The good life

Puppies at the park, doing what puppies do.

The half-way stop since I can only waddle so far involved a cup of tea and scones. I'll leave you to imagine how interesting it was a) lowering myself onto the actual ground and then b) getting back on my feet again. Nevermind the little bank we clambered down to have our picnic.

Hehe. The moment Jack realised he just walked past scones. Bless him, he came back and shook muddy pond water off in my tea. Puppies are great.

Oh, yes I do. I really, really do.

Firstly, it's best not to ask what I was googling when I found this.

BUT, I swear by all that is good in the world, I gotsta get me some of this stuff!

Pee & Poo

Why I would prefer to think we weren't decended from monkeys

Among other reasons ...

Has anyone else noticed the time?

Last week, I breathed a sigh of relief. Even when Cuinn stuck in there and started growing, and then kept sticking and kept growing, I kept holding my breath waiting for that 24 week mark where he'd have a fighting chance at life if he was born. It is a worst-case scenario and then some, sure, but ... well ... who'd have thought we'd be here? We didn't. Not really. So that everything keeps on trucking from day to day, accordingly to plan, not hiccups, no worries, really is a bit staggering. We're not exactly waiting for the bang, but we're suspicious that there hasn't been one. Then again, I suppose we did do some hard yards at the start. Little demon.

We're celebrating milestones from our little man every week now. He's getting stronger every day and it's really, really cool. His kicks are getting harder and harder and I can almost make out the difference between his hands and feet by the force that goes into either punching or kicking me. I can also often feel him building up to something too - there'll be a sensation like something is moving and then usually some form of abuse of my insides. I can feel him easily from the outside, as can Al, and if you're quick, you can see him too - my stomach will suddenly pulse out. The other day he stuck his foot out which was incredible. I figured it was a foot anyway. Something stuck out. A hard lump was poking out, and I went with a foot based on the length and width of it, and the force he must have been pushing with to stick it out there. That, and when I pushed back on it, the little demon booted me with the other one. Nice and hard. Bless.

Al can hear him moving which I'm a bit jealous of, although I suppose I do get the rest of it, all day ... and it was extremely funny to see the look on his face when Cuinn gave him a solid kick in the ear. Apparently he likes his privacy.

I'm still sulking about the antenatal classes though, which start in a month. In fact, they start around the time I need to come up with a birth plan for my obstetrician, which is a whole other post entirely. So far my 'plan' consists of avoiding the topic entirely because I'm pretty sure that my other plan of just waking up one morning to find Cuinn tucked up in his hammock, blissfully asleep, is just a wee tad unlikely.

Unbelievably though, when it comes down to breathing sighs of relief about babies having a chance if they're born, antenatal classes and birth plans, that means that the time has come to do a bit of a kiddly-stuff stocktake and make sure I have what I need for him should it all happen. Because it does sometimes. And sooner or later (preferably later. Not too late, but later is good), it definitely will. So I'm working through a list of what various stores say I desperately need as a bare minimum, and by cutting the 'necessary' amounts of various clothing items etc in half, forgetting about most of the hardware (do we really need a baby bath when we have a perfectly good sink? and a nightlight? Seriously? He definitely needs seven pairs of shoes though...), and being just a wee bit honest about the difference between wants (since he's not likely to have teeth for quite some time, I can probably flag the rimu teething rattle. I guess. If I have to) and actual needs (Uhhhmmmm .... pants and nappies) from a budgeting perspective, we seem to be getting somewhere. ''Somewhere' being a wee bit closer to a mortgagee sale, but, you know, that's still somewhere.

I can definitely report though - even now, it's still very surreal.

Can I have $500?

Two words ...

Nature Baby.

Honey, I'm home!

I'm pretty sure I am the worst holiday photo taker ever in the history of the world.

I got 17 snaps of this street sign, and none of the lolly shop for a start. I do love cardigans though.




The husband feeding ... I have no idea what at the deer park. It's either a goat, a thar or a yak. Probably a goat. It looks like a goat. But, the point is that there's one less hungry animal in the world.


A llama. Possibly.



The view from our hotel room. I think. If not, the view from our hotel room was pretty much the same. There was definitely a lake and mountains.





The inside of The Cow. The Cow do the best pizza ever in the history of the world (bolognese sauce and cheese. Mmmmm. Had I been slightly more onto it, I would've taken a photo of the pizza instead of the bar.)

The cheesy sign I made the husband stick his head through. What I should have taken a photo of as well was the gap that he had to limbo under to get behind the sign which is lodged between two buildings. The sign is made for kids, so it's about a foot and a half off the ground. VERY funny watching the husband get under there. Obviously, he was extremely cheerful about it.

THE best pie shop this side of anywhere. And the back of Stu. You can't tell, but he was running (OK, maybe he wasn't, but I'm pretty sure he wanted to).

The pie menu. They also do an excellent custard square and a wicked caramel meringue square. I've heard.

Me feeding a piggy (back at the deer park. I figure that the photos are so random, the posting can be too).

Photos from the Chinese (gold-mining??) village thing in Arrowtown.

The husband, Sarah, Stu and Vaughan in and around a hut built into the side of a cliff. Exceptionally cool apparently, but it was up a hill. Enough said.

Me, with what looks like a serious case of muffin-top. It's a kiddly. I swear. And some pies. Not all of them though, in case you're wondering.

See? It can't be all the pies - Stu and Sarah had some which means I didn't have them all.

So, yeah ... I have no idea what happened to all the other photos I thought I was taking ...

Simonne is

... loving Facebook.

... going on holiday. Tomorrow. To Queenstown. Where it's SNOWING!

... excited about the snow. I've never been in snow before. Do you think there's any chance it'll be warm snow though?

... obviously packing warm clothes (just in case it's not warm snow), some of which were emergency-purchased. I am having a summer baby, why would I have woolly clothes that fit over the kiddly-house? All my warm layers come to about a third of the way down my stomach, therefore not being much of a layer at all. Thank heavens for stores that haven't got around to removing winter stock from the racks, and sale prices which mean they didn't cost much. I got a jersey and a warm skirt. Now to try and get through 4 days without getting them dirty ... What's the bet I dump pizza down myself the first night I'm there?

... going straight from the airport at Queenstown to the Remarkable Sweet Shop to buy hokey pokey fudge. Or possibly cookies and cream fudge. I'm not sure. I'll decide while I'm buying toffee and gums and chews and coconut rolls and ... *blissful sigh*

... likely to kill someone if the airport is closed because of the snow.

... going to have a hell of a job cleaning the black boot polish off her hands. And arms. And face. Cleaning boots is messy when you're me.

... just realising that there's a snowball's chance I'll get to Queenstown without using the plane loo. I hate using plane loos.

... looking forward to going to bed very soon. I'm sleep deprived. Although I don't know why I'm whinging about it ...it's not like things are going to improve any in the coming months. On the bright side, I was awake when Cuinn got the hiccups at 3am this morning. Baby hiccups are hilarious!

...absolutely STOKED that I found a Stokke chair for Cuinn on Trademe for $180.00, and that it turned out to be in pretty new condition when the husband picked it up. I'm even more stoked that the lady who sold it to us also gave us the baby kit (for no extra cost!) which converts the chair into a high chair. The chair and set would have cost $460.00 retail. Yay! The husband will be less than stoked when he finds out that while we are up one high chair, he is very much down his drinking fund for Queenstown.

... done for now!