nablopomo'd out

I think nablopome has finally blogged me out. Or maybe it's just real life rearing its ugly, nuisance-filled, annoying head. Between flickr and blogger, for the last few weeks, I've been totally submerged in the virtual world. Well, in between dips into puke, squirmy, rodeo-event diaper changes, and walking Swee'pea to sleep over cheerio-strewn floors, of course.

Annoyance #1:

The tv. I believe the situation is dire. It's crapping out more often now, and worse, it no longer responds reliably to our attempts at resuscitation (smacking it hard). Last week it crapped out during Grey's Anatomy, but I spoke to it sternly that this was not the time or the place, smacked it, and it came back to life. But now it's crapped out during Amazing Race and House, cutting out big chunks of the shows. I think we really need to get a new used one.

Annoyance #2:

The oven. Last week as I was preparing vegetarian lasagne, I discovered that the oven was not preheating as I'd directed it to. It's a really really old gas stove, and there's a really really old timer with a really really old clock that doesn't work, and sometimes the timer gets stuck in automatic mode, which means that you can't actually turn the oven on. Even though we manged to push the teeny-tiny knob into manual position, it still didn't work. So I used the neighbour's oven, thank goodness, but still. I think we need a new used stove. If I were rich, I'd totally want this one:


Annoyance #3:

Daycare. Every time I think of a new way to google for an earthy, attachment sort of daycare provider, I now get my own blog. Which is kinda cool, but mostly not helpful at all. I did actually phone a couple of providers the other day, and one has space available and sounded fairly nice, but she would prefer not take a part-time baby, which is what I'm hoping for (hopefully I'll soon about that). I've already been through the listings at the Early Years website, and have written off almost all of the entries based on such criteria as: their address, whether they've undergone a criminal check, whether they describe nice activities in the extra box, and whether I like their name. Unfortunately, some made it through all those checks only for me to discover that they don't actually take children Swee'pea's age. Wah!

Annoyance #4:

Bills. On top of the regular bills that I haven't quite gotten around to paying because I have so many more interesting things to do, we've had two extra little notifications; one about an outstanding debt from Sugar Daddy's past we didn't know about, and another that his unused account is overdrawn because his gym membership started up again and has been withdrawing funds from an account with no income. (Plus there's the fact that our trip to SA will cost money and Sugar Daddy is having to take unpaid time off and my mat leave will be over but my vacation pay will probably be delayed, and we still haven't paid for the damn airconditioning we got last summer when my brain melted and it seemed like a smart thing to do.) Aarggh!

Annoyance #5:

I just noticed that my blog has been flagged for objectionable content. Which, on the one hand, doesn't surprise me. Some of my flashback fridays, and some other stuff, could definitely be objectionable. But on the other hand, does this mean that someone came to my blog, was shocked and horrified and offended, and flagged my blog? I feel bad if that's the case. I have always enjoyed surprising (shocking) people to some extent, but I don't enjoy offending people. On still another hand, (who knew I had three hands?) I have my handful of readers, and they (you) mustn't be too offended, otherwise you wouldn't come back, right? But still, I'm kind of surprised. I really think I've been fairly tame, compared to some other mommy bloggers I've seen (and enjoyed). Maybe it's just my language that bothers some people? Or maybe it's just an automatic blogger thing and I really don't need to get my knickers in a twist? But since I'm in a knicker-twisting mood, and I'm so good at it, I might as well...

Annoyance #6:

Ok, it's not exactly an annoyance, but it's stressing me out. I'm getting really nervous about our trip. We haven't really done much to prepare, but I don't think we really need to, since we'll be staying with family and playing things by ear. But thinking about the flight scares me, because I've got the double whammy of flying with Swee'pea while being scared of flying. Some people have told me that their anxiety isn't as bad when they have their kids to focus on, but what if it's worse, just for me? The last flight wasn't that bad, anxiety-wise. It was just gruelling.

But with Swee'pea, there are more practical considerations too. How will we feed him if he doesn't have his own seat? What if he wants to be walked back and forth to sleep and we're having turbulence and can't get out of the seat? Even now, my chest just stopped at the thought of being strapped into a seat with a squirming unhappy baby on me.

Beyond the flight, I worry about sleeping arrangements, because Sugar Daddy's father's guest bed is only a double, which will be rather a squeeze for the three of us. And if SD sleeps on a couch, Swee'pea will be more prone to falling out? Our mattress at home is on the floor, but we're going to put it back up to get Swee'pea used to being on a higher bed, and hopefully learning that he should not roll past the edge, and he has to get off it backwards. I also worry about the lack of baby proofing where we'll be staying and whether that will just be exhausting.

On a less practical level, I worry about what they will think of our parenting style, of the fact that I haven't lost the baby weight, etc. etc. Yeah, I know I don't really need to worry about these things. Sugar Daddy's family was SO nice last time, and we see them so rarely, I'm sure they won't bother with that kind of crap.

And yesterday, my friend said that I'm really brave for taking this trip. Which scared me. We're not brave intrepid people. We just want to share the amazingness of Swee'pea with his family.

On a happier note, I finally finished scanning my fave photos from the last trip and they're up at flickr. These three are my absolute favourites.

PS: Apparently we're really famous because Swee'pea has been featured on another blog today. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon yesterday with Alecgator and his mom, and Swee'pea had a great time discovering new toys.