Baby, It's You ...

and you and you and you ... so many babies being born over the last few weeks, so many birthday parties lately. I say Hurrah!! More cake, please ...

I've been off the air, blog-wise, for a few weeks now. We've been doing stuff around here, believe me. Nothing Big and Important, but stuff nonetheless. Here's a smattering to catch up with ...

• the world's greatest nephew, Harper G-Ray, turned two and there was a party to celebrate. I made a cake. Not wanting to toot my own horn, but it was terrific;
• the neighbours came over for dinner. Sweeney nearly lost his mind with glee at having Frank and Arthur in his house;
• Sweeney slipped on a banana peel - yes, really - while goofing off on the stairs and tipped over the edge, falling five feet to the concrete floor below. All turned out well, but there was an ambulance and a trip to ED and a scan and parental gastric reflux and a day of watching him closely for wonkiness before I was sure that it had all turned out well;
• I made some wee socks for my friend Girlie's baby, who's due in May;
• I cooked macaroni cheese approximately twelve hundred times. Or maybe it just felt like that;
• an enormous truck with a digger on it went down our street yesterday morning. I've never seen so many little boys out on the street at 7am before;
• I found a shop near my work that makes the most splendid apple slice, so to celebrate, I ate one every work day for three weeks. I think that may have been partly responsible for the devastating experience I had on Saturday with my favourite jeans;
• we went to watch the skateboarding champs last Friday;
• I had the least enjoyable dinner of my life at Wagamama. The food, staff, service were fantastic. The crowds walking past us in their Sevens costumes were hilarious. The weather was perfect for sitting outside with the nice people we were eating with. Sweeney, Bela and Harper running away and looking like they were about to jump in the harbour every twenty seconds was irritating and terrifying in equal amounts;
• Sweeney and Bela danced all through the outdoors area at One Red Dog on the waterfront. Definitely redeemed them after the Wagamama fiasco. The dj was clearly mortified that the preschoolers were the only people he was getting moving, though;
• We went to the Sevens for a few hours. Sweeney dressed as Spiderman and rolled with the bunches of Mickey Mouses, sexy french maids, buzzy bees, blood-spattered surgeons and even a few real policemen. He lost his cool when the Big Bad Wolf had to remove his bonnet so it could be checked for beer smuggling. Too weird, I guess. Oh, and there was some rugby ...;
• I was beyond chuffed to hear that our neighbours across the road, Kate and JB, are having a baby;
• We went to Dom & Emma's barbecue, and caught up with their fine selves, as well as more O'Neills. Sweeney played cricket with JJ and Dom, although he has his own view of the rules;
• I watched 30 Rock lots, and some Molly Ringwald movies. And grew kind of fond of Imagination Movers from the next room;
• I made my lunch every day to take to work until today, when I met up with my friend Lance and we bought lunch;
• Sweeney went on a road trip with his uncle Ben. Long story short, they ended up in Waikanae, met up with their cousin Vanessa for lunch, and everyone had a really good time.

In other news, I can't keep away from other news at the moment. I don't know why I do it, but it's compulsive right now. All those dead kids, all that animal cruelty, our terrible government slashing funding for education and health, privatising prisons, toughening an already dehumanised ACC and social welfare system, and now ... Radio New Zealand. Political broadcast coming up right about now ...

The government want to leave funding right where it is for the rest of time, and there's an idea that the All Night program could be cancelled - what the?? That program kept us going when Sweeney was teensy tiny and up at night, every night. And more importantly, the months before he was born, when he'd rumpus in my belly and I'd lie awake worrying about how to stay awake at work the next day. Phil O'Brien reading the long-range marine forecast was ambrosia for my ears.

When Sweeney's Grandad wondered what to buy for Sweeney's last Christmas, he tuned into a review of kids' books on the National Programme and was turned onto Wonky Donkey. Kim Hill's interview with Jarvis Cocker. All of the amazing programming that my clever-clogs friend Liisa is responsible for. Humphrey Hewitt.

So, booo hisss!!! National Party and all your cohorts ...