Yes, I like to plan things...

My parents are taking my 10 year old brother to Disney World for the first time in September and I offered to help them because we’ve been several times and know how things work with reservations, etc. Taking into consideration my brother’s age and interests I spent 2 hours yesterday making a schedule for them. Since they’ve booked during the free dining plan promotion I also suggested restaurants…. and that is where I’m done helping… I’ve told them numerous times in the past 2 months that during the Free Dining promotion restaurants are hard to book (obviously because it’s FREE) and that reservations are taken 90 days in advance. They refuse to listen because they do not want to be tied down to a specific park or time in case my brother wants to be somewhere else. Sorry, but our kids are not going to have that much control!!!! In my opinion the best things about Disney are the dining experiences, the parades, fireworks and shows. Those are all scheduled at certain times and days and if you do not plan ahead you will not be in the right place at the right time.
Oh well, it’s their loss because they are going to have 7 table service meals where they are going to have little to no choice (time or restaurant) and may not be able to use. They’re not going to be happy when they are stuck with counter service because (sorry Disney) it sucks! What’s so hard with understanding that the food is FREE therefore people are ravenous to book the BEST timeslots at the BEST restaurants?
Sigh. I don’t need to get my blood pressure up about this so I’m not helping anymore. If anyone needs a detailed “first timers” itinerary for an adult only vacation or adult with older child/teen let me know because I have a great one!! Disney vacation planning is a passionate hobby of mine!

Halo Sale

I got this link from BBC. Great prices! I know that in Canada the Halo Sleep Sacks sell for around $37 each. I just bought 4 for that price (which is probably more than we need)!! Plus it was FREE shipping.

https://www.halosleep.com/products/results/?product_category_id=16
Here's what I bought:

Anatomy Scan on August 11th!!

In less than a week we should know the sex of our baby and I can hardly wait. It’s all I can think about!!! I can’t wait to see “her” again so that I know everything is going to be ok…. because yes, I’m still nervous! I’m also nervous about finding out that “she” is actually a “he” which at this point I bet will happen! Ironically (I love irony), I went into this wanting a boy and when people kept saying “girl” and intelligender said “girl”, I started to buy into it. Clearly I’ve ignored the warning on the Intelligender box that said not to invest “emotionally or financially” in the results. Seriously, that’s a lot harder to do than you’d think! So this is a warning to those TTC and earlier in pregnancy: I think it is a big mistake to do what we’ve done. About a month ago we started referring to the baby by name. A non-gender neutral “girl” name. Therefore I have become extremely attached to a little girl that may not be in there!! Oh crap! Our little boy is going to have a girl’s name (just kidding)!
The good news is that we haven’t bought anything pink and all of the clothing we’ve bought has been gender neutral or for a boy. Even the bedding we’ve bought (I’ll post pictures once we have the room set-up) is very neutral.
The end of this ramble is that I can’t wait. I need to know right now! I hope the baby isn’t shy on the 11th because I’ll be frantic. We’ll be booking a 3D/4D ultrasound at the earliest available appointment to find out otherwise!!

10 year anniversary!!

We officially count our anniversary from the day we moved to Toronto together (we met 2 years earlier) which was August 1st, 1999. 10 years ago!! Holy cow!!
Next up will be our 2nd wedding anniversary in about a weeks time!
Time goes by too quickly!!!

TGIF

I can’t say TGIF enough. I’m so exhausted this week. Last night we went to our LAST concert for a while. I told the baby as we were leaving that I’d give “her” some peace and quiet from now on! The show was good - Coldplay was awesome. I’m not a huge fan (not really a fan at all) but as I suspected, they put on a killer show. The whole point of this was to expose my brother to something he’s never experienced before and when he had expressed interest in Coldplay I jumped at the chance to take him. He’s still young but obviously musically gifted. I think he does have a career in music ahead of him but I’m not sure if it is what he thinks it will be. I wanted him to get excited by a sold out show at a big venue with screaming fans because that’s a far cry from what he is used to. He ended up having a good time and was really funny about it. He turned to me at the beginning of the concert and asked: “Is this how loud they’re going to be? Because I don’t think I can handle the bass.”!! Later he asked “Did you think they were going to be this good? They’re really good!” Too funny! When they played his favourite song he sang out loud along with everyone else. It was awesome to see! He may not fully appreciate it now, but I’m sure he’ll be pleased that he went to a concert of this magnitude as his first. Like D said, she wishes her first concert had been like Coldplay as a kid and not Milli Vanilli (mine was NKOTB at 11 years old). I’ve already told him that we’ll get tickets to a Musical next and hopefully one that has an orchestra pit. Like I said above, I really want to expose him to new things so he can see that there are many options for musicians.
In other happenings, my mother left yesterday. She didn’t end up staying for the long weekend. I’m a bit guilty of being happy about this because it means I will not have to entertain all weekend (all I want to do is sleep). She came to Toronto on Tuesday to go to my OB appointment. She was able to see the hospital and meet our nurse/doctor. She heard the heartbeat which was exciting for her. I’m glad she had that opportunity because I think it has made her feel more included. Overall, we only spent a few hours over a couple of visits during this trip but it was enough. She plans on returning in September but like always, I won’t hold my breath! She also confirmed that she’d like to come down and visit after the “excitement” dies down in December/January. In other words, she will NOT be here for the birth of the baby. I am OK with that decision. She doesn’t play fair so this is probably for the best.

Newest Nephew

Welcome Aidan!
9lbs 6oz, via c-section, 3 weeks early. He's going to be a big boy!
Did Mommy get her tubes tied while they were yanking you out?

Names

For fun, I’ve been reading the birth announcements in the classified ads to see trends. I find it hard to go by top 100 lists because they’re all different depending on where you are looking or between countries. One of our names flutters around the top 30 depending on various lists yet we have started to hear it everywhere we go and think it may be very popular.
So far that name hasn’t shown up but many other “popular” names have. The Aidan, Jayden, Cayden trend certainly exists in full force– specifically, Jayden. Also, Lucas is very popular (variations Luca and Luka), Ethan and Trent. For girls, there were a few names that stood out like Addison, Abigail and Ava. Clearly “A” names are hot right now but I think they have been for a while – I have both an Ava and an Abigail in the family. Overall, the girl’s names were not as prominently overused as the boy’s names were. One name I was surprised to see more than a few times was Shayla and variations like Shalyn, etc. Where the heck did that name come from? Maybe it’s a Southern Ontario trend…
Surprisingly there was only one spelling that was so awful that I feel compelled to mention it and that was “Jaxyn”. At first I thought maybe it was for a girl and they thought a “y” would feminize it like “Jordyn” but no, it was Jaxyn for a boy.
A couple of kids are also going to be mad at their parents for naming them after teen celebrities like “Jonas” and “Leighton”. I don’t even know what to say to poor little “Boston” as he grows up.
Ok, so I don’t mean to make fun of anyone’s names and there weren’t any to really question other than “Boston” and I’d say that was just baffling not laugh worthy.
I didn’t come out of the several pages of names with any new clarity. I was happy to see our girl’s name only once and as a middle name. As for our boys name, I’m not convinced by not seeing it. I’ve still heard it too many times on the street to not assume its gaining huge popularity.
Settling on a name will be much easier once we know the sex. I can’t wait! Only 2 more weeks!!