the usual

A quiet morning in my little life at the moment, which is such good news. Benny & I have been going through a rough patch - he was going really well for a couple of months, very obedient & fun. Now suddenly he's ornery, ignoring us & literally blowing raspberries at us when we scold him. Lovely. He's been coughing on & off for a couple of weeks so maybe he's just not feeling so great & maybe it's more us than him - I don't think we're more stressed or grouchy than usual but he probably sees things much differently!

Anyway, he's still pretty awesome. When I was driving him to daycare this morning he kept saying something like "Hanga babies, hanga babies, hanga babies ..." really strangely. It took me a few seconds to decipher the code - he was singing Beyonce's Single Ladies! Bwahahahaha! I don't think there's a day that goes by where I don't sing that song around the house but I always change it to Single Babies because I'm usually singing it to my babies. Marcel told me once he thought Ben was singing the "Uh oh oh" part of that song in the car when they went somewhere but I thought he must have been mistaken. Gorgeous boy might just get my out of date taste in music after all!

We went to Sydney on Sunday to visit the Sydney Wildlife World. I don't know about that place. It's got cool stuff & I guess if you're an overseas tourist who won't see koalas, kangaroos, etc. in a different environment then this is better than nothing but something about it rubs me wrong. It gets too crowded in some places & it doesn't seem to have enough to justify its cost. Bear in mind that Ben was off his rocker so we were taking turns chasing him (& comforting him after he tripped about 700 times - buh bye stupid Crocs shoes!) or hoisting Evan around while pushing the empty pram because someone decided he was too good for it. Our exhaustion may have overshadowed our opinions of the place.

In any case, it was worth it because we got to use our annual pass, which also includes the Sydney Aquarium, the tower thing that I can remember the name for & OH. MY. WORD. It's also going to include Madam Tussaud's when it opens in May! I think you know how much I love taking goofy pictures of myself with things - MT is the world headquarters for awesome/tacky/silly picture taking. Marcel & I went to the one in Times Square many lifetimes ago because we wanted to get out of the pouring rain & couldn't decide on something better. We thought it would suck but we had the time of our lives. They let you kinda have your way with the wax figures - cuddle up to them, throw an arm over them, whatever. I've got to dig those old pictures out.

We ended the day at the Star casino where we indulged in a Man Goes Peanuts dessert at Adriana Zumbo's patisserie. Good heavens, I am not exaggerating when I say it's the greatest sweet treat I have ever tasted. Marcel & Ben also shared a chocolate fondant gelato from Messina in the same little corner of the world. I took a picture but it's terrible so I'm linking to a much better review of both places with lovely pictures - seriously worth taking a look if you like to fantasize about desserts like I do:

http://www.thefoodpornographer.com/2012/01/09/gelato-messina-and-zumbo-dessert-train-at-the-star-pyrmont-sydney/

I love the look of Zumbo! He is a man after my own heart with all the bright, kinda tacky colors - that place is infectious. I've seen pictures of his Manly shop, which looks quite classy & more grown-up but I think I prefer this one. Pink neon feels like home to me.

Back to my annual pass, look who they let sneak into the picture! Sorry, if I put it closer to the camera it got blurry. It really is one of the better pictures of Evan & me - both smiling, both looking mighty fine, etc. Ah well when it expires maybe I'll frame it. Maybe not.

I'm pretty bad-ass with my aquarium annual pass

Hey, do you any of you have tips for better posture? Ya know, besides just standing straighter? Now that I'm losing some weight I'm trying to pull myself together in other areas & the Hunchback of Kariong is ready to stand a little taller. 

Do you stop feeling like a douche when you walk correctly after a while? I always feel really silly with my shoulders back, chest out & stomach sucked in - I know it looks better (I practice in the mirror to make sure) but I feel like one of those old timey muscle men with pants pulled up high & his chest puffed out. Don't let me look like that, people! But at the rate I'm going , breastfeeding is going to give me a permanent curved spine. Ugh.

Alright, I'm off to clean. Yesterday was supposed to be the day that Ben went to his friend's house so I put off cleaning on the weekend, thinking I would catch up yesterday. Too bad they had a bad night in their house Sunday night (we did too actually, adding to our foul moods) so the house ended up getting even worse instead of better. My car is in the shop today so I may as well get something done around here.