have to sleeeep.

Tomorrow I have another conference call in the morning. I think I'm pushing my luck to be doing this sort of thing without a screaming Jody but the alternatives are to set up some kind of childcare, which is currently a big unconquerable obstacle in my mind. Nice as it is to have some intellectual (ish) distraction and the extra cash, I also wonder whether I'm attempting a little too much with all this work. I totally resent feeling so obliged to be sat in front of my computer in every break I get when there are a million other things I ought to be doing. But as soon as I embark on the million other things, I get guilt complexes for letting colleagues down. I thought I'd be calling the shots, but I'm not and it's driving me nuts.

Don't have any plans for the weekend yet, except for a bit more shopping (I seem to be permanently shopping these days, but a rapidly growing baby and my own changing needs seem to warrant it). I will inevitably try and huff and puff myself round the park at some point too (hoping to go this afternoon actually, but am feeling a little spaced out). Then next week have a couple of visitors popping round, lots more work and packing for the UK.

No news on the camera yet, except that it's unlikely to get here in the near future. To save the sanity of my readership I'm going to avoid mentioning it until it actually gets here (or I learn that it's never going to). Until then, it's safe to assume that I'll be going slightly mad.

Hooray. Blogger is posting again. Thankyou Adaptive.net: 2 weeks late but there nonetheless.

I feel enormously sorry for my brother whose new cyclo-cross bike has turned out to be a duff less than two weeks before the 3 Peaks. It's his best year so far (he just averaged 20.7mph in the Hell of the North 100 miles) and he's now gonna have to hope not to have any nasty mechanicals that throw spanners in his aim to rise through the ranks. I'm very excited that this year I'll finally get a chance to watch him after all the big talk. Despite being an avid non-cross fan, I have vague suspicions that I will be doing it myself one year. Even looking at last year's program and seeing the names in the female field made me get all competitive. I'm sad like that.

To get in any kind of physical shape I'm going to have to get my arse in gear though. My grand total of exercise sessions post-birth numbers only 5. The mornings are still a bit of a write-off for me, and the days have just been too hot. So either Jody needs to let me sleep a little better or we need some autumn weather. I am not writing off a spring marathon yet.

The wierdest thing about the lack of exercise is seeing myself without muscles for the first time in several years (apart from the arm & shoulder muscles that've stuck around from doing high reps with a 14+lb little lump all day!) I would invariably opt for the muscular version, but it's interesting to see how much bulk it adds to my body.

In fact Jody has been sleeping quite a lot in the daytime the last three days. I'm suspecting a growth spurt since she also needs feeding every 2.5 hours-ish. Her dexterity has improved enormously the last couple of weeks. She's gripping nearly everything now, and less haphazardly than before. With a grip of iron too, I might add (I know this from painful experience).

Looking forward to my first 'Baby and Me' experience on Monday when I meet up with Jennifer and Ethan for some baby yoga. Having never done yoga in my life before and knowing the state of my hamstrings I'm a little worried that I'm going to be shown up by the 3-month-olds, but the experience should be interesting and I'm looking forward to see Jennifer again (Ethan, it must be said, seems to be cast from the same over-active mold as Jody so I have an immediate sympathiser in Jennifer).

Lots of work lined up for the next few weeks, but it's an Information Architecture project (to start with, anyway), so I might even enjoy it. The great news is that the little black raincloud project that's been hanging over my head for over a year is now all but complete. A bit of documentation and I never need to see the thing again. Or that's the hope, anyway.

And then there's the camera ...

What camera? ...

Very nice weekend. Not least because Roj came back early afternoon Saturday. Lovely to see him after such a long time away. He shelved the MTB race Sunday morning (jet lag and bad weather) and instead we had our now-customary breakfast at Route 66 and then went shopping in the afternoon (clothes for me - hooray). On our way back we got ticketed by the police in 34th St subway station for carelessly swiping the card once instead of the required twice to allow Roj and buggy through the gate and me through the turnstile. Many jokes about being criminals and kicking ourselves for not having the presence of mind to hand over UK ID. Would have saved us $60. Ah well.

No camera as yet. High hopes today since I have to go over to Grand Central anyway to drop off some birthday presents with Yi Shun (Happy Birthday Yi Shun!) and it would be very convenient to then nip up to CT on the train. Then again, I've had high hopes of getting my camera every day for about 2 months, so I'm not going to hold my breath.

Have bits of work to do today and a double-sided list of other stuff to catch up on. Jody is asleep right now (as she tends to be in the morning when she realises that 6am was altogether too early to start the day), so I'm hoping she stays that way ... at least for a while.

In actual fact I should be taking advantage by sleeping myself. Insommnia struck again last night after one of the best night's sleep I've had in 6 months Saturday. I got up to do some work until 12:30 and then didn't go to sleep until 1:45ish. Unfortunately I was then woken at 2:30 and 5:45 to feed the baby and didn't go to sleep after the last one (apart from a 45 min snooze while Roj had breakfast). Which means I've had the dubious luxury of about 3 hours sleep. No wonder I feel a bit groggy this morning. Need tea.

I encountered an interesting phenomenon yesterday. I went into town with Jody in the Baby Bjorn to look for a couple things and was there for about 3 hours. During this time it was the men who cooed and clucked and spoke to her, and told me how cute she was and so on. There were about 3 or 4 women who looked over and smiled and one who said "cute baby," but in comparison there were about 15 men or more who did the same. This knocked me for 6 actually, because I had thought it was going to be the other way around. And who said men aren't softies!!

STILL NO CAMERA. Can you believe it? I will be truly sceptical in future of using anybody's 'contacts'. I don't know why it's taking so long ... and particularly why I keep getting told a certain day which then passes camera free. It would be better on the whole if my hopes didn't keep getting dashed. The only brightish side is that it's miserable weather this weekend so I'm not missing a vast amount of opportunities (although if Roj decides to do the MTB race tomorrow - which is looking less likely because of the rain - I will be annoyed to miss that one).

Roj is back later today. Have missed him loads although I have to say that I've found it about ten times easier than I was anticipating. I think a couple of difficult days with Jody made me worried about a week in a row of the same. But as it happens she's had one grouchy day (Wednesday) and a whole heap of delightful days. She's properly found her voice this week so she sits in her bouncy chair squealing and squeaking. Which makes us both smile. And I've kept myself busy enough - quite a bit of work, a lot of wandering around errand-running, and the inevitable bit of retail therapy (justifiable in that it's all new clothes for Jody, the excuse being she hasn't got any long-sleeves and it's about to get chilly).

Well until my stoooopid ISP sorts itself out (it takes about a week for them to reply to my queries), I've had to abandon Blogger and do this whole thing by hand - eek. Apparently they've had to make adjustments to their firewall recently and this has affected certain FTP clients. Nice of them to let us know in advance of course. At least I've sorted out Bulletproof so I can do a little bit of updating.

It's not Blogger, it's my ISP having FTP issues. Down for a week. Gah. Still, it means I can still update this thing, and eventually it'll all get published. How exciting for you all!

Jody has shown me the stupidity of saying that she's starting some kind of routine. Having been reliably sleeping (and not eating) for periods of 5 to 6 hours a night, she's spent the last couple of nights messing it up again. Tuesday night she fed every 3 hours, but she made up for it by sleeping til 8am (which is 2 hours longer than usual). Unfortunately she then didn't sleep all day (except for 20 minutes after being lulled to sleep in the laundry room) until 10pm. I went to bed at 11 after a fab evening gossiping, eating lovely cheese, and talking randomness with Yi Shun and Jody fed at 00:30, 02:00 and 05:00. She then refused to go back to sleep until I got up and put her in the vibrating chair (which is where she is right now), and bounced her genty for 10 minutes while I typed. Dawn is consequently just breaking and as soon as I've finished my tea, I'm going back to bed. For how long though, I wonder?

There's a vicious rumour that I'll be getting my camera today, but I'm not going to believe it until it's in my hands. Certainly I'll be happy enough if it comes before the weekend so I can play with it when my hands aren't full with Jody (Roj gets back early afternoon on Saturday), but on the whole it's been more hassle than it's worth to save a mere $200 (over a period of 3 months). Particularly as I found an equivalent street price in the back of one of my magazines. Still ... once I get the thing, all this whingeing will be over and I'll just enjoy learning how to use a dSLR. I hope.

I can't post today without mentioning 2 things. Firstly Jody is 3 months old today, which apparently is the watershed after which it all gets easier. It definitely has got a little easier these last few weeks, simply because I've got more used to the demands she makes and how to handle them. She still has ridiculous off-days (like yesterday) when she's grouchy most of the time and you start to wonder how you can possibly cope, but the majority of the time she's a little smiley bundle of joy making it all worthwhile. I certainly haven't wished her away for a second. Even with her seemingly irrational demands, she's absolutely wonderful.

The second thing to mention is obviously the 2nd anniversary of the collapse of the World Trade towers. I haven't been watching the news recently, but I expect America will be in full remembrance mode today. I'm certainly going to avoid watching TV because if last year was anything to go by, full remembrance means replaying the scene every 5 minutes. I was discussing with Yi Shun last night the value of these huge memorial days if they include re-hashing the horror of the moment and we agreed that if there was a way to pay tribute without being so visceral, it would be our preference. I don't want to belittle the events of this day in 2001, or what it means to America, New York, and many of my friends here. I was not far away from the scene at the time, and it shocked me horribly to see the devastation, but I do think there's a case for moving on. Particularly where the media is concerned.

I don't think I can say much more about it. I will spend a little bit of time remembering the day as it happened for me (I already am doing, now that I'm writing this). And I will respect those who still need to outwardly mourn. And I will avoid the TV controls. But otherwise this day will probably pass as normal.

Blogger is being annoying. If only I had a vast amount of time I might do my own thing. Yet another pipe-dream though, along with writing a bestselling novel, taking up drawing and painting again, becoming David Bailey II. Oh yes ... and looking after the baby 24/7.

Roj is off to Budapest tonight. I'm sure he'll have a great time ... not least because he'll have a week of proper sleep. Meanwhile I'm going to do this annoying little project (probably), see a handful of friends (hopefully), and get my camera (not holding my breath). Any more than that and I'll feel like I've achieved the earth!

Well done to Dave for doing the Nike 10k this weekend. Having been through a silly amount of leg operations and recuperation since his bike accident a couple of years ago, it's fantastic news that he's pretty much back to normal at last. Now all that remains to be seen is which of us completes a marathon first. My money is currently on him.

Was nice to go into the Park yesterday to meet up with Larry and a few other people. He's in very good shape (fitness instructor, temporarily), and revealed his softer side when meeting Jody for the first time. Seems that the unsociable Taylors have done quite well this weekend: drinks on a roof garden on Saturday and a picnic in Central Park on Sunday. Nice.

A couple of days after Jody was born, I got a congratulatory email from a complete stranger called Benjamin Wagner. A neigbourhood blogger, he had come across my site on NYCbloggers.com and been following my pregnancy due to the fact his sister-in-law was going through exactly the same thing. Unbelievably his nephew was born just the day before Jody.

When I checked out his site, and the photos of his nephew Ethan, I was amazed to find that Roj and I had been having childbirth preparation classes with Benjamin's brother Christofer and his wife Jennifer, and that their birth had also been at Elizabeth Seton Childbearing Center. What are the chances of that?

So yesterday while we were running (with the new buggy at last - which was fab, incidentally), we ran into Christofer and little Ethan (Benjamin, Jennifer and Christofer are all avid runners and triathletes - in fact I found out subsequently that Jennifer ran up until her final week of pregnancy!) and had a nice chat catching up and introducing the two young 'uns. On returning home we found an email from Benjamin inviting us to Chris and Jen's roof garden where he was having a small party to celebrate his 32nd. So we went.

It was fab to meet them all again. Especially Ben whose blog I have read from time to time and who I have 'met' via the web, but never previously in person. And I almost felt like I knew the guy. All of them were so friendly and welcoming and we had a lovely evening, despite having to cut it a little short because Jody was getting cranky.

I can't believe I haven't mentioned the Benjamin Wagner story before, because I was bowled over by what an example it was of how small this world is. And I still am. There are two and a half thousand blogs on NYCbloggers.com, there is one out-of-hospital birth center in New York with three birthing rooms. There were eleven couples in our childbirth preparation classes. That Benjamin found my website in the first place, and that his sister-in-law had a baby just the day before Jody was coincidence enough, but the fact that they also chose Elizabeth Seton, and the fact that we had already met them. That blows my mind.

And they're lovely lovely people too. Which is a big fat bonus.

In other (almost) related news, I have also neglected to mention the very sad closure on September 1st of the Elizabeth Seton Center due to skyrocketing insurance costs. Obviously I'm glad that this happened after I gave birth, but I feel sorry for all those who chose the centre only to have the rug pulled out from under their feet. I can't believe (well, I can believe, but am still very saddened by) the fact that the childbirth choices offered to women in the US have to be dictated by insurance companies, and extremely saddened that those choices are being reduced instead of augmented. Elizabeth Seton, while not the best choice for everybody, gave me the opportunity for the relaxed and natural childbirth I hoped for, and allowed me to indulge my dislike of all things clinical. The midwives there were amazing, and the level of care much more personal and involved than could be expected elsewhere. They are setting up in St. Vincent's (their affiliated hospital), but the choices will be fewer, and their processes will be managed from now on by the obstetrics department. A great shame in my opinion.

In Jody news, she is now rolling over (from back to front) on a regular basis. While this stops us being able to dictate that she sleeps on her back (recommended to prevent SIDS), it reassures us that she is a strong little mite who is more than capable of moving herself out of a bad position if necessary. She is also more and more fascinated by her hands - they're either in her mouth, in front of her face, or holding onto something these days. She gets tangibly stronger every day too. She loves to sit up (supported, of course), and even when held upright will support her weight standing to some extent. At this rate she'll be following Rosie Mason's example and walking at 10 months. She's certainly proving to be more active and stronger than we ever anticipated.

We shelved the plans to go out to NJ/PA to watch The Gap this weekend, partly because of the aforementioned opportunity to meet the Wagners (drinks on a roof garden in the Upper West Side? who could refuse!), and partly because I spent all day yesterday working. With Roj in Budapest all next week, I can't guarantee my chances to keep abreast of work so I wanted to get a good headstart which will enable me to relax a little during the week. Unfortunately a new project is looming mid-week which I am regretting involving myself in, particularly since it currently makes no sense.

And last but not least, my camera (clearly) did not arrive last week, which was (clearly) very annoying. I'm very excited about it still, but getting a little frustrated at missed opportunities (e.g. the most fantastic sunset ever a couple of nights ago). I shouldn't knock the G2, because it's still performing magnificently, but I am looking forward to owning a dSLR so much I can hardly contain myself. Lets just hope it brings renewed vigour to my Photo of the Day section, since it could certainly do with it.

Jody has gone long periods in the last three nights without needing a feed. 6 hours on Saturday night, 5.5 on Sunday and 7 last night. Wonderful you think. Lara must be getting hours and hours of sleep. But no! Lara couldn't sleep at all last night. While Roj and Jody were snoring away happily from about 10:30pm, insommniac Lara got up to read Canon forum topics on www.dpreview.com until 00:30, and even when she returned to bed, she couldn't help waking up every half hour wondering why she wasn't being woken up. Sigh.

It's 16 degrees in NYC today. And raining. I do hope this isn't the premature end of summer, but as I bundled Jody up into a thick sleepsuit, hat and blanket to go out to the supermarket, I got a strange sinking feeling that it might well be. We're just not destined for much fun with the weather this year.

My camera has been delayed again. I'm hoping against hope that it will still arrive this week. I don't think my excitement can stand another weekend without it. Weather permitting, we're heading over to Pennyslvania to watch The Gap this weekend - the first 24 hour adventure race that NYARA have put on. We might even be camping if we can brave it, which will be our first time in the tent I bought Roj last year. Luckily I had the foresight to buy one big enough to fit a baby in, or one of us would be sleeping outside (and I wouldn't fancy Roj's chances!)

And Roj is off to Budapest for a conference-networking-thingy next Monday. Rowan was going to come down to NYC (or entertain me in New Hampshire), but something else has cropped up, so I'm faced with the rather intimidating task of 6 days looking after Jody on my own. If she's in her lethargic mood I'll be OK, but if she's the live-wire that she is 99% of the time I don't hold out much hope. Time to try and find some willing bods to help me out a bit methinks.

Otherwise I'm doing bits of work (current project has to be out of the way in the next 2 weeks or I will go MAD) and bits of catching up. Still woefully behind on correspondence but am really waiting until work is right out of the way before I try and sort that out.

Jody is asleep (in her carseat would you believe). She is fitting nicely into 3-6 month clothes. In fact I think she'll be in 6-9 month ones before long. I can't believe that she's already filling out sleepsuits I bought 6 weeks ago thinking she wouldn't fit in them til November. She's 12 weeks tomorrow, so hopefully the rain will stop so we can take her out in the 3-wheeler. She holds her head up solidly like a trouper nowadays, even when you pull her to sitting by her hands. And while we were at Ringwood on Sunday (giving Roj a chance to test out the MTB race course he might do in a fortnight) we put her face-forward in the Baby Bjorn for the first time. As well as chewing a massive wet patch in the fold-down bit, she absolutely loved this experience and waved her legs and arms around happily all day.

We also took her successfully to Route 66 on Monday morning (before going to B&H photo to drool at overpriced carbon fibre tripods and the display-model 10D). She definitely prefers to be doing things than sitting around the apartment all day (don't we all!) I'm almost hoping this cooler weather stays so that I can stick her in the carrier and go exploring (the buggy is so unweildy and the carrier too hot for NYC summertime).

I have to take my hat off to Peta, who not only looks after two pre-schoolers (although Aly is soon to start), is an active participant in various mums' clubs, and has turned her anti-blogging website into a pretty regular blogging one with plenty of updates, but also finds the time to read my website. I can only aspire to her level of achievement. In fact I have to take my hat off to anyone who reads my site nowadays. It's lamentably out of date and all a bit single-tracked but it still seems to maintain a decent following. I'm truly amazed.