Niss on Sunday #3

Another week passes by in a bit of a blur, and we move closer to the big day when (we are assured) a son will be born into our family. Another poor soul to carry forward the troublesome Rajapakse name! I say troublesome not because it's like having the surname Mugabe or even Palin, but because it's difficult to spell and even more difficult to pronounce. At least my son won't be able to accuse me of never giving him anything. He may not thank me, but that's another story.

Xana and I spent a somewhat surreal afternoon this week waiting at the hospital. We had an appointment for this waiting, which was punctuated by the odd flurry of activity as we had a 3 minute scan and a 2 minute check-in with our new consultant, who with the name Mr Law would appear to have taken the wrong career path! Planned 34 week appointment with nothing significant to report, which is all that we need at this time. Can't tell you how glad I am that this is the last timetabled visit to the hospital which results in us leaving without our own bundle of joy!

More troubling is the total lack of significance to what I have to report on the finding a home project! I traipsed around 8 or 9 places this week, a joy which I shared with my mother. My goodness people need to get realisitic about what their tips are really worth. As any decent estate agent will tell you, your house is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. And I amn't willing to pay nada for some of the places I saw this week. So, whilst my better half embroiders another bib for the baby, I waste time surfing websites for our next home. Google. You are failing me!

Talking of bibs...my Sri Lankan relatives sent some fantastic presents for Pancrasinio. Pictures below don't do them justice, but we're both looking forward to dressing up our little one in these great clothes. So check back sometime soon for a shot of them being properly modelled.

Thanks go out to all the Jayawickrema's, Dissanayake's, Lintotawela's and Lintotawela-Guerra's! My son's gonna look dope!

Which reminds me, congratulations to my nangi Dilmini and her husband on the birth of their second son. We hope to meet them both sometime soon.

São 6:30 da manhã....

e já estamos (os 3) acordados há mais de hora e meia. O marido já é normal acordar a esta hora criminosa, mas há uns dias que o rebento, como bom filho que é, lhe faz companhia!

Então, diariamente, o pequeno lá acorda por volta das 5 (por vezes antes) e toca a espreguicar, pontapear, esticar e "reviravoltar" com toda a energia de quem dormiu uma noite descansadíssima e está pronto a enfrentar as tribulações de um longo dia. Como é lógico, semelhante frenezim acaba por me acordar (muitas vezes sobressaltada) e pôr fim ao meu descanso. É que esta coisa de tentar dormir enquanto um ser mexerico faz a espargata e dança o fox-trot dentro da barriga tem que se lhe diga! E eu cá, confesso... tenho dificuldade.
De modo que me vou entretendo (enquanto as actividades matinais do pequerrucho não chegam ao fim) com este blog, uns sudokus e os 100000 livros sobre gravidez que me cobrem o chão do quarto....

Enfim... parece que a criatura finalmente acalmou.... vou tomar um duche a ver se desperto, que estou com um humor de cão! Até já!

E agora... só faltamos nós!

As meninas destas fotos já tiveram os seus rebentos.



Felizmente, correu tudo bem com todas, e, pelas fotos que vi, os rebentos são uma doçura.

Agora só falta o pãozinho para completar a colheita de 2008! E também já estamos quase, quase!

Niss on Sunday(+1) #2

What a surprise! The theory was that I was most likely to find an hour free to file something on the blog on a Sunday, but those who know me also know me for my flawed theories!

Anyway, I'm here now.

Having accepted a rather ungenerous offer for our (finally) rather lovely home (see previous entry if you want to see the brochure), we've begun looking in earnest at places that we might call home number 2. But I am premature.....

Xana and I spent most of Saturday at antenatal classes with other first-time parents-to-be. As promised by the Daily Mail, we even had our own stereotypical gobby single teenager accompanied somewhat reluctantly by the dude who did the doing! It was an enlightening experience and did take away some of the trepidation, but then I'm not the one who is going to be giving birth! At least we saw the ward where, all being well, our little one will enter the world and it's not too shabby. Please bear in mind that this is coming from someone who is looking at living under the bridge in a few cardboard boxes.

The good news from the classes was that the little one doesn't need washing all that often, in fact the lesser then better! To quote the midwife - just top and tail the little darling and they'll be fine. The bad news is that he'll probably require tailing at least 6 times a day! The baddest news was something I had never heard before which is that the umbilicus gets gangrenous before it drops off. When I used to visit houses with newborns, I assumed the smell was from nappies and burped up milk, but clealy this must have been mostly made up of rotting, gangrene-ridden human flesh! I think I found one reason to have a summer baby...you can leave the baby out in the garden with the umbilicus on show in the hope that a passing crow might have off with it (leaving behind a gangrene-free baby).

As I started saying earlier, we spent the rest of the weekend looking here and quite afar at houses. Based on the prices and the quality of the properties we saw, there are some real comedians out there, and the estate agents don't help. One house was described as well-presented in the brochure. It was not. I think it would have been doing it more justice to describe it as "furnished in slum-chic". The agent who showed us around referred to it as the smelly house! Enough said. The search continues....

Belly continues to grow and doesn't appear to give much rest. It's great to see an arm, leg or bottom stick out of my wife's tum but sometimes it takes Xana's breath away. Our wait continues....

5 anos e 6 meses depois....

...decidimos vendê-la. E pronto, já está vendida.

Tenho pena, pois deixamos aqui um pouco (muito) de nós.... mas é mesmo o início de uma nova era!

Wish us luck :-)

PS - os curiosos podem ver fotos a partir do link ali em cima, se clicarem en "full brochure"

Niss on Sunday # 1

It's time the "other half" of this mixed seed roll - literal translation from Portuguese of the blog title - got more involved and offered up some updates for the poor English speakers/readers (in addition to the photographs)!

So with all the best will in the world, I will use some part of my lazy Sunday's to update the blog from my point of view. Thus, NoS.

(I demonstrate here my knack for somewhat wishful thinking that beyond the end of November 2008 there will be any such thing as a lazy Sunday in our lives...but if there is one, I'll post something! For those not in the know, on 30 November (coincidentally a Sunday) all Hell is due to break loose as our (first/only?) little angel is delivered! Which by my counting leaves only 49 days.)

Are we ready? Mentally I am, I think. But I know the mother-to-be is. And in terms of the stuff you need for a new baby? Got that covered too. Camera? Check! Camcorder? Check! Anything I am missing? No didn't think so. No embarrassing moment will go unrecorded for posterity (and hopefully a best-man's speech one day).

The one who can do nothing wrong (she's carrying my baby after all) did mention that we need to look at cots, changing units, nappies, bottles, sterilisers (a little too late for that don't you think?), baths, monitors....but I'm not convinced we need all that stuff!

... Xana and I have just spent an hour researching reusable nappies.....oh boy am I looking forward to sluicing and scrapping the more stubborn soiling. I hope the environment is worth experiencing these joys!

More next week.

Coisas dele...

Ainda no forno, mas já:
- é um irrequieto
- gosta de andar de carro e de autocarro
- é teimoso e só mostra as suas habilidades quando lhe apetece
- tem imensos soluços
- parece gostar de Prince (para encanto do pai)
- não gosta mesmo NADA de ser apertado
- fica agitado quando a mãe está no chuveiro
- acorda a meio da noite para "brincar" e não deixa a mãe dormir
- se acalma com a presença do pai