Hello there poppets! / L Plate Mama

Before Bub arrived our Miniature Schnauzer Bella and Burmese cat Maxxie were the centre of our world. Bella is a lovely, passive, happy creature, very affectionate and a tad demanding. Maxxie is a vocal, crafty beautiful being, who we keep inside to prevent an untimely death- for him and the local wildlife. Maxxie gets 'crazy eyes' on occasion, signally the onset of a period of insane behaviour, often in the middle of night, when he runs the length of the house at high speed, protests at the top of his feline lungs about the injustice of the world, and pounces on Bella and sometimes my other half. Both petimals were bestowed with affection night and day, and allowed to sit on the couch (Bella) and sleep on our bed (Maxxie). When I was at work envisioning maternity leave, I used to say despite the fact the pets would usurped by the new little human, at least I'd be around in the day, and this would ofcourse be lovely for them. I really had no idea. A pamphlet is provided ...

Oh my goodness, before I had bub I thought the ad with the baby and the explosion poo that fills the interior of a car was amusing, I did not realise how close to the truth the No 3 poo is. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paw0M7p1-8k) Today, which is wonderfully a Sunday, Bub did an explosion poo that needed two people to clear up. It was up to his shoulders! Trying to remove the soiled garmets resulted in bright orange poo on his arms and a little bit on his forehead. Luckily none of this phased the little man, he was happy as a pig... How is possible for more to be on the outside of the nappy than on the inside! It is a remarkable feat.

I was inordinately excited. I had really wanted to get a sling, had ummed and arrrhed, researched all the different types, all the different brands. I already have a baby bjorn type carrier (otherwise known as soft structured carrier) on loan from my partner's sister, did I really need a sling? The carrier is good, the bub can be safetly nestled against me, and I can carry him for a good hour before getting achey, but it is a pain in the bum to get on and off. I wanted something that can easily put on and used, and can be folded up and popped in the nappy bag - and here I had nabbed a peanut stretch cotton sling on sale! Fantastic. These simple stretchy cotton tubes are pretty pricey and the other product in the shop was 4 times the price, how cool, how very cool and very exciting, and wasn't I going to look like the coolest mummy with the funky red pattern, and wasn't bub going to love being carried around in a lovely 'cradle position'. The ridiculous excitement an...

I was out for lunch with the wonderful god-mummy of my precious bundle of human today, and one of the staff clearing our plates comments on the sleeping bub. “Oh what a cute.... girl?” “Boy” “Oh, but he’s too pretty to be boy” Short pause, maybe reflecting on the fact this comment may upset some people “My son was the same, far too pretty to be a boy. Sorry I can’t tell when baby’s are wearing lemon” – it was lime. Lime, lemon, girl, boy it’s a baby, a young one, 8 weeks and a day. I was not offended, doesn’t bother me, and it doesn’t bother him. He is rather beautiful, if I do say so myself, and it was a bit of a relief that someone else said that he is too pretty, I’ve caught myself in the early days saying ‘good girl’, I attributed this to my dog being female, and phrase had been used so often it just rolled off my tongue. At this point in his life it really doesn’t matter. Assigning gender roles to creatures that cannot hold their head up for longer than 5 seconds doesn’t hold muc...