My idea of relaxation!

Its 1030pm, Sunday night and I just finished cleaning up after over two hours of cooking! It seemed to work out well because Danny watched football the entire time, so this might be my new Sunday night! I cooked myself a spicy lentil stew (full of wonderful folates, great for growing babies!) and I put together almost 20 Cornish Pasties, the pastry for which I had made earlier in the week. Kept 4 out for tomorrow nights dinner and have an undocumented number in the freezer! So exciting! I love having homemade stuff in the freezer because it seems like you can put together an effortless homemade meal in the future! I feel refreshed having done something fun, yet productive, whilst dancing to Beatles Radio on Pandora.com. Only downside is, my feet are particularly sore.

These photos are several weeks old because Henry no longer walks with this toy, but they are no less cute, so enjoy!

Out for a stroll...

Plush

We are always unpacking new stuff in this house full of boxes. The other day I was doing the dishes after dinner whilst Danny gave Henry a bath. Then I hear Danny say, "go show Momma" and as I look up Henry proudly saunters into the room with his very plush John Lewis bath robe on. He was so proud of himself! He loves to wear it every night after his bath, but at the rate he pees, thats more laundry for Mummy, we need seven robes, one for each night of the week!

What an evening

I realise its probably bad form to make two posts in one day, but I have to tell you about my evening...

We went and ate pizza at Soul Shine pizza with Lana, Steve (Lana's husband), Knox and Lana's friend and her baby girl, Lila. Henry was an angel, he not only behaved really well, but he ate all of the snacks I took for him (a cooked carrot, a cream cheese sandwich, raisins and fresh pineapple) and then he ate a ton of vegetable pizza (so he ate artichoke hearts, broccoli and black olives also). We then went over to Holli's Sweet Tooth where they sell mini children's ice cream portions on a mini wafer cone - adorable. Henry had vanilla and I had triple caramel, delicious, though I fed most of Henrys ice cream to Knox. I also got pick and mix chocolate covered stuff (the chocolate covered animal crackers were the best). The reason this is odd is that I dont care for chocolate and I dont really eat candy (which, if you believe in cravings, suggests that our new baby is a girl, but whatever). What makes the evening so interesting is that I cycled to the square and it was now dark. erm. Yes, dark. So Henry and Knox are up way past their latest ever bedtimes and I am on the square with a trailer. I did have one flashy rear light, but dont worry, we didnt cycle home. Lana offered to follows us home, but dont worry, that didnt seem safe enough either. So we called our husbands who were off drinking beer and threw the bike and trailer in the back of Steve's truck. Fingers crossed it doesnt get stolen. It is a Thursday night. Anyway, the evening gets better, I couldnt find my house keys. So we drove over to the bar where we knew they had met and I ran in with Henry (I heard, "hey theres a baby in the house" - oh dear). Its still only 8pm mind you, not super late, but super late for our kiddos who are usually sound asleep by 730pm. Anyways, Danny was not there. erm. So I call to find out where they are and they are at a different bar across town, so with H under the seatbelt with me, squishing my other baby we go to the other bar, but there were lots of police out - remember, its a Thursday night. So I had to stand him on the floor boards, but he was super happy because he found one of Knox' snack cups and played with the radio buttons. We eventually got the keys from Danny and made it away from the square without getting stopped by the police even though a line of four policemen on horse back walked past my side of the car while we were at a traffic light! Never a dull moment!

When we got home Henry had wet through his diaper and was more tired than I may ever have seen him. We were on our sixth poo poo of the day also. So I quickly bundled him into his clean disposable diaper, buttoned up his clean white pyjamas and tried to comfort him, but all that boy wanted was his bed. So I laid him in his bed, but you have to understand I can no longer lean over enough to lay him down so I have to sort of set him sitting up right and let him lay down. I rubbed his tummy and told him how much I loved him and what a good boy he was and he rubbed his eyes, closed them and I dashed out of the room. He may have even been asleep before I had shut the door.

What amazes me is if he was that ridiculously tired, why was he such a well behaved little boy. Though dont get me wrong, Im not complaining. I had a wonderful, wonderful evening out and I am pretty sure H did too. He ate well and I didnt have to cook or clean! And I picked up some chocolate, which unfortunately is in my trailer in the back of Steve's truck still but I have high hopes that it will make it here, fingers crossed!

Oh, and Danny got dropped off at the square but had his sun glasses on so is now out on the town without any glasses (we wear prescription sunglasses)!

We are a right pair, eh! I attribute my very unusual recent brain farts to pregnancy, but whats Danny's excuse!

Im going to make some banana nut muffins for our play dates tomorrow, of which we have a ton, and then Im going to lie in bed and read my book. What a lovely day.

I LOVE THURSDAYS!

The Memphis Airshow last Saturday

Future heart breaker...

I probably forgot to tell you, but H is officially walking now, and getting up on his own from a seated position. Even remaining standing when obnoxiously 'kissed' by Tux (our 110lb dog).

He really didnt like the sound of the jets and ran to me screaming every time they flew over. We couldnt get him to wear the headphones or ear plugs we had brought for him. But he liked watching the quiet planes and when they were far enough away that the noise didnt bother him.

Here you see that he did not want to put his sandwich box down! Cream cheese sandwiches sure are hard to come by, someone might steal it!

Yes, I realise he needs a haircut. Depending on what time he gets up, we might go this afternoon...

Goofy kid

It was an ugly day for me, so I thought Id post some funny pictures.

Having recently consented to giving up cycling for exercise (several dogs ran out to 'greet' me on my last ride because of the cooler weather), but still wanting to enjoy my hour alone three days a week, I turned to jogging today. Im going to clarify that I said, JOGGING (not running). It was a lovely jog in the mid-day sun with bright blue, almost autumnal skies, but not quite, since it was still over 80F! Then I tripped, on nothing at all. Nothing at all. Thankfully, wearing sunglasses, I was able to cry the next 5 minutes down the road without anybody noticing. Well that is, unless they looked at the blood pouring out of both of my knees and my hand, thankfully the left hand. I did complete the rest of my 50 minute jog, having stopped crying (reasonably) quickly. So now, with a swollen twisted ankle, a gash out of my left thumb (which is going to be a bi-tch to heal because of its location - cant even tie my own hair up), a huge divot out of my right knee, a graze on my left knee and a serious feeling of self-pity, I wonder what the next 20 weeks has in store for me if I cant get outside and exercise... its going to be a grim winter. Id take being huge through the summer with the outdoor pool right there at my finger tips over a winter of feeling like a beached whale, most likely in her husbands clothes with no physical activity except workout dvds, any day. I love being pregnant, but I HATE not being able to exercise, and Im not an overly nice person to live with without exercise, so please all of you, pity my wonderful husband. It cant be time to be stuck with walking already, not with as much energy as I have and not with this beautiful weather.

Back tracking

Im going to try and amuse my mummy with photos while she is home sick, so you are going to see some older photos coming your way.

I dont remember when this is from, but as you can see, Im already pregnant, so its been in the past few months...

Our hard hat zone...

I LOVE THURSDAYS!!!

Thursdays are my new favourite day of the week!

I got a lie in until 650am this morning, walked the dogs without the stroller and generally had a nice time waking up. Must have been growing a lot yesterday because today no rib cage or hip pains! Fantastic! We got to have breakfast with Papa then we cycled to the rec center for baby gymnastics. On to the coffee shop where we had tea and the kids played in the foyer between the shops. The boys were out voted this time as there were three little girls to play with! We wandered around the square as we had to buy a birthday present for Sophia, then lunch with Papa and nap time for H, while I played in the yard. Unfortunately they canceled my hair cut so I am still straggly! We have to hit up the post office and the grocery store this afternoon so we will be busy! Danny and I decided to forgo the posh dinner out and get something quick to make it to the 7pm movie. Im not thrilled that we are going to see an action thriller type movie but it seems thats our only option because Im not going to a horror movie. I think this will really make Danny happy, we havent been to see a movie since H was born.

Speaking of, I hear my little man waking up now!

Maternity clothes

I just unpacked my maternity clothes from last time... so excited to wear some of those tee-shirts again, but a little surprised I am using them again so soon after last time! I sure hope its not a cold winter like the last one as I dont intend to spend lots of money on sweaters and have just two pairs of maternity jeans, one of which I may have purchase too small. Its so warm and beautiful out, Im really having trouble imagining that I will need sweaters anytime soon... Can I make through the entire winter...

Not much going on

We have made some good progress on the house lately. And by we, I mean Danny, of course. Though I, in turn, have played my part. On Saturday I took Henry to Memphis to Target and Costco so that we were not in the way. Spent $500 for the privilege, oh dear. Got some much needed essentials though such as long sleeved maternity shirts and some track pants for H. Its not chilly here yet, but I think it may start to cool of here soon. When we got back, Danny had unpacked tons of boxes (even though I was told I wasnt allowed!) and things were getting more organised.

We do, in fact, have the correct windows, they just hadnt sent us all of the parts. We now have the internal grids and Danny is making his way round the windows installing them. I have even ordered some beautiful fabric so that I can attempt to make Roman Blinds for our bedroom.

We realised that we gave the painters the wrong colour paint for the kids bedrooms, so I am getting stern looks when I ask if we can have them repainted the correct colour. They are peach. Its great in our room where I wanted it peach and plan on accenting with peach and having crisp white bed sheets. But in the kids rooms I was going to do red or navy blinds and have colourful decals on the walls, which were supposed to be a neutral cream. So either Ill get them painted when he is out of town one week or I will wait and he can do it in December, when he potentially has some time. yeah right. Believe that when I see it.

Closet and dining room doors arrived and were completely the wrong doors, so they got sent back. Ridiculous. I loathe Lowes.

Its shaping up to be a very busy end of the week, after my three days of work, which of course wore me out to no end. Tomorrow we have baby gymnastics, tea with a thousand little ones at the coffee shop where I will be naughty and have my weekly dose of caffeine. I dont want the caffeine, I would actually prefer to be caffeine free pregnant or not, but I just LOVE Chai tea with lots of foamy milk! Then I have my hair cut at noon and Danny and I are going out to celebrate our 6th year wedding anniversary tomorrow night (which is actually Saturday). Its going to be a big deal for me because we are leaving H with a new babysitter, and not only that, but she is going to put him to bed! I am the only person that has ever put him to bed at night, Danny has done a few nights here or there if I was tired, but all me other than that, so we shall see how that goes, for the both of us. Mind you, I left for work this morning before he got up and managed to get through my day, so I should be fine. Im a little worried about Brittany though! At least I will feel like she is earning her $10 an hour!

Friday we have our monthly check up and we get to see the baby on an ultrasound. We can find out the gender if we want, but we are going to find out when it is born. So exciting! I am a little anxious about the doctors visit though because we have to tell Dr. Henderson that we are planning a home birth, but that we would still like him to be our doctor in case of emergency, we shall see how he takes it. I am actually feeling pregnant these days; only 19 weeks! Almost half way and finally I feel pregnant. My belly is huge! Oh, that was the funny thing about Saturday. I havent seen myself naked since we went to Puerto Rico a few months ago as we only have one small mirror in the bathroom above the sink here. So I can see the nasty eczema spreading painfully across my face, but I hadnt seen my belly at all! Trying on clothes at the weekend in the fully mirrored changing room at Target really let me see just how big I was! Definitely pregnant! I dont often complain about anything pregnancy related but Im going to now: today my hips hurt. They really ache. And I am tired of waking up and my rib cage hurting. I know it has to expand but seriously, does it have to ache this much. And the sore, bleeding gums, so over that. Danny finally suggested that I stop cycling for exercise today, though it was my fault really as I told him some idiot almost side-swiped me and three dogs almost got under my wheels (which would make me flip). I may have almost consented to only cycling for transportation, not exercise. Hope those new running shoes fit me well!

Saturday we are going to the Memphis air show and Danny is very excited about it. Should be good fun! Hope H is in a good frame of mind.

We have recently discovered that our little man loves sausages, which is good because I have a hard time getting him to eat meat sometimes. He can walk just fine without help but he only does it when he feels like it. Most of the time he demands to hold your hand or even worse, he pulls on my skirts burying his face into my legs until I pick him up. Lazy-bones.

Got a thousand and one things to do tonight, so why am I still on the internet...

New Job News

My first two days at work for Cardno Entrix have been great. It was a little slow Tuesday morning but our boss came in Tuesday afternoon and we visited our new office, which has a balcony overlooking the square. The afternoon sun was warm and welcoming.

Dinner Tuesday was great fun. Much to my surprise and excitement, Danny suggested walking to dinner. We had a babysitter and left the just after bed time for H. We ate at Boure with the whole group and our new boss. The mood was light and jovial and we shared three delicious desserts at the end! Danny and I had a lovely stroll home! This wife is so easy to please!

With our boss here today, work was a bit more on the go, but equally good. We convened at my house because the office isnt ready and the coffee shop was super busy. Danny brought us sandwiches for lunch and I ran some work errands around town on my bike in the afternoon. I look pretty funny now with this big old belly hanging down over my legs when Im riding. Definitely looking pregnant these days!

Glad of my day with Henry tomorrow. We have gymnastics first thing in the morning, then a brunch date with Knox and Lana, some play time Im sure, lunch with Papa, nap time, more play time, dinner, bath and bed! The life of a 14 month old is ever busy!

After the exciting week of walking last week, Henry now refuses to walk without holding at least one of our hands. He is getting two new teeth on the bottom jaw and has rather a varried volcabulary. He says; bath, baby, diaper, water, Maa (milk) not to mention Mama, Mummy and Papa, and Im sure there are some words in there I have forgotten. My little baby is growing up!

Turned out to be a nice day

When Henry was being fussy at 730am yesterday morning and it was STILL raining, I was a little worried about the rest of the day, and the sanity of the five of us (dogs were a little stir crazy with the weather too), but it actually turned out to be a lovely day on Bramlett Boulevard.

Henry and I took the dogs to the park in the light rain because I knew other wise they wouldnt go outside. We played a little in the house and he and Danny played outside in the puddles again, though it was cold this time and I had to warm his little feet up when he came in. He did look cute in his little yellow rain jacket though! When he is walking I might get him some wellies (rubber boots) so we can go splashing around. Dragging him away from the door where he sat banging to go outside was a little hard, but he got over it.

Danny got the wardrobes outfitted with our new organisation systems and we actually moved into our bedroom! Slept in it last night! Its very pretty, light and airy. I will get some new bedsheets for a fresh start and we never had any bedroom furniture at the other house, so Ill need to go buy some bedside tables and maybe a little chez longe or a couch or something. The only bummer with sleeping there is that its close enough to Henrys room that I hear EVERY little move or noise he makes, the perils of being the mummy I guess, and a light sleeper to boot. He must have been having a nice dream around 5am because he had a little giggle to himself. So cute.

The new baby was being feisty yesterday, so much so that Danny could feel it doing summersaults in my tummy!

Danny had the great idea to go out to lunch, just to get out of the house, so we had fantastic Newk's salads and generally enjoyed each others company for a change.

In the afternoon the sun came out and Henry and I cruised up and down the sidewalk with his walker. Got some cute pictures but I have to wait for Danny to download his camera, maybe later.

First day at work today...

Rain, rain and more rain

I know we needed some rain, but seriously! This much! Henry woke up at 640 this morning and I managed to make him wait til 655am before going to get him. Bundled him into the stroller, much to his disgust, got the dogs all psyched for a walk and when we got outside around 710am it was already sprinkling. Then the rain came, and continued to come, and got worse! Around 4pm it was light enough that the dogs went to the bathroom for the first time, but then it started raining heavily again. So much rain!

We skyped every English-man you can imagine. Baked fresh bagels and then proceeded to eat about 4 each for lunch! Ok, Henry ate just a half a one like usual, but Danny and I pigged out! DInner was no less of a pig out. We attempt to re-create a British favourite; Bangers and Mash. No, not chopped up drug dealers, bangers are sausages and the reason we never have it is because we cant find delicious sausages here in town. They sell some nice ones at Whole Foods in Memphis, but thats a heck of a long way to go for a banger. I bought some pork and garlic sausages (thats what they were called) at the only butchers in town, L Bs Meat Market. It is chorizo. The meal was still really nice but not what we were exactly looking for. Mash was delicious though (I use sour cream with butter, instead of milk), Carrots and green beans were yummy and the onion gravy, well, what more do you need to say. Henry only ate half of two baby carrots. His loss. What kind of a kid doesnt like mash potato!?

The best part of the day was when Danny and Henry splashed in the puddles in the rain! Twice! Henry had a great time and they came in just intime before another serious down pour. It was pretty hard to explain to Henry why we couldn't play outside and at one point this morning he just stood at the back door looking out for about 15 minutes. Poor little fellow.

Maybe the rain will stop tomorrow and maybe Ill get to go out on my bike as I had planned today. Then the sleepy bliss ends Tuesday when I start my new job. Not overly excited, rather enjoyed playing with my baby for two weeks. OH and on the new baby front, we think its a boy now. We looked at pictures from being pregnant with Henry and my belly is exactly the same, all below the belly button, or Bee Bo and Henry likes to call it (we have a Bee Bo book).

Never the same thing twice

The funny thing about babies, is that they are so different from day to day. Yesterday H and I played with the same little rolling cow and pig for one and a half hours on the front porch, a minor miracle. This morning we played sidewalk chalk on the drive way for probably the same length of time. Then this afternoon it was like he was on Speed, or what I imagine being on Speed is like. To say that he didnt play in one place for more than 5 seconds at a time, is probably understating his mood this afternoon. As soon as I had made it up and over to the new location, he was gone, playing with something on the other side of the room.

I was dreading dinner time tonight... he hadnt eaten for the past two nights and last night he had an all out meltdown when I tried to put him in his highchair. Usually he is standing at the highchair, banging on it to be fed his dinner. But this evening to my surprise, and a huge amount of relief, he ate his pesto spaghetti and even ate some salmon, which shocked the beegeebees out of me. So he got a cookie for being a good boy! I never said I was above bribery.

Got a little more ivy cleaned today, though at 1.5 hours a day on my days off, its not going to get cleared very quickly.

My baby bump has grown exponentially this week and the little blighter kicks me every so often, either that or its more wind. It doesnt seem to like cold water! A similar size growth on my foot (ok, a slight exaggeration, but it was about 1.5 inches long) led me to order some new running shoes as I managed to get up two mornings in a row at 6am and go jogging before Danny left for work. Now Im resting I guess, until my blister heals and my new shoes get here. Hoping to ride out tomorrow but it looks like rain, so we shall see. I need to do something on my own after today... I sort of lost it just before lunch. Henry was awful. The odd thing was, after half a grilled cheese and some tomato soup he was his chirpy playful self again, so Im just surprised he didnt tell me he was hungry but just cried and demanded to be held and then cried at that too.

I had hoped to have a box of tomatoes to can during the rainy weekend but they didnt have any boxes at the famers market, believe it or not. So I payed for my tomatoes and will collect them wednesday, which means I have to can thursday, which is less than ideal. Going to make a cake instead, since Alison gave me some pears and Im not at all sure what to do with them other than make a cake. I think Danny wanted some bagels too, but we shall see.

Off to bed after another ridiculously tiring day. Im not preparing for a new born very well by being constantly exhausted with just one baby!

Poor Henry!

Poor Henry indeed! I have already enrolled his cute little butt in Fun n Fit Gymnastics starting next week! Its bloody expensive, so I hope he likes it! I thought he would not only enjoy climbing on a bunch of gym equipment but playing with other little 12-18 month olds is good for him Im sure! Tried to look up swimming lessons but the fall schedule isnt listed yet. Ill have that boy all scheduled up before he knows it!

Back to work next week. ugh.