I think I’ve realised that I am now mentally prepared for an infant, as I am desperate for anything to divert my attention away from the 2 things consuming my mind for the past few days -

1. Why the hell has Sami Brady been in hospital with her twins after a successful homebirth like a week ago, ably assisted by her mother Dr Marlena Evans? There was no complications, there’s nothing wrong with any of them, and yet she lays in a hospital bed and the babies seem to spend most of their time in a nursery. Who writes Days of Our Lives? What decade do you live in?
2. Why the hell didn’t they use the Clear Spring parking garage collapse to kill off some people on the Young and the Restless? Come on, instead we get Victoria in a coma after a small rock falls on her head? And they don’t know why? And there’s nothing wrong with her unborn baby?

Oh yes, I need a new hobby quick. Like full time, devastatingly tiring newborn care so that I am sure to take naps between 1-2 and 4:30-5:30 and I don’t subject myself to such television garbage.

[Who I am kidding, naps? Have I forgotten that when baby sleeps, you get stuff done around the house?!]

I just realised that’s it’s my one year anniversary of being back in Canada. The funny part about being back for a full year is that I still go to spell ‘realised’ with an S instead of a Z. At work, I was constantly having to change my words to Canadian spellings. Thank god for spell check.

So a lot has happened in a year – I don’t really need to go over it, do I? We moved in to my parents’ basement, bought a couple of vehicles, found decent jobs, put Oliver in daycare, bought our own house and moved into it, and are just about to bring another kid into the mix. I think what I probably miss most about being in the UK was the sense of adventure that I had the whole time I lived there – sort of like I wasn’t really supposed to be there, slightly without a safety net or something. So I guess as long as we keep ourselves busy (without fail), I won’t have to worry about losing that sense of stress/fear/the unknown/excitement/whatever it was.

I’m having a pretty low key week compared to last week – less energy now, so a lot less organizing (Z!) and cleaning going on. But still feeling vaguely productive – cooking a lot more than normal, little jobs that needed doing are being accomplished.

Off to the doctor’s for 39 week check up. Pretty boring blood pressure and bump measurement stuff, I presume. Blah.

We did it – Oliver got his first hair cut. I am sad. It probably should have just been a trim, rather than a full loss of curls.

Before…

And after…

(he was so obsessed with that apple, had to pry it from him after a few hours of carrying it around and continually covering it in dog hair)

I forgot to mention last time that not only is he talking more, and more clearly, he’s also singing. I mean, he’s not got the words right a lot of of the time, but we can actually tell by the tune what he’s going on about. He has a pretty big repertoire – Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Frere Jacques, Baby Bumble Bee (not sure of the title, but you end up eating the bee), Old Macdonald Had a Farm, Row Row Row Your Boat. It’s just come on suddenly, which is weird, but good. He also likes to get in on the hand actions with some of them. And he’ll spontaneously break into song, like this morning as Mark was getting him ready for daycare, I could hear him on the baby monitor. Too funny.

We’ve also got the beginnings of the alphabet (in sing song form) and counting going on. Pretty good stuff.

Yesterday, we clued in to a North American ritual and took him to a pumpkin patch. He’s been going on about pumpkins for a few weeks (no doubt being October, they are talking about them at daycare), so he really freaked out yesterday with excitement. And carried his little pumpkin in his car seat as we left. But then we had to take it away when he started eating the stalk – what can you do, he reminds us that he’s still just a baby in a lot of ways.

Now I’ve really been neglecting this blog. My main excuse has been that I couldn’t find the camera. So thankfully I did recover it from the backseat of my car today, and managed to upload pictures from Mark and Oliver’s trip to the UK.

They were only there for a week, but crammed in lots of family time. Of course, as Mark was in charge of picture taking, we are missing any photos of my family that he visited (my grandmother, and aunt and uncle), and even some of his (his mother, step-father, cousins, etc.). It’s just not his forte.

I could easily make a joke here about Oliver being pictured with a member of Mark’s family but I won’t, I must be feeling generous – they were visiting Twycross Zoo in Warwickshire and there’s lots of photos of pointing at monkeys and such. I will assume he’s not sitting on a live one:
And on the common father-son obsession of choo-choos:

And pictured between his second cousins Katie and Lauren:

We’re attempting to prepare him for the arrival of number 2. This is slightly difficult as he can’t really conceptualize it. He does know to point at my stomach and say ‘baby’. We’ve got him a couple of books about being a brother, and he also likes to point at them and talk about the baby. But then he also talks about the balls and apples and other things in the books. What can you do. I bought him a present today from his brother, as I have read that suggestion in many places – so hopefully the trauma of the new thing in the house will be reduced by a digger with sound and lights. Knowing him, it will.

His language has come on incredibly well lately. There’s so many words that he used to sort of say, that he can now say clearly. And lots of two- and three-word phrases being bandied about. I don’t think I could even try to count how many words he knows now. Which is nice when he can actually mostly communicate what he wants. Although he does still like to use the point and grunt option.

Unfortunately, he is fully aware that he can get out of his bed now, and bed time has turned into a bit of a game, with him continuing to escape with blankets and pillows and such, despite having said ‘buh-bye’ and putting himself in there. It’s becoming frustrating, so we have to be on a mission not to let it be a game anymore. And also I think we’re realizing that he’s just not ready to go to bed at 7 anymore. Perhaps 7:30 or 8pm is more realistic unless he’s not had a lot of sleep during the day.

I don’t like blogging at home as Safari, the standard Mac web browser, clearly does not like blogger. All I can do to this post is spell check it or add photos. I have no other posting options presented to me. I should probably be downloading Firefox or something. Must do some more research on what is up.

Anyway, I don’t have a choice about blogging from home as that’s where I am now! My plan for this first week of maternity leave was Mon-Wed-Fri out and about running errands etc., and Tues-Thurs be a homebody. So far, it’s going to plan.

Yesterday consisted of food shopping, and splurging on a new duvet cover for our lovely new duvet, as well as expensive shampoo for me. I am getting tired of supermarket stuff that does nothing for my hair. I have no idea if what I have bought is any good (I didn’t get any help from the salespeople so I just grabbed something random) but it’s a start.

Today has involved cleaning our bathroom (because in this house, the bathroom that gets used the most is the one that is never cleaned – logic being that no one else ever uses it, but it is disgusting and probably going to kill us if I don’t clean it more) – scrubbing the toilet and everything. And a long awaited organization of the linen cupboard. Including labelling shelves. God I feel virtuous.

I’ve got no shortage of projects to do around the house, things that we never get to, so I would kind of like to have a week or two more of this time before number 2 appears. I have no indication that the arrival is imminent – although I don’t really remember what I felt like just before Oliver appeared last time.

I realize that we had said we should get a cleaner if I went back to work. It didn’t happen. If we end up with 2 kids in daycare with me back at work next year, I think the remainder of my little take home pay post-daycare fees may have to go to a cleaner. If we end up with a nanny, although I want their main focus to be on taking care of children, perhaps a little help with the cleaning won’t be a bad thing. I guess part of the neglect has been that I’ve been pregnant the entire time we’ve lived in this house, and it’s not like I’ve been desperate to clean in my spare time. More likely to have my butt stuck on the couch with sore hips or whatever. But in the future, something has got to give…

• I’m on my second last day of work. As I really wasn’t sure I was going to make it this far (I’m working longer this time than last time), I was all prepared to be done sooner and now I have nothing to do! It sort of sucks. But is good for catching up on blogs.
• The very uneventful provincial election ended last night. The outcome, however boring, is good for public servants; this batch of Liberals treats their workforce pretty well, and means that we see no significant deviation from current work going forward.
• Mark and I have just splurged and bought a down duvet and a 600 thread count Egyptian sheet set. So I can look forward to getting a lot less sleep in comfort, anyway.
• As a housewarming gift, my parents got us a slow cooker (which I requested). I soon learned, however, that being out of the house for 10 hours a day doesn’t allow for too many recipes that can cook that long (without being completely inedible, like the chicken and broccoli and rice I once tried). So I have a plan that I am going to start using it once number 2 arrives – I need to start finding some decent recipes. I have one seemingly okay source, Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook, but I haven’t attempted anything inside yet. It sort of makes sense to me that I can take advantage of naptime for a little meal prep, and then leave it to cook for a few hours (not 10). And with the cold finally moving in, something hot and hearty will be good for us all.
• Last time I was about to go on mat leave, I had all kinds of grand plans for how I would spend my time. This time, no expectations. I mean, I might have a few days; I might have 3 or 4 weeks to go. Basic stuff like dishes and laundry is enough to do for now.

Thanksgiving this weekend (already?!) and it’s my first back in Canada for the last 5 years. And this year, it’s forecasted to feel like 30 degrees + all weekend. So insane. I like autumn. Where are you?

We’re hosting my parents, and I’m looking forward to full on roast turkey dinner meal. Except I think we’re only going to do a roast turkey breast. But whatever, I don’t eat the other bits anyway. I need to get my act together and find some good recipes to go alongside. I’ve got to go food shopping tonight.

I’m at work until next Friday, but last week I was really not feeling so hot all the time, and everyone was freaking out that I was not going to turn up due to labour commencing. So yesterday I got surprised with treats and a very generously loaded Winners gift card (I think I might spend it all on myself; forget the baby!) – in case I don’t make it in next week. But I’ve been feeling fine, too well probably, so I am sure I will be here.

I suppose you can call it ‘nesting’ but I’ve been pretty organized lately, making sure that Oliver’s old baby clothes and any newly purchased items under size 6 months are washed and placed in correspondingly labled containers marked by size (we haven’t got another chest of drawers so it’s Rubbermaid boxes – hey, makes it easy to keep stuff at hand). And at work, all papers are filed, all electronic items are on the shared drive – I could get hit by a bus and they’d be able to find everything they need.

Life is pretty quiet right now; the calm before the storm. I’ve managed to cook dinner a few times lately, which is heroic in my current condition. I’ve got hours and hours of PVR’d television to watch with all the new shows that have started, and all the returning ones (either 2 on at the same time, or me falling asleep around 10pm has led to the necessity of recording many of them). I still can’t get over the fact that little Zoe Slater is playing the Bionic Woman. The show isn’t that great but I just like to watch her anyway.

The men came back from England last Saturday and, after only one very rough night of jetlaggedness and wakefulness, seemed to adapt back nicely to normal routines.

Yep, definitely the calm before the storm.