You should really

So it's pretty awesome right? When we played it for the Peanut she crawled into my lap and started to try to sing along to Hooray It's My Birthday By Rabbit! Something she only does for her favourite songs and she'd never heard the songs before! Of course me being the big ol' pile of coursing hormones was turned into a massive mushmallow. I'm wiping the tears out of my eyes as I type this.

Want to help out a little more? click on the Share this Widget link in the right hand corner of the image and cut and paste the HTML code into your blog! I know Ryan is hoping to make some big waves with this album, and I hope he does too; it's such an amazing compilation and I know I'll be able to listen to it over and over without wanting to stick inappropriate things into my ears.

I'm headed out today

We're getting ready for the parents to visit but first we'll be hitting IKEA for some shelving and window shopping changing tables and workspace stuff.

In the meantime:

I've mentioned a few times how fortunate I feel that the Peanut isn't obsessed with standard children's music; you know the kind that makes adults want to pull their ears off and or take some time in a safe padded room where they can do no harm to themselves or their loved ones.
There are some albums out there that are geared towards both kids and adults; Jack Johnson's sound track to Curious George, The Barenaked ladies; Snacktime, They Might Be Giants, NO!
or the compilation Mary Had a Little Amp all come to mind.

And, debuting tomorrow is a new one to add to the list. I'm pretty excited about this one; I've heard some of the songs and can I just say that they are rock awesome? Also the proceeds of this fabulous album are all going towards Prisms.org for the further research of Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS), a developmental disorder that affects an estimated 1 in 25,000 individuals. It's an amazing project that is the brain child of Ryan over at Pacing in the Panic Room; who is the proud and doting dad to his adorable stepson LB who has SMS.

Tomorrow I'll be posting a link to the album, it's called Do Fun Stuff! so make sure to drop in and check it out!

I have this thing about..

walking down back lanes. I know it's not always the safest route to take, (you know, late at night in the downtown core, in the east end of Vancouver) but in the burbs or in urban neighborhoods like where we are now I sometimes would much rather take the back way over the sidewalk. With the GD I'm finding myself on a lot of after dinner walks and I've been including some back alleys in my routes which brought on this post because what else should I do on a walk if not start thinking about things.

On a recent after dinner jaunt I went down the back lane of a street that has one of my favourite houses in our neighborhood. Now this house is even more my favourite simply because the view of the house from the alley allowed for me to see the kitchen which is retro with old school cupboards and bright, with lots of windows and in an older house.

So now that you all think I'm some kind of strange back alley voyeur...

In other news we have company coming this week. My parents are making a long overdue trip to our neck of the woods. The visit will be short but sweet and full of things that will take up a lot of time. I'll be getting some scheduled posts ready so that there is some new content here over the next week and then it'll be time to get ready for Ultrasound number two and with the Bean's cooperation we'll know if we should refer to the Bean as a he or a she.

The Peanut claims the Bean is a sister, I think the Bean is a daughter, and the Husband is declining to speculate. What do you think, Boy or Girl?

A thousand Words

I've always had a thing for back lanes

Barely a flutter

Since my birthday, and the major kickin' the Bean gave me, it's been very very quiet on the inside.

Almost quiet enough to cause a little anxiety. It's not that there has been absolutely no movement because there has been some, it was just faint movement, faint enough that I was beginning to doubt that it was even there at all until Sunday night.

The thing about being pregnant is that even though

•I'm showing,
•I'm ravenously hungry all the time,
•I can't make it through the day without needing to pass out for an hour on the couch while the Peanut plays, (except on Beach days and then I'm exhausted)
•I'm on a yo-yo that is attached to the hospital where I have to go for Maternity appointments, Dietician appointments and counseling appointments for Post Partum Depression,
•I'm likely to start gushing tears at the slightest provocation (like in the grocery store over the weekend when we saw the cost of Splenda and decided not to get any because that cost and I got all weepy because that meant that I couldn't have a tiny cup of coffee in the morning again)

there's a part of me that is still in a state of disbelief. So the week of little to no movement was enough to cause a little worry. Of course every time I would start to think that I should call the doctor about the lack of movement the Bean would give a little flutter and my mind would be put to rest again until it had been quiet again in there for so long that I would wonder if I'd just imagined the last flutter and then there would be another one. And then on Sunday we had somersaults and bumps and bouncing on my bladder again...

So, am I alone in feeling lie being pregnant is a surreal experience?

It's that time again

you know, when I start to think a little too much about where things are going and what direction I want to go in; whether it's to continue along the way I've been going or to stop things all together and start something new.

It may be the pregnancy hormones talking but I'm feeling the need for a little change. It could just be that this summer has been spent with little to no time on creative pursuits so it could just be that I'm feeling the need to get things back on track. In either case I'm thinking I'm needing a little bit of both. As August ends I'll be getting my creative space back into working order and getting started on some new projects.

But before that happens I'll be getting in a few more trips to the beach, birthday celebrations, a trip to the Fair and a visit with my parents (who are headed out here for a visit-Yay!)

A Thousand Words

Hot hot hot. Someone turn down the heat please!

With the Peanut the most heat I had to endure was about two weeks worth and there was a pool involved almost daily to help with that. This time around I'm sweltering. I'm melting. I can't think straight I'm so hot.

Did I mention that we are going through a bit of a heat wave here?

We are nearing the end of our birthday season, last Sunday was a birthday party day for one of the Peanut's friends and also the day that we celebrated my birthday too since the Husband thought he had to work late on my actual birthday.

So was I spoiled? Did I get the full on birthday treatment? Yes and no. No because with GD I'm not allowed cake unless I want to do some walking afterwards which didn't fit in with our plans. Yes because the husband had a stunning lariat necklace custom made for me by one of my good friend and jewellery maker extraordinaire, and my sister was awesome enough to take the Peanut for a few hours to have dinner and go for a swim and then back home to put her to bed so that the Husband could take me out on a date.

We hit Granville Street for a live show at the Venue where enjoyed air conditioned loveliness while watching This Will Destroy You and Autolux play. And the Bean was kicking, I mean he/she was moving with a little rhythm. Each beat of the drums got a good nudge from the inside out and the end of each song got a full on boot. I can only guess that he/she liked the music or that he/she was banging on the walls to get the volume reduced. In any case we are well on our way to creating another little music snob; a child who will snub the annoying kiddie music in favour of Depeche Mode, Dragonette, The Raveonettes and the Clash... well we can hope anyway.

Are you having a heat wave or are you wondering when your summer is going to show up?

A Thousand Words

The newest addition to the family

Tomatoes

and by that I mean I have some.

When we planted our garden last spring we were winging it, and by that I mean we had no clue what we were doing other than, you know digging little holes, dropping in seeds and covering them back up again. Of course we went with seedlings in a few places. For the longest time this summer I thought we were going to be tomato less because we started out with cool and wet weather. Now we have flowers and actual fruit. Add that with the carrots, onions and the potatoes that we've already sampled; and our first garden seems to be a bit of a success.

How is your garden growing?

somersaults and handsprings

Well, not by me anyway. Well, OK also (metaphorically) by me.

The Bean is on the move, I felt a distinct somersaulty move in the belly yesterday and the Husband even got to feel it too. Even with a growing belly and shrinking clothes the whole pregnant thing has felt kind of surreal for me. It's a feeling I'm used to, I felt the same way when I was carrying the Peanut. Listening to the Heartbeat, seeing the Bean in the ultrasound and experiencing the quickening (a term which always makes me think of The Highlander movie) makes it feel a little more real.

In other news (and this is where the metaphorical handsprings come in). After years and years of being out here all by our lonesome (you know, with only good friends for company) we finally have family living close by. My sister has moved out here to run an insurance agency. In addition to my sister, we have my niece and her boyfriend living here now too.