Sunday, May 10, 2009

The Rainy Season

When Dave first arrived in NZ last year, one of his first blog entries called the weather annoying. At home safely under the July skies, I scoffed at this description. How could anyone call 14 degrees in the dead of winter annoying? It sure sounded sweet to me.

Over the course of the past two weeks, I now understand this description. The weather really does alternate between brilliant sunshine and plummeting rain all day long. With my time here winding down, I often think I should get out and do more...and yet, I loathe the daily drenchings. Interestingly enough, the Aucklanders seem completely unphased. They do not wear raincoats, and only the staunchest carry umbrellas. As each downpour begins, I can't help but sprint for the nearest tree or bus stop...that alone identifies me as a tourist :-)

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Dangly Bits

From the beginning, this pregnancy has been significantly different from my first. Not that my first pregnancy didn't have its share of glorious symptoms but they were minor irritations, instead, this time I found myself intimately aware of how inadequate the couch is in this rental. For the better part of the first four months, I was useless. The limited energy I possessed was expended on Mikaela, and my short temper and grumpy disposition were showered on Dave. As such, I began to think of this baby as a boy. My logic followed that only a boy could wreck this much havoc on my normally energetic, on-the-go lifestyle.

Since Mikaela's best friend, Bianca, had a baby brother, she seemed content to accept my opinion that I was carrying a boy and she began requesting we draw pictures of her baby brother. Dave also felt I was correct due to the marked differences in the pregnancies, but he secretly held out hope that we would be proven wrong with another little girl.

With the approach of the 20-week anatomy ultrasound, we wavered on whether to find out the gender. Should we? Or shouldn't we? As the technician went through the scan, there were lots of beautiful, perfects, and looks good. Although I was extremely happy to know all was well with baby Stachon, I found I couldn't get the question of the gender out of my head. I wanted to know, and I wanted to know NOW!

It pains me to admit, I was wrong, so very wrong. In the technician's words, there were no dangly bits ;-)