Swim Fan

Tonight we took Lucy swimming at the Cochrane pool for the twoonie family swim. We haven't been swimming in almost a year except in the lake on summer holidays. In times past, Lucy has been pretty timid when it comes to swimming and all things water related. We figured we'd go for maybe 45 minutes to an hour just to get some family time in and relieve my aching joints with some float time in the pool. Well, as soon as we told Lucy we were going swimming, she was so excited. As we stood in the family change room, she was the loudest kid in the area, squealing as she waited for mom and dad to change. We ended up spending an hour and a half at the pool and had a hard time convincing her it was time to go. She's taller now and is able to stand up on her own in the shallow end of the kiddie pool, which I think gave her much confidence. She was able to have piggy-back rides with dad and jump from an under-water landing into our arms. The jumping was still pretty sissy, but she's getting there. And now that she's older, any shyness towards adventure is dealt with very maturely. Instead of crying, she politely says, "nope, I just don't like that."
It was a unexpectedly awesome evening and we were glad we decided to go. This pregnant body felt pretty good to be floating around for a while too. Looks like we'll have to go again soon. Now we're completely tuckered out and ready for a good nights sleep.

Little Eyes and Ears

Oh what things our children pick up on when we don't think they're paying attention. The other night we were sitting at the dinner table as a family when Lucy suddenly decided we needed some dinner music and broke out into song. Her choice of music for the evening..."Crazy" by Gnarles Barkley. She threw her head back, closed her eyes and started singing "Crazy!...make me crazy!" pretty well in-tune and with great facial expressions.
Tonight, as we were sitting in the living room, she was reading a book to herself and licked her finger before turning every page. The best part is that it was a board book, so really, licking the fingers is a fairly unnecessary step in the page-turning process. Tyler and I had to cover our faces as to not let her realize we were laughing at her.

Teething

Lucy has spent the last 3 weeks either teething, or with a cold, which has made her a little on edge, but still an angel (how long can this possibly last?). She walks around with all her fingers in her mouth and her shirt covered in drool as if she was a newborn. The benefit to her teething so late is she can actually talk to me about it. When I ask her what's wrong, she says, "teefies sore." The bad thing...she likes the taste of medicine and always asks for more. She has cut 4 teeth in the last 2 weeks and it looks like she's in the process of cutting 2 more. Most of these have been molars too, which will be great for the chew factory.

This picture is of her yesterday morning. She was so tired that I finally had to wake her up at 9:00am to get started on the day. She insisted on cuddling on mom and dad's bed with her blanket. Dad called just a few minutes after 9:00 to talk to her and she spent most of the time looking like this and just nodding her head, but not really talking. You can see her cheeks are a little swollen and red. Poor girl. She never ceases to make us laugh though, even when she's sick. Last night Grandma bought her some raspberries and asked her if she wanted one of them. She replied by saying, "No grandma, I want lots of them."

in the Beginning...

I was going through some photos on our computer today to post on the family website and came across this one. Now, Tyler and I actually knew each other for about 2 years prior to this picture being taken, but I thought for posterity sake I should post it so our children can see what a lifetime friendship we've had. Although at that age it was more based upon exchanging toys. But I do recall Tyler telling me a story once that we were playing in his basement jumping down the stairs onto an old mattress on the bottom. Being the young, innocent girl that I was, I didn't realize that it would be inappropriate to play this game with a boy while wearing a dress. He remembers seeing my underwear and that it was white with blue stars or flowers on it. Curse that ridiculous memory of his!
I think my parents waited too long to have the 'modesty' chat with me though, because I can also recall a time when Mike, Joe and Steven were all sunbathing in our backyard and took their shirts off, so I decided to join them...and lose my shirt as well. I remember mom running out the back door yelling and me spending the rest of the day inside. hmm. I'm sure the talk came shortly after that incident.
By the way, the picture is from my 7th birthday party and includes: Alison, Mike (dressed as Dracula), Cheryl Zemp? (as a leopard), Tyler (dressed as Oscar the Grouch), Me (dressed as a witch), Trevor (dressed as a clown - although all you can see is the back of his large head) and Tyler's sister Kari (the cat) and some other girl that I don't remember.

2nd Ultrasound

Well, the ultrasound yesterday went off without a hitch. We were able to get in and out fairly quickly, even though they told us it would take about an hour. It's fun to have an ultrasound at this stage: 1) you don't need to drink as much fluids so you're not as uncomfortable as you are at the 18 week ultrasound, and 2) seeing the positioning at this point is a lot of fun. I know where he's been kicking me a lot, so it's fun to see an actual foot, or knee or elbow exactly where you thought it would be. Max is getting a little squished these days and so it was difficult to make out everything on the ultrasound as clearly as the first one, but we did get a good profile view of his face and that little round head that looks so familiar. At one point we got a good front shot of his face and it looked like he was practicing his sucking reflex. It was neat to see. His feet are up at my belly-button and side, which is where I feel most of the action, so it wasn't a surprise.

We had this ultrasound to determine whether my placenta had moved or not. At my first ultrasound it was a bit low, which is always a threat for placenta previa, and a possible c-section. Although the ultrasound tech didn't tell us anything ('the results will be sent to your doctor'), from what I could see, it didn't look like it was going to be a problem. But I guess you never know. I go to the doctor on Tuesday to hear about the results, so hopefully all is well. He's also supposed to give me an information package with all of my stuff in case I go into early labour. It seems strange to be at that point already where we're starting to talk about labour. Am I that close to being a mother of two? Although with how uncomfortable I'm getting these days, I think I'd rather this baby be out than in.

Unlike last time, this tech didn't let us take any pictures home with us, so we have nothing to show for our time spent at the ultrasound, except for this belly shot I just took of myself. I realized that I don't have very many pregnancy pictures this time around, and that's not really fair. Don't want to be one of those families who has a whole album of the first child, and the remaining children are all able to fit into one album...hmmm, whose family does that sound like? We can verify that it is still a boy. No mis-givings there, so no need to be thinking of girlie names I guess.
(Heather at 32 weeks)
See you in a few weeks buddy!

Our Backwards Backyardigan

We spent the last 10 days staying at my parent's house while they were on vacation in Oregon. Yes, that's right, the 16-year old and 23-year old needed a babysitter. We got a pretty good dump of snow while we were there and Tyler, Dude, Lucy and I headed outside before dinner one evening to shovel. Lucy enjoyed helping using Grandma and Bumpa's Bob the Builder Shovel, but enjoyed even more going for a ride on dad's shovel and for a walk afterwards. She enjoyed being outside so much that when Tyler stopped by the house at one point to see about getting her some different gloves (as hers were soaked through from playing with snow) she protested because she wanted more. And even after being outside for an hour she was sad to come back in. Her fingers were icy cold, but she didn't seem to mind. The next afternoon Lucy and I headed out for another walk (avec Ben) and played in the backyard for a while where she discovered icicles. Again, she was reluctant to go inside.

That's definitely one thing we've noticed about living on the farm is we are unable to enjoy time outside as much. I know it sounds backwards and you'd think that by living on 53 acres we'd be able to enjoy MORE time outside, but it's just so windy up here that Lucy really doesn't enjoy it. Most of the time as we're heading out the door she'll say "windy" or ask for her mittens. She gasps for air when we're outside as she hasn't quite mastered breathing in the wind.
I guess we'll have to make more trips into the city where she can enjoy the 'fresh air'.

Welcome to the World of Will

Tyler and I have decided that even though we live in the boonies, we can still participate in modern technology. Here is our first entry on our blog. They will get better.