Tick Tock

I'm now considered full term (37 weeks) which means...if baby comes anytime now she will perfectly healthy, but it's also likely I will go overdue being a first pregnancy. Here's hoping I have my mom's genes and baby comes on her expiry date (I was born on my due date, and I believe my sister was 2 days early)

The belly is just ballooning out more and more everyday I swear, mama and Nik you two will be so shocked when you see me in.....14 days! Even James now says "your belly is so big!" he does not usually notice a difference since he see's it everyday ha. Yesterday my body was extremely achey, lower back and LOT'S of cramping and pressure in the lady bits area...pretty sure it was a small preview of what's to come *false contractions. But I have no clue, I'm one of those people that does not realize what's going on with their body until it's happening in 10 fold...everytime I read a description of fasle labour, or braxton hicks contractions, vs real labour I think "how the hell do you know" and then I read about plenty of women who don't think they are in real labour and are suddenly 5 cms dialted. Not that I'm complaining...I think that would actually be beneficial (half way there and you did not realize it...sign me up!) Hahaa.

James and I have been getting together all the neccessities we need to have on hand for a homebirth (the midwife brings all the medical stuff of course) and are now checking out some stuff for a waterbirth (our tub is not that big) there is also a store in town you can order from for a GREAT price (cheaper then renting if you can believe it) he is very into the water birth...actually he is very into the whole birth, labour, delivery and doing it at home in general...he is NOT into watching whats happening down there haha and has been scarred by some of the videos I have made him witness LMAO! But I really think he is going to be an amazing coach through this experience.

No new belly picture yet, its to early for that. But I got this super cute gift from a very good friend of mine Jennifer (we have known each other since we were 7, and have not seen each other since we were 12 and have managed to keep in touch for that long) she is the sweetest girl I know and was in Barbados for christmas when she found out I was having a girl and could not resist picking up something with a little pink in it. Thank you so much for the gift we love it :)

Busy Bees...starting to nest!

Oh man it has been a busy couple weeks since we got back from Ontario, last week we were both just exhausted. I worked as my boss was in quite a jam, the weather was awful I got my work car stuck and was having to shovel my way out. My body was in so much pain by the end of the week....I have really learnt to take the words "take it easy" to heart. I bit off more than I could chew that's for sure. We were also house and dog sitting for friends of ours. James has been very busy with his new job, his hours are decent though, however he is very much a man who brings his work home with him...always trying to improve something (I admire it!) and he is full into getting his busy up and running, so evenings have been spent working on that....busy bee's we are.

We got to pick up Emi from the airport on Monday and are so happy to have our little munchkin back, its true what they say you realize how much something means to you when its gone, and not having her around for 12 days was lonely and quiet in a weird way. I know she misses her gramma and grandpa though, so now you guys HAVE to visit both your granddaughters!

I'm still "working" this week and next but only a couple hours a day, as my boss is still training my replacement and still needs to find a 2nd replacement. It's good to be active and walking, but my ladybits can definitly feel the weight of Ziggy after 30 minutes of walking, and I find it so hard to just walk slowly and take my time, I like to just go and get the dogs out for a good brisk walk hahaa.

The plus side to being so busy, we did get around to picking up a few essentials this weekend for baby, birth and now my nesting mode is kicking in full force. I finally got around to emptying our spare room which has been a landmine for jackets, bags and clthes that do not fit me (literally I throw stuff in there and close the door...since we moved in November 15th) I reorganized almost all our cupboards in the kitchen, and drawers so now James has NO CLUE where anything is...but I feel better with where stuff is at hahaa. Hoping to get some baby clothes washed up this weekend, and..........the showercurtain on my bed, not that my water should be breaking this early, but its a brand new mattress. So a shower curtain was the best idea, and also on my list of stuff to get for a homebirth, might as well put it on ahead of time. Anyhoo a few pictures that are now almost 2 weeks old...oopsy. All dressed up to go to the Shaughnessy Christmas Party (James' old work) January 4th, 2009- I'm 33 weeks along here.

I mentioned James has a new job, he accepted the position over the holidays and is now the Golf Operations Manager at Fraserview Golf Course, pretty much the wing man to the Head Pro/Manager/Owner of the Pro-Shop, Tom...who seems like a super awesome boss so far! Him and Tom have been busy revamping the proshop (it was closed due to the snow) Tom took over ownership of it a few weeks ago, and the place was in dire need of a makeover. They both share similar visions for this public course and have done some great work with the place the past 2 weeks. I think tomorrow is the first day it will be open (still lots of snow on the course, but the range will be open) Great work boys and Good Luck!

Surprise Surprise!

Not quite a surprise anymore to everyone, but still worth sharing ;)

For our anniversary present to each other we decided to find out what the sex of Baby Ziggy is. During our 3D ultrasound we had the tech investigate, while we closed our eyes...cut our parents viewing session short (they were watching a live broadcast) The tech finished up the DVD to end showing the baby bits, and also wrote it down and sealed it in an envelope. He was pretty excited about us waiting for a few more days till our anniversary to open the envelope and watch the movie, we were given strict instructions to stop the DVD around 25 minutes if we wanted to watch it before November 27 (so not to ruin the surprise) and no holding the envelope up to light...he was the cutest ultrasound tech ever!

Anyways it was a perfect anniversary celebration and we decided to keep it a secret for a little longer and surprise the grand-parents-to-be at christmas. Since we could not be with Tom and Heather in Singapore, we sent them the DVD and a picture frame with a note on the inside, sharing the reveal...however they didn't quite understand or follow directions...which ended up being to our benefit (well mine) as they called quite confused and I got to hear their reaction over the phone! They could not make out what they were seeing in the dvd and asked if this was revealing the sex of Ziggy, and said they needed subtitles hahaa. I told them to open up the picture frame and read the note (they had kept the frame in the box ha...hence the confused phone call) and then were just overjoyed to read the note!

For my parents and sister we had them watch the dvd while we got a present ready that was "too big to wrap" They were getting quite ancy towards the last few minutes of the video...wanting to go to the bathroom or get a drink but I kept insisting they watch. At the very end they had no clue what they were looking at (bum, legs and baby bits) but they started to clue in and say is that showing us the sex? And then the video ended, I had a huge smirk on my face and my mom jumped out of her chair at the speed of light to grab the remote and replay the last couple minutes. Then the debate started, is it a girl or boy? Finally I lifted up my shirt to reveal this….

It took them a few seconds before turning around to see hahaa, but they were so excited and happy for us. My mom's reaction was "I knew it was a girl!" :P

Hope everyone had a happy and safe New Years! I wish everyone nothing but the best for 2009, the year of the baby (for us)

Callista

Merry Christmas!!

The Belly at 31 weeks

After dinner with Brian and Annette

Lunch at Tyn, Jasmine and Sean's.

Emi trying to snuggle with Winnie

Big yawn from my little girl

I really wish I had a good zoom lense this would have been hilarious! James was running with Emi (in snowshoes) and totally wiped out, the expression on Emi's face was just priceless.Emi making her way through the snow on our christmas eve walk - I think she might need a pair of Muttlucks heheeShowing how high the snowbanks are! Mama's Pumpkin (from scratch) I don't eat pumpkin pie (the consistency - yuck) but the flavor was delish!

Me attempting to snowshoe - I only fell twice, and not hard ha.Winnie enjoying some treats from his stocking!Emi's turn to open her stocking...Winnie was a little jealous.James a little excited about his new tool kit!!The family after opening Santa Presents (note Santa should have been played by ME - whoa nelly I look WIDE ha)...this is before our family breakfast, so no mess of wrapping paper yet ha.

Well I have a ton more pictures to add, but Baby Ziggy is kicking my ribs like crazy so I am signing off...there is also TONS more pictures from our holiday on my facebook photo albums.

At the homestead...

Well sort of ;) we got in to Ontario on saturday...and I have to say it might have been the best flight of my life. For starters James was able to fly stand by with me (very lucky!) people were pretty accommadating to letting us sit together (not overly, but it happened) and then the movie we watched was 3 hours so that made the flight go by so quickly....but the best part I DID NOT COMPLAIN ONCE...James was quite impressed (pretty sure he HATES flying with me) I usually get very restless and are we there yet, how much longer...like a kid muahaahaaa. However I don't know if it was the happy pregnancy hormones, the excitement of seeing my parents, the curiosity of seeing Emi and how she would react to all the snow (she loved the little bits we got last winter) just having my wonderful husband beside or what...but it was a very easy and quick flight wahooo. Here's hoping its just as lovely when we come back!

So far it has been a great trip, feels like home thats for sure hahaa (its been 2 years since we have been back to my parents place) Emi is LOVING all the snow and just pooped out from galloping around the yard and playing snow wars with her papa and grampie. She is being SPOILED with table scraps and we have all suffered from her horrendous gas...thankgod most of yesterday was spent outside...but I tell you, being downwind of her was not a treat!

The family made the trek out to the tree farm to pick the perfect (meaning crooked and wonky) Prosser Christmas Tree, freeze our tushies and fill up on french fries afterwards. The weather was actually quite nice and it was not overy cold, but I still layered up in snow pants, longjohns and the whole kabang.

I need to make this a relatively short post as I have a wee bit of heartburn, cramps and am beyond tired right now, so here are a few pictures from yesterday. Hopefully I can post more tomorrow along with the lovely gifts we got from Singapore from Heather, Tom and their incredibly thoughtful friend Ylva.

The family with the tree, and James holding a saw...scary!
I might not have that beautiful pregnancy glow, but James got a lovely (in my opinion) picture of me infront of our glowing (half decorated) christmas tree lastnight. This is me 30 weeks along, can you believe there are only 10 to go (yikes!)

Baby goes boom!

Those were James' words to describe the action coming from my belly lastnight. Our wifey Dianna came over to celebrate early christmas, and make us a delicious dinner (I just finished off the leftovers!). We are now the old married couple, and proud owners of a CLAP IT, much better than a typical one year wedding anniversary "paper" gift THANK YOU! I am notorious for getting into after James' does, now with some clapping practice I can turn the light off when I hop into bed hehee. I indulge in a scrumpticious bowl of Hagen Daaz Dulce de Leche icecream lastnight (at least it was half the fat...still very unhealthy though oopsy) and baby Zigs went CRAZY. We have a tiny dancer in there, busting out some Michael Jackson moves, making mama go ooooh and owwwww! James demanded that Dianna come sit with us on the couch and "watch the belly it's crazy!" Sure enough Ziggy stopped once they both concentrated on the belly hahaa...so I poked around a bit and got baby moving again...saying "helloooooo" in the Jerry Seinfeild Koolaid Man voice seemed to get the monkey happy! Anyhoo Baby Ziggy rolled or punched me real good causing quite the protrusion from my stomach and making both James and Dianna squeel..."Omigod ahhhh!" It was super cute and funny.

There is some insane movements coming from inside tonight, its very freaky and making me feel like my insides are being twisted and pulled apart :S GROSS! Dianna I thnk the baby must LOVE your lemon chicken and potatoes, cause after I finished up the leftovers was when it went into olympic overdrive! Hopefully we can try to get it on video soon to share with those far away.
Love
Callista

Another one bites the dust...

Finally we made a decision in the world of strollers...we had pretty much decided on the Bob Revolution, sort of like the SUV of strollers. But we started thinking maybe it was just a bit big for us and our car. The one we decided on has been on my list of top 5 for the longest time, but we could never get out to see since only one retailer in lower mainland carries it....however we lucked out this weekend when went to Victoria and stopped by another retailer who carries it. So ladies and gentleman without further ado I will introduce the Bumbleride Indie - we got it in Ruby (a big seller for me, the Bob does not come in red, so I was going to settle on Brown and Blue) it has everything we are looking for and more.

Offroading, light jogging, 3 airfilled tires, GIANT sunshade, but rather than being an SUV it's like a compact car or a....Suburu Outback LOL! Much smaller in the frame than the typical all terrain joggers, but space for baby is not compromised. Anyways I'm sure I'm boring you all...but the stroller was more important to me than the crib or carseat, so as you can tell I'm VERY excited about this. For those interested here is their site

http://www.bumbleride.com/collection2008/indie.php#

and a great review on youtube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcH7Kfla6jU

It should be here by January and then crazy lady me will start taking it for a stroll EMPTY to get Emi used to walking with a stroller.

Speaking of Emi, she has been quite the snuggle muffin lately...getting a little to spoiled, and is now also WHINY at night when its bed time...not sure whats going on with that, but I keep saying "it's practice for the months to come!"

And here is THE BELLY at 29 weeks, only 11 to go ahhhhh! I am avoiding FRONT shots as I feel extremely wide these days. James' likes to throw in the wide load comments and I swear if I was not so achey I would sit on him and squish his arse for being a butthead! Please excuse the messy hair and PJ's it was late!

Well another major purchase out of the way only a bagillion more items to go ha. Oooh super exciting I have started to get a grasp on our cloth diaper stash, and now have 24 Motherease Sandy's and 4 of the covers (I bought them used from a local mama for an amazing deal!) I can't stop looking at these cute little dipeys...funny thing they probably won't even fit the little stinker right away (they are for size 8lbs-20lbs) so not quite your average newborn size....here's hoping Baby P takes after my side of the family!

Well I need to hit the hay early tonight folks, so I'm off!

Callista