Well, we've at least started. I've uploaded the blog, and am in the process of fixing things up.
Change your bookmarks and blog rolls to pbxmakesfour.wordpress.com
Wordpress has different functionality, some good, some not so good.
So its a work in progress so far, be nice...
Monday 10 March 2008
Friday 7 March 2008
My adorable Lazyboo
She has been looking after me so well. She's working really hard at the moment, but comes home every night and cooks for us all, cleans up and make sure Princess has everything she needs for school, has done her homework, is bathed and in bed on time. She bakes me things when I really want them. She fetches stuff for me all the time when I just can't possibly move anymore. I was going to visit a friend today who has a small baby and I had offered to take lunch, so LB made a delicious pot of dahl for us late last night.
We have been reading updates on weeny beany and this week's update said that the ears are completely formed. So last night, Mama Boo (she really just wants to be called Boo but I'm still coming around to dropping the mama bit completely!) started to read to weeny beany. She rested her head on my thighs and started to read the Australian children's classic Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. She plans to do this every night.
We have long been discussing getting a civil union (cos while it's not available in Australia, I'm a British citizen and as such can do it that way at the Embassy). We had even discussed doing it when I was about 3 months pregnant, having a big party and announcing the pregnancy to everyone there. But that is coming up very quickly and we just haven't got organised for it, and we can't really afford it right now. But last night, Lazyboo announced that we absolutely have to be civilly joined (is that even how you say it?) before the baby is born. Very cute and chivalrous I think. She doesn't want our baby to be illegitimate!
I love my Lazyboo so much.
And I can't wait until I'm one step closer to being able to call her my wife.
We have been reading updates on weeny beany and this week's update said that the ears are completely formed. So last night, Mama Boo (she really just wants to be called Boo but I'm still coming around to dropping the mama bit completely!) started to read to weeny beany. She rested her head on my thighs and started to read the Australian children's classic Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. She plans to do this every night.
We have long been discussing getting a civil union (cos while it's not available in Australia, I'm a British citizen and as such can do it that way at the Embassy). We had even discussed doing it when I was about 3 months pregnant, having a big party and announcing the pregnancy to everyone there. But that is coming up very quickly and we just haven't got organised for it, and we can't really afford it right now. But last night, Lazyboo announced that we absolutely have to be civilly joined (is that even how you say it?) before the baby is born. Very cute and chivalrous I think. She doesn't want our baby to be illegitimate!
I love my Lazyboo so much.
And I can't wait until I'm one step closer to being able to call her my wife.
Thursday 6 March 2008
Countdown
We saw our doctor again this morning. All was good, she smiled indulgently at all the questions and answered them all very patiently. She did say, however, that she thinks that pregnant women need at least 12 pillows by the time they give birth! Apparently pillows solve all problems from reflux to shortness of breath to morning sickness. I hope they also help with the needed to pee constantly, but I'm not holding out hope for that.
We have a date for the first ultrasound! April 4. Just under a month. So now the countdown begins until then when we can 1. see weeny beany for the first time and 2. finally tell Princess! I'll be over 12 weeks then so will be happy for the world to know. But between you and me, I think she knows, or at least suspects, anyway. The biggest indication of this : she had a friend over yesterday and they were playing maternity hospitals with her polly pockets! And she keeps asking to look at baby name books. Ostensibly to find names for her dolls and teddies, but I'm not so sure about that....
So I guess all will be reasonably quiet around here until April - i have to get blood tests mid March, then the scan on 4 April, then our first hospital appointment on 9 April. Will all be happening then. And I can't wait. Maybe all of that will help it all seem a bit less surreal.
In the meantime, I'm starting a new job (just a casual one, still waiting to hear from dream job about which I am heaps conflicted), we will celebrate Princess's 8th birthday, including a sleepover for 8 little girls (! help!), Easter, though that will be fairly boring this year given that Princess and I can't eat chocolate and finally, two weeks school holidays ALREADY! So the next month should go fairly quickly.
In other news, we had a parent teacher interview with Princess's teacher this morning and it went super well. The teacher is amazing and our Princess is a whole different kid this year. She's bright and confident and happy and enthusiastic and strong and more independent than ever. It's amazing the difference a great teacher can make. I also think that the vast improvements in Princess' health, caused mainly by our wonderful naturopath, have a lot to do with it. She has so much energy and is so healthy now. Such a relief and lovely for us to see. We no longer have to worry about her getting sick every second week. In fact, last week, all of her friends got sick and missed some school, but she didn't even get a sniffle! What a change.
Lazyboo and I are still arguing about names, as I'm sure we will until the very last moment. Girl's name is very settled. For a boy, we have two alternatives. I've come back to the first idea but LB is stuck on the second now. I want to share them with fellow bloggers for their opinions but there are people that we know in real life who do read this sometimes and we don't want to share with them! We're seriously thinking of switching to Word Press solely for password protected posts. More on that later.
And to finish with a new list of symptoms:
We have a date for the first ultrasound! April 4. Just under a month. So now the countdown begins until then when we can 1. see weeny beany for the first time and 2. finally tell Princess! I'll be over 12 weeks then so will be happy for the world to know. But between you and me, I think she knows, or at least suspects, anyway. The biggest indication of this : she had a friend over yesterday and they were playing maternity hospitals with her polly pockets! And she keeps asking to look at baby name books. Ostensibly to find names for her dolls and teddies, but I'm not so sure about that....
So I guess all will be reasonably quiet around here until April - i have to get blood tests mid March, then the scan on 4 April, then our first hospital appointment on 9 April. Will all be happening then. And I can't wait. Maybe all of that will help it all seem a bit less surreal.
In the meantime, I'm starting a new job (just a casual one, still waiting to hear from dream job about which I am heaps conflicted), we will celebrate Princess's 8th birthday, including a sleepover for 8 little girls (! help!), Easter, though that will be fairly boring this year given that Princess and I can't eat chocolate and finally, two weeks school holidays ALREADY! So the next month should go fairly quickly.
In other news, we had a parent teacher interview with Princess's teacher this morning and it went super well. The teacher is amazing and our Princess is a whole different kid this year. She's bright and confident and happy and enthusiastic and strong and more independent than ever. It's amazing the difference a great teacher can make. I also think that the vast improvements in Princess' health, caused mainly by our wonderful naturopath, have a lot to do with it. She has so much energy and is so healthy now. Such a relief and lovely for us to see. We no longer have to worry about her getting sick every second week. In fact, last week, all of her friends got sick and missed some school, but she didn't even get a sniffle! What a change.
Lazyboo and I are still arguing about names, as I'm sure we will until the very last moment. Girl's name is very settled. For a boy, we have two alternatives. I've come back to the first idea but LB is stuck on the second now. I want to share them with fellow bloggers for their opinions but there are people that we know in real life who do read this sometimes and we don't want to share with them! We're seriously thinking of switching to Word Press solely for password protected posts. More on that later.
And to finish with a new list of symptoms:
- shortness of breath, sometimes I feel like I can't get enough air
- build up of thick sticky mucus in the back of my nose and throat
- almost constant nausea, but especially around cooking smells
- the sight and smell of any processed meats makes me go green
- uncontrollable desire to eat hot chips
- intermittent fatigue - am loving having nana naps.
- peeing constantly
- enormous breasts. it's just crazy. and boy do they hurt.
- amazing sensitivity to smells. I could work for customs.
- increasing vagueness and forgetfulness. this morning while doing Princess' hair for school I did one side in a piggy tail and the other in a plait before I realised.
- a smile that is hard to wipe off my face whenever I think of weeny beany - this is actually happening!
Sunday 2 March 2008
The night from hell and necessary life changes
I'm surprised that we survived last night (and before anybody starts stressing, we are all ok and i'm just going to be a bit melodramatic now).
I was being a little silly yesterday and was riding Princess's scooter along the street. Of course I hit a bump and went down hard. Am now bruised and grazed like a little kid and both LB and I spent some time stressing about jolts to Weeny Beany and how bad timing it is given the approaching 8 week mark (tomorrow) and our doc telling us that 4, 8 and 12 weeks are the biggest danger periods. But all seems to be ok fortunately apart from aching muscles and being reminded just how much grazed knees and elbows hurt. Princess will get much more sympathy next time she does it (cos that's fairly frequent!)
Our neighbours clearly went away again leaving their incredibly annoying teenagers to throw another party. Extremely bad, excessively loud music from 7pm to 1am. Shrieking, Laughing, Shouting, Swearing and generally being overly loud until 3.30am. All just beside our bedroom wall. I was nearly passed out from exhaustion at 7pm but due to their noise did not get to sleep until after 1am. I can still feel the bass pounding in my head. And poor LB, who was just starting to feel a bit better, didn't sleep at all until after 3. And then our crazy cat decides that 4.42 is a good time to poo on the floor right next to my side of the bed. I don't think I have ever smelt anything so bad. So I proceeded to cover my head with a pillow to disguise both the stench and the light (although my eyes seemed to be completely glued shut and unable to be opened anyway) and my lovely long suffering LB had to get up and clean it up. And then the bloody teenagers next door were up again before 8 noisily cleaning up bottles, no doubt to clear the scene before the return of their parents. GRUMP!
At least Princess slept through the whole thing, miraculously. She woke at about 7.30, LB told her to read a book in bed until 9 and come to ask for breakfast but she clearly got engrossed in the story because she didn't reappear until after 10.30. She then told us that she had heard the music as she was trying to go to sleep but sang to herself, 'Red and Yellow and Green and Blue, I can sing a rainbow' while clutching her teddy bears and was able to sleep! Must try that one. Very cute stuff.
I have decided that we need to make some life changes. We should become nudists, sleep on japanese tatami mats and only eat raw food. This will then prevent the alarming build up of dirty dishes, clothes and bedding. For some reason, LB didn't think this was a good idea though...
There are good things though:
I was being a little silly yesterday and was riding Princess's scooter along the street. Of course I hit a bump and went down hard. Am now bruised and grazed like a little kid and both LB and I spent some time stressing about jolts to Weeny Beany and how bad timing it is given the approaching 8 week mark (tomorrow) and our doc telling us that 4, 8 and 12 weeks are the biggest danger periods. But all seems to be ok fortunately apart from aching muscles and being reminded just how much grazed knees and elbows hurt. Princess will get much more sympathy next time she does it (cos that's fairly frequent!)
Our neighbours clearly went away again leaving their incredibly annoying teenagers to throw another party. Extremely bad, excessively loud music from 7pm to 1am. Shrieking, Laughing, Shouting, Swearing and generally being overly loud until 3.30am. All just beside our bedroom wall. I was nearly passed out from exhaustion at 7pm but due to their noise did not get to sleep until after 1am. I can still feel the bass pounding in my head. And poor LB, who was just starting to feel a bit better, didn't sleep at all until after 3. And then our crazy cat decides that 4.42 is a good time to poo on the floor right next to my side of the bed. I don't think I have ever smelt anything so bad. So I proceeded to cover my head with a pillow to disguise both the stench and the light (although my eyes seemed to be completely glued shut and unable to be opened anyway) and my lovely long suffering LB had to get up and clean it up. And then the bloody teenagers next door were up again before 8 noisily cleaning up bottles, no doubt to clear the scene before the return of their parents. GRUMP!
At least Princess slept through the whole thing, miraculously. She woke at about 7.30, LB told her to read a book in bed until 9 and come to ask for breakfast but she clearly got engrossed in the story because she didn't reappear until after 10.30. She then told us that she had heard the music as she was trying to go to sleep but sang to herself, 'Red and Yellow and Green and Blue, I can sing a rainbow' while clutching her teddy bears and was able to sleep! Must try that one. Very cute stuff.
I have decided that we need to make some life changes. We should become nudists, sleep on japanese tatami mats and only eat raw food. This will then prevent the alarming build up of dirty dishes, clothes and bedding. For some reason, LB didn't think this was a good idea though...
There are good things though:
- Princess has spent the entire weekend building a magical kingdom of polly pockets and doll's house figures in her bedroom and has only really emerged to be very cute, ask for food and go to a birthday party (cos she still has a much better social life than ours). This has allowed LB and I to languish in our exhaustion and successfully, at least until now, ignore all of the things that need to be done.
- Lazyboo just brought me a great snack cos I was feeling sick (again!) Corn crackers with sliced tomato (no mean feat given all we had left was a few shriveled baby romas) and a pickle (yes I know it's a terrible stereotype but they're yummy all of a sudden!)
- She is now preparing to make me gluten free dairy free gingerbread because I bought some (standard stuff so not edible by me!) for the little guys I hang out with on Tuesdays and have been going on about it ever since.
- There is a weeny beany growing in my belly! That never ceases to make us smile, no matter how crappy things are being. I'm actually wearing maternity cargo pants today (what a find!). Not because I need to, but because I want to!
Friday 29 February 2008
Did anybody see that truck....
that must have hit me while I slept?
I have fully succumbed to the all encompassing exhaustion of early pregnancy. I hope the Weeny Beany is growing big because I feel completely squashed. And nauseous all of the time. Or ravenously hungry. Or both. All adds up to naps as often as humanly possible. Princess even said to me this morning, 'Mum, why are you tired ALL of the time? Why do you sleep SOOO much?' with all of the expression of a melodramatic pre-teen (yes I know she's not quite 8 yet, but believe me that description really does fit). I can't wait until I can really explain it! We've decided to wait until we have our 13 week scan to tell her. We're going to bring her with us, but not tell her what is happening, and just let her see. And then take her out for lunch for a serious debrief! So looking forward to that - but it's still about 5 weeks away!
Things have been tumultuous as usual around here.
Lazyboo isn't well. She is as exhausted as I am and without any good reason. I'm really worried about her. She saw our new wonderful doctor yesterday and this morning went for a battery of tests so hopefully they will come up with some answers. It's all a bit hard for her at the moment because I'm so frequently completely useless, and I'm at classes in the late afternoons/evenings a fair bit and she has to pick up the slack and keep the whole family running. And she's just not coping with that given her health. I just wish that I could do something to make it all better. I am trying hard, though, to not be so needy and pathetic and to just deal with some of the crapness that this joyful time is bringing so not to be such a burden. I'm not sure that my efforts are making much difference though.
My job finally came to an end last week. I applied for two jobs - one of them my dream job. But I had no expectation of actually getting either of them so enrolled in full time study again. Classes started on Monday, and it's been a logistical nightmare with late enrolment, scheduling and actually getting into classes.
Then on Monday, I got an email in response to one of the jobs saying I had been shortlisted and they would be in touch in the next couple of weeks.
Then on Tuesday, I got a phone call from the dream job place to arrange an interview. I had that interview yesterday and it went incredibly well. I so want that job! It will mean having to change my uni enrolment again, and shuffle everything around quite a bit, and dealing with Princess' insecurity about me working outside of the home again meaning I won't have time for her, but I still want it so bad! They said it will be a couple of weeks before they make any decisions so am waiting. I didn't tell them that I am pg, so in the very slim chance that I do get it, I will have to face that ethical dilemma....
To top it all off, I sent an email to the scheme that I was contracted to the last couple of years for reference purposes, and they replied with a job offer! Not doing what I was doing, but supervising those that do what I used to do, if that makes any sense! It would only be casual, but would fit perfectly with my increased study load and give us some extra cash. Which would be useful given our extreme lack of funds at the moment! All of sudden there are many potential options.
But all I want to do is sleep. Which I'm going to do now because i've only got just over an hour before I have to pick up Princess from school (for the first time this week!)
Sometimes I wish life would just be boring.
I have fully succumbed to the all encompassing exhaustion of early pregnancy. I hope the Weeny Beany is growing big because I feel completely squashed. And nauseous all of the time. Or ravenously hungry. Or both. All adds up to naps as often as humanly possible. Princess even said to me this morning, 'Mum, why are you tired ALL of the time? Why do you sleep SOOO much?' with all of the expression of a melodramatic pre-teen (yes I know she's not quite 8 yet, but believe me that description really does fit). I can't wait until I can really explain it! We've decided to wait until we have our 13 week scan to tell her. We're going to bring her with us, but not tell her what is happening, and just let her see. And then take her out for lunch for a serious debrief! So looking forward to that - but it's still about 5 weeks away!
Things have been tumultuous as usual around here.
Lazyboo isn't well. She is as exhausted as I am and without any good reason. I'm really worried about her. She saw our new wonderful doctor yesterday and this morning went for a battery of tests so hopefully they will come up with some answers. It's all a bit hard for her at the moment because I'm so frequently completely useless, and I'm at classes in the late afternoons/evenings a fair bit and she has to pick up the slack and keep the whole family running. And she's just not coping with that given her health. I just wish that I could do something to make it all better. I am trying hard, though, to not be so needy and pathetic and to just deal with some of the crapness that this joyful time is bringing so not to be such a burden. I'm not sure that my efforts are making much difference though.
My job finally came to an end last week. I applied for two jobs - one of them my dream job. But I had no expectation of actually getting either of them so enrolled in full time study again. Classes started on Monday, and it's been a logistical nightmare with late enrolment, scheduling and actually getting into classes.
Then on Monday, I got an email in response to one of the jobs saying I had been shortlisted and they would be in touch in the next couple of weeks.
Then on Tuesday, I got a phone call from the dream job place to arrange an interview. I had that interview yesterday and it went incredibly well. I so want that job! It will mean having to change my uni enrolment again, and shuffle everything around quite a bit, and dealing with Princess' insecurity about me working outside of the home again meaning I won't have time for her, but I still want it so bad! They said it will be a couple of weeks before they make any decisions so am waiting. I didn't tell them that I am pg, so in the very slim chance that I do get it, I will have to face that ethical dilemma....
To top it all off, I sent an email to the scheme that I was contracted to the last couple of years for reference purposes, and they replied with a job offer! Not doing what I was doing, but supervising those that do what I used to do, if that makes any sense! It would only be casual, but would fit perfectly with my increased study load and give us some extra cash. Which would be useful given our extreme lack of funds at the moment! All of sudden there are many potential options.
But all I want to do is sleep. Which I'm going to do now because i've only got just over an hour before I have to pick up Princess from school (for the first time this week!)
Sometimes I wish life would just be boring.
Tagged!
I was tagged by mrs bluemont. Wow! i feel like one of the cool kids.
Rules:
1. Grab the nearest book of 123 pages or more.
2. Open it to page 123.
3. Find the first 5 sentences and write them down.
4. Then invite 5 friends to do the same.
I'm lying in bed right now (cos at the moment it just seems so hard to not be here unless i absolutely need to be somewhere else) and I have a huge stack of books on my bed side table, all half read, cos I tend to get bored easily. So of course, I had to check page 123 of all of them to find the most interesting five lines and this is it:
"Dorothy Gale, a visitor to Oz, copes well with the vagaries of the land. This is due mainly to her stable upbringing by her aunt and uncle. Although she is disturbed to be alone in a foreign place, she interracts appropriately with each person she meets. For example, when people treat her well, she is polite and kind, but when she experiences rudeness or unfairness, she stands up for herself and maintains strong personal boundaries (very much in the way that
It's from Tigger on the Couch: The neuroses, psychoses, disorders and maladies of our favourite childhood characters by Laura James. This is one of the many books that I just had to have when trawling through countless bookshops in
Now I tag Plump, Owl from Enough Grows, Notesfrom2Moms, Tiff from Chronicles of Conception and J.K-C from Our Incredible True Adventures.
Thursday 21 February 2008
Weeny Beany
Today we acquired both a new name, and a new grandparent for PBX, both deriving from the same source.
Clark and I had lunch today with C's mum and a friend of hers, who is fighting breast cancer. We had already told C's mum (Princess' Nanny S) about PBX, and given that the friend is someone who we see infrequently, and who has no contact with our social circle - such as it is - that it would be safe to also tell her.
By the end of the lunch, it was decided that - given that she had no grandchildren of her own, nor were any looking to be forthcoming any time soon - that she would be another grandmother for PBX - Nanna K. We believe that a child can never have too many grandparents in its life to a) spoil them and b) babysit, so are perfectly happy with this arrangement.
Nanna K, then proceeded throughout the meal to refer to the children as 1 1/2, and when I said that PBX wasn't really a half yet, its really only about the size of a bean, then she coined the name Weeny Beany. We like it! Its staying. Its cuter and easier to say than PBX.
On a related note, Clark informed me the other day that she didn't like the boys name we had agreed on. Yes, sad but true, we had laboriously picked out names - one of each - for PBX, before it was even conceived. And I mean laboriously. It has been a real challenge. Princess has a unique and original name, and we wanted PBX - or I should now say Weeny Beany - to have something equally unique, but that would stand the test of time and not be too teaseworthy. Clark is now arguing with me as I write, and saying its not that she doesn't like it, she's worried about teasing. BS I say to that! She's already knocked me back once on this name, when we were deciding on a new family surname. Now she's doing it again! It's alright though, I'll get it in as a middle name if its the last thing I do.
We've (no I've) come up with another one that we both like - and so far - agree on, although Clark is proving fickle in her pregnancy to date, and that may change at a moment's notice. The girls name is from Greek mythology, and the boys is from Norse mythology. So reasonably unique, at least not in popular circulation. Neither name appears in the top 1000 most popular names ever according to the Baby Name Wizard NameVoyager. But at the same time not unheard of. I Googled the boys name today and came across references to several people with the name, so it is in use. Also just did the same for the girls name - its in use, but even less common than the boys.
So we're good to go on the names. At this stage...
Clark and I had lunch today with C's mum and a friend of hers, who is fighting breast cancer. We had already told C's mum (Princess' Nanny S) about PBX, and given that the friend is someone who we see infrequently, and who has no contact with our social circle - such as it is - that it would be safe to also tell her.
By the end of the lunch, it was decided that - given that she had no grandchildren of her own, nor were any looking to be forthcoming any time soon - that she would be another grandmother for PBX - Nanna K. We believe that a child can never have too many grandparents in its life to a) spoil them and b) babysit, so are perfectly happy with this arrangement.
Nanna K, then proceeded throughout the meal to refer to the children as 1 1/2, and when I said that PBX wasn't really a half yet, its really only about the size of a bean, then she coined the name Weeny Beany. We like it! Its staying. Its cuter and easier to say than PBX.
On a related note, Clark informed me the other day that she didn't like the boys name we had agreed on. Yes, sad but true, we had laboriously picked out names - one of each - for PBX, before it was even conceived. And I mean laboriously. It has been a real challenge. Princess has a unique and original name, and we wanted PBX - or I should now say Weeny Beany - to have something equally unique, but that would stand the test of time and not be too teaseworthy. Clark is now arguing with me as I write, and saying its not that she doesn't like it, she's worried about teasing. BS I say to that! She's already knocked me back once on this name, when we were deciding on a new family surname. Now she's doing it again! It's alright though, I'll get it in as a middle name if its the last thing I do.
We've (no I've) come up with another one that we both like - and so far - agree on, although Clark is proving fickle in her pregnancy to date, and that may change at a moment's notice. The girls name is from Greek mythology, and the boys is from Norse mythology. So reasonably unique, at least not in popular circulation. Neither name appears in the top 1000 most popular names ever according to the Baby Name Wizard NameVoyager. But at the same time not unheard of. I Googled the boys name today and came across references to several people with the name, so it is in use. Also just did the same for the girls name - its in use, but even less common than the boys.
So we're good to go on the names. At this stage...
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