6 weeks to a brand new life

....give or take a few days! The end is drawing near and we are about to welcome a new little life into our midst. We are filled with fear and excitement. It's crazy to see how fast it has come. In those early days we felt like we would never make it to this point and here we are, 6 weeks approximately from delivery. The nursery is ready, and we have only a few more things we desperately need to get before junior arrives. The parents are just about as prepared as we can get. The baby is engaged (read: head dropping into lower pelvis. Amanda can breathe, but oh the pain to move!) Prenatal classes have been attended and the preparations for home birth are complete. We are literally just waiting for the baby to make its appearance.

We've learned a lot along the way. Here are some lessons, painful or otherwise, that we have accumulated along the way.
#1. There are certain foods that should never make a reappearance...no matter how good they are going down, they are terrible coming back up. (eg. applesauce, banana, cheerios etc.) Oddly, these are often the best foods to eat when you feel nauseous.
#2. There is a reason that God created baby brain. You forget how awful it is to puke for 10 weeks straight. And (hopefully) you will forget the pain of labour and will have more than one kid.
#3. The baby moving feels wonderful for the first 2 weeks or so when it flutters like a butterfly. What no one tells you is that when it moves, rolls and otherwise switches positions , it can really hurt. And random strangers will constantly ask if you are alright when you grimace as the baby kicks your bladder for the millionth time.
#4. Baby kicking bladder can lead to mild urinary incontinence. This usually occurs in the most inconvenient locations.
#5. Eating right, and staying on track can lead to appropriate weight gain. This can lead to such comments as, "You sure look small for having 6 weeks left! I thought you had 3 months to go!" It really makes every other mother jealous and you feel quite smug for looking sooo dang good.
#6. Even if you gain the recommended 20-30 pounds, you will still feel like an enlarged hippopotamus is taking over your middle section. Its even worse when a foot/hand pushes out your belly to the maximum expansion and then keeps pushing.
#7. Husbands may love touching your baby. But realize that baby is next to bladder. See #4.
#8. Husbands, realize that while your wife is suffering from morning sickness, you will also suffer. You will be restricted to eating and otherwise talking about eating only what she is eating. Otherwise you will see the wrath..literally and sometimes projectily.
#9. Husbands, you will loose bed space. Accept this fact and move on with your life. (and literally, just move over!)
#10. Babies in utero respond to sounds. Music can make them dance and snoring can make them jump. Fire alarms just freak 'em right out!
#11. Under no circumstance should you consume any amount of caffeine. This will lead baby to be extremely "high" and lead to some internal bruises!
#12. Certain smells will make you do irrational things. Some foods (especially in the first three months) will make you want to jump people to consume what they are eating. Other smells will make you vomit. Accept this fact and move swiftly away. Otherwise harassment charges may follow.
#13. Irrational emotions are just a part of pregnancy. Cry about them and move on (without whipping cream!)
#14. Birthing videos should be shot from the mother's perspective. There is a reason she has a belly obscuring the view!

There are more lessons....but you'll figure them out as you go along!

Life Lessons from a Child

Sometimes children can be honest. And sometimes it is truly brutal honesty. This week, I came home with the two kids while our neighbour Brian was outside smoking. River walks up to him and in his three year old honest way says to Brian, "That's yucky!" Then River turns to me and asks, "Amanda is that bad?" Brian pipes in that indeed smoking is bad. I agreed with him. Then Brian got the shock of his life when River stated matter of factly: "You're going to die!" Rendering both Brian and I speechless, I quickly tried to unlock the front door when Cypress pipes in, "You're going to have cancer." Yep, honesty. BRUTAL honesty. I turned to Brian and said, "Well, I guess they sure told you!" while I walked inside and encouraged the children to follow. Cypress, just before going inside turns to me and asks, "Is that going to make you puke?"
Yes....it probably will. Just so you know, if you smoke near me, I may puke on you. You have been warned!

One Month to One Million: The Finale

The total steps are in!!!! In 30 days, Dan managed to walk 1,171,189 steps! And after much deliberation, Dan was awarded the grand prize! A globe hybrid bicycle worth over $600!!! We are super-duper excited about this prize and Dan can hardly wait to pimp it out.

9 weeks and counting...

In just under (hopefully) nine weeks, little fetus McCrimmon will join the world. Which, really when you think about it, isn't really a long time. Can you tell we're a little nervous? Do you see the slight panic in our faces when we realize that this is actually happening?

Dan: Run away! Run away!
Amanda: I can't run! And even if I did, it follows me....or rather leads the way! Its still stuck to me!
Dan: Little parasite!
Amanda: We really do love this thing! ...Right?

Dan's dad suggested that our life goal (like his own) is to make our child slightly neurotic. Dan turned out fine....right? (twitch twitch).
Needless to say, Amanda thinks that his dad did a GREAT job at accomplishing his goal. Thanks dad!

So, back to that whole nine weeks thing. We're a little scared, a bit excited and a whole lot of praying that it doesn't come out in the midst of a great snowstorm.

One million Steps and still going strong

This Thursday, at about 9am, I finally took my one millionth step. The competition doesn't stop till Sunday, so we'll have to see what happens. From the people I've talked to, it seems that I will probably win the bike! Perhaps by the end of the competition, I'll have a little over 1.1 million
steps!

(Wife beams in background, so proud of husband. And soooo glad that this will be over and we can be fat lugs on the couch again!)

Rage on, Pregnancy hormones, rage on!

The other night, Dan went to the kitchen to get us some chocolate cake and whipped cream. When he brought it back to the couch, Amanda realized that the whipped cream was on top of her cake and burst into tears. Knowing full well, that she was being irrational, the tears just kept coming. There was nothing she could do to make them stop. Dan was confused. When he asked what was wrong, Amanda replied, "There's whipped cream on top of my cake!"
Dan stated, "But you asked for cake and whipped cream. What's the matter?"
Amanda replied amidst the tears, "The whipped cream is on top of my cake. I want it beside the cake."
Dan, "What difference does it make?"
Amanda: "It ruins the icing."
Dan: "Just scrape it off and put it on the side."
Amanda bursting into another round of intense tears, "It's not the same! The icing will be ruined!"
Dan: "Fine! I'll get you a new piece."
Amanda (hesitantly), "But what about this piece? I don't want it to go to waste!"
Dan: "I'll take it in my lunch tomorrow."
Amanda agrees and Dan goes to get a new piece of cake with whipped cream on the side. Dan returns with a new piece of cake, but the same whipped cream on the side.
Amanda realizes that there are pieces of the old cake in the whipped cream and tried with all her might to hold in the tears. This time with success. (Side note: while writing this, a few tears fell about the cake crumbs in the whipped cream. She's pretty sensitive about it)
The cake and whipped cream were consumed "happily" without further tears shed.
Now don't even get us started about the eggs...

Commuters Paradox

This week on the radio, we heard about the commuter's paradox. The paradox is that for those who commute roughly one hour more than their counterparts who walk, they must earn 44% more to reach the same level of happiness. The problem is that they don't. Two people in the same position, one who commutes and one who doesn't earn approximately the same amount.

The question is, does this explain our happiness?

I, Amanda, take the bus for 45 minutes every morning, but need to drive 12 minutes for work, from the school to home. The bus, though annoying at times is often more relaxing than the drive. When I drive, I find myself frustrated at the slow drivers (and that means those who drive under the speed limit), the red lights and those trying to turn left. I find myself snapping at the kids and in a more tense and aggressive state of mind. I would rather just be at home than drive. The bus can also be annoying...those insane smells and that girl in the morning who talks sooo loud. But I still find myself more relaxed while I commute on the bus. Perhaps its the book I get to read or the sleep I get to catch up on. I guess the final question really is, if people are so unhappy driving so far, why do they keep doing it?

Crunchy is as Crunchy does

Recently I've heard this new buzz word around in the blog sphere. This term has confused me as to what precisely it means. I've seen it on various websites that have to do with homesteading and cloth diapering. Tonight, I googled it.

Urban Dictionary describes "Crunchy" as:
Adjective. Used to describe persons who have adjusted or altered their lifestyle for environmental reasons. Crunchy persons tend to be politically strongly left-leaning and may be additionally but not exclusively categorized as vegetarians, vegans, eco-tarians, conservationists, environmentalists, neo-hippies, tree huggers, nature enthusiasts, etc. Also used to describe establishments where alternative foods and products are sold, i.e. natural food stores.

I don't know if this describes us. We'll let you choose.

Million Steps Update

So my millions steps goal is coming more and more within reach. As of today I've reached about 750,000 steps. This is still with a couple days left in the week, and another week left before the count has to go in. I certainly hope this all equals a bike when it's all said and done. Even if it doesn't, I will still be happy with having hit and passed my own goal.

A bit of humour: Three year old Style

River is finally at that age, where he says what comes to mind and its truly hilarious. We've laughed quite a bit this week and we thought we'd share a few conversations with you.

Dan and I took him to Starbucks this week, while Cypress was in preschool. He wanted a chocolate milk and we ordered that for him. When it came, I drank a large sip from it to avoid the plastic cup spill that is inevitable with a three year old. Dan also took a sip, just because. River yelled out, ever so seriously, "Hey! Don't tax that!!!!!" We laughed really hard, as did all the Starbucks baristas. He gets that from us I guess. Whenever they get a cookie at a grocery store, we always insist on having a "cookie tax" aka a bite. Naturally, he was upset that his drink was taxed. But aren't we all?

Even today, when we got a slurpee, he was offering it to people saying, "Do you want a tax?" Not a taste, a tax! Can you tell we've influenced these children?

Another day this week, he was demanding a book in the car. We refused to give it to him unless he was a bit nicer. Dan told him that he needed to use his polite words. After many tries using various demanding tones, he finally asked politely, "Would you please get me my book?" Dan nicely gave it to him. River exclaims, "Hey! It worked!"

Even Cypress got in on the action this week. We went to Birchwood Dairy on a field trip. There was one lone cow in the hospital pen. The tour guide asked a bunch of preschoolers, "Do you know why this cow is all alone?" Cypress, without skipping a beat says, "He's in the naughty chair!"