Uhg my sister annoys the crap out of me!!! Just now I mentioned to her that Obi can get his NSW driver's license this month (which means I can finally drive with him in the car, I'm on my L) and she gives me this lecture about how I shouldn't be so confident in myself learning how to drive and passing. She reckons my attitude towards driving is "nothing short of scary", because I'm not worried about my ability. I've driven before, though not much, I know the road rules, I know how to work the car - I just need time to build skills and pull it all together. Furthermore, I have a full rider's license - that I passed on the first go. I have no reason to think I can't pick up this skill (especially since our car is automatic. Any idiot can drive an auto.) and yet she's lecturing me that "even communism works in theory"?
Meanwhile she's on her L as well, and is often a dangerous angry driver because she has zero confidence. Once on a drive down the coast she couldn't stop shaking and had to change drivers because she couldn't handle the pressure of Isis being in the car with her. She was also the driver in a major accident (unlicensed) when we were younger... Yet she's lecturing me?!
It only makes me more determined to master this shit and prove her wrong.

Anyway that was going to be a what's on your mind post and this blog was going to be about baby names (you can all blame Mlle) but it got long so I bought it here with me. Grrrrrrrrrr Ok, glad I let that out.

So baby names. We don't have any boy ones. We had agreed on one when in Canada, Freyr, but when I added it to our list of discussion, Obi was quick to cross it off. It is a very easy to taunt name too. He liked Callum, but I just don't feel it and it clashes with our last name. Also, Callum Matthew is stupidly long. (Matthew is a family name)

All the names I loved are now in the top 100, or in the top 20 for popularity. Every other little boy coming through my checkout is Lochlan.

I like Dashel and Chase, but movement names probably don't go so great with Cumming if you think about it.

I like different names, preferably with a pagan feel, and really, I've got nothing. I'll probably eat my words here, but I think I'm having a girl anyway.

For girl names, if I couldn't have Freyr, I wanted Freya for a girl. That got the veto too, I imagine for the same reasons. But I can deal. I fell in love with the name when I saw it on a friend-of-a-friend's facebook photo, but I haven't been obsessed with it since childhood or anything.

Thinking of which, I always laugh when girls say "I'm naming my kids this..." because it just doesn't work like that. I had a lot of names I loved that there was no way Obi was ever going to let me use.

I do wish he'd put forth a few suggestions of his own that I could think about... because I can't stop thinking about it!

This past week I had massive came-home-from-work-crying pain, so we ended up getting an ultrasound to make sure everything was fine. Though they have not figured out what's wrong with me, the fetus alien turtle baby is fine. Huge, but fine. Seeing it's little heartbeat was reassuring! But now I just have all these "get prepared!" hormones and nothing to express them on.

Thinking of expressing, Obi's parents are trying to figure out when they want to come back down for a visit. They like trading a few weeks of their stupidly long winter for a bit of our summer, so were thinking January again, but there's a good chance little turtle and I won't make Amanda's wedding, so they are thinking of coming to Oz after that to meet the baby instead, except they'd miss most of their stupidly short summer and they don't want to do that. Anyway, the point of telling you that was because Obi laid down the law about how they are not staying with us if we are still in our tiny unit. His dad put up a fight, but he didn't back down. I'm very proud to hear it. And relieved. Because dear lord!

Thinking of annoying people my sister is going all out tonight. You'd think Isis was her kid, with her telling me how Isis is going to be. I mentioned wanting to enjoy the last few months of just having Isis to love wholly with my undivided attention, and how Isis has been getting jealous lately when Dustin and I cuddle and such. She starts going on about how Isis won't have any jealousy issues because she didn't and how she'll be the best ever big sister... and I'm just... go away. You don't get it at all. Just because both of them are the same starsign (Bec and I are both big on starsigns) and my daughters will be the same age apart her and I are, doesn't mean it will be all exactly the same.
Additionally - and I'm sorry dog lovers but I have to vent it - your dogs are not the same as having human children. I don't deny there are similarities. But just because your adult dog learned to love the puppy you bought home does not mean my human children are going to be the same and does not qualify you to give me parenting advice that I didn't ask for. Just like Daunted says: It's like playing chess with someone who's playing checkers.

I've got to stop being so mean. I know it. People are just trying to be nice. I should be nice too.

So I heard the name Zola for the first time the other night. On pinterest, of all places. I think I like it. I might suggest it when my piece of paper comes back and all my names have been crossed out. It means "Earth".

I'm all over the shop tonight.

I'll leave you with this story of love:
We have community clothes lines for these units. I always hang the small clothes near the back by the wall. 1) so clothes don't rub against the wall when the wind blows and 2) because I don't like my 100 year old knickers to be on display.
Obi never pegged a thing on the line in his life before I dragged him to Oz, so it's been a learning curve, but one thing he hasn't gotten is peg conservation: every article must have two pegs, no matter how small, unless it's a sock and then they all have individual pegs in a neat OCD row. Unlike when I do it, where small articles are pegged together, (socks, my undies, baby singlets etc,) or with only one peg (his undies. Coz his arse is bigger than mine haha).
Anyway so one day I mentioned these things to Obi, particularly about not hanging my grungy granny knickers at the front of the line (if he's going to do that he should buy me something nice!) and how my undies don't really need two pegs because my butt isn't that big.

Well, I know he listened.

The other day I was taking down the clothes, and on the back line was a pair of my sad old undies.... with six pegs holding it to the line. I will get him back for this.
It is true love.