Its decided!

Well, we just looked it up and the full moon is February 7th, so we have booked our birth in for next Tuesday, as births often coincide with storms or full moons! Yeay! I am so glad it is decided!

Im rather ready to have my body back!

Some family pics

We took these pictures about a month ago, so Id have been 34 weeks pregnant and Henry was coming up on 18 months old. Danny was 30 years and 9 months.

Henry and I have had a lovely morning doing NOTHING! Its been fantastic. We watched the rain, read books in bed, played hide and seek, cars, chase, play-doh, had lunch and now he is napping, and Im probably not far behind. Rainy days at home are good every so often!

Tag, You're IT

My friend Crady 'tagged' me in one of her posts about getting to know someone, so I have attempted to answer her questions but I find these sorts of questions especially hard to answer because 1) you have to think, and thinking is hard! and 2) I dont ever think there is one definitive answer to certain questions because its all about how you feel at the time that influences how you answer. The next problem is that you are supposed to 'Tag' other people to answer your questions, but I dont know 11 people with blogs to 'Tag' because I dont have time to explore blogs. But maybe I could email some people and then post their responses...?

First Things First, The Rules:
You must post the rules.
Post eleven fun facts about yourself on the blog post.
Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post, and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you've tagged.
Tag eleven people and link them on your post
Let them know you've tagged them!

11 fun facts
1. Im really excited to have a baby here soon and look forward to all of the things that I will be able to do again.
2. I am pretty anxious about labour, but am really glad to be doing it at home this time.
3. I really don’t know if I would like our baby to be a boy or a girl.
4. I have no idea how many children I would like. Would I be ok with this being the last time I was pregnant? Would I be ok with just two kids? Do I think we can support more than two kids financially, or should?
5. I love having a family so much that sometimes when I see Danny and Henry playing together or wrestling on the bed, I get a little weepy. I have never been this happy I don’t think, and Im not sure that I ever thought I could be.
6. I miss cycling and running. I am a little anxious about cycling alone since Kevser’s accident, but don’t see any other way since my schedule is going to be dictated by two children and my husband.
7. I love colourful clothing, particularly very bright pink!
8. If I could get my back rubbed every night, I would.
9. I really wish we could take a vacation on our own to somewhere new and exciting.
10. My favourite part of the day is a toss up between weekend mornings where we all three play in bed together with Henry’s cars or books, or the evening before Henry’s bed time when we read books in bed together!
11. I wish I were better at cooking meat.

Questions from Crady

1. If you could live in any era, what would it be and why?

I would live now, because its what I am used to and Im happy. Not so keen on change! It would have been dangerous living with the dinosaurs. Women seem to have had it rough during other times.

2. What is your dream vacation?

Im not sure that I can answer this, as there are so many different types of vacation. I think right now, hiking somewhere exotic sounds super fun. Id really love to check out Mayan temples but am rather scared of being in the jungle. One day, I intend to take the original vacation we planned for our honeymoon (a hut over the water in Bora Bora), before we more sensibly decided to take a cheaper vacation and buy a car instead. Id love to visit parts of Utah where the water formed sand features are great to hike through or mountain bike in. I would love to re-visit New Zealand on a longer trip and do the trips of multiple day/week hikes through the wilderness.

3. If money was no issue, what would you do with your life? Why?

Probably stay at home with my kids and go on lots of international trips. I really enjoy spending time with Henry and feel that it gives him the best start in life to know that he is the most important thing in mine. Right now, I think Id like to be a mid-wife also! I love babies and birth. Id consider being a surrogate but don’t want to take all the drugs. Hmmmm, Id maybe also consider being a personal trainer, or a school teacher.

4. What is your favorite Christmas memory?

Since I think Christmas is about the kids, I build new ones every year. This year I made cookies for Santa with Henry Christmas eve and he was really good at stirring the ingredients (as long as you didn’t mind how much of it stayed in the bowl) and got super messy picking the chocolate chips out of the dough and cramming them into his mouth! I remember making Christmas cake with my mum in the autumn, dressed in my Brownies uniform standing on a chair and want to pass this baking-together thing on to my kids.

5. What is your favorite season? Why?

Spring; because you can get out running and cycling again after a winter inside and the bulbs are all popping up out of the ground and looking beautiful.

6. What was the last book you read that you just couldn't put down?

I don’t get to read much but I bought myself two books on my birthday and finished one the next day, though technically it’s a novella: Of Love and Other Demons, Gabriel Garcia Marquez

7. If you could move anywhere in the world (and have all your family and friends come with you) where would you want to live?

I haven’t seen enough of the world to answer.

8. What is your favorite thing to cook?

I am better at cooking dinner, but everyone loves to bake cakes! I particularly love baking the tall, multi-layer cakes that you get to frost with a palate knife, though I never get to make them because we dont need a huge cake around the house!

9. What is the best restaurant you've eaten in?

Surely this depends on what you want to eat at the time! We used to love LnMs when it was here in town. There are some really nice farm style restaurants Ive eaten-in in Portland, OR. I had a fantastic filet mignon at a restaurant in Memphis for my birthday once, though I have no idea what it was called. I have to say, it takes a lot for a restaurant to impress me. McEwans here in town has fantastic banana creme pie, but the meals left a little to be desired.

10. What do you most admire about your spouse/significant other?

His hard working mentality and diligence, and how he always strives to look after us and provide for us; unselfishly and unquestioningly. His patience and ability to deal with other people and pacify situations that would be difficult if dealt with by anyone else.

11. What 3 people would you most want to have dinner with?

My mum, my husband and my sister.

As much trouble as I have answering these sorts of questions, I have a tremendous amount of trouble thinking of suitable ones to ask other people. So please excuse my awful questions but here are my questions for you...

1. What is your favourite thing to eat?
2. What is your favourite hobby?
3. What would you most like to excel at, that perhaps you don’t now?
4. What do you most like about yourself?
5. What would you most like to change about your life?
6. What is the movie that you have watched the most times?
7. What do you find most beautiful in life?
8. What is your favourite plant?
9. What enables you to relax the most or that you find most relaxing?
10. Do you have any hopes and dreams for your children’s careers? What are they?
11. What do you tend to buy too much of?

If you feel like answering these questions, please either post a comment or email me and I will post your answers. Sorry I dont follow 11 blogs and cant complete the tag game.

Very pregnant

Some random pictures of my little monkey first!

I just realised that when you are this pregnant, is when people are most interested in you, and I havent been blogging at all! So sorry. Reason is, I keep wanting to put pictures up, so Danny takes them and then doesnt make them available to me. Good job I didnt pay him, mind you, if I had paid, perhaps I would have got some photos! I mean seriously, why should some family who has paid thousands of dollars to have a professional photographer cover their wedding, come before pictures of my fat belly!?! Ridiculous!

So I have taken matters into my own hands and used my phone to take a profile pictures of my belly at 38 weeks. I know a black dress isnt the way to show how huge you look, but I just thought of doing this, so Ill get an actually belly shot tonight and post it.

Obviously, I am huge! I have booked myself a manicure for next week to make me feel better about weighing the most Ive ever weighed. To be honest, the weight doesnt bother me so much, its more the aching hips in the evenings, or the sore ribs in the mornings, or the peeing every 15 minutes. I think my cold of the past 6 weeks has finally gone. Though now Henry has a cold and Danny may possibly be getting one. Poor newborn coming into this unhealthy climate.

I walked 4 miles on the trails Sunday, 3.5 miles around town yesterday and have plans to do the same today during my lunch break.

Next week is probably going to be my last week of work.

I fell over again. This time just from the couch. But this time I cried, because it actually hurt. I landed on the side of my ankle and took a baby to the lungs, which really winded me, and shocked the bageebas out of the baby.

A month has passed

Here is a picture of Henry in the Kroger parking lot Saturday. He cried when I made him get out of the little car. He had had an all out kicking and screaming tantrum that morning because I tried to put his rubber boots on him so we could splash in the rain. Some battles just arent worth the fight, so I didnt make him wear them. Royal waste of money they were.

I have lots of pictures for you, but as usual, Danny is away and I dont know where they are. We took some family pics on timer the other day and then some of my 36 week watermelon.

36 weeks. Isnt that insane.

Henry has gone through a two week spout of refusing to eat and is back into gorging himself on whatever you put in front of him. During that two week period, he got his top two canines. He has a daily pre-dinner snack of frozen peas and corn. He has developed his fondness of his Papa and misses him terribly when he is gone. He ran naked around the house tonight holding the phone because Danny was skyping on it. He has cultivated a love of his Uncle Jonathan to the point where you cant mention his name or Henry will call it out for about 10 minutes incessantly. Jonathan is staying with us this week, so he is getting his far share of Henry kisses. He has lots of new words; purple, blue, yellow, orange, cookie, raisins, strawberries, NO (often proceeded by Mummy), trust fall (Tosh.0 watchers will understand this one), Beep Bo (belly button), Neigh (horse sound), Moo (cow sound), shoes, lights, drink, milk, please... there are many more. He is a thorough pleasure to be around the majority of the time; a lovely young man. He has pee-peed in the potty several times and knows that if he successfully pee pees in the potty, he gets one little jelly bean, so he makes sure and pee pees in the potty every night! He pee pees everywhere else as well, but realises that doesnt get him a piece of candy!

In the past month I have turned 31 years old. Become more and more pregnant, and more and more tired as a result! I have taken to napping whenever I can. I have gained 45 lbs since June of last year. Shocking. I have had lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, and if I were a first time mum, I probably would have thought I was going into labour, they were so frequent last weekend. This past Saturday I fell over, straight on my butt, whilst holding a cup of water at the candy store. Yes, I know what you are thinking, having gained 45 lbs already, like I need a candy store. Whatever. I actually look smaller (in the face and arms - not the massive belly) than when I was this pregnant with Henry. The baby continues to jab me in the ribs and painfully stretch its legs out. Oh and I may have accidentally found out that the baby is a boy, though I am trying to ignore the comment. The business desk lady at the doctors told me this past visit that I had to pay for HIS circumcision next visit. I looked at her and asked what if it wasnt a boy. erm. She looked a little surprised and said, well then you will get your money back. And she also likes to make a point of telling me its more expensive at the doctors office than at the hospital, like that is going to convince me into a hospital birth. Its more likely to convince me not to circumcise woman. Anyway, I dont know if the people at the desk even see your medical records, maybe Ill ask next time I go, but either way, I am trying to forget she said it!

I thought Id been doing well; I walk to work and back, I walk an hour or so on my days off. But I just did the prenatal yoga dvd for the first time in months and it about killed me, no lie. And if you dont believe that I am all belly, imagine that to do a lunge I had to manual maneuver my belly into position with my hands and even then it was resting on my leg. Or the fact that to do a forward fold I had to have my legs wide apart and still my belly rested between my legs. Not long now folks!

Snow day!

Ladies and Gentlemen, I walked to work today, in the SNOW! Craziness! I looked like a Clementine on stilts wearing Danny's orange rain-jacket (which incidentally only just did up over my belly!) and black leggings, with clashing pink wellies/rubber boots. How inconsiderate of Danny to have a rain-jacket that doesn't match my wellies!

We had a lovely, yet chilly evening last night, watching the Oxford Christmas parade; a first for myself, Henry and our British visitors. Everyone had a fantastic time, though it was past Henry's bedtime when we started to head home and he cried intensely until we started our ABCs and Old Macdonald.

Not my favourite Thursday ever

Yesterday, Henry decided he wasnt going to take a nap. ALL DAY! It might not have been a problem but 1) I am super duper pregnant (and huge, yes thank you EVERYONE for telling me) and 2) I am not sleeping because I am super duper pregnant! So a super duper tired mummy left Henry in his bed for 2 hours total yesterday afternoon (went in half way through to check he didnt have a dirty diaper and read a couple of books). I laid down for 30 minutes, but with him singing to himself in the room next door, not much of a nap was had. But it turned out to be a fun afternoon regardless. We walked the dogs to the square, played in front of the courthouse and popped into the bookstore to get a christmas present. I was pretty tired by the time we walked home again a few hours later, but we had a fun time.

This week, dinner time was a totally different ball game. This week, as long as Henry could feed it to himself with a fork, he ate it. Sausages, chicken, baked beans, butternut squash (well, he tried it, he didnt actually eat it, but hey, at least he tried it!), bread and butter, strawberries, raspberries, everything that can be stabbed with a fork! Made my life easier, thats for sure.

We went from being just the two of us, well, plus the dogs and the Bump, of course, to the house now including Papa and my dad, and tomorrow, one of his workers. Not only is it all of us, but we are all cramped into a tiny living space because the kitchen, dining room and play room have been taken over until further notice! Kitchen is starting to look totally different, there is a new window, new walls, new door holes, new floor, new light holes. Tomorrow the shipment with the kitchen arrives, its going to get interesting up in here!

I was worried it was the way of things to come, but H was happy to take a nap today and I drove to Black Zion to pick up our quarter of a cow. Such an interesting life I lead! Other tasks today, Farmers market for special thick noodles to make Thai curry when our stove gets plugged in tomorrow, vet for Mojos check up and allergy shot (which may have to become a regular event), kroger for MORE food (as it seems my dad is an eating machine!) and of course, general play time with H. On 3 or 4 hours sleep, Im exhausted. I just seem to lie then, in bed, waiting for sleep to drift back over me. Tonight Im going to eat when I wake up, just incase thats the reason Im not falling back to sleep til 6am (and then of course I hear MAMA around 630am).