32 weeks

This is me at 32 weeks (I took the photo on Wednesday). Technically I am 32.5 weeks but no one cares about the .5 but me right! I am totally at the point of counting days. I compared this photo with my last photo at 28 weeks and there is a fairly pronounced difference. It is fun to see my belly growing.

I have to admit that I often feel like there is no more room left in there. I know there is lots of room to grow but I am so full of baby and he is so active. Some times his kicks actually hurt and I am a bit scared for how his kicks will feel in 6/8 weeks. Although at that point he may be so big that kicking will be harder for him to do. But then he will stretch and that will hurt. Oh the fun of late pregnancy. I do find myself thinking 3 things everything he gets a good kick to my bladder or ribs.

1. Holy cow that hurt!
2. Keep on kicking baby, mommy needs to know you are okay in there
3. Enjoy this woman cause this is the last baby and you will never feel this again (sniff)
   

Only 5 more weeks of work left and I will be home for a few weeks before his is born (I hope). I could really use a few weeks to get ready. At least one week (okay baby, did you hear that!). My posts may continue to be sporadic until I go on leave. I find my days at work are busier and busier as I am passing on my responsibilities to those taking over for me. I am constantly thinking of new things I hadn't thought of before and I am sure there are countless things I am forgetting. Oh well. I will do my best to prepare them and then they are on their own!

Happy Halloween everyone. In our area the weather isn't looking so good. Lots of wind and possible rain, but we will go out anyhow. M is insanely excited. Thankfully he is napping as we speak so hopefully we can avoid a late night candy melt down. Here is a photo of M and me in our costumes! Take Care!

My experience with the flu shot

Dani wrote a great post about how the system is working at Walter Baker in Barrehaven. I feel compelled to write a post about how things are going at the KRC. Not to complain about the KRC but to highlight how different things were for me and to let you know what to expect if you go to KRC.

First thing I want to stress is that we were vaccinated on October 28th and I can only speak from my experience on that day. They may modify and refine their process so you may find things different when you go (I hope you find things different when you go).

I arrived at KRC at 2pm. Which I now know was very late. I received my number and when I did the math (they started giving out numbers at around 800 and I was number 234) it turned out I was 434 in the cue. I was asked to "please stay" and I complied. This was a mistake.

At KRC they were giving out one number per family. This made it hard to estimate times, because one family may be 2 people and another may be 5. There was a point when they were calling only 10 numbers per half hour. At around 3pm M fell asleep on my lap. I figured I couldn't do anything until he woke up. He slept for 1.5 hours. They started calling numbers around 2:30 and by the time M woke up at 4:30pm they were only at 960(ish). That means that in two hours they had managed to go through just over 100 families. I have no idea how many people that is. We left at 5pm and met Kev and D for a dinner out. We returned at 6pm and they were at #70. We decided to go home and I returned at 7pm to find out they were at 130. At 8pm I decided we would all go back and wait.

At 8:45 a security guard started rounding up all families with young kids and sending them to the head of the line. They felt it was getting too late for the young children to be waiting. We were taken at 9pm and at that point things moved very quickly.

At KRC they are giving you the forms when you first arrive and there is a Health Nurse walking around the concourse making sure all the forms are filled out properly. It took us all of 3 minutes to get through the forms processing area and by 9:15 we were all vaccinated. We waited our required 15 minutes and headed home.

My understanding is that the staff at KRC were going to stay until the last person was immunized and they were estimating that would be around midnight.

I want to stress that the staff at the KRC were doing their best in a difficult situation. Initially people were fairly happy and resigned to a wait. By 5pm when it was clear the numbers were moving very slowly people started to get frustrated. I myself felt quite frustrated and I consider myself an EXTREMELY patient person. If you know me in real life, you know this to be true. I am patient to the point where I sometimes find myself being taken advantage of. So yes, even I was frustrated by the wait.

At 6pm I approached the nurse walking the concourse and asked her what our recourse was if it became apparent that our number would not be called till 10pm. She was clear that if we did not present ourselves for our vaccination today that we would have to start the entire process again tomorrow with a new number. At that point, having already taken a partial day off work and having waiting 4 hours I decided we were in it for the long haul not matter what time they called us.

The staff were courteous, they were professional and very sympathetic. I made sure we were friendly and smiled and said thank you to each and every one of them.

It wasn't my favourite way to spend a Wednesday but I will say that I am 100% glad we are vaccinated and I hope it keeps this nasty virus away from my gang.

The answer is yes

The questions is: Are you and your family going to get the H1N1 vaccine.

I have a few reasons for my decision but first I will say that I have not taken this decision lightly.

I have taken the flu vaccine before. But I haven't in the last few years. I was tired of them getting the strain wrong. Every year it seemed that they would pick a strain, make the vaccine and then in January send out a notice saying vaccine isn't covering the strain out there. So I stopped.

H1N1 has been around since April. There is no guessing about the strain. That makes me more comfortable. I have read everything I can, Health Canada, CDC, news paper articles, blogs, tweets, you name it I have read it. And watched TV as well. It is everywhere, and it is hard to avoid. And to be honest, many of it was contradictory and confusing. There was a time when I felt my head would explode.

I know what I can do to help keep my family safe without the vaccine, but I also know what I hear about the risks. I know that there have been a few (and only a few) healthy people who have died. And normally I am the person who would say "I can handle this on my own, no vaccine needed". But in 8 short weeks I have another life to take responsibility for. This life is so fragile and so new. He won't have the benefits of a built up immunity that living can give him. I will do my best to nurse him, and I know that will help. But I want to be sure that his exposure is little to none. And with all the research I have done I think his best defense is a good offense. And me, my husband and our boys are his offense. We will take the immunization and hopefully it will protect us AND him. It is the least we can do.

And the winner is...

Congratulations to Fokxxy! I pulled your name out of the Tim Horton's bagel bag I had put all the names into :) Yes I am high tech when I wanna be!

Thanks to you all.

To add to my original review: I received a letter from my sons JK class today letting me know that they have started a Character Education class. It is only once a month and when I pressed my 4 year old he couldn't remember what character they had talked about last week, but, I thought it was quite timely and I am happy that I have this book so I can reference it if the boys have any questions.

Thanks again to all of you!

The great poutine challenge

Okay, so maybe it wasn't the ~GREAT~ pouting challenge. Not even really a challenge at all. But more like a bunch of people who thought it might be a good excuse to eat some greasy, cheesy, gravy goodness... That is of course if you like Poutine. And WHO doesn't like Poutine! Me, I love the stuff.

I grew up in an Eastern Ontario town very close to the Quebec border. It was always easy to find authentic Quebec Poutine. Long before New York Fries put it on their menu we would eat it in town, or travel to a small town even closer to the border to enjoy the greasy goodness. This is what Wikipedia has to say about how to make "Authentic Poutine"

The French fries are of medium thickness, and fried so that the insides are still soft, with an outer crust. The gravy is a light chicken, veal or turkey gravy, mildly spiced with a hint of pepper. Heavy beef or pork-based brown gravies are typically not used. Fresh cheese curd (not more than a day old) is used. To maintain the texture of the fries,the cheese curd and gravy must be added immediately prior to serving the dish.

I would like to add that when eating authentic pouting there should be enough curds that you have some with every single bite. Not just a bit on the top, cheese curd throughout, I'm looking at you New York Fries! Without that, you are not getting the real deal.

Rebecca from A little bit of Momsense issued the challenge and I was happy to oblige. It turned out that we were going to spend Saturday with my Mom and it didn't take much arm twisting to convince everyone that lunch in a small town diner was the way to go. Here are a phew photos from the meal:


Yumm, it was very good. Thanks Rebecca! If you ever issue a food challenge again be sure to include me.

my first official book review and giveaway

A few weeks ago I was contacted by Mom Central to participate in a Book Review Blog Tour. The book was Character is the Key by Sara Dimerman. When I first read the Foreword I was impressed that the author is Canadian (from Ontario in fact) and that this book could be used as a companion to a Character Education program that has been implemented by many Canadian schools.Initially I smugly thought "I already model proper character to my kids everyday" snort! HAHA I thought I did, and I do to a certain extent. I am one of these hyper sensitive parents who will pull her children aside if I see them treating someone with disrespect, or behaving in a way I think is inappropriate. But when I pressed my mind to come up with 10 character traits I wanted my children to have, I had a hard time. Responsibility was easy, Empathy next... But what else. This book addresses 10 main character traits. They are: Responsibility, Respect, Initiative, Integrity, Honesty, Fairness, Courage, Perseverance, Empathy and Optimism. It gives real life examples of each and explains how parents modeling is a key to teaching your children about these traits.

Once you get into the meat of the book it encourages parents to start monthly family meetings where character traits are discussed. Where personal and family goals are discussed/recorded and where disagreements can be addressed. It provides work sheets and discussion topics to be used during these meetings. I have to admit that at this point in the book I started to get a bit overwhelmed. The idea of fitting a family meeting into our already busy schedule was a bit daunting. And the formality of it. Neither myself nor my husband come from families where these types of meetings were routine.

As days passed I found examples in my own behaviour where I wasn't modeling as well as I thought I was. I saw behaviour in my kids that was acceptable but not great. I saw gaps in their character education. I have decided to commit to this program. I will try it for 6 months and see how it goes. I won't be starting until after the baby is born. Probably not till February or March, but I think it is important enough to try. One thing I worry about with my boys is that as they become teens they will pull away from Kevin and myself. I am hoping that by implementing these meetings we can have an environment where my boys will always feel comfortable to come and talk to us. And if they chose not to talk to us, they will have a full enough character education, that I can trust them to make the best decisions possible on their own.

I want to thank Mom Central for asking me to participate in this book tour. They have also provided me with a copy of the book to give away. If you are interested in winning this book please leave me a comment saying you want participate in the draw (please leave a comment even if you are not interested in winning the book, I want to hear all your opinions on this topic). The deadline to enter is Sunday October 25th and I will post the winner on Monday October 26th.

Full Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Character Is the Key: How to Unlock the Best in Our Children and Ourselves and received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.

work, work and more work

With my maternity leave only 6 short weeks away, my work days have been getting busier and busier. I need to transfer so much knowledge and to be honest I haven't started. This makes for busy days. I have had to ignore my Google reader and ~GASP~ log out of Twitter a number of times in order to stay focused on what I had to do. Twitter being my latest addiction/time suck.

Even though the week was short it was quite draining and I was ready for it to be done. I schlepped my lazy butt home on Friday and made a boring supper of soup and grilled cheese. The kids didn't mind. I do have a bone to pick with the Lipton soup people though. They put out a new "25% less sodium" soup pouch. My boys love their soup so I make it here and there. I loved it as a kid as well. The thing is, guess how they reduced their sodium by 25%... THEY REDUCED THE SERVINGS. You used to use 4 cups of water to make their soup, now it is 3 cups. 25% less servings, %25 less salt - assholes GENIUS. Only I didn't notice that. I have been making this soup since I was 10 years old, why would I need to read the instructions. I boiled up 4 cups of water, added the soup, and noticed it didn't have that tell tale powdered broth clump that it usually has. I looked at the package and there it is, 3 cups of water, not 4. Good one Lipton. So I was crabby.

Once the kids were done supper I logged on to my computer to drown my stress in a bit of Webkinz - Smoothie Moves (my latest online gaming addiction). I hopped onto twitter to see if anything new was going on and there were a bunch of messages from my twitter friends (I can't get used to calling anyone a tweep) congratulating me on winning DaniGirl's HP Photos Smart portable photo printer giveaway! I was so excited. After such a dull busy week and my grouchiness over supper I was instantly happy. I can't wait to get it! It will be so much fun to use when the baby is born! Thanks to Dani for doing the giveaway, and thanks to HP and Hill and Knowlton for sponsoring the giveaway!! You all rock.

Now back to another busy week of work. But I have some blogging I also need to do. I will just have to get used to blogging at night, from home. No more time to blog from work.

Things I learn while cleaning

#1 and most important: I HATE CLEANING! I but I think that may be a function of working full time and wanting to enjoy as much relaxation/kid time as possible when I am off. The house suffers and I resent the cleaning of it. It does get done. Hubby is an equal participant/non participant in this one. It is nice we are so similar on this front. I rather that, than have a hubby who followed me around telling me what a crappy job I do of keeping house (I know someone who's X-husband was like that, Brutal!)


#2. I organized the linen closet this weekend. We just couldn't shove anything else in there, and occasionally things would fall out when we opened the door. I have to start by saying my linen closet is the smallest one I have ever seen. The opening is about a foot wide and it is about 1.5 feed deep. So, yes it does store linens but it isn't a wealth of space. After organizing it and putting everything back, and showing the closet to my husband, and warning him that I want it to STAY THIS WAY, I came to a realization. The closet is completely full. Like stuffed. I still had a few towels in the laundry bin, a few in each bathroom and sheets on all 3 beds. Which means, I must maintain a critical mass of dirty linen in order to maintain an organized linen closet. No getting all "Martha" and doing ALL the laundry in my house. Actually this kinda feels good. Pressure off. Phew.

#3 I cleaned out my spice cupboard this weekend. I have to make an effort to clean out and get rid of expired or old items from my cupboards. I found some powdered chicken stock that I clearly remember buying back when I lived in my apartment 14 years ago. I found 4 almost full bags of onion powder. WHY do I need that much onion powder. I don't even remember buying onion powder. That must be the problem, I don't remember buying the darn stuff, and on the rare occasion it is called for I BUY some. UGH. And the piece de resistance... I found two spice bottles. They had been handed down to me by my grandfather when he moved from his house to his apartment. One was a spice bottle filled with cocoa powder and the other was nutmeg. The bottle with the cocoa was labeled in my grandmothers handwriting (written on paper and taped to the bottle). My grandmother was Scottish and a war bride, I really should post about my grandparents one day. She NEVER threw anything out, NEVER! This week, while chatting with my mother, she reminded me that it was the 18th anniversary of my Grandmothers passing (cancer, dam you!). But back to those two bottles of spices... the dear woman died 18 years ago. I am sure she didn't buy these spices, or label that bottle, on her death bed. CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW OLD THEY MUST BE! I have clearly inherited my grandmothers pack rat tendencies (at least I come by them honestly) and I have to admit that it was with a heavy heart that I emptied those bottles and put them aside to be washed. I think Gran would have supported me on this one.

the harvest

Yesterday was such a beautiful day I didn't know what to do with myself. With so many commitments we had to stay close to home and it seems like forever since we had actual sun.

I had gotten myself out of bed at 6:30 to go for an early breakfast with my running buddy R. We had a wonderful chat, uninterrupted by kids, and then headed over to the Out Grow, Out Play consignment sale. The sale was fine. I used to have a friend who would bring me to the local Twin Association consignment sale, and this sale was small compared to that one. But I believe it is its first year and hopefully it will grow. I know I plan on selling stuff there next year. I was very happy to find a winter cover for the infant car seat, a Kangaroo Sling, a sweater for D and a winter jacket for D. I was hoping to find a reclining booster seat (for the kitchen table) but there were none there. Overall I was happy with my results.

After a short afternoon nap I made my way out to the garden. I had been worrying about frost all week and figured it was time to gather all my loot. I am glad I did because my tomato plants were being invaded by an army of slugs. If I hadn't rescued the fruit yesterday I am afraid of what it would have looked like in a few more days. Here is the final (ish) harvest:The reason it isn't totally final is that I left my cucumber and zucchini plants in. I doubt I will get anything from them but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try. I am not sure how many of those tomatoes will go red. I will give them some time, and if they don't I will make some green tomato relish. Can you believe all of those cherry tomatoes are from one plant! Add that (114) to the 70 I had already collected over the season, that is one prolific cherry tomato plant. It is "Sugar Shack" if you are interested. The fruit is very sweet. I have really enjoyed them.

I am not sure if the tiny green peppers are good to eat. I will be trying one later today to see if it has any taste. If they are good I will freeze some and I plan on making a green pepper casserole (adaptation from a stuffed green peppers recipe I found) in the crock pot this week. I hope it is good, this is my first attempt.

I have been really pleased with my garden and I am already planning next years.

Gotta run, M just galloped into the dining room and managed to slam his toes into the wall (I would say stubbed his toe, but really slammed is much more accurate!).

Edited to add: the baby green peppers are a little bitter. I wonder if they would be okay in the casserole... Any thoughts?

Jocelyn asked!

In my last post Jocelyn asked for a photo of my preggy self. I find it kind of ironic that during my first pregnancy I took photos of myself at weekly intervals. Through all the bloating and swelling (D was an August baby, summer swelling). This time I am sort of ashamed to admit that this is my first belly photo. My first, at 28 weeks, and it isn't a very good one. I am already neglecting this child. Will he suffer the 3rd child syndrome of no photos and no videos? I will do my best not to neglect this baby in the photo and video area. I need to make up having neglected my 2nd child somehow :)

Without further ado, I present me:


Oh belly, there you are :) To counter that photo with some super cuteness, here is a photo of M helping us paint his "new" room. We let him go nuts with the primer and he had a blast. And he considered himself VERY helpful. It was cuteness beyond!
This is the final product. The colour of the walls is Benjamin Moore's Decatur Buff HC- 38 (in case you were wondering). I really love the colour, the walls look great. And the bunk bed is working out really well. The boys have been sleeping in it for a week and we have had no mishaps and very good sleeps all around! I am a happy Mom!