I really am happy!

 With my due date fast approaching I have time to think about things. You will usually find me complaining about the discomforts of late term pregnancy, but in all reality I am very happy. Actually I feel more blessed than just happy. Happy is when you find 20 dollars on a road, or your favorite pair of jeans is on sale, or the sunset is extra beautiful. Happy, although very nice, is ordinary. It doesn't take much for everyone to find something they could be happy about. Even a person lacking something in their life could find one thing to be happy about. State of being blessed is different. It's beyond "happy" in many ways. Blessed means that you have received gifts beyond ordinary. It means that you, and only you have been given something that is extraordinary. Of course there are many things that people could be blessed with. Some people are blessed with winning a lottery, some are blessed with peace in their life, some a blessed with good health. I have been blessed with my husband and my kids.

Money-Wise Mondays - Costco

   To save money, one must know not only what to buy, but also where to shop for cheaper items. By cheaper items I don't mean Kraft dinner (or other over-processed, over-salted, and nutritionally lacking foods) but good quality food for less. Sales are always a good option, but unless you have tons of time on your hands to look through millions of flyers and then have the time to drive to millions of stores within the days that the sale is on, then you need another option. Enter Costco!

Sunday Snapshots - better days.

   I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend and got a chance to spend some quality time with friends and family. This weekend was super busy for us. Since baby boy is not here yet, I took that opportunity to do majority of my Christmas shopping. I say that I am about 80% done. The kids also got a chance to finish purchasing gifts for each other using money they have saved and earned from doing chores. I happy that for the first time since I had kids I might be ready for Christmas ahead of the game.
   On the good note, we are all feeling better now, so today was the first time in a month that we have gone to Girly Monkey's game. It was nice to get out of the house and watch her game. The weather was cold but sunny, so we all got some vitamin D today. Here are couple of snapshots from the game today. Enjoy, while I go and rest my very sore body (walking for hours at 39 weeks pregnant is going to give you a really sore and swollen leg!)

39 weeks and .......... NOTHING.

   I am 39 weeks today. I thought that this baby would have showed up by now, but nothing is happning. Two weeks ago I was convinced that this little boy would have come in early November. I was really worried that he would arrive too early and I wouldn't have all the things ready yet. Boy, was I wrong. He never came really early. Now, since I am a mom, I will be worried that he is going to arrive late. I really don't want for him to be late since that would put a damper on our Christmas plans. With this awful flu that we all had I am very hesitant on taking a newborn into a restaurant on Christmas Eve or big family dinner on Christmas day. Since he can arrive up to 2 weeks past his due date, that would make his latest arrival on December 13th! That would make him less than 2 weeks at Christmas time. And I don't think that taking a 2 week old into a place where they can catch flu or cold virus is very wise. As a matter of fact, taking a less than a month old into any large gathering of people would be unwise. Especially since we have all just finished being really sick for a whole month! A newborn would not do so well with it. So that would mean no to our annual Christmas Eve dinner at the Boathouse, and no to extended family dinner on Christmas Day. I would hate to miss out on any of these but I have to look out for the best interest of our family.
   Daddy and I decided that if Monkey In-Waiting is going to arrive after the 29th, then we will forgo all the Christmas gatherings this year, but if he comes before then we will still take him. Since today is the 22nd, that leaves him a week to make his appearance and for all of us to still be able to enjoy all our Christmas festivities. The problem is that I am not feeling like he is about to make his entrance any time soon. Starting at 30 weeks I was getting tons of Braxton Hicks contractions daily. Since I got sick I have not gotten many at all. I now get maybe 3 a day. I think that it's time to start doing all the natural ways of inducing labor.

The good, the bad, and the ugly ... part 2 - Bath time

   Last time I wrote about baby clothing and all the inns and outs of it. Today I would like to get to baby gear. By baby gear, I mean the equipment used every day with the exclusion of big ticket items. I will write about big ticket items (like cribs, car seats, and strollers) another time. So what are some of the equipment that I want to mention. I will divide them into "Bath", "change time", "play time", "out and about". So here it goes:

Money-Wise Mondays - shopping for used baby gear.

   Having a new baby doesn't have to break the bank. The trick is to know what items to purchase brand new and high quality and what items can be acquired used. A lot of people are hesitant to purchase anything used for their precious children in fear that it won't be "nice" enough. But for the most part, babies and little kids don't wear out many of the items that they use. Because of that, many big ticket items can be acquired used for fraction of the original cost. The trick is knowing where to shop for these items, how to shop for them and which items you should buy new.

Sunday Snapshots - nesting instinct.

   Hello everyone. I have been trying to post more this week, but it's just not happening. Girly Monkey finally got better (she had this illness for 19 days!), but unfortunately Daddy brought some more from work last week and it has been a disaster. He got really sick at the beginning of the week and couldn't get out of bed. He NEVER gets sick, so that was very unusual for him. And then when he does get sick he goes through it so very quickly, but not this time. Only today, after well over 10 days he is starting to feel better.
   Little Monkey got it next, but it never really hit him hard. He run a fever for one day and then he has a cough, but nothing too bad. Funky Money was making fun of everyone by saying that he is not going to get it. He boasted that he was too healthy and strong. Well, by Tuesday night he was running really high fever and had major body aches and headache. By Thursday he couldn't get out of bed. He is still not well enough, and has lost so much weight since he doesn't have any appetite and just nibbles at the food.
   I was not lucky enough to escape their fate and Wednesday night I run a major fever and had worse body chills ever. It had got a bit better (except for this dry cough that hurts so bad), but tonight I went downhill again and started running fever. I really have to watch the fever since high fever is bad for the baby. On three occasions I had to take Tylenol just to bring down my temperature. So far Monkey In-Waiting is tolerating it all well enough, but I do hope that this bug leaves my house before his arrival.
   Since I felt so much better today I decided to go ahead and go through the whole living room and change things around. With the new baby on the way I had to make room for all the baby equipment, plus Christmas is just around the corner and we will need room for the Christmas Tree. So I started doing all these things only to discover that in the evening my fever came back and I felt awful. Unfortunately, I was stuck with the project until it was done since I can't leave my living room in such condition. It would not be very nice if the midwives had to jump over things to get to me. And since I am over 38 weeks now I could go into labor at any time. So here is a picture of my remodel in progress. Enjoy! I am going to sleep it off.

The good, the bad, and the ugly .... part 1 - baby clothes.

   When you are pregnant with your baby, especially when it's your first baby, it's really easy to get sucked into buying a million products that offer to "make your life easier" or "give you more time" or "make your baby smarter, more independent, better sleeper ...." I was there too. What I have learned over the years that babies need very little, and all these "things" just end up clogging up your house and making life harder for you. I am not even mentioning the money I have spent on useless things that were supposed to make my life easier. So what is really needed  for the baby in the first few months? Here is a list of the good, the bad, and the ugly.The Good are the items that I found absolutely necessary or very, very helpful in the first few months (I will tackle toddler items in a later post). The Bad are the items that I really made without or that they didn't make any difference. The Ugly are the things that are really a waste of my money, or that I found useless, or were downright dangerous.

Because we should all remember!

Copyright  to
http://www.dailymail.co.uk

   I know that today is Money-Wise Monday, but since today is also Remembrance Day in Canada, I would like to skip my usual Monday post in order to honor all the people who died in Wars for our freedom. Without their sacrifice the world would have been very different today. I wish more people remembered that Remembrance Day is not just this holiday stuck between Halloween and Christmas. It really annoys me to no end when people put up their Christmas lights before Remembrance Day. I understand that it's not a big commercial holiday like Christmas or Halloween, but I wish they would respect it more. If not for all those people who sacrificed so much going to war, most of us would not have the freedom to overspend on frivolous decorations and the billions of Christmas lights that you just have to put on your house on the first of November. Makes me wonder how many people are leaving the stores with tens of dollars (if not hundreds) in Christmas "must haves" but they don't bother donating some money to organizations that support soldiers and veterans. I, for one, will not be decorating my house for Christmas until after Remembrance Day to show my gratitude to all those people who selflessly keep peace for all of us!

Sunday Snapshots - boys' room.

Hello everyone. I hope that all of you had a restful and relaxing weekend. For us, this weekend was a little off. Daddy worked all weekend (even Sunday) since he wants to finish the job and get paid before the baby arrives. Our car died in the parking lot of the grocery store, and we had to get someone to jump it. Everyone (except Funky Monkey) is sick, and we have a Home Visit form our midwife tomorrow. I did manage to make 2 wool filled pillows for Little Monkey, and finish rearranging Funky Monkey's room to accommodate Little Monkey's bed. It means that the two boys are in a room together tonight. It took Little Monkey over 2 hours to fall asleep since he was so excited to sleep in a big boy bed in his big brother's room. Here is a picture of the two of them in their beds. Enjoy!

Our baby boy is full term.

This is what a full term baby in my belly looks like!

   Yey, I made it ti 37 weeks! It means that our baby boy is full term and can come at any time. It also means that sometimes between now and 5 weeks from now we will be holding our precious little bundle in our hands. I am excited! But I am also really scared. Everything is about to change. Everyone's role in this family is about to turn up side down and chaos is about to enter until we can figure out the new ways of functioning in our family. Babies do that. And our life just started having predictability for the first time in years. We just had it to the point that I knew what everyone's role was, what everyone's schedule was, and what everyone's expectations were.Now I am about throw all of that into the wind and rediscover everything.

The gift of Grandparents.

   How important are grandparents in kids' lives? My answer, VERY. We are blessed in that Daddy's parents are very involved in Monkeys' lives. They see the kids often, take interest in their interest, love spending time with them, play with them, and even share information and older stories with them. My Monkeys love spending time with Grandma and Gramps. They get excited when we go over to their place, or when one or both grandparents come and visit. They love sharing their activities with their Grandparents, and they always find it special when Grandparents come to watch their soccer game, or their dance recital, or any other activity that they are involved in. I love that they have such a great relationship with Daddy's parents.

Girly is on the mends, and I am all worried.

   So yesterday we finally got the prescription filled for Girly Monkey. She is on day 2 of the antibiotic and I am hoping that tonight I can get more sleep. I am not even wanting more sleep, I would just like to enter REM sleep once. She has been waking me up every night with coughing fits so I never even get to the REM sleep. It torturous! She has a coughing fit and if I don't go over to her room and pat her back and make her drink some water she coughs herself into throwing up. But now that she is on medication I am hoping she gets better. I hate seeing her be so sick. She has lost about 6 pounds (or 15% of her body weight). She is very pale too, and has no color about her. It's not very fun seeing you child be sick. But she is coughing less today, and she is eating more too. So maybe, just maybe she is on the mend today.
   So if Girly Monkey is looking like she is getting better then why am I worried? Last night I had a lot of pressure in my pelvis and I am worried that our baby boy will be eager to come before I am ready for him. There is still so many things to be done. I did a second load of baby clothes today and did a quick inventory. I think that we have most of the things that we will need. I am slowly collecting all the items on my Homebirth list and I will have to start putting it in a large storage container so that it's all easily accessible when I go in labor. I would also like to try out the water birthing pool soon to make sure that it's holding up fine from last time. I am not even sure if I will use it this time. From the amount of contractions I have been having I might be walking being 5cm dilated already. The last 2 times my water broke before real labor started, so it might be the same this time around.
   I am just worried that I will not get it all done before Monkey In-Waiting arrives. I had visions of being all disorganized and drowning in things needed for the birth but not being able to find anything. Pregnancy gives you the strangest thoughts. Dreams are not any better when I do have them. They all start off normal but usually end up creepy and scary. Kind of like in that episode of Fraser when Niles and Daphne have dreams about baby and pregnancy. I do not read anything into them except that they are an image of my worries and needs that manifest themselves more in pregnancy (since we have more worries in pregnancy). I am just crossing my legs and not letting Monkey In-Waiting arrive before the weekend is over since I need the weekend to finish everything up. Nope, he is not arriving before the 11th. Crossing legs better work!

Money-Wise Mondays - all the appliance tips!

 I had the pleasure to meet a wonderful appliance repairman last week. I really didn't think that I was in need of said relationship, but the stubborn dishwasher had other plans. One busy morning, when I was ready to reload it with breakfast dishes, the stubborn thing died on me. By died, I mean that there was no power to all the switches and I was in desperate need to get it fixed. With homeschool, and all the kids' activities, and new baby due any day, I just don't have the time to stand in front of the sink and wash my dishes by hand. I don't think I am spoiled by not wanting to do them by hand. I actually find washing dishes by hand therapeutic. It's almost like Zen therapy. The smell of dishwashing soap, the feel of bubbles on my hands, the satisfaction of job completed are all very nice, but I just don't have the time for that right now. I need a working dishwasher.

  So, as you recall, I was desperate. Daddy offered to call an appliance repairman the very next day. I jumped at the chance to email him a list of local repairman that would be close enough to our house to come and see what was wrong with it. I found over 15 different repairman in our area and emailed the list to Daddy. It didn't take very long for him to call me back and let me know that the repairman would be coming that afternoon. I was very excited. At this point my dishwasher was taken apart by Daddy in attempt to fix it, and the power to it was shut off. I was eager to get it fixed.

Sunday Snapshots - getting ready for our baby!

   Hello everyone. I hope that everyone had a restful weekend. We spent the whole weekend getting the house ready for the arrival of our baby boy and dealing with Girly Monkey's sickness. We went to the doctor's to make sure that she didn't have Bronchitis, and thankfully she does not. It looks like a viral infection, so we were prescribed some antibiotics to help her get better since she has not gotten any better over the last 8 days.
   We also spent the weekend getting the house ready for our new baby and trying to get everything ready for the home birth. I have a list of things that I need for the home birth and I have almost managed to get all of these. Since I am 37 weeks this Friday, if our little boy arrives at any time after Friday he can be born at home (since he is considered full term at this point). So here is my list of things I had to get and an emergency list that I still have to fill out.

Baby items washed and organized in our dresser. 

Not a fun day ...

One of my favorite comic strips. I feel like Garfield on Monday today

   Some days are really meant to be spent in bed under covers, without ever leaving the bed. Welcome to my day today. First of all, Girly Monkey has been sick since Sunday and after last night Trick or Treating, she got REALLY sick. Guess who was up with her whole night? Yup, me! So today I was crabby because of lack of sleep, and she was extra cranky because of being sick. To say that she has been uncooperative is an understatement. Nothing brings out behavioral issues in kids like being sick, tired, or hungry. And throw in sugar overload into the mix too. She was all of these things, really sick, tired because of lack of sleep, hungry because she has no appetite, and on a sugar overload (since last night was Halloween and she devoured lots of her goodies).
   The wonderful thing about having more than one kid is that they tend to feed of each other's energy. Happiness is very contagious among kids, but so is crankiness. So, being true to child psychology textbooks, Little Monkey became more crabby as the day went by. By the end of the day I was ready to tear my hair out and scream, or should I say join all of them in screaming. Here is to hoping that tomorrow will bring either some sanity to everyone or more patience to me. Good night!

Something better on the horizon.

   First of all, Happy Halloween to all you little Ghouls and Goblins out there (and their parents too). Halloween is such a fun day for kids, both big and small. For that one evening, children let their imagination soar and they let themselves be transformed into someone else. It is not a holiday worshiping the devil (what I heard in my house growing up) but a day for fun. The history of Halloween is very interesting indeed. I don't know very many kids that don't enjoy dressing up and receiving candy. My kids are not any different. They start looking forward to Trick o' Treating in September, and usually get their costume ideas by end of summer. Since I make most of their costumes I need to know well in advance what they are planning on being. Once they decide, my Monkeys are bound to change their ideas oh about ...... a million times. This year was not any different. I had everything from angry birds, to 60's girl, to football player, to Garfield. 3 weeks ago I had to finally tell the Monkeys that there are no more changes to the costumes as I had to start making them. So we ended up with a Fisherman, A Hello Kitty, and a Knight. Making the costumes at home allowed me to keep the costs down, plus I don't have to feel bad about buying a costume for one year that will eventually find it's way to the landfill. I try to make costumes that are either recycled (second hand stores are great for the supplies) or are made up of parts that the kids will use again.