06 July 2011

Subtle

The lovely sun has been peeking its fool head out the past few days, which is thrilling my soul! It has also reminded me that I desperately need to buy new sunglasses. I have a history of buying very large sunnies but the last pair I got was smaller & probably more stylish. Needless to say I wore them once before a certain pesky toddler got his mitts on them & yanked them apart. Luckily, I am also the cheapest person alive so this didn't set me back much.

This time around I decided I wanted to go back to big sunglasses & I think I accomplished that. Perhaps it's all the helpful pregnancy articles advising us fatty swollen-bellied ladies to wear big accessories (chunky necklaces! dangly earrings! bright scarves!) to draw the eye away from our precious baby bumps, which are also known as FAT ASSES. Anyhow, maybe I have read too much of this advice because my little pea-brain kept telling me that I could find bigger, bigger, BIGGER sunglasses. Until I landed on the windshields that now decorate my face.

I only tried these on for a few seconds at the store before saying to myself "Yes, yes, these will do jussssst fine." They do fit my brief for large at least but maybe I need to consider more criteria, like not-ugly or less ridiculous.

It's as if Elton John's old concert wear crept into my childhood photos & made a baby with my mom's early-80's accessories & they sold the baby at Target ... to this sucker.

I had an eager witness to my sunglasses fashion photo spread. I'm doing my best to keep him far away from the new jumbotrons but he is drawn to them like Gollum to the Precious.
And I would like to point out that this is officially the first time that when I turned the camera on him, he actually smiled & said "Cheese!" Well, let's be honest he said "Seeeee!" His talking is actually improving & anyone could have been able to tell what he meant anyway. 
He's the best.

I am fully expecting an intervention to stop me from buying ridiculous accessories & probably another one to stop me from taking pictures of myself inside the bathroom like a 13 year-old.
 Until then, party on!

It's only 2pm but I'm calling this day a success. First there was the incredibly flattering photos (hahaha), then Ben & I bought enough groceries that we may be able to create actual meals from them instead of trying to figure out what the hell we spent our money on when our refrigerator is still empty. I also had a very cute outfit on today. We will ignore the fact that I didn't even make it into the car before a button magically popped off my jacket. We will also ignore the fact that I can't find my tummy hider thing so was wearing pre-maternity jeans fully buttoned up under my gut bump & was downright light-headed before the shopping trip was over. 

So yes, I'm calling this day a success even though the house is a certified disaster zone, Ben is singing in his bed instead of sleeping (I'll have to get video of this singing, which is his new favorite past time) & I haven't finished my laundry or started the zucchini muffins I vowed to make today.

And what are the zucchini muffins for you ask? For eating, you moron. No, no, no, seriously they are for one of Ben's snacks tomorrow on his very first day of DAY CARE!!! I can't believe this day has almost arrived. I've been through every stage of worry, nervousness & neurotic "what if ..." scenarios but now I've firmly landed in happiness. He's going to have a blast with other kids his age. The whole point is to give me a day or two a week once I have the new baby as a little break but every expert I've read suggests starting the toddler a few months before the baby so Ben won't associate the two as the baby kicking him out of the house. Makes sense.

We chose a family daycare setup because that way there's only 5 or 6 kids in the house & the woman I chose lives maybe 4 or 5 minutes walking distance away. It's also a million dollars cheaper & that's before the lovely Australian government chips in to pay a chunk of it for us for some odd reason (I am not arguing). She seems wonderful & the kids that she has on Thursdays, which will be Ben's day, are all very close to his age so hopefully their wonderful eating & sleeping habits will rub off on him or at least he'll have a blast playing around them.

So yes, I'm nervous. He'll be fine - I've already gone over my list of neuroses with the daycare woman & she is fine with the fact that he might not eat well, may not nap & can't sit still to save his life. He'll probably prove me wrong just to spite me & I'm okay with that too. 

I had a grand plan of taking myself to a movie tomorrow during his first day so I could be distracted for a couple of hours but nothing I want to see starts early enough for me to get out & pick him up on time. I don't really want to be the mother who is late for her son's first day of daycare. So now I've given myself a list of errands to run that will be much easier without my partner in crime slowing me down (no offense, Ben) & shall spend the rest of the time neurotically cleaning the house & organizing things that really don't need organizing this early. But it will make me feel better & hopefully will keep me from falling asleep on the couch for 4 hours or getting sucked into terrible daytime TV movies & getting nothing accomplished. Pray for me.

Well, ya know I may be in my 3rd trimester now. One website says I am while the other one I consult weekly says I will be next week. I think you know which one I am choosing to believe. So the little lemon is due October 4th, which is less than 3 months now & the fact that I'm having another c-section knocks it another week earlier so we're finally getting somewhere! And I guess that means I really do need to be doing all that organizing after all - need to figure out exactly how we're going to refigure the office/changing room to become a guest room & where we'll be changing diapers during that time. I think I've got it all worked out in my brain but sometimes, just sometimes, there's a huge leap between what seems perfectly sound in my goofy logic & what is actually feasible in the real world. Shall have to convey my plans to Marcel to get his opinion, I suppose. 

I was going to write about our Canberra trip on this blog but I think we can all agree that comically large glasses take precedence. I will make it up at a later time. Now I'm making the big mistake of going to check on my son who is done singing but now saying some phrase I can't understand at regular intervals. I am pretty sure he'll have Houdini'ed his way out of his pj's & finagled his diaper from under his protective onesie by now so I really don't want to go in there for fear that my head is going to pop off. 

Anyhoo, hope you Americans had a wonderful 4th of July!! Hope you ate lots of amazing BBQ food for me & watched fireworks & listened to Lee Greenwood's Proud to be an American until your ears bled. And stop posting Casey Anthony updates unless you are starting a team of vigilantes to haunt her for the rest of her life by doing terribly annoying & creepy (but not illegal) things so she never forgets that the whole world knows what she did, even if we can't prove it.

3 comments:

  1. That is a major commitment to sunnies and I love them (I just bought a new pair from Oz Sale - have you heard of them? I got a $380 pair of Givenchy (fancy I know) sunnies for $103 (still a bit more than I would normally pay for sunnies BUT I thought why the hell not).

    I love that picture of Ben, so cute!

    Good luck with the day care situation you have certainly done some thorough research into it that is for sure. Wish we lived closer so I could offer my VERY UNQUALIFIED services in looking after Ben but am sure Evie would love a play mate when I have her every other Tuesday and let's face it EXTREMELY QUALIFIED help (aka Rach!) is literally a stone's throw away if I get into a bind!

    Nicx

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  2. Ashely I think it would only be right that I share this story with you. When I was little and my parents were living in Kentucky, my mom had me go to one of those "small" daycares, only a few kids. It was a few days a week, and it seemed to go over very well. Until one night they were all sitting around the dinner table when they saw my "daycare" lady being arrested on the news. Apparently, one of the foster kids she had taken in, died. My own mother chose a murderer to watch me. Apparently, it was an "accident," but I've blamed this on A LOT of things. I still make her feel VERY guilty about it.

    Honestly, it was truly an accident and the child that died had LOTS of health problems, and my mom says, "it was a very sad story, and she doesn't like to think about it" yes...I am sure she'd LOVE to forget about, but I won't let her.

    I think it is fantastic that you are getting some free time, and Ben will do terrific! I think socializing is so overrated these days, when I was growing up in Kenya the only socializing I did was with my mum, my mean brother, and monkey's. Needless to say, I turned out superbly. :) Oh and I guess I should add, and a murderer.

    This will be good for Ben and you, and I really hope I didn't ruin every thing with my story, it was really meant to be funny. This is such a classic moment for my family, this would happen to us.

    I could wear your sunglasses as underwear they are so large, and zucchini anything grosses me out. xoxo

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  3. Oh Nicole, if you were closer I would certainly take advantage of your services! Of course Ben has a real gift for trashing a house - like a bull in a china shop that boy.

    And thank you Tiffany, you made me almost pee myself with laughter (fairly common these days with Mr. Baby tap dancing on my bladder) while also guaranteeing that I will spend every Thursday parked in my car, hidden behind giant sunglasses with super spy gadgets so I know everything going on in that little daycare house!

    And yes, the zucchini has been a failure. Last time I made the muffins we all hailed them as the greatest snack ever. This go 'round we were all a little "ehhhh" on them. I also sliced the leftover zucchini, breaded it in panko crumbs, friend them up & started stretching for my inevitable victory dance when Ben started wolfing them down. Moments later he just opened his mouth & let all 5 bites he was storing up fall out of his mouth & my smugness was stifled. Must find a new exciting green veggie to tempt him with.

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