Monday, February 28, 2011

Knut at 26 (or 25) weeks, 1 day

EDITED TO ADD: OOOPS :( Knut was only at 25 weeks, 1 day this day. I screwed up :(

So here is Knut at 26 weeks and 1 day. The shirt I am wearing in this picture is one that Dave's parents bought for me when we announced to them in the summer that we were pregnant with Genghis. Obviously that pregnancy did not end with a healthy baby and so we tried again and now here we are at 26 weeks with Knut. Yay!

This past week Knut has just been very active -- moving around a lot and stretching and generally making his/her presence known! I am also aware that Dave was born at 26 weeks almost thirty years ago, and while I don't think Knut is following in his/her daddy's footsteps, that is also on my mind. I am soooo not ready for Knut to be born this week. So stay in there Knut and grow. Grow. GROW! And I realize I look tired in this picture. I am. Tired of winter and the cold and the snow and also, Sam woke up early this morning so I was rushing to get ready and Dave was trying to get out the door. Life with a toddler is E-X-H-A-U-S-T-I-N-G :)



Also, when he saw Dave take a picture of me, Sam wanted Dave to take a picture of him "eating yogurt." And yes, he makes this face on purpose. sigh.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Thankfully we don't have twins!

So a friend from New Mom's dropped her son, Naden, off so that she and her husband could have a date before their new baby is born. Sam and Naden play together almost every week at New Mom's group so they are having a blast together! Dave and I are just glad that we don't have twins!!! They play together really well but it is just a lot busier with a lot more chaos. Here are some pictures of the two of them together. And just for your information as to the second picture, Sam is starting to pose that way, as opposed to just always, unintentionally, looking bad in pictures. We're so excited about this new development. Or not. Now we're off to feed the boys some yogurt as a snack. They seem excited about it. That, and running...



Saturday, February 26, 2011

Two Tessa Eliz(s)abeths

So those of you who know me well know that I have an adorable, almost-ten-year-old in my life named Tessa. She is the daughter of a friend of mine and I love her a lot. In January my friend, Yumi, from MOPS had a daughter and named her Tessa too. And they have the same (almost) middle name... Eliz/sabeth. It is such a kick because I feel a special connection to the baby Tessa because older Tessa is so awesome :) Anyways, I went to a baby shower tonight for Baby Tessa and I had a lot of fun. And not just because I won one of the games. Well both games actually but I felt selfish taking two prizes so I said to give the other prize to someone else.

Anyways, it was fun to meet some new people and to celebrate Baby Tessa. And they had some cute decorations and a really cute cupcake cake. Cupcake cakes are my new obsession. I so want to make one for Sam's second birthday. We'll see how it turns out. And you can check out last April's posts to see the one I made for his first birthday -- a turtle.



Welcome Baby Tessa indeed! From what I saw tonight you are well loved and you can't go too far wrong with that.

Friday, February 25, 2011

Role Reversal

I wasn't feeling well this morning so I slept and Sam hung out with Dave. By the time I woke up (around 1:30) Sam and Dave had been to Kindermusik and had eaten lunch. Sam REALLY wanted Dave to "sit truck" so I managed to get some pictures of this unusual role reversal. Sam thought it was hysterically funny to have Dave riding on his truck. After this it was time for Sam's nap and he slept for 2 1/2 hours so I think pushing Daddy tired him out!

Maybe I'd like it better if it were called "War, what is it good for?"

I have, off and on over the past few years, been trying to read "War and Peace". This is a remnant of an earlier effort to read a variety of classics ("Moby Dick", "Don Quixote", etc.), all of which ended in failure 100-200 pages in. In the end, I decided to focus all my efforts on finishing *one* book, consider myself "well-read", and move on with my life. However, my sporadic attempts to read Tolstoy's masterpiece have been interrupted by many shorter, less weighty books, including more than one John Grisham novel :(

I have once again reached the point where War and Peace is the *only* book on my shelf, and thus I've decided to give it another shot. Unfortunately, after so many stops and starts, and too many weeks and months of neglect, I have no idea who is who, or what the relationships between the characters are. Thus, I took a quick skim through the 400-ish pages that I've read so far, and created the following chart:


Phew, glad to have cleared *that* up! Now I just need to be able to decipher my chart, and I'm all good. Like any good procrastinator, I am also considering re-doing the chart, so that the relationships are arranged in space both generationally, as well as by family. If/when I get that done, I'll post it here for your viewing pleasure. Until then, it's back to the peace that preceded Napoleon's invasion of Russia, and the life of Prince Andrew Bolkonsky.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Walking in a winter wonderland

So today I finally got to meet Mia, the baby of friends of ours, who was born on January 14. Did I mention these friends live only ONE block away from us. It's just been a little difficult to get together with them. Mia seemed teeny tiny and Hannah said she probably weighed 10 pounds already. Man, Knut is going to seem sooooo small. I hope I remember how to take care of a newborn. I feel like I barely remembered how to HOLD a newborn today and she wasn't even all that new :)

Sam enjoyed playing with Stella's toys and playing soccer with Jeremy. He didn't seem all that interested in Mia until she was in her car seat and then he was all about "Hi Baby!" Thankfully he didn't seem to care that I was holding Mia. These are all good signs for Knut, I'm hoping...

We walked to Jeremy and Hannah's and back, since it is only a block away and all. It was COLD out (-17 to -18C, -28C with windchill) but Sam did just fine.



Tonight we went to Costco, after eating chili I had made this afternoon (Sidenote: I LOVE being home in the afternoons and CAN'T WAIT until I am on mat leave in just 5 short weeks! Yay!). I was disappointed in Costco's fruit selection. I thought they would have more. However, I did get some cute sleepers for a baby shower I'm going to on Saturday and we did get bean salad and grapefruit! I loved the grapefruit Mom and Dad bought when we were there and wanted some for myself. Now we have it. And after a stop at Save-On, we've got a pretty decent fruit selection for the fruit tray I'm making tomorrow.

Now it's time to warm up and go to sleep. Good night.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Knut at 25 (or 24) weeks, two days

EDITED TO ADD: OOOPS :( Knut was only at 24 weeks, 2 days this day. I screwed up :(

Knut is 25 weeks and two days today. I got a couple of new (to me) maternity shirts from a friend today and I wanted to wear one of them for today's picture because it is just that awesome! It is polyester and seems like it could be from the 70s but I'm pretty sure it's not. I can feel Knut move A LOT more these past few days. He/She really seems to respond to Sam's voice because that induces a lot of movement. Also when I sit so that he/she is squished he/she doesn't seem to like that either! So here is Knut as of today.



And because Sam requested it, here is a picture of him wearing my new shirt and Dave wearing my new shirt. Because again, it is just THAT awesome!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Sam wants "axe cream"

So today Sam decided he wanted "axe cream" (translated as "ice cream") for supper. It might have been because Dave was working with sour cream and Sam got confused. Anyways, we wanted to indulge him but he needed to eat his actual supper first. It seemed like the "axe cream" was not going to happen but all of a sudden, Dave convinced Sam to eat a carrot and then a mushroom and then some spinach and suddenly Sam had eaten enough supper and earned his "axe cream." He was pretty cute about it too so I'm glad we could indulge him in the end.





Now for "axe cream"!!!

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Swimming fun

Sadly we weren't able to take pictures but we had So. Much. Fun! this morning. We went swimming at Millenium Place. The washrooms had a few issues so everyone was using the family changerooms which meant that we had to wait quite a while to be able to change. However, once past that little hurdle we were in the pool. I had been there once with Sam but Dave had never been. Millenium Place is in Sherwood Park and about a 20 minute drive from our house but it's definitely worth the trek.

They have a wave pool, the lazy river (where we spent most of our time), a playground type area in the pool where water splashes on you when you least expect it, and fish with seats so Sam could sit on his own and we could pull him around (which was awesome!). Dave and I also each spent some time (for me it was only two minutes) in the hot tub which was beautiful. We were in the water for about an hour and it was great!

Thankfully, when we went to change it wasn't quite as busy, so we didn't need to wait very long at all. Funnily, Sam peed as soon as we had taken his swim diaper off. Fortunately I had some towels to soak up the mess. sigh.

Then we came home and Sam and I both had long naps. I think the swimming wiped us out. But it was so much fun we're definitely going to do it again sometime soon.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Cold cold cold Saturday

Today was super cold out. We walked to market, the library and the bakery and it was -21 out (-30 with windchill). We bundled up warmly but it was still C-O-L-D! At market we bought some baby gifts and eggs. It was very exciting!

Then we went and ran some errands at Bonnie Doon mall, including getting cleaning supplies so that Teresa can continue to keep our house clean. Yay for Teresa! We also bought some groceries although we didn't like the produce at Safeway so we didn't buy any of that, except avocados.

Sam refused to eat the goulash for the second time in a row but ate some avocado, lettuce and grilled cheese with ketchup instead. Then he napped and so did I! I made cream-of-carrot-cheddar soup for supper and the did dishes. Dave dried and Sam "helped" somewhat :) Sam actually ate some of the soup so I was happy about that.

Tonight Dave read some books to Sam and we all watched a bit of hockey. It was great! Below is Dave reading to Sam during the break after the second period.



Watching hockey again! Yay!



Sam got bored of hockey so went to sit in his special chair from Krista and Craig while Dave read him some more stories.



I think Sam is headed off to bed soon and so am I. I'm still really tired for some reason, but it has been a relaxing beginning to our Family Day weekend. Tune in to see what tomorrow holds...

It's been a little quiet...

... around here. Mostly, I've just been tired actually. On Wednesday I unpacked in the morning and Sam got reacquainted with his toys. Here's a picture of Sam on Wednesday morning. He kept wanting to "see Sam" on the camera so it was hard to get a good one!



Marcia came over with Olivia for a few minutes to pick up a portable seat for their trip. I think Sam and Olivia enjoyed playing together again. They haven't gotten to spend much time together this month but that will change in March! In the evening I wasn't feeling really great so Dave and Sam hung out. That's when the "You are my sunshine" videos were made.

On Thursday Sam and I went to MOPS. Sam didn't cry at all when I left him, he didn't the week before either. These are the first times since September that he hasn't cried when I left the nursery. Yay!!! Thursday night Auntie Tasha came to hang out with Sam which he was SO EXCITED about! He hadn't seen her for about two weeks and had been asking for her for a few days. Dave and I just watched Friends on DVD downstairs and it was nice to just hang out a bit.

Yesterday Sam went to Kindermusik and I think he enjoyed it. Aven, from New Mom's, was there and he hadn't seen her for awhile so he was excited about that. Sam was disappointed that he didn't get to "shake eggs" but he got to "shake bells" instead so I think it worked out for him.

Last night we celebrated Shabbat for the first time in awhile.



I made goulash and we had challah (or zopf, as the bakery we buy it from calls it) and lit the candles. It was nice to have some down time and to hang out. Then we skyped with both my parents and Dave's parents. I think Sam enjoyed seeing everyone on the computer.

I was super tired so I went to bed when Sam did, at 8:30, and Sam and I both slept for over 12 hours! Dave slept for 9 hours so we all had good sleeps last night. It was lovely!

You are my sunshine

Sam learned to sing "You are my sunshine" while at Opa and Oma's house. Here he is, singing it with Daddy. There are two videos because I couldn't decide which one was better. Sam gets a little distracted sometimes :)



Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Home again, home again...

We had a quiet Valentine's Day yesterday. We went and picked up sausage, stopped in and said "Hello!" to Chris Buhler (a visit which proved you can take the nurseryman away from the nursery but never really AWAY, if that makes sense!), and then Sam didn't nap. At all. Because he had slept for twenty minutes in the car. sigh.

Mom made an awesome supper of farmer's sausage, vereneky and cream gravy. So yummy!!! And even Sam ate two helpings! Then Oma gave Sam a bath, I packed and Dad cleaned up the kitchen. Sam went to bed early because he was exhausted (remember the no nap thing).

Today we flew back home to Edmonton. It's good to be home again but it was also soooo good to be in Saskatoon with Mom and Dad. The flight was good but the airplane was tiny so I felt a little claustrophobic. Sam slept for about half and hour during the flight which was probably a good thing as he had to sit on my lap the whole time. Dave met us at the airport and Sam was excited to see Daddy. We had to get off the plane outside the airport and then walk across the tarmac and down a loooooong hallway. Sam saw Dave and started running, yelling, "Hi Daddy! Airport! Hi Daddy! Airport!" over and over and over, even though Dave couldn't hear him. It was very cute.

Dave dropped me off at work and then he came home with Sam. Sam, again, didn't sleep, so was pretty exhausted by the time I got home. I was too! I arrived home to some belated Valentine's presents. Yay!



Ghirardelli milk and rice crisp chocolate (made in San Francisco) and flowers!

I had a nap this afternoon because I was wiped out, and had a headache, and Dave spent more time with Sam and made supper. Which Sam and I both threw up :( Which is NOT a reflection on Dave's cooking but on how I was feeling (headache-y) and who knows what was up with Sam?!?!

Tonight Sam was pulling around his racetrack and his xylophone from the living room into the kitchen and saying, "Bye Mommy! Bye Daddy!" He looked for all the world like a traveler in an airport with two wheeled suitcases behind him.



And now Sam is asleep and I am off to bed too. Good night! It's good to be home.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Adventures in California

Dave here, finally getting a chance to post about my week. I have been in Newport Beach, California, attending a conference on medicine and virtual reality (MMVR). I presented a paper on my research, gave a demo of the training system I've been working on, and got to meet a number of researchers from Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. If you're feeling curious, you can check out video clips of the system. If you're feeling really adventerous, let me know and I can send you the paper :) Unfortunately, an academic conference doesn't really provide lots of good photo ops, so you'll have to make do with some photos from the hotel I was staying at.

Here is a shot of the hotel room -- my bed was supplied with a ridiculous number of pillows.

The central patio and pool area. Unfortunately, I left my swimsuit in Edmonton (I'm still not entirely sure where it is...) and so I didn't get a chance to do any outdoor swimming in February.
The view over the golf course behind the hotel, out towards the beach.

The same view, focusing on the bay and sunset in the background.

After the conference wrapped up on Saturday, I got picked up by my uncle Mark, and then spent Saturday and Sunday with Mark, Jeannie and my cousin Dan. We had a very laid-back visit, and enjoyed some excellent Thai food.

I am now back in snowy Edmonton, and getting ready to jump into another week.

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Just a quiet Sunday

Today was a quiet day. Mom made bread and Sam helped "goop" and "dump" the flour. Dad took a video so hopefully Dave can help me post it in a couple of days. Sam had an early nap and, for once, wanted Opa to rock him! He went down early and woke up early (sleeping for less than two hours). We watched A Cinderella Story with Hilary Duff and it was okay. We needed to watch something tame for Sam. The best part was when he wanted to rock on the chair which was Mom's when she was little and he was singing "We will rock you, we will rock you" over and over again! It was quite funny :)

Tonight we looked at a whole bunch of pictures on the computer -- Sam was tired and needed distraction. It was interesting to look at pictures from just five years ago when Dave and Sam weren't part of the picture yet, let alone Knut! Also there was no Neal, Olivia or Baby Theo. (We had spent a few Christmases in a row with the Sawatskys in Waterloo, which is why these missing people were particularly noticeable.)

Anyways, I'm continuing to read "The Queen's Fool" by Philippa Gregory, a new author Mom just introduced me to this past week. I can highly recommend her Tudor series and am looking forward to getting the other books out of the library.

And now, I'm headed off to bed. Dave's plane should be landing in about ten minutes, home from Los Angeles via San Francisco. He might even write a blog post about what he's been up to, one of these days! If I can convince him to do so... We'll see. I wouldn't hold your breath for it :)

And tomorrow is our last full day in Saskatchewan, my last day of (semi) sleeping in (I've been trying to wake up a little earlier the past few days so I don't get too used to this!) and the last day of hanging out, doing not a whole heck of a lot. I am looking forward to seeing Dave again and Sam has been a little more on edge the past few days -- I think he might be missing his daddy.

Until next time, good night to whomever happens to be reading this!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

A whole bunch of greats!

So in the last twenty-four hours Sam has visited with his Great-Grandma Krahn, Great-Uncle Rich, Great-Auntie Alice, Great-Auntie Myrna and, through Skype, Great-Uncle Mark and Great-Auntie Jeannie. It's been a wild ride.

He was very excited to see Uncle Rich and Auntie Alice as he is quite familiar with them from their picture card on our fridge, which also features zebras and giraffes! He really took to them right away and cuddled with Auntie Alice, got both of them reading stories to him and got Uncle Rich to feed him his milk!

We visited with Great-Grandma Krahn this morning at her house and Sam really enjoyed hanging out on the (cold!) balcony and watching for planes. He also got a ride on her walker when she walked us out to our car.

Then this afternoon Auntie Myrna came to visit us. She stayed for an excellent supper of Swiss steak which Sam mostly ignored in favour of "salad! Lettuce!" He ate A TON of salad which I found a little surprising.

When Daddy called Sam on Skype, Daddy was at Great-Uncle Mark and Great-Auntie Jeannie's house. Sam has never met them in person but had a lot to say about them after the Skype call. During the call he was a little shy, although he did want to play peek-a-boo.

I am glad that Sam has lots of great-aunts, great-uncles and three great-grandparents. I am also glad that he gets to spend time with some of them and get to know them a little bit. And for those of you he hasn't met yet, or spent as much time with, I hope he does get the chance to know you too!

Friday, February 11, 2011

Knut at 22 weeks, 5 days

It has been a few weeks since I've posted a Knut update so here it is! Knut is now 22 weeks and 5 days and becoming a lot more active. I feel him/her kicking or moving around a lot. I think I am in the best part of pregnancy because I feel pretty good and I have more energy. (Maybe I've said this before?). Anyways, since I am at Mom and Dad's I'm not pictured against the lovely orange wall!

Opa doing? Oma doing?

Sam, lately, has been talking A LOT!!! And asking questions. Mostly "Opa doing?" or "Oma doing?" about every three seconds! Seriously. Mom said he's just like I was when I was his age, except my question was "What's that?" And when I get tired of Sam asking "(Which ever person) doing?", I ask him, "What ARE they doing?" and usually he can answer. Anyways, here are some pictures of what Oma and Opa were doing this morning for Sam.



Oma had just made Sam a "so yummy smoothie" and was getting ready to feed it to him. His second one of the morning, if you must know!



Opa was "mixing pancakes!" Yay! Sam had requested them specially yesterday.



And the pancakes are cooking. So that's what people were doing this morning. Isn't it exciting?!?! What are YOU doing right now? (Besides reading our blog that is!)

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Sam's special juice

When Sam comes to Oma and Opa's he gets to have juice, which he doesn't get very often. However the juice he gets is special juice which Opa makes for him. It is very healthy as it has carrots, celery and apple in it. Opa uses his super-juicer and Sam LOVES this juice! He drinks litres of it every time we are here. Here is Opa making Sam's special juice. Thank you Opa!

Riding with Ur Oma

Since Sam hadn't slept well on Monday night we really didn't do much yesterday. Sam had a 3 1/2 hour nap, I had a 2 1/2 hour nap and even Mom slept for about 1 1/2 hours. Then we watched "Baby Mama" with Tina Fey. It was very funny!

Last night Sam slept much better but I got into the book "The Other Boleyn Girl" and stayed up too late reading. This morning we rushed to get ready, stopped at Costco, and then went to see Grandma Ewert, whom Sam has started calling "Ur Oma" which is German for Great-Grandma. I think she gets a kick out of it. Sam enjoyed many many many rides on Ur Oma's walker, as evidenced below.



We came home and Mom and Dad made an amazing supper of fresh pasta with pesto, shrimp and fried mushrooms. And Costco bean salad! We also bought grapefruit at Costco because I have been craving it for ages and ages, ever since someone mentioned it on Facebook. So Sam and I had an appetizer of grapefruit, blackberries (which Oma bought especially for Sam!) and bean salad. Sam then ate about 8 shrimp (which is about as many as I had) and a bunch of pasta. Needless to say he had an EXCELLENT supper. Plus he drank two glasses of smoothie this morning for breakfast so his eating has been really good today.

I'm going to read a bit, get Sam to bed early (he's been going to bed around 10:30-11 the past two nights) and then go to sleep early myself.

Sam has been enjoying having Oma read him books especially "Hand, Hand, Finger, Thumb" and "The Eye Book." And tonight Knut said "Hi!" to Oma by kicking so she could feel it. That was exciting. I've been feeling Knut move A LOT more this past week so it's neat that other people are starting to feel him/her too!

Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Last night was a very very very long night...

Yesterday was the funeral for my Great-Aunt Tina so most of the day was spent in the car having good conversations and driving to and from Drake. I got to see some second-cousins I hadn't seen in years and just got to see Drake again, which is always a trip down memory lane. Grandma and Grandpa's house seems A LOT smaller than it used to!

I spent the whole funeral up in the nursery with Sam which turned out to be okay because he just played and I could hear the whole service. One thing is that the grandchildren (all 12 of them) stood up together and said what they remembered about their grandma. It was neat to hear the different memories they all had.

When we got home we were wiped so we had rented some movies and watched "Guess Who?" with Ashton Kutcher and Bernie Mac. It was pretty funny. The main result of the movie is that Sam didn't get to bed until 10:30 and he also got to eat all the pepper-flavoured chips he wanted to. He had his arm in the bag up to his elbow!

He went to bed just fine but sadly woke up at about 1 coughing and coughing and coughing. He didn't want water, he drank a little milk, and then he coughed and cried and tried to sleep but couldn't. Poor guy! I felt bad for him because he sooooo badly wanted to be asleep. Mom came down and rocked him while I tried to incline his bed (a playpen without a solid bottom so that was a little difficult) and eventually around 3:30 he got back to sleep.

Thankfully both Mom and I could sleep in/rest in bed this morning because Dad woke up with Sam. However, I think it will be naptime for all of us soon. Also thankfully, none of us have anything that we HAVE to do today. Yay for vacations/being retired!

Sunday, February 06, 2011

Baking buns with Oma

I got to sleep in this morning and Sam got to help Oma bake buns. Here are a couple of pictures -- Sam dumped all the flour for the buns into the bowl, or on the counter, as Oma needed it -- and some videos, which sadly I can't post now because they are too big and I can't figure out how to change them to a smaller format. I will work on that because the videos are super cute!


PS: Edited to add... I can't upload the videos and I am too annoyed to try any longer. I will have to upload them all next week when my more computer-literate husband can help. sigh.

Saturday, February 05, 2011

Kicking back in Saskatoon

So today Sam and I drove to Saskatoon with Oma and Opa, as they are called by Sam. Sam had an excellent time in the backseat with Oma all the way from Edmonton to Lloydminster. Then he had her undivided attention as he ran around Superstore. He got a smoothie from Booster Juice and then Mommy sang him to sleep just outside North Battleford and he slept all the way to Dalmeny Road. It felt like a very quick trip although that may have been because I didn't have to drive at all or entertain Sam for more than half the trip!

Sam remembered the reindeer, jingle bell and the (fake) birds from Christmas as well as walking in the snow with Daddy. Sadly, the jingle bell, birds and Daddy aren't here this time, although Sam did get to see Daddy on Skype tonight.

Mom made Cream-of-Carrot-Cheddar soup for supper (Oh. So. Good!) and Sam played and played and played. The chimes on the grandfather clock are on (except at night) and Sam does NOT like the "clock singing." In fact the first time he heard it it chimed 6:00 and Sam said, "Clock singing. Sam scared." Normally Dad turns the chimes off when we are here so it doesn't wake us up at night. Hopefully he will get used to it eventually.

We Skyped with Terry and Carol and got to see Baby Eowyn and we are excited about the birth of Baby Theo, Olivia's little brother, and Lisa and Neal's son!!! Welcome to the world Baby Theo!!! We can't wait to meet you!

Well I'm about to go enjoy some of Knut's Christmas present from Oma and Opa, buttercream brownie bars :) I went through about five or six boxes when I was pregnant with Sam. I think you can see them in this post. (I'm trying something new so we'll see if it works or not!)

Okay, I'm tired so I'm going to eat some brownies and then it's off to bed for me too. Sam is already asleep. He was one tired Sam -- almost too tired to "watch hockey" tonight. Tomorrow I'll see if I can find Dad's camera and take some pictures. Good night to whoever is reading this! Ha ha ha!!!

Friday, February 04, 2011

Midwife appointment and supper with cousins

So today we had a midwife appointment and my mom and dad came. And not only did they get to hear Knut's heartbeat (which Dad says was, "Amazing. It was like a clippity-clop horse." and Mom says was, "very loud and stong and sounded like a horse.") and they got to "hold" Knut which made Mom cry and Dad get very quiet. Dave also got to "hold" Knut and he liked "getting first hand experience with the pregnancy." I must admit my muscles are a lot more sore this pregnancy and it kind of hurt when they "held" Knut but I also really like that they got to. Sam helped with the heartbeat again and then Barb let him listen to his own heartbeat which I think he thought was kind of cool.

After the midwife appointment we went to Krista and Craig's for supper. We had pizza and Krista had gotten these awesome mini cheesecakes (although I swear some were mousse!) which tasted A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!!! We didn't know which kind was which so we all had little tastes of most of them. I think I ate 3/4 of the chocolate one and it was Oh. So. Good. Yum! The picture of them below really doesn't do them justice.



Afterward we had a good time visiting and hearing about Jamaica. I really wish we could manage to get together with them more. Sam had a good time with Parker's mylar balloon of Toy Story and playing on his own with the trains and sitting in the chair below. Which Krista and Craig then sent home with us. My cousin, Ray's, girls got it and then passed it on to Parker and Jake. Now Sam gets it. I think he really likes it! Although you can't really tell in this picture. He's got a weird expression on his face.



Tomorrow Sam and I head off to Saskatoon with Mom and Dad and Dave stays behind and goes curling! You might be getting double blog posts for the next week or so while Dave is in Los Angeles and Sam, Knut and I have our own adventures.

Thursday, February 03, 2011

Oma and Opa are here!!!

Sam is very happy tonight because Oma and Opa (my mom and dad) are here! And is Sam ever the centre of attention when that happens?!?! They are coming through on their way home from Mexico and BC and they are taking Sam and I home with them for a week and a bit while Dave goes to a conference in Los Angeles. We're looking forward to spending some more time in Saskatoon.



I totally forgot a funny story. We were talking about Baby Knut and I asked Sam if he wanted to hug Baby Knut so he came over and hugged my belly and said, "Baby Knut." Then he walked over to my dad, hugged his belly and said, "Baby Knut." And we thought he knew what was going on :) Fortunately my dad thought it was as hysterically funny as the rest of us!!!

Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Sam and Auntie Tasha

My good friend from University, also named Natasha, lives in Edmonton. We've been friends for almost twenty years now (which is a little scary to think about!). Anyways, she happens to not only be my friend but also my supervisor at work and Sam's favourite babysitter. Twiebe, as she is better known, has been hanging out with Sam one night a week almost every week since he turned six months old.

Tonight she has taken him to her house to "bake" and have a bath and generally hang out. Sam LOVES Auntie Tasha, as he calls her, and has so much fun with her. And Dave and I LOVE having a night a week to ourselves. In November and December our date nights consisted of me sleeping and Dave doing work so it has been nice to get back to more real date nights. This month we've gone out for dinner, watched episodes of Friends on DVD, done errands and tonight I packed for Sam and I for heading to Saskatoon this weekend. As you can tell sometimes our date nights are AWESOME and sometimes they just are!

Anyways, here is a picture of Sam with his Auntie Tasha. She is trying to portray a strict disciplinarian and you can tell that Sam is totally laughing at her. He knows she's a marshmallow and lets him get away with pretty much everything. We love you Auntie Tasha!

Borrowing from another blogger

There is a blogger I read who does "stream of consciousness" posts. I am borrowing this idea from her.

I was exhausted last night so didn't update. Yesterday was a crazy day, and not a bit of it went like Dave or I expected. Monday night my Mom's group was canceled because Sheri's husband was sick. And she was supposed to watch Olivia. So I said we could do it. So Marcia brought Olivia over while Dave was out shopping at Save-On Tuesday.

After Olivia was here about 45 minutes, Marcia called and said she wasn't needed at work after all. So she came back here with Second Cup for us (yum yum! Thanks Marcia) and Sam and Olivia played and Marcia and I talked and ate a cinnamon bun, which was yummy despite the fact we over-warmed it.

Then Dave and Sam drove me to work and I worked. And the project I thought would not take me very long did. So I called Dave at 4:50 and asked if I could work til 8, thus getting more done on the project and making up some hours.

Sam slept from 1:30-5 so Dave was fine with me working late. And he made the beef stew that I'm providing for a MOPS friend with a new baby, and I worked and worked and worked and made SOME progress.

Well Sam was ready to leave the house early (Dave said he wanted his hat and "bunny glubs" on at 7:30) so he and Dave dropped the playpen off at Marcia's and then came to pick me up. And then Sam didn't want to go to bed until 9 and Dave had done all the dishes and I was wiped out! Probably because I stayed at work so long and my body isn't used to it.

Sam finally went to bed shortly after nine and I followed soon after.

Now it's Wednesday morning and I'm making veggie beef stew for me, and Sam is playing in the recycling. It's very entertaining for him. Who needs to buy expensive toys when you have recycling to play with. He's almost as involved as he was with his letters on Monday :)

I have laundry to do and I feel like I should do all the dishes that have managed to accumulate over the past twelve hours and I need to chop vegetables for the veggie beef stew and I need to find something to send the beef stew to my MOPS friend. Thankfully another MOPS friend is picking up the food to deliver. Yay for mom friends!!! Off to do something on my never-ending list.