Sunday 10 January 2010

Mentally Pregnant: Adventures of the Unborn - Part 1

So, my hubby and me have talked about our hypothetical first-born male, Lenny, for more than three years now. Before you congratulate me: nope, we're not anywhere near pregnant, except mentally of course. What if the actual Lenny turns out to be a a first-born female? Well, we'll just call her Leoni or Eleonor or Helena or something, so we can still call her Lenny as a nickname. Who cares that the other kids will think she's a freak? That'll only make her tougher.
Anyway, whenever we go to a place of interest or play a good board game, the husband says "We have to come here with Lenny." or "We can play that with Lenny." I suppose by the time he finally does get born (2011, biology allowing), he'll have had so many adventures that he'll be quite exhausted.
Well, today I went swimming while the hubby went to the cinema. While I was swimming, I thought about Lenny and me having coffee with my tutor (not a very likely scenario). First this brought up the question of whether Lenny should call my tutor "Sir" or by his first name. My colleague/ friend Rubén and me call him "Sir", but actually we're supposed to call him Keith. "Lenny, be nice and say hello to Sir.". Then, Lenny didn't want to eat the sandwich (or butty) that his father had lovingly prepared for him with his own clumsy hands. So I said to him "Daddy has made such a nice butty for you. He'll be really sad, if you don't eat it." "Bah, I don't want me butty." "Right, mummy will eat your butty then." So I ate up the whole 'butty', after which Lenny shouted for cake. Now, if we had had coffee with Rubén, I would have used this as an opportunity to practice Spanish with poor two-year-old Lenny, threatening that Rubén would eat the sandwich if Lenny didn't want it: "Si no quieres tu bocadillo, Rubén va a comerlo." This brings up the question of whether to call guy friends "Uncle". My mum always hated that kind of thing and never taught us to call her friends "Uncle" and "Aunt", but I rather like the sound of "Uncle Rubén".... Also, should it be "Mummy wants to read her book now." or "I want to read my book now." and "Would Lenny like a butty?" or "Would you like a butty?"?
By the way, today Lenny had dark blond curly hair, greenish eyes and a pot belly. But probably he'll have black eyes and brushy brown hair like his dad next time.
Later on, I told the not-yet-prospective father about it when we had coffee at Neros.
Me: "I thought of Lenny today. He didn't want to eat his butty, so I ate it."
Husband: "And I bet he shouted for cake afterwards."
Me: "How did you know that?"
Husband: *meaningful look*
Me (thinking that this is totally unfair, because I never refuse to eat my sandwich and than shout for a treat, so this can't be because Lenny takes after me in any manner): "Well, did YOU never shout for cake?"
Husband (1.93 metres/ 6'3", 66kg/ 10st 5.5lb; also known as the living calorie-to-height-conversion-engine): "I always ate my butty and my cake!"

As my best friend tactfully said: "Lenny will have a fat arse and a big mop of hair like you ["Woooosh!", indicating a huge halo of hair around her head], and long arms and black eyes like the hubby." Well, if he has my Stone Age genes (put on weight while food is available, the next famine is around the corner), but his dad's appetite, I'm afraid she's right about the fat arse.... Daddy has just eaten his butty and is starting to cook dinner now.