Some people were mistaken by my last update, which was titled ‘A new face in the house’. They thought that we had received our kitten  (that we intended to get shortly after our honeymoon) or even that we would be expecting a baby !!??

I have to admit that I really was trying to fool people into thinking that with such a title, and this time is no exception with another ambiguous title. Or maybe it is an exception, cause this time it is true !!

Indeed shortly after our honeymoon (April 2000) we got in contact with a breeder to see when a kitten would be available. After some deliberation we had decided that we wanted a thoroughbred cat, rather than a moggie. A Blue Russian to be precise, beautiful cats that are good with family (for the future), can look after themselves all day (when we’re working), are indoors (we have a few busy roads in the are) and are just very cute.

Unfortunately the breeder had a ‘space’ in his breeding and our kitten wasn’t actually born until late September. Which means that we still haven’t got it as it needs to be 12 weeks old. But we did go and visit it a few weeks ago. It had only just opened her eyes and was starting to explore and play with her brother (also blue) and sister (a Black Russian). A month more to go, so it will be an (early) Christmas present.

Another thing that we have to wait for, but is already present, is our baby ! Yes, indeed, Lisa is over 20 weeks pregnant and we expect our baby on March 17. The first couple of months were quite hard as she was morning sick all through the day. She still has some bad days, but fortunately it is not as frequent anymore. Because of the illness at first, she started loosing weight, but lately the baby has undergone a growth spurt and regularly she can feel it move inside.

I keep referring to the baby as ‘it’. We’ve had various visits to the doctor, tests and ultrasounds. Thus we know the sex of the baby, but we have decided to keep it to ourselves (at least for the moment), it is too much fun seeing everyone trying to guess. BTW: all tests so far indicate a healthy baby.

So with all these new family-members joining, a lot of things need to change. I don’t even want to mention all the cat-accessories and baby-stuff that needs to be purchased, but what we have changed is our transportation.

I already mentioned that the Neon turned out to be an expensive car when it would come to parts and repairs. So we intended to trade it in, before it would go out of warranty (it was from November 1997). Deciding on a locally made car, of family-size and preferably a station wagon, choices were limited. After a first failed attempt (the salesmen tried to sell us a new car and on top of that offered a ridiculous low trade-in value) we found a 1-year old car with only 24.000 kilometres.

It’s a Holden Commodore VT Series II Station Wagon, complete with luggage rack, so now I feel a real family man when I’m driving it. A 3.8 litre gas-guzzling engine gives it plenty of power though.

We had to use to extra space in the back when we transported Lisa’s birthday gift. Some time ago when we purchased our new buffet (or chiffonier), Lisa saw a rocking chair (or actually a gliding chair as it doesn’t rock). By stealth I had managed to purchase it and luring her into the showroom by promising to look at baby-furniture, we suddenly ended up lifting the chair in the back of the car.

I think that is plenty to tell for now. More information on the baby, the kitten and the car (with photo’s and all) can be found on our web-page.

There are plenty of other things going on: I’m in the middle of a large project for work, I’m writing this on a new computer, we put reticulation in our backyard and are mulching it (for efficient watering over the coming summer), we lived through the Olympics (with all those Dutch successes) and Paralympics etc.etc. I promise I will there some more about that (as well as the arrival of our kitten and Lisa’s pregnancy progress) at the end of the year (either just before or after the holidays).

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