I'll Give You That Number

Today I tried to find out where in town checks that car seats are installed properly. I thought that this was a standard sort of service since they won't let you leave the hospital unless you have one ready to go. Here's how it went: called the Cape Breton District Health Authority and they referred me to the Mom-Baby Clinic. Called the Mom-Baby Clinic and they referred me to the Municipality. Called the Municipality and they referred me to the central fire station. Called the central fire station and they referred me to the Deputy Fire Chief. Called the Deputy Fire Chief and his answering machine hung up on me. Hmm.

If You Go Down In The Woods Today

Is it possible to gain a visible amount of weight in three days? Yes, yes it is. If you say no then you probably haven't been to White Point Beach Resort. So. Much. Good. Food. I got to visit there this week as part of a post-work work retreat. Cabins on the beach and fireplaces and little bunnies and peanut-butter chocolate cheesecake. If it wasn't eight hours away (or if we could feasibly pass by on the way from here to anywhere else in the universe) it would definitely be on the family-vacation must-do list.

I do really enjoy being able to take Frankie with me so effortlessly - Frankie is always packed and ready to go and always eager to travel where we do. So perfect. In three weeks Frankie will be an outside baby and we'll have outside baby accoutrements to attend to. I'm hoping that this extra equipment won't keep us from doing the things we love and showing all the world to Frankie. Maybe it's the weather or excitement for the warm summer months ahead but lately I can't stop thinking about camping. Babies like camping right? I'm pretty sure they do - or that they like just about anywhere that doesn't interfere with their food and clean diaper supply.

Oh And Did You Notice The Date?

One month. That's it. Car seat installed. Check. Hospital bag packed. Check. Good thing they don't limit the size of your carry-ons.

Lapsicle

Meet my sassy new friend. His name is Gateway. We picked him up today and I am in loooove. He is small and quick and who doesn't love small and quick things? Unless, you're trying to trap the small and quick thing because it keeps eating your cereal and scurrying across your floor. But Gateway doesn't scurry or eat your cereal - he computes!

After two indignant attempts to communicate with Futureshop staff (worst service ever) I decided to try a little computer place in Reserve Mines. Although we had to make three trips there (and find creative ways to kill the time in between after three promises that Gateway would soon be ready to come home with us) I got a feverishly sweet deal.

Just to be safe I think this is how I'm going to leave Gateway when I need to walk away from him:

Yes, in a freezer bag. I am hoping this will stop him from meeting the same wet fate as the Macbook. I am sooo thirsty all of the time now. I'm starting to wonder if Frankie is part amphibian. This means I am never too far from a big glass of liquid - last night I actually almost walked away from my loaner laptop leaving a glass of water and kitty nearby. Seriously bad at learning my lesson.

Before Gateway's adoption we ventured through the Baby Flea Market (sorry pappa - no baby fleas). This is what $20 will purchase for you at a Baby Flea Market:

A boppy, three glass bottles, four sleepers, eight onesies, a pair of baby jeans and a pair of baby cords. Baby cords! Cuter than a duck in a sou'wester cuddling a kitten. Rob scoped out the awesome sleeper/onesie table and promised to remind Frankie that we once purchased him or her fourteen outfits for $6.00. Most of the clothes there were gender-specific but thankfully these markets are semi-annual events. Even better - they are in a hall just two blocks from our place! We should probably look into some sort of loyalty points cards.

Observations from a Wednesday

(1) I'm kinda looking forward to going for a walk without having a little head bouncing on my bladder.

(2) I am going to have a hard time leaving my new affection for Dairy Queen behind when I no longer have this big belly to blame it on.

(3) My maternity budget looks excellent on paper. Much like all of its budget predecessors which never quite replicate themselves in reality. I should probably learn to make a better budget. I should probably be a bit more honest about how much I spend on clothes and restaurants.

(4) There is a baby flea market this Saturday just up the street from us. Babies + Flea Market + Saturday = Awesome. Let's not mention this to the budget.

(5) I am excited for red wine after May 23rd. I am almost just as excited for soft poached eggs.

(6) I read that one way to prepare kitties for the arrival of a baby is to taper off the affection shown to them. I can't imagine doing this and so will have to find someway to maintain current affection levels post-Frankie.

(7) I just ate way too much ice cream. See observation number two.

Frankie's First Tax Bill

We got a bill today that isn't due until after Frankie. Sure its a tax bill and it only comes twice a year but the fact that we could we could pay it after there is a little one home with us is pretty exciting. Holy.

The first official day of pre-baby break is going well. Lots of floor scrubbing and vacuuming which is how I'm justifying still being in my pajamas at this time of the day. I'm also starting to figure out that watching Birth Stories on TLC isn't quite the help I thought it would be. Today I saw a very lovely woman deliver her second baby in agonizing pain and then comment on how much easier it was than the first. Back to the denial that is Say Yes to the Dress.

I had been wondering if maybe this was too soon to leave work but lately it seems getting up and rolling over now each require their own pre-planning (and are pretty funny-looking I'm sure). Also, here's a rundown of how the last few nights have gone: 10pm bed, 12:30am pee, 3:30am pee, 4:30am and 5:00am cats being buggers, 6:00am hungry (and wishing I had ate something during any of the other four trips downstairs). Practice, practice, practice :)

Babies have ...

A lot of places to sit.

Mobiles and Empires

It was a rainy weekend of assembly and Star Wars. We put together the stroller, car seat and play pen and watched four of six Star Wars movies. R was pretty sure I was the only person in the English-speaking world who could watch them all for the first time in their now-intended order. I think this means my pre-baby break has officially begun.

All the baby items actually arrived sixty percent in tact and required very few tools and very little building. Still, once they were all together (and tested for their soundness) there was an audible sigh of relief. Not that being able to properly assemble Frankie's furniture means we'll succeed as parents but not being able to do so would surely have thrown a few things into doubt.

Babyfication of the livingroom

Mobile command unit.

Working Nine to Five

These last nine months have passed in a series of events that have marked our moving closer to Frankie: end of first trimester, hearing baby's heartbeat for the first time, Christmas holidays, second trimester ultrasound, beginning of third trimester, and now this - the end of work. Well, the end of this work and the beginning of something entirely new.

It's hard to believe that this day is here. I have watched the calendar closely as two months became one and as one dissolved into weeks and days. I have made lists of the calls to be returned, the e-mails to be sent, and the reports to be filed. And now I am sitting here with a rapidly shrinking to-do list and less than five hours left in this most familiar office and most familiar chair. Today when I turn out the lights and lock the blue door it will be for the last time.

I think it will probably take a bit to set in. This weekend will be like the others and I'll wake up Saturday morning and mentally work through what has to be done in the office on Monday only to realize that I won't be there on Monday and someone else will.

As always, when staring down such a vast expanse of empty time (yes five weeks is vast), I feel a bit anxious. Fortunately I still have lists! Lists of things that have been put off over these last eight months when all I could think of doing at five o'clock was laying down and cuddling the test babies. Lists of things that I most especially haven't had the energy for in the last two months. Sewing tiny baby pants and knitting tiny baby blankets and reading books about how to make sure that tiny babies are well-nourished. Oh right and building myself a new Mac. Boo.

This Old House

I wonder if this house - our lovely and warm and kitty-filled home - will be Frankie's childhood house.

Last week when we were driving near a place I once lived I realized that that old white house on the hill, the one that cost less than most people's cars and endured this rowdy bunch for a short four years, was my childhood house. Somehow all of the best memories of my first twelve years have been transplanted there and every book I've read since has unfolded in that place with its wood stove, ceiling beams and winding drive.

Had we stayed for another year or two so much of the awe that is locked within those four walls would surely have dissipated. Maybe that's the trick: leaving these special spaces behind so that they remain forever greater in our imagination.

Whether we stay right here, sheltered by the towering birch in the backyard, or find the perfect little place perched on the coast, I hope Frankie one day feels the same sense of contentment and wonder when looking back on the places that we all passed through together.

Guess Who Got a Video Camera?

And guess how the very talented R spent his afternoon?



(Mind the watermark - we're working on that)

The Deep Dark Woods

I think I'd go to church if they were the choir.



Kind of in love with this song.

Mac Book Blues ... Again

I came home on Wednesday night with a frantic amount of work to finish before bed. I settled myself in at the kitchen table with my laptop and a big glass of water. I smothered the test babies in affection and then walked away. Less than a minute later I heard the gushing sound that I knew could only be the mixing of water with laptop.

One of the test babies has a fear of full glasses. Or he must because he feels the need to stick his little paw into any glass he sees, releasing its contents for further inspection. After two seconds of sniffing, and a determination that the liquid was neither cheese nor tuna flavoured, he walks away.

And so today the laptop (which won't turn on) is destined for the laptop doctor and I am destined to hang around Rob's computer with puppy dog eyes waiting for my turn. I feel like I have lost an arm or something.

Shortly after the incident (like three minutes after) Rob ever so bravely hinted that I should have known better than to leave the test baby, laptop and water unsupervised in the same room. While this may be true (may) these sort of reflections, followed by hearty shared laughter at my costly absentmindedness, are best reserved for one full year after the incident when I am again fearlessly computing and not considering trading the guilty test baby in for some salt reduced bacon :)

The Inheritance of a Shoe Fixation

Three good reasons little humans should have six feet:

Too much cute this close to lunch.

Got a Light?

Dear Frankie,

Happy easter! Happy bunnies! And happy happy chocolate! We should probably warn you now that you will have to endure reflections on this exceptionally warm easter weekend each time the egg and bunny holiday rolls around again. No complaining: it beats the uphill, four miles, no shoes to school pep talk.

Last year we ate our cadbury cream eggs while strapping on boots, scraping off cars and mumbling unpleasantries under our breath. This year there are buds on the bushes, tulips in the flower beds, and we've replaced the cream eggs with mint oreo blizzards. We sat on the balcony, drank lemonade and imagined you in a sunhat at the beach with sand stuck to your chubby little fingers (you've probably noticed that we kind of like imagining you).

Here is a rundown of the weekend's other lovely adventures in pictures:

We went to a very sweet baby shower for you and your soon-to-be cousin! This is what happens when you move to the nicest island in the nicest province and become part of the most thoughtful family. Also, you now officially have more clothes than your parents.

At this shower we were treated to some classic photos of your dad.

Hold onto these as get-out-of-jail-free cards.

The next day your dad wanted to get a feel for your new baby tote.

Your fur brother wasn't as keen on this idea.

He was excited, however, to model some of your new attire.

This is his excited face.

Your other fur brother was also obliging excited.

This is because he knows that bibs precede food. He googled it.

Your dad had lots of help this weekend measuring and cutting and painting the world's most well-fastened railing. This is your dad's friend Michael. Michael is kind of new to home repair.

That's better Michael.

All topped off by delicious easter dinner and a very sweet treat from your Nanna and Granddad!

$15 Chair + $3 Cotton =

Thrift Win

For You a Thirsty Kitty

Oh blog. We've been together such a short time and already it seems I am neglecting you. Look at the last two posts - separated by a full week. But here's the thing: I have nine days of work left. Nine days! I know this sounds wonderful except that I have twenty-three days of things to wedge into these nine days. So if I am slightly less attentive in the next two weeks it's not because I've found another blog or decided to start a paper journal or anything like that. And just think after the sixteenth it will be all you and I and test babies and Say Yes to the Dress and knitting and gardening and getting ready for Frankie. Doesn't this sound lovely? In the meantime please enjoy this funny video of a cat and a tap.