Bump - 18 weeks.

 Another thing that brings home the reality of a trio of kids - the bump is growing!
(or at least my stomach muscles can't hold my belly in anymore! )

I'll be 18 weeks on Friday and the morning sickness seems to have all but left me, my energy levels are rising (slowly), and there is definite movement happening on a more regular basis. Very exciting!

I've had to break out the 'maternity' wear much early this time (this is the much slimmer/smaller me at 19 weeks with Otto. Thanks, lack of stomach muscles.) and am working hard to adding to the collection. My pregnancy with Otto was mostly over the cooler months, so I find myself lacking mid-Summer gears. Safe to say this Summer will be ALL about the dresses.
(Note to self: I really much hurry up and find zipper/buttonhole feet for my Bernina so I can get sewing!)

Bunking up.

Last weekend our boys got new beds. Well, bunks actually!

Bunks were inevitable for us. We just don't have the space in our house for three single beds and, while we don't own the house, there was no chance of us doing anything tricky like hanging beds or lofts.
We decided against the tubular steel bunks, and opted for the more sturdy wooden ones. This meant it worked out easier (and not much more expensive) to buy them new, rather than second hand. We found a store in Tauranga that imports them for a lot less than the stores sell them for, which meant we could afford to just have them couriered to us. Handy!

The boys are well stoked with them. Otto has adjusted to being a new room without any hiccups, and Aesop is yet to fall down the ladder in the middle of the night (touch wood!). It's also kind of cute to hear them chit chatting away for ten minutes after bedtime.
I get the feeling sharing a room is going to be good for these two.

(You know what this means though, aye? We are actually having three children. EEEEK. It's all starting to feel a bit real now!)

Frugal Fashion Friday - four days late, or three early?

I don't often find gems on TradeMe, not clothing ones anyway. All of the vintage dresses that I like seem to be sought after by the rest of the country too.
This one, however, no one else bid on! (Whaaaat? Are they crazy?) I almost started to wonder if everyone else saw something different than I did. But then it arrived and it is perfect. It's original 50's vintage, perfect condition and even fits wonderfully too (with plenty of room for the ever-expanding front!). Safe to say, I am over-the-moon.

I've had a wee bit of luck lately with finding dresses at the op shops, too. Maybe I'll have to have a wee virtual fashion show when they're washed and ready to go?

Vintage dress - TradeMe $15
Sunnies - Le Spec (from glasses shop at Bayfair) - $20
Belt - Borrowed/stolen from a friend.
Flats - The Warehouse $12

wishlisting.

oscarandgeorge

$28.00

oscarandgeorge

$25.00

twistedyarnz

$26.00

cedimay

$26.00

franniefeet

$25.00

greenvalley

$15.00

peoplepuppies

$15.00

iatsbaby

$25.00

parrotdragon

$17.00

alikids

$20.00

hikkepik

$25.00

wildones

$30.00

I've started dreaming of things for the new little one.

We have everything we really need, but a few more woollens certainly won't go astray with a mid/end of April bub. Just need to find some money now.

Luckily wishing is free....

(The wee hat/hood in the corner is obviously for the bigger small one, think Otto might need this, or something similar, for Christmas!)

Tick, tick, tick.

The hormone-induced crazy has officially set in.
I walked past the window of the op-shop today (after going in, of course.. I can't pass a second hand store by!) and spotted this clock. It's beautiful, right? It had a tag on it that said it worked perfectly, had the winding key etc, and it was even fairly cheap. Any clock lover would have been sold on it.
And that there is the problem, I don't like clocks. I don't like the ticking! I can't stand it, in fact.
(And, to make things worse, this one chimes every fifteen minutes?!)
BUT I knew, the minute I saw it, that I needed this clock. It called my name. It was like fate. And I wasn't going to feel happy until I had it in my sweaty little mitts.

That, my friends, is how I know that the pregnancy insanity seems to have well and truly arrived.

Now that I have this noisy wee clock in my house, I need to figure out quite how on earth to get it to tell me the time. At the moment it seems to tick in double speed, and chimes a different time than it shows. Do of you happen to secretly be clock experts?

Busy Bee.

After a lazy week, I woke up yesterday feeling productive. The most productive I've felt in some time.
I decided it was a good idea to get some baking done for the first week back at school/playcentre, and get a meal or two stocked in the freezer.

Our eating during this first stage of my pregnancy has been horrific, to put it mildly. I have had so many days where I was unable to stomach an evening meal, or even cook one. And as a result there has been a lot of takeout and easy-to-prepare pre-made food through our doors. Our grocery bill has gone up about $20 a week, with much less in the cupboards or freezer to show for it. We've spent more on takeaways each week than we normally would in a fortnight (or even a month, some weeks. Sigh.) It is time now for me to try and get this under control again.

Yesterday was a good start, I managed a double batch of pasta sauce and a huge meal of vegie soup. I baked muesli bar slice (which, even on my third different recipe, wasn't very successful. Guess it's just not a fan of margarine?), peanut butter choc chip cookies, and banana cake-muffins.

I also managed to get some of my 7 loads of wet washing dry, and turn over the compost. Phew. I hope this is a another sign that my routine is slowly returning to normal.

Oh, and just because it's cute, this is Otto's belly. He's 'got a baby in his puku', in case you were wondering why it's looking so gloriously rotund : )

Around the place.

(A few snaps taken while I was tidying..)


The weather this week, and my mood, have mostly only been good for pottering around home. I've managed a bit of Spring cleaning, a bunch of crossword puzzles, and that is about all.
(Other than a lot of internetting, and worrying about devastating current events, of course.)

I'm having severe 'Aesop's school holidays have been pretty crap' guilt, so tomorrow we might have to do something super doooooper exciting. Any ideas?