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…is getting rather large. 36 inches to be exact. I freak out a bit every time I see myself in the mirror.

It may be a while before I have a chance to blog since things are picking up a bit. I have a buyer for mom’s condo so I will have to cancel the taxes, utilities, insurance and condo fees along with arranging everything for the sale with the laywer. It will be nice to have it finished but it’s quite a bit of work to arrange.

We’re taking prenatal classes wednesday nights (for the next 5 weeks) and we had the first class last week. I’m officially scared now. Maybe we can just skip the birth part and go right to the having the baby around part. The problem is that I don’t want pain medication unless it’s really necessary but it looks really painful. I keep hearing stories about people who said it was really difficult until they took the medication and then everything went fine. Also it’s interesting that the baby has to turn a whole bunch of times to fit through the pelvis, but I think Kicky will be a pro with turning, since she is always moving around! I hope that she will just wiggle her way out without too much work on my part … ok maybe that’s wishful thinking.

I am working through a yoga book I picked up and it’s quite helpful. Also the Yoga lessons on thursday continue to be helpful. I find just the breathing makes me so relaxed I fall asleep really easily so I am trying to do it just before bed and that helps a lot with being able to sleep better. But my back is really hurting a lot at work - no matter whether I stand or sit or how I put my feet. Most annoying.

I did go for a massage last Saturday and it was great. I will definately do it again!

Tyler sent us a cute/creepy Youtube video this week … check it out. Will that be me in a few months? Singing the “poo” song with Kicky? Where is my life going???

Speaking of poo, I spoke with a lady about cloth diaper service and it sound pretty good. I just have to check with my landlord and see if she is ok with us leaving the pail in the hall for pick up once a week.

Dan started school this week and so far it looks like it will be a good semester. His French class looks excellent - the material is at an appropriate level and the teacher seems very competent and enthusiastic. He also has a digital recording class which I hope he will kick ass in, and even the dreaded ear training seems ok so far (mind you it’s only been one day). It looks like we will manage alright despite everything.

We still have to figure out how to get her home from the hospital. I was really hoping we (Dan) could take her either in the sling or in the bassinet on the metro, but kind of get the feeling we should really get a car seat. Actually I think the hospital might require a car seat before letting us out! But it seems like such a waste to buy an infant car seat for one use, since she will probably grow out of it before she’s in a car again. Needs to be resolved.

We had an important revelation last weekend. We were at Joseph’s awesome birthday party last Saturday night and ended up talking to a couple who are expecting their first child within a month and also Joseph’s sister who has a 6 month old girl. The following evening we also chatted with the parents of a toddler and we learned quite a few important things, including that now is a good time to pack the hospital bag. We went out today to get a few things we needed (like diapers!) and it’s mostly packed now. There are a few things that need to be added last-minute but I have a list written on top of the bag so it should be quite straightforward.

We ended up getting the diaper bag we wanted last week. We went to a store on Queen Mary with the silly/cute name of Boutique Pinkiblue and were really impressed with what he had in stock. He had every skip*hop diaper bag model and even had the colour we wanted in stock. It’s so grown-up and nice looking have actually been using it to take my lunch & papers to work this past week!

My first yoga lesson went very well. I’m a complete novice to yoga and I wasn’t sure what to expect. When I was doing some of the stretches I was thinking “boy this isn’t comfortable, I’m not so sure about this” but afterward I felt great. Also it’s a good way to think about posture and breathing. On Monday evening also worked through some of the breathing exercises in the yoga book I bought but I was a bit distracted by Kicky who decided that Monday was going to be her “tickle mom non-stop” day and it was rather hard to focus on breathing with my tummy jumping around.

We also discovered the world of fancy wooden high chairs this week, including the Stokke Tripp Trapp and the Swan chair. We still have 7 months or so to decide what to do, but we’re both leaning toward the Stokke.

We had a discussion about how I was going to contact Dan when the time comes to go to the hopsital and decided we should both have cell phones. I used to have one two years ago but wasn’t using it and had no reception at work, so stopped using it and don’t even have my phone number anymore. It’s time to get a new phone (or phones) anyway since I was using the 4-year-old freebie super-crappy Nokia and phones are more than just phones today. Actually I have been really holding out for an all-in-one device since the late nineties since I didn’t want a phone, PDA, music player and various other gadgets jangling around in my purse or attached to my body. Every time Dan asked me if I wanted to get a phone/PDA like the Treo or more recently the N61 I was interested but a bit “meh” since it didn’t have all the features I wanted and I really hate the traditional cell phone interface which is so annoying, limiting and slow. For years we have had a discussion that one day Apple would create the great-grandchild of the Newton and make a phone/PDA device, so we were quite attentive to last week’s Macworld. Rumors were flying all over the net and sure enough, they finally did it. And I really want one. Stupid slow keypad? Gone! Stylus I am likely to lose in a week? Gone! Ability to phone, listen to music, check email, browse the web, look up maps all one device? Check! Big screen? Check! The only thing I don’t know about yet is how much access the user has to the OS (which is based on OSX of course). It would be really nice to be able to run an office program, at minimum editing text and spreadsheets. I can’t wait to try a demo. It is coming to Canada relatively soon from the sounds of it, but unfortunately not soon enough for what we need. Which brings me back from the iPhone ogling to the point of this paragraph: the phone situation. Dan went to a non-sleazy cellphone place (quite rare around here) by his school this past week and had a very good chat with the guy. Basically he lent us a phone until the phone we want (either the N80, N95 of iPhone, we haven’t decided yet) is in. At first Dan had the LG “chocolate phone” and found it so incredibly annoying to use he actually went back and asked for a different one. It was extremely non-intuitive and kept displaying error messages like “Please try again” when Dan tried to make a call or enter and address. So now I have Dan’s phone and his number set up on speed dial.

Last Sunday Dave and Sanan had a screening of Rivers and Tides, a film depicting the work and philosophy of Andy Goldsworthy. I was impressed.

I have a child safety/first aid course tomorrow, an all-day training session on Tuesday, a yearly review on Monday and a whole bunch of estate stuff to do next week. It looks like it will be a bit crazy.

We have started to make food and freeze it for April & May. Tonight we made Korean dumplings. Not sure what to make next week yet. So I should stop procrastinating and get to work planning the food.

It has been said that the 2nd trimester is the “honeymoon or pregnancy” since all the nausea and exhasution usually stop and one feels quite energetic. But looking down the barrel of the 3rd I can see a number of not completely welcome changes to come. I’ve been having a lot of trouble sleeping lately, partly because I get uncomfortable and wake up every time I turn over. Also my hips have been hurting after lying on my side for too long, but lying on my back isn’t comfortable either. In order to cope I bought a wedge pillow which helps a bit. I also found a “yoga in pregnancy” book at the consignment store by our place and will try some of the exercises in there. I have signed up to start my first yoga class next week, which should help a lot too. I am also eligible to claim 80% of the cost of massotherapy so have an appointment for a pregnancy massage in two weeks. Hopefully this will help me to stay confortable and keep relaxed as things get a bit crazy later on.

Check out this little interactive thing that shows in horrifying detail what happens as the baby grows. Notice what happens to the stomach! Ack!

Ever since we bought the espresso machine last summer there has been “talk” of getting a good grinder. It’s quite hard to get the coffee places here to give you a good grind for espresso (and as we have both learned it’s really important) so I caved and Dan picked up a grinder this week. It will really simplify the whole process and buying the beans is much cheaper. The funny thing is that the company who makes them has given the models human names, so the espresso machine is “Sylvia” and the grinder is “Rocky” (which is a bit of a silly one if you ask me, but some marketing guru must have though it was good). So anyway the really funny part is that it’s important to turn on the espresso machine beforehand to warm up the brass coil inside where the water will go and this has lead to a number of inevitable jokes about “turning Sylvia on” and the like. Funnily enough, Rocky is ready to go at the flip of a switch. I guess Rancilio knew what they were doing by picking the genders, anyway.

Dan also picked up some very nice espresso glasses this week. I was skeptical at first, but after using them I am a convert. They are the Bodum Pavina series and are wonderful in so many ways. There is a double layer of glass with an air pocket between them that insulates very well - no condensation for cold drinks. They are incredibly light (it’s like drinking out of an eggshell) and just look darned nice. I’m thinking of upgrading our juice glasses (which are reclaimed nutella jars, BTW) to these. They might make an appearance on the wishlist if I can wait that long!

Speaking of food, I have to say I am finally starting to learn to appreciate German food. Oddly enough there is a good smattering of German heritage in my mother’s family and at least according to my mom they ate typical German food as children. But my mother quite disliked it and set out to teach herself North American cooking when she moved out. She owned practically every Better Homes and Gardens cookbook from about 1960 to 1980 and had a collection of thousands of recipies, none of which contained cabbage or sausages. Dan’s family, on the other hand, has kept in touch with ther German cooking heritage and Dan has been slowly winning me over. Part of the trick is for me not to try and cook it, but to go to the German grocer on Queen Mary and buy everything pre-made. They make a mean saurkraut there as well as a delictable apple strudel that doesn’t contain corn syrup to sweeten it. Dan picked up some rouladen this week and although I was a bit skeptical at first they were actually quite nice. We also had spaetzle with some Jaegersauce (whatever it is - all the ingredients are in German and we had a hard enough time figuring out the directions). He also bought a roschti mix, which is a blessing since I tried making it on several occasions and have had nothing but frustration. Will try it next time.

Kicky listened to her first music this week. Dan bought some music by JC Bach (son of the more famous JS Bach) which is “nice and tonal” in Dan’s words. Of course she can’t interpret it at all, but it certainly can’t hurt. Dan has already started working on a master plan for her musical education!

I’m getting to have quite a large tummy these days and I can feel her moving around quite a bit now. There’s much less kicking and more stretching now. Sometimes she will stretch out more than one limb at once, which I can say feels quite strange. Sometimes she is active for half an hour or an hour at a time and sometimes I just feel her to a little stretch or turn over a bit, especially when I am sleeping.

We we finally made some decisions regarding a cosleeper. I initially wanted to get one of these but then saw this and thought it might be cheaper and simpler. But the more I read about SIDS and guidelines for infant bedding, the more worried I became that it would be too dangerous. The main concern is that our bed isn’t large enough so there wouldn’t be enough space between our pillows for it - I’m worried one of the pillows would end up on top of her. So then we were back to the cosleeper, but when we looked at the size of the thing it was far too large for our room, not to mention a bit expensive ($200 USD). So we decided to check out the children’s store across the street and picked up a very nice bassinet there, with a 20% off discout too. I’m still a bit concerned about the bedding in the bassinet posing a suffocation risk, and might take it out once we give it a try. The nice thing is that the basket lifts out of the frame so we can take it travelling with us. It is also made in Laval, so I feel quite good about buying something that’s made locally.

Next weekend we will go diaper bag shopping. We were going to buy one online but it was discontinued! While I really like the super-girly ones, I realise that Dan won’t have much motivation to carry it around so we will go for something simpler, probably like this.

In other exciting news, Dan was able to hear Kicky’s heartbeat this week with just his ear! I wish I could get my ear down there to listen too, from what he tells me she makes all kinds of funny gurgling noises when she moves around.

Photos just added to:
Christmas 2006
Montreal
Sherbrooke Apartment