Pregmunity II

I've written about a pregnancy community before.  Pregnant women are instantly friends and instantly give help and advice to each other.  Women who have been though it - mothers - also want to speak others, about their experiences.  They even speak to me and are encouraged by my probably unexpected positive reactions.  

My belief about a pregmunity has been reinforced tonight.

Erin has just walked in from her pregnancy yoga class.  She has been to four sessions in all, but to this one only once before.  And she's come home with a bagful of newborn baby clothes.  The reason? Because last time she went she said that she didn't have her mum or sister close by. This person's sister-in-law had given her lots of things and she has more than enough so decided to give them to us.  She really didn't need to.  We have a good amount of things.  But it's the nicest thing in the world to be thought of.  

If it's you, and you ever read this, thank you very much.

The only problem is that one of the items is an Arsenal Football Club one piece (onesie).  Is that how they get so many fans?  I know I'm northern, but in London we don't even live north of the river.  No off-spring of mine... 

  

Made in China

Technically the baby wasn't made in China but like most goods these days it might as well contain the country's kite mark.

For those who don't know, Erin and I met in the middle kingdom and it has had quite an effect on our relationship and friendships.

One of these friendships we hold dear to us is with Joy (Zhang Jun) our Chinese language teacher in Cardiff.  Our lessons would usually turn from getting the correct stroke order of the characters to discussions about life (mainly in English), and since we left we've kept in touch as much as we can.  

When we called Joy to tell her that we're pregnant she said she would think of a Chinese name for the child.

She must have been excited about our news as when she got off the phone she put all her attention into the task.  When we visited her the other weekend she gave us a piece of paper with a few ideas on it.  She put our Chinese names together and came up with... Ai Jie. 

It means love and understanding. Erin's part is the love and mine the understanding.  I actually didn't know my name meant understanding, which doesn't bode well does it?  That said, we love it.  It's also gender neutral.  Pity we can't find a western name.

Erin throws a few out every now and again.  But we still haven't found a solid favourite.  So we might be using the Chinese one for the first few months.  Thank you, Chinese Godmother, Joy.

Life and death - a tribute to eight o clock

On Wednesday and Thursday night we called, sent emails and texts to people to let them know our news.

We talked about the scan, how it's been very difficult to keep the secret, when the due date is, where we're going to live in the future, if the baby will be English and the death of Eight O Clock and her chicken friends.

I'll explain.

Our friends Johnny and Jo and their two adorable children live in Cardiff in a beautiful cottage with everyone's dream garden.  In it is a tree house, adventure climbing frame, a never ending shed, and a chicken coup which houses four hens and three ducks.

Our conversation went something like:

Me: Hi Jo, it's Jason.

Jo: Oh hi Jase how are you?

Me: Very well thanks, you?

Jo: Er, not so great really.

Me: Why not?

Jo: Well, it's a bit superficial really, I'm all right I suppose.

Me:  No, go on. What's wrong?

Jo:  Well, a fox has killed all our animals.

Me:  What?

Jo: Yeah, it must have been last night and our garden just looks like a greek tragedy now.

Silence

Jo: So, no more Eight O Clock.

To explain, You couldn't have made up Eight O Clock.  He was the runt of the litter. A weird looking, bedraggled duck which strangely bossed all the animals around while simultaneously making humans fall in love with him. Nobody even thought, let alone mentioned orange sauce around him. 

Me: How have the kids taken it?

Jo:  Well, the eldest (who's 7) seems to be taking it in his stride and I'm sure will want to talk about it more in the next few days while the youngest(who's 3) keeps walking around shouting duck dead. Chicken dead. Duck dead, without any idea of what she's saying at all.  

She giggled then asked how I was.  I said something like, well from death to er, life.  Erin's expecting and she shrieked with Joy. 

Is this life going full circle? 

  

 

Text your name

I got a text on Thursday from Fred saying: 'Another name for you to consider. Paul.  Think about it.'

I don't think so.

Later on that evening Chris sent one saying: 'Off The Waller? or Berlin Waller?'

Random but brought a smile.  And nice to know that conversations can continue long after they started.

I don't think there are any more puns on my name.  And Fred seems to think Off The Waller was mentioned last Saturday. If there are any more we don't mind hearing them if you don't mind not being taken very seriously.