Standing on the bed while chatting it up with her amazingly sweet and radiantly pregnant Auntie Heather last night. One of the things that makes Heather so irresistible is simply her laughter! When we (emily and/or i ) think something is funny, Heather does too, and she'll always erupt with this genuine and compelling *happy laughter* that makes me want to cry just thinking about it.

Seems I'm not the only one who got herself in trouble around here. Due any day now, we're looking forward to a batch of "summer kitties" to help keep us preoccupied until the baby arrives.

snotty little sweetie

The sheer spazziness of this photo just makes me smile. Em's just "lost" in her cotten candy while Tom's not sure what's more important: the first 11 ft. tall dog in suspenders he's ever seen on his right, or the hotdog bun he was busy eating a moment before on his left. The bun won this round.

Me "cartooned"...yes i'm sure it's not twins.
Okay, here it is, my own little email address. Please don't rely on any of the others, this is the one...

angela.plett@gmail.com

I'm soooo touched when someone special to me has their first baby!
Congratulations to my cousin Jacqueline and her hubby Brad on the arrival of their beautiful little sweetpea:
*Elle Josephine Rae*
*Born April 18, '06 *

The game is simple really: Take out the prego while she tries to take a picture of her family on the riding mower. That's Emily's "You're dead meat, woman" grin.

It's slowly sinking
in that we're all
about to fall in-love
with someone
new.

(sheesh, it's slowly sinking
in that me and my blog
are really CHEESY!)

Dreaminess

I leave town
for a day and
this is what I
get.

THANKS SWEETIE!

i
love
this
kid

Tommy Bruce Marek
The funky white boy who loves playing with cars, flowers, and plastic guns. Love 'm.

I tried to get some more close-ups but most of them turned out blurry.
Among mentionable fridge stuff, we find here:
A little hand-drawn Mom's Day card that my littlest sis made for me-wow!
A well-deserved certificate (that not every kid got ;)
A surprise "Prego" postcard from Heather with the words "Guess who's due in November" discreetly photoshopped in tiny letters on the jar.
A few magnets that Lesa painted for us during her last visit.
A heavenly wedding invitation from the magnet painter.
A bluebird series by Emily, coming soon to Teletoon.
And finally, a special little gift for poor Lesa and her sight for sore-eyes of a cone-headed cat that you can learn about here. (That's her own money dude, I mentioned the price of his new tail and she had me search her room for her coins!)

Pregnant, Impregnito, Preggarama, Preggie-Sue, Pregmatic, Green Preggs and Ham...

Here it is, my Official Pregnancy '06 Update, complete with a picture that will further prevent this from ever happening to you if you're squeamish.

28 weeks pregnant (see diag.). 7 months. 12 weeks to go. Third Trimester. I swear this one is trying to bust out early. Imagine trapping a crazed bunny just beneath the skin on your tummy, that's this guy. Bad analogy, crazy bunnies gross me out.

Everyone, everywhere politely asks me: "How are you feeling?" and my answer is often simply: "Pregnant". For me this means:

Physically: Tired, spent, big, round, ugly, cute.

Emotionally: Angrier than hell, sweeter than honey, really happy, kinda depressed, and occasionally a relieving wave of complete normalcy.

Hmm, maybe an actual photograph of me would be more telling. I think I look psychotic in every pic I've seen of me so far this pregnancy and take great pleasure in deleting each and every one.

In a nutshell, this has been my weirdest pregnancy yet, with forgetting I was even pregnant half the time, and the other half wondering how it's going to be possible to care for a baby with a dude like Tommy cleaning the toilet with his toothbrush and licking the garbage can the moment I take my eyes off of him.

This is what I know:

A) The overwhelming, indescribable love that happens to us moms when our baby arrives makes us nearly invincible, in a fatigued sort of way...

and B) Steve is incredible. He hasn't had a single hesitation since we found out we were having another baby. It's hard not to see that as a sign of good things to come.

We spent most of Mother's Day basking in sunshine and fool'n around the yard. Steve took some gorgeous photos when he wasn't busy giving me the royal treatment.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!
Love you more than a card sent on time could ever say... (oopsy, in the mail)

Here are your vids as promised:
Daredevil Em.
Tommy blowing dandelions.
Um, okay.
Uh, yeah.
Ow
Can't... resist..

Just slapping a few pics from this morning on here for those of you who are having an uneventful minute this weekend.
THANKS SO VERY MUCH, AUNT ROSE, for sending the tiger and puppy stuffys to the kids-they looove them and take them everywhere.
Steve painted one of the kitchen walls "Lemon Zest", see it? It's exactly what i needed in life. Thanks again hunny.
Later all, enjoy your weekends!

Emmy and Steve made me this neat fish puppet decor thingy while I was at my KNITTING LESSONS. Yes, I have failed as a cool person to be associated with. But if you're sweet about it you might get a scarf for Christmas (within the next 30 years, lengths may vary).

Steve is my hero and my hero is Steve.

Steve and I were caught up in a conversation when we looked over to check how the young chap was doing with feeding himself yogurt for the first time. All was well except that he was sitting there face down in his bowl. A short vid for the strong of stomach, (target audience: Grandmas and Aunties). The vacant look during the last 2 seconds cracks me up!

Video time!
Get ready for this...the baby can dance.

After school today, Steve and Emily took off for Myrtle Rocks, this miniscule island reachable by foot during low tide. There they stumbled upon a number of sea-creatures and scenes we haven't seen in a while. The last pic is worth a closer look!

Video Technology:
Tommy hollars "Baa Baa" at these sheep through the windows, through the fence and can be heard through-out the neighbourhood everyday. It's a shame we're not actually allowed to feed them (even grass) like this, and rarely do, because both Em and Tommy really adore them.

The 24 hour Emily and Cheyenne marathon commenced after school Friday.
An evening race to the beach and back in their lion get-ups left them too exhausted to argue about who really won.

On Saturday, they turned the house upsidedown and back again with tea parties, costumes, sparkles and glue.

Tommy started saying "hi", well, mostly "i" and it just kills me! Sooooooo sooooo sweeet to hear his shy little "hi" to the cat, "i" with a wave to the grumpy old man in the coffee shop, "iiiieee" peeking around the corner at the sweet grandma's in the store.
The pic here captures the desperation he feels when the girls run outside without him. He is nearly inconsolable when they shut him out of Emily's room. Today he hollared "EMMAA" while clawing at her door. Worry not Boo, there's a little companion just for you on the way...

Last Sunday, Emily and I had the bowling alley to ourselves. In-between chucking the ball and laughing my head off at Emily's motivational chants and victory dances, I tried to take valid art shots that would convey the cool Lebowski-ness of it all. The results were less than satisfying, but I had fun trying.

I just spent the last 3 weeks slowly savoring the novel "A Complicated Kindness" by Miriam Toews. After years of friends urging me to read it, it finally occurred to me that Powell River's library could lend it to me for free. If you feel like getting in touch with the aloneness, destructiveness and grief you experienced as a teenager, and you think your small (minded) town may have had something to do with your teenage misery, i recommend. Sounds self-indulgent, but maybe it can show you how far you've come despite a shaky beginning (or how your daughter might feel someday).

I've actually finished 4 1/2 books in 2006:
Taming of the Tiger
Life of Pi
Something Blue
The Spiral Garden-1/2 finished, will continue.
A Complicated Kindness

If I was a good blogger I'd provide some links to amazon, maybe later-I hear Tommy waking up and it's time to enjoy the sunny day that's now streaming through the windows causing the contents of my screen to vanish.