Good Report

I had my second appointment with the obstetrician yesterday. Everything is looking great so far.

I've been a little concerned about my weight gain (or lack thereof) to this point, but she said I'm right on track. I had also been a little concerned that I wasn't feeling much movement yet, but she said that is also quite normal at this stage. Nick reminded me that soon I'll be complaining about constantly being elbowed in the ribs, so I should be thankful for the peace I'm still experiencing.

We had a bit of trouble hearing the heartbeat, but that was just because of the baby's constant movement, not because there was any cause for concern.

We've got our second ultra sound on Monday which is always exciting. This is the ultra sound where we can find out the sex of the baby. However, we have decided once again to not find out. We really liked the surprise of not knowing with Darcy and although we discussed it a bit more this time than we did last time we have still agreed that we'd rather not know. So if you were hoping to find out, you're going to be disappointed!

Ooh, I just felt a movement as I typed that. Cool.

I'm now in maternity pants full time. They're still mostly too big, but I'd just rather that than trying to squeeze into regular pants anymore. My lack of a butt makes most of them pretty saggy in the back but that will be taken care of over the next couple of months. I'll keep the pictures coming.

We're just so thrilled that everything continues to look great. I'll give another report after Monday's ultra sound.

Oh, My Delicate Ears!

The other night at dinner Nick and I were having a conversation in which he used the word "crap". I didn't think much of it until we heard a little voice say,

"Daddy said a bad word."

Nick didn't even know what he had said, so he denied it until I confirmed for him that he had indeed said C-R-A-P.

He apologized to Darcy and said that yes, he had said a bad word and he wouldn't do it anymore. She was still upset and said,

"You don't say bad words around my mommy!"

I guess my delicate ears need protecting. He then apologized to mommy too.

Tagged

I got tagged by Melissa on this one...

A little somethin' 'bout me from A to Z...

A - Available or Single: no
B - Best Friends: Nick and Jerilee, plus other good friends spread out across the country.
C - Cake or Pie: Chocolate Cake
D - Drink of Choice: tea or ginger ale
E - Essential Item: a book
F - Favourite Colour: smiley-face yellow
G - Gummi Bears or Worms: For some reason I like the worms a little bit better
H - Hometown: Cambridge, Ontario
I - Indulgence: A nice bubble bath with a good book
J - January or February: Ummm, July
K - Kids: Princess Darcy is 2 and our second child will be joining our family this summer
L - Life is incomplete without: My faith, my family, and fun!!! (Stealing Melissa's answer)
M - Marriage Date: August 29, 1998
N - Number of Siblings: 1 older sister, 1 younger brother
O - Oranges or Apples: apples
P - Phobias/Fears: snakes, deep water
Q - Favourite Quote: "I can't think about that today, I'll go crazy if I do. I'll think about that tomorrow. After all, tomorrow is another day." - Scarlett O'Hara, Gone With the Wind (OK, so maybe that should be attributed to Margaret Mitchell)
R - Reasons to smile: Darcy, and it's spring time, and I've only got three months left to work before my maternity leave will start
S - Season: summer
T - Tag 3 People: I'll pass on this one
U - Unknown Fact About Me: I really can't think of one. I'm a pretty open book.
V - Vegetable You Hate: peas. For some reason, Darcy loves peas. Last night at the grocery store she asked if we could buy some. I pretended I didn't hear her!
W - Worst Habit: ignoring my alarm in the morning
X - X-rays You've Had: foot, teeth, upper & lower GI
Y - Your Favourite Foods: George's Chinese Food in Cambridge, specifially the Chicken Soo Guy
Z - Zodiac: This means so much to me I can't even spell it...Saggitarius

Side Profile, 17 weeks

So Nick was able to upload my picture without any problems.


It looks like a silhouette, but it's actually me in a deep burgundy sweater. I'm not sure why Nick chose to cut my head off the for the picture. This was taken on Saturday night, at 17 weeks. From this picture it appears that I look pretty pregnant. This picture is pretty deceiving. If you were to walk past me on the street today, you still wouldn't be able to tell that I'm pregnant. It all depends on what I wear.

As of last night I had gained a couple more pounds, but I won't be listing my actual weight on the internet for all to see. I'm up about 3 pounds now from where I started, but when you consider that I lost 6 early on, that really puts me up nearly 10 lbs which is good for me at this stage in the game.

Knock Knock

Darcy has discovered jokes. Apparently all the kids at her babysitter's are in a real "Knock Knock" joke phase, so she's picked it up.

Here are a couple of my favourites...

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Hot dog.
Hot dog who?
Mmmm, yummy!

Knock knock.
Who's there.
Dog.
Dog who?
Dog says woof woof.

The second one can apparently be used with any sort of animal as well. If she's on a roll, she'll just keep going with one right after the other. It's not at all tiresome!

She also wrote a little song over the weekend that touched my heart. It went a little something like this...

I love my mommy,
She's the greatest girl.
I love to give her hugs (I got a hug at this point in the song)
I love to give her hugs again (more hugs)
I love my mommy,
She's the greatest girl.

Aside from a disastrous day on Monday last week with her potty training issues, the rest of the week was perfect. Let's hope that continues today. We also took a picture of my growing pregnant belly the other night but I had trouble getting it to upload last night. When I get it figured out (translation: when Nick gets it figured out) I'll post it here.

The Potty Saga Continues

Darcy had another rough day on Monday. She had three accidents at the babysitter's house. I think this may have been helped along by the fact that she had said goodbye to her grandparents on Monday morning and was a bit confused about whether or not Nick had gone back to Montreal with them.

Yesterday was a completely different story. Another perfect day! No accidents at all. Of course she had a great night of sleep the night before, no traumatic goodbyes in the morning and the promise of a cool cookie craft if she had a successful day. So, much to everyone's relief, she had a perfect day.

We're at home today, so I don't expect any problems. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

On another funny note, last night at supper, Darcy started reciting one of her favourite books at the table. It's a pretty long book that we've only had for a couple of weeks, but she went right through the whole thing, even throwing in different voices for the characters. What a little nut! We know she has a lot of her books memorized, but we thought she needed us prompting her, or at least the book in her hands to go through it. Clearly, that's not the case, at least not with Mortimer.

Another Great Weekend

We had a fantastic weekend with Grandmaman and Papa Titcombe this weekend. They arrived on Friday evening, and started their long drive back to Montreal this morning. It was a great visit all around.

Of course the highlight of the weekend was Darcy's race on Sunday morning, which Nick wrote about here. It was so much fun to watch her through the whole race, she just had so much fun. I don't think she stopped laughing the whole time. With the speed she was going we could walk along the race route with her snapping all kinds of pictures. Good times.

Of course no weekend would be complete without at least one Darcy-ism, so here was my favourite.

Darcy: Papa, you're crazy?
Me: He's crazy? Why is he crazy?
Darcy: He's crazy about Grandmaman!

Now, where would she come up with that? Papa had to conceed that she is right though.

She had a rough morning at home this morning after Daddy, Grandmaman and Papa all left together. I think it reminded her of when Nick left with them when he was going to school in Montreal. I think she was afraid he wasn't coming back again. It took me a long time to get her out of the house this morning. I hope she has a good day with the babysitter. We're trying a new experiment with the whole potty training thing there too. I had to bring one of Darcy favourite pairs of underpants (Snow White) and an ugly pair. If she uses the potty she gets to wear Snow White. If she has an accident, she has to wear the ugly pair that she doesn't like.

It's worth a shot!

2 Steps Forward, 3 Steps Back

After two perfect potty days at the babysitter's this week, Darcy had another disastrous day yesterday. She had two accidents.

I'm not sure what the deal was, she just wasn't herself yesterday. I don't think she'd had enough sleep the night before. She also got in trouble for throwing things. It definitely wasn't a typical Darcy day.

When we got home, I had Darcy tell Nick about her day. This was pure Darcy.

"I did pee pee in my pants. I did it the first time, then I did it a second time."

When I got her to tell him about the throwing incidents, all of a sudden it was everyone else's fault...

"Braden threw the pillow, then Ryan threw the pillow..." Oh sure, little girl, you weren't doing anything, were you?

I'm anxious to see how today goes.

Mommy the Magician

We had some friends over for supper last night, so Darcy was keeping them entertained while I was putting the finishing touches on dinner. She would periodically come into the kitchen to check my progress.

On one trip to the kitchen she looked inside the oven and saw the potatoes roasting inside. The next time she came back, the potatoes were done and the pie was in its place. Darcy gasped and rushed out to the living room.

"Mommy turned the potatoes into a pie!"

Are You Kidding?

The last two days have hit 20 degrees here in Windsor. It's been amazing. We've been out taking walks and enjoying the weather.

This morning we woke up to snow on the ground. It is currently a whopping 1 degree. What is the deal with that? I was getting ready to put all my sweaters away. Good thing I held out on that a little while longer.

It's only supposed to be 4 degrees for Nick and Darcy's big race on Sunday morning. Boo-urns!

Come on spring!!!

More Reasons to Celebrate

It is currently 18 degrees here in Windsor. (After I wrote this, the temperature rose to 20!!!) I just had a reason to leave my office and do a bit of driving around the city. Beautiful!

We have a couple of crocuses flowering in our front yard. Hopefully the daffodils and tulips won't be far behind.

I've been off my nausea medication for a week and I feel great!

Because I feel great, I made blueberry muffins last night, which taste great.

Yep, things are going pretty well around here.

Something to watch out for...

Nick is doing a 5K run this weekend. Before the race there is a 100m kids' dash, for which Darcy is registered. She's so excited about doing a "race" just like Daddy. She even wants to wear a yellow shirt to be just like Daddy. Apparently she'll get a medal just for doing the race, and a bib with a number on it (all the kids are #1). I've got to make sure I've got the camera batteries charged up. It should be a riot!

Reasons to Celebrate

First of all, our car is paid off as of today! Woo hoo! April will be the first month in our married life that we haven't had a car payment. Sweet!

Secondly, we made a change for Darcy at the babysitter's that resulted in an accident-free day. The babysitter requests that kids wear pull-ups until they're accident-free. However, Darcy doesn't wear the pull-ups anywhere else and she doesn't have accidents anywhere else. I was pretty sure that the only reason she was having accidents is because she was feeling lazy because of the pull-ups. So, I had a little chat with the babysitter when I picked Darcy up on Friday afternoon and said I was pretty sure the accident problem would be solved if Darcy wore only underpants. She was a little skeptical, but if today is any indication then I seem to be right.

We'll see how it goes.

Finally, Rob & Amber got eliminated from the Amazing Race last night.

Life is good!

Overheard at Supper

"Daddy, you're the greatest!"
"Mommy, you're the greatest!"
(to her Yorkshire pudding): "Muffin, you're the greatest!"

At least we're in good company!

Instruments

Darcy has always been fascinated with music. She loves it. She loves to listen to music and she loves to sing. One of her latest tricks is to turn everything into an instrument.

Yesterday morning when we got in the car to go to the babysitter's house, we realized we had left some drycleaning in the car the day before. Darcy started rubbing her hands along the plastic covering and squeezing it in different places. Nick eventually took the clothes inside and Darcy started to cry, "He took my instrument!"

Then last night as I was getting supper ready (her favourite, spaghetti), I was in the cupboard getting out a pot to boil water and Darcy came up beside me and said, "I need to get my instruments". So, I told her to go ahead and she got out some pots and lids and proceeded to make a lot of noise. She used to do this constantly, but hasn't done it for a long time.

She doesn't seem to be very interested in the real instruments we have for her at home, mostly in making new ones out of other things. I just love seeing her imagination in action.

I asked her this morning what a good reward would be if she can go all day without an "accident" at the babysitter's house. Like Mommy's good girl, her immediate response was "chocolate!" So, if she has a good day we'll get a special chocolate treat tonight. I'm not holding my breath. Does this mean I don't get chocolate if she doesn't?

Jack

Apparently Darcy has an imaginary friend. She was taking her crayons out of the little bag we keep them in tonight and whenever she took one out that was broken she said, "Jack broke my crayon".

When I asked her who Jack is she said, "My new sister". Then it was a toy. Regardless, he broke a lot of crayons.

We'll see if Jack makes any more appearances.

Incidentally, another disastrous potty day at the babysitter's house.

Getting It All Together

My replacement birth certificate arrived yesterday. That is the final piece of identification that I have applied for to replace everything stolen in my wallet. It took a little over a month to get everything back. I guess in the grand scheme of life, that's not a huge deal. I haven't yet applied for replacement SIN cards for Darcy and I because I needed my birth certificate first. That's not a high priority item (especially for a two-year old) so I haven't been too concerned about that.

I don't have any travel plans in place for the near future, but now that I've got a birth certificate again I'm considering applying for a passport right away. I don't want to face any problems or delays if I do need a passport sometime. Also, my boss/pastor is retiring, and she's a qualifed guarantor, so it would be good to get that part taken care of before she goes instead of needing to find someone else to sign for me. That part can be a pain in the behind.

We'll have to see how inspired I get.

At the very least I've got all my ID back and I feel like a person again!

Doing Better

I don't know if the weekend at Grandma's helped or not, but Darcy had a perfect potty day at the babysitter's yesterday. No accidents! I was so happy.

We'll see how it lasts...

Back in the Saddle

So, we're back home in Windsor, safe and sound. Aside from our eventful trip up to Cambridge on Thursday we had a great weekend.

Darcy loved playing with her cousins, Laura and Lucas. The three of them (especially the two girls) spent a lot of time giggling together. It's so great to watch them.

Thanks to my cousin-in-law Sherri for the loan of some early pregnancy pants. I'm feeling much more comfortable today as a result. Thanks also for bringing Jonah by on Sunday afternoon for some fun times. We built a huge alphabet puzzle on the floor, then the kids turned it into some sort of Saturday Night Fever-type dance floor. Good fun. Again, a lot of giggling.

Thanks to my mom for a delicious turkey dinner on Sunday afternoon!

The drive home was interesting yesterday, but nothing like Thursday night. When we went to get on the 401, we saw that it was at a complete standstill. With a few calls to my parents, we were able to reroute ourselves to a different entrance to the highway, avoiding all the trouble. Then for the rest of the way we still dealt with wind, blowing and snow and low visibility, but Nick managed it all wonderfully and we're home safely.

When we got home Nick went to work and Darcy and I went to McDonald's. The day care at our church was having a fundraiser there, so we went to check it out. I learned that Darcy is afraid of the Playplace. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get her out of there, but instead I couldn't get her in there. She went in the first little bit of the climber but got so overwhelmed she just sat down and cried. I had to go and talk her out of the little tube and no amount of coaxing could get her back in. Whenever I suggested it she said, "No thanks, I'll just stay out here with Mommy."

Also, if you didn't know this (I didn't, because we never go to McDonald's), they have a free mini ice cream cone for young children. It's tiny, but really just the right amount for someone Darcy's size. She would only have made a huge mess with the big one. Thanks to the McD's guy who told me about it, instead of letting me waste my money and make a big mess with the other one!

Scary Drive

We've been planning a trip to spend an extended weekend with my parents this weekend for quite some time. We had each booked some time off and our plan was to leave Windsor for Cambridge last night, and have Friday - Monday in Cambridge.

On Wednesday night we started hearing reports of freezing rain the whole way from Windsor to Cambridge. However, on Thursday all we saw in Windsor was rain, and that seemed to be the way it was looking most of the way to Cambridge, so we decided to try our luck.

We started off fine, driving in the rain, no big deal. We stopped once for supper and again for a potty break for Darcy. By this time it was dark, rainy and very windy. At one point a big gust of wind blew our little Neon and we hit a patch of ice as Nick tried to correct it. We ended up doing a huge spin out right there on the 401. I think we went right around twice, narrowly missing the concrete median a couple of times, ending up on the shoulder on the other side of the highway. We managed to not hit any other cars, and a truck and a car slowed down to make sure we were OK before continuing on their way.

We kept going, at a much slower pace until we got to Woodstock. By that time there was freezing rain and although we were within 50 km of Cambridge, we just didn't feel safe going any further. It was getting much worse by the second. There's a hotel in Woodstock where we stayed a few years ago so we went there and got a room for the night. Definitely the right thing to do.

We got back on the 401 shortly after 8:00 this morning and it was smooth sailing. We saw a few cars in the ditch along the way that confirmed we made the right decision.

So, now we're at my parents' house ready to relax and enjoy our long weekend! We're very thankful to be safe.