Yes yes OK so I took a break at Xmas and it's gone on a little longer but here, I've been busy!.. no really busy!.. let me just catch you all up on a few bits.

So, most importantly bubs... nope not here yet!.. but we're one week away from the official due date, which is really just the medical professions bast guess, so we're officially due on good Friday. As it turns out, Doctors don't work on public holidays!.. I know, who new!?.. may be if they did the waiting lists would be shorter but there you go.

So we're going in this week to talk with the doc's while they are there for them to decide if junior should arrive before or after Easter, now from my other half's point of view, and I'm sure all mum's will agree, this is a stupid conversation to have to have, OF COURSE IT'S COMING BEFORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but we shall see, I just hope the doc explains their view point from a distance!

We're pretty much as ready now s you can be for a 1st child. We've got somewhere for jnr to sleep (got both a bassinet thingy that we can move around but will initially be in our room, got a cot for later down the road as well) we've got clothes aplenty. My mum has been knitting up a storm and shipping us over clothes parcels from Scotland. They are all very cool, it's been hard as we don't know if it's a boy or a girl so everyone is having to go whiles, lemons, creams, greens etc, Ang's mum here has done stuff as well, some fab booties and mits and hats etc... all very cool. We've also been buying a bunch of clothes as well and friends have given us some lovely stuff. Apparently with babies it's all about layers so these things will all be used, it's also about being able to get the clothes on and off with minimum fuss... so yes the ENGINEER in me kicks in with the hmm... the optimal design for clothes must be snappers at the bottom and up the legs, in fact why not just Velcro?.. I;m sure there will be lots and lots of pondering about this in the very near future (by pondering I mean rants, bu rants I of course me explosions of frustration... stay tuned!)

OK so what else, oh yes the pram, this we have, we got a Mountain Buggy which is a bit like  a transformer robot, you want a carry cot top bit, no bother snap here snap theye, fold this, done. Can't take it all in side, no worries it unclips and you can carry the cot, buggie? gain a couple of clips and off you go. We went for the Urban elitle version as it's got some extra sturdiness but it folds down into almost nothing and it does it easy. This is important when your wrestling with jnr in one arm and the pram in the other I think. From an Engineer point of view... it's fab, someone has obviously listened to a coffee group of mum's (from now on I have decided that 3 or more mums hall be called a coffee group as in a flock of birds, pride of lions, coffee group of Mums) and thought hmm..best we do what they want or we'll be beaten with our rulers and assorted engineering implements of which there are many. I'm also keen on it , it's got pneumatic tyres (a Scottish invention!) and it's all set up for me to take jnr on great walks / runs around the park when mum needs some time to herself or, I need some bubs time after a week of work.

The Car seat... man, is this an engineers nightmare area or what!.. I'm pretty sure when fellow engineers (Smurf & Christine will back me up I'm sure) they will definitely agree. So we took the decision to get a car seat with a base so you can put jnr in the seat and then just rop the seat intot he base o the car and easy in / out flow as it were. Plus you have the whole set of wheel attachments so you have this car seat that turns into a pram, very cool... but... like many things, not all car seats are made equal and I have to say I was pretty horrified.

They are all your std plastic mold, (actually mum's may want to just skip along a bit if they don't like geek talk) ok you need this to get a std shape and basic strength, then you've got your assorted fixings, some of which are moulded in and some appear to be bolt on as an after thought... when you put holes in plastic.. it's a weak point, unless it's been premoulded and strengthened... s that switched off 4 seats right away. After that I'm thinking padding, not just from comfort cos lets face it jnr will have 7 layers and a padded nappy on, they ill be fine, but from a safety point of view. Should the worst happen and some idiot hit your car (note that you are never the idiot, it's always going to be someone else... please see facebooks rage against the imbecil campaign for more details!) So you want to know that should jnr get a bit of a shake there is something there to pad them against the plastic mould... most seats appear to have a thing and I mean 2-5mm of foam beween the plastic and the outside cover of the seat, so they were all out... so now we're down to a couple, basically 2. One which had a base (the bit you fix in place) and one without. Both European brands... which was a surprise and a bit of ashame. You see n Aus it's the law that you need to tether the seat to the car, this involved bolts, straps and assorted accoutrement's to hold the chair in place and avoid it being moved in any direction during a crash, it's fantastic. Its optional in NZ although recommended... JUST MAKE IT A LAW not a kind of guideline(at this point I have Captain Jack Sparrow in my head telling me it's more of a guideline but we'll press on) The European one's dont have this feature but they do have massive amounts of padding the in multiple layers, layers are good when it comes to absorbing impacts.  So we didn't get a tether but it does have an extend-able foot that does to the floor of the car from the base unit so that it can't drop forward which I liked.  (mums come back please!) So lots of padding, a really easy to adjust 3 point harness (apparently there is a 5 point harness version for boy racers) and it's got a build in sun shade. Sunshades n NZ are important, we have a really hot sun, I know it sounds dumb but we have a thinner OZone here than you probably do so lots of UV and hence lots of sun burn and a very high skin cancer rate so sunshades are important.

We've also sorted out assorted mobiles for cots / change tables, a fantastic teddy that we had to buy as it's hypoallergenic (thought that was a super hero!) and a plethora of other baby things that I never knew existed but will no doubt understand and explore in the coming weeks.

So.. the utimate question really has been the nappy. Now we have a disposable nappy bin (one of a number of things we got off of trademe, a kiwi version of ebay), there are just lots of things you need to buy new, but the majority of things you really don't and I'm Scottish, my other half is an accountant... you do the maths!

So Nappies... we were both quite happy with the disposable options, roll it up and get rid of it quickly and with little or no risk of leaks or smells. Then we went to a 'educational' night about New Cloth Nappies (NCM's to those int he know). These are basically the love child of a disposable and cloth nappies. They look like disposables, they have velcro snaps, ok some of then have clicking snaps buttons, so they go on really easily - important when jnr wriggles a lot or tries to make a break for it and join the naked baby brigade. They appear to come in 2 options, all in one's which as the name suggest are all one nappy, eh?.. it's easier if I explain the 2nd type which are called pockets. So they look like a disposable nappy, but in side they have a cloth lining but inside this there is a pocket when you put more or less padding / absorbing material such as folded up nappy or bamboo - who knew you could make clothes and fabric from bamboo - very soft and very absorbent. So you stuff that with the required amount, more for night time to absorb more and less during the day. The all in 1's have this attached to it. These things then do everyhing that a disposable does but you just have to wash them. You can also put a liner in them should you want to when it comes to disposing of the smelly stuff. The best bit though is that they come in an whole range of assorted colours, patterns etc etc... I have already sourced a Tartan nappy... how cool is that!?... pictures will be available when we start using them.

So yes, we're going to give them a try, not so much for the whole environmental thing although it's quite nice to think that we wont be adding things that will never really breakdown to land ill, and yes I know you can get biodegradable ones but they cost a fortune... you know in this area the 'green' people and I'm getting greener as the years go on - i"m growing my own veges for a start!.. Anyway yes the 'green' people (and I'm counting you organics in here as wel) have got it wrong, almost anything green or organic is more flaming expensive.. usually by  a factor of 2... that's not going to encourage people to change, maybe if it was 5% more but 200% na... basic marketing, you can't even play the whole but your saving the planet thing as we'll be too poor to I've in it I don't think it'll be appealing.

No one of the appeals of the cloth ones really is that yes it's a bit of an initial outlay in $ but it's far far cheaper in the long run, even counting the washing and water use....

DIY wise we've got the room the jnr will have eventually all painted and the sun room that's attached to it, I've paint the outside tin roof that I have, the window ledges, the decks have been sanded back and re-stained, the ramp at the front of the house has been built (I got someone to do that I have to confess) doens't sound like a bit list really bit it's taken ages!

So basically.. I think we're about ready... now where is junior?