Oops.

Well. It's been nearly a year since I have posted. My excuse is I've been somewhat busy and/or tired for most of the past year. I do however have a few projects to work on, so I hope I can remedy that.

With Squiddley's arrival life has changed dramatically. Life with a child does tend to make one much more domestically focussed. A baby does not *make* you stay home, but it tends to be easier to stay at home. "Ducking out" anywhere doesn't happen for me too much any more, given that I don't usually have a hand free as I walk out of the door, and that's after I make sure there are no obvious puke/pee/poo stains one either of mine or Squiddley's outfits. The size of the baby is not an indication of how much extra work there is to do either. One look of our washing line on laundry day and you'll usually find half the line dedicated to Squiddley's clothes/sheets/wipes/nappies and the other half is for us bigger folk in the house.

I plan to organise my budget better, and plan more to leave less to chance in our lives. Its such a simple thing to say, but a big thing to do, so hopefully, that's a project that will have some longevity.

I've also been using Modern Cloth Nappies (MCN) exclusively for the last couple of months and have had lots of questions about them from friends who know that I'm using them. I've discovered that my opinions of the many different styles and brands change back and forth over time as Squiddley grows and fills them out differently. I decided that I should write about my experiences so that I can share them with interested folks without coming across as some kind of weird nappy zealot - there are enough ways I'm weird as it is!

So, that's my plan. Given that it has taken me hours to write this much, we'll see how it all goes.

Hopefully, I shall update soon with some MCN chronicles!

A Project Coming Soon...

We have a three bedroom house. One room is our bedroom, one is a computer room/study, where I'm sitting right now (down by the kitchen), and the third bedroom, near ours, has been the guest room.

It will be re-purposed.

Into a nursery.

Despite the temptation to pick out furniture, themes and paint schemes as soon as one comes to grips with such big news, there is a need to be a bit reserved. For one, there will be an influx of family at Christmas who will be looking for places to sleep, and secondly, there are some that think I shouldn't have even told you the big news at this stage (9 weeks), because the risk of miscarriage is still significantly high.

Thirdly, there is the whole "will you find out the gender" debate... not that a baby will care what colour their room is, but the adults around it tend to. To be honest, I'm very tempted to decorate around the existing shade of pale yellow, so that I don't have so many colour dilemmas.

As for themes, the early fore-runner in my mind is a Noah's Ark/Animal theme... generic, but cute...

If I leave the paint colour the same, then the spare room remains non-offensive for guests, and a quick swap over of furniture after Christmas should mean that it is a fairly painless process. (Let's hope so!)

I wonder if I will indulge my Ikea fetish, or find another way to furnish the room... At the forefront of my mind is the need for the room and furniture to grow with the child - I don't want to have to throw out the "nursery" furniture and start over again when the child reaches 3. Perhaps by the time bub is 3, some of their personality can be reflected in a new paint job.

Who knows! At the moment, only the seed of the project exists.