Have You Met My Husband?

Ever had the pleasure of meeting my man?  No?  Well you are missing out!  I realised that I don’t really post much about him on the bloggy wog, even though he manages to appear in most of the pictures!  (He has a very particular gift at this, I’m not kidding, I have to crop so many pictures to get him out of it.  He’s also made a random appearance in one of the blog posts that really should not have been there…  I’ll leave you to find that one.)

Besides the usual soppy stuff of him being a loving husband, hands on, caring father and great friend there are lots of other, dare I say – more interesting things that make up this man.  And I’m not only referring to his super fear of gecko’s that still makes me giggle.  He also has a remarkable sense of humour and a gift for song lyrics.  It’s not anyone that can hear the beginning of a song – that we all know – and start singing his own words, “when you’re driving with your shoelace”…  You probably know the words as, “when you’re standing with your suitcase”…  How gifted is this man.  How do the words even enter into his mind?  I can just picture him driving with a big shoelace in the passenger seat, with his arm casually draped over it’s shoulder humming the words to another song that he made up.  Unfortunately this is only one of the gems that I can remember, but there are new one’s every day.

There are not many people that I feel like I can truly be myself with, but when it comes to Seth, there is no other way you can be.  I mean really, I can’t leave him to be the only weirdo in the family…  This my friends, is a little of what I’m talking about…

For the most part we seem to be cut from the same cloth, so to speak – except my cloth was hidden from sunlight and his was more coffee stained.  We have the same view on most things, we react mostly the same in situations and generally we don’t have many areas that we don’t agree.  Sounds great right?  Or no, you are probably thinking that I am making this up, it’s not possible that it can be so perfect.  I agree.  Not that I’m making it up, but that I am not revealing the whole story.

For the fundamental issues we agree, wholeheartedly and without question.  But the small things…  Oh the small things…

In my opinion the most important thing in this phase of our lives, is that we make it out alive.  I’m not even kidding.  This parenting gig, although amazing, is flipping hard work.  Therefore, I do the necessary in order to maintain as much peace and order while actually enjoying a bit of life on the side too.

In Seth’s opinion (and I’m sure he’d shed so much more light on this topic) my views are great, but he wants to do that in a spotless house.  Yes, weirdly enough, SETH is the organised, clean freak and I’m the happy go lucky, leave the dishes unwashed and food on the counter type of girl!  Cue the shock, horror, disbelief…

There are many, many more ways that we differ.  But we were chatting about it the other night and this last one that I will mention is really a big one.  I am fast and he is slow.  Not slow in the head, but slow to do anything.  For example, this is how to make a bottle:

Cindy: Get bottles and pour in cooled boiled water from the kettle.  Put the kettle on to boil while putting together the teats and lid for the bottles.  Make sure the girls aren’t killing each other.  Come back, pour water into the bottle, add the formula, shake and impending crisis of tantrums avoided.  It takes maybe 5 minutes, if that.

Seth: Looks at the counter that the bottles should be prepared on.  Gets irritated, packs everything away and cleans it. Place bottles carefully so that the bottles are both perfectly facing you to avoid any potential mistakes.  Wonder how long the cold boiled water has been sitting in the kettle.  Contemplate buying a filter for the tap.  Pour in the water to exactly 140ml.  Pour out the 2mls too much.  Place the bottle on the table.  Refill the kettle and put on to boil.  Start looking around the kitchen at all the things that are irritating, contemplate how to go about fixing the blasted hole in the floor.  Decide to hate the house and give up.  Realise that the water is boiled when children start screaming for a bottle that they are still waiting for.  Pour in the boiling water to exactly 180ml, repeat step of pouring out excess.  Curse because now it is mildly too hot.  Get out the formula tin that was put away at the start of the process.  Get irritated that there is powder on the rim.  Carefully measure out each spoon of formula.  Wipe the rim clean before packing away in the cupboard again.  Remember to make up the teats and lids when finally hearing the screaming again.  Place lids on the teats, ensuring that the teat is in no way bent.  Shake well.  Shake some more.  Give it to the girls.  This whole episode could take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes depending on the state of the kitchen.

Don’t even get me started on making cereal for the girls…  Or even how he ensures that his socks are placed next to his shoes before he puts them on.  Making sure that they at not twisted around his foot in any way and that the toes and heel are properly fitted…  Before putting on the shoes…  Another mission.  Each shoelace needs to be perfectly even before it can be tied into a bow of perfection!

Keeping it interesting.