so many things to do, each day is something new

there is no baby yet, in case that is what you are here to see, but that doesn't mean things have been boring, oh no.

there have been bad seventies cop mustaches (and it took 5 tries before i got a picture where he wasn't laughing, i mean what kind of cop laughs, i needed serious!)


and homemade bread (made by someone other than me to boot!)


plus today it actually felt like spring for the first time and we spent the whole afternoon outside enjoying it


so although there isn't a wee one in my arms yet, and my bladder is still under attack, things are alright over here.

oh and for those of you that are worried about marko's personal aesthetic, this is what he looked like today...phew

to you, the one turning two

this is what we woke up to this morning! it seemed strange at first, but then i remembered that cohen and i were wishing we were in edmonton today to celebrate atticus' second birthday, and it all made sense. so if we endure the snow, does that mean we get to eat cake?

happy birthday, we wish we were there!

the world has it's ways to quiet us down

i can't seem to stop eating chocolate tonight. it doesn't help that there are stashes of the stuff all over the apartment. lately when i go to the store i am overcome with the desire to buy something bad for me, gummy worms, chips, ice cream, and of course chocolate. somedays i swear it is the only thing that gets me to the store in the first place. thankfully i have a husband who feasts on unhealthy food and so i am not solely responsible for the gorging and then groaning with stomach aches. it will be nice when this phase passes and i can go back to being the strong willed one in the family though. even as a write this i am thinking, "come on, just one more handful of reeses pieces".



alright, now that i have my mouth filled with peanut butter goodness let me tell you about my easter weekend visit. aaron, laisha and jonah all came down for a few days. as always their weekend was jam packed with visiting, luckily i only had to participate in the visiting that involved me, which was an afternoon spent at the vancouver aquarium on friday and a dinner at grandma's on sunday. to say the aquarium was busy would be like saying that sap is a little sticky (and that anaolgy is quite apt in this case). having been there dozens of times over the last year i can say with certainty that i have never seen it so busy. little children running amuck, strollers jamming into one another with force, crying and whining and above it all the pleasant woman's voice announcing that the dolphin show will be starting in 5 minutes. still, we managed to have a good time with cohen chanting "ish, ish" as he pointed from tank to tank, and jonah wide eyed and grinning at all the commotion. the day rounded out with a birthday cake for marko, complete with sparklers and singing (that's right, he is finally 21). it was a long one, but worth it just the same.



dinner at grandma's was much quieter and relaxing which was nice. the only commotion of the night was when jonah decided to bite my nipple while i was in the middle of a conversation. here i thought he was just relaxing on my lap, but it turns out he had other plans. when i yelped in pain his little face went blank and he started crying, poor guy! isn't that what teeth are for? i had to laugh when laisha's face sank as she asked, "oh did he just bite you?" i guess it is his new thing, better not let strangrrs hold him until that one passes!



hands down though, the highlight of the visit for me was the way jonah and cohen interacted with each other. marko was quick to comment that the two of them would be good friends if they lived closer. jonah was in awe of cohen, and cohen seemed highly interested in playing with jonah, he even gave him big kisses and hugs on more than one occasion. it was great having them there together. i already can't wait for june when we all get together again.

did you ever see such a sight in your life?

cohen with his grandma and his cousin jonah (more on their visit soon)

i was sitting here pretending to look at blogs, but really just staring into space enjoying a moment of quiet as marko put cohen to bed, when i heard some rustling in the kitchen. i could tell it was galena and assumed she was simply chasing her shadow again, either that or one of the dozens of matchbox cars that seem to litter our apartment these days, and so i gave it no mind. after ten minutes the clanging hadn't let up though and so i decided to pick myself up from the chair (not an easy task) and go have a look thinking that maybe the frog escaped from our freshwater tank and was now dinner. turns out i wasn't far from the truth, there it lay in the middle of the floor with one of galena's paws on it's back, a mouse. who knew we had mice? but more importantly who knew galena had it in her to catch one? way to go my lazy fat cat, i am impressed indeed. she is now sitting by the front door with an intense look on her face, i wonder if that is where she saw this one in the first place?



in other less macabre news, cohen has taken to climbing. i don't just mean your run of the mill climbing onto the couch or bed, more the variety where we find him sitting in the middle of the kitchen table sipping his cup of milk that mom had accidentally left up there out of his reach, or on top of the tv table holding a bottle of tums (there are a few around here in places i thought were out of his reach, cause you never know when you are going to have a heartburn emergency). it all happened so fast. the first time i saw him on the kitchen table (and yes i said first time) i had no idea he could even climb onto a kitchen chair? things like fish tanks and bookshelves become a little trickier when climbing enters into the equation, (and don't even get me started on some of the stunts he tries to pull off at the playground these days!). i am starting to wonder if the months of calling him monkey have finally gone to his head.

in new baby news, i had an internal at my appointment yesterday to see if all the braxton hicks contractions i have been having have been productive or just plain annoying, and it turns out i am just shy of 3cm dilated. i would say woo hoo, but it doesn't necessarily mean anything really, still with cohen i was closed tight until the night i went into labour, so i will take anything i can get. jokingly i told marko today that i want a baby by sunday, we both chuckled for a moment and then fell silent, because wow, i really could have a baby by sunday. exciting and incredibly overwhelming, mixed in with a little bit of questioning, can i really do this?

if you haven't yet entered a guess as to who this little one is and when they are going to get here then what are you waiting for?

happy easter (and spring too!)

sleeping in until 9:15, eating reeces pieces for breakfast and decorating eggs, so far this easter stuff has been pretty good. of course it was cohen's first foray into chocolate, and let's just say that a little goes a long way, but he is napping now and soon so will i, then it will be off to grandma's for dinner and maybe even some playing in the sandbox. hope you are all having a great day too!

38 weeks

some of you may have seen these photos on my flickr page. the reason i did the bare belly shots again was to compare with the shots i did of the same almost 2 years ago now when i was 38 weeks pregnant with cohen. in my mind i thought i was much smaller this time. i am not sure why that is, probably because last time i had a much tougher time physically at the end of my pregnancy, or at least that is how i remember it. thoughts of not believing i could possibly get bigger come to mind, but this time i don't feel that way at all. i still sleep ok at night (although i take up much more room) and for the most part have been able to stay mobile. i guess it comes with experience though as these pictures clearly show that i am not only not smaller this time, but possibly a little larger (what do you think?). still, it fills me with wonder at just how similar these two bellies look, does this mean that it is going to be a boy then? i guess we will soon see if all the wives tales are true.

as for nearing the end, i don't feel the same way at all that i did with cohen. there hasn't been any obsessive paying attention to movement (mostly because i have someone else whose movements keep me on my toes instead), nor has there been anxiety about when i am going to meet him/her and what is it going to be like. the truth is that i might not ever be pregnant again and that moment passing isn't lost on me. it is because of this that i feel a need to savour these last moments, the way it feels to have someone inside you kicking, the fullness, for soon it won't be here anymore and i will miss it.

now that i have said that you wait, i will end up with an easter baby! (there is that power of positive thinking again)

all the clever names were taken

i was tagged by laisha for this meme (and i am also confused a little by the name but will go with it). she was tagged by klay. to keep the fire burning i am in turn supposed to tag some of you. if you are tagged you can choose to participate by answering one or more of the following questions on your blog. i am not sure i know 5 other bloggers that would be up for it, but i will pick a few and see what happens.

to:
sara from it's not about that anyway
claire from claire's blog
catriona from the greys are painted pink
dreena from life with the bean
arnold from arnold's westcoast
tag, you're memed...

my answers

what were you doing ten years ago?

i have been thinking about this one quite a bit and the truth is that i can't tell you with any certainty. it has made me wish that i had some kind of an index of where i have been in my life. i remember jobs and boyfriends and apartments, just not the timeline. i suspect i was living in a basement suite that had enormous spiders as frequent houseguests, in a relationship that was all wrong for me or just at the end of my six year relationship with my high school/university boyfriend and working at a retail job that paid me just enough for rent and a case of beer or bottle of wine depending on my mood. either way it wasn't exactly the best of times.

what were you doing one year ago?

i spent the day creating and playing in casa de cohen. these days we sometimes set up casa de cohen still only with a roof over the whole thing and cushions for lounging inside. there is nothing quite like an indoor fort on a rainy day.

five snacks you enjoy?

1. cake, any kind will do, well except cheesecake, although my preference is almost always chocolate, but then there is lemon and banana and carrot....
2. liberte apple pie yogurt (although the walnut and plum will also do in a pinch)
3. wine gums (which we foolishly buy in the huge bag from costco and then eat in a couple of days.....ohhhh my stomach)
4. cashews
5. pear jelly bellies by the handful (it has been far too long!)

five things you would do if you were a millionaire?

1. buy a house that had a plot of grass for cohen to frolic, and a soaker tub for me to relax, oh and a nice kitchen, we can't forget the kitchen.
2. fly marko, the kids, and i to croatia to visit silvija and to bask in the glow of the dalmatian coast
3. pay off the last of my student loan
4. share with my family
5. invest (i know this one seems lame, but a million isn't very much these days and there is the future to think about!)

five bad habits?

1. bite my nails, always have and it seems likely i always will, until i don't have teeth anymore that is.
2. sitting in front of the computer doing absolutely nothing productive for hours on end, craigslist, parenting forums, flickr, and of course blogging.
3. leaving dresser drawers open after i have taken out the clothes (not such a bad habit to me, but if you ask marko he might have a different opinion!)
4. i am with klay here and will concede to avoiding phone calls. sometimes it just seems like too much work.
5. being pessimistic. i believe in the power of positive thinking, i'm just not sure how it's done.

five things you like doing?

1. going swimming with cohen. actually doing almost anything with cohen, but swimming is one of our favourites for sure.
2. taking photographs
3. creating something with my hands, especially when it turns out the way i hoped it would
4. cooking (not to be confused with grocery shopping or cleaning, neither of which i have any interest in)
5. lying under a quilt in the evening reading a good book and sipping a cup of tea

five favourite toys?

1. imac
2. sewing machine (when it is working)
3. canon rebel
4. sony high definition video camera
5. stroller

if you have been following the other memes then you know i left out the "five things i would never wear again". i say, never say never, plus, i couldn't really think of anything.

i know that would have been much better if it had lots of photos, but i don't have any fresh ones so my words will have to be enough.

knit one, perl two

a couple of years ago i bought this book. i didn't know how to knit, nor did i really think it was something i was going to pick up, having tried to learn on several occasions to disastrous results. at the time i didn't even know what a great knitter silvija was, but there were so many cute things in the book i just couldn't resist. i figured someday i would meet someone who could knit and the book would be useful then. in fact, my auntie helen borrowed the book and knit this sweater for cohen from it a couple of years ago now.



last time i knew cohen was going to be a boy so i didn't entertain the beautiful dresses in the book, but this time i couldn't resist. by far the cutest was the dress you see above. it is intended to be a summer dress but with a pair of white tights and a long sleeve white shirt could easily be a spring/fall dress. i was in love with the picture but hesitated to ask silvija if she would make one for me, what if it is just a waste of her time, what if this one is a boy (which it very well might be), but when i brought it up with her she was very enthusiastic and agreed. finding red cotton at this time of the year proved to be the challenge. we went to ten different wool shops in town with no luck. it was all pastels and creams. silvija tried to talk me out of red, maybe a yellow? she would say, but it just wasn't going to be the same. so it was with great glee that i came upon two balls of red left over from christmas at an obscure crafting shop in steveston that we just happened to be passing. silvija can't knit from a pattern so she did this one and the adorable mary jane slippers (also from the book) from a picture. if i am ever having a bad day i just have to pull this dress out and look at it for a minute, it cheers me right up. i guess soon we will know if my baby gets to use it in the end. if not it will make a fantastic gift in the future.



this one i came up with in my head and described it to silvija. i wanted something japanesey (that one is for you laish) that could work with a boy or a girl. i wanted white square buttons, but silvija came home from dressew with these ones which are decidedly feminine (rhinestone and all). i still think i might change the buttons, i just haven't gotten around to it yet. as you can see the hat also has a flower on it. the flower is fastened loosely for easy removal or tightening from the back. so why did she make it so girly? well the truth is that silvija is gunning pretty hard for a girl (which is why she was so eager to make the dress). you see her and her sister both had two boys a piece and ever since she has longed for a little girl. i can only imagine the knit dresses and sweaters of the future if this baby does prove to be a girl! i get excited just thinking about it.

these last two were the crowning glory of the 2008 knit off for me. when i was a child my grandma (who was a fantastic knitter) would make my brothers and i matching sweaters. we would stand awkwardly in front of our house squinting into the fall sun as my mom took snapshots of us in our bright red or mustard sweaters. it was a tradition of sorts. i don't know about my brothers but i remember those moments clearly, the itchiness of the sweater, the way the cable felt under my fingers.

it was this that i had in mind when i asked silvija to knit me these



marko laughed at me when i told him i wanted them to have matching sweaters. i think he thought it was silly, until i told him about my grandma, about the snapshots, and then he understood. so here they are, cohen and his soon to be new siblings first matching sweaters, hooded and fleece-lined to boot. i suspect they will be coming to a christmas card near you.

of course there were other things. a new hat for me and one for cohen. a hat and scarf for my mom made out of an old sweater of hers that my grandma knit 30 years ago ( i had been dragging it around with me for more than a decade hoping one day to make it into something new to remember the old). a new toque for atticus and a sweater and hat for avner (both striped because everything is better with stripes). new toques for aaron, laisha, jonah, and my friend dreena's baby riley, and in between all that she managed to knit herself a new sweater as well. her talents are amazing. we are all missing her terribly now that she is gone. cohen keeps pointing at her picture and smiling. only ten more months and she will be back, we can't wait.

we are all still under the weather over here. there has been frequent trips to the bathroom and much moaning while lying on the bed, marko and i pushed to the edge with cohen spread out in the middle. cohen is on the mend and is much better than he was 2 weeks ago, but he still isn't himself. i thought i was over it a few days ago, but it turns out i was just in between viruses. marko has it the worst right now. it is all a very sad sight to see. ahhhhh life with kids!

on the plus side, i have been having tons of braxton hicks contractions in the last two weeks, with more than a few actual contractions where my belly tightened and i had to sit down. i never had any before hand with cohen at all, so it is nice to think that my body is getting ready, especially early on. i also went to the doctor today and she said that the baby has made a huge drop and is fully engaged now. i would have put an exclamation point on the end of that sentence, but i am trying to not get my hopes up. to be honest since finishing work i have had a lot more energy (despite being sick) and don't feel in any hurry to get the show on the road, i haven't even pulled out the baby clothes yet. i guess i should do that this weekend.

i wanted to talk more about silvija's visit and show you some of the great things she knit, but it will have to wait, the couch is calling me and it is an offer i can't refuse.