Something Old, Something New ...

I started looking at dresses this morning for Josh and Jill's wedding. Curled up in quilts with hot coffee in a snow storm looking for July-appropriate attire. Perfect Saturday morning.

I wish July was sooner. Like next month. Because if May appears to be some impossible point in the future July feels like it might not happen again until 2020. As in ten leap years where July keeps getting the ditch.

I think this will be the best wedding of all the weddings I've attended (which is four). I can't believe how zen the planning of it has been. Like "Oh, what? Wedding? Oh that? That's all done". Having a dentist appointment the next day causes me to loose sleep. I'd be a ball of bouncy panic from the first dress fitting until three weeks after it was over and these two are as cool as a couple of James Deans.

In honour of Josher, his big day, his most perfect fiance and all of our excitement, some photos of a littler Josher:

Some Things Never Change Part One

Some Things Never Change Part Two

The Little Melon Belly That Could

For the first time today someone I didn't know asked me when I was due. Even though most of the time I look down and think "that's funny, I don't remember swallowing a melon" it was still a bit weird.

This makes it official - I look pregnant! Woo! I will have to post some pictures of Frankie and I in our gamut of stretchy clothes soon.

There was this one other time at Christmas (as in more than two months ago and I had no belly at all but we pretended I did so that we could have something to celebrate) when I was ordering Thai food at the mall and the woman behind the counter said "you are four months pregnant - is it a boy or a girl"? Weird times nine.

It Rolls Down Stairs Alone or in Pairs

Frankie turned 28 weeks today. In celebration I am having a Mars Bar. Okay the Mars Bar is more because I didn't pack enough Swedish Fish in my lunch but it is celebratory also. I eat fruit. I swear! Sadly I can't pass these sweets and all of their ancestors off as cravings. I have a sweet tooth the size of Gibraltar (except in the shape of a candy corn).

I think I looked something like this as a baby:

And will look like the girl-version of this in my retirement:

My dentist looks like this:

My only real cravings were for dairy products and only in the first few months. Like ice cream and chocolate milk. What? They have sugar annnnd dairy. I have a test on Monday for gestational diabetes. Eek. Not because of the candy corn tooth - its a standard procedure. And an appointment for a RhoGAM shot since I have O negative blood and Frankie may not. And on Friday a monthly check-in with my doctor. It is when I'm staring down these sort of weeks that I know I live in the most appropriate (insured) country in North America.

Happy 28th week pre-birth birthday Frankie! You have started to blink with your sweet little eyes and can sense sources of light from outside your tiny home. I think you probably squint just like the kitties when I turn the lamp on in the morning and we all force ourselves out of bed. You have soft little fingernails and are busy plumping up (just like me) for your outside arrival. I can't believe that it's been twenty-eight weeks, that you'll be here in less than three months and that nine months is not actually taking four years to pass (like it felt it might way back in September).

We will see you in less time than it takes Mercury to orbit around the sun. We'll be the ones who look something like this except as humans:

P.S. That song that your Dad sings about logs? It was written by these two.

Weekend Warriors

We made the trip on Saturday to Richmond County. Richmond is an hour and a half from us and 1.5 plus 1.5 plus 1 (for some time there) equals 8. What? We left at 1:30 and made it home just before 10pm and have no idea what the time-suck gods did with our day. But we got the furniture! I think even if it took 27 hours it would feel like a major accomplishment.

This was without the six hours that I would have added to the epic with a visit to The Dancing Goat. Boo. We did stop to have dinner in St. Peter's on the way back. It looks like St. Peter's has been taking part in one of those building facade programs where government teams up with local businesses to revive downtown streets - to give older businesses a face lift.

Great idea, right? Based on the exterior I prepared my taste buds for goat cheese salads, grilled portobello paninis and pomegranate iced tea. I was going to walk in and take a little bite of Toronto or Montreal. In the end their most popular dish (which somehow took an hour to prepare) was a nearly unidentifiable selection of deep fried fishes with gravy. I had a diet sprite.

Anyways, Frankie we are all set now so please feel free to come anytime. Okay, not really, since you're not too ready for the outside yet. We'll wait and pass the time wandering in and out of your room picturing you all curled up asleep in your crib with equal parts anticipation and amazement.

Change Table, Crib and Dresser

Surprises for R: Pages from a children's book (Out of the Deeps) written about Savino Calabrese, his grandpa. Savino started working in coal mines when he was twelve years old, worked in the mines for most of his life and then worked as a guide at the Miner's Museum in his retirement.

Somebody thinks we went and got all this furniture for him.

We spent most of Sunday doing work. Ick. Work-work and extra work like building websites (R) and editing books (me). I finally vacuumed my car and hemmed a pair of pants that had been sitting on my desk since Christmas. Knocking these two tiny things off of the to-do list rivaled my sense of crib-accomplishment. I think I have spent more time erasing them from my agenda and moving them to the next day than it took to actually do them.

I'm starting to suspect that this coming weekend will be filled with only knitting and olympics :)

The Littlest Birds

Even the longest of days can be washed away if you turn the Be Good Tanyas up loud enough and dress your test babies in human clothes.

From the Tanyas:

Well I feel like an old hobo

I'm sad lonesome and blue

I was fair as the summer day

Now the summer days are through

You pass through places

And places pass through you

But you carry 'em with you

On the souls of your travellin' shoes

Well I love you so dearly I love you so clearly

Wake you up in the mornin' so early

Just to tell you I got the wanderin' blues

I got the wanderin' blues

And i'm gonna quit these ramblin' ways one of

these days soon

And I'll sing

The littlest birds sing the prettiest songs...

I wish I could play it for you (I'm working on it). It's pretty catchy.

From the Test Babies:

I feel kinda bad calling these sweet little things test babies - since we love them way more than test anythings - but it's pretty funny. Herr Flick (the black kitty) is so sedate when someone's dressing him. I think if he could understand he'd actually help put his little furry paws through the arm and leg holes. Other kitty - not so much.