Long time, no post

Hey all dudes and dudettes

Sorry about the in absentia nature of the blog for the past few weeks. Nothing really to say except that I have been a slack old tart and not bothered. Plus I’ve been trying to remember to get Jimbo to take a photo of the belly and keep forgetting – we both finally remembered this morning and I also have today off so it was a good combo to sit down and get writing.

So what’s been happening with us? Well we decided that it looks like this whole baby situation may actually come to fruition, which means there’ll be another person around. Weird. Which of course meant that we better start getting prepared. You know, like grown-ups would. We’ve made a list of stuff to buy and we’re slowly trying to work our way through it. Looks like babies are similar to weddings – as soon as it’s for one or the other, the price rises accordingly for no other reason than they can.

We’re going the disposable nappy way (and we have heaps of crap that says both are just as negative on the environment as each other so let us know if you want the articles) and so we bought a nappy disposal unit which is pretty cool. You roll up the stinky thing, push it through the top and twist the bag so that by the end of the roll you have a nice long poo nappy sausage. Yummy. But it keeps the smell out which is great, as well as keeping all yucky poo stuff in just one little closed container (in theory).

We also bought a nappy bag and got one from a girl at my work for free which is always the best price. The one we bought is a backpack as well as a sling-over-the-shoulder one which I like cos I am a bit partial to backpack action. The one we got from my friend is going to be the in-the-car one. Do we sound organised? The plan is buy a few of everything and have them scattered between the different bags so we don’t run out.

I went and spent the morning with Brodie and her 6mth old daughter Lilly the other day and we’re going to buy her bassinette + change table/bath + portable carry bassinette thingy + some other little things for a total of $200 and then she’s going to buy it all back off us when we’re finished. So essentially we’re getting all of that for about $100 and don’t have to worry about getting rid of it afterwards, which rocks.

But I had an attack of the guilts the other day – Don and Tania and Max welcomed little Nell into the world (Congratulations Guys!!!). Earlier than expected, but everyone’s healthy and happy. So I went out to buy a little present, sent it off and the next day realised that I didn’t have one toy for Harriet! Poor little Monkeyspawn was in a toy-free zone! So I went out the next day off and bought exactly the same present for her as I did for Nell! Parental guilt prior to the birth…great.

We went to see Darren Hanlon play a couple of weeks ago in Freo, supported by Jens Leckman which was a good night. Monkeyspawn didn’t kick much during it though, which made me worry that she might not like his stuff. Will have to embark on strenuous in utero re-education program for her musical edification. James’ mum had her 60th birthday dinner as well, where we ended up getting a gorgeous merino toy for Spawn from James’ aunt; it is absolutely the softest thing. Had dinner with the rudest waiter in history. I honestly could not believe this guy, he was such an arrogant prick that if it hadn’t been Jan’s birthday I would have openly challenged him and given him hell (those of you who know my issues with serving people will know how mad I must have been. I won’t even press the steward button in a plane if I’m dehydrating). But Jan appeared to like the figurine we bought for her (hardest person to buy for – ever!) which was a relief. Of course she wouldn’t say if it was absolute shite, she’s way too polite, but I hope it was ok.

Oh, we also saw Ross Noble perform and that was hilarious – the first half was seriously funny although the second half lagged a little. He pretty much ad-libbed the whole two hours bar two set pieces that only took about 5mins each. We also saw Star Wars on the opening night and had a ball, apart from the selfish bastards who sat next to Paul and proceeded to talk all the way through it whilst their toddler ran amok up and down the main aisle. Seriously. Those people deserved to be shot – maybe they are related to the waiter?

Then on to more baby stuff. On Tuesday we started our physiotherapy + antenatal classes at the hospital, they go for 90mins each. Well we’re glad they started the week after Survivor finished (coincidence?) so our Tues nights were looking a little empty anyway. The physiotherapy started off on a bad foot when the physio let everyone know that I’m a vet (despite me trying to talk quietly to her at the back of the class, she then just announced it to everyone) and off course there was a loudmouth pain in the arse who had to go on a diatribe about her freaking dogs for the next ten minutes. You’d think that if no-one is responding or talking back at you that you’d get the message, hey? Not this idiot. On and on and on…and not just to me, it then continued throughout the class itself. Everything the physio said had to be followed by some hilarious little comment by her. Everyone in the class wanted to smack her down within about 10mins. It just makes everything so much worse cos we’re dreading going back next week since she’ll no doubt want to sit next to us because of the whole vet/dog thing and I know her dog (she comes to our clinic) and I don’t like her dog, I don’t like her, I don’t like dogs generally for god’s sake, and I want her to piss off. Should be fun! Hee hee!

The antenatal class was better – mainly because that girl was gone. But it was bigger (you have to pay for the physio classes but the antenatal ones are free) and you get this bag of free crap and it has all these pamphlets that answers questions that I had when I first started this pregnancy palaver and couldn’t find info readily. So why do they give it to you in your third trimester? Huh? HUH?! The class itself was alright, it moved way too slowly and there was one guy in there who was all of 20yrs old who kept asking these obscure safety questions and then suffixing everything with “..and will that kill the baby?”. I think he might be a little paranoid. At the end they showed this video that was a photomontage of a woman giving birth with all this new age flowery music over the top. Excuse me? Where’s the screaming and hitting and swearing? All the other couples were getting very smoochy and touching each others’ arms in meaningful ways…meanwhile Jimbo and I were smothering giggles and wondering when the Simpsons were going to release a birthing video we could all enjoy. “Hi everybody”, “Hi Dr. Nick”. “Today I’ll show you how the babies come out from the mummies”.

Anyway I spose this is long enough. We still have heaps of stuff to buy and organise; we’re short of wraps and jumpsuits and we want to buy a grobag and if we ever have the money we want to get one of those playmat things that they lie on and have lots of crap hanging down over the top of them – they’re $100 though!! We’ll see how we go. We are going to buy this portable cot thing that can also act as a normal cot – Jimbo is fixated on it, it’s called the ‘Contour Electra’. Doesn’t that sound like a porno queen, or is it just me?

She has been kicking me whilst I’ve been writing this, and last night we worked out that she is particularly active each week when The Amazing Race is on tv. What a good girl.