Well, this will give me a chance to post the rest of the photos I tried to post a few weeks ago, and to tell everyone the most exciting details of my life that I neglected to tell before.
First of all, to anyone who might care and all of you who might have forgotten, it was Matt's birthday on the 15th of this month. He turned 31. Usually we might have a very small barbeque, but usually we don't do anything. You see, my beautfiul husband is one of those people who gets depressed when you mention that they have acquired another year. Why are people like that? It's so morbid! What are they thinking? - "Crap. There goes another year. One year closer to being dead"? Why not think - as many of us do - about the attention, the free drinks and the presents? ANYhoo, my aim in telling everyone is not to try and depress Matt more by having everyone we know congratulate him on his age, but to try and make it an exciting event where people are celebrating him, because, lets face it - there's no point in getting depressed now at the 31st birthday when there are worse birthdays to come.
Here is my Dadda with Manny a couple of weeks ago.
The very lovely Charne new Louka, the new wonder kid and Charne's very first nephew!
Jani and his birthday twin.
Well, surprise surprise, the server or whatever it is seems to be having trouble uploading anything, so no more photos here.
On to the next topic at hand: Matt and I have been looking for a house to buy. We've had a mortgage broker over called Brent who told us we could borrow a LOT of money if we really wanted to. It's very scary, actually. I am sure people DO regularly borrow a LOT of money. Brent, the good man that he is (bit like an old, wise koala), advised us a limit within which to borrow, and we shall stick to what he says.
The house searching has likewise been scary, sad, joyful and quite a learning experience. We made a few offers for a house in Rozelle, that were, as it turns out, too low. Matt let me take control of the whole process, because he is a bit scared of the old monkey suits. Matt is like a small shivery mouse in the eyes of a monkey suit. He feels he will squeak away all our monetary secrets and pay them whatever they want because they are bigger and wear suits and are distant (but so close!) relatives of that other well-known scary predator of the big city jungle - the second hand car meer cat.
I know I should be nicer about real estate agents, after all, probably some of you know some people who are monkey suits and actually think they are lovely people and not at all like monkeys in suits. But when you are the potential purchaser, let me tell you two things: monkeys and suits. That's what they turn into - silly tricksy animals who spruce up their antics with a nice suit and a shiny second hand (or possibly new) BMW, and you can't rely on their word for a moment. One of the monkey suits I spoke to argued with me FOR 45 MINUTES about the folly of comparing the our offer (too low of course) with the price of a property down the road near a park (which SHOULD cost more), because it was right next to a 'looney bin' and 'basically, let's put it this way' he would 'not be happy at all' having HIS kids play there. Turns out said 'looney bin' to be a place where harmless old men are borded, and he doesn't even HAVE kids. I can't even begin to convey his snakey monkey voice over this blog, so I wont try.
Anyway, we're kinda into it now. I figure the best tactic is to appear to be a bit cool and non-commital (the giraffe tactic), or overly enthusiastic and dumb but rich(the Irish Setter tactic), depending on how we feel about the property. It's always fun. Matt now appears to be less like a shivery mouse around the monkeys, and more like a playful young puppy with a touch of scratchy kitten. We'll stop with the animal comparisons there, but suffice it to say he's feeling a little more confident, and I can be very tall if I want to. We found a house we LOVE last night and are just hoping that those other home hunters Joey and Baerin aren't bidding on it too, because my giraffe and Matt's puppy would be slain by their majestic lion/lioness cunning and knowledge of the big scary jungle meet, the auction. Ok, no more animals.
Manny has gone through leaps and bounds in development in the last week. When we went to Gunning to stay with our beautiful Suzie, Liam, Hugo and Poppy, he was not rolling over very much (or trying), or being as verbal. This week, he wakes up every moring ready to regail me with song and story and squeaks and screams, and without the old nappy on has become pretty good at rolling over from tum to back. He is trying, but not succeeding, to roll the other way too. He sure succeeded the other day though, when I left the side of his cot off and he rolled on to the floor. Quite shocking for both of us. I now know how quickly these things can happen.
I am not getting as much sleep as I used to, because Manny has now started to wake up at 545am instead of 630am, and wake joyfully for a chat sometimes at 3am as well, and I look very terrible. Day sleeping for me - a boring and irksome task for me since I was about 2 years old - is now an activity that I engage in with jealous and uncertain joy. Thank god for YSL's Touche Eclat for those days where I want to
appear a little less haggard, even though I'm probably not fooling anyone because I feel rubbish and obviously for the cluey lady at the baby shop down the road I might as well have pencilled bags under my eyes with a number 6B pencil. Oh well.
As I said before, Manny and I left poor Matt and went down to stay with Suz and her crew in Gunning, which was an excellent holiday that we will be repeating hopefully sometime soon. Poppy, the littlest, is just beautiful and smiley and gorgeous and clever. Liam is two and very FUNNY and, as Suz says, quite contrary. I asked Liam when he was upset if he would like to use my mobile phone to call someone, anyone, even the man in the moon, and he said no, because he wouldn't like him. So CUTE. And Hugo is just the man about town and so SMART and active and excited. They are very cool kids and I love them so much. Must remember to get more pointers on How Not to Nearly Kill Your Child and Make Them Lovely Human Beings when I next see her.
Ok, now to publish and see if the next time I can get some photos in. x
Well, I'd almost given up this blog, but just received Peta's today and I thought it was so nice to get all that info and photos. I thought while I had the energy (it's 10.40pm) I should update.
