Jingle balls, jingle balls.....

For the past couple of weeks we have seen this reindeer blow up in the front lawn of a house that we pass on the walk to school. Perhaps it is just my mind that is in the gutter, but every single time I looked at this, my eyes went right to the berries....

Short lived happy dance.

This morning I was doing the "I'm done my shopping" happy dance. No more malls, no more crowds, no more crap. Well, I just got an e-mail from Amazon.ca, telling me that my items that were supposed to arrive within the next day or two won't be shipped until FEBRUARY. Shit. The dance was short lived. Somehow I should have known this would happen.

What do they DO at school????

Renee has been sick. All month. Between teething, croup, a couple of nasty colds and fevers I am surprised we are both able to function. I KNOW she is functioning because my toothless nine month old is pulling herself up on things and figuring out how to climb stairs. My gummy wonder will be walking before she has teeth.

I don't ever remember the boys being this sick for such a long time. I remember the odd cold and teething pains with the occasional bout of croup, but nothing as bad as poor Renee has had to deal with. This lack of sleep is turning me into one bitchy momma. At least when I had one sick baby I could nap in the afternoon. Now if I fall asleep I am likely to wake up from my slumber with my face decorated with non-toxic marker.

So this has made me wonder why Renee? The only thing that I can come up with is that Ethan and Nicholas spend their time at school licking all their friends and happily sharing the nasties they bring home with their baby sister.

I rock...yeah right.

So much for posting every day for the month of November. I suck. However, this couple rocks - this has been making the rounds on YouTube and Facebook - I wish I'd thought of it first. Enjoy!

Just about the smartest 8 month old EVER!

We just got back from a road trip to Portland. Yes, we drove 7 hours each way with a baby in the car so we could SHOP. On the way home I sat in the back of the mini-van to entertain Renee. But as you can see, she did all the entertaining.....


Peek-a-boo! from anna on Vimeo.

Why?

Why does my husband insist on buying Halloween candy at Costco in September?
Why do we go through more than one box of said candy before Oct 31st?
Why did we only get three kids this year?
Someone is testing my will - and I am losing big time. I was actually going to count how many of those tiny bars of chocolaty goodness I eat in one day, but decided not to because really, I don't think I want to know.

I think I'll be hitting the pool tonight.

Random shots from today.

Here are some of the reasons I love this time of year....

Public service announcement

In the past month there has been some traffic to this blog from people googling "haircuts". More specifically, this post has come up when people have googled the following:

MOM HAIR CUTS
plagiocephaly haircut
haircuts for one year old boys
kid haircut vancouver bc
haircuts for young boys
mommy haircuts
children haircuts in vancouver bc
children haircut vancouver
children's haircut west vancouver bc


Of course I am probably just going to increase traffic because of this post, so as a service to you I am going to share with you my secret of a great kids haircut. I have found that the local barber has been the best for my boys. I did take them to my hairdresser once, and I would go back to her with my kids in a heartbeat if she didn't book three months in advance (!!!!) and wasn't a half hour drive away.

I used to take the boys to the fancy kid places that charged an arm and a leg, and yes the cars were cool and the kids were entertained, but more often than not my kids looked like they had a fight with the weed wacker when they got out of there....

As for Renee, I am not sure what I am going to do with her yet - I am not sure if the barber will be the best option, but when she is ready for a haircut, we'll probably try them out first.

My degree is FINALLY good for something.

When I graduated from University in 1994, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life. Fresh out of school with a biology degree, I soon learned that in order to get a great paying job, I needed more schooling. All of my close friends that I graduated with went on to further their educations and deplete their bank accounts.

After farting around for awhile and doing a bit of travelling overseas, I finally decided that I should grow up and figure out what I wanted to do in life. So I went to a technical school, got a diploma in safety, and started my crusade to make everyone's world a safe one. That lasted until Ethan was born, and after my year of maternity leave I went back to work. The small wrinkle in the whole plan was that in order to make the world safe, I had to be ready and willing to travel at a moment's notice (which doesn't work well when you have a baby) and I had just got to a point where I was burning out and needed to find another avenue in the job department. Luckily I was able to do a new job that I really enjoyed, and I have yet to be sick of it (maybe that is because in the last 5 years of being in this job, I have been off work for about 2.5 years for maternity leave!).

Up until very recently, my biology degree hasn't been of much use. However, now that I have boys I am finding it is coming in very handy when we talk about trees, bugs and birds.

We have a beautiful backyard, and are fortunate to have a variety of wildlife. The other day I was sitting on the deck with the boys and we were identifying different birds in the yard. When I was an undergrad, one of my electives was a birdwatching course and I actually learned a thing or two. My trusty Peterson Field Guide has come in very handy, so when we see a bird, the boys want to see where it is in the book. Of course to hold their interest, I also use my "What bird did THAT" book which outlines in great detail what the shit of different birds looks like when it hits a windshield. Since my boys are obsessed with all things poop, burps and farts, this is right up their alley.

Christmas cards

I took a card class this morning with a couple of friends - and this is the result. These cards aren't too fancy, the idea is that you could do a whole bunch to send to friends and stuff. My friends won't be getting these for Christmas though - I think I'll stick to the tried and true family photo montage.

The sneaky mommy.

A couple of weeks ago I tuned into Oprah when Jessica Seinfeld was promoting her new book "Deceptively Delicious".



The premise of the book is sneaking in various items to your meals that your kids won't normally eat. Since Nicholas is a very picky eater, I thought it might be worth it to order the book. Nicholas still won't eat meat, eggs, cheese, fish....the list goes on. He does eat alot of healthy stuff though - whole grains, fruits, some veggies, flax, milk, yoghurt and nuts to name a few. I figured any new ideas I could get would be great.

When I was online ordering, I decided that to save on shipping costs, I'd also purchase "The Sneaky Chef"



I thought that I'd get two books with great ideas of how to make better meals for my kids. After having a better look at both books, it was surprising to see that alot of the recipies are quite similar. Since I have bought the books, I have discovered that there has been alot of activity in the blogging world discussing how Jessica ripped of Missy. Interesting stuff. Personally I really like Missy's book and have used it much more than Jessica's. Nicholas is a big fan of the sneaky chef's chocolate chip cookies (made with pureed chickpeas). Jessica's recipe is very similar, but with whole chickpeas (which wouldn't work in this house).

In addition to the cookies, I have also made both author's recipies for brownies (Jessica's has spinach and carrots in it, Missy's has spinach and blueberries). Nicholas took one bite of Jessica's and said they tasted funny, but he did eat Missy's with little complaint (he does love blueberries, so that may have something to do with it). So I guess in this house the jury has concluded that Missy beats Jessica.

NaBloPoMo

Well it is here, National Blog Posting Month. Which pretty much means that if I am up to it, I post something EVERY DAY. Not too sure if I can do it, but it can't be any worse than say eating the 200 or so candies that we have lying around the house because we were TOLD to expect huge numbers for Halloween, but we only got THREE kids. If I do a post for every time I feel the urge to eat chocolate, I'll have multiple posts per day, and I may get skinny.

Wish me luck.

Out of the mouths of kids - part two.

When we bought this house at the beginning of the year, one of the things we knew we would have to do was get the roof replaced. So for the past two weeks, we have had roofers here during the times it hasn't been raining - and since we are in Vancouver, they are here about once day per week. At the rate these guys are going, I think that they will still be putting on the new roof a couple of months from now, and I may just have to invite them for Christmas dinner.

One day last week as I was leaving the house I was trying to be extra careful as there were cedar shingles strewn all over the driveway from the old roof that the guys were removing. I had Renee in her carseat and I was holding Nicholas' hand trying to make sure that he navigated the mess without too much trouble. Unfortunately, I wasn't watching myself too closely and I stepped on a nail that went right through my shoe and into my foot. So off to the doctor I went, with all three kids in tow, and got my tetanus shot and a week's worth of antibiotics.

That night as Nicholas get his pajamas on he got his foot caught. "Jesus C****t", he said. Ken stopped in the doorway, turned around and said "Nicholas, where did you hear that?". "That is what mommy said when the nail went into her foot". So Ken came downstairs and told me what happened. I figured that since I had only said it once, and if we don't over-react when he says it, hopefully he will forget it and keep his mouth shut.

Fast forward a few days. Nicholas is playing with my dad in our rec room. I get home from running some errands and ask how things went. Dad tells me that Nicholas is quite good at balancing on the furniture. He proceeds to describe a game they were playing where Nicholas climbs up one side of the couch, walks across the top and jumps off the end. After about the fifth time of doing this (!!!!) he stubbed his toe. So my dad tells him to put a pillow on the floor and aim for that. So he does. And misses. And says as clear as day "Jesus C****t!!!". Dad says it is one of those times that you want to burst out laughing but you can't. So he tells Nicholas that isn't a nice word. Nicholas goes up on the couch again, jumps, misses and cusses. So my dad tells him to say Geronimo instead. So once again, Nicholas balances on the couch (did I ever mention that safety is my background???) jumps off, and says "geron....geromemee....geronmoo....oh Jesus C*****!!!!".

Out of the mouths of kids...

This year "back to school" was quite a time in our house - Ethan started kindergarten, and Nicholas started preschool.

On Ethan's first day, he was so excited and couldn't wait to meet all his "new friends" and play with all the toys. Since we just moved into the area where we are now, we didn't know anyone at the school, and since Ethan is my oldest, I didn't really know what to expect.

Well, that first day consisted of going to school, staying for about 10 minutes to take attendance, and then leave. Ethan promptly told me after that episode that he would like to go back to preschool and that kindergarten pretty much sucked (well he didn't exactly say that, but it is what he meant).

As the week went on, kindergarten was one hour per day. Just enough time for him to be convinced that school was pretty cool, and as long as he got to play it was all good. One hour wasn't quite long enough for us to go back home though, so when Ethan was at school, Nicholas and I went for long walks to kill time until we had to pick him up. We are lucky that the school is close to a big forest and a good sized lake, so we would walk around those areas and explore.

One morning, we came across a man walking his weiner dog. Nicholas was in love. "Look at that puppy mommy" he yelled at me as he ran towards the poor terrified dog to give him a cuddle (we are working on the whole asking-the-owner-if-we-can-touch-the-dog thing, but Nicholas usually forgets until he is just about on top of the poor terrified animal). Luckily this dog didn't freak out, but she wasn't overly interested in Nicholas and just wanted to get on with her walk. Unfortunately for her, the owner was only too happy to talk to Nicholas.

After a few minutes, Nicholas thanked the man for letting him pet his puppy. The owner then told Nicholas that the dog wasn't a puppy at all, since she was 8 years old she was an "old lady". Nicholas gave the dog a snuggle and we were off.

A few minutes later, a woman was walking towards us with her small dog. Nicholas in his best three-year-old voice (with no volume control) yelled out "hey mom, look at that old lady"! Of course he meant the dog, but she didn't know that. She just gave me a dirty look, muttered something under her breath and stormed past us. Honestly, I was just barely able to keep it all in with out exploding into fits of laughter.

Happy sack and man tubes - part deux

Yesterday was a big day in our house. It was the official event marking the end of ever having another child (well, I guess it is official when Ken is confirmed to be shooting blanks).

I wrote about his consultation for the snip way back in October of 2005. Yes, it was almost TWO years ago that he went in, talked to the doc, and picked up the infamous bag of recovery goodies that would help him through this very trying and traumatic event. Note the sarcasm from a woman who has given birth three times with no drugs, and nothing more than a couple of expired extra strength tylenols to take home after delivery. I am thankful though that Ken got a case of cold feet at that time and didn't book his actual snip, because if he did, Renee wouldn't be here now.

After Renee was born, I was 100% positive that I don't want more kids. So Ken had to go for consultation #2, I told him that if he left the doc's office without an appointment WRITTEN IN PEN in his calender it would be grounds for divorce.

All last week I think he was sweating bullets. He had a countdown every morning that went something like this:

"Anna, in only X more days, I will make the ultimate sacrifice for this family - and I will need at least a week to recover, as I have been told it will feel like I have been kicked HARD in the nuts"

As you probably can imagine, response each morning varied and after I had heard numerous times about how much prep work was required (shaving, washing, etc) I offered to give him a good swift kick myself and we could just get it over with. I think Ken seriously considered it.

Yesterday morning he went into the office, and got to chatting with a gentleman in the waiting room who had just had the procedure. Ken said he didn't look too good, and the only advice he gave Ken was to "take the lollypop when they offer it to you". Huh? You get a lollypop?

He later found out that the lollypop is designed to get your mind off the "business at hand" so to speak. Before the snip itself, Ken found himself sucking away at his lime lollypop while a kind nurse candidly pointed out that his shaving skills left much to be desired so she would need to "clean things up down there". I don't think Ken will ever look at a lime lollypop the same way again.

The procedure itself took seven minutes. We are told recovery time will take about seven days. Ken did well, and he is recovering nicely. Considering it is only the day after I am pretty impressed. The only hiccup so far is that Renee managed to give him a baby kick to his newly neutered parts, just to remind him that us women stick together, and she didn't want him to get off too easy. That's my girl!

I forgot

A few nights ago before I went to bed something happened and I thought to myself "now that is a great thing to blog about", and at the time I thought that I really should write it down because I may forget. But of course I didn't write it down. And now that I have had a couple of completely sleepless nights thanks to my wee teething baby girl, I have no idea what the hell was so damned interesting that I would put it out there in cyberspace. But I am sure it was good and riveting. You'll just have to trust me on that.

Coulda, shoulda, didn't...and now I'm paying for it.

I just finished watching a bootcamp show on tv. I really should sign up for something like that to help me shed some of this baby weight. Of course, the fact that my hubby just walked in the door with an oreo cookies and cream blizzard from Dairy Queen won't help in my quest for sveltness. What's worse is that I wasn't even hungry. My brain told me to put the blizzard in the fridge after a few mouthfuls. My hand kept scooping all that ice creamy goodness into my gullet. My brain said "stop". But I didn't. And now that I have finished the whole damned thing I feel like I want to barf. As my good friend J says, "tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes". Perhaps tomorrow starts my new run at sveltness.

Tis the season....

For weddings! I was recently going through some photos I had taken at weddings, and here are some of my favourites from two that I was at in the past years. I was going through a bit of a "sepia" phase...

Here is my friend D and her new husband (well, not so new anymore, they have been married for three years!)

And here is my brother and his wife (happy 2nd anniversary guys!). She looked stunning....

holiday? Today was a holiday????

A funny thing happens when you find yourself a stay at home mom. Being on maternity leave is wonderful, but there are no holidays.

When I am not on maternity leave I work part-time for the government (ok, insert joke HERE). When I worked, I loved my holidays. I looked forward to them and started counting down about a week beforehand. AND contrary to popular belief, us government workers have the same holidays as everyone else.

Now that I am at home I am kinda floored when a holiday comes. Today was one of those days. It was BC day. I totally forgot. Ken was home from work, so I just assumed it was Sunday - until he didn't go paddling. I tell you, I get all screwed up when a holiday is thrown in the mix. The kids are totally oblivious that a holiday is here. They still get up at six. There is no such thing as sleeping in on a holiday when you have three young ones.

I am also kinda hesitant to go anywhere when there is a holiday. There are lineups at ferries and borders. In hot cars with three kids, two of whom need to pee RIGHT NOW and there is not a toilet or bush in sight. And all the stuff you need to bring - strollers, playpens, toys, blankets, food....the list goes on. What happened to the carefree backpacking and roaming the world days? Oh yeah - we grew up. We got a minivan. We have to fill it full of crap every single time we go out. So it is just that much easier to stay home and enjoy the "holiday".

Little Miss Hair

Quite the lid on my wee girl....

CRAP

Ken just got back from the storage locker with the last load of boxes that we put there before we moved. When we put the house on the market in January, we had to do some serious de-cluttering to make the place look better (HGTV would have come in REALLY handy then). Since we had absolutely no storage at all we had to rent the locker.

Our house was a rancher, about 1700 square feet. Our new house is about 2800 square feet, and guess what? We can fill every space in this new place. People who have visited us in the new house have commented on how we have managed to fill all of the rooms even though this place is so much bigger than the previous house. And this was BEFORE we emptied the storage locker.

I just about fainted when I saw the FIRST vanload of stuff. And by vanload, I mean pull-out-all-the-seats and fill up the van to the top. So much so that the bumper was not too far off the ground (a lowered minivan - we have reached a whole new level of cool).

I must admit it is a bit like Christmas - opening up each box to see what I haven't missed at all in the last 6 months. I have only opened up three boxes today - mostly thanks to my newly teething daughter who won't let me leave her sight for a second. My poor mom is going to faint when she sees the spare room, which up until yesterday had a bed, a nightstand and a light. Now she will have to share the room with a desk, and ab-roller, and about 14 boxes. We won't even go into what is in the closet. My mantra of "if you can't see it - it doesn't exist" still reigns supreme.
I am almost starting to think we should have had a garage sale and just sold all the boxes un-opened. Kinda like a grab-bag of sorts. Twenty bucks a box – you might get a box full of toys, or a box full of CD’s. At any rate, I doubt I would have missed any of it.

Why?

Ever since we moved a couple of months ago I have become and HGTV and TLC addict. Not only because this house needs ALOT of work (and I can't think of any designs to save myself) but because we now have cable. In our old place all we had was bunny ears, but since they didn't work in the new house, we decided to bite the bullet and pay for tv. "Treehouse" is now a part of the boys' vocabulary .

The other day I was watching "A baby story" while feeding Renee. When I used to watch it I would cry happy tears - probably because at that time we were trying for kids, and I had NO IDEA how painful childbirth could be. Now that I know we are done with the babymaking, the show doesn't have same effect on me (I still get a bit emotional when the baby is born, but not like I used to). The other day though I was so pissed that I turned the show off. There was a young girl who was in labour and obviously was given an epidural - she was having contractions while getting her nails done at her bedside, and just after the doctor checked her and told her she was 10cm, she pulled out her phone book and started calling all her friends to come to the hospital because she was just about to push. I kid you not, she must have called at least five people, giggling and laughing telling them that "OMG I am 10 cm, and cool, I'm going to push and have a baby".

I distinctly remember being 10cm with all my kids. And I was in NO position to talk, never mind call my girlfriends. I was in so much pain. And yet watching this show made me ticked that maybe I missed out on something by not having an epidural (first kid was by choice, the other two, not at all). I cannot even begin to put into words the pain. With Renee, I asked for the epidural at about 11 am, they came to test my blood about 40 minutes later, and then NOTHING. Renee was born at 2:15 pm. It was like they totally forgot about me. Sigh. At least I know that I never will have to give birth again!

AHHHH.....

You know the feeling when you have found the PERFECT piece of clothing? I am the first to admit that I don't have the most up-to-date or edgy fashion sense. Most days if I get a clean pair of pants and shirt on that match I am doing well. I recently bought a couple of pairs of light cotton pants with the intention of wearing them around the house - they fit well, were lighter than sweat pants and cheap. Little did I know how comfortable they were, or that I would even wear them out in public - especially when the tag says the pants are from the "sleepwear collection".

The first time I wore the grey pair was to the movies. I was going for comfort, not style, and I knew that no-one would be paying any attention to me, so what the heck. I loved the fact that I was comfy, and it felt almost as though I was at home hanging out on the couch.

Last week it was so gross and rainy here in Vancouver (surprise!!!) that I decided to wear the dark blue pair to the boys soccer class. I have never in my life received so many complements - not on the pants, but on how good I looked for just having had a baby. These pants hid my weight - and hid it well. I love them so much that I feel like I could be Oprah - I want to give a pair to everyone in the audience (and I so totally could afford it as there are only two of you!)

Stuff

Three months is a long time to leave a blog neglected. I get so ticked when I look at blogs I regularly read and they haven't been updated in a few days. And it isn't as if I don't have blogging moments. Many a time during the last few weeks something would happen and I'd think - I really need to blog about THAT.

I have been busy with the kids, Ethan is driving me a bit crazy as he is now done preschool and he has to look at my ugly mug every day - so he has developed a bit of an attitude in part because he isn't seeing his friends as often as he'd like. "Whatever mom" has been uttered on more than one occasion, and the stomping and dirty looks have increased exponentially since the end of June. Maybe this is just a part of being five. I hope not. If that is the case it will be pure hell once Nicholas reaches that point.

Speaking of the second born, I think we can now "officially" say he is potty trained. He regressed when we moved and when Renee was born, but now he is doing very well. Thank goodness. Of course now that I have put that down in black and white I have likely jinxed myself.

Little miss Renee is doing great. I can't believe she is four months already. And the hair on that child - it is what EVERYONE says when they first see her. I have stopped trying to do anything with it and I just leave it in the natural mohawk. What the hell - it looks cute on her.

She has also started to suck her thumb - which is great at night - if she wakes up she just pops her thumb in her mouth and soothes herself back to sleep. We have had a few nights where she has slept through the night and it makes for one less grouchy mommy.

Speaking of eyelashes...

Lazy post - I didn't realize how long my niece's eyelashes were until today...they are amazing. Renee is still working on hers.

Can someone please tell me why beautiful eyelashes are wasted on BOYS?

Case in point. My eyelashes suck. My sons don't get their beautiful lashes from me....

Oops.

I honestly thought that being at home would give me an opportunity to blog more and pull my camera out and actually take some pictures of my new wee girl. Yeah right. People are dumbfounded when I tell them that the pictures I took in the last post are pretty much the only ones that I have of Renee on her own (I have a few of the boys and her, but I really want to get some nice arty farty type ones of her that I can put on the million thank-you cards I have to get done at some point).

I am still working at one of my jobs, which thankfully is over in a couple of weeks. I am teaching a distance education course at one of our local post secondary institutions, and it is all good - except the marking. Final exams and final assignments, and 40 students all wanting their marks RIGHT NOW. It is funny being on the other side of the fence - teaching instead of being a student and stressing about the next paper I have to write. It is a different kind of stress now, I want to be sure that I am fair to all students when I am marking their papers. It is funny how some students just "get it" and others are so far in left field it isn't even funny. By kid #3 I am quite good at the multi-tasking, and have managed to get breastfeeding and marking done all at the same time.

Introducing Renee

Well, she came early - 11 days to be exact - born on Sunday afternoon. She was 8 lbs, 12 oz and I cringe to think how big she would have been had she decided to stay put until her due date. Labour was no picnic, longer than Nicholas, shorter than Ethan. Still hurt like hell - but she was worth every second.

She totally looks like Dad, she certainly didn't get that hair from me!

Out of the mouths of babes....

Ethan is at the age where he is obsessed with all bodily functions and body parts, especially those ones that some people can get mighty squirmy about. For the most part I try to be very forthcoming and answer all his baby related/body related questions honestly (and most of the time I manage to keep a straight face, but not always).


When Ethan was smaller, my brother and sister-in-law bought him a book entitled "All about Scabs". He loved that book. So, since "poop" is the theme of the month, I bought him a book as a "present" from the new baby, do you think I might be encouraging him much?




The other day when Ethan was out with my Mom, those "questions" came up again. Thankfully my mom is around here on a regular basis and has had a front row seat to my explanations about babies, poop, intestines and childbirth to Ethan, so she isn't totally taken aback with some of the things that come out of his mouth. They were at the mall, and mom had to go into a clothing store to look at some tops. On the way out, Ethan asked her why mannequins don't have penises. We have gone over the girl/boy body parts list a number of times, but I guess since he saw breasts on some, he naturally wondered why the boy bits weren't on others. I have no idea what my mom told him, but I am sure the number of shoppers that heard Ethan ask would have loved to know her answer.

A bit of pampering.

Today I spent some time with my SIL and we got our toes done. It was so nice to just relax and chill, because I know that I won't be in for that type of pampering for a long time once the baby is born.

Before Ethan was born, I painted my toes blue. At the time I had hoped to do one foot pink and one foot blue (since we didn't know what we were having), but after struggling to get the polish on, I just did both feet blue. With Nicholas, I was just too darned big to reach my feet, so I didn't do anything at all. So for this wee babe, I decided to go all out and here are the results - I made sure to get both pink and blue...

Wordless Wednesday

So....boy or girl? And the "?" isn't photoshopped in, it is actually on the shirt!

Insomnia

It is 4:30 am. I am wide awake, and I can't even blame the kids. I am up this early BY CHOICE because I just can't sleep. Yesterday I spent most of the day lying on the couch with the worst backache I have had in my life. At one point I thought I may be in labour - and you'd think since I have done this twice already I'd know if I was or not, but honestly, I didn't. It was so different. One huge backache that lasted all day. And from what my friends have told me, that can be what back labour is like. Oh joy.

Right now, no backache - so that is a good sign. Now I just need to figure out what I am going to do for the next couple of hours before the house wakes up. I could mark exams, but ick, I don't feel like it. I am reading a great book with only a couple of chapters left, but I hate finishing great books because then I have to find a new one to read and I don't have any around that I can start. I guess I'll just have to find a movie to watch, and enjoy this "me" time because I know that within the next couple of weeks there will be none of that left!

Could be a week....could be four.

Judging by the two boys, this kiddo could make an appearance next week, or in a month. Ethan was surprisingly early, Nicholas annoyingly late. I was told that genetics played a part in when you deliver and how long delivery should be. When I was born, I was two weeks late, and according to my mom, her labour wasn't too bad and not too long either. I remember when I went on maternity leave with Ethan I was looking forward to getting the house all sorted, and then parking my ass on the couch for lots of TV and rest. I didn't get either - I had pretty much only a weekend to "relax" before he made his very early appearance. As for my labour - it was long, about 20 hours, and quite painful (why is it that no-one tells you about the "ring of fire"????)

So, when I was going on maternity leave with Nicholas I figured that since he would be early like his brother, I would leave work earlier. I was off for almost a month before he was born. And it wasn't a relaxing month - looking after a toddler when you are as big as a house is a bit of a challenge. Thankfully labour was shorter (about 3 hours all up). We were lucky that we got to the hospital when we did - I thought they would just send me home because my contractions weren't regular (my water broke first), but it didn't take long before they got to the point of me just about passing out with each one, so I was going nowhere.

All I ask of this wee bean is that he/she stays put for a week at least. I have got the worst hair going at the moment, and am in BAD need of a dye job. My hairdresser is always booked months in advance, and I have had to wait two months for this appointment. Sounds quite vain, I know...but really, if I can't get my hair done before this baby gets here I have to wait another couple of months at least, and that would just be scary.

The only thing I fear about this birth is the pain - I did both previous with no drugs (the first by choice, the second I was begging for them, but the hospital that we go to is a trauma hospital, and the doctors that have all the happy pain free drugs are usually tied up with serious accident victims or in surgery, so pregnant women don't rate too high on the scale). I totally understand, but ugh...I now know what to expect and I know it won't be fun. I also hope we make it to the hospital on time - Nicholas was pretty quick, and hopefully this one will be too.

At this point it is a waiting game - I am enjoying my maternity leave, the boys are quite good at keeping themselves occupied most of the time, so as long as their fights are kept to a dull roar, the house doesn't collapse and there are minimal amounts of blood shed I am one happy camper.

An update of sorts...

Wow...two months have gone by since I have updated my blog. Funny how I get so ticked when the blogs that I read daily aren't updated, and yet I have gone ages without doing anything with mine. Mind you, those that are "regular" readers are likely the odd family member or co-worker, so they get the scoop (usually).

Alot has happened in the last two months. We bought a bigger house. We sold our house (in 18 days!). We met some really slimy dickhead real estate agents, one of whom accused us of living in a drug house (and the idiot put it in writing, so I will be using that when I write a complaint to the real estate board). It was a stressful time, especially since we bought the bigger house before we even put ours on the market. Thankfully all the hard work of de-cluttering and keeping the place spotless paid off. Now that we don't have to deal with showings or open houses we can go back to living like normal, whatever the hell that is with two young kids who are always into dirt and making the biggest mess possible at every opportunity.

Oh yeah, we also bought a MINIVAN. Anyone who knows me and my dear hubby knows what a big thing that was. We were never going to be minivan drivers. NEVER EVER. And now we are. I can fit three carseats IN ONE ROW. Insane. Ken tells all his buddies that the minivan is mine, but secretly, I know he loves driving it.

Today is my first day of maternity leave from work. I can't believe that I don't have to go back for a year (maybe more). I think after a week my kids will be begging me to return to work. After a week I might just feel like I need to go back for a rest. Thankfully I only worked part-time, so it isn't as much of a shock to the kids as if I had been away all week at work.

Not much in the way of baby news. I am HUGE, but it is mostly all baby, which is much different from the last two pregancies. We had a heart ultrasound done on this wee bean to check to see if all was ok (it seems to be), but they wouldn't tell us if the baby was a boy or girl, so it is still anyone's guess at this point. I suppose this baby could come anytime in the next couple of weeks, so I guess I had better get a belly shot at some point! I am really not looking forward to labour, the last two were painful, and my chances of getting any drugs for this one are slim to none. ACK.

So that is about it. Even the pictures have been terribly lacking - but I am sure that will pick up once this baby gets here.

If you made it through all of this and didn't fall asleep, congrats.