The best laid schedules of mice and men

Christmas is almost here and the relatively small amount of snow we've had has thrown the country's transport system into chaos, rail services are being canceled or running restricted services, motor ways have turned to ice rinks, the roads to car park and trains have been breaking down in under-sea tunnels.

The biggest problems for us has been that parts of America are having the same sort of issues which stopped CK sisters “the pink whirlwind” arriving at the weekend.. She has managed to reschedule to a different flight, this time going through Chicago which is better equipped for cold weather so should deliver her successfully on Christmas Eve.

Fingers crossed that this new flight goes without a hitch as it will be the first time she and AG will meet in person, this should be a great family Christmas and will be really touching to see AG and her Auntie bonding.

I can't wait!

Moving in day

Well today is our official moving in day!

I'm not there as I only have one days holiday left to take and we are employing some hairy armed men to do the heavy lifting, so all I have to do is go home to a different place to which I left!

Don't get me wrong, I've be doing my bit boxing stuff up and ferrying down by car. I even decided to show my DIY prowess  by assembling our new bed, whilst CK and baby looked on, after I finished I took a proud step back to admire my work only to discover I'd assembled half of it upside-down.

Luckily with CK's help we made short work of re-doing it all and we now have a bed (the right way up)

clones

we are going to be moving into our new house soon!

So we have somewhere to eat dinner, CK bought a lovely Oak table on ebay from a young family round the corner and yours truly was sent off to collect it.

On arriving I found our taste in tables and choice of areas to live in wasn't our only similarity,  the dad looked like me, the mum like CK and the baby like AG.....spooky.......

Baby got boob

AG always finds ways to make me laugh, this morning it was her relationship with food.

When she's hungry and presented with a boob she's straight in there like a shopping addict at the January sales, however when she's full, she's like a supermodel that has been offered a pie, all flaying arms as if to say "get that thing away from me!!"

Brilliant!

Milestones

A lot has changed since I last wrote, AG learnt a new trick of waking herself up after kicking her sheets off in her sleep so she's now  sleeping in a sleeping bag which works well and tapered shape gives her the outline of a mermaid.

She now has her first beauty regime, this has started because she's getting dry skin because of a  condition called Cradle cap which is normal as she enters her third month, it now means I gently wash the dry skin away at bath time then in the morning she gets moisturised with olive oil. This mean every morning we now have a baby with shiny hair, soft skin and a the fragrance of Mediterranean salad.

Also after much stress by yours truly we now have our house and hope to move before christmas, first though comes  getting it ready, so expect me looking like a cross between a cleaner, gardener, electrician and decorator for the next few weeks!

frocks

Well I got my first night out last Saturday, once baby was asleep CK settled into "Strictly come dancing" (Known eksewhere as "dancing with the stars")

Watch a show of frocks and cattyness wasn't really my thing, so instead I went to my local theatre bar where they had a drag night of cattyness and frocks!

A gust of wind

We went out for a meal on a really windy Saturday.

As I was fiddling with the car , a worried van wound down his window and said "is that your pram?" I looked up and saw the pram had blown off the pavement,was halfway down the street, trundling up against the flow of traffic, shocked drivers are swerving out of the way and my CK and her mother looked on with the colour drained from their faces.

Luckily I had already load AG into the car!

Note for future, pram brakes are no match for the wind!

changes a-pace

AG continues to change day on day, bigger, stronger, smarter. It's really great seeing these changes, when she in her activity centre she can now locate her football and give it a swift kick, she has a great smilewhich makes interacting with her rewarding, if she's in a playful mood and if you stick out your tongue,she'll do the same and  when she's in the bath she loves splashing.

Also now we've seemed to have go the hang of bedtime we are getting some time to ourselves before our own bedtime, we also seem to be less tired.

Bath-times are great

One of the highlights of my day now is bath-time, as well as the obvious, we also do it as part of her "getting ready  for bed" routine.

It really is a special time for us as any grumbles she has before hand,  melt away in the bath, she has a nice time splashing about whilst I tell her about my day and she even rewarded me yesterday with a lovely big smile.

I like being a dad.

House

Life continues to get better and better.

The house purchase is finally coming together just a few more steps and we can pick a moving date! CK has switched into "bargain hunting for the house" mode and has already chalked up a bed, next in her sights is a dining room table.

One of the things that is really enabling for us is AG is getting into a rythym, and so CK can get out and about more with some confidence about what she needs to do at what time to keep AG happy, another nice thing is baby's a great conversation starter, Londoners that would keep to themselves are now having chats with us which is great.

At the weekend we had a glimpse into one of our potential futures, we went for Sunday lunch to my cousins house he and his wife were great host and he cooked great food, what was a real eye-opener was their two year old son, he has even more strength and stamina then the most boisterous of my nephews.

At two their son is able to pick up a full record case and carry it around with ease, he stronger that some children twice his age and the thing is he never stops, so where as we have become adept at squeezing the most out of the times AG is asleep, his parent don't seem to get that privilege, how will we cope? well we'll find out in two years time!

six weeks!

well, CK pointed something interesting to me, at four weeks when the going seemed to be tough, a lot of people had pointed out that "at six weeks it'l be better, everything will have settled down" though we couldn't quite believe it at the time, hear we are at six weeks and it turns out to be true.

I have just settled her down, and at five-thirty/six she'll be ready for dinner, I'll bath her at six-forty (with a nursery rhyme cd in the background) and finger crossed she'll be settled  by half-seven.

We have had upto five hours between feeds (unfortunately not at night) so things are looking up.

As we get more confident we are venturing out more and the friends we made at NCT baby classes are proving to be an invaluable support network.

Her hair proper is being to grow and as we hoped its on the "ginger spectrum", she is also occasionaly giving lovely smiles which is really rewarding.

The house we are buying seems to be coming together as well as is my job.

Now if she'll just sleep through the night.....

getting into a rythm

Well we are still trying (and still failing) to get a good nights sleep.

We are currently trying a feed/bath/sing evening routine and  hope that will help, I must say though, that whether or not baby's finding that way, I am finding it very relaxing and almost fall asleep doing it!

The weekend was very exhausting, she had a serous case of the grumbles and on Saturday I had to resort to taking her for a drive which worked like a dream, she was asleep in minutes!

secret signals

Here's the thing, before you start learning about babies you assume the only signal the capable of is crying, it turns out it is more complicated than that.

Crying whilst wiggling legs - change my nappy
panting like a dog - I'm too hot
making a face like a little bird pleading for a worm - feed me

just when you think you are getting the hang of it, though it gets more confusing, you see it seems just like us adults, when she's overtired she gets the munchies even though she's not really hungry.

so when the poor mite was trying ever hour to tell us she wanted to sleep we were responding by shovelling milk into her, whilst at the same time getting exasperated she was feeding so much!

Though I have a lot to learn, I wouldn't change it for the world

big piles of lovely fluffyness

Okay, being of a theatrical persuasion I can sometimes be given too bitchy flourishes about life, but for a moment let me draw in my claws and set the record straight about fatherhood, it's great, every day I look at this little bundle of cuteness we've created I find myself smiling from the tip of my toes to the top of my head.

And further more, despite her currently having no discernible talent other than surprising creative nappy's I feel very proud of her and am convinced she is single handedly going to change the world.

the joy of nappy changing

so, its 6am, I have the physicality of a zombie, the attitude of a drag queen with a hangover  and its the first change of the day.

I open the nappy to find she's been busy but eventually I get her clean and dry, I turn my back to get a clean nappy and when I return she's wet the changing mat, herself and her clothes.

So I strip her down, get her clean and dry with new clothes, turn my back to get something and its then shes all wet again.

ck's calling from the bedroom to see if I'm okay,  so whilst I'm standing there surrounded by sodden clothes, spoiled nappys, a half dressed baby and various changing detris, I call back "I'm fine!"

One step forwad, two steps back

Well AG has just had a first weekend away for home, we went up to stay with her grandma and great granddad.

We started off quite tired and hoped a weekend of being looked after would just be the thing to recharge our batterys, it was a fine plan and we were certainly looked after, unfortuntaly AG  decided that weekend not to sleep at any useful point for any longer than two hours, we are both exhausted.

serves me right for thinking she was settling into a routine!

settling into a routine

well it's happening, she starting to settle into a routine.

after about six she feeds every hour as if she's loading up for a good nights sleep, then about eightish shes off to bed maybe after a bath and a sing.

midnightish she wants the first feed which is what I do using a bottle of CK's milk, after she settles I take her back to bed and ck looks after the next couple of feeds.

not as much sleep as I would like, I grant you, but thanks to the healing powers of caffeine I am getting through the working day.

sucking on the teat

Well yesterday wasn't a good day, CK was

When I got home CK looked completely exhausted, she had been run ragged all day by AG who was stuck in a constant loop of crying, feeding and nappy changing even an attempt of a walk to the park ended before they got to the end of the road by constant screaming.

I got home in time for AG finally settling down and for the first time I successfully fed her from a bottle of CK's milk so that mummy could get to bed at a reasonable time.

I hope we settle into a routine soon.
I

sneeze

Well CK caught a cold the other day, and now baby has it.

Actually, its quite funny in way, as when AG has a sneezing fit she looks around the room afterwards as if too say "what just happened?"

hopefully the cold won't be too bad!

gurgle gurgle shoop shoop beep

Well what have we been up to, well yesterday we took AG to the registry office, this is the department of local government that officially adds AG to government systems and registers us as her parents, we had an appointment for them opening at nine, we of course got their early but found the door locked and found we were expected to wait outside in the cold, lucky a baby seems to act as a magic passport in these situations and were able to persuade another part of the building to let us wait with them.

My consolation for waiting I thought, would be that if they are a stickler for opening times, they must be a stickler for time in general, would be on time for our appointment, nope, after waiting twenty minutes in front of an advert for funerals (they register deaths and weddings as well) one of the co-workers of the person we were meant to have an appointment with took pity on us and took the appointment instead.

Well, the paperwork is done now, I am now officially the daddy and as I fall asleep am awakened by AG new trick, sound effects, she has sound effects now for every occasion, the funniest being her impression of a failing hot water heater that she does when feeding, I fall asleep with her making "gurgle gurgle shoop shoop beep" noises in the background.

marching to a babys beat

What time do we wake up? - Roughly when baby does
What time do we sleep? - Roughly when baby does

What time do you do anything, well...in the small islands of time when she's not grumbling,eating or having a nappy change we fit it  in whilst chanting the mantra "quick, quick, before she wakes up"

happy

last night AG gave us two four-hour sleep sessions,  hurrah!

sleep thief

I saw someone write "anyone got any sleep to spare, I'll pay cash", boy do we know what that means. I mean in the grand scheme of things we've been very lucky, with a "chilled" baby and as cute as a button, but we can't wait until she settles into a routine.

Sleep is something we have found to become something quite rare and limited and only through giving up a little sleep of our own to stay awake with baby that the other person sleeps.

I don't know how single parents can do it.

I realise I am not making any sense, probably because from 4:30 to 5:45 I was gently bouncing a wide awake baby to sleep whilst watching a documentary.

that all said CK has this all day, where as I go to an office who is having  a celebration week of quiz's, video games and pizza she is even making a hundred mile round trip with her dad to see her paternal grandmother and family.

She is superhuman and her love her to bits, oh and by the way "anyone got any sleep to spare, I'll pay cash"

A strange silence

A strange silence has descended over the flat, any other day this would be great, we had a great weekend, AG slept like a log last night, CK made me a cooked breakfast, AG umbilical cord has finally fallen off, so why am I feeling strange?

Well, today is to be my first day back at work, its only a half day today but I feel unsettled, I've got used to my wierd world of disturbed sleep and daytime pram pushing and am wondering how I've changed over these two weeks I also feel a little guilty leaving CK with the hard work.

I wonder how my first day back will be and how I'll stop myself calling home to check everything is okay.

Oh well, time to stop staring into my own navel, time to get back to the office.

Lessons learned

We went for my mum's legendary Sunday lunch earlier where AG met the whirlwind of energy that is her cousins.

AG's cousins are boys of three and six, the three year old could have a book of tales written about his exploits already, mainly because he has strong ideas of what he wants to do, doesn't wait for permission and has the brains and energy to carry them out! He surprise for everyone today was almost climbing out a first floor bathroom window so he could wave to his brother in the garden!

So lesson one for the day, just because it looks out of reach doesn't mean they can't work out a way to get it in-reach!

After a lovely big roast dinner we headed off to meet our NCT friends, AG was a bit grumbly but as we were running a little late we hoped a ride in the car would sort her out. This was to be the next lesson, investigate grumbles whilst its easy to do so, because as we drove along we treated to such a loud and regular bout of  wailing that made passers-by were  looking around for who's alarm was going off! We ended up risking the cars interior by changing her nappy in a car-park!

now daddy's lesson's are learned for the day, how do we teach baby 4:30am is not an appropriate time to be wide awake?

Daddy guns

Well "short shorts" and "tickles" visit here was fun, after they left we headed to the supermarket, AG was a bit grumbly as we headed to the checkout but luckily I found out if I rhythmically lifted her in her car-seat up and down as if I was doing "bicep curls" in the gym she would stop, so I did it until my arms hurt, but then she started grumbling again, so I did it until my arms really hurt, then she started grumbling again.....

At this rate I'll have biceps like Schwarzenegger and I shall name the phenomenon  "daddy guns"

I don't want to go back to work

Life is sedate at the moment and apart from the lack of sleep I am enjoying baby-led life!

On Tuesday however I will be returning to work which will be a very weird feeling, but mustn't grumble, one of my more energetic friends "tickles" is coming around this afternoon then in evening another friend "G-man" fly's in for the weekend from Ireland, I can't wait!

G's going to stay at my parents as sleep deprivation  is against European torture law and so on Sunday we are going to my parents for lunch and so Alice can meet the whirlwind of chaos that is her toddler cousins, I hope she's ready!!

early in the moring and my lungs are burning

It's nine in the morning and somthing I thought was just a saying, is happening to me, my lungs are burning! why? well to give AG a garden and a little more space we are moving a little further out of London and into a house.

There are a few compromises of course, one of them being a steep hill I'll have to commute up on my cycle, this morning I'm giving it a trial run and needless to say, its a lot like hard work! That combined with the lack of sleep AG gave us last night and I'm ready to go back to bed!

soft girlie hands

I'm a big tall hairy guy, so why do I now suddenly have super girlie soft hands?

Well as we most of my recent odd behaviour, it's down to baby! Basically it seems not an hour goes by now without me thoroughly washing my hands and they were beginning to painfully crack!

So the solution has been to moisturise them every time with E45, will my march toward "thoroughly modern daddy" ever stop!

four hours

Last night during the nights activity's at one point we managed four hours in a row, how fantastic is that!

It followed on from a lovely trip out, CK's dad came over for his birthday and took us to a local gastropub, where I had beetroot, goats cheese and rocket salad, wild mushroom risotto washed down with a lovely wine.

We went there by bus which was a really easy way to travel as London buses are all designed now to let you roll the push chair straight on and into a designated space so you don't have to fold it up, and of course we took advantage of granddad to do all the pushchair pushing, he didn't mind though, he looked like the cat that got the cream!

four hours uninterrupted sleep, bliss!

101 things to do and I don't have the energy

well, I sit here all dishevelled in my jim-jams surrounded by washing to be put away, washing to be done, suitcases to be unpacked,washing-up to be done and generally mess everywhere.

All I can do however is fantasise, now fantasys should normaly take the form of gaining superpowers or  immediate and unfathomably large wealth, however I my case I am day-dreaming of sleep.

Yes, you guessed it, we had a busy night, as far as I can make out its (believe me we checked and rechecked everything) because her umbilical cord has started to detach which looks an uncomfortable process, however than doesn't stop me now wanting sleep, lots and lots of sleep.

Bound to the baby like a modern dad should

Well we had a good night and I started the day with AG lying on my chest finding it a fun game to grab fist fulls of chest hair and tug as hard as she could!

Then we went off to register at the doctor wearing the badge of middle class dad-hood, the baby sling!

Though I was aware that even if I tucked a guardian newspaper under my arm I couldn't look more "modern dad" I must say it was really comfortable!

I then treated CK to her first soft cheese experience in nine months (lightly toasted bread sandwich of grilled  green pepper and brie) and had an impromptu visit from a friend, all good so far!

Then had a game of "guess the grumble" settling down AG to sleep, eventually when I exhausted every option just leaving her did the trick, though not the easist thing to do as the slightest peep from her tugs the heartstrings hard!

soon off to bed myself, hopefully it'll be an easy night.

Zombie

I have lost the power of speech, my feet are like lead, my back hurts and I have bags under my eyes capable of carrying shopping.

People that are parents already probably recognise the symptoms, baby's first night at home.

I have climbed mountains and not felt this wrecked as I am this morning after the three hourly feeds.

Need coffee, need coffee, need coffee.........

Hidden talent

Everyone wants their child to have a talent, often in science or the arts, unfortunately perhaps as a karma's way of telling me off for saying perfect to many times, AG first talent is projectile poo, to be exact projectile mustard coloured poo.


It was quite funny (in a "Farrelly brothers" film kind of way) when she did it in the hospital and the orderly had to come and change the curtains that were four feet from her at the time, but now we are at home I have better things to do at quarter to one in the morning than start a soaking bucket, wipe down surfaces and generally do lots of  things other than sleep.

Day 6 - a whirling dirvish

Its 2pm and I am running around the flat in a whirlwind, but why? Well the day started simply enough with me waking in the slum I have turned the house into, getting to the hospital to find them asleep and spending the day with them just chilling, then the doc' comes to see me to say shes going home!

Uh-oh, I planned to clean up tonight, I zip back to the flat and make it liveable, my parents collect me and an hour later we walk out into the sunlight with baby, we bump into a friend as we leave the hospital and then we're home.

We pop open some champagne for us, my parents and CK's dad and partner then I rustle up a little dinner (home-made carrot and coriander soup to start, baked mushrooms with melted Spanish cheese for main) then her dad and I "wet the baby's head" (drink a spirit in her name) with a ten year old glen morangie.

I am now happy, content and heading to bed!  

Day 5 - another perfect day

I come into the room and they are both gently sleeping, its Saturday and another day on from her getting the all clear.

We spend the day simply, just the three of us and finish it off with a visit from our friends the thugetts, perfect.

Day 4 slummy daddy

Well another day back at the hospital and now its returning back to how is should be.

Baby day and night is feeding well and comes out from under the sun lamp, we have a nice amount of visitors including the last of my siblings and we find out my builder brother-in-laws huge biceps are the kind of comfy pillows a girl likes to sleep on.

I cycle home to the flat I've let turn into a slum over the last few days, put a wash on and fall asleep happy.

Day 3 The rollercoaster continues – Thursday 24

I wake up, upside down, sharing a single hospital bed.

I feel like hell, we been up constantly through the night with tests, tests more tests and difficult feeds that need the nurses assistance, well must stop feeling  sorry for myself, strong face on!

At six we head back to intensive care for a lumber-puncture, this is to find out if the infection is in the brain, they hit us with a big scary word that describes what they are looking for, meningitis.

Day three is legendary for mums to feel low, I must admit, I am feeling really low myself how can we go from such highs to this? An unexpectedly cheery doctor walks in, as he talks to us he realises no-one has told us the lumber puncture was all clear, the hands us both tissues as we feel the pressure release, in short now, further tests will keep in check but the future is bright.

By 8:30 I apparently look and respond like a zombie, a short bicycle ride later I flump into my bed at home.

Day 2 Roller-coasters go down as well as up -Wednesday 23

Well here I am back at hospital, CK's not had much sleep as missy's had a busy night, oh well we'll be home soon, a few tests and feeds later and our visitors begin, this is great, I can't wait to get her home for a walk her around the park, she seems to be quite inactive today, this parenting lark should be easy!

It's 6pm someone has ripped out my beating heart and showed it to me, an infection indicator in AG's blood called CRP is high, they worry if it is twice what it should be, but it's not, its ten times. I want to cry and scream but I have to be strong.

An hour on and we are in intensive care, getting a valve fitted to her for the anti-biotic injection every  twelve hours, as the valve will be there for a week, they need a solution to stop her fiddling with it, so my baby now a sock on her hand and looks like she has three legs.

My brother has come to visit, just as another blood test comes in, she has jaundice, but at least we now get a private room and our baby is the same room gets a nice suntan lamp and heated cot, she's going to look like she fresh from a holiday in Southern spain

Day 1 birth – Tuesday 22

Well, where to begin, innocently padding to the loo in what felt like the middle of the night is where it started for me, but it turns out my partner had been up since 2am when contractions started and had been making sandwiches and having a nice bath.

So it's quarter to five thirty and I suddenly feel wide awake and out of my depth!

Okay, “get a hold of yourself and look at this logically” I say to myself. I attached CK to the TENS machine, then using the infamous “watch with second hand” I start timing the contractions, realised they were steady, phoned the hospital and then we're off!

Well to say I was a movie cliché wouldn't be an exaggeration, driving the other motorists mad with my “not hurting mummy super-smooth pot-hole avoiding technique”, bumbling into the hospital with more baggage than an emigrant and generally looking like a worried dad in a bad comedy.

Anyway, into see the midwife we went, fully expecting to be sent home, only to find we're not going anywhere, it's go-go-go time!

After CK went for a swim the other week she fancied the weight relief  of spending some of the time in the pool and as luck would have it, the only room with a fixed pool was available, not only that we got two midwifes as ours had an experienced trainee with her.

We had to wait two hours for a doctor to come and give CK an anti-biotic drip for a “group b strep” infection she was diagnosed and treated for some weeks before and then it was off with the TENS and into the pool.

It's a weird thing for the partner to go through, for a while now I have felt very protective but now I am in the situation that my loved one is in a lot of pain and there is not a darn thing I can do about it.

The midwifes I must say are brilliant, they say all the right things and apart from checking the baby's heart-rate with an ultrasound device that makes sweeking and  swarking sounds likes a freeform jazz enthusiast tuning a transistor radio, they don't touch her at all and at 9:40 little AG swims into the world.

Wow, I feel on a high, bedraggled and flushed she maybe but in my eyes my partner has never looked more beautiful and the little wrinkly bundle of flesh that is already looking for milk, well what can I say, love at first sight!

For the rest of the day there is the inevitable flow of tests, feeding, visitors and texts and finally at 10pm I head home completely and totally knackered.

Hoping and waiting and weighting and waiting

Eights days late and according to today's estimate a weight of eight, sureley a co-incidence?

man, this waiting is driving me crazy, somehow waiting at the top the rollercoaster for the ride to start feels s longer then all the chugging all the way to the top.

hurry up baby, daddy's waiting!

Donkey!

Well seven days on from the due date and we're waiting waiting waiting.....

Yesterday we went to a BBQ  at where there were three small children and a cute baby, I ending up playing with the young kids and was exhausted after just an hour of bouncing them around and being used for donkey rides!

man, if I'm this knackered after an hour of kids what am going to be like when its full-time?

Not so private life

As much as I like to see myself as an enlightened citizen of the world, I can't escape I'm British, terribly terribly British and as a Britain there are a few things we don't talk about..

However, now my partner is overdue by six days, the final bastion of secrecy is up for discussion,  all sorts of people are now asking me "have we tried..."  actually I'm too British to say, I'll leave the end of the question to your imagination but suffice to say it's usually a friendly euphemism of a quite personal nature!

The disadvantage of tall men

I wouldn't call myself tall, but at 185cm I am taller than most, but to be honest its not something I give any thought too.

However my partner had a scan today and has found the disadvantage of my height, the baby is going to be BIG

Hot baths, long walks and curry

Well we're three days overdue and feeling impatient.

We've tried curry and long-walks I've even bought some Raspberry leaf tea, still, baby isn't budging!

We are getting loads of good will messages, hopeful text messages whenever we seem unavailable  even suggestions we try some hanky-panky !

Hurry up baby, there are grandparents, aunties, uncles (and local amdram actors) all waiting for you!

Can I make myself more stressed?

About to have a baby - check
Job having a wobble - check
Feeling  a wee bit stressed - check

Faced with this list, you would think you would think the wise thing to do is avoid taking anything else on that is stressful. Well, no-one has accused me of being wise so I've decided to buy a house. Luckily so far it seems to be okay....I must be mad!

still waiting...

Well the weekend (and the due date) has come and gone and we're still waiting for the little one.

As predicted there was a lot of the same questions at the family party but a nice time was had by all.

After playing with my nephews for the afternoon, I was so tired I just wanted to give them back and go to sleep, but of course when I have my own I won't able able to give them back, so I guess constant tiredness here I come!

huffing and chuffing

£$%^ I said to my girlfriend, do you realise within a couple of years we won't be able to have a good $%^&&*( swear at home because little ears will listening.

$%^&* %^& I will miss the occasional good "$%^&$% swear!

It's not easy being green...

Following my green post the other day, the question a was posted, is being green and having children mutually exclusive?

It's quite a good question, now admittedly I have somewhat of a bias but I think raising Children are the key to our future.

This is because for the good work we are doing now to continue and for the world to evolve toward a bright future, we need the next generation to be be full of smart, world aware people with good understandings of science and technology.

Which is what I fully intend to raise.

So am I smart and green enough to raise my children my children with the minimum of negative enviormental impact? Yes.
Will my children as a result be green? Though it will be ultimately up them, I would say Yes.

Is raising children automatically un-green?

Defiantly not.

And then there were four

Went to the pub last night for regular meetup with the other expecant couples in the area that we had met on our NCT course (private birthing class), notable by absence were two couple who we found out have given birth to healthy babies!

It feels awfully close now!

Four-wheeled temptation

We as a couple would call ourselves a bit "green" we eat more vegetable than animal, unplug things when we are not using them, cycled more than 100 miles a week between us to work, we even used to comically lug our weekly shop back on the bikes in a way that would of made Laurel and Hardy proud.

But...as CK's pregnant belly grew, so did our reliance on that tempting devil, the car, last weekend I even made a 90 minute round trip in it just to collect some posh pizza for dinner.

Last night however I felt justified in collecting her for a girls night out up in town, it was late, the area a little dodgy and traveling I thought would be really awkward. So there I stood outside the restraunt, the dashing hero with puffed chest, ready to transport his Lady safely to her abode, that is, until the bus that would have taken her all the way for free, passed the door of the restaurant and even beat us home, oh the shame.....

T minus ??

Well here I am at work, wearing a watch with a second hand, my nails bitten to the quick, a charged video camera at the ready and a nervous jump whenever my phone rings, yes, I'm an expectant Dad.

Today is Tuesday and the due date is Sunday, if the baby has my sense of timing it'll be late, if it has my talent for being awkard it'll be right on time. This is because Sunday we are due to go to the Ruby wedding aniversary party my parents have been planning since before we knew the due date, still at least it would avoid the every repeating questions we would no doubt get at the party "when's it due","are you nervous", "do you know the sex"

Oh well, time will tell!