Time flies by so quickly, I also find that the older one gets, the more it seems to accelerate. I was ill with my stomach for 3 weeks so avoided everyone in case of germ transfer, then Caitlin was having a visit with her dad and brother for a week, and the next thing you know it had been over a month since I saw my granddaughter in person!
Last Saturday Wes was off with his mates for the day so Caitlin invited me over to visit with her and Bree. I arrived about 12 and Bree was just waking up. Caitlin made us avocado toast while Bree lay on her tummy matt. I was so surprised at how much she has developed, she is now able to push herself right up high on her extended arms. She is so aware and alert and can roll over and do all sorts of things! She is so strong and grasps your fingers when you feed her. I gave her a bottle and a cuddle but it was just unbearably hot so I put her back down to play on her matt after her bottle. I interacted with her listening to her little sing song noises and smiles. She has a gorgeous smile and a huge dimple on her right cheek. She is just starting to get a little pattern of hair on her head, it looks like it will be darker than I had expected. I assumed it was going to be silky white duck down like Caitlin had as a baby and toddler.
After Bree went down for her next nap I hung out with Caitlin for a bit then headed home. I needed to be home by 4 for Norm to walk Finn and it was just so unbearably hot. I was dripping with sweat! It was lovely to see them both doing so well and looking so healthy.
I nicked a little clipping from Caitlin and Wes’ garden on my way out. This time I managed to get the roots so I hope it lives. The two clippings that I pinched from them the last time I was over had no roots and only one of them has survived but it is tiny – it is right in front of the larger new plant in the second pic.
Saturday was International Women’s Day and after I arrived home Norm popped out to walk Finn and went to shop to get some beautiful lilies for me on his way home. I love lilies as they look like an art installation until they bloom.
Then once they do they have stunning, gorgeously perfumed flowers (which you can see in the images further below). It is safe to have them now that we do not have cats on the dining room table.
Saying that, Blue is now able to get onto my desk but he swings around his cast and things fly off of my desk. But he is only getting onto my desk because we used to keep his and Lola’s water and dried food there as it can be accessed from the steps but Finn struggles to reach it. I am not putting it there yet just because he acts like he is maimed so that we give him chicken. Don’t get me wrong, he IS maimed, he has a broken leg, but it does not hamper his ability to navigate about any longer. He can pop in and out of the cat flap, from chair to sofa, garden to ground. Last night he jumped off of our highest unit after creeping me for chicken. He is not above using his disability to beg for food, if he thinks it is going to work he performs for the masses, wailing as if he is near death and wasting away from lack of nutrition.
Then this morning we wake up to a long piece of bandage in the pantry and a naked legged Blue wandering around. He was due to go back to the vet Monday and I thought he was going to get his cast removed and be back to full function but this morning they said they were only going to change the dressing. I get second hand information from a dour Scotsman so I know nothing.
Poppy is doing brilliantly. She is still loving playing ball. Every time I go out to the back garden she brings the ball to me for a game.
She loves that she can freely move in and out of the front and back doors and can navigate all of the stairs on her own.
Poppy and Finn play fight constantly and chase each other around like mad things. It looks horrific, but Finn is so gentle with her. If she goes too far he gives her a gentle little nip to put her in her place. He is a wonderful parent.
Sometimes they are getting in the way of my meetings and I have to shout for help from Norm.
I am trying to eat better but by better I am not meaning for weight loss, but in regards to actual food and not just rubbish. I could easily survive on snacks. My body needs the vitamins and minerals of real food. Each day this week I had a nice bowl of grapes, figs, strawberries, and mangoes. It tasted gorgeous and fresh.
However I did not cook dinner all week (as usual). I had ‘two for one’ sushi one night which was delicious.
I did cook a pot of chili con carne on Thursday after work. It was finished too late for dinner that night but it was perfect last night. I do not enjoy anyone else’s chili as much as my own. I like minimal meat, lots of kidney and borlotti beans. I like it thick, not thin and overly soupy. Add some grated mature cheddar and a dollop of sour cream and yum to the yum, even in this hot weather it was pretty fabulous.
2025 is a year of huge transformation and this has been such an intense month. I saw a few posts about what is happening on a cosmic level and it all made sense.
I have been having weird dreams about a past event, I now understand it represents letting go and ending any ties. The loss of Lola after such a long illness. Blue breaking his leg. I can see it all colliding in this month.
On March 14th we have a Full Moon and Lunar Eclipse in Virgo (my sign). It is a day for a reality check and a reset. It illuminates our health, our career and our practical needs. Time for letting go of things we no longer need and rebalancing. Identifying what we are lacking so that we can manifest our needs.
March 14, we will be entering the first Mercury retrograde of 2025. Set to go on till April 7, it falls in the middle of Venus retrograde, which had commenced back on March 1 and will be turning direct on April 12.
On March 29th we have a New Moon and Solar Eclipse in Aries. It represents new beginnings and sudden breakthroughs. I feel like my current contract is definitely related to that, I am doing a data discovery and I am learning a lot of interesting things. It is a new client and I am finding my feet with them. I have a new puppy, a broken legged cat and 2 baby granddaughters. So many new beginnings or transformations.
This week I want to link a word which I have discussed previously to a couple of new words. I have written about ‘Alexithymia’ in a previous post but today I heard a few new related words: ‘Dysautonomia‘ and ‘Dysmotility‘.
If you do not want to read the previous post via the link above, I will sum Alexithymia up as an inability to express, identify, or understand what you are feeling, whether that is anger, embarrassment, happiness, hunger, cold, loneliness, sadness, the urge to pee or pretty much anything that you rely on your autonomic system to recognise. It is a spectrum so people may struggle with some of these issues, or they may be affected minimally with all of them. Many neurodiverse people have issues with hunger especially and we forget to eat until midday and when we finally realise we are hungry we are like ravenous beasts. If left to my own devices I will have coffee til midday and then a single large meal at around 4 or 5 pm, then munch loads of rubbish late at night while watching telly.
I am often nauseous from hunger but do not realise that the lack of food is why I am nauseous until I am heading off the deep end of dysregulation and Norm asks me when I last ate. By the time I realise I am hungry, my hunger is so intense I crave something carby and salty or sugary and sweet, anything easily and quickly consumed with zero preparation.
Now for the kicker. “The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is the part of the nervous system that regulates functions that are automatic in nature such as heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, excretion, perspiration, temperature regulation, pupil dilation, circulation, and respiration among others.
The ANS is responsible for maintaining homeostasis, or equilibrium, in the body. When there is a dysfunction or failure of the autonomic nervous system, the result is a disorder classified as a type of dysautonomia. Dysautonomia is not a diagnosis. It’s an umbrella term to describe autonomic disorders.”
The seven most common symptoms of dysautonomia are:
- Difficulty Standing Still
- Fatigue
- Lightheadedness
- Nausea and Other GI Symptoms
- Brain Fog and Mental Clouding
- Palpitations or Chest Discomfort
- Shortness of Breath or Difficulty Breathing
I have 1 to 5 constantly and 6 & 7 occasionally.
Dysautonomia can lead to Dysmotility or Slow Gut Motility and I am affected with this for sure. The first symptom for this is Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). I have a hiatal hernia and take medication for Gastric Reflux every day. The second symptom is IBS and I have had IBS on and off for as long as I can remember. The third is Dumping syndrome: I have also suffered from this multiple times and if I eat too much sugar I will get very sick with the shakes, the sweats and umm, how can I put this……’dual elimination’. The final symptom is chronic constipation. The less said about that the better. I know I need to get up and move my arse to help with this disfunction (pun NOT intended, Virgo’s do not discuss that unless we have to). This adds more weight (once again, pun not intended) to the argument that I need more exercise.
The other thing I discovered was ‘Inattention Blindness’. Before we discuss it, I would like you to watch this video and tell me how many times the team in the white shirts pass the ball.
According to the font of all knowledge, (no, not AI silly, Wikipedia), Inattention Blindness “occurs when an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus in plain sight, purely as a result of a lack of attention rather than any vision defects or deficits. When it becomes impossible to attend to all the stimuli in a given situation, a temporary “blindness” effect can occur, as individuals fail to see unexpected but often salient objects or stimuli.”
I find this fascinating and now understand how five people can witness an event and give five varied descriptions of this event from them. As someone with AuDHD, I am surprised by this result, but then the video is rubbish quality and I am blind as a bat. I usually always notice every single thing in a room. The exception is when I am deep in data analysis or writing. I do not see or notice anything. A bomb can go off and I will ignore it. I try so hard to ignore Norm but he can be pretty determined to get attention (Cancerians).
I feel like all of these things form part of that big spiderweb of knowledge about myself and my Neurodiversity.
I have a delivery of items for my fairy garden. I will put the pots on with the teapots on my metal shelf. This is what I will amuse myself over the weekend. Putting my bunnies in the garden and planting clippings in my new pots.
I ordered the pots and bunnies online from ‘Future Decor‘ and the service has not been great. They promised free shipping over a certain spend amount but the site did not credit me so I had to email them. Then one of the bunnies I ordered did not arrive and I keep getting fobbed off with ‘we will update you by end of day’ for several days now. Poor customer service and lack of communication is my bête noire!
I have absolutely nothing in my diary this weekend and that makes me very happy. Work is so intense that I need the down time. The weather has been pretty intense too, it was very hot but relatively still until Thursday when the winds went a bit insane. Luckily I have my back patio to sit on without getting abused by the winds.
There is no way I could sit comfortably at the front of the house! Poppy liked to feel the wind on her face but was probably not to keen on risking it full force so she spent a lot of time doing her Titanic chest arch on the top step.
The severe winds finally stopped late last night and today is a bit cooler and still. I am off to have a cup of coffee then it is time to potter with my plants and bunnies.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend and week ahead. Friday the 21st is a public holiday so next week is a 4 day week here in SA. Until next time, Kisses from the Kitten xoxoxoxo
Kitten in the City 