Today Nico is 1 year, 10 months and 8 days old and I'm 19 weeks pregnant.
Daddy had to go to Brisbane to see a client, so we tagged along for the ride. Nico decidedly enjoyed his 3rd trip overseas, waking up every morning (well if you don't count the days he had fever and our 6am start on the last day) full of beans and zooming around the apartment like a hoon without the wheels.
Typical me, I had extensively researched Brisbane's child-friendly activities, had addresses and schedules noted down and of course forgot them on my laptop at home. Blame it on baby brain. Still, we managed to find pretty fun places to see and do.
The key to an easy trip is definitely down to two things: toys and food. As long as the beast was fed and entertained, no one's sanity was in danger. I now have a standard checklist of things to take for road, camping, plane or overseas trips.
So what did we do?
- Got in touch with our inner Ponsonby St selves and ordered fluffies, known as baby-cinos in Australia, at each cafe/restaurant. Tried (most of the time successfully) to tip it away to see if gravity works on hot liquids.
- Ran around the apartment naked (incriminating pictures not supplied) because it's so warm
- Got up close and personal with snakes, koalas, kangaroos, lizards, and other animals whose names I can't remember at Currumbin Sanctuary and Australia Zoo
- Impersonated a gibbon at the Currumbin Sanctuary playground
- Had yum cha at a restaurant in Chinatown
- Got shorts, t-shirt and non-swim nappy wet at Southbank's Aquativity playground
- Demonstrated how Nicosaurus-Rexes chase hordes of Daddociraptors down at Queensland Museum
As a bonus, Nico decided that it was time to say things that an adult would actually understand.
As of today, his vocabulary includes:
- 3 in all 4 languages, Hai (2 in Vietnamese)
- A, C, D, E, I, O, Q, R, U
- Nana (banana), Cheese
- Gau (bear in Vietnamese), Chat (cat in French), Bo (cow in Vietnamese)
- Down
- Papa, Mama, Thijs (as in, Uncle Thijs)
The pregnancy is progressing well, we're going for our 20-week scan next Tuesday and will hopefully find out then if Nico's going to have a sister or a brother. The Bean is kicking a fair bit and causing me some grief with my breathing. My belly is now obviously sticking out if I wear tight-fitting clothes and I've resorted to using my belly belt for the first time today to keep the ends of my pants together.
