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!