The Third Trimester

Well, I am now in the third trimester. I have only 2 days of work left, after which I get to be a pogie bum! Thank goodness I live in Alberta. We get 1 year of paid maternity/parental leave before getting my old job back, should I want it. I am going to try to get sick leave first though, so that I can be off for the next 10 weeks or so before mat leave starts...

So, about the third trimester. It is really the most horrid part of pregnancy. I just need to make one complaint about it, and then I promise I will shut up.

You know in SanFransisco when the sea lions are hoisting themselves up onto the dock? That is how I feel when I am getting into bed. Sometimes I make noises like them too.

That is all. You will see no more complaints from me about this miraculous event that I am experiencing. It will be all sweetness and light from here on.

Belly Pictures!

Alright, I am trying to upload a belly picture or two. I hope it works. I also hope that I am violating any blogspot rules by posting a bit of skin. So, enjoy, this belly is about 7 months along. It is still a managable size. In another week or so, it will not be so cute and perky. Soon, my belly button will be completly gone, and I will not be able to see my cute pedicure anymore.

Our First Camping Trip!

This weekend, we took Abby on her first camping trip! It was a great success, and we all had a good time. We went to Allan Beach, which is a 30 minute drive from home (close enough that we could have chickened out, if necessary). Mom, next summer we will go together, I think you will love it! They have a nice beach area and a lake that you can actually swim in, beautiful camping sites (although Keith missed was sad there were no pine trees, just leafy poplars), and the cleanest outhouses I have ever been in. They also had flush toilets and showers. Abby requested a row-boat ride: "please, it is my best dream to go in a row-boat, I never did before in my whole life!!!" So, we rented a creaky old row-boat, and Keith paddled us out to the middle of the lake. Another highlight was of course the marshmallow roasting, and eating yummy smores... One night Abby woke up around 2 AM, and I showed her the stars, and she declared that there were 45 of them. We had such a good time!

Today's funny: we are eating supper, and Abby is playing with her food. So, I be a good mother and tell her to stop, food is for eating not for playing, blah blah blah... Not 5 minutes later, I look over to Keith, who has constructed a rocket ship out of his corn cob and the corn pokers, and is pretending to "blast off" over the table. I am out numbered. But happy that I have such a creative and free thinking family. And I must admit that the watermelon rind centipede was a kind of cute.

Coming soon: Pictures of my belly - as soon as I figure out how to add a picture to the blog.

medicentres

My dad is a medical doctor. This is a wonderful thing. It means that if I run out of a prescription, I can just call him up, anytime, and get one. I can find out answers to strange medical queeries, get stitches at the kitchen table if needed and that sort of thing. Most of all, it means that in my daughter's entire 3 years, we have not known the horror of medicentres. Until today. I have always heard such awful stories about them. Waiting for hours among people who are drunk, dirty, or highly infectious and spurting blood everywhere, seeing doctors who do not speak english, or are grumpy because they have to work there. Well, I was pleasantly surprised today! Abby has an eye infection, so my sister Nawana called my up at work, (because there was a lot of gross pus and swelling. Yuck), and I came home to take her to the medicentre. (Our regular office had no openings today, and I needed someone to actually look in Abby's eye, so a phone consultation with my dad would not have worked.) Well. The place was clean, and while many of the patients in the waiting room were obviously there because they had survived yet another beating, (very sad), it was fine. There was no moaning and groaning, we were taken in after maybe half an hour of waiting, and they had good magazines! The doctor spoke english as a first language, he was nice to us, and Abby was not afraid of him. I must say that I am quite impressed, and just had to share. Emergency medical clinics are not as bad as you might think!

Still a Quitter

I used to smoke. I smoked for almost 10 glorious years. I really liked smoking. I liked the buzz it gave me, how it gave me something to do with my hands (now I just pick at my cuticles, yuck) and how it gave me a way to fit in with new people when in an uncomfortable social situation. I liked having a cigarette when I had finished something, or was making a plan to do something. I liked the escape it gave me when I just did not want to be somewhere anymore, I could "go for a smoke". I liked lighters, in the many beautiful colours, and I liked the size of the package and how it fit in my purse just right beside my wallet. I especially liked sitting outside on a hot summer day, and having a cold drink and a cigarette.

I quit smoking over 2 years ago. I quit mostly because I was pretty sick with my Crohn's disease, and wanted to get better. I figured that filling my lungs with toxins was a pretty stupid thing to do if I expected my body to heal. There were other reasons, the usual stuff, like setting a good example for my daughter, saving money, and so on, but the Crohn's was the main one. I am glad that I quit, it was very hard to do, and I am proud that I have not had a smoke in over 2 years.

However. I really want to still be a smoker. I have these dreams where I am having a cigarette. I wake up, and I am so happy, I want to jump out of bed and have another. But then I realize that it was just a wonderful dream, and really, I should not go and sneak a cigarette from my husbands pack.

The thing is, my Crohn's never did get better, smoking or not. It was really a let down. The only upside to it all is that my Doctor gave me steroids which are really great drugs. I must say that I quite liked them, and after my prescribed doseage was over (a sad sad day) I was in serious danger of hanging outside of gyms to shake down the bodybuilders and steal their stashes.

Why, oh why do I enjoy chemical stimulants so much??? It is not fair. I am looking forward to delivering this child and maybe trying out some morphine. Just a bit. To take the edge off, you know.

Still, I am a quitter. And even though I do not like it, I am proud of myself.

I am a Genius

I had an incredibly great idea today. To make Smores with NUTELLA!!! mmm that would be so good. I am going to reserve our camping spot right now... In fact, I may even try making them on the BBQ because they sound so yummy, and I am very food-suggestible these days, ( I am 22 weeks pregnant.) You could even put a layer of bananas on them. Just think. Graham cracker, nutella, banana, marshmallow, nutella and another graham cracker. Pure heaven. I really am a genius.

A World Full of 3 Year Olds

I was watching Abby the other day, and started to think about what it would be like if we were all 3 years old. We had finished dinner, and she decided to spin around in circles, and then lay down under the table when she got dizzy. She breaks out into song whenever she feels like it, no matter where we are, or who is around. She makes up her own songs about everyday things and it is really sweet. She just had her birthday party, and when we were decorating her cake, she was very adamant that she wanted a nine on it, instead of a three. (I put a three on it anyway. Did I stifle her creativity? Hopefully I did not damage her for life...) She also wants to go and live on top of a fluffy cloud with mummy, daddy, our cat, and papa.

If I could live that way, not concerned about what other people thought, I would be naked a lot more often. Especially in the summer. I would eat more chocolate, and would eat desert first. I would also sleep more, whenever I felt like it. I would also have a lot of umbrellas, and a very big rock collection that took up a lot of space.

first try

Well, I have to join the blogging club to be like my sisters. I titled it "meagre offerings" because my life is pretty normal, and nothing much out of the ordinary happens. Except for yesterday. I told my meddlesome and hateful Grandmother off! I am still a bit shocked that I did it, afterall, she is an old lady, but man, it was a long time coming. Am I a bad person? I really was quite mean. But on the other hand, she said something really awful that hurt my feelings, and I just cannot listen to her saying bad things about people who I love. She does it all the time and thinks that she can get away with it because she is old, and the family matriarch. I have not spoken to her since, and part of me is feeling really guilty. But another part of me is sticking my tongue out at her and saying "ha!" Take that you meanie!!