Odd Things 12

Really, I can't believe it's Friday again. The weeks seem to be screaming by! I'm 29 weeks now. Technically that means 11 weeks until my due date, but really about 9 weeks until I have babies. Here's my belly:
This shot is me placing the camera at chest level and pointing directly down. Yup. There it is.

Even holding the camera up and slightly away from me, my feet are still gone. Poof! See you in November!

So that's odd. My belly. Sure is. Looks pretty symmetrical in these pics though, I'll have to remember to take a pic the next time it's lopsided. Totally freaks me out. Another odd thing related to my belly? I can no longer fit in the stores in the mall. Seriously, yesterday in Please Mum, the lady actually pulled one rack out of the way so I could look at the new girly stuff. They know me there by now though so it's cool. I also went down to Claire's to see what they have for baby girl head adornments. I was a little afraid I was going to get stuck, because for a few weeks now I've only been able to go into that store if there are NO other customers. I have one path in and out available to me and if someone blocks that path I'm stuck.

The children in my belly are odd. They sure are. As big as I am now you'd think I'd be able to comfortable sleep on my side and just let my belly rest on the bed. No. Who ever happens to be on the bottom is not happy unless there is also a pillow under my belly. So not only are they squished by sister, they want to be squished by pillow. I'm definitely going to have to learn to swaddle!!

Last pregnancy related odd thing. I have never felt both 100% woman and 0% lady at the same time. There is no sitting, standing, walking, or transitioning between these activities in a lady-like fashion. No. It's all grunting, groaning, sighing, waddling, flopping, rolling, and generally not caring. But at the same time, I'm fully aware of my body and that it is in fact all woman! Honestly, I don't know how much more woman I can handle. I don't know how much more M can handle!! Here's a conversation my husband and I had last night:

Him: Are you OK?

Me: Yeah.

Him: Are you sure?

Me: Yes...Do I look terrible, pale or something?

Him: Well I just don't understand how you're not constantly in pain.

Me: Snort. (totally lady-like right?)

Last week my in-laws came for a quick visit! Here are X and A enjoying the bed we had in the living room first thing in the morning!

Not that I think that two kids enjoying a blow-up mattress is odd, but they were so cute playing together! A sat in the middle of the mattress while X crawled around her, making her feel unstable. They both laughed like loons for about 20 minutes. P.S. The dog is not real, but A loves him.

X gets very insulted at WestJet commercials. It's pretty funny. The one we see most often is the flat tire one. The last time we flew, it was with WestJet and they lost one of our bags. X took this as a very personal insult and when the narrator in the commercial indicates that WestJet "owners" are always willing to help he tells that narrator "that's not true because WestJet lost my stuff." It makes me laugh.

Last, but not least is more of a rant than an odd thing. Well, it's odd that these things get by news editors. When the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were in Canada for their first tour, I became a Royal watcher. I didn't read ALL of the stories, but I read enough of them. The CTV.ca news site had a couple of gems I need to share. The first: 'This is the first tour for the young couple during "their marriage."' What is the writer implying here? That "their marriage" is not real? It's all a big hoax. A publicity scam. Well done! The second was the story about them going to Yellowknife where 'a couple of hundred fans greeted them.' A couple of hundred? What's a 'hundred fan?' Why were there only two of these strange people to greet the Royal couple? And if they were both hundred fans, were they disappointed that it was Will and Kate who got off the plane? What were they actually expecting?

Ok, now you know beyond a doubt that it is actually me who is odd and nothing that happens to me need be out of the ordinary for me to call it odd. I do hope you keep coming back for more though!

Harry Potter and Beyond

You may, or may not, have been wondering where my promised blurbs about books and movies went. I think they're in my feet. My feet are certainly large enough to be hiding any number of missing items! The last couple of days have actually been a little uncomfortable, but after hours of keeping them in up, they can almost pass for normal again!

On to the subject matter! I'm a Potterphile. Books and movies both, I love them. 10 years ago my husband, then fiance, took his sister to the first movie, and then my boss convinced me that I NEEDED to read the books. Since then I've been hooked. So when M called from work and asked if I wanted to go on an impromptu late night date on Sunday rather than wait until later in the week there was really no question.
Ah Neville. Became all hotness just in time. The movie, as I'm sure you've heard is fabulous. So I won't bore you with my run down. It was great, you should see it, that is all. On the other hand, there were people around us that I wished had not made the decision to see the movie. For example. If you don't know who HAGRID is you should a)just be quiet and pretend or b)stay home in the first place. Do NOT "whisper" "Oh he's so cute, what's his name again?" No. This is not acceptable. And even if you are desperate for female companionship, do not "threaten" above mentioned girl with "You're lucky you're cute." Especially if I'm caught in the middle. Just not cool folks. P.S. it was dark. No real way to tell level of cuteness. Dumbness, no question.

Rant over. Happiness! As I mentioned, I'm a Potterphile, and since there are no more books, and no more movies, my logical next step was curiosity about what projects the main actors from the movies are working on. And here's the tie to a book review! One of the next projects Emma Watson is working on is a movie adaptation of the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower. I read a blurb somewhere that quoted her as saying as soon as she read the book she knew she had to be a part of the movie. So I thought, here is a Brown University educated person who seems to be making good career choices, so I read the book too!

I cautiously recommend this book. I'm trying to take my "audience" into consideration here. This book is not for everyone, a) it is published by Mtv Books, b)it's about high school. If you don't know what one is and haven't even thought about the other one in over a decade, I don't think you'll like it. But if you know anyone in high school, and are prepared for a very raw look at life in high school, I think you will enjoy it immensely. There is no smoothing over the issues, and no episodic solutions. The telling of this story feels very genuine and legit. There is also the added bonus of ease of read. If you have 4 hours to dedicate to this book, you will finish it. I am very much looking forward to Emma Watson's portrayal of "Sam."

Thank you!

Thanks for all the prayers! You guys are awesome, and God takes care of us! I'll be back later today! We're going yard saling! :)

Odd Things 11

I haven't posted anything this week, mostly because I haven't been my usual "upbeat" self. A little stressing happening this week, but we'll get through it! Just have to keep trusting and keep being true! So, if you pray, remember us, and in turn I promise to pray for all "my dear readers!" :)

Enough of that! I'm upbeat! Looking forward to what the next couple of months has to bring! Now for the oddness!

M found a super funny article about pregnancy! Warning. This article is not for those who have weak stomachs! But according to cracked.com I'm getting off very lightly on this whole pregnancy thing!

I am getting more and more afraid of going out. We had a surprise short visit from my in-laws this week, so of course we went shopping. M and his step-dad "watched" X while working on the car, and I headed to the mall with my mother and mother-in-law! Really, I should have just taken more rests on the benches. By the time we got through walmart I was thinking, "oh no, next time I go shopping I'm going to have to ask for the courtesy wheelchair!

I had to go through 43 pages of the scariest people on earth to get this gem, I hope you appreciate it!!

In addition to fearing the wheelchair, I also have little issues with going out such as people staring and my belly being bigger than I expect! You know how you lean against higher counters while waiting to pay? No. I lean, I'm still 18 inches away, and it always comes as a shock!

Belly rubbing. Apparently, according to my mother, I rub my belly excessively. Someone at church mentioned it and then, later when we were home, she agreed with the comment. So here's what I think. When I was pregnant with X, it was just X. When he moved I thought "hooray, baby moved!" Now there's two and when one moves I think "why didn't the other one move?" So I rub the other side until I feel the other baby move. Now it's just become habit.

Belly rubbing part two. I'm not trying to be harsh on my mother here, but she made a very joking comment about how I'd better not be favouring one baby over the other already by rubbing one side more than I do the other. She was totally being funny. But now I'm a little paranoid. I've been thinking through some recent events how much parents of each generation mess up their kids in a different way than the generation before them. Have I already messed up my kids while they're still in the womb?! I hope not, because I've got 18ish years of parenting that I can mess up ahead of me!!!

Random odd things.

We got a wrong number pocket call to our house phone at 12:17am the other night. Luckily it was one of the nights M's parents were here, so we were late getting to bed anyway. How do I know it was a pocket call? There was a lot of noise in the background and there were still buttons being pushed. How do I know it was a wrong number? The name on the caller id has called before looking for some guy. Why has he not deleted our phone number from his phone? This I don't know.

This morning at 5am I had to pee. I'm pregnant, this is a normal occurrence. I swung my feet out of bed and kicked my son in the head. This is NOT a normal occurrence. X does not sleep in our room. But there he was, blanket, pillow, and 2 stuffies laying on the floor. As soon as I moved he hopped up and grabbed his blanket and pillow and said he was just sleeping on the floor for a little bit, he could go back to bed now. Random!

I only have two weeks left with Miss A. This makes me kind of sad. She's pretty cute....most of the time. ;) For example. She sits on my lap throughout the day and every time I say babies, she rubs, or pats my belly. I hope this does not lead to any uncomfortable moments in the future for her parents. :)

That's be it for the moment. It's taken me almost three hours to get this done! But fear not! I have more to say, so I'll be back. :)

Odd Things 10?

I can't remember how many of these I've done now! But I think it's 10. I have a bigger list this week! I've been paying attention!

As I told my friend, Mamacita, I'm growing a twin-peaked mountain. The thing is sometimes the peak on the left is bigger, sometimes the peak on the right is bigger! Depends on who's pushing the most!!

Speaking of the belly, so far no doctor has measured my belly! Every one of my pre-natal appointments when I was pregnant with X included peeing in a cup, weight, blood pressure, the search for the heart beat (after 24 weeks as first dr. was scared he would fail and freak me out), and measuring my belly from top to bottom and keeping track of how much it expanded between appointments. This time around they do the weight and b/p, and my GP dr. looks for one heartbeat, but they send me to the lab to pee in a cup and don't care how much my belly grows!

When I wake up in the morning my hands are pins and needles. Doesn't matter if I'm laying on them or not. Not my arms, mind you, just my hands. Oh. And my knees. :)

Now for odd things pertaining to my son.

Someday he's going to hate how I keep pulling this picture out.

First, he has a plan for the zombie apocalypse. Have I mentioned he's 5? As I previously twittered, his plan is to stay in the house and throw pots at the zombies. What I did not mention is that his plan is for me to go outside to engage the zombies in hand to hand combat while he "helps" me by staying in the house and throwing pots. I don't know where my husband is supposed to be, maybe at work.

X believes he understands baby talk. He has been practicing by interpreting A for me for about a week or so. According to X, A is a very unhappy child who believes she is the boss and tells everyone to do what she wants them to do. For example. "Dadadadadadadadadadada" means "X, you should give me that toy that you are currently playing with because I want it, so I get it because I am the boss." Likewise, "gah" means, "Mary-Anne, would you kindly change my diaper? I believe there may be a slight odour." Assuredly this talent will come in very handy in a few months.

And last but not least, this odd thing is super special. You know how in grade 9 we learned about subliminal messages? In grocery stores they make sure you can smell the bakery as soon as you walk in to make you want some fresh baked evil pastry or something? Well I'm pretty sure when X walks into a grocery store instead of turning into a bread-craving shopper, he turns into
Totally scary right? The kid totally goes mental. He runs, tap dances, slides, runs into displays, tries to hide in displays, talks to people, asks me what random people are going to do with "that" (whatever is in their cart), talks a mile a minute, wants to ride the cart, wants to jump off the cart, asks for very odd things (like a can of sliced okra, I don't even know what that is!), wants to "help," runs away, starts following other random families, and generally does not listen. It's not like he's overtly bad, he's just all of the sudden super charged with insani-energy. I thought maybe it was just me, but my mom took him grocery shopping early this week and he did the same thing to her! As soon as they walked into the grocery store he went bananas. She thought it was her. But we've compared notes and it's the grocery store's fault. I think in a couple months M and I are going to have to flip for who gets to go grocery shopping and who gets to stay home with the kids!!

Our Canada Day Adventure

Ok. I think I've recovered enough to tell you about our Canada Day celebration. Maybe. It being a Friday, I was pretty excited to sleep in, but M had to work early in the morning. When I had to pee about 1/2 an hour before his alarm went off, I felt pretty bad about disturbing him, so I decided to stay up until he woke up and look up the times for all the events planned before I went back to bed. Of course X somehow got the telepathic message that one of his parents was up before him and this is just not right anymore, so he woke up. I convinced him to go back to bed since it was so early, but he took the DS with him and played in bed.

I discovered online that the fireworks had been held the night before while we were all sleeping. They didn't start until midnight...as that's when it gets almost dark here now...and we were all in bed by 10 the night before. Yes, that's how party animal-ish we are. So we missed the fireworks. The parade was to start at 10 in the morning and then there would be a kids fun-zone at the local community center until 4 pm. Having garnished all this information I kissed M goodbye and went back to bed. I slept through the parade. Go me.

Bright and early at noon X and I left to pick up my mother, we grabbed a quick lunch, did an errand or two and headed downtown to the fun zone. Now I'll explain, the community center is on a sort of peninsula surrounded by rivers, that means it has a super long driveway/road that gives access to nothing else, and it's the only way in and out. Upon approach we discover two bylaw officers stopping traffic and most traffic is turning around and going back. When it got to be out turn Officer Helpful tells us that parking is closed and we can walk (2 kms one way), get a taxi ($$), or here's a helpful flyer. The flyer lists some park and ride locations for a shuttle service that is free after 5pm. Yes. The children's event is over at 4pm, but if you're going to the concerts at night you can get there for free.

But wait! The flyer was retarded. Not only is the shuttle service free after 5pm, it doesn't START until 5pm. We go to one of the park and ride locations, there is no indication of where the shuttle service would be, the people who work at the business have seen no buses, nor do they know anything about the shuttle service. So we wander across the road to a bus stop where there are many other people waiting with their children. 15 minutes later a bus comes, I ask him if he's going to Mac Island, he says to get on, get a transfer, he will take us to a place that we can catch the Mac Island bus. Good times.

Eventually we got there. Then it hailed. I kid you not. Hail. X and I are waiting in line for one of the bouncy castle things, my mom had run for cover from the rain, and then the "rain" starts bouncing off the grass! Of course they close the bouncy castles. So there I am, 6 months pregnant with twins, 3 kms away from my car, disappointed 5 year old, standing in the hail. WOOT!

But really, it was a good day. Events Wood Buffalo may have dropped the ball in a ROYAL manner, but you can't keep a determined-to-be-happy 5 year old down. We took a turn around the tents and discovered some sandboxes! Huzzah! X shed his shoes and socks and dove into the sand with wild abandon! Digging, filling the bucket, trying to make a sand castle, talking to other kids near him. He was pretty happy in there! I couldn't figure out why the volunteer kept sprinkling red sparkles in the sand, but I guess that's how they were making it a patriotic event! The rain stopped and we did get a couple more bouncy castle turns in before things were closed down for the afternoon.

The funniest thing about it all was the World Stage that was set up. For the afternoon there were displays of cultural dance and song. When we first arrived there were some adult belly dancers on the stage. X cocked one eyebrow and said "that's weird. You're not going to watch that are you mom?" He was actually disturbed! He blushed and avoided looking at the stage until we were leaving and had to walk by again. When we were leaving it was a completely different story! There was a little girl, about 4, doing a Bolly-wood type dance. He was entranced! Completely under her spell. When she was done we started walking away again, but then another little girl, about 6 or 7, came out. "We can leave after this one last show ok mom?" Rrrright. My mother made a comment that at least he was age-appropriate!

Getting back to our car was another adventure, and we did end up having to walk 8 or 9 blocks because I wasn't going to fool with transfers again, but we got there. And I didn't go into labour. Bonus.

Long blog, sorry, but I had to tell somebody about my disaster day! :) Thanks for making it to the end here!

Odd Things 9

I wanted to post yesterday, I really really did, but I was exhausted! Canada Day totally wore me out! But more about that later!

I only have two odd things this week, but they're sort of convoluted so stay with me!

The first one is an interesting example of how my brain works, not only during pregnancy, but all the time. It's also something I can keep you posted on. This odd thing has three parts, present, past and future! Presently Little Miss A (1 year old girl that I babysit) gets the hiccups every day at 8:45am. I don't know why it happens, but it does. I also know that 8:45am is 15 minutes before her morning nap time, so I always make sure I have her water cup on hand every morning so I can help her get rid of them before I put her down for her nap! Have you ever tried to sleep while hiccuping? Not possible! This daily situation reminded me that X got the hiccups everyday for the last 6 weeks that I was pregnant with him. I remember feeling bad that I could do nothing to help him with the hiccup issue! I would just sit still and rub my belly while he hiccuped away. Poor unborn baby. Then I thought...what if the twins get the hiccups while I'm still pregnant? Won't that feel odd! If one gets them and the other doesn't? Or if they both get them but hiccup at different times? Oh gosh. I think the last few weeks are going to be strange anyway! I only have 11 or 12 weeks left by the way. Oh boy.

Odd thing number two is a funny story. My husband came home from work the other day with a birth announcement from a co-worker. It's a very nice full-colour on card stock picture of the baby with his name, date of birth and birth weight printed on it. This baby was 6lbs 13ozs when he was born. M looks at me and says "6 lbs?! You could sneeze that out!"
Well at least I know he appreciates my...skill? Talent? Ability to produce "extra-healthy" sized babies. Hahahaha. Sometimes my husband is just as odd as I am, in case you weren't aware! :)