For Rob, with love

It's official, you -- and everyone else your height (Ryan included) will never, ever hit your head on this stupid, ugly, (fill in blank here of the explicitive you used last time you hit your head) lamp.

Along with the lamp coming down, the wall has also come down and a new one is going back up. And, as I wrote before, the new one is less than two feet away from where the old one was. A lot of work on Ryan's part for two feet, but it'll be worth it in the end. Will post before and after pictures when there's an after to post.

Too busy, yet feeling like I'm doing nothing much at all

I haven’t written in awhile, because there hasn’t been much to write about. This is funny really, because my other excuse would be I’ve been too busy to write. Over the last three weeks, Austin’s been sick with a cold, I’ve been sick with a cold, then I’ve been sick with the flu then Austin’s been sick with the flu. Brings sharing to a whole new level don’t you think?

What else, we were in London for Thanksgiving and had house guests the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, all last weekend and again last night. No wonder there’s been no time to write.

But here are some quick bullets of life to date:
· Ollie had his surgery last week and he seems to be recovering nicely…now my Mastercard just has to recover from it. The important point is that he’ll no longer be in pain all the time – which should mean he’ll no longer pee wherever the heck he feels like.

· Home renovation time is upon us. We have big plans over the next few months – which I hope aren’t too big that they all get half finished. Next week the front hall closet is coming down and moving two feet to the left. Sounds like a lot of effort for two feet, but there’s a silly gap behind our front door which is useless space and Ryan has big plans on how to make our front hall not constantly spill into our living room. Of course, once that’s completed, the front hall will need to be repainted. And then the living room. And then the dining room. Because, you see, it’s really all one big room.

· Starting late November or early December we’ll get to work on what really needs to be done – getting Austin’s new room ready and painted. To do so, we need to move everything from the office to the basement. But before we can do that, we plan to get new carpets for the basement. All big projects, but all worth it in the end.

· We’re taking a holiday next week – just for the sake of taking a holiday. Austin will continue to go to the sitter’s as usual, so that we can actually get some work done around the house. Although, we will be taking off for two days for some shopping in Buffalo – I guess I should get around to booking a hotel soon.

· It’s almost Halloween and the annual Halloween party, which means we should really get our butts in gear and get costumes together. Have I mentioned how much I hate thinking of costumes? Geez, my kid is going to hate me when he gets older – I’m going to be the no-fun-mom that says, “here’s a sheet kid, go cut two holes in it.”

· I’m at that stage in the pregnancy where some days I actually forget I’m pregnant. The nausea’s gone, the tiredness is more-or-less gone, I’m not big and whale-like yet and it’s too soon to feel the baby kick. So some days, I just forget – well except when I try to get dressed in the morning. A five-day work week is really long when you only have one pair of pants that fit properly. Hence, the shopping trip in Buffalo.

The worst-kept secret

A secret is really only a secret if you don’t tell anyone. But when you share the so-called secret with one person and then another and then another and another and another, it’s not really a secret anymore, is it?

But for those of you dear readers who don’t yet know, I’m officially ready to make the secret not a secret anymore. I’m pregnant. Twelve weeks along now – meaning that even if I wanted to still keep it a secret, the speed at which I’m growing out my clothes would put an end to that idea.

Although planned, it still came as a bit of a shock in August, when honest to God, I grabbed a calendar and counted, twice, before I realized I really was late. And when I told Ryan, he grabbed a calendar and told me I must've counted wrong. At which point, I decided to go to Shoppers and pick up a pregnancy test. I figured there was no way it would be positive, so I actually bought a two-pack. The second test is now collecting dust at the back of my bathroom cupboard.

So far, this pregnancy has been very different from my first – in a good way. With my first, I spent the first three months living with nausea; day in and day out. I even went through a period of a few weeks where I couldn’t sit up in bed without first eating a few saltine crackers.

With this pregnancy I haven’t completely escaped the nausea – but it hasn’t been an all day every day for three months kind of thing. When it hits, it hits hard – and usually at the most inconvenient times, such as when we were driving from Toronto to Montreal and are between rest stations. I also discovered how great the anti-nausea bracelets can be. (You know, the ones people wear on cruise ships to avoid sea sickness.) I wish I had discovered those the first time around.

I’m also far less tired than I was when I was pregnant with Austin. The first time, I actually had to fake sick and leave work some days in the first trimester because I was so tired. Then I would trudge home and nap for three or four hours. I would be in bed before 9 p.m. and I would nap on the weekends. This time, no need to fake sick and go home and sleep and usually I can stay awake until 10. Although I do still nap pretty much every weekend.

The only thing that sucks so far about this pregnancy is I’ve been hopped up on asthma drugs for the last month or so. My doctor told me that women with asthma get sicker when pregnant about 30 per cent of the time. Let’s hope this is just a blip and I’ll soon feel better because another six months of asthma drugs and my kid may come out high as a kite! (Kidding, I think. My doctor also told me research has found it’s better for the mom and the baby to treat asthma in pregnant women aggressively.)

So there’s my big secret that hasn’t really been much of a secret. We’re both excited about the new baby, and we keep telling Austin that he’s going to be a big brother. We even tried to teach him to say ‘baby’. (But all we got out of him was ‘waba’.) But I have to admit, every now and then, especially on a day when Austin’s being moody, I think to myself: “what the hell are we doing!?"