The Winner Takes It All...

Okay, I feel the need to brag here. This holiday season we went to a potluck Christmas lunch hosted by our friends Rich & Trina in downtown Toronto. Not only was there amazing food as well as lovely people present but Trina and Rich also hosted some party games!

Here is the game that I was game for: Start with an empty cereal box and cut the top flaps off that would usually keep the box closed. Then put said box on the floor, standing it up so that the open end is at the top. Recruit people to put their hands behind their back and somehow find a way to pick the box up with their mouth, without using their hands to stabilize themselves. Whoever can do it moves onto the next round. However, before the second round starts the box gets cut in half horizontally so that the top lip you have to pick up is much closer to the ground. Repeat until there is hardly any lip left on the box (essentially all that will be left over is the bottom piece on the floor with a tiny edge).

Well....I won the game! I won the game! I beat people who were not pregnant! I know it is ridiculous to be so proud but it was really, really hard. Every time I did it I had certainly raised my heart rate (and there was that one round where I fell flat on my ass after picking up the box) but I won! I even got a chocolate bar as a prize. I may not be able to drink but I still know how to party.

24 weeks

Apparently, there's a baby in there somewhere...

Kicks

Last night was the first time that I felt Bean kicking. JJ had been feeling them for a while, but the dancing evidence had eluded me. But there they were, little taps and nudges against my palm. We'd shake Bean around a bit to get some reaction (poor thing) and wait for the prods, smiling from ear to ear and looking into the middle distance to concentrate.

I still can't quite make the connection that there's a little thing inside JJ that's causing all this. It's the difference between knowing about and knowing. I'm still at the knowing about stage, and I suppose I may well remain there until Bean actually sprouts. Yet feeling the kicks for the first time was the closest I've got so far, both figuratively and literally.

Nursery Decor - (if I'm lucky)

Even though we have not done a single thing in the nursery I think that I sort of have it finished in my mind. The room is small and I know that all we will be able to fit in there is a rug, crib, change table, one shelf for books/toys and a rocker for me. The room itself is painted in a lightened up version of a brown paper bag shade which I have finally decided will have to go. Also, since we do not know the gender of this little kicking machine, we will have to keep things somewhat neutral.

I also want to keep things fairly cheap. Cheap sounds like a dirty word to use in a nursery but frankly, i know that the kid will only someday happily chew, spit up or draw upon most surfaces in this room.


Imagine my joy to find a set of 12, yes, 12 prints by artist Suzy Ultman for around 26 dollars for the whole lot! They are great graphic prints of snails with houses on their backs and kites with cute moustaches. Top a few of these off with the $6.00 'RAM' frames from IKEA and the decor is done. I'll pull a color from one of the prints (orange? green? yellow?) and get some paint mixed to match for below the chair rail in the room and leave the top half of the wall white.

We have also picked out a slim-lined rocking chair from IKEA since the room is so narrow and all other chairs seem to be honking-large and over $1000. You have to imagine this one with the wood bits painted out white or some other colour, but its really comfortable and quite perfect in my eyes.The only really major endeavor that I am going to attempt to tackle is making my first quilt. I can sew, so I figure that a quilt can't be that hard, can it? Yet I know in my mind this may end in many nights of tears. I have the pattern and most of the fabric for Denise Schmidt's 'Single Girl' quilt and am going to attempt to sew this beauty up. I may even make my way down to The Workroom here in Toronto where they have 'Quilt Sundays' the last Sunday of every month for help and support.

Wish me luck and keep me in your prayers! I'll post some photos if I ever get around to actually doing anything...

Week 20 - The Joint Is Jumpin'

Well, I have to say that up to the past few weeks I was starting to believe that pregnancy was going to be one long exercise in pain and moderate levels of anger. I just was not enjoying it. I don't know what I had expected pregnancy to be like but I guess that I thought that at some point it might be, well, fun. I have to say that since the morning sickness has subsided and the 'round ligament pain' has ceased things are indeed more pleasant. The payoff has indeed arrived though, in forms of what I can only assume are punches, kicks, flips, turns and possibly dancing.

Every morning and evening I spend a little time feeling this little one moving around and sometimes it gets me so excited I have a hard time getting myself to sleep. I absolutely love the feeling. The sensation does make things slightly more real but I am still in a bit of denial that I am pregnant at all. It's sort of like when you get a new haircut and see yourself in the mirror later in the day expecting to see the 'old' you but you get totally surprised at your new look. I still get a bit shocked when I see my belly in the mirror. Yesterday however I boarded the streetcar carrying three large-ish bags and a lady gave up her seat for me because of my belly! This, in my mind, makes me 'officially' pregnant.

First minor baby (non) disaster

One thing you might have expected on this blog so far is a picture of the ultrasound. Yep, that would be a good thing to share on a blog like this, and we certainly had the ultrasound. As you know.

And yet, alas and alack, somewhere between the clinic and the house we managed to misplace them. Sorry peeps.

In lieu of the photo, I've made a little drawing that looks similar.

18 week ultrasound

We (JJ, The Bean and David) had our 18 week ultrasound today. The friendly ultrasound lady checked whether all the bits were there and were roughly the right size and were doing what they should be doing. (They were). Bean waved a little bit, pushed his/her feet against the walls a little bit, and yawned a bit.

Bean's heart beat at a runner's pace, four spaces contracting and expanding like a playground paper choice-maker. Bean's fine vertabrae slotted in line along its little spine, rib cage all present and correct. A filigree 3 centimetre-long thigh bone was moved around occasionally, moving into space. Bean's brain was peered into.

It was all quite staggering.

We left the lab and wandered back to the car. Well, JJ and I wandered, Bean floated.

The baby's a coming! The baby's a coming!