Movie gets 2 Thumbs up...

Taking Jack to the movies was far better than I imagined. He was delightful -- and very eager to sit and eat a snack in a big theatre. He kept saying over and over again, "Mommy, that's a really BIG TV!"
The Earth movie was worth seeing as well -- it was great footage of the three animal families plus way more. And how can you go wrong when the narrator is James Earl Jones. Now that's a good voice.

Jack just sat on his little booster seat in the theatre, eating his Skittles and telling me every time a different animal came on the screen..."That's a big bird, my dad will shoot it." or "That's a big shark, my dad will shoot it." Whatever it was, it should have been living in fear of Nate. (Not that Nate has actually ever shot an animal -- for all the hunting gear in the basement.) The people sitting in front of us must think that our family hates wild creatures!

There was a few scenes of a predatory nature -- no surprise there but they never showed anything bloody. I thought Jack might be bothered by the little baby caribou being chased by the wolf, but he just loudly proclaimed, "Look, Mom, the wolf bite him!! My dad would shoot that wolf."

All in all, I was very pleased, both with the movie and Jack's behaviour...at least for now.

Earth Day

This afternoon I'm taking the kids to see a movie for Earth Day. I think it's just called "Earth" ~ it's the story of three animal families (whale, elephant and polar bear) and how they survive. My biggest concern about the whole thing is taking Jack. Not sure what he'll do and if I'll end up seeing much of the movie or not. I figure if I get a big enough popcorn bucket, he should sit still for a while.

I have to admit that he is a very funny child. Not just him, but his age as well. Three is very fun. I like three a lot. Much better than 2 and WAAAAAAY better than 18 months. The things that come out of his mouth are funny and at times, rather embarrassing.

My Grandma was down for Easter and he went up to her and said, "You have a big belly ~ you have a baby in there?" Thankfully dear Grandma is as easy-going as they come and she simply replied, "Nope, I just eat too much." That seemed to satisfy him.

He was in my room the other morning as I was getting dressed and he said, "Mom, you have a really big bum." What do you say to that?? I replied, "Yeah, I guess I do." He looks at me and says, "I like big bums. You have big bum, Daddy has a big bum, Ethan has a big bum." So if I'm in the big bum category with my skinny 10 year old son Ethan, I can handle that. Perspective is everything.

Happy Earth Day!

New Nephew!

Early this morning, my sister-in-law, Christine, gave birth to a beautiful baby boy! We were just out for dinner with them last night and went home early because she was having regular contractions. I knew she was going into the hospital about 11 pm and so had many dreams through out the night of what/who she was giving birth to. ( The best one was that she did have a boy but they named him Trick, but wanted us to call him Twig. I tried to tell them that it was a bad name choice but she would hear nothing of it! )

Turns out at 4 am she actually gave birth to an 8 lb. 4 oz. baby boy, and they named him Hudson.

Mom and baby are doing great!!

Can't wait till it's my turn...

Nesting

Ah, spring! The desire to clean and organize comes to me with the good weather. However, this spring I'm doubly interested in spring cleaning. With each pregnancy, I've forced Nate into some small redecoration, renovation or the like. This time around is no different. Here are the symptoms I'm having --

You know you're nesting when:

1. You fantasize about cleaning behind the freezer. (I have a deep desire to pull everything out of the laundry room, paint the concrete floor with a high gloss paint and then organize the whole room.)

2. You can't believe it's taken you this long to notice that the caulking in the shower needs to be redone. (I asked Nate last night how hard it is to take off old caulking....he casually answered, "No problem, you just need a sharp knife." Then he paused and looked at me and said, "Wait....no. It's really really hard to do." But I was already looking for the knife...)

3. Everything in the house needs a good scrubbing. From the kids to the baseboards to the bed frames.

So project number one commences today. The boy's room is being repainted and reorganized. I can't tell you how thrilled I am. My dear sister-in-law who is a painter by trade is coming this morning to start on the walls....I told her I have enough work to keep her busy for a week. I can hardly wait to get started!!

March Madness

The cloud of illness has yet to lift itself from over my house. This month has been so crappy ~ it seems we have moved from one illness to another. I was able to evade the stomach flu but I have gotten caught by the cold and chills, cough and sneeze bug. And it sucks.

Not only do I feel crappy, but because of the pregnancy I can't take anything to feel less crappy. I can take Tylenol, which is alright but there is no option to make myself drowsy with meds so I can sleep at least. The fact that sleep evades me is the worst part of the whole deal. I found myself thinking delusional thoughts yesterday...may be it was the fever but when I caught myself wondering, "What is the difference between a beret and tam-o-shanter? Is it the pom-pom?", I started questioning my sanity.

The thing about being sick in my home is that it highlights the difference between men and women. Yesterday was Sunday -- it's always a busy morning in our home trying to get everyone up, looking nice, fed and out the door for church. Usually, I'm up first, showered and getting breakfast for the gang. Then it's a strict schedule of eating, showering, doing the kids hair, ironing any wrinkly "church clothes", doing the dishes and getting out the door.

But not yesterday. When Daddy is in charge (cause mom can't get out of bed), Sunday mornings are a whole different thing. So here's a Dad version of a Sunday morning...
-Get out of bed
-Play a little game of UNO
-Play another little game of Scrabble
-Tell everyone to get dressed (no ironing involved whatsoever)
-Eat something for breakfast
-Get out the back massager and everyone gets a turn getting and giving a massage
-Fill the sink with hot soapy water
-Wrestle
-Brush teeth

And the list goes on. It's a much more fun way to start the day, but as I was lying in bed, listening to all of this, it was driving me CRAZY!! But because my voice was croaky, no one heard me mumbling to myself. And really, what difference did it make? They all got to church on time and actually looked pretty decent when heading out the door.

The other part of being sick is that mom's should just not be sick at all. We should be immune to every illness on the planet. After the gang got home from church, Nate brought me lunch in bed and left me to nap for the afternoon.

I was just dozing off when I heard a banging at my bedroom window. And there, peeking in was a happy little face smiling and waving at me. One of my kids just wanting to make sure I was okay. Only moments later, another of my children comes barging in my room wanting help putting his coat on. By the time I knew it, I'd been in bed for a couple of hours without a wink of sleep. Kindly, Nate decided to take the kids out for the afternoon to leave me in peace...all kids but one. Thinking I had peace at last, I was ready for a snooze...and then one of my delightful children comes in with this important bit of information:
"Hey Mom, did you know the population of Toronto is 2.54 million people?"
It was then that I got a little testy. My response: "No, NO, NO!!! I don't want to chat. I want sleep, SLEEP! I want you to go to another room and watch a movie (a big treat at our house) and let me rest because I'm sick!"
The door to my room quietly closed and I didn't hear a peep from anyone until about 7:30 pm.

I think they got my point. And sleep did come, eventually...despite my dilemma over berets and tam-o-shanters.

Getting The Diamond

I like traditions -- a lot of the things in life that are truly meaningful are traditions. Think of Christmas, and other special occasions. Memories are made of this stuff.

When my grandparents decided to down size a few years back, they allowed us to come into their homes and pick through whatever we wanted. It was funny to see what each of the grand-kids picked -- not the Doultons or the good dishes but the simple, every day things that we used at Grandma and Grandpa's. Things that brought back memories of sweet times with them.

One of the silly traditions that we used to do at my Grandma's was at dinner time. We would all sit down, say grace for the meal and immediately all the kids would pick up their knife and shake it. We were checking to see if we "got the diamond." One of Grandma's table knives had a small piece of metal inside the knife handle that would rattle when we shook it. Somewhere in our family history somebody mentioned it was a diamond....and since that day, it was good luck if you sat down and got the diamond.

When Grandma asked us what we wanted, one of the things I chose was her silverware -- not the good silver at all. The everyday stuff that had the knife with the diamond.

This week we had company for dinner. It was the second time these friends had been over for dinner since I acquired Grandma's silverware. I laughed aloud when, on Tuesday night, they came in, sat down for dinner, looked down at their plates and both of their kids immediately picked up their knives and gave them a shake.

The simple things in life are the most pleasing, wouldn't you say? When it comes down to it, the day in-day out stuff is where we really make our memories. My Grandma's household tradition lives on in my house and it makes me smile to think about it -- I think she'd be pleased.

ALIVE!

Yes, we made it. We are all still alive and almost well. I cannot believe how long this bug lasted in our home DEPSITE the Lysol and other cleaners that I used to disinfect our home.

Anyhow, the worst is over and better, healthier days are ahead, I hope.

Time is flying by -- I can hardly believe next week is March Break. It always seems to me that once you hit March Break, spring is around the corner and the months of April and May fly by. This pregnancy hasn't been an easy one, but it certainly has been fast so far. I think I'm 30 weeks as of tomorrow ~ how did 30 weeks pass that quickly? I'm as round as a barrel and feeling like I should be more like 36 weeks by my size....but despite that I seem to keep moving. The typical symptoms of a sore back, trouble sleeping, indigestion/heart burn and a serious inability to tie my own shoes are all here...but so are the good ones, like feeling the baby kick, and.....oh dear, what are the other good symptoms of the last trimester of pregnancy?? Anyone??

Oh yeah, that I'm that much closer to being done ~ and I mean really really done.