KissKus

All over the place

The children are staying at the oma's for a couple of days and Michel and I are taking full advance of their absence to get as many jobs done as possible.

I feel all over the place. One moment I feel that we're on the right track, the next I'm panicking because everything is still a mess and nothing is properly arranged. I'm really nervous that this baby will come early... I feel so not ready for it!! It sometimes seems that the more jobs we get done, the more jobs appear. And the unfortunate thing is that of all the things the nursery is the last thing to be finished. I so desperately want to have that room done with, so that I can start decorating and really getting ready for the baby.

But anyway, let's focus on the positive, shall we? Luckily, we are making vast progress in all kinds of directions even if it doesn't seem that way.
Just look what arrived this morning!!

Our brand new dining table along with six chairs!! It's huge and wonderful and actually already put together and oiled. This is in fact the first table we've ever bought. All the others were hand-me-downs. I'll post a better photo some other time. Perhaps when our new sofa has arrived :) Yes, money has been flowing (thanks Mum and Dad!).

This weekend we've also been able to move Simon to his new room. He loves it as it's so much bigger than his old room (which will now become the nursery). He's been playing there non-stop with his cars and blocks.

I have a very long list of things I need/want to sew, but somehow I don't seem to be able to start. Yesterday I decided to take the plunge and started ripping apart the lining of our "second" cot. I even cut into my precious matryoshka fabric... it's a start!

I'm also very relieved that at long last I've started making lists. It made me feel less disorganised immediately and scratching off things is enormously satisfying.

Michel and I enjoyed a night out too yesterday. We went to our favourite Mexican restaurant in Utrecht and had a lovely time. We're off now to shop for food... we're both hungry after our day of hard work.
Tomorrow the children will be back, which I'm really looking forward to!

Ok, one last photo of the babe inside his/her little house. Hopefully happy to stay there for another four weeks!

Upside down

*Edit* Hurray! The scan showed that baby's head was beautifully positioned down! We'll never know whether he/she decided to take a tumble last night or was falsely accused, but I'm very relieved! No more obstacles between me and my homebirth :)

Also, I wanted to add that the mirror pictured underneath has been cleaned since the photo was taken!!

Today at our check-up the obstetrician noticed that baby has most probably turned upside down, which means that its head is now placed under my ribs (which explains that crushing feeling there) and its feet are way down south. NOT GOOD, BABY! Please, take a dive and go back to the way you've been for all those months!!

Tomorrow morning I'm going in for a scan to make sure of its position and if it's confirmed then I suppose we'll start making plans on how we'll be able to turn this baby around. That process will probably involve a lot of pushing and shoving... yay!

I do actually believe that the baby has turned. My whole belly feels and looks different. It's definitely larger on top and it feels as if there's a melon stuck underneath my ribs. Bending has really become a challenge now! I'm not too stressed yet though. The obstetrician said there is still enough time (I'm 34 weeks) and room for the baby to move again, so for now I'm just going to assume that that will happen.

Other babynews.... we think we've finally found a boy's name that we like! Or that we like just a little bit more than the other names that we like, you know?! Deciding on a girl's name was easy, but for a boy we both find it much harder. I think we'll now have to repeat this name to ourselves a couple of times a day so that that it'll become familiar to us.
Phew... until yesterday we had no nursery, no cot, no pram, no birth announcement and no name yet. Now that we can cross out that last item, all we need is for the baby to take a tumble and we're back on track!

Multi-tasking... all day, every day!

A magical place?

Well, we're back from Disneyland and let me tell you that the weather was simply magical! So sunny and warm... absolutely wonderful!!

And the rest of Disneyland? Well, I wouldn't exactly call that magical.
It wasn't so much of a disillusion, since I didn't expect much beforehand, but I did find the commercial tackiness a little overwhelming. After entering the park we spent the first 40 minutes or so looking for an attraction... all we could see were shops crammed with ridiculously overpriced souvenirs!

The first attraction we decided to queue for (it was SO busy) was A Small World. It was as if I suddenly stepped into a nightmare: the scary pink and gold sweetness and all those annoying children's voices singing the same song over and over and over again... wow, that was impressive in its own special way!

The hotel we stayed in was fine. It was built as a small town in Western style. The room wasn't big, but comfortable enough and it had a bath, which the children enjoyed very much (I took a bath as well... never did I feel more like a whale). It was lovely to spend a night so close together.

On Sunday morning we got up early. Because we were hotel guests we were allowed to enter the park at 8.00 a.m. (it normally opens at 10.00 a.m.). When we got there around 9 it was already incredibly crowded. Michel went into Space Mountain, which was quite a spectacle according to him. After that we went queue-hopping for a couple of hours.

We took a lunch break and watched the masses stand in line to be photographed with several Disney characters. Now that was entertainment! Thankfully, both Amber and Simon wanted to have nothing to do with these characters with their huge scary plastic heads. Simon started whimpering as soon as any one of them came near us and we had to take a few detours to avoid them when they all came tumbling out of the train after the Parade.

The attraction we all enjoyed most was a lovely old river boat (it was real!)... it was so wonderful and relaxing to stand on deck in the sun.

While Michel and Amber decided to check out the Haunted House, Simon and I sat down on a bench where he happily played with the two sticks we found (he's a collector!). Those were his souvenirs of the weekend and I couldn't have been more proud of him, because he truly didn't desire anything else!

For Amber it was more difficult to resist the temptation of all the kitsch goodies that were shoved into her face every step of the way. I couldn't blame her at all, but we bought nothing.

All in all, we had a great weekend together as a family. It was a very welcome break from all the stress and work at home and we enjoyed every minute of that.  I don't think we'll ever go back to Disneyland again, but I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

Au revoir!

Tomorrow morning (apparently before dawn, if Michel has his way) we'll leave for Paris!!
Yes, that's right... PARIS!!

Well, alright, not quite the capital of France itself, but Disneyland Paris.
Although I'm not a great Disney-fan, I'm looking forward to spending two whole days with my husband and children doing something other than working on the house. Besides, this trip is more or less free, since it came with the car... I'm not complaining!

I'm even looking forward to the 5-hour journey. I've always enjoyed being confined to the car with my loved ones... except when the children are whining, needing pee... etc. ;))

So hopefully we'll be able to relax and enjoy it. If the weather is as nice as it was today then I'm sure we will.

Thankfully I'm feeling a little less stressed out already. Wednesday morning at work I didn't make it past the receptionist's desk. I was so tired and sore that when she asked me how I was feeling, I started crying right there and then. She was so kind to me, she phoned someone and said I wasn't able to work anymore and then she sent me home. After a couple of hours in bed I felt not so disappointed in myself anymore, after all I had just one more week to go, so I nearly made it till the end. I do feel that I really need to get a little more rest now; it's not just wise, but a necessity.

Anyway, have a lovely weekend everyone! I'll be back in a couple of days with a full report of our trip!
Bissoux!!

The photos btw are some of the tissueholders I've been making these past weeks... I've got a little factory going on here :)

Step it up a little

If anyone might think that my lack of posting is a sign that I'm taking it easy and am slowly getting ready for the birth, then no... on the contrary. I can honestly say that I think that I've never worked harder and never had less sleep than in these past couple of weeks.
We are working SO hard on the house, but still unfortunately all the progress I can show you is things like this:

This will very soon be our bedroom, but it doesn't exactly look like a heavenly place to spend the night yet, does it?! Still, I do hope that anyone who's ever been to our house will already see a big change. So much has been achieved, but still so much needs to be done. I'm exhausted even thinking of writing up a to-do list.

Michel spends nearly all his evenings at the DIY-store and our weekends are dedicated to work on the house alone. Needless to say that our social life is non-existent at the moment.

I still have to work for another two weeks and quite honestly I'm soooo fed up with it. The work is hard, standing on my legs for hours on end and doing all the things that pregnant women aren't supposed to do, like bending and lifting. On Wednesday after a long day at work, I had to pick up the house while Michel was at the DIY, get the children to bed etc. and when he finally came home we still did some painting until way past midnight... is it alright to say that I feel a little sorry for myself sometimes?! I am 7 months pregnant!

Except for all the painting and stuff there is also still a lot of sorting to be done, which is mainly my task. Thankfully, I'm in a rather serious "throw it all out" kind of mood, but it is difficult nonetheless! All the things that we've been hoarding for so long and now we have to get rid of it all. Today I found Amber's first shoes... sniff, sigh.

Well, ok, that was enough of my self-pitying. I know that kind of attitude isn't going to make things better, so I'll give myself another kick and get going. Tomorrow my Mum and I have planned another fabric trip to Amsterdam, so hopefully I'll be able to tick that off my non-existent to-do list!

I hope the baby is relaxing for two in there!