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Wednesday 31 December 2008

OH so cool!

I think this is our only completely indulgent kiddly purchase, and by George, did we make it count. It turns out that one of us alone can resist cool kid stuff, but both of us together are a bit useless.

Still, we did need a lamp ...

Hehe. I love that he even comes with his own plant to pee on. Dogs are awesome.






Plus, the latest belly shot. Complete with sausage fingers and meat pattie hands. You wouldn't believe I've only chunked on 10kg so far in this business would you? I look like a great big puff ball.

And, speaking of chunking it on, it turns out that Cuinn has not slowed down his endeavour towards the title of world heavy-weight champion of the maternity ward on whatever day he arrives - the little pudding is 7lbs 8oz. It turns out that the last lot of measurements were a bit off.

Now might be a good time to start hoping I'm stretchy ...


Tuesday 30 December 2008

Eating two pieces of chocolate nutcake was a very bad idea

Trying to wear them off by cleaning the lounge windows was an even worse one.

Barf.

No to mention that sparkly windows seems to be a screaming invitation for our resident canines to immediately rub their noses all over them again, so it's back to looking like you've been sitting on the couch all afternoon doing nothing. Which I suppose is almost accurate. One of these days I'm going to take a photo of my sparkly clean windows in the 10 second window that comes after I've cleaned them, and before the dogs re-snot them, so I can frame it and hang it up next to said windows just to prove that they do actually get cleaned. One of these days. When I can find the camera (not to self - it is not a good idea to be 37 weeks pregnant and unable to find the camera ... just in case the kid pops out and you are left sans memories captured forever in ... bollocks. Memory card. Film sounds so much cooler).

Tomorrow is the first of our last OB appointments before kiddly does his thing (as in, we're down to weekly ones). I'm still hopeful that I have a couple of weeks up my sleeve, but you never can tell. There is a level of strangeness which is stranger than normal, to how I'm starting to feel which makes me think that hormones etc are changing, and my body is planning something evil. Nothing imminent, it's just being thoughtful.

Mind you, for all I'm hoping I have a few weeks up my sleeve, I'd dearly love my numb sausage and meat pattie hands to un-numb themselves and apparently the only way that is going to happen is by giving birth. I suppose I should just be grateful that I at least finished work before they got really really bad and became next to useless. I'll take a photo of the husband cutting up my dinner, shall I? (reminder note to self in case I've already forgotten - find the blardy camera)

I think the one thing that has really surprised me (aside from sausage and meat pattie hands, because of all the weird and wonderful late pregnancy things I've heard about, and as much as I've heard that one often does blow up like a puffer fish, I really wasn't expecting to blow up so much that the nerves to my hands would have a fit) is that I really wasn't expecting to have to adjust to the idea of finishing work. I'm relieved and then some, believe me - my body has just gone puh! with exhaustion (how on earth do people work up to 2 weeks out, or even till they pop? Seriously! Maybe it's that they don't try to do it at this time of year when there are all manner of socialisy things on as well as extra workloads that come with the year coming to a close) ... but it's coming to terms (I guess? I'm not sure if that's the right expression) with a new life about to begin, anticipating the absolute unknown, and yes, the single income because that really is a bit scary and my awareness of no longer contributing to the household financially is really strong.

Even trying to set new routines for myself is a bit strange ... I've been getting up before 6am to get to work during the week for years, collapsing at weekend, mucking about during holidays, getting washing and housework done on Fridays and Saturdays, or Sundays if I couldn't be arsed on Friday or Saturday. Now I get up and I don't have to be anywhere to do anything, I can do washing whenever I feel like it (not that I couldn't before, but in the middle of the day in the middle of the week I was usually at work and more often than not by the time I got home I couldn't be arsed, hence washing in the weekends), same with the housework (ditto), and yet I've just realised that it's almost dinner time and I can't remember doing my teeth today (niiiice!), and it was lunch time before I had a shower. 'tis just a new beginning that feels a little stranger than I imagined it would I guess. Of course it's probably a complete waste of time even worrying slash thinking about it because whatever new routine I establish in the next few weeks is going to be blown to hell and then some in very short order.

And on that note, I have just fixed up my millionth typo from trying to blog with little feeling/movement in my hands, so I'm off to sulk gracefully on the couch about sausage and meat pattie hands while I try to stay away from the batch of Queen cakes I made shortly after the chocolate cake, which are sitting next to the chocolate afghans which really should be eaten because they're two days old.

I think I might just give the scales at the OB's rooms a miss tomorrow.

Monday 29 December 2008

I. Want. STUFF!

Lots of stuff.

So much stuff.

Hideously expensive stuff too! (Which is why I want it, as opposed to need it, or, more importantly, have it. Hehe)

Everywhere I look (bearing in mind I suppose that I'm passing time in between bouts of nest-industriousness actually looking as opposed to coming across it randomly) there is cool stuff for kidlets, and I want it. All of it. Lucky for the husband though at this point, the thought of going within ten feet of a shop, any shop, in my current waddly whale-like condition with people teeming in all directions (there was an incident on boxing day where I thought that the boxing day sales would be an excellent time to pick up nursing bras that I still needed to get (motivated by a minor panic that our friends from antenatal classes who were due two weeks before us had their baby on the 24th - eek!), and I thought that getting there super-early would ensure a quick and easy shopping trip, netting me exactly what I wanted, on sale, with minimum fuss. Ha! I'm still in a cold sweat days later remembering it, and I scarpered out the shop sans nursing bras at 100 miles an hour in a very traumatised state) is enough to stop me cold (I'm pretending I don't know about internet shopping ... well, where it doesn't involve lusting after completely gorgeous, completely unaffordable, cool kiddly stuff).

So, obviously I'm amusing myself in light of that making a completely dreamy list of stuff that I'm so not going to buy (We just kissed goodbye my income. You do the maths), but I have to share what I'm lusting after because it's all just sooo cool!

Firstly, four words - eeni meeni miini moh. I'm not picky. The entire range is cute enough to eat.

Ugly dog. Heh. We love puppies. We already have Jeero all packed in Cuinn's bag for Birthcare, but a kid can never have too many scary looking toys.

He will actually get this trolley at some point. It's a must-have lust-have.

And how cool is this picnic set? I have no idea if boys do picnic sets but it deserves an honourable mention on a coolness scale of one to ten. (Actually, the circus set is probably cooler for boys, but he wouldn't know the difference)

As for this felt train ... awesome. Enough said.

Vaguely scary but still cool.

Not even remotely scary and very cool.

Gorgeous. *Sigh*

Lucky, GrannIE can knit gooood. (Hint hint GrannIE)

A book for meeeee!

This is wicked too, and even better, it's sitting in Cuinn's room courtesy of Pal Katherine. Tra la laaaa!

Oooooh! And I did justify this indulgence as a kiddly-related purchase in a very round-about, long-winded, mumblecoffeegroupmumblequalitytimebakingwithCuinnintimetocomemumble sort of way, but it was worth every cent (plus I got 10% off AND a free coffee, so it was a bargain. Honest. Oh, and, of course, most obvious, since it relates to food, I paid for it out of the grocery budget. Ka-ching! Genius). There is a Viennese chocolate nut cake that I intend to bake tomorrow and probably eat in one sitting, and the chocolate afghans have been done and digested. Non-baby pregnancy weight, here I come. The husband is going to have exploding cake tins when I eventually go into hospital to have Cuinn, and an empty freezer. Still, that's why McDonald's was invented wasn't it? (*shudder*)

The danger in all of this of course is that we've just sold the spa pool (yusssss!) on Trademe and buying lots of cool things for the kidlet seems so much more interesting than fixing the car, so I stuck my Visa down the other end of the house because I'm pretty sure I couldn't be arsed walking that far, even in an emergency.

(The next question is - who could be bothered looking at all the links? Hehe)

Oh, and of course, YUSSSSS!!! for maternity leave! I'm so relieved. Exhausted, and relieved.

Monday 22 December 2008

A belly, art and some greens

The belly (no, I have no idea if my feet are still there)

Art (yay for stickers!!) (Actually, it felt very brave to put these up this afternoon. Although we can peel them off, they're pretty permanent. Everything else in Cuinn's room is able to be packed up and put away but doing this felt like a concrete acknowledgement that we are actually expecting to have this baby. Al and I just kind of gave each other a look of the 'Holy Shit' variety (sorry GrannIE and Pop) when we were done and wandered off in separate directions to absorb the ... whatever.)



Greens (veges and weeds living in happy harmony)




(Hehe. There would have been tomatos interspersed through the corn as well, except I did a little bit of weeding the other day and ... uhmmmm ... guess who can't tell a tomato plant from a weed? Ooopsie)

Sunday 21 December 2008

It's tricky doing washing when the washing is the size of a peg


Whether Cuinn's feet are actually that little when they start kicking about in the wide open space that is the world outside his current accommodation, who knows, but in the meantime, seeing these sitting side by side in the folded washing pile gave me a moment's pause.

I'll post a four-weeks-to-go belly pic tomorrow I promise - along with, in theory, the nursery decorations that we're finally getting around to putting up. Assuming that we finally get around to putting them up. We did buy them at least and they've been transferred to the nursery which is a good start. I should probably do new vege photos too - we're completely blown away that they're actually growing and actually look like veges. Most impressive.

And continuing the theme which is general bloggy uselessness, I meant to post an update on Wednesday after our latest OB appointment, but there was a slight fell-asleep-on-the-couch-then-couldn't-be-arsed-for-days issue that held proceedings up some till today so sorry about that. Ish. I blame the time of year. Nothing like being almost 36 weeks pregnant, up to your eyeballs in calendared events and socialising, general exhaustion as I try my damndest to make it to the end of the working year (Wednesday. Amen to that) and complete lack of sleep from, among other things, being cooked from the inside and out courtesy of 1x kiddly and, I'm sure, unseasonably toasty weather. Aren't we all normally complaining that the weather is unseasonably crap this time of year, therefore meaning that the lovely weather, as it used to be at this time of year in days gone by, is actually now the unseasonable stuff?

Anywho. Cuinn is good. Great in fact! Beautiful and wiggly and happy and everything else we could possibly want. He's also slowing down on the growing front which is a complete relief - our latest weigh in had him at 5lbz 9oz, and he's looking more like he'll end up around the 8lb mark than 10lb full term. PHE-ew! 8lb I can do. Likely with loads of swearing, but you know. It's less horrifying to contemplate. I think.

But, on that note, while everything is going beautifully for us, my younger brother and his partner are having a more difficult time of things with a pregnancy 10 weeks younger than Cuinn. Mum's body is struggling and baby is looking to make an early entrance into the world - we're all hoping, very much, that she'll stay put for a while longer. She'll be 26 weeks on Wednesday. So far things have been able to be held steady-ish since Thursday by a team at Waikato hospital and mucho druggy goodness, and for the second time this year, our family has to say a very big thank you to modern medicine. But, in light of the general scary situation, you can never have too many people crossing too many things, so you know what to do. Fingers, toes, eyes, arms, legs ...

Wednesday 10 December 2008

Fishy Fishy

Man hunted and gathered. And for his trouble, was ordered to do disgusting decapitations etc outside.

Veeery interested puppies.


And the cat suddenly appeared from nowhere and parked herself in range as well.

I thought I did pretty well taking photos in the dark with one hand holding my nose very firmly closed. I can't stand the smell of fresh fish.

Curious

It's an interesting thing how one can be part way through making a cup of tea one minute, and then some time later finds oneself scrubbing down the internal walls of the house (sans cup of tea). It's also interesting how I don't think I ever noticed exactly how many internal walls our house has, until I found myself compulsively scrubbing them down. Furthermore, where on earth does the energy come from when one is knackered beyond belief? At the moment I swear the only thing stopping me from tumbling over backward with exhaustion is the enormous great weight sticking out the front of me which seems to be assisting gravity in keeping me upright.

So, I now have one seriously, seriously stewed cup of tea leaves, but several large walls which are once again the colour they're supposed to be. As opposed to the colour they're supposed to be underneath a winter's worth of dog shake-off related mud splatters.

And since the husband is currently bobbing around somewhere in the Manukau (presumably) on a boat, fishing a glorious, sunny and hot Wednesday afternoon away, despite it being extremely bad form, I'm going to have to point out my awesomeness in getting a percentage of the walls clean when he gets home, since he wasn't here to see me do it.

Perhaps also the on-hands-and-knees scrubbing for an hour or so will have helped turn kiddly around to facing the right direction for a bit too - apparently it doesn't matter so much if he stays that way, but just so long as he gets a bit used to being in that position so that he can get back there easily enough when we're in labour.

Anywho - the achievement blathered about above kind of makes up for realising after about an hour that I'd accidentally put an entire load of the husband's clothes on a 95 degree washing cycle instead of a cold one. I don't think it matters a whole lot as far as t-shirts and undies goes, but I really don't want to have to stick all his woollen socks in Cuinn's drawers.

Monday 8 December 2008

And you thought I'd fallen off the face of the earth

Close, but not quite.

We are creeping closer and closer to due date which is a bit scary - tomorrow is 34 weeks. In theory I'd have an OB visit on Wednesday, but bless his socks, he's going away the following week for two weeks, so he wants to see me as close as possible to his leaving, after which appointment we hope like hell that Cuinn doesn't do anything funky like try to arrive before the OB is back from doing something completely inconsiderate and selfish like spending time with his family before the Christmas/New Year baby rush.

I feel a bit like I should be in a panic, or something akin to it, but I'm really not. Bags are being packed, clothing, nappies and linen is all washed and waiting (and probably folded and organised for the first and last time), we have slowly either culled or bought our way through our list of wants and needs with only a few outstanding items which aren't super urgent so we have time to save for them. I think the only thing that is making my eyes pop out at this stage is that we have to pay for parking while in the hospital having kiddly. Not so bad after all. Oh, that, and the bag of mini Milky Ways that I had in the 'nose bag' as Al calls it (the big ol' bag of food to keep either or both of us sustained depending on how long the big event takes) is ... uhmmm ... well, empty. Dunno how that happened.

Still, luckily we aren't seeing the OB this week because it's birth plan time and so far my birth plan, nevermind all the important decisions we need to make vis a vis interventions, various injections of whatever whenever, Vitamin K for Cuinn, etc etc etc, consists of 'get the kid out?' and 'somehow stop him growing any more in the next 6 weeks?'. I think I'm perhaps supposed to come up with a bit more than that, so at least I have another week to do it.

It's the last week of antenatal classes tonight too, and thank heavens for that. Two hour classes on a Monday night when one is completely and utterly smashed from growing a kid is a bit of a 'mare. I have to say though, and I really didn't think I would, but I'm glad I did them for the few things I learned and the relaxedness I currently feel in relation to all (OK, most) things kiddly. Apparently tonight is about taking baby home, so I may update that 'relaxedness' to 'complete state of panic' of course, but we'll see.

And now ...

Finally! It's taken 55 years (by the way, in case anyone wonders about the significance of 55 in terms of 55 years, 55 million of something, 55 whatever elses, I have no idea. It is just is what it is. but here are pictures of our gardeny efforts! Of course, these are pictures I took a couple of weeks ago, thought I'd posted and then found yesterday, unposted, so everything has grown lots (I can't believe everything has grown - most likely because I haven't been anywhere near it) and I'll need to do more pictures anyway, but still!

So, this is what we've got ...

The beginning of a passionfruit vine.



Ummmmm ... lettuces? Corn maybe? Oh. I know. We got everything started by loading up some old guttering with potting mix. Or maybe compost. Something along those lines. So, there is something growing in there, but I don't think I'm expected to know what it is at this point. Also note, it's very eco-friendly using old crap around the house instead of just biffing it. Genius idea. Wish it'd been mine, but unfortunately I was all for biffing the guttering and the husband came up with the whole reduce, re-use, recycle plan.


OK. I'm pretty sure that's corn.


Heavens above. I should have just put all the pictures up and not bothered with commentary. Silverbeet?


Ah HA! Zucchini!!


A bad picture of the whopping great frame the husband made to make sure that the passionfruit vine, once it's grown big and strong and we've actually wired up between the pillary things, lives happily ever after. We've got one vine going on each side.


I think this was just to show you we made a garden. With dirt we stole from the backyard of the little old lady next door. Don't worry though. She didn't need it - she was just going to level out her section with it or some such thing, so it's much better off growing our veges.


That's the other passionfruit vine.


Our little worm farm. Which I don't go near. Yuck. The theory is though that apart from worms making awesome fertilisery composty ... something environmentally friendly that makes your plants grow ... Cuinn will eventually have much fun learning about the wriggly worms. From his Dad.

Blueberries. Yum. We've actually had these for about two years, but we finally liberated them from their vege garden store pots, and put them in the garden. Lucky little blueberries.


I'm such a gardeny womble. But still. Yay us! And, even better, since Cuinn's only about 6 weeks away Mum and Dad'll be up soon and they can do the weeding! Heh. And visit their grandson. Of course.