Monday, August 30, 2010

Buskerfest birthday

Despite a nagging cough, I met my Best Woman and her adorable offspring at Buskerfest after work on Friday. This was a no-brainer because a) Buskerfest is literally in front of the building I work in, and b) Friday was my Best Woman's birthday!

We all enjoyed a healthy dinner of french fries:

Then the kids tried out the stage before the first busker:


(Don't you LOVE the 80s leggings on this stylish little girl? She picked them out herself during back-to-school shopping. She also got a navy boyfriend blazer with sleeves that roll up to display striped lining. Grade 2 never looked this good back in my day!)

The first performer we saw was a woman who goes by the name of Bendy Em. And truly, that was a well-chosen moniker:


After contorting herself in various ways and creatively using two beefy looking guys from the audience to their full advantage, her final trick was to stuff her wiry little body into a tiny little box:


The second performer was not quite as entertaining, although no less wacky. His ultimate feat was to balance a running lawnmower on his face and then have audience members throw heads of lettuce into the blades:


There HAS to be a better way to make a living!!

Afterwards we saw amazing dragon-type creatures that growled their way through the crowd:


The kids were both fascinated and terrified by them.



Of course we had to have some birthday tarts and brownies, which I picked up at St. Lawrence Market earlier in the day.


We saw a bit of another show as well, but they were less memorable and their sound system kept crashing. All in all, it was a fun summer evening in the city.

Oh, and here's the 22 week picture. (I missed 21 weeks, because the Husband/Photographer was out of town!)

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Getting really pregnant now!

Here's my belly at 20 weeks:



You know that lame Hollywood joke about being just a little bit pregnant? Well, I get it now. On Friday night some invisible scale tipped and I went from feeling like a fully functioning human being with a little bowling ball belly to being capital "p" Pregnant! Suddenly getting up from the couch seemed like a bit of an ordeal and after a simple stroll around our new neighbourhood in the blazing sun, I was nearly done. (I followed that up with a three-hour home inspection that involved a lot of standing. I was knocked out for the rest of the night!)

Also, my deep inny bellybutton has become very shallow. I'm not used to being able to see the bottom!

I am desperately aware that I need to be doing some physical activity beyond just walking around, but life has gotten somewhat insanely busy lately. And it's amazing how quickly a regular fitness routine goes out the window. I can't even figure out when I used to work out! I do have a prenatal dvd here, which I've done once...

I'll figure it out! But now I also need to start packing...

Saturday, August 14, 2010

Welcome to our new home!

What a difference a couple of days makes! On Wednesday morning we saw a house that made us go, "Hmmmm...?" On Thursday evening we put in an offer and got a taste of negotiations. And this afternoon we did a three-hour home inspection, signed on the dotted line and bought ourselves a house.

Somebody pinch me!

After seeing lots of places in the east end of town, where several of our amazing friends live, we are staying in the west end. In the end, it was just the right house! So we are a few blocks south of Eglinton West Station and very close to my Best Woman and her family.

So, without further ado, we introduce our very first home to you:


It is a little bit boxy, but also strong and sturdy. Check out the gorgeous Japanese Maple on the front lawn:



The door was slightly ajar in this foyer shot - there isn't a huge gap at the top when it's closed!



(Did you notice the gorgeous slate on the floor? It goes right down the hallway and through the kitchen.

Living room, which is just to the left when you come in the front door:


Which is open to the dining room:


Which is open to my favourite room of all - the kitchen:


(I have big plans to make lots of yummy things in here!)

Then we turn and go back down the hall and up the stairs:






We have the master bedroom:


What will be the nursery:


And what will be the office:


(This room is actually a decent size, but I am not a very good house photographer!)

Amazingly for an old Toronto home, all of the bedrooms have closets! They aren't big closets by any stretch of the imagination, but they are closets!

Then we have the lovely bathroom, which also has fantastic slate floors:


And it houses the washer and the dryer! (I am doubly ecstatic to have my very own washer and dryer AND to have them on the second floor!! Oh, such grown up dreams!)


Put on your disco shoes for the next part of the tour, because we are heading to the basement, which looks like a set from "That '70s Show."

From a door in the hallway, just past the stairs, but before the kitchen, we come down a few stairs to the side door:


Then there's a right turn and all the way down the funky red stairs with flecks of silver:


To our orange and brown formica-tiled basement with the wood-burning fireplace:


Here's the view the other way, where you can see all the space and the door to the bathroom:



Which is very creatively decorated:


(I didn't take a picture of the shower, but there is a shower in the basement bathroom that ain't pretty, but nor is it scary!)

There are several other rooms in the basement, including the one with the water heater and furnace and stuff, which is under the stairs and then, when you take a hard left at the bottom of the stairs, there's this "kitchen":


(There's even a little table that folds up from the wall on the opposite side from this. Although describing it as a table might be going too far. It's more of a ledge...) And through the kitchen there's another door and a cold room.

Now we go outside, where I've spared you a photo of our private driveway and lovely detached garage with a paved floor, to skip to the backyard, which has lots of potential, but needs a little TLC:


And by TLC, I mean grass. We'll be pulling up these interlocking bricks next spring and laying down some sod for sure!


There are two fantastic parts about the location! The first is that we are DIRECTLY across the street from this beautiful playground:


This should come in extremely handy in the next decade!

And the second is that we are less than a 5-minute walk from Cedarvale park, which is huge fantastic park:


We saw a cricket game in progress:


And the Husband was happy to see the big dog run area for our future canine:


And here we are, the very excited new home owners! (It's too bad they haven't slapped the "sold" sign on it yet!)

Friday, August 13, 2010

I heart movie trailers

Can we talk about how...well... lovely this movie looks?



Movie trailers are so full of promise. They are one of my favourite things about going to a movie (I would never miss the trailers) and I'm so very glad that the world has evolved to the point that I can watch them whenever I want, in the comfort of my own home, without having to buy overpriced snacks.

One of my secret dream jobs is to be the person that gets to edit movie trailers together. Despite my lack of film experience, I can't help but think that the basics of good editing would translate from the page to the screen. Mmmm... third career maybe? As long as I don't have to live in LA!

Monday, August 9, 2010

20 week scan

It was the fastest 45 minutes of my life and here's the result:


Our little baby has ten fingers, ten toes and was apparently a little bored by all the attention, because he/she yawned for us. Twice.

The tiny little vertebra took my breath away, but what really got to me - what made me shed a little tear - was the heart. We could clearly see the four little chambers all working hard and beating like a champion. I couldn't help but think that this is the little heart that is going to love us first, but it's also the heart that we won't always be able to protect.

After I wiped all the gel off my belly (although I found a little hiding in my belly button tonight), we had to sit around for a half hour waiting for the doctor to look at the scans. But it was worth it when they handed us a sheet covered with my favourite new word: Normal.

Who knew how good that word could be!? (Although, to be honest, I was hoping for at least one "fantastic" or even a "really good." I mean, the baby's femurs looked excellent to us! And the humerus - top notch!!)

I won't know more until my follow up appointment on Thursday, but for now we are ecstatic.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

Hanging with the girls

Such a lovely lunch date today, with a fantastic group of women and two adorable little girls with personality plus. Here's a few pics:





At one point they even held hands!! But I had the old camera and it takes FOREVER to reset itself between shots, so I missed some magic moments. You know, my birthday is just a month away now and I'm thinking it's time to add a digital SLR to this family. Because there will be roughly a million pictures to take in the next couple of years! Particularly of the person in this next shot that isn't exactly recognizable just yet:


PS. People who design maternity clothes have an absolute obsession with horizontal stripes!

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Busybusybusybusybusy

Okay, SO much going on in my life right now! In addition to a constantly overflowing (and still growing) inbox at work (along with all my colleagues), we almost bought a house this week. Twice.

We thought we'd found the place on Friday morning before heading out of town for the weekend. We told our agent and called our mortgage broker. Then we had a few days to think about it. And worry about it. And I woke up in the wee hours of Sunday morning and was unbelievably stressed. I had to wake up the Husband and talk to him about it and then I still laid awake until dawn.

So instead of putting in an offer last night, which had been the plan, we went to see another house. It was charming, in an amazing location, but teeny tiny with no parking. Then we went back to the other house. And we saw all the potential again. We told the agent (a different one, since ours is on vacation this week) that we'd put in an offer today.

I didn't sleep very much last night, either, but out of excitement this time. I mean, buying a first home is super exciting!!

This morning in our email, there was another house. A good looking one, closer to a more desirable area of the neighbourhood. We emailed the agent and asked if we could see that one first, before we put in an offer on the other. She set it up and we met at the new house this afternoon.

I really like it. The husband - not so much. Although we could both see the benefits of this one over the other one, his gut feeling just wasn't there. BUT the things that I loved about this one - particularly an open concept on the main floor and the proximity to more amenities (which is the whole reason to live in the city) finally convinced me that the OTHER one isn't the one.

So, after many lost hours of sleep and some serious stress, the search continues...

After all, we have to find a first home for the ever growing kiddie. This is last week's 18 weeks shot:

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