the sound of green

Thursday mornings are quiet in the office. There’s one or two other guys in here at 7:30am, both of whom are already into their breakfast and internet foraging start to the day. My box of cereal is empty in the cupboard, and a replacement has skipped my mind for the past two days in a row; my best thinking isn’t necessarily done on the 7am drive to work. Thankfully there’s a cafe right next door, that serve fantastic ham, cheese and tomato toasties in the mornings, and my growling stomach will soon be appeased.

With my laptop plugged into the second monitor, and headphones and mouse at the ready, I begin to wade through the tide of my morning online routine. Gush, Gmail, Google Reader, Twitter, Facebook. For the first time since Tuesday, the wave of congratulations has stemmed for the moment, though I’m sure it will continue to flow on as we see people in person for the first time since the news was broken. Tuesday night was crazy though, as we both sat at our computers at one stage, watching notifications appear in real time. By the time we’d read another message, three or four more would be there waiting for us. It was exciting, and a fantastic response from everyone. But life goes on. There’s work to be done, websites to be updated, photos to be taken, estimates to produce.

Our (second) newest housemate turns one today. It’s hard to believe that a year ago, we made the trip to hospital to visit the newborn, and these days he’s getting dangerously close to standing up by himself and walking. He’s having a birthday party this afternoon, where it’s a distinct possibility that his dad and I will be the only males over the age of 3. On top of that, there’s baby gear to decide upon and buy, people to visit and show off ultrasound pictures to, photography estimates to produce, weddings to shoot, full-time work to do, and the general busyness of life.

Life goes on, but things have changed. The excitement is no longer something that I have to hide. I can proudly proclaim it everywhere now, that I’m going to be a Dad! No more checking over my shoulder before googling something baby-related. No more going to an unoccupied part of the office to make a phone call that is about the baby. No more not wanting to see people for fear of blurting the news to them unintentionally. Life goes on, but we can can now share this next part of it with everyone else.

It’s been a long time since I’ve blogged anything of any form of worth, but there has been a semi-valid reason for it. Earlier today we finally let the good news out that Beth and I are expecting our first kid, due early May 2010. It’s something that has been brewing for not just the past 12 weeks, but for a few months prior as well. It’s been something that’s been taking up a fair bit of my headspace – yet it was something we decided early on to keep to ourselves.

It’s a life-changing thing we’re facing. Everything from this point onwards changes – our plans, decisions, actions all now include another life. I’m now responsible for another person; Beth and I now have the task of raising from scratch a new person. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was daunting, but it’s oh-so-exciting at the same time. This is something I’ve wanted since around the time I came of responsible age, and now it’s finally here.

I’ve wanted to share things over the past several weeks, but haven’t as we kept things quiet. Now that things are out in the open, I’m hoping that it’ll be somewhat of a catalyst to get me writing and posting a bit more. Beth has a pregnancy journal that she writes things in each week, observations about herself, the baby, how everything is going. This may be something of my journal, a place for me to record things as they happen. And then, in May, to celebrate the new member of our family. I promise I’m not going to make an instantaneous transformation into a daddy-blogger. There’s still a lot of other things on my and our plates – work, photography, holidays, being an Aunty and Uncle in January, and house-mates to a set of twins in March to name a few. But with this being one of the biggest changes in my life, how can I not share about it?

I’m back. That much I know!

Today’s our Two Year Wedding Anniversary, and we got the best present we could have possibly gotten – a look at our 12 week old baby!

It’s been tough keeping it a secret, especially when we had our first “12 week” scan which actually placed us at 10 weeks, but we’ve finally made it to today – 12 weeks and 4 days.

We’re due early May 2010, so things will be ramping up between now and then. But for now, we’re just savouring the moment!

Dark and brooding just didn’t quite do it for me.

I’ve had this idea in my mind for a while now, the outline of our family. Originally it was supposed to be used as more of a watermark down the page, but alas my WordPress butchering skills do not extend that far, to being able to create a background image that scrolls with you. Alas.

That said, I’m incredibly happy with how it’s turned out. It’s become a nice minimalist theme, And I think it works rather well. Next time, I’m not doing anything like this with the scroll wheel not working so much in my Mighty Mouse. I’m thinking perhaps it’s time for a Magic Mouse…