The Fortnightly Belly Show – Episode 2 (week 18) October 30, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Michele, Pregnancy.Tags: adamantium, belly, blouses, doncaster, maternity jeans, morning sickness, mutation, retractable claws, ripe maternity, second trimester, she-wolverine, size 8, superhero, vomiting, wolverine
add a comment
Hi, it’s time for another update on my wife’s beautiful belly.
Michele at Week 18 found herself at odds with the natural order of the second trimester. After going a few weeks without morning sickness, she has been vomiting on and off with no apparent trigger.
With her heightened sense of smell, Michele’s continued mutation into the superhero She-Wolverine is now clearly visible. Infuse her with an adamantium skeleton and retractable claws and I would have been living with a real-life mutant.
With a belly that is now clearly showing, She-Wolverine is now unable to fit into her size 8 clothing.
We popped over to Ripe Maternity in Doncaster (of all places!) and found half a dozen of beautiful blouses, maternity jeans and evening dresses. Yes, because my beautiful wife sees a reason to spend $100 on a dress she’ll wear just once before she pops.
I understand my wife, but I can’t understand women!!
Jokes aside, I’m glad she now has comfortable daily wear for work. Previously she had squirmed in her clothes; now she’s living in her own skin and proudly showing off her belly.
Toilet mannerisms October 29, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, Michele, To Start Off With.Tags: apricots, buttock, colombo, dunny, ethnicity, excrement, fart, fruit, laxative, marriage, pong, shit, spring, the holy grail, vegetable, Wedding, wedding vows
add a comment
Hello all, I hope you have been well.
I had the worst case of the runs two nights ago after consuming too many dried apricots (They’re so sweet and juicy!) during lunch. Somebody must have forgotten to tell me apricots have a laxative effect because I went through them like apricots were The Holy Grail of fruits.
Of course, not being much of a fruit person – I prefer vegetables – didn’t help as apples meant as much as an orange to me. They’re round and colourful. Ooh, can I throw it at someone?
So here I was, getting acquainted with the dunny. It was a warm Spring day so my bare buttock didn’t experience a cold jolt upon sitting on the seat.

With half a packet left; the fruit that started it all.
Armed with a laptop on my thighs and a fresh roll of toilet paper, it was all systems go.
The Fortnightly Belly Show – Episode 1 (week 16) October 19, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Michele, Pregnancy.Tags: belly, bruce beresford, clothes, fat, kitchen raids, mao's last dancer, maternity, morning sickness, second trimester, trimester, tummy line, womanly
add a comment
Why hello there. How was your weekend? Michele and I had an eventful weekend, visiting friends, did some maternity clothes shopping (thank you credit card) and caught the Bruce Beresford masterpiece, Mao’s Last Dancer.
Michele’s belly is really beginning to show now, so I’ve decided to take pictures of her every fortnight to chronicle her expanding – and very sexy – tummy line.
A profile picture I had put up on Facebook two weeks ago got more than its fair share of attention from friends and family, so I’ve decided to put that up as Michele’s first belly pic. Come to think of it, I reckon I look 16 weeks myself!
A tulip among the thorns… October 13, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Family Trip, Michele, Pregnancy.Tags: Baby, monbulk, tesselaar tulip festival, tulip, tulip festival
add a comment
Over the weekend, we took a break from the hustle and bustle of baby products shopping and made a detour to the Tesselaar Tulip Festival. Strangely enough, in spite of all the colourful blooms and tasteful delights, the most beautiful object that caught my fancy was a stunning woman who is the mother of my future baby.
Eat, sleep, drink, vomit, crack it. Rinse and repeat. September 21, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Baby, Life At Home, Michele, Pregnancy.Tags: Baby, bubba, folic acid, food cravings, kiddo, kitchen raids, lifestyle, mood swings, morning sickess, parenthood, preggers, pregnant, snacks, trimester, ultrasound, vomit, wife
1 comment so far
Hello everybody. I hope you are all well.
Michele is well and truly into her second trimester this month. 14 weeks and one day, to be precise.
This morning, she roused me from my wonderful sleep at 6AM with her Nokia alarm and said to me:
“Babe, could you iron my uniform for me?”
Silence.
Now when a man doesn’t answer his wife’s demands, it either means No, No or No. It’s just a man’s way of saying ‘No’. ‘No’, I don’t want to do it. ‘No’, it’s annoying when you ask me at odd times of the day and ‘No’ I won’t take the rubbish out either.

Rice crackers, Oreos, chocolate chip cookies...it's a pantry, not a bedside table!
Truth is Michele hates ironing, and I won’t turn to ironing any sooner than watching Australian Football, but hey if your pregnant wife wants something, she had better get it or she’ll crack it. As many married men would say, a happy wife is a happy life!
Since the joyful discovery of our impending parenthood, Michele and I have learnt to cope with physical and emotional changes that seem to plague all new parents. So many new feelings, hopes, fears and questions.
Is that going to be safe to eat? Would she be getting enough nutrients? How are we going to cope with our finances next year? You look ill, are you ill? Do you want to rest? Have you taken your folic acid? You just threw up again, have you taken more fluids?
Then there’s the changes in our lifestyle.
Apart from a belly that’s already beginning to show, Michele doesn’t look any bigger at all. Still my same, sexy babe :O However I find myself having to slow my walking pace to a crawl to accommodate her. With an additional six kilogrammes of weight and a little bubba sucking her life force out of her, Michele’s often out of breath and gets tired easily. And until we get ourselves a car (we’re probably the only Aussie family without a car, ever.), we’re resigned to travelling by foot or public transport. And that means more walking.
“We’re having a Baby!” – the discovery September 14, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Baby, Car, Life At Home, Michele, Pregnancy.Tags: charles darwin, conceive, having sex, married, mayan, melbourne, parenthood, pregnancy dance, pregnancy test kit, pregnant, sex, singapore, theory of evolution
add a comment

The magic P word that changed our lives forever.
Hello all. I hope you have been well.
It has been an incredible rush of happy emotions for Michele and I since we proudly announced our impending parenthood to all friends and family. Previously, only our immediate family was privy to the information and it cut us to no end every time we had to keep a straight face telling a white lie when we were asked if Michele is pregnant.
We have been flooded with messages and phone calls these few days and feel really blessed to have people who genuinely take interest in or care about us. In each and everyone of you, we trust and we thank. You guys are inextricably bounded to us and we hope to share every moment of our beautiful journey with everyone of you.
I thought I’ll reveal a little about the day we discovered the little bundle of joy.
It was on a cold, winter morning on July 22nd and a clearly frustrated Michele was peeing onto another pregnancy test kit. I say another we have been trying for a kid since right off the bat. Weeks turned into months and we began to fear the worst – Michele can’t conceive!
“We’re having a Baby!” – first ultrasound September 9, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Baby, Michele, Pregnancy.Tags: Baby, clinic, conceive, Pregnancy, pregnancy test, pregnant, ultrasound, we're having a baby
2 comments

Baby Marching Jester!
We’re having a baby!
Just short of our six months wedding anniversary, Michele and I are very happy to announce this wonderful news to all our friends and family.
We just got home from our first ultrasound earlier today to look at Baby. Mostly to check if Baby’s up and running, but mostly to see what the hell is causing Michele so much pain in the last seven weeks.
Of course, I’ve known of Michele’s pregnancy for awhile now. A convenient pregnancy kit was peed upon in the early morning of July 22 and it came out positive. We went down to our local clinic for a blood test, and it was good news all around.
But, it wouldn’t have made sense to talk about Baby without an ultrasound image. I was just glad to tell my family and in-laws that yes, it was a lot of hard work trying to conceive (serious!) and no, we probably timed it wrongly the first few months.
Baby is 12 weeks 3 days old today.
A new chapter of my life begins.
All Hail The Snow Virgin August 28, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Family Trip, Michele, To Start Off With.Tags: alpine, cost, drool, food, football, hiking, kids, lake mountain, melbourne, Mount Buller, mountain, newbies, sandpit, ski, snow, snow angel, snow god, snowboard, snowman, sports, spring, summer, tarago, toboggan, tots, victoria, virgin
add a comment

A special moment in my life...and I'm glad Michele was there with me.
Hello. I hope you have all been well.
Last weekend Michele and I, along with close friends and our new roomie embarked on an early morning road trip. The plan was to spend a day out in the snow, but really it was all about my desire to see snow. You see, until a week ago, I’ve never seen real snow in my life.
Three-and-a-half hours east of Melbourne sits Mount Buller, one of Australia’s premier ski destinations. None of us in the rented Tarago had any impressions of heading to Buller to ski, as between the seven of us we’d probably do good keeping our bottoms dry from the snow! I might be only one who hasn’t earned his Snow Stripes, but I’m in good company as the other six probably dusted off their stripes with much difficulty. Just as well!
Put it bluntly, Buller wasn’t our initial destination. As snow newbies, we were more than happy to play in the snow like little kids coked up on lollies and laughing without inhibitions or judgements. Had the Snow God smiled down on us, we’d have saved two hours of driving and headed to Lake Mountain instead. However, a peek at the Lake Mountain webcam indicated lush green fields (well, almost) and blooming fauna. Ideal for your spring/summer hiking trip, but not favourable if you want to see snow.
When in July, we fully comply. August 2, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, Michele, Wedding.Tags: baby bonus, driving instructor, driving lessons, driving test, hazard perception test, hungarian, L's, MIL, mother in law, photography, top ten, vicroads, wedding album, wedding anniversary, zita kiss
add a comment
Hello everybody. I hope you are all well.
My mother-in-law (MIL), who calls us very too often, casually congratulated Michele and me on our fourth month anniversary while speaking with Michele last month. What do you know, the people who really ought to be keeping tabs on the relationship i.e us completely forgot our special day.
It’s perfectly within reason to understand how parents remember little things like these but I had to laugh at MIL’s timing. Four month anniversary? If an award was given out to Silliest but Cute Anniversary Reminder this would be somewhere in the Top Ten.
But it also serves to remind Michele and me how time just passed us by and the hustle and bustle of the 12 months leading up to our special day is now truly behind us. So much so I kind of miss it. But don’t tell anyone I said that. :O
Cleaning! Oh joy. June 23, 2009
Posted by themarchingjester in Life At Home, Michele, Toby.Tags: better, cairns, clean, cleaning, clutter, dishes, dog, food, foreplay, gardens, ground zero, homes, house, husband, kitchen, laundry, location, married, poodle, property, routine, sexual, shopping, solitude, Toby, vacuum, wife, window, work
1 comment so far
Hello. I hope you are well.
Michele has gone away to Cairns for the week. Duty calls and work beckons. Just when Toby and me were resigned to a week of lonely solitude, good noise turned up.
Friends of ours came over the weekend for boardgames and meals. It has been a long time since we’ve had visitors coming over for boardgames. It was something Michele and me used to do a lot of, but it got really quiet after Christmas, when the furore of the wedding caught up with us.
After our friends left, I took the vacuum cleaner out, gave the house a nice wipe down and sat down in front of the telly. Then it struck me.
If I was still single, the idea of taking time off to clean the house – time that could be spent leveling up my character on *insert RPG/FPS game* – was preposterous.
Living with your wife means lots of compromises, and one of them was sticking to a schedule. We agreed to clean the house every weekend, and if the buzz of life renders us a little fatigued, we will do the next weekend.

