Slowing down

This was a fairly uneventful week, and yet still quite busy. Somehow we had things to do every evening this week, Monday through Thursday, plus there was work like normal. However, I do think that things are starting to slow down.

First, we had a date night on Friday for the first time in a while. We went out to eat at a popular and nice but fairly casual restaurant, then came home and worked on a puzzle. Not necessarily super exciting from some standards, but a very good date night for us :-)

On Friday I worked from home because I wasn't feeling so well. I have had a cough intermittently for quite a while (maybe two weeks?), and it seemed like it was starting to get worse. I have never had a cough like this, where it came on without any other cold symptoms, started out where I was coughing maybe twice a day, and now has progressively gotten to where I'm coughing a lot and it is, as they say, "productive." I went to the doctor on Friday afternoon, and was told it is probably just a virus and not to worry about it unless it gets worse. If this is my cold for the year, I'll take it – this is probably the least sick sickness I have ever had :-)

This weekend Jeff has been doing his best to get me to rest, as that is what was prescribed by the doctor (along with plenty of fluids, and fresh air outside of air-conditioned buildings). He says that yesterday I did not do such a great job, and he gave me a grade of B- on relaxing. He says it would have been a grade of C except that he knows I was trying. So today I decided to try to do better, and with much coaching from Jeff I think I have succeeded – I spent the entire afternoon just reading and knitting. This morning I made ice cream, and after dinner we made some homemade veggie burgers to put in the freezer, but other than that I have not been working too hard.

Tomorrow is a holiday here (Saskatchewan Day, which exists I think only because there is no other holiday in August), and we are planning to head out to a provincial park for the day. It is one we have not been to before, and hopefully it is a lovely and relaxing time!

Lists

For the last while, our life has revolved around lists. We have lists of things that need to be done before the baby comes, and sub lists within those lists for specifics. There are many items to acquire, plans to be made surrounding labor and birth, things to get done around the house, and things to make sure we have ready to make our lives easier once the baby comes. This weekend has been nonstop doing things on the lists, which feels good in a sense because we are accomplishing things, but exhausting because we don't have much time to relax at the moment. However, when we look now at our lists it seems that most things are done. There are still things that we have to prepare that will take some time (like acquiring items for and putting together a birth bag, which we are coming to realize is probably several bags, some of which may or may not be needed depending on the length of the hospital stay and such), but really the majority is finished. So I'm thinking that soon we will go back to having some relaxing weekends, relaxing evenings, and time to prepare mentally for the baby.

One thing that we did this weekend that we had not planned on doing was create a baby registry. We more or less intended to get all of the things that we needed on our own, get some secondhand things from family and friends, and be done with it. I know that people like to give gifts, but we are pretty self-sufficient and financially stable, and creating a registry really seems like asking people to buy you things, and this feels uncomfortable to me at this point. However, we were informed that our department will be holding a baby shower for us, and people in our department are more likely to contribute cash than to actually go out and buy a gift. So what will end up happening in this case is that our department secretaries will be given some cash to work with, and it will be up to them to actually purchase gifts for this shower. Without a registry, this makes their job extremely difficult, and we absolutely did not want to make things difficult for anyone. 

So over the weekend we took a trip to Toys "R" Us/Babies "R" Us, and created a registry. This shower will not be held until September 8 due to people being on vacation and dates for start of term, and that is only twelve days before our due date. So we didn't feel that we could put anything on the registry that was a "must have" before the baby was born, so we have more or less purchased all the essentials ourselves. I thought that we would be able to create a registry with just a few things on it, enough to make the lives of our department secretaries easy when they are planning our shower and buying gifts. However, when we showed up to make the registry we were told that we had to put at least fifty items on it. In some ways it was fun, but in many ways it just felt like work, trying to figure out how many onesies and in what sizes, how many teething toys, etc., we could reasonably add. But it's done, and it is a relief. 

While we were there, we also purchased a few things in order to have the basics of what we need for the very beginning. That part was fun for me – especially buying some newborn size clothes for the baby to wear home from the hospital. Because I know some people are wondering, the sex of the baby is going to be a surprise – it seems like the thing that everyone asks about and everyone cares about, but that is so much less important to us than other things, like the fact that we are having a human baby :-) So, we got some very cute gender-neutral onesies and sleepers, and thinking about the fact that in just two short months our little baby will be wearing them makes me all mushy and melty.

As promised, below are some pictures of our nursery progress. We have a dresser that we already had, a comfy glider rocker, a change table, and a bassinet in the baby room. After I took a few pictures I realized that the creepy baby doll was in some of them, so I took one last photo with the doctor removed :-)

In our bedroom, we have a crib with one side removed pushed between the wall and our bed. We will be securing the crib to our bed frame with bungee cords (which I purchased today – one more thing checked off the list). Currently, the crib is filled with plastic bags to keep cats out.

And lastly, speaking of cats, although ours have been very well behaved (no pooping outside the litter box, no attempts to escape from basement cat jail at night), we are continuing to have problems with Maddy's neighborhood friend. This is the cat that had peed on our front door several times. Well, he has stopped peeing on the front door since we put out the stayaway, but he has since started peeing on the back door. This is actually less of a problem because of how things are structured there, and it is easier to clean up. But recently we had an experience that was a bit jarring. I smelled cat pee, and couldn't find the source – it was not outside the front door, and it was not outside the back door, but I definitely smelled it in the house. Occasionally we leave the door open to allow some air in and to allow Koshka, who is a big scaredy, to explore outside knowing that she can run back in whenever she chooses. So apparently on one of these occasions when the door was left open (for probably ten minutes, so not very long) the neighborhood cat came inside and peed on a storage cube that we had in the shelf, and on our wall.

I could not believe it, but it was definitely mail cat spray, so there is no other reasonable explanation than that he came in and actually peed in our house. We threw away the storage cube and we were able to clean the wall, but now we can never leave the door open unattended. If it was our own cat, I would be frustrated but would feel better about it somehow, because we get absolutely nothing from this cat other than pee. I wish I knew where this cat lived and could talk to his owners, though that would probably do nothing to solve the problem. Anyway, at least we are reasonably able to clean up the smell!

Calgary visit details

So as I mentioned, we decided to take a quick road trip to Calgary and while we were there take a day trip to Banff. We have also been doing tons of work related to baby prep, and I will post photos of our nursery progress next week, but I haven't taken any pictures so can't post them today.

Just before we left, we had to do some last-minute garden maintenance – we have many, many peas, and they are growing so tall that they are starting to fall over off the tomato cage trellis that I have them on, which has not happened in previous years. The peas are really growing more as a thicket than a collection of vines. In any case, we had to be sure to pick some peas before we left so that they wouldn't be all over ripe when we got back.

Then we made the long drive – about eight hours with stops for bathroom breaks and lunch – with Jeff doing all the driving. Not too fun for him, and quite tiring, but driving is very fatiguing for me so we don't switch off, and Jeff gets to be behind the wheel the whole time. We stayed at a condo that we rented through Air B&B, and it was great except that we didn't think to ask whether there was air-conditioning. Fortunately there was a small portable AC unit in the bedroom, because while we were visiting it was super hot – highs around 32°C/90°F.

The day after we arrived, we went to the Calgary Stampede, which is like a fair but enormous. It is known as "The Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth." Everyone wears cowboy hats:

Jeff and his brother tried out some pitching at the major-league baseball roadshow:

I rode my scooter around, which allowed me to see lots of the stampede grounds without getting too tired. However, I am not used to sitting for that long, and being in the seated position combined with the heat, was horrible for my feet and ankles – they swelled up like little sausages and I had trouble fitting them into my shoes after that. They kind of stayed that way the whole time that we were in Calgary because it was so hot. Fortunately they are back to normal size now that we are home, with air-conditioning at home and work, and a lot less sitting.

Besides the stampede we also spent lots of time visiting Jeff's brother and family:

And on our last day before heading home, we spent the day in Banff National Park, which is only about an hour and a half drive from Calgary. It is beautifully situated in the Canadian Rockies, and although there is much more to see than what can be done in a day, a day trip was better than nothing – this was my only chance to see mountains this summer!

We went for a short hike around a lake, which ended up being quite tiring for me even with the aid of my trekking poles and a lot of help from Jeff. Fortunately it was not so hot in Banff the day we went, because if it was I probably would not have been able to finish the hike at all (even though it was only about 3 km and mostly flat). However, despite being a bit difficult it was lovely to be out in the woods and in the mountains:

After our hike and after lunch, we went for a ride up the Banff gondola. It was a great way to see lots of mountains without having to do lots of hiking.

All in all it was a great trip. We don't have any specific trips planned for the rest of the summer, and there is some chance that we might go camping, though not super likely because it is getting harder and harder for me to get up off of chairs and especially off the ground. I also likely would sleep very poorly. It is hard to think of a summer without any camping, but probably better to stick to day trips at this point. My belly has been growing rapidly the last few weeks. Jeff took a picture of me sitting on the couch while I was talking to my mom on the phone a few days ago, and this is currently what I look like:

I have two months to go, and growth is likely to be fairly pronounced in these last two months. Looking at this picture is a good reminder of why I may find it hard to go camping as the summer progresses :-)

Quick update

Just FYI, the reason for no update on Sunday was that we took a trip to Calgary (relatively last-minute decision) to visit Jeff's brother, his wife, and their 10 month old son, and from there made a quick day trip to Banff National Park. I do have a few photos and will share them soon!

Also, we are acquiring lots of baby stuff, including a big bag plus a box full of secondhand stuff (very recently used by our nephew) that we acquired on our visit to Calgary. Hopefully next weekend I will also post some photos of our evolving nursery :-)

How to sell a Segway

You may recall that I used a Segway for a period of time as a mobility device, but have since stopped using it in favor of my new Travelscoot scooter. The scooter has been extremely useful, already having been on two airplane trips, many shopping trips, and more. So it was clear that it was time to sell the Segway. However, we discovered that there is not much of a market for used Segways in Saskatchewan. We were worried that we might not be able to sell it very easily, and we really needed to sell it in the summer because chances are slim that anyone would want to buy it once it was not usable outdoors anymore.

So when a guy contacted us saying he was interested, but didn't have the cash to pay the full asking price, what normally would have sounded like a crazy idea started to sound fairly reasonable. When he said he could give us half the cash that we were asking and then give us his Honda motor scooter (not like my scooter – like a pared down motorcycle), we considered it carefully. And then Jeff went to try out the scooter and decided we should take the deal.

There was a period of time where Jeff wanted to keep the scooter, but the whole point was that it would be easier to sell a scooter than to sell a Segway. Jeff illegally rode it a total of three times – illegal because he does not have a motorcycle or scooter endorsement on his driver's license. Apparently he found it to be quite a lot of fun. However, I was careful to instill a seed of fear, which grew, and the desire to keep the scooter was short-lived.

As it turned out, we found a perfect buyer almost immediately. A young couple who lives near downtown contacted us as soon as the ad went up. They needed a cheap form of transportation for short trips around town, and this was perfect. Jeff had to illegally ride the scooter to their house because the guy who's going to ride it would not take it on the streets before he had completed a motorcycle course. I liked selling to them because it was clearly going to be used well, and they are very safety conscious.

So for a while we were down one Segway, and up one scooter, but now the scooter is gone to and the only scooter left is my little mobility scooter. It feels as though balance is restored.

The past couple of days have been spent doing many baby things. We discovered a few weeks ago that the points we earn by using our MasterCard debit card were going to be extremely useful. Apparently we earn points for every debit card purchase we make, and are points had added up since opening up our credit union account a little over two years ago. We were able to trade in our points for hundreds of dollars worth of gift cards at Sears. So on Friday night, armed with our gift cards, we went to Sears and got a free stroller and car seat. Then yesterday we bought a used crib, and went back to Sears to get a free crib mattress and mattress covers. We have now used up our gift cards, but have saved many hundreds of dollars on baby things in doing so.

Yesterday we also assembled the crib, and rearranged things in our bedroom, because that is where the crib will be, at least at first. Rearranging the bedroom meant moving Jeff's dresser to the basement, which meant both of us getting rid of some clothes in order to make space in existing drawers. If we had a giant house with giant rooms we could get away with not doing this kind of thing, but as it stands we have to do lots of rearranging and purging in order to make space for baby.

Our original plan was to have the crib on my side of the bed, but it turns out that it is impossible for me to get in and out of bed safely and comfortably if the side of the bed is blocked by a crib. So the crib will be on Jeff's side of the bed, and he assured me that he will not be able to sleep if the baby wakes up anyway, so at current the plan is that he will pass me the baby for nighttime feedings. I'm so glad that we are doing this stuff now instead of waiting until the last minute, because I think otherwise I might get stressed out by it.

Today I spent a good part of the day weeding the garden. As of this week we finally have peas, Swiss chard, and lettuce that is ready to eat. We also finally harvested some rhubarb, though we probably could have done this a few weeks ago. Things are slower to get started in Saskatchewan, but it is still very satisfying to eat vegetables that come from the garden. It was also satisfying today to realize that my ability to maneuver on all fours has improved since last summer, despite my pregnant state. Today I was able to weed areas of the garden that I could not reach previously,  because I could not balance well enough on my hands and knees before and I can now. So that was an unexpected nice surprise :-)