I want to thank everyone who supported me...

I got recognized! No, not for a reward or anything, but it was just as gratifying. Here's what happened:

I was at my daughter's playmate's birthday party today and another mom came up to me and asked, "Do I know you?"

"I don't know," I answered slowly while my mind quickly darted back and forth trying to remember something, anything so that I wouldn't totally embarrass myself. "Do I?"

"Aren't you the editor of urbanbaby & toddler magazine?" she asked. "Yes, you are!"

She recognized me from the photo of me and my two kids that accompanies the Letter from the Editor in every issue. She also told me that she loves my magazine and that she thinks that I do a great job. I really did feel as though I'd won an award. I wasn't on stage and it wasn't in front of a huge audience giving me a standing ovation, but it didn't matter. It doesn't matter. Everything that I do as owner and editor of the magazine is borne out of a passion to help other new parents. Of course, it's also a business, but the business side of it is what allows me to pursue this passion of mine.

I love when I get feedback like this from my readers directly. It means I'm achieving what I set out to achieve: to provide Metro Vancouver's new parents with an invaluable resource as they grow their families.

This kind of recognition, I can never get too much of. I do get mistaken recognition too, though. Apparently, to some people, I resemble Lainey of Laineygossip.com (and also entertainment reporter on CTV News)...and, hey, that is okay too.

This Mommy is hittin' the sauce

Why?

1) I've got an extended health carrier who has just declined to cover the cost of my son's medication (medication that is necessary, was prescribed to him by his oncologist, and is $250 per month);

2) I have 18-year-old childless tenants who think I should be able to keep my children from screaming, crying or walking so that they can "sleep in" on their days off. Short of sending my kids out for adoption, this isn't going to happen;

3) My jeans shrunk;

4) And I just got a mosquito bite on my eyelid!

Ovaltine is my potion of choice. I can't drink alcohol because I'm allergic and well, it would impair my ability to take care of my kids and run my business, so hot malty drink, here I come.

What's your sauce?

Pregnant Leanne: Week 34 of pregnancy - Dropped the baby

January 27, 2010: Week 34 of pregnancy

I think I’ve dropped the baby. According to my midwife, the head is well and truly engaged and I believe it! What clues gave it away? I first began to notice my new walking style a few weeks ago. Think penguin, picture waddling. The second clue and my new nemesis, rhymes with 'shemmorhoids.' A simple sneeze or even an innocent burst of laughter now means I've peed myself. Lovely. Nothing makes a woman feel attractive like hemorrhoids and peeing oneself. To add insult to injury, I now need a run-up to roll out of bed. Kick my leg up to get some momentum, one, two, three, roll!

So this weekend with baby's head bouncing off my cervix, constant pressure on my bladder and a waddling stride, Scott and I headed off to our local office supply store to pick up a printer for our laptop. The printer specialist, a woman, with a clap of the hands and a reach for my belly joyfully exclaimed, "Oh my gosh! You are pregnant! You two are going to have the most beautiful baby! Stunning. Gorgeous." Wow! Rein it in lady! While seemingly complimentary to me, being one half of the baby-making process, in reality, what she is really saying is, "Your husband is hot." Right in front of me too! Cheeky. She wasn’t even on commission!

Best kids' birthday party ever!

Wow! We hosted my daughter's fifth birthday party at Build A Bear Workshop in Metropolis at Metrotown in Burnaby, and it was a blast. For $25 per child, I was able to purchase party that involved 1-1/2 hours of bear fun, which had the kids:
- picking their own bear shells based on the parent's budget and stuff them)
- stuffing their bears with a heart (because everyone knows you can't live without one!)
- dressing their bears with outfits and bows
- choosing a sound for their bears
- singing silly songs and a doing a little dancing
- naming their bears
- receiving a goody bag

I can't say enough about the party leader Nalini, who was energetic, fun, completely connected with the kids, and always in charge of the whole group of 6.

If you're looking for a birthday party option, this will work for kids from 3 years and up. For girls, the appeal of building a bear will span all ages; boys may lose interest after the age of 6 or 7, but there are plenty of hockey jerseys from real NHL teams and Star Wars outfits to please them too!

Pregnant Leanne: Week 33 of pregnancy - Nesting instinct?

January 21, 2010: Week 33 of pregnancy

We’re ready to start the official packing of the hospital bags. Deciding what to include is sort of like planning for a holiday but not knowing where you are going. You know a plane will be involved but the destination is a surprise.

My list of must-haves (of course I have one!) is beyond thorough and covers every scenario I can cook up. Nest, nest, chirp, chirp, I’ve been stockpiling soup and easy meals for our return home. We’ve got our baby-change station ready to go.

Feeling prepared helps to ease my anxiety and hopefully 'feeling' prepared will roll along nicely into 'being' prepared. Just need the baby and we're golden! I told one of my clients the other day that I plan to make my own baby-wipes from paper towels. I believe her direct quote, along with significant eye-rolling was, "We'll see."

Much of my preparations involve this hazy vision of what day-to-day will actually be like. Along this line, we've been imagining Scott's parents visit in May. What fabulous restaurant shall we take them to on their last night? Stanley Park, great food and gorgeous view, perhaps a cute new dress for me… Ummmm…wait a minute, aren’t we forgetting something? Like why his parents are visiting in the first place?

The baby! Oooopsie. There goes our restaurant idea. We don’t want to be THAT couple.

Cell phones? What about kids?!

Talking on a cell phone while driving is more hazardous to your health than driving with young kids in the car. Discuss.

I am all for British Columbia's new law that is designed to deter people from talking on their cell phones while driving. How many times have I, both as a pedestrian and driver/passenger, nearly been a victim of a road accident because somebody thought he/she could multi-task while driving? Too many to count.

But what about having young kids in your car? They're pretty distracting too. Perhaps more so than talking on a cell phone, I would argue some days. If only we could make kids hands-free with a mute button or at least an option to vibrate instead. Parenthood would be so much more civilized that way!

Mind your bump: burning for baby

Cleaning out my closet for clothing to donate, I came across a maternity top I wore when I was pregnant. It didn't make it into my "donate" pile though because of an interesting burn hole in the belly of the shirt. And then it all came back to me: I didn't realize how close my pregnant belly was to the burner as I was cooking one day. Next thing I knew, I was whacking my belly with a tea towel trying to douse the flame.

Mind your bump!

For pregnant women whose feet look like loaves of bread

Seriously, no one told me about how swollen my feet would get when I was in my last trimester. My sister told me they looked like loaves of bread. Thank you very much, sister, for letting me know. I had no idea what they looked like -- I hadn't seen my feet for several weeks!

Putting shoes became a one-handed operation. I'd lean to the right to put on one shoe with just the tips of my fingers on one hand. And then I'd lean left to do the other. Eventually, I stopped wearing shoes with laces because I couldn't lean forward over my belly with both hands to do my laces!

So I came across this contraption, the Lace-A-Matic, which could have made my shoelacing a lot easier. The device simply slips over your laces (which you need to pre-tie to the right tightness), and when you need to put your shoe on, slip your foot in and flip the Lace-A-Matic over. Presto! Your loaves of bread are safely encased in your lace-up shoes with very little effort.

My child, the improvisational musician

It seems my 4-year-old daughter is following American Idol judges' oft-given advice: make the song your own. Here is her rendition of children's classic, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star:

Twinkle, twinkle little poo poo
How I wonder what you pee pee
Up above the world so poo poo
Like a diamond in the pee pee
Twinkle, twinkle little poo poo
How I wonder what you pee pee

She wasn't pitchy. She knew all her words. And she had a lot of stage presence while performing this little gem, throwing in uncontrollable, maniacal laughter after each line. Tomorrow, she said she's going to perform The Itsy Bitsy Spider for me.

Somebody. Help. Me.

Pregnant Leanne: Week 32 - Countdown begins

January 12, 2010: Week 32 of pregnancy

Eight months. Two months left, or less. Holy moly.

Back in September, I remember thinking about all the things we have to do in our January and it seemed so far away. Order this, make a list of that, contact so-and-so.

I’ve now given my notice at work for the end of January and tried to call the employment insurance help-line to make sure I had all my ducks in a row. Bless me and my EI naïveté! The EI website says, "If you are unsure about your most advantageous maternity period to receive maximum benefits, please contact us." Wow! That sounds so helpful, thought I. I will call them.

What a fool! After being on hold for 30 minutes, the EI system hung up on me, twice. How rude! I tried calling again only to be hung up on as soon as I was transferred to the queue. Not so helpful.

Thank goodness for every other woman in my life who’s applied for EI in the past and was able to answer my questions. I “can’t wait” until the online application process. I feel like I’m being set up to fail and that despite my best intentions, I’m going to get ripped off. What with sleep deprivation and baby brain, it just doesn’t seem right to make us pregnant ladies fill out our own forms. I mean, really, Government of Canada, I can’t even tie my own shoelaces anymore!

Pregnant Leanne: Week 31 - Growing pains

January 6, 2010: Week 31 of pregnancy

Drama, drama, drama (and that's without the added hormones!).

Back at our 20-week scan, we learned that the placenta was lying low, not covering the cervix, but very close. We were told that in 90 percent of this type of case, the placenta pulls itself up with the growing uterus. The other 10 percent required a c-section. While my friend referred to the news as a potential "get out of jail free card," it’s not what I wanted. For the next 10 weeks it was all I could think about.

The 30-week judgement day arrived and we had the chattiest, most inappropriate ultrasound technician I’ve ever encountered. All we wanted to do was look at the images of our baby and she was all 'blah-blah-blah'-ing about her children, grandchildren, brother, brother’s fitness level. In between stories, she told us that the placenta had moved and is now out of the way for a vaginal birth. Yay! However in the next breath she let a bomb drop: "the baby seemed a bit small for this stage of pregnancy." What? Upon finding out that I’m a personal trainer, she asked me if I am over-exercising and whether I’m eating properly. She is so completely beyond her scope of practice but I’m so stunned by the news that I don’t even know how to respond. She says she’d like to schedule us for another scan in two weeks to see if the baby grows. If the baby grows?! Oh Lord. There goes my sleep for the next two weeks.

Our midwife is great and told us that the baby is small but symmetrically small and that we likely caught it just before a growth spurt. Sometimes no information is better. How stress-free would pregnancy be if we didn’t have ultrasounds and measurements? Sure, no cute print-outs of baby profiles but there’s comfort in blissful ignorance. Between bouts of worrying and feeling like a failure and many tearful nights, I told myself that in every way, my pregnancy is normal. I’m gaining weight, I have all the symptoms listed in my book, and the baby is moving around like a maniac. I’m not freaking "over-exercising."

Today, we had our scan and the baby is growing! Right on track: 3 lbs, 11 oz and two months of fattening up to do. Head is in position (right on my bladder I think). What a relief.