My version of nesting...

Isn't this about the time when "nesting" starts to occur in pregnancy?


With only 6 weeks to go (or so) I should be starting the nesting process......no?


Do we have the cribs set up? No


Do we even have 1 crib set up? Nope

Do we have 2 car seats and a stroller so we can at least bring these boys home with us? No...and No

What is wrong with me? I should be shopping, cleaning, prepping meals to freeze, getting organized for the hospital, isn't that normal nesting stuff?


My version of nesting has been this....

Purchasing a 58 inch plasma TV...... for all of the TV we will be watching in the next year!!! HA!

Next on my nesting list? A 32 inch plasma for my home gym. Did you know finding one with a built-in DVD player is very tough work! This will be for all the working out I'll be doing in the first few months after delivery....double HA!

Also on my list is an area rug for Cole's play area (any suggestions?) as well as getting a few more pictures hung up and figuring out our steam shower in the basement bath (for all of the nice loooooong showers I will be having in a few months.....triple HA!)

See? Totally absurd and will likely bite me in the butt in a few weeks...mobility these days is slowing down....I keep saying I need to put my feet up....I can only imagine what another 4 weeks of growth will do to me!

I am done work as of the end of the week, I'll be off until February so I am making a promise in the next 2 weeks to get everything set up! No more excuses!

Kami, by the time you come out to visit I WILL have both nursery rooms ready to go, all cute and neat....with pictures to post!

Sneak Peek!

Last weekend a friend of ours (who just quit her day job to do photography professionally!)met us at this fantastic Corn Maze just outside the city for a photo shoot. She was scouting locations and I had not done professional shots of my "boys" in years! When she asked to take our picture, I was eager to say YES!

I did get a few of just me too...no worries....we will see how those turn out! Touch and go if ya know what I mean when you're sporting heels and a belly in 30 degree weather (gosh I hope she can photoshop pit stains out!!). Anyways, thought I would share a sneak peak of 2 pics....the rest should arrive in a few weeks. We were there for 2 hours, MANY photos were taken...it'll be neat to see how many are useable, thank god for digital.

Here's Cole.....we had a good laugh as the night before he tripped on the stairs of our deck (note to self: make sure his towel is not longer than he is!) and he cut the inside of his top lip...poor monkey had a tough time smiling but pulled through (maybe it was my ice cream bribe?)

And, here we are in a fantastic farmers field. I'm sure no one minded us tramping through the crop (it was already cut, no damage done!)

I think my friend has a great career ahead of her.......

Pool, Pool and more Pool

We are having the BEST September weather, it feels like July around here.

Today, Cole and I ventured to the zoo....after 1 hour we looked at eachother and decided to head home and swim...it's hot, the animals were all hibernating in the shade and I was tired of toting this belly around in the heat.

The pool makes me feel boyant....like I have no belly! I have been swimming laps most days. Cole tells me (as he sits and eats his popsicle!) what stroke to do for 10 laps at a time...for some reason he insists on the butterfly stroke. I kindly told him that mommy needs some better ab muscles to do any more than 1 lap at a time for that stroke. I have been managing to get in 100 laps...with lots of breaks.

The pool was a huge deciding factor for Tim and I when we bought the house. I grew up with an inground pool. Weekends were spent creating obstacle courses in the pool, having friends come over, or just lounging the day away.... All of this on top of the competitive swim practices I endured 5 days a week. Split ends, faded hair coloring and itchy skin were clear signs that we LIVED in chlorine and loved it!

Tim played water polo growing up and loved to swim, but he did not have a pool. Instead he had a nicely grassed back yard! He loved having grass to cut and a lawn to kick around a soccer ball or play catch in.

This house has NO grass in the backyard. Pool and stamped concrete. BUT the pool is a salt water pool and I can attest that there is minimal maintenance required. A water sample once a week determines if we need to adjust the salt (ie: throw a bag of pool salt in the water). It took Tim 15 minutes to vacuum the pool, and this was after 3 weeks of swimming.

Cole has made huge progress with his swimming this summer and we've been able to take the water wings off and watch him doggy paddle his way across the shallow end. Zipping down the slide and doing cannonballs off the diving board are routine now...I can even relax poolside with a book while he swims...can you imagine the luxury I will be taking advantage of over the next few weeks!!!! Weather dude...keep it nice outside...for me!

It's a personal choice, but I truly believe we purchased the best home for our little family....I will likely have these twins in the water next summer...I just may need to grow another arm to manage everyone!

New ultrasound pics

My mommy went to the Fetal Assessment clinic and all she brought back was a few pics of some feet!

Can you see it??? I turned the pic upside down for a better shot!!!

Maybe baby B will "pose" for us...

Nope, another foot.....I did see alot of heart, bladder, pee pee, kidneys, brain, spine...etc... and a few face shots but there was NO cooperation today...I should have warned these boys about the photo shoot....

Good news is I have another one in a few weeks....

Even better news is that each baby is measuring perfectly and each one is weighing 3 pounds.

The best news is that Cole came in with me (Tim was on a conference call all morning) and the look on Cole's face when he watched the babies moving was priceless. He was sitting next to me holding my hand, kissing my face, and asking the ultrasound tech ALOT of questions. Afterwards we went for pancakes....it was a great morning.

I feel relieved today, as the due date draws closer and the unknown awaits us, I find my anxieties mounting...my struggle with infertility has made me cautious, you will not find me giddy with excitement right now, I just want everything to be OK....

So far, everything looks just fine. I may sleep well tonight.

Potty Talk

Nope, Cole is fully potty trained, no worries...this is ADULT related!

Something happened this weekend that made me start to think about how different we (meaning Tim and I, not all encompassing..) live then how my parents and uncle live. While at first I was FUMING over the event, once I settled down, had a chuckle and moved on, I realized that the behaviour, while competely irrational and weird on my uncle's part, was not "intentional". He is who is is......all 78 years of him.

An uncle who is 78 you ask?

Yes, my mom has 2 brothers who are 14 and 15 years older than her.... you could call it an "oops" on my grandparents part, but I call it a blessing...their "mistake" turned out to be their only girl, the only one who went to college and became a professional, and the only one, who at the end of their lives., sacrificed every free moment she had to take care of them.

By the time my mom was a teenager, my uncle was almost 30, married with 5 kids. He was a railway worker, barely making ends meet, while my grandpa worked as a blacksmith and my grandma washed floors at Eatons Department store for 25 cents a day...can you imagine?????

My mom on the other hand became a teacher, married a CA and thrived financially and socially. We were spoiled in terms of always getting new school clothes, friday night "treat nights" at the local pizza place, family trips, first cars....very different lifestyle from my uncle and his kids.

So onto the "event" . Over the past few weeks, my parents main floor toilet was on the fritz...my uncle wanted to try fixing the 25-year old toilet and they let him try. No luck. Tim, Cole and I were over last week and noticed the toilet was STILL not in use. A few excuses flew around like" I'm renovating this bath soon so no need to replace it yet" . This is where I start to see some major generational differences.

Tim and I:

• Just replace the toilet! You can pick one up for $150 at Homedepot
• Tim will install it for you, he is handy like that!

My Parents:

• No
• We will replace it when we redo the flooring in this room
• It still works, you just need to do this, this and that...10 minutes later you can flush!

I pulled my dad aside later that night and told him that a main floor bath should be in working condition. It's the bath most people use, visitors use, and at 64 years old, you have the money to put in a temporary toilet, even if you renovate and no longer need it (there are 4 other baths in the house with old toilets that could certainly benfit from this!)

So while they were in Ottawa this past weekend, Tim and I installed a new toilet for them. We were replacing one of ours with a fancy dual flush (thanks MB hydro for the efficiency credit!) so we took our 6 year old toilet over and 20 minutes later the "beast" was replaced. A quick trip to our secret dumpster and all evidence was gone!

Now here is where I REALLY get peeved....

I called my uncle to inform him that we replaced the toilet, in case he went over to the house and noticed..I was expecting a simple "oh good, I tried to fix it but it was obviously broken"

NOPE

This is what I got....

"Why would you do that! I just put in a new part for that toilet!"

So I offered to reimburse him for the part, my apologies, I had no idea....

"That is NOT the point Cheryl, your father could have used that part on another toilet"

But Uncle, that part did not work in that toilet, so chances are it will not work in the other 4 exact same toilets...

"Where is the old toilet"

In the dumpster Uncle

"Which dumpster? I am going to get that part"

ARE YOU FRICKIN KIDDING ME??????

I pretty much hung up the phone, I think shock and confusion had set in, the anger and irritation came later..I called my dad to explain and ask him about the cost of the "part".

3 dollars.

My uncle was willing to get into a dumpster and remove a $3 part from a 25 -year old toilet.......

I am not sure whether to laugh or cry. Is his generation THAT afraid of throwing away $3? Is my generation too quick to throw away $3? We spent more than $3 in gas getting from our house to my parents. Tim spent more that $20 on parts and his time on a saturday afternoon lifting and trashing a 60 pound monster.

Was a simple thank you not in order?

Help me bridge the generational gap here...I feel like common sense and has been "flushed down the toilet" this time.

Meet the teacher day!

Today was meet the teacher at Cole's school!

Many people told me to bring tissue.....I was preparing for some emotional, heart wrenching experience..

No tears were shed though....only laughter and pride. Why would I be sad? My boy has made it to kindergarden! I have done my job staying at home these past 5 years...spending all of my free time playing, teaching, conforting, exposing and most of loving him.....he is ready to go to school. For me, I can't shed tears over such a great moment in his little life so far. It makes me happy to see this little red headed munchkin at 6 months....

Get himself dressed and ready, smiles and all at almost 5 years old

His teacher secretly "tested" him by asking various questions, Tim and I were sitting close by (pretenting to read the school newsletter we were told to read) but with one ear snooping, we were able to hear the following:

Teacher: Cole can you count to 10?

Cole: yes, in english, french or spanish?

Teacher: Oh, english is fine.

Cole: Ok, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10...I can keep going if you want me to...

Teacher: Ok!

Cole:11,12,etc.....51, 52

Teacher: Ok, that's enough!

I think he passed the counting test....ask him to print and you get a whole other story!!

Smile and hugs and a "see you Tuesday Miss Dearing" and we were off! Very uneventful....

I sure hope this excitement for school carries through until he's finished university......I know dream on....I just want it to last as long as it can.....

29 week pics

A few special requests for the massively growing belly.....so here you go!


Rear shot...a bit "expanded" but if carrying boys means carrying it all out front, I have lived up to that old wives tale!







Side shot...my 27 inch waist has grown to 37 inches!!! Good lord!!! My belly button is begging for mercy....





No news on my "issues" down below. I see the ID department at the hospital again this week. I feel like a patient on that show "house". While the doctors are quite intrigued, I am more concerned about my impending delivery and what could potentially get passed onto these babies. Well they have 9 weeks to figure things out... let's hope the medical system can speed things up for me!