The last days

It is two weeks after our brand new baby's birth and just today I unpacked the hospital bag. And was consequently hit with a strange wall of nostalgia. When I reached inside to find all the little treasures I would have to rush around to put away while my babe naps (*wary glance at bunny rocker currently containing child*), I was suddenly and unexpectedly taken back to August 1st, and the days leading up to the arrival of our Felix.

I'll get to that day, for whoever likes a good birth story ( I know I do!!). Forewarning: labour buzz words such as "cervix" and "dilated" may be used, just in case anyone doesn't care for that kind of talk.

Anyways, right now I badly just want to reminisce about the month or so before Felix was born. I'm not going to lie. I was impatient. Most of the activities we did were simply time passers. By 38 weeks I was pleading to go into labour (then took it all back once it started!). But now I have a whole library full of fantastic memories of our last days as a family of three.



We made several trips to Mill Lake in Abbotsford, sometimes all of us together, and sometimes just myself and Hudson (and a McDonald's milkshake - two separate people reported drinking one and then going into labour later that day! Yes. I was desperate.)

We had tee ball practice in the backyard.

We had a great Father's Day (it really was quite good - first time in many years I haven't felt like crying the whole day, and instead was able to celebrate).

I made over a lamp. This was my second attempt. Apparently spray painting isn't my gift.

But it goes great with my new prints, right? I wanted our bedroom to feel more like, well, a bedroom and less of a European one star hostel (that for some reason included a huge hockey card collection and prize wheel).

See? This is where the money gets made.

We played in the rain.

I sewed.

And sewed some more.

We slummed it at the Mission raceway on several Saturday evenings for the street legals (fun fact: I used to work down here as a teenager with my siblings and friend Danielle, in the concession! My cheeseburger and chicken strip consumption should have done me in long ago).

We went camping for two nights at Hicks Lake. Besides Hudson being a little spooked at night time and begging to go home, and being forced to listen to the longest conversation in the history of the world about sleep apnea from the next campsite over (Ty even flashed them "We get it!" in Morse code with his phone light), we had a great time!

We celebrated Hudson's third birthday! This is one of the only pictures of the day, as I spent most of it in the states getting new tires (long story, won't bore you), but he WAS celebrated nonetheless, and very proudly holds up three and a half (the half is by default) fingers whenever you ask him how old he is.

We put up a small pool in the backyard to beat the heat.

Hudson got in some good attacks on auntie Laura at the beach, after a few bumpy boat rides.

I made a sisters trip to Vancouver. The highlight was bumping into Deborah Morgan while we were walking around downtown.

I spent many (many many) hours bouncing on this very ball.

I took long walk upon long walk!

We spent a lot of time outdoors playing...or in my case, reading No.1 Ladies Detective Agency books in the shade.

And we finally made it to my due date! This is a picture of Hudson's balloon spider, which was made for us when we ventured out on July 29th (due date) to go get coffee and grapes from costco, and wound up stopping for a free lunch, cupcakes and balloon animals at a grand opening of a CIBC that happened to be on our way back.

Two days later I was still pregnant and I was starting to entertain the idea of an induction (which I desperately wanted no part of). But on Wednesday, July 31st, all of that started to change...

To be continued...