Happy Golden Birthday to ME!!

Today is my golden birthday. I turned... ahem.. 28 on the 28th.

It started off wonderfully. I slept until I woke up. Maria must have gotten the memo.

Then my wonderful family made me breakfast and my dear sweet mother concocted these:



mini crepe sliders. they were delish!!

We went to church... came home and Maria had a LONG nap.... so long that I actually went and woke her up. She was in a really cuddly mood after her nap so she snuggled up to Bapa for a little while...



We watched Hockey - Canada vs. USA - the olympic gold metal game. (SPOILER) Just in case you didn't know, Canada beat the USA in overtime... it was a pretty intense game.

Then we had a wonderful dinner of asian flank steak, baked potatoes, and green beans.... with some mushrooms neptune on the side.

And my mom and sister decorated this cake for me:



Since I've been doing so much sewing lately my mom did a quilt cake!! So fun, and yummy too.

Things I'd like to remember about today:

- I'm OK with turning 28... not totally excited, but OK.
-Maria did her first solo somersault today (SO exciting!!)
-I'm reaching the point where I wouldn't mind it if this baby was no longer pummeling my insides.
-My family is the sweetest.
-I miss Marco (even though we talked half a dozen times today)... hopefully less than a month and he'll be back home.

Baby X

I had another Dr appointment this morning. We did another growth ultrasound and checked on baby's biometrics. He is doing GREAT. He weighs about 4 lbs 7 oz right now which is right around 50% (which is what we're shooting for).... movement was great, fluids were great.... everything was just wonderful. Now I get to start on weekly visits with non-stress tests. They also gave me the papers to pre-register at the hospital. It's getting close... only 7 weeks to go!

Here's a profile pic from this morning:



I've been working on getting everything ready for the baby... I got out the infant car seat and Maria thinks that it is a great toy. She crawls in, she put's her "babies" in... she LOVES it.



And something that I'm excited about... Yesterday Maria came up to me and said -bum, bum, diaper- she was telling me that she had just gone poops in her diaper... she told me twice!! I was so excited. Hopefully potty training is not too far off then we'll only have one baby in diapers!!

Canada

Here's a little geography lesson.

This is a map of the "lower mainland"... meaning Vancouver and it's suburbs.

(You can click on the maps to make them larger.)

This is where I live.... notice it's not that far from Canada. We can actually see Canada from the backyard on 95% of the time.

Now, I hate to admit this, but I really don't have a whole lot of interest in the Olympics. I think it's great that the best in the world want to get together and compete, and cool that the world chose to do it practically in our backyard.... and if i take the time to figure out the schedule, maybe I'll watch some of the events.... but no promises.

And even though it's practically in the backyard... I'm not going to any events... the thought of traffic makes me nauseous.

Speaking of Olympics.... Winter Olympics none the less.... it's been a REALLY mild winter here. So mild in fact that they've had to truck snow in.... and I heard that they actually closed one of these mountains to steal their snow:


Anyway, I went to Canada today... obviously not for the Olympics, but to have lunch with my Grandma.

She lives over here:

Maria and I had a great time with Grandma. We went to Chinese for lunch and then headed over to London Drug to get some Gripe Water (this was a life saver with Maria when she was a baby) and Auralgan (which helps with earaches). Then we swung by Superstore and got some Canadian chocolate bars (so much different than what we have here in the states). Then it was time for Maria's nap so we came home.

Crossing the border was super easy today.... which surprised me being that the Olympics started today.

Now, there are 5 border crossings in the area:

Point Roberts, Peace Arch, Truck Crossing, Lynden, & Sumas.

I've never been to Point Roberts... which is that little peninsula on the left...

The crossings which I use most often are Lynden and Sumas, which are the ones to the right... probably because my Grandma & late Opa lived in Abbotsford. Today I used the Lynden border crossing.

Now, if I'm going to head in the other direction I would 98% of the time choose the Truck Crossing over the Peace Arch... the wait is shorter. Although if you happen to be in the area and want more of an experience the Peace Arch is definitely more picturesque... there is a park and its right by the water.


Anyway... now I've just been babbling. I find it interesting the border monitoring practices of this country. They've sure upped the patrols during the Olympics... Today I saw over half a dozen marked border patrol cars as I was driving along Zero Avenue (a road in Canada that parallels the US).

Seeing all those cars reminded me of a couple of border patrol stories...

We have some friends that live up in Blaine (which has both the Peace Arch & Truck border crossings). It used to be that for a while everytime the lady would take her garbage out the border patrol would come by and ask her what she was doing. She would say taking her garbage out... she lived there. They would say OK and keep on going.

Then there is this fellow that we go to church with who works for the border patrol, I have no idea what his title is, but he has something to do with video monitoring. He was telling my parents one time of this guy that got so fed up with the border patrol coming by and asking what he was doing that he got a hat, attached a spring to it, and to the spring a sign that said "I'm American". So now if he ever gets picked up on camera they radio and say "It's ok, it's just spring head".

Now, there's no point to either of those stories... they made me laugh, and I guess I just wanted to share.

busy, busy, busy...

With Marco gone to NC and my parents in HI things have been pretty busy around here with Maria & I.

I've been...

Playing with a big girl...



Growing a little boy...



Getting ready for a little boy by:

preparing the bassinet...



making a two sided quilt...



Then I've also been:

refinishing a chair...



feeding chickens...


(this is an old picture... they're pretty much full grown now and with 20 chickens they go thru a LOT of food!!)

laundry...


(notice the basket is now empty... only one more load to fold and put away!!)

dishes...


(and just cleaning in general)

a hexagon quilt...


(I've given myself 15 years to finish this project... all hand sewing, I must be crazy!!)

but of all the things I've been up to...


Playing with this sweet little thing is my favorite!!

gymnastics

this morning little miss M & I headed over to Gym Star.

Maria absolutely LOVED every second.
We got there a little early because I had to fill out some paperwork and then went off to a little playroom on the side to wait until class began.

Shoes & socks off and then we went over to the mat and sat in a big circle. We passed a bean bag around to a song... at first Maria wasn't so sure about sitting in a circle, but once the music was on and the bag was moving things went great.

Then there were stretches... Maria didn't quite get it.... what? you want me to touch my toes?? silly girl.

Then we did an obstacle course and had free gym time. It was great. Maria did the obstacle course half a dozen times and then discovered the "trampoline"!! She LOVES to jump. We just have to train her to start at one end and jump down to the other end, get off and then start over again.

At the very end she got stamps on both hands and feet (which she thought was the COOLEST!!) and then a sticker on her shoe.

Hopefully we can finagle a way that we'll be able to go back over and over again!!

I didn't get any pictures this time, but if we go again I'll do better.