See? I told you!

I mentioned in my last post that I was feeling a lot bigger than last time, well, here's the proof people! I even wore the same clothes (which were my some of my fav's last time and don't fit right this time) and stood in the same place, although you'll notice the kitchen has a significantly more "lived in" look this time around. Here I am in early December 2007, around 26-27 weeks pregnant with Norah, and thinking a kitchen renovation was a big deal...
Now here I am tonight, with 88 days to go - and my first belly pictures of this pregnancy. Note how my shirt doesn't come down over my belly already!

And now, because things will really only be all about Norah for a few months longer, here are a few gratuitous shots from the past few days... here she is, looking all Matt, hamming it up for the camera at bedtime tonight

Here she is this past weekend, ready to head to a neighbour's birthday party - no nap? No matter!

And lastly here is our little miss, looking so grown up, helping mom grate some cheese for supper one night last week.

How Do You Feel?

Let me tell you people, I feel PREGNANT.

I feel like this is one of the most common questions I've been asked a lot recently, and honestly, I'm not sure how to answer it. Or frankly, I'm not sure if you really want my honest answer! I'm uncomfortable, I'm tired, my belly has been in the way for a month already and I'm not able to walk as long or as far as I want, nor am I able to carry Norah as much as I want. But I'm happy, and Brudder appears to be healthy, so I'm not complaining. (Well, I am, but those complaints are minor in the big scheme of things...)

It's amazing how different two pregnancies can be, but in a way, maybe it's not. Before we conceived Norah, we were (comparatively) foot loose and fancy free - spending weekends hiking, evenings at the gym or going for a run. I was also in a funky place work wise, where I wasn't very busy, and spent a lot of time working from the sofa - and certainly it wasn't stressful, except the wondering if I'd have a job or a fat compensation package.

This time around, work is not only busy, and occasionally very stressful. I need to not only keep up the pace for all my work between now and August, but also need to do as much of my September to December work as I can before I go. We've 'hiked' a little, but nothing like before, and work-out? What's that? Between Matt's commute and Norah's needs, it's hard to find time to do laundry, let alone get to a gym before bedtime!

I'm also carrying a lot different, lower, and all belly. I looked at a picture of myself at 26 weeks with Norah, and while my belly was much rounder and protruded less, I was generally bigger all around. So, it's not my imagination, my belly IS getting in the way earlier! I asked the doctor about how much harder things feel physically this time at my appointment yesterday - she smiled kindly as she told me she hears that a lot, but it's no reason for concern.

So yesterday, as the temps and the humidity neared 100 and I waddled down to the lake for a swim, I thought "Boy, it's going to be a long summer" But you know what? I may as well get used to it, because I don't want Brudder showing up before he's due - may as get used to this pregnant feeling!

Norah News: Big Sister Practice

I really think Norah is going to be a great big sister. After our morning snuggle, she pointed to the crib and said "Baby Bed, for Brudder - ME Brudder!" She also chatted away about what colors to paint her new room (orange), and his new room (yellow). Later, after breakfast, she was showing some big sisterly instincts as she cuddled with her baby in her carrier - like Mommy has for Brudder.

The real kicker was when she stood in the middle of the kitchen where the light is good (and where I often ask her to stand so I can take a picture) and said "Take picture Mommy!" Not wanting to disappoint, here's what we got... do you think this girl likes the camera or what?

I'm not complaining - yet

I was supposed to be stacked with meetings this morning from 9 am to 1 pm, so I had Norah on the fast track this morning and we left the house around 8:10 – plenty of time for me to get the 7.5 miles across town to the office – heck, I even stopped for a coffee! Luckily, I didn’t slug it… more on that in a moment.

Seeing as it’s spring time, there has been a lot of road and utility work going on, making the ride to work a little congested at times – buy hey, I’m not complaining – Matt drives 50+ miles each way on high-traffic highways! Still I figured I had plenty of time. I was stuck in a long line at some random intersection and didn’t think much of it, thinking it would be quick as most of the utility stops are, what, with at least 2 cops directing traffic (and collecting overtime no doubt!) in each direction… again, I’m not complaining.

When I got to said intersection, I was a bit surprised to see that it had been a train holding us up, but I wasn’t complaining, it had just moved on and traffic was starting to flow again. Just as I got into the intersection, the gates came down again, and the train started to roll back from whence it came… still not complaining, I’ve got plenty of time to get to my meeting. After about 15 minutes, I really needed to use the bathroom (I’m 6 months pregnant remember) and when the train crawled to a stop, I thought about complaining, but really, what would be the point? So I listened to the radio while the train went back AGAIN in the other direction… after a total of 25 minutes, we move on… the kids in the schoolbus on the other side of the tracks are late but I think I can still make it. No complaints here, I might even get to the bathroom!

While enjoying this 25 minute respite, I had been reading email and whatnot on the blackberry and somehow managed to lock it up, so I needed to reboot… still not complaining, as I’m going to be back in my office before the meeting starts anyway. Two more sets of utility workers plus road construction outside my office later, the blackberry is rebooted and I can finally dial in at 9:10 am. Not too bad, except I really really needed to use the bathroom by the time I pulled into the parking lot and it was coming up on my turn to speak.

I made a quick decision to go for the nearest door rather than my usual entrance, since I knew it had a bathroom at the top of the stairs. Now, I’m not as fit as I once was, not to mention I was carrying my phone, laptop, my purse, my coffee, my lunch and Brudder. Wouldn’t you know it, just as I huffed my way to the top of the stairs, it was my time to speak… so I did, a little out of breath, in the landing and without the benefit of being able to see the material I prepared. While I was glad to get that over with, all I really cared about at that instant was getting to a bathroom. So I dashed in to the nearest one, dropped my phone (meeting still going on via speakerphone) laptop, purse, lunch, and coffee on the counter (held on to Brudder) and ran into the nearest stall. Ahh relief! There was a lady already in there who laughed and said “Now that’s multitasking”

Multitasking indeed, not that I’m complaining.

Brudder's Baby Pool

No silly, not the kind you swim in, the kind where you cast your bets! The best thing about this pool is that it's free! Of course the prizes for the winner are equally compelling, but come on, join us and have a little fun with it.

You may recall the big pink paper on the wall of our living room in the weeks leading up to Norah's arrival: It tracked projections from many of our friends and family about when, exactly Norah would show up, how big she'd be, some proposals for names, and even whether she was a girl or a boy. Well this time, we know we're having a boy, but we're also going high tech!

Well now that we're firmly into the third trimester, it's time to kick off one for Brudder. We're going high tech this time, check it out. -->>> Look over there, to the right, just under the countdown, it's Brudder's Baby Pool... oh, OK, here's the link. It's pretty self explanatory, so I'm sure you can handle it. As an added incentive, I will let you know that we have not definitively chosen a name for him yet, so we *are* open to suggestions.

Monday Mornings...

Well we are getting really close with the final house specs and drawings, and Matt's been working really hard on them, but as happens, life get in the way sometimes. On the up side we got to know a couple of sets of neighbours a little better, looked after some sketchy trees in the way- back yard, went to a birthday party, and Norah and I had some quality time with such activities as the ABC puzzle, counting acorns, planting a flower and playing the drums on a flower pot with all kinds of random sticks! We also managed to replace our grill (that's our BBQ for those of you North of the 49th parallel) which literally melted last week! In any case, last night I was pretty uncomfortable and tired and went to bed more or less as soon as Norah did, while Matt continued to burn the midnight oil.

All of that to say, I was expecting a rough morning today, being as it's Monday and all. Instead, here's what I got:
Now, I ask you, how can you possibly have a bad start to your week when this is what you get before 8am on Monday?? As I mentioned previously, Norah's been into all manner of princess and girlie things lately, and this morning decided she was going to wear a purple costume to school. What you can't see is the tutu underneath that was her first offer in our negotiation about what she could wear! Needless to say, I know better than she does what's in her closet at the moment, so I was able to pull this flouncy little number out which seemed to satisfy her inner diva when paired with her 'diamond shoes' which are just as sparkly but a little more practical than the play shoes above.

I'm optimistic that it's going to be a good week!

Norah News: Following Daddy?

As you may know, Matt's been spending a lot of nights and weekends (and heck, all last week) working on getting the drawings finished up for our house renovation. We're close, very close, and we'll all be glad when they're done! Except maybe Norah.

In order to give Matt a bit of a head start on his evening work, I have been looking after bath-time/bed-time, part of which is saying goodnight to Daddy. Recently, Norah has taken a keen interest in what he's doing. Going back a couple of months, the house next door got a new roof. Norah has been pointing it out ever since.

So, we've told her that she's getting a new roof, and a new bedroom and one for Brudder too! She looks at the drawings, points to the roof in each elevation and says "New Roof, up there" as she then points to the ceiling. Then, she'll point out the doors, windows, porch and so on. Needless to say, this little architecture lesson has replaced the bed time story, for now at least.

Change of Schedule

Usually, Matt leaves around 5:30-6:00 am, I get up and showered before Norah wakes up. Sometimes I get a bunch of stuff done before I hear her, sometimes I hear her stir and jump out of bed and get showered before she's ready to get up. It's a system that works.

This morning, Matt left on the early side, and I was planning to work from home, so was going to get up on the late side - hey, I'm pregnant, I'll take all the sleep I can get these days - not to mention I am going to have to stay up until 11 for the season finale of Grey's Anatomy tonight... but I digress...

As I was saying, this morning Matt left early and I was snoozing hard when I heard her stir, but rather than jumping out of bed, I rolled over. That was a mistake. At 5:50, which is very early for Norah, she was calling out to me "mommy, Mommy, MOMMEEEEEE!" I knew I was sunk. Despite evidence to the contrary, I went in and tried to convince her it was still "sleeping time" but she called me on it "No Mommy, get UP!" Damn sun...I'm generally a little uncomfortable all the time these days and there is nothing I hate more than missing a morning shower... so I tried a new approach, which worked out even better than expected!

I said "Norah, Mommy needs to take a shower, do you want to come into the bathroom with me?" She said "yes!" and literally jumped out of bed! Better than that, she walked in to the bathroom and picked up her fish book (some fishing supply catalogue of Matt's) and then backed up to the potty, took off her diaper and proceeded to do her business - and I'm not talking about shopping for fishing poles. This was especially great because she's been very difficult lately for that first morning diaper change and not showing ANY interest in an early morning potty!

So it turns out we had a great morning, lots of time together, got dinner started, read some books, picked up around the house and still left for daycare and work a little early... the only down side is that the Sandal Saga of 2010 has begun, but more on that another day.

Norah News: Monkey!

It was definitely the right call to get the outside toys out - Norah and Jack have been having a ball before dinner the past couple of nights, coming inside last night only because it started to rain! Here's Norah with SOME of her fleet of vehicles
and here she is on her Kangaroo Climber, which so far has proven to be a bigger success than last year, although Norah is admittedly coming up with new and innovative ways to play on the thing - heading down the slide head first, dragging the toy lawnmower to the top of the slide and then attempting to ride it down, repeat with a toy bike... you get the idea.

I include this one even though it's a little blurry, so you can see how much bigger she is on it compared to last summer!

Camping Pictures

Here's Norah and I, on Mother's Day Morning... it was a little cool, but I couldn't be happier - not sure she was convinced at that point in time!
Here is a view from our 'rustic cabins' on Sunday morning... it was crisp, to put it mildly. Here's my friend Jen and her daughter, Samantha, along with Norah and I, enjoying the view, our coffee, and some great company!

Here we are, sampling our first roasted marshmallow... it was not exactly an instant hit - but I think she'll try it again!

Norah and Matt and Samantha and Jen, cooking up the aforementioned marshmallows...

You've seen the view of the beach from the cabins, now here's one of the cabins from the beach! Not bad eh?

Silly Shots

These are the kinds of shots Norah will clearly be annoyed with as she becomes a teenager, BUT since she only ACTS like a teenager from time to time and is not actually one yet, I'll have my fun by sharing these few from the past couple of weeks! In the first couple of shots, we were in the midst of packing up for our camping weekend. What you probably can't tell from the pictures is that it was about 50 degrees outside, dark as night and raining like crazy... so we were running around trying to find enough warm clothes to pack... Norah thought she'd try on a few items, on top of her PJ's

Here's what was left of today's church outfit by noon time... we finally pulled out all the outdoor toys and had to give them a bit of a scrub-down. The white tights lasted as long as the first grass stains, not sure when the socks were removed, and naturally, a ball cap tops things off! She ended up totally soaked as the toy-washing grew to include fence washing!

I pulled the next box of clothing from Norah's benefactor up from the basement today. Included with the boatloads of summer togs were a few new hats, and a couple of dress-up costumes - princess style. She's really taken an interest in all things princess-like lately. We haven't exactly encouraged it, but hey, if that's what she's interested in, we'll support her - as long as it's balanced and she still likes to play outside and get dirty. I don't think there is much risk, she's pretty much dragged one or the other of us outside several times this weekend! When we were done with the fence cleaning, above, she was overdue for nap time, so I asked if she wanted to go inside and get dry clothes on. She said "yes Mommy, but no nap, play outside!" Needless to say, naptime took a little (though not THAT much) convincing!

And here she is being the typical little girl, playing with her dolls, dressed up like the princess she is!

Buddies

Here are a a few pictures of Norah and some of her pals... first here is Norah and Samantha, chasing after a pigeon on our camping trip last weekend. Norah and Samantha haven't spent a lot of time together, but they seemed to have a lot of fun playing at the campground!
Here are the girls, taking a bit of a break in the action

Now, I know we're "not supposed to be her friends, we're her parents" and I do get that, but for now, she's two and she thinks I'm cool - at least some days! Here we are getting ready for the camping trip.

Norah had a really good pal who lives next door. Jack is just a couple of months older than Norah and they attend the same daycare. Despite the fact that they spend all day together, they are always VERY excited to see each other and play outside. In this picture, Jack and Norah are enjoying their Friday night supper together outside on our deck - a common occurrence around here in the nice weather as impromptu neighbourhood potlucks have become a weekly affair!

Mother's Day

On my first Mother's Day, Matt's mom made sure he realized it just might be a big deal to me. He heeded her warning, and got me nice silver "mother and child" bracelet that I've worn pretty much every day since.

On my second Mother's Day, Matt went out, not quite at the last minute, and bought me a pretty fancy digital photo frame. I liked it, and appreciated the sentiment, but we have a small house and no where to put it, so I took it back, and bought myself some shorts that fit - something I needed.

This year, my third Mother's Day, Matt apparently had a conversation with a couple of the neighbourhood women on Friday night that was something to the effect of "I'm sunk, it's Friday night, we're going away for the weekend, and I've got nothing" He couldn't have been further from the truth!

It's true that he didn't have any fancy gifts, nor was there any trip to a crowded and overpriced brunch. He gave me exactly what I needed - a family day with him and Norah. Things have been busy lately with plans for the house, Brudder on the way and work is busy. We're also working hard on not spending or acquiring things we don't really need - see the aforementioned baby and house projects!

We were 'camping' with some friends and their two year old overnight on Saturday - which was a blast - more on that later, including some pictures - and got up Sunday to a windy, sunny, and brisk morning. Matt got up and went outside to get the campstove (and more importantly, coffee and oatmeal!) going to get us warmed up quickly. After Norah finished, and I was chatting with our friends, Matt and Norah went off to sit in a chair by the beach - I love that view! A few minutes later, Norah came back, by herself and said "I have something". well inside her coat was a really sweet card she and Matt had just signed with crayons - delivery was everything!

There were other things throughout the day, but the highlight for me was a picnic lunch at some random municipal park on the way home. It wasn't a big or fancy, or even particularly nice park. We headed over to a covered picnic table only to find it was very windy and very cold. I suggested we sit in the grass, where it was more sheltered instead. Norah was immediately game for this plan, and was her most charming of charming selves - handing out cookies, her face covered in mayo and Oreo. When we were done, I laid back in the grass, which was in need of a trim. Norah also thought this was a good idea, and flopped onto her back as well - looking at me thru the grass, reaching out to see and touch me. Matt said later, that he enjoyed watching us, and that "it seemed like you really connected."

It was an amazingly sweet, touching moment in the middle of a beautiful day that will forever stay with me when I think of Mother's Day.

"My Hamburger!"

Heard from Norah, calling out in her sleep, at 4:45 am this morning.

Mom and Dad had a good laugh, despite the early wake-up call.

It should be noted that we have not had burgers since Monday

And then there were two!

Babies that is!

Two dear friends of mine have welcomed their baby daughters into the world recently. There was a short window of time where I had revealed Brudder's upcoming arrival and the first of the other gals babies hadn't yet made her appearance! As it happened, the only time got together during this time, was at Julie's Baby shower. That's Julie, on the right, who, at this time, was mere weeks from bringing Laurel into the world. On the left, that's Sue, who welcomed the much anticipated Claire just this past week! I'm happy to report that both babies are doing well!
I'm pretty excited that a couple more of my dear friends have joined the Mommy club and look forward to sharing and supporting them as our kids grow up!

Welcome to Claire and Laurel! Your friend Brudder is on his way!

Cousin!

As many of you know, Norah and Brudder won't be my parents only grandchildren for long - they will soon need to share the love with a cousin! We couldn't be happier for my sister Susan and her husband JM and are thrilled to post the first picture of Sweet Baby M!

Too Cute not to Post

After work and daycare yesterday, Norah looked so cute (at least in my eyes) that I had to take a picture. All I had on my was my blackberry, but Norah was happy to oblige and gave me a few good smiles. I was hoping for just one decent picture, but I think all of these came out great, so here they are. Think of it as Mothers Day filler for Nanny, who has been away all week and will surely be checking in here at the Bugle upon her return!

Here's our girl, stump-jumping! Her and her next-door neighbour buddy Jack love standing on the many stumps in our yard and jumping off - glad we never got around to renting that stump grinder...

Here she is, striking a pose, insisting that she carry her own backpack into the house!

First Beach Day of 2010 - May 2!

As temperatures soared into the 90's around our house on Sunday, we took off for the beach! It seems crazy that we had a beach day on May 2, but indeed, we did! Here's some proof of a great day spent playing in the sand and flirting with the edge of the (icy) water - although, Matt did go for a couple of quick dips! Hopefully it's a sign of a good summer to come!

The best part of the day was when Norah was running back and forth between the water and our home base, laughing her fool head off. She ran up to me and said "Mommy, I love it!" Next time I am thinking of putting down cash for Monkey George tickets, I'm going to put gas in the car, a cooler in the back and head to the beach instead - the bang for the buck was MUCH better!

Norah News: First Haircut

Norah had her first haircut this past weekend. It was one of the many things she did this weekend that made me realize how grown up she was getting! She handled it really well - though it didn't hurt that Matt was getting his hair cut at the same time! Here is the before shot -lots of fly-away baby hair (and plenty of length for her pigtails!)
Here's the after, looking short and sassy with her well earned lollipop! At first I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but I'm starting to really like it, and I think I'll like it more as it grows in just a little.

Next, a couple of shots of the process... here she is after the first snip, not too sure what to think...

Clinging to baby for support as things get started