The unexpected.

Well we talked about a bunch of different stuff for dinner this evening but it turned out we had a bunch of leftovers with some noodle salad and pan fried potatoes with cheese.The daughter here is modelling her I love this dinner face. She packed away four helpings of the noodle salad. The son has yet to eat as he is passed out no the couch. Should be a late night with him. The leftover fish and curry rounded out the meal nicely and we almost didn't buy anything today. I unfortunately broke down and bought some beer and the Mrs. couldn't pass up the seven dollar 10 kilos of all purpose flour. It was like half price.

Otherwise it was a nice slow day around here. Working up the nerve to go camping this weekend. Fingers crossed it happens. No guarantees.

Ps. Oh yeah, little celebration for my 400th post. Shnikes.

Assorted

Well that is what we had this evening. We finished off a couple of leftovers and I finally made the shrimp dish. Huge gap between my expectations and how things finally turned out. I just remember making it the last time and being totally impressed with myself (it happens more than you would think and considering my audience you get some idea of the frequency I'm talking about). Perhaps it was the lack of zest from the rest of the meal. The shrimp was still pleasant and the kids polished it off (now I'm looking for tomorrow's lunch idea) so I can't be that down. I think it was the anticipating the making of it for the last three days which was the problem. Anyways we have a new menu for this week and the shopping is alldone so thatshould bode well. Tomorrow is another Monday so its time to get in gear.

A visit

After having guests over yesterday we went to someone else's place today. We went to see the midwife. Today was the day we made all the decisions about what we want to do after birth. We decided to go with the Vitamin K shot, but not with the antibiotic oinment on the eyes. Yes to the genetic screening for the three types of condition that can make a babies life really difficult. The oxcytocin shot right after birth to speed the delivery of the placenta kind of hung us up. The wife is really really big on doing the whole thing as naturally as possible. However, the midwife, who leans further towards the natural in natural child birth than us, said that she has come to recommend it as a good standard of care. We decided that we would go with the midwife on that one as well. Safe is so much more important than sorry in a situation like this. It also applies to the not having a home birth here in Grand Forks. The one and a half hour drive to Nelson definitely makes sense. If the hospital here was equipped for an emergency C-section then we would have contemplated the home birth. As it is, it just wouldn't make sense.

We visited the hospital in Nelson as well. The nurse on duty gave us a walk around and explained everything. She was very nice but will be on vacation from the 8-24th. So we prob ably won't be seeing here. While there she pointed out lots of amenities that they have that we should do our best to make use of. The birthing pool, the family room, kitchen facilities. Its times like those when my mind starts racing with all the things we need to do. I really need to carry a pencil and paper. But I don't and now sitting in the comfort of my home I can't quite recall all those urgent things I needed to do when I got home.

Lets think.

- Have food packed so that the kids and mom can have something to eat if the labour takes a long time. Don't want to be running out in the middle just to miss the whole thing.

- Dad needs to bring some swim trunks if he wants to get into the birthing pool or do a back massage when/if mom gets in the shower for pain management.

- Study the lamaze book and then give it back to the midwives so that someone else can use it.

- Have friend in Nelson's phone number written down so that we can call him up.

- Have list of phone numbers to call from the hospital when the baby is born.

- Get phone number to call for a substitute teacher.

- It goes on.

So with 2 - 6 six weeks remaining it is starting to feel very real. The wife mentioned in the car that she is starting to worry a little about the pain of child birth. With the daughter she didn't know what was coming. With the son she remembers thinking, "oh yeah, I remember this pain". The midwife gave the advice of trying to stay in the moment. If you're not in pain right now just feel that and live that. I cannot speak to this situation but I hope that advice helped the wife.

We had leftovers for dinner. Not picture worthy.

Snow + Shovel + Sled

Well there was some snow shovelling to be done today and the piles by the side of the driveway are growing. Which gave me an idea. Originally this was going to be an igloo but the son wanted two doors so I chopped another one out of the back for him. I was a little bit worried about collapse and envisioned myself frantically digging out both of my children but an adventurous spirit got the better of me and I went ahead with it anyways.
Then later the daughter wanted to be able to sled into the hole so I went ahead and made it a bit bigger. It took about 10 attempts interspersed with a lot of pouting before they managed to make it into the hole. Of course the first time they were sitting up and the daughter got a face full of roof. So then it was onto the bellies and le voila. A little bit of magic.


It kind of reminds me of a miniature bobsled run. And that is me laughing like an idiot. It just struck me as funny at the time.

We had pizza toast for dinner well the kids did. I am still working on left over turkey and stuffing. I finished the gravy this evening. That is a major loss. However, the cranberry sauce is still holding strong and there is a little bread sauce left. We did have a green salad with dinner and that was a nice change. My teeth were starting to feel a little wiggly so I had some mandarin oranges as well.