Calming before the storm(ing)

[caption id="attachment_1975" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Snuggles for siblings[/caption]

Our current "child" is needy, high energy and relatively spastic most times.  When it is just G and I at home she calms down and is the snuggle bug we know and love.  When we have visitors? She won't settle, wants to jump and leap and lick everyone and just get all the attention from all the new people.  It is so overwhelming both for us and for those coming for a visit. We have been making such a huge effort with her lately to calm that wild spirit and get her to just relax.  We want everyone else to get to enjoy her the way we do...a snuggley, tooting, snoring, sweetheart.  Not a wild eyed, jumpy, nibbly, excited tinkler.

 I feel bad because lately she has been hearing a lot of "down, no, off, NO" from us...and yes I realize she is a dog, but she sure has the puppy dog eye look down pat to make us feel bad after we reprimand her.  We both just want her to be a good girl, and not accidentally smother/jump on the baby once that big change happens.  Everyone tells us how quickly the pup becomes second fiddle once a baby arrives, and I can definitely see that happening...I am just hoping we are able to keep working with her over the next two months and tame some of that wild puppy spirit.  I tried explaining to her this morning that she will be spending a LOT of time in the newly fenced in yard if she doesn't simmer down, at least a little.  I am sure once Gus starts eating some real food, Brooklyn will realize that the baby is her meal ticket (or snack ticket I guess?!) but until then I just sense her getting annoyed that someone else has her parent's full attention.  (I guess I should say owners?  But it's hard not to think of her as our fur baby..maybe that is the problem hahaha)

iStalker

My friend Harrison and his parents gave us a really cool shower gift.  This baby monitor from Apple...we set it up last night and it is really cool.  We were playing with it last night and decided it set it up in the kitchen today so we can see what Brooklyn does while we are at work.[gallery type="square" ids="2025,2023,2024"]

It is no wonder why she is all pumped up and raring to go when we get home! She spends the day in her bed.  This is definitely a fun piece of technology that is going to be really neat to have to spy on the baby..oh wait I mean keep an eye on the baby.

Father's (to be) Day

Father's day is coming this weekend and it has suddenly taken on a whole new meaning to me.  I am pretty gushy sentimental (as if you couldn't guess) so I wanted to do something fun/special for he who I am about to make a father.  All of my ideas involved a bunch of money which isn't so practical at the moment so instead I bought a gift that is sort of for G but mostly for the babe

[caption id="attachment_1925" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Starting Gus's love of reading as soon as possible[/caption]

There was a Father's Day section at Chapters where I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to pick out the perfect book. So obviously I ended up with two. A super cute animal one and then one about  building a dog house with Daddy.  I couldn't pass up either one.  I just thought G could read them to Gus when s/he arrives and I will just melt into a puddle of hormonal goo at how cute that would be.

I like the idea of starting some sort of Father's day tradition(s).    Letting him sleep in will likely be gift enough at that point!

Anyone have any fun/fond memories of things they did with their Dads when they were little?  One of my nicest memories is watching The A-Team with my Dad.  Fun and full or Mr. T,  but not necessarily what I  have in mind.

Weekend Report: The learning edition

We had a pretty ram packed weekend but all in all it was quite lovely.  Friday night G, Gus and I went to see Fast and the Furious 6...definitely an Oscar contender for this coming season.  All these movies are pretty ridiculous, but we LOVE going to watch them together, and whenever there was a lot of engine revving (which was clearly a lot in this movie) Gus would wiggle around...perhaps not a fan of loud noises like their Mumma?

Saturday we had our labour and delivery class with a really amazing nurse from Barrie.  We learned a lot, and G asked a lot of questions which made me feel good.  He said that he feels like he understands a lot more about what will be happening now so he is more comfortable with the whole thing.  We have some homework readings to do together so we can be even more prepared, but I feel that we are at least on the same page about how things are going to happen. We had friends up Saturday night for a BBQ and hang out session...they are also expecting and due a month after us so G lovingly explained all the scary stuff to the husband.  He visibly blanched when G explained about an episiotomy . haha (I am so proud he retained all that info!)

Sunday we headed to our newborn care class and again learned a lot.  I think that this made things even more real which is fun. Obviously we both know we are having a baby, but getting detailed info about how to take care of one brought us to a whole new level.  I know that a lot of it will be instinct and we will learn as we go, but I think we both feel a lot more confident now about certain things. We were both frantically taking notes in the "when baby is sick" section of the class.  We were joking about how we will obviously have our doctor on speed dial and be best friends with all the call centre workers at telehealth!    After class we headed to visit my father in law for supper and to pick up Brooklyn.  Clearly I took the cutest picture ever and posted it yesterday!  It is so nice to have her home, we missed that little bum--She has been christened "Bubble Guts" by G's dad as he was accidentally fattening her up all week...there was a slight miscommunication regarding how much food she gets, and as she indeed is a bubble guts she ate all that he set down for her...so its to weight watchers for the little miss this week.

So all in all a great weekend, we didn't get to get as much done around the house as we wanted, but we did get to see the fruits of G's lawn labour from a few weeks ago.  Our lawn wasn't looking so great after the winter, so about 3 weeks ago G put down some seed in the gross areas and we kind of prayed that the rain would do its job.  Last night we noticed that the areas are starting to fill in nicely! Hurrah...cross one thing off the list!  Our gardens have been so jungle-ish lately they are unbelievable.  Our longer term plan is to dig a few of them out because they are a lot to handle, but fortunately a gardening fairy stopped by last week and took care of two of them for us!   Our lawn has been a never ending attempt to repair project--the previous owners never  mowed it and it was full of crab grass, dandelions and the like.  For the past two summers we have invested in grass seed and fertilizer and are slowly seeing a difference, but man alive what a lot of work...astro turf for the next house!

And now a few random pictures:

[caption id="attachment_1909" align="aligncenter" width="388"] A fun pic my Mum sent me on Saturday night of her and my Nanny having a wee drink on her porch![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1910" align="aligncenter" width="388"] My sister in law got us this which we finally started on the weekend. Then promptly fell over realizing how soon this is![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1911" align="aligncenter" width="388"] FOUND THEM!!!! A random Timmies Kiosk at my work has these...made my day today[/caption]

19 weeks and counting

[caption id="attachment_1854" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Thar she blows[/caption]

When I first found out I was pregnant I couldn't wait for the three month milestone. It seems to typically be that sacred point when you can relax and just enjoy being pregnant. Start telling people, and stop worrying that every little thing means something might be wrong.  This past week I have started sporting a little belly and wee Gus has begun to move more often.  I am loving feeling these randomly timed bumps and nudges reminding me that this is actually real.

Honestly...there is a lot of down time in the beginning where it doesn't feel real.  Maybe I have just been eating too much and am getting a belly?  I couldn't actually believe that there was a baby in there for a long time.

Now that I am nearly at the halfway mark I want time to slow down.  October will be here before we know it and I want to enjoy these months where Gus and I are always together.  I look back on how fast the past few months have gone...and I know that the next few will fly by as well. I am typically the type of person who is always excited for what is to come, but with this pregnancy I just want to enjoy every second and not wish too hard for the next stage.

Expressing Ourselves

When we first found out we were pregnant we had lofty plans for how we would tell our families that we were having a baby.  But then we were way too excited and told them in a pretty straight up "guess who is having a baby"? type of way.  Our Mums lucked out and each got a framed pic of a pregnancy test with the words "Baby Walsh" on the bottom....classy right?  I think our excitement trumped our creativity there.

We tried to make plans  to put a little more effort into it when we told some of our friends...but my graciously turning down wine at Garret's birthday weekend was enough of a tell for all the guests there.  As we started telling more people we made time to make a few fun things.  Two of our friends are REALLY into the Grumpy Cat Meme so we made this to send:

My friend Harrison texted me immediately after laughing saying "I thought you were telling me you are pregnant"  then two seconds later another text "THAT IS YOUR WEDDING RING"  Definitely some good laughs there.

I had been bugging Garret for a few weeks to make something cute we could send to his family to tell them.  I was thinking something along the lines of a picture with one of our favourite Iphone Aps to snazz it up.  He spent some time goofing around with his phone and when he sent me what he made I had to laugh.  Not quite what I had in mind

[caption id="attachment_1755" align="aligncenter" width="388"] Ice Cube is obviously delighted for us[/caption]

Granted I found this hilarious and so did several of our other friends, but I am pretty sure none of his family listens to Ice Cube so the novelty would have been lost.