The Pregnant Lady Look

I think I was a pretty cool pregnant lady the first time around. Cute little bump and all the time in the world to keep myself looking nice.

But at about 4.30pm today, I saw myself waddling in the reflection of some store window. AND, I had my hand on my belly. I looked just like those women I said I would never look like.

We went to a family friend's 60th Birthday Party last night and there was A LOT of standing around for hours. I was so tired after the four and a half hours there that I couldn't stay upright when I got home.

Today was already designated as a shopping day but I was too tired to start in the morning so we only left after lunch. I really should have stayed at home.

After two hours I had to keep rubbing my belly because of the continuous Braxton Hicks contractions (practice ones for the big day). And I think my hips had loosened out so my back was aching and I had to drag my legs along. I still continued on my mission though and got all the things I needed. They were all for the hospital bag so I thought I'd better get it done.

So, I've learned my lesson and will be much more charitable the next time I see a pregnant lady waddling instead of walking and rubbing her belly continuously (its not that she's so excited about the baby). There is good reason! And now you all know it too.

* I have to tag this on to the end of my post. Do you all remember "My Heart Will Go On" from the movie Titanic. Somebody next door is karaoke-ing to it! Have you ever heard anybody except Celine Dion sing it? I think its giving me more Braxton Hicks contractions. *

* Oh no. She has started on "Unchained Melody" now.... *

* Maybe I should be more charitable. She might have good reason to sing all these songs. *

Pondering Santa and Christmas Presents

As you all know, I only have one son, for now, and he's the center of my world. We've always been very careful about how many and how frequently we give him something new. But Christmas time is the time to let loose right? It should be but...

For his first Christmas, we didn't really get him anything. He was only four months old and wouldn't have known the difference.

His second Christmas was spent on holidays in Kuala Lumpur and we went a little crazy then. Although, I must admit that many of my well thought out presents didn't seem to have as great an impact on him as I had imagined.

Last year, his third Christmas, we were in Cairns and he had presents from the whole family. There were a few books and one Thomas the Tank Engine. Nothing too extravagant.

This year, he's found out that Santa also delivers presents (no, Santa didn't visit him for the past three years) and that receiving presents is something of a right at Christmas time. I don't have a problem with that, its part of what makes Christmas fun for kids (and the rest of us).

The part I feel a little hypocritical about is saying "You'd better be good or Santa won't bring you anything." I don't like bribing him that way and rarely use lines like that....until now. I have no idea why I started. Maybe its because of that Christmas song, or maybe its because people he meets always ask if he's been good.

In any case, Santa will finally be visiting Aaron this year. The problem I have is deciding if Santa should be the extravagant gift giver or should I. I've got him an amazing (and humongous) Lego set. Its a combination of smaller individual packs and my parents and I were planning on spliting them up and each person would give him one. The rationale behind it is so that he wouldn't learn to expect huge presents for Christmas and that the exchange of gifts is a modest one instead. The other thing I have for him is a Dinosaur Encyclopedia, something I already know he'll love. The plan was for Santa to give the book and the rest of us to give the small lego packs.

Unfortunately, the inquisitive little guy stumbled upon the poorly concealed (huge) Lego box and tore it open yesterday. We have that fire under control and he doesn't realise it was for him or that he would ever get to play with it. BUT, he now knows it comes as a big box so I might as well give it to him as a single present. So, its back to a little guy getting a really big present. I'll just be explaining that its from all of us. I also need to make some time to help him prepare his presents for the family to show that there is a trade of gifts.

So this has then led me to think about Santa's role. I thought that maybe we could make Santa a little boring and have him give presents that are useful, rather than "whatever you ask for". Take the Lego for example, I want him to know that it was his family that gave it to him and not some bearded stranger. Same with the Dinosaur Encyclopedia.

Santa is a good excuse for getting a few more presents out there but I don't think I'd like to maintain that sort of expectation of having Santa give the gifts that a child asks for. For Aaron, the present that Santa is definitely giving is a piggy bank. I decided that one a long time ago. Aaron's also growing out of his clothes so maybe a pair of shorts and shirt to demonstrate that Santa can see that he needs it. But wouldn't I then be robbing him of the whole Santa fantasy? I guess what I'm looking for is some sort of balance to have the Santa fantasy without it becoming the carrot for being good.

And as for the presents we get him, I partly think that its too big but I'm telling myself that its balanced out by us not usually getting him stuff during normal times.

He's still only three and maybe I'm thinking too much into things and spoiling the fun for him but I think I need to remind myself that each year builds on itself and he'll not be three forever. So, I'd better build a decent foundation.

Christmas Time In Australia

Well, we've had another hot day with a high of 34 degrees Celsius today. Several of my close friends live in the northern hemisphere and are starting to talk about the cold. And, preparing for Christmas.

I've only had one Christmas where things were cold and there was snow about an hour's drive away. Other than that, they've all be hot. So, I'm used to watching movies on TV and listening to Christmas songs about snow, warm fires and the cold while sweating in my tank tops.

I wonder what the people who live in those winter wonderland Christmas places think of my Christmasses. They probably don't give it much thought since it isn't the sizzling Christmasses that are commercialized. Ultimately, it isn't the weather but the company that defines Christmas but I'm still guessing that it must be a strange thought for some people to think of Christmas being hot.

I heard a very funny Christmas song at the concert on Saturday night and thought I'd share the lyrics here. Obviouly, it makes no sense singing about dashing through the snow so here is an Australian version of Jingle Bells:

Dashing through the bush
In a rusty Holden Ute
Kicking up the dust
Esky in the boot
Kelpie by my side
Singing Christmas songs
It's summer time and I am in
My singlet, shorts & thongs

CHORUS:
OH, JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
JINGLE ALL THE WAY
CHRISTMAS IN AUSTRALIA
ON A SCORCHING SUMMER'S DAY
JINGLE BELLS, JINGLE BELLS
CHRISTMAS TIME IS BEAUT
OH WHAT FUN IT IS TO RIDE
IN A RUSTY HOLDEN UTE

Engine's getting hot
Dodge the kangaroos
Swaggy climbs aboard
He is welcome too
All the family is there
Sitting by the pool
Christmas day, the Aussie way
By the barbecue!

CHORUS

Come the afternoon
Grandpa has a doze
The kids and uncle Bruce
Are swimming in their clothes
The time comes round to go
We take a family snap
Then pack the car and all shoot through
Before the washing up

CHORUS

Birthing A Ping Pong Ball

Tonight I went for an ante-natal refresher class. It was more like a question and answer session rather than an actual class, except for this one exercise. And I now have the imagery that silly balloon and ping pong ball exercise burned into my brain.

The educator got us to shove a ping pong ball into a balloon. After blowing the balloon up (but not tying it off), we turned the balloon upside down so that the ball sat over the opening. Once the ball was there, we could let go and the ball would act as the plug to prevent the balloon from deflating.

Here comes the fun part...

Firstly, we squeezed the sides of the balloon to show how uterine contractions do not happen. Its ineffective.

Then, we squeezed the top of the balloon, which is what the uterus does during labour and the ping pong ball kept moving up and down the 'neck' of the balloon. The neck representing the cervix.

Then the lady says "crown your baby". So, we all squeezed the top of the balloon until the ping pong ball was about a quarter of the way out of the balloon.

Now, "puff your baby out". And there were ping pong balls flying everywhere! I'm glad there was that funny ending to the exercise because I really did not need the extra props to boost my imagination skills.

I did not like this exercise at all because it made things too easy to imagine. I was quite happy just knowing on paper what would happen...didn't need to see it. But anyway, its on my mind now and I felt like sharing it here. The more I talk about it, the more accepting I will be of it. As 'they' say, I've got to trust my body....somehow.

Has it been three days?

Looks like it. We've had such a full three days that I didn't even notice not sitting in front of the computer for more than five minutes each day.

With Richard here, I managed to get quite a few things done. Part of the Christmas shopping is completed and all my Christmas cards are ready to be posted tomorrow. My sewing projects are still all up in the air but I'm getting there slowly. They'll all be done by the end of this week I hope.

Thanks to Richard, I got some shopping time without Aaron tagging along. The downside to that was that I didn't carry a big bag filled with drinks, snacks, toys and important things like my CAMERA! So, sure enough, I saw something I found amusing. Thankfully, I found this photo of it on an old news article:



This AUD 50,000 buggy is a Brisbane City Council invention and appears to have been cleaning Brisbane's streets since March this year. It really was very cute and had a sign in coloured lights reading "Beware! Chewing Gum Removal In Progress."

While this green buggy was entertaining, I can't help wondering if Singapore's no chewing gum laws are a better way to go. After all, that one may actually make some money.

On to the other photos I wanted to share...

We went for the Lord Mayor's Carols in the City concert last night. Even though the concert didn't start until 7.30pm, the gates opened at 5.30pm. And we were there at 5.30pm. Thankfully there was no chewing gum in the grass we were sitting on but just take a look at the crowd that made it in there before us.





We had an incredibly enjoyable evening even though it drizzled on us three times through out the concert. Aaron enjoyed it so much he didn't want to leave at the end. My favourite act was by James Morrison, the jazz trumpeter. Unfortunately, it did remind me of how many years older I have become since the last time I watched him perform. My father and I went to one of his concerts during the Brisbane Expo in 1988. TWENTY ONE YEARS AGO!

We've got another few concerts to go to this week and next, including THE WIGGLES!!! I love this time of the year....

Remember those milk teeth?

I remember using my tongue to push out most of my front milk teeth. It was always something that I couldn't resist doing. I didn't want the teeth to fall out but at the same time, I couldn't stop moving them around and seeing how far they could bend over. As for the molars, I only remember one of them falling out when I bit into a biscuit.

We didn't have the tooth fairy visiting our family so I collected all the teeth, put it in a little purse and then wrote on the purse "If this is found in a hundred years from 19xx, know that it belonged to Amanda." Recently, I did find the purse but you know what? No teeth inside! I can't understand what happened.

This morning, I came across an article about a little girl having her tooth extracted by a remote control car. I have to admit that I did watch part of it through my fingers but after awhile, I saw how enthusiastic the girl was and put my hand down for the actual driving off with tooth.



Would I use this with Aaron? I doubt it. I think I'll just let him wiggle the teeth out himself.

Webcamophobia

Webcams....Hmmmmm....Of course, we have one here. But, I think I have webcamophobia. I really don't like them.

Well, I like them for looking at other people but I can't stand having it focused on me. Its been good for chatting with friends and family but I always have the camera pointed at Aaron. I find it too uncomfortable to have it pointed at me and usually avoid it unless Aaron isn't around and I'm talking to somebody else who has their camera pointed at them. It would be rude not to show my face. Sort of like speaking to somebody in person but not looking at them.

If my own screen didn't show the image of myself, maybe I wouldn't have been so averse to using it. Right now, its like looking into a mirror. I don't like looking in mirrors and always end up scrutinising my too big forehead, too small chin, larger than desireable pores, real or imaginary dark circles, crooked teeth, chunky arms maybe and the list goes on. What would the other person think if they saw me like that?! (Yes, I realise they have all seem me and probably don't notice any of that.) (Or maybe they do...)

Anyway, what got me thinking about this is the fact that Richard has not seen me in nearly 8 weeks and he's arriving tomorrow morning! According to the records, I'm only 3kgs heavier but while I might have been the size of a rockmelon the last time he saw me, I'm now a huge watermelon! I have not gotten in front of the camera the entire time and always had it pointed at Aaron if we were talking.

I felt a similar way when we arrived in Brisbane. I was so conscious about my then rockmelon sized bump and what my parents would think. Silly, yes. But it always makes me think that if I didn't have webcamophobia then I wouldn't be left with the last minute thought of "OMG, They're going to see me like this."