Babymoon

 I had no freaking idea what a babymoon was till I got caught up with this pregnancy thing. They said, babymoon is mom and dad's last hurrah someplace fabulous before baby comes in. There's always the Carribean or Mexico or whereever. It depends on your budget actually. I just thought we need our "us" time when we still can have it, coz when Sophie and Emma are here, our lives will never be the same again. Ha!


Before I got pregnant, Kevin and I had been planning to go to Mexico this December-- to get outta winter cold. But when we found out we're having twins, we scrapped that plan. After all, we have major purchases coming up. We can't find cheap airfare anywhere in Canada either, so we decided to find someplace cheaper and closer. As Kevin said, just a "stay-cation", anyways we've been going places in the last 4 years. Ha, rationalization. :)

Booked the hotel online and called my in laws so they can babysit Stinker. Finally, I can use my bikinis.   Since I didn't have my professional photo with my baby bump-- I will take photo of myself in bikini! Something my mom would not want to see on Facebook haha.

I took some photos on our way, it was one gorgeous day. It was unusually sunny and no snow. We passed by some kids tobogganing. Ah to be young and happy.

After almost an hour of 100/kph drive, we reach our destination. 

I only booked for an overnight stay, and we got there quarter after 3pm. I want to make the most of our stay so after we got our keys, we went to our room and check it out. Here is Kevin checking out the channels. Yah, I married someone who's as "couch potato" as I am.

The room was pretty decent, big space too. This was the cheapest we could get. We wanted the Deluxe King but it was no longer available. But this wasn't that bad. 

Excitement made me so hungry that I wanted to eat buffet dinner at 3:30pm. While waiting for the buffet to open, we hit the casino for some slot machines and got lucky. We won! It paid for the dinner--- which was a good thing coz dinner was not that gastronomic!

The so- so prime rib buffet .. though I must admit I had 3 helpings . bwahaha.

Kevin wanted to play casino again but I told him we might not get lucky this time. Instead, we checked out the pool and found it empty. I hurriedly went to our room and donned my bikini.. 

Of course, I had a cover-up. Will not swim like a bloated frog, ya? This is just for my documentation purposes. 

With my nude tank top. My good friend Mona thought I was nekkid. :)

We felt like we own the place. :)

What pass as swimming for me is merely keeping afloat. It felt soo good swimming in a warm water while it was snowing outside. ^_^

Yes, it was an a-okay stay-cation!

Prenatal Yoga

I've read a ton of stuff about how important prenatal exercises are to labor and delivery YET I never tried it. I have all the excuses in the world. But having seen the childbirth videos scared the shitz outta me. Now, I want to do it plus I want to swim. Fact is, winter sucks the energy out of you. Going to work still dark and getting home still dark?! No wonder, people get SAD-- Seasonal Affective Disorder.

I PROMISE to commit to this yoga. Promise to keep my energy high after work to do this. More than anything else, I should prepare for labour and delivery not just my babies' nursery. ( although that takes a lot of work too). I still have a lot of things to do, nursery room's closet is yet to be made, shelves and some wall decors are yet to be put up. Gaaah. stressful. Don;t have Santa's elves to do the job.

The Other Baby.

I never had a pet. I think my family did but I never had that kind of attachment to any canine. When I met Kevin, he just got himself a dog. A doberman pincher named Stinker. I know. Such an odd name but he said he was so stinky when he brought Stinker home from the farm.


The first time I met Stinker, he scared the shitz outta me. He is huge and will break my bones had I let him attack me. But he's like Kevin's child although, a monster of a child who wrecked most of his furniture. Behind every big dogs monstrosity, they are cry babies. Suckers. Attention-whores. At that time, I only stayed here in Winnipeg for two weeks so the thought of bonding with the dog was far- fetched.


But the inevitable came. Finally moved in here. Kevin assured me that I will get used to him. Yah yah. I'm not the only one who was adjusting to our new life. Stinker had been throwing up that week that I arrived. Vet said he was having a hard time and my presence stressed him out. Wow. Dogs get stressed! How little I know of these four-legged creatures.


It started off as a love- hate relationship with Stinker. But as with all relationships, he grew on me. Surprisingly, we got along. Stinker is always considered in all our activities. Like taking him along wherever we go, essentially it's parenting practice.


Now that we are soon to be parents, we are worried for our canine baby. Will he have a hard time? Definitely, he's not going to get the same attention he's getting now. He stays in our room every night ( like a guard dog :))---- although it means I have to vacuum the room 3x a week. But then, soon this  ordeal will not work with the babies in the house. Dogs and babies look cute ONLY on YouTube but I wouldn't let Stinker come near the babies when they're still newborn.


I've read some stuff on the net on how to prepare your dog before the babies come home. According to the article, you have to bring something that has a baby's smell so the dog will get used to it. That will work. But how about Stinker's 'galloping'? He's uncontrollable barking at a single hint of unfamiliar sound? He's 'pet session'? The list is endless and we have no bloody clue how to make it work.


I guess we'll just let the leaves fall where it may as they've said. It's a life imitates art from that movie Marley and me.


Good luck to us.

Most Popular Names of 2011

http://www.babycenter.com/top-baby-names-2011

The Hunt for Bassinet

When I am not thinking about my ever changing body, I am obsessed with baby furniture. As I have mentioned before, a friend offered to buy crib--s, not just one but two of them. Its a very good offer to pass up. However, there's a big problem. The cribs that I want from Babies R Us are not available online. Panic mode. How will my friend buy me the crib? Crib is very important and we want  to have it before the babies come. Think Gladys think....Solution came as quickly as I identified the problem. Babies R Us have gift cards!! So I emailed my friend about it but still I will not get it till next year. :(

Most mommies ( esp mom-in-law) told me that it would be more convenient to have the baby in the same room as us. This got me thinking. If we have a crib, there's no way in hell it will fit in our bedroom. We have a small bedroom and even if we rearrange it, two cribs will still be a tad too big for the space we have. So hubby and I decided to get a co-sleeper or a bassinet.

Bassinet what? For the life of me, call me ignorant but bassinet sounds like a musical instrument to me until I got myself acquainted with it. Back home, other than babies co-sleeping in bed with their mommies, we have what we call as "duyan". Duyan is an improvised bassinet ONLY it is made out of a blanket tied on both ends and hang on the wall ( think of it as a baby hammock). This is a very effective method of lulling the babies to sleep, fail-proof. BUT in this age and times, it is safe to get something that is on the ground and not suspended   above ground level :)

Having decided on a bassinet, hubby and I spent way too many hours on the internet trying to find a bassinet that is not expensive and durable at the same time. Babies R Us have a fancy one for $160. I wouldn't want to buy with that price because we will just dispose the bassinet in 3-4 months time. So I scoured and got so frustrated. We even came to a point where I will have to apply for US visa to go to the States to buy a good one-- sometimes stupid ideas come from frustration! Alas, I came across sears.com. Yep, not sears.ca ( canada-based).

It was just in front of me but I just didn't see. I was so focused on finding the bassinet that it didn't occur to me that I can actually order straight from the States! In an effort to get Canadian buyers, Sears.com have flat rate shipping of 10 bucks to Canada. Although Sears stores are everywhere here in Winnipeg, there are items that are exclusively distributed in the States i.e. cheaper bassinets.

I went ahead and ordered a basic bassinet in green and yellow. It's not a fancy one, but it can be converted into a cradle. After I placed the order, I found another bassinet for the same price with vibrator and musical mobile. gaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh. Shoot me.