My Exciting Life

I realised today that there are many things that make me happy.  Not the obvious ones like my kids' smiles, Nev cooking me dinner, or buying myself a nice new pair of shoes (when the hell did I last buy shoes???).  No, I'm talking about things that really shouldn't be so exciting...

Doing housework without any assistance.  Vacuuming without Alex following me around turning the vacuum down to low, or hanging out the washing without her destroying all the pot plants by the washing line.  "I am alone.  I can do the dishes!  Yay!" is NOT a normal thought process.  What's wrong with me??

Popping into the supermarket, taking only my wallet and phone with me.  I'd say just wallet, but I need the phone in case the tiniest human decides she's OMG STARVING while I'm half way around the store.  Anyway.  Nobody in the trolley singing Elmo's song at the top of her lungs (as adorable as that can be).  Nobody in the carrier meaning I have to do squats every time I need something from the bottom shelf.  Just me and the groceries.  Aww yeah.  

Only dealing with two pooey nappies per day.  Again, nobody wakes up in the morning and thinks "gosh, I hope I get to change only two shitty nappies today" but that thought has crossed my mind.  This is of course not to be confused with hoping for no shitty nappies today, because that just means tomorrow is going to be a world of poo.  Stinky stinky poo.  Everywhere.

Five hours of uninterrupted sleep.  This one isn't so relevant anymore as I have magical babies that sleep through the night from seven weeks of age.  Pre-kid (PK?) I'd feel half dead if I'd only had five hours of sleep before work, but the first time the tiny humans sleep for five hours straight is amazing.  I've never felt so refreshed in my life!

Good weather.  "Silly Ree, it's normal to be happy about good weather!" you might say.  You'd be right.  But I don't get excited about good weather because I'll be able to take a nice relaxing walk along the waterfront on my lunch break.  Oh no.  I get excited about good weather because I can do extra washing.  And it will all be dry by evening.  Super duper bonus points if I get to hang it by myself.  

And finally, finishing a blog post in one sitting.  This one took me a week.  

So..disorganised...*twitch*

You know how builders tend to have half-finished projects all around their own houses?  The same applies to IT professionals.  Or my IT professional at least.

Half the desktop on his Windows PC is taken up by random (but very important) icons.  I mock him about it regularly, and he recently went through and had a bit of a clean out.  But half his desktop is still taken up by random icons - just with holes in the grid from the ones he's deleted.  "Gah, please sort those by name or something!"  ... "No, I'll get confused!"

Then there's the way he organises his documents.  At one point he had a series of folders titled "New", "Newer" and "Newest New" and if I wanted to find something I was expected to know under which category it fell.  HE knew where everything was.  Duh. 

At this point I feel the need to point out that the way Alex constantly reorganises the icons on her iPad makes him all twitchy because it's not logical.  HA.  Hahaha.  Pot.  Kettle.

We have Media Portal installed on the HTPC for the watching of TV/movies, and it has gradually been getting buggier and buggier over the last six months or so.  Then one of the external HDDs failed and he promised to copy the files on to the NAS and redirect something something*...but Nev hates Media Portal so hasn't bothered yet.  I think his plan is to just let it destroy itself completely before looking at fixing it.  Though he will at least clear the cat hair out of the CPU fan for me (with assistance) to stop it overheating...

I guess that's what you get when you spend your day looking after servers, ensuring everything is all neat and tidy and running properly.  Buggered if you're going to come home and do the same thing all evening!

*  The NAS is very neatly organised and maintained, and runs teh lunix, so I daren't touch it myself.  

The Pram Saga Concludes...

Well.  The folk in Australia weren't sure what had happend for me to be sent the seat I was.  The lovely customer service lady in Auckland misread my email and thought I was only annoyed about the fact that the seat I received was a slightly different design to the original one I had, but they had two sent over this month so she could swap it out for me if I really wanted.  

So I put my awesome tablet to good use once more and drew all over the photo I had taken.  I emailed her back, explaining that while the seat I got was uglier, I could deal with that.  Unfortunately I couldn't deal with the lack of two straps and the buckle clips.  

Replacement seat on left, cat-pee-smelly seat on right

"Oh gosh! I'm so sorry!"  She told me to destroy the seat with half a harness and sent their second seat to me that afternoon.  It arrived today while I was feeding Alex so I had to unlatch her, put myself back together and race to the door before the courier man decided I wasn't home.  I was not prepared to organise redelivery for after the long weekend!  

This one is the same design as the original (now cat-pee-smelly) one and now I even have two head bumpers and sets of shoulder strap pads.  And more importantly:  it will NEVER be in a position where one of the cats could use it as a toilet.

I attached it to the frame and put the pram back together in record time, then celebrated by going for a nice hour long walk this afternoon.  I rewarded myself with a chocolate bar for walking so far, thus negating any health benefits of the walk.  

Also, when the hell did my baby get so big?!?!  

31st January

Today

The Pram Saga Continues...

I experienced a moment of complete joy this morning when a package from Britax arrived.  The seat!  Finally!  Only three weeks after the last ETA I had been given!  After being out of action for three loooong months, the Strider would be coming out of retirement.

And more importantly, the Brick (as it has lovingly become known) would be going back INTO retirement - and not a moment too soon.  Last week the suspension on the back wheels broke so it's not overly usable anymore.

I did a little happy dance (away from the windows so the neighbours wouldn't see).  The cats thought I'd gone bonkers and ran away.  Alex got very excited and started clapping and bouncing up and down.  

I tore the box open, tipped its contents out, grabbed the seat frame from under a pile of fabric in the sewing room (!) and got to work.

Imagine my horror when I finished attaching the seat to the frame and discovered that parts of the harness were nowhere to be found.  Two of the five harness points missing.  Gone.  Not there.   HOW THE EFF DOES THAT HAPPEN?!??!?!?!?!?

So now I have a new seat that I could put Alex in, so long as I don't mind her falling out as we walk along.

The lovely customer service lady in Auckland has contacted Australia to see what happened, but she hasn't heard back from them yet.

I might just cry.

Or fly to Australia and set fire to their office.

Buggies, Prams and Strollers

I received the terrible news this week that the replacement seat for the pram/stroller/buggy is another 4-6 weeks away. I'm now certain it's coming from Aussie via rowboat.

Despite an overwhelming urge to throw the spare stroller off the deck, the logical side of me is thankful to have it at all.  Better to be angry at the stupid thing than stuck at home...for three months.  Right?  *twitch*

I haven't dared venture near the waterfront with it, as that's where all the cool mums power walk with their matching Mountain Buggies, giant sunglasses and teeny tiny athletic bodies.  At least we didn't stick out so badly with the Strider (three wheels and all that) but with the spare stroller it's much worse.  It's clearly not designed for jogging, or even walking briskly.

In light of this I have created some bumper stickers on Zazzle, so Alex doesn't get too embarrassed about her current mode of transport.  Well, they're buttons because you can't really put a bumper sticker on a pram.

Did you know a Bugaboo Cameleon costs around $2,000???  That's more than I just sold my scooter for.  I bought the Strider because it had a reversable seat and was on sale at 50% off - $280.  Ha!  I totally win.

...Except that it seems spare parts are insanely hard to come by.

And while we're on the topic, here is a selection of simply stunning prams, strollers and complete travel systems (!) from my retro parenting magazine.

"This stroller is part of the Maclaren Porta Buggy System.  Baby is sitting in the Porta-Seat which is fixed to the stroller (I should hope so!) and it can be in any of three positions - it also lifts off the stroller base as a carry seat.  This system also includes a rocker base for the carry seat, a stroller, a high chair base and a lie back buggy.  Part of the Maclaren range sold by many leading baby shops and department stores."

"Viking is a three-in-one sold only by Pram City stores.  The stroller is a three position lie back with an adjustable footrest and a soft corduroy-style material for the pram.  Our picture shows the pram only.  It is a popular three-in-one which Pram City import from Spain."  (Fancy!)

"This is the stroller part of the Steelcraft Quartet, minus the sunshade.  It is a three position lie back stroller and completes the Quartet which steelcraft has designed as a complete baby transportation system.  It is available from baby shops and department stores around Australia."  (The brown racing stripes make it go faster I imagine..)

"This nifty little stroller called the Restmor Reverser comes from England and is only sold by Pram City stores.  It has a seat which can face forwards or backwards and which reverses (the harness reverses too), - one side is vinyl the other washable corduroy style material.  The seat angles adjust to lie back position and it folds up easily."  (Vinyl sounds mighty comfy to sit on..and I'd like to know what this magical corduroy style material actually is.)

"This smart pram is the Maclaren Europa, part of the three-in-one Pram Buggy Europa.  The carry-cot is large - 82.5cm long and has a back-rest.  The stroller is available in matching fabric and can be used in three positions.  Available from many baby shops and department stores."  (Can't get past the tiny wheels that a lot of these have..)

"The is the bright (and apparently terrifying) Steelcraft Aprica Newborn Baby Stroller.  It is a two position lie-back stroller which converts to a pram, has a sunshade and is upholstered in cotton.  A lambswool liner is available as an extra.  Available from baby shops and department stores around Australia."

"The Silver Cross Geneva is a fully-sprung large pram with a body which folds and detaches and measures 85cm.  It has a shopping tray available and it incorporates a lift-up back rest for the pram so that baby can sit up when ready.  Available from many baby shops and department stores."  (How...can that be safe..?)

"The Silver Cross Eurofolder has a large hood for weather protection and is a three position stroller as well as having a carrycot available to make it into a pram.  Its third position is flat back making it into a pram.  An apron is also available.  It is available from some specialist baby shops and department stores."

"The Cindico Safari Traveller stroller is also available from Pram City.  Made in England this stroller folds up differently to other strollers and has one straight handle across the back unlike many other English strollers.  It has two positions - lie back and straight and has a low sun shade and a safety harness as extras."  (Wait.  What?  Safety harness is an optional extra??)

"Colette is a three-in-one imported from Italy by the specialist baby shop, Gillespies, Artarmon, Sydney. The stroller can be in two positions and can either face forwards or backwards.  The carrycot has extra long adjustable handles, padded mattress (you can get mattresses without padding?) which folds into a seat and a harness.  Stroller seat is padded vinyl.  It has bigger wheels than the other three-in-ones."

"The Silvercross Super Ranger has a built in full harness for the energetic (or, you know, every) toddler.  It has a two position backrest, the wheels will either lock or swivel anda hood and apron are available as extras.  Available from many specialist baby shops and department stores."

Now, I'm off to sulk for a bit.

That's just the way we do it!

My husband likes things that are logical - like science and computers.

One morning this weekend I was busy feeding Alex and mentioned to Nev that he should hop in the shower while I'm feeding her, then he can play with Alex while I have my shower.  End result:  we'll be ready to go out sooner.  While we both agree this is a very logical plan of attack, it was impossible to carry out.  Do you want to know why?  Well I'm telling you anyway.

At some point in our past, our routine before work was established so that Nev would get up, eat breakfast, shower, get dressed, leave.  I would get up, shower, get dressed, eat my breakfast and then leave.  Nev takes a while to become coherent in the mornings so I would shower while he ate his breakfast and read news websites until he'd woken up properly (or else there's a good chance he'd wash his face with my conditioner).  

Shortly after this routine was established, Nev decided that it applied to weekends as well.  We've had stand-offs where I've refused to shower first because it's a silly rule!  Why should I have to?  What is stopping him just getting up and having a shower??!?!  rawr!  Sadly I never win - the need to be showered, clean and ready to start my day properly always trumps proving a point.  

He can't provide me with an explanation beyond "that's just the way it has to be done!" and seems happy enough with this reasoning.  Surely if a routine is inefficient the logical move is to correct this inefficiency?  

Why does his need for routine override his love of logic?  JUST GO AND HAVE A SHOWER!