Random things

Thursday 29 is Nico's 2nd birthday, and Bean is about 14 weeks away.

Took Nicolas (and Bean, I guess) to 2 different Mainly Music sessions. The first one, by the airport, was a bit overwhelming for Nico with all these kids and people he didn't know (Reanna was there too but I doubt he recognised her) so all he wanted to do was head to the slide at the back of the room. However morning tea came and that just did the trick. The second one, closer to home, was packed with people I knew and Nico was quite a bit more comfortable, even crouching for one of the songs. Pity the time to crouch had passed. Again morning tea served to relax him (that's my son alright). He sat with the other kids to wait for water and a biscuit (bit of a meagre morning tea compared to the other branch if you ask me) and leant back to put his head in my lap. Then he looked up. Panic! Wrong mummy! What followed was one of the fastest shuffles towards me I've ever seen.

We went to another midwife appointment on Thursday. Everything went pretty much normal though all that happened was some poking around my belly, blood pressure and listening to the heartbeat.

Bean's doing a lot of kicking, I'm pretty sure that she's way more active than Nico was. Some of the movements, thankfully very few of them, are borderline painful. I just hope that this doesn't happen in the middle of a meeting. Pulling a face for no apparent reason just isn't a good way to be taken seriously.

I'm going through a shortage of pants to wear. I've broken the zip on one and popped a button on the other.

Monday was Nico's first sleepover - at Oma's place, while Mummy and Daddy were learning how to cook rice. The report was that he was very well behaved, and in the morning we found Oma's house and sanity in one piece and Nico dry-eyed.

We went to the Sake Bar to celebrate Oma Yoke's birthday on Wednesday. Aside from the fact that there was some sushi leftover (that would NEVER have happened had I not been pregnant) and that I had to keep my gaze away from the plate to stop myself from drooling, all went well and Nico behaved, trying just about anything that Oma Yoke and I presented to him. He was even willing to try Oma Yoke's Corona but all he got was the lemon.

Nico's now got a fairly good vocabulary, sings along to nursery rhymes, recognises most of his letters and is able to count till 15 (that's how many stairs we have at home). He seems to have developed an interest in boy things such as trains, trucks, buses, planes and tractors, which baffles us as to how he came to pay attention to them. Managed to plug in a USB cable into my laptop. Which reminds me, I must ask him how to change the answer message on the phone.

Dreamt that I was about to give birth and had to have an emergency caesarean. I remember feeling terrified at the idea. Bas says that worrying it about won't change things but it's easier said than done...

Both father and son spent Labour week-end gardening...

Shoveling the top soil from the trailer to Steve's wheelbarrow.

Each had his own spade.

Pushing the wheelbarrow.

Nico even got rides in it, better than the pony rides and without the queues!

Naughty Oom Thijs!

Nicolas is 1 year, 11 months and 6 days today.

On Monday, at Oma's place, Oom Thijs was admiring Daddy's handiwork. Which must have been quite nice, since a "****ing hell!" escaped his lips.
Of course, Nico was hanging around and of all the words that he could have picked up from Thijs, like his Visa's PIN, he chose those... Next thing that was heard floating around the lounge was a little voice quietly, naturally, skillfully repeating "mumblemumble hell!".
Which resulted in an unimpressed Mummy and an amused Daddy...
So now's the time to watch our language around the house. No more swearing for me.

Nico enjoys singing and dancing very much, so I have no choice but to enrol him to a Mainly Music session. Will give it a go once the school holidays are over and they start again. He sings the alphabet song and '1-2 buckle my shoe' (did I say sing? more like 1-2 mumblemumble-shoe... 3-4 mumblemumble-door...) to himself and is able to recognise about half of the alphabet letters and most animal names. Now to teach him colours... I have no idea how to.

Bean is now 116 days away from her scheduled arrival. She's been stretching quite a bit, active and all, hiccuping included. 2 weeks ago I was sitting on the toilet behind Nico, encouraging him to go. I'm guessing he gave it a genuine try, grunts and all, because I got rewarded with hiccupping. Soon he was joined by Bean. That's what I call synchronisation, one on either side of my belly.

I'm so over being pregnant now (ok I've been over it for the last 5 months), reflux has started haunting my evenings, so coconut chicken has now been banned from my menu. And I could set a treasure hunter to go to the deepest forest in search for the wisest, oldest, magicalest frog, said frog still wouldn't be able to beat my weather forecast ability thanks to my sore hip joint. Jai has been on the lookout to catch a glimpse of my famous limping waddle, which thankfully happens mostly when it gets colder - mornings and evenings.

1 month to go till his 2nd birthday. Time goes fast when you gave kids.

Our own PA

So anyone calling home today wishing to leave a voice message will be greeted not by my voice requesting them to leave a name, number and message after the beep, but by Nico's voice going 'beeeeeep'.

I don't even know what buttons he pushed so the message might have to stay on for some time until I figure out how to replace it...

Cold feet

28 more days and Nico will be 2 years old...

122 more days and I'll get to eat sushi...

Last week-end, we took 4 days off work... No wait. Travelling with Nico doesn't really constitute taking a day off work. Let me rephrase.

Last week-end, we took 4 days off paid work, and went to Queenstown to visit Ba Ngoai who was accompanying Lola, Mana, Kulani and Taaroa.

Despite the lack of luggage allowance, there were plenty of toys, clothes and books from New Caledonia.

And I've decided I hate toys that 1. make obnoxious sounds, 2. haven't got a volume control button and 3. haven't got an Off button. Nico's new Mushabelly does just that, and worse, it seems to be a bird. A homing pigeon to be specific. Thought I'd managed to lose it (honestly I didn't even mean to) on Wednesday and lo and behold it turns up in my car. Awww....

Bar the one in the freezer, this was Nico's first encounter with snow. He wasn't too pleased with it. Too cold to play with, too slippery to stand on, not edible enough to hold any interest. Especially the yellow kind.

Feeding the ducks with Ba Ngoai in tow was fun, but chasing them was even better. Maybe we should invest in a couple to exhaust him during the day. If it doesn't work, at least it'll keep Loki busy for a few minutes.

Bean is growing well, like her big brother she's a kicker (not to be confused with een kikker). Which makes me doubt the sonographer's statement about her gender. No longer able to hide my beer gut under baggy clothes. Not even able to contain it in normal pants any more, one of my trousers' button seems to have disappeared. Eat for two, people tell me... I'd love to, but it's really hard to find tasty food that's healthy too. And when I manage to enjoy my food, reflux and lack of room only allow me half a portion. When I get out of hospital (or even if I have to stay in hospital) I plan on filling my deprived stomach with salmon sushi, pate, salami & ham sandwiches, carpaccio, sashimi and just about any raw meat that I can get my hands onto. Stuff loosing my pregnancy weight.

Spent the last couple of weeks trying to get my head around supplies for Bean, and then remembered that we already have most of it. Mainly need a booster seat for Nico to move to, a portacot, some girly clothes and that's just about it. Oh, and if I'm going to be a human milk machine, as Byron so charmingly put it, I'm going to need a new electric breast pump. Think I'll attend the Parent & Child show end of October and see what I can get out of it. Let's hope that it won't trigger labour this year, 3 months prem seems a bit harsh.

Must remember to start cooking up a lot of food in the new year to freeze. Had a shock when I calculated that 1kg of apples costs $1 and makes a large pot of apple compote, Vs the same price for a tiny can of Wattie's. Thankful for Google and recipe websites.

Must learn to go to bed earlier than half past midnight.