It's been a while...

Since my last post, that is. But for good reason. Actually, no good reason other than being busy but it does mean I have more to babble about.

Monday week ago was D-day as far as the RatBag's future is concerned. Thankfully we settled by consent and now we have some detailed orders in place, and that means one court case out of 2 is DONE! Hooray! As part of our agreement, the RatBag goes to HeEx for half of the school holidays in a week-about fashion, so he was dropped off last night and will be there until 2pm Christmas day. That's hard to swallow, but I want him to have a quality relationship with his father, and vice versa. Besides, in our agreement, I get him for his first day of Prep!

On Thursday I caught up with one of my close friends from high school, and she's pregnant with her first due a week after me. She has a doppler, so the kids got to listen to BellyBub's heartbeat in our lounge room, very cool! Then we had a midwife appointment and everything is going swimmingly. Phew, at least something is going smoothly now!

Sunday my uncle and aunty and their kids (identical twin girls, same age as Little Miss and an almost 2 year old little dude), who live down south, are up for Christmas, so we caught up and had a BBQ yesterday which was fantastic! Last time I saw my uncle and aunty was on their wedding day back in 2003 - so meeting my little cousins and watching them play with my kids was excellent!

I can't believe we didn't take any pictures, but I did take a 20 week belly shot - excuse the crappiness, my camera is dead so phone was my only option.

Whoo hoo, halfway!

The count down to Christmas is on, thank Christ I've actually finished my shopping and won't be rushing around last minute like I tend to do. Go me.

He's definitely got balls.

Today I had my morphology scan. Although I've had 4 prior scans, seeing your little baby wiggling about on that screen never gets old. In fact, I could sit there all day and watch in awe!

We got confirmation that BellyBub is a boy, but it was blindingly obvious at my emergency scan at 13.5 weeks, so I was not surprised. For those of you who don't know, I desperately wanted a girl - but that was not meant to be and I'm glad I've had the extra time to adjust to the little boy bits growing inside me. Great news also that everything is measuring to date, with some measurements up to a week ahead, so all in all a fantastic result. He was quite wriggly and very compliant, allowing the sonographer to measure everything. The only thing I found strange is that she didn't get a Crown-Rump length, so I'm unsure exactly how big BellyBub is. Oh well, I know he's the picture of health and he's having a party in my tummy tonight, so what does it matter?

Presenting.....BellyBub!

Things are coming along nicely

I've been quiet for the past few days, which is very unlike me and I anticipated to post at least every 2 days, but I started writing and realised a few times that it was wayyyyy too boring and would have made your eyes bleed so I decided to DELETE.

Sunday was a glorious day - starting off with a sleep in, followed by beautiful buttermilk pancakes with berries and ice-cream thanks to TheMan! I only wish I had have taken a picture so I could share with you the deliciousness!
We then just chilled as a family, and went and had lunch at the Outlaws (Dave's parents), my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law (and confidant, haven't thought of nicknames for them yet, watch this space) and their 2 kids MiniMan and Lala.

Yesterday brought with it a very important document I've been waiting a couple of weeks for, pertaining to TheRatbag and our Court fiasco involving him. Lets just say, this document held exactly the news I wanted to hear (and more!) and I couldn't be happier, but definitely not too cocky. Now it needs to translate into Orders at the hearing on Monday - hopefully the last so we can get on with our lives and continue to get prepared and excited for him starting Prep in January!

Speaking of which, today's excitement was receiving TheRatbags' class list, teacher and class room for next year. I've had him practicing his teacher's name and class name. He is very excited to have some of his friends from pre-school in his class, and also the prospect of meeting lots of new friends.

On this rainy day, I've spent it doing bits and bobs of housework, trying to keep TheRatbag entertained, and drafting legal documentation. Luckily, I actually LIKE drafting said corro, and I best get as much practice in considering my career goal is to become a kick-ass barrister! I will not be sorry to see the end of the process though personally, and I think my experience will bring empathy to the profession that someone who has not been through it cannot give.

Fast approaching 19 weeks and have my morphology scan this Saturday morning, I love seeing BellyBub so I'm looking forward to it.

18 Weeks

It's beginning to look alot like...well, you know.

Yesterday marked 1 December - the magical day that the Christmas tree gets put up, and we finally accept that it's happening all over again! Am I the only one who thinks that Christmas paraphernalia is creeping into stores earlier and earlier every year? It gets the kids all over excited way too early, and leaves me trying to explain that Santa isn't coming for a long time yet! I swear they do it just to cause us parents grief.

I took the kidlets for their Santa photo yesterday, here's the result:

I bought each of them an advent calendar, and while LittleMiss gets it, TheRatbag asked me at least 3 times if he could eat number 2 yet. *Sigh*

Then we put the Christmas tree up...

Voila!

I've noticed it lacks in the tinsel department compared to my friend's trees, but what it lacks in tinsel it makes up for in BOWS! Oh, how I love bows!!