Banana Nana

I am always careful with letting my kids eat too many bananas… lets just say they have some “lasting” effects. And no one wants to see their kids uncomfortable. Grayson has once eaten 4 or 5 bananas in a day.. he does not get why that is a bad idea even for a full grown adult.

So bananas only get on the grocery list every so often as to not sit on the counter and tempt my poor children who love the fruit that does not show them the same affection.

But I have fallen in love with Bananas again.. once I watched Aislinn eat her first whole banana from the peel. I tried desperately to capture the cuteness with a photo shoot but I don’t think I did the moment justice.

Here she is happily enjoying her newfound independence and eating skills while watching a cartoon after her nap.

If it were not for the banana in her hand..

Which I will admit does cause me some problems every once and awhile, they come by it honestly.

I would be tempted to eat her … all that cuteness in the form of fruit filled cheeks.

And another bubble pops!

So today I see myself with a whole bushel of lemons and have lost my lemonade recipe.

Since we have moved to Brechin we have been keeping our eye out for a place to purchase or rent that we can afford that has what we need for space. A couple of times we have come close enough rooms, etc but the house is not right.... dry mold, needs a total roof redo, water system... has no storage space or laundry room... and this has not been discouraging really until now.

The pressure has been on us to move out of our all in -one -room bachelor pad since we discovered that we were pregnant with our second child, due in October. We have come up with ideas and options, but nothing had panned out.

Recently we found a 4 bedroom home for sale at 109,000. Four bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 2 living rooms a total renovated kitchen, laundry space, cellar/dungeon for storage for a basement. It was power of sale... and then today it was lowered to 99,000. Here we thought was our chance. Cheap enough for us to afford, even though a good amount of elbow grease would be required. But we felt we could do it.

We became pre approved, the monies were all set to go. A friend who was going to help us through the process decided to go by the house with Adam and have a look at it before we put in an offer. He liked it... thought it would work, until he realized that there was little to no insulation in the house. A job he says would cost 30,000. Making this house completely un afforable for us.

We say to each other every time we look at a house or option, don't get excited this might not work. But we both did this time, price was right, location was perfect and now here I sit - tears of disappointment threatening... (could be hormones!)

What do we do? ... Where do we go?

Everyone has been so supportive in this journey to find a house/space for us.... but at the end of the day when they have to give us the hard advice of "walk away from this one" they go back to a house. One they fit in...

... and we go back to our "cozy" apartment. Defeated.

Is this God asking us to trust... or us not seeing the signs he is showing us?

A full size Panty - A note for the Ladies

I am sure that my following is not completely comprized of men so here goes a girly note about underware.

I really do not like the word "panty" it just sounds wrong. Maybe it is my country upbringing or my ever practical dutch side, I don't own panties. I got me sum underwares or gitch.

Actually to be honest I grew up calling them "brukes" (dutch made simple in english)

So here is my latest story about life. I had to go shopping for new underware. My current ones are not working with my ample pregnancy expanded rear! So off I go. Not wanting to spend too much money on just underwear for basically the summer I went to Walmart. There I found quite the selection. Hi Cut, Classic Cut, Bikini, Hipster and Thongs.

Although a Thong makes complete sense, for an expanding rear end, I was looking more for country comfort of a bikini.

Well so I purchased the size above what I thought I had been wearing. I even splurged and got some cute Hanes Her Way Hipsters that I use to have and loved. Due to Grayson being with me and being all together way to helpful with bringing every elastic, lacey item to me while I was trying to read labels I grabbed and ran sure of my purchase.

Got home all proud, excited to put on a pair of underwear that fit! Ha - I should laugh. They did not fit not at all. And guess what you cannot return underwear. Hmmm.... $20 bucks down the drain. I am hoping that they will fit post baby. (x - cross my fingers)

So I go back, and low and behold, walmart and zellers do not sell a bikini in a larger size. My only option was to go to a granny panty - or classic fit! NOOOOOO way. besides that would never work with my expanding belly. All the bunching and sagging. No thanks. Great so now what do I do.

Orillia has a small mall and thank fully it has a La Senza. I go in. Before I get all excited with all the colours, sale tags and options. I go to the counter and ask what their largest size is. XL. Well I need bigger. Well the young lady behind the counter could read my under lying frustration of having to go commando or go with a "classic" full brief. She looked around and found a style that is total elastic and stretches all over the place. Wahoo! not to mention on sale. (as long as you do not need white, black or nude) For underwear that fits I don't car what colour it is.

I am now happily sitting in my new gitch happy happy happy!

I know all about the struggles of going "intimate apparel" shopping only to find a size has changed up or down, larger or smaller. But here let me say don't get depressed and go on a celery diet. Bodies change and that is normal. And they are all lovely. And so much more lovely when then garment meant to hold us up or in, actually fit no matter what the tag says.

A note about being Larger.... and Pregnant

So I think that ladies from the time they find out they are pregnant look forward to the day that the belly - evidence to the world of the expected bundle - pops out so we no longer have to feel / look "heavy" but pregnant - with a purpose. Well not so for anyone who is a little on the larger side when they become pregnant.

I have been telling my self... just another month, then that fat middle will turn into a rounded cute belly. Here I wait. It is almost 5.5 months.

I have joined several forums about babies / pregancy etc. and each has a picture section of ladies fondly showing their bellies off in their bathroom mirrors for a picture. I have decided that this will probally not happen for this baby number 2. Maybe by my due date I will look pregnant. But then I will be grossly pregnant and in no mood to have a picture taken of my bloated body full of excess water. Funny how that goes!

So any way here is a little shout out to all the ladies that find them selves in my position - waiting for the inside to match the outside.

Yes we are beautiful and pregnant

The News Is Out!

It is 12 weeks and over the last days we have let everyone know that October is going to be a bit busier than last october. I am excited for Grayson to experiance being a big brother. Adam is convinced that this one is a girl. He predicts 8lb. I would be just fine with that because her brother came into this world at a large 10.10.

We have started to tell Grayson about the baby. For the first weeks I was quite sick so much that he is very good at saying 'Mama sik' and likes to rub my belly as if that would make me feel better. Or he just comes over to give me hugs and kisses to tell me that I am sick.

We taught Grayson how to give zerberts. and he loves this new skill. Any unsuspecting piece of skin that is showing gets his drolly love. This was especially cute one day when he found my tummy. I'll be frank, I have not lost much of my baby weight that I gained with Grayson so, zerberting my tummy is rewarded with really good loud farting noises. This day, after my stomach was covered in drooled I asked him if he was giving kisses to the baby. He looked at me a little funny. Adam filled him in by saying "the new baby is in mama's tummy". Grayson looked down at my belly, placed his hands on either side of my post pregnancy, cavernous, belly button and called into it "baby! wh'are you?" .

Moments like this I will treasure. I was so rushed during Grayson's pregnancy that I did not take time to enjoy the changes and stages. He now helps me enjoy that with this little one.

2+2=4

I always wanted to write about the moment we knew we were expecting Grayson... but I just never got to it with all the other things that I kept myself busy with. But now that I have moved away from my family I thought I would write more so although we are separated by distance they would still be able to share with us in the expansion of our family. I have been tracking my cycles with the use of Mymonthlycyles.com and found it a great tool for knowing the where and when of everything. For a woman who is almost like clockwork it was good to know that well... I was just like clockwork. Adam and I had been willing to start adding to our family since late last summer. But things just didn't work out as quickly as we had hoped. The old saying a watched pot doesn't boil.... I don't know if Adam felt the same as me as he is more relaxed about everything and I am the one who said that I wanted to be done having kids by 32 and that is creeping up on me. So month after month... Until February. Like some of the months before I thought I had timed out everything perfectly so I was refusing to get my hopes up, but I did want to have a baby in 2010 so that the age gap would not be too big between our first son who just turned 2 and the new baby. I guess I knew pretty quickly that I was pregnant or at least I guessed. But I had to wait until just before to take the test. And so when I was one day late I wanted to take a test. (Valentines Day) Adam and I were at a pancake supper at the United Church when I asked him if it would be okay if we ran into Orillia to run some errands. He was good with that and we went to the Dollarama and I bought 3 tests. I told Adam that because morning pee is the best we would have to wait until then. But I couldn't wait and took a test as soon as Grayson was in bed... it was negative. (frown). I was still sure I was pregnant so, early in the morning when Grayson crawled into our bed I got out and took another test. ... it was positive. Poor Adam. I just leaned over the bed holding out the test. "Do you know what that means?" He looked at it groggily. "your Pregnant?" "yes" "Great, you got what you wanted!" That is what he said but I knew it was not what he meant... we talked about it later. Me being me... with one negative and one positive... I was glad I bought 3 tests. So when I finally had enough pee again I took the 3rd test.... The baby due date calculator says we are due October 25th.

H20

Does any one anywhere actually drink the amount of water you are suppose to in one day? I am sure we all try but fall so short by the end of the day.... 8 - 8oz glasses per 24 hour period for the average adult. That does not count if you are active and anticipate to sweat at all that day. Then you have to drink more. I have tried on many occasions, as literature everywhere preaches the glories of drinking enough water, healthier skin, no constipation, more energy.... but what they forget is the amount of time spent peeing. 8x8 is 64 oz of water. When do you have time to drink this.. mostly I find that it is at night while I am wanting to snack during my tv routine. The problem is that it directly affects my sleeping as limited as it is with a 2 year old that shares our room. I drink 32 oz in the 2 hours before bed and then wake up at 3 and quickly up at 6 all to visit the bathroom. And every morning after a night like that I say I can do better tomorrow... I'll start first thing in the morning... I'll drink half the of the amount by lunch... yet here I am still trying to work on my first litre (32oz.) and it is 3 in the afternoon..

Tomorrow has so much potential ....