Buoyancy

I'll be 39 weeks pregnant tomorrow. Anyone who has been pregnant knows firsthand how extremely uncomfortable those last few weeks are. And anyone who knows this secondhand (i.e. hubbies), well, bless their souls. Although I gotta say my Benny Boy has it pretty good... between being half deaf and a spaced out listener, he's been pretty much spared from my unrelenting complaints. (He's welcome to refute that if he'd like ;)

I've found this time around that nothing brings more relief than being weightless in a pool. All the heaviness, pressure, and discomfort literally float away. I took the girls swimming one day and was in heaven, I didn't want to get out.

So lately we've been hitting the pool whenever possible, weather permitting or not. 

We found this great kids pool just a five minute drive from our house. We had it pretty much to ourselves since the temp was in the sixties and it was sprinkling rain. Ah well.

And just a little anecdote to illustrate the girls' different personalities:

I put them on top of this big red styrofoam mat and pushed them back and forth across the pool.

Me: Girls! We were just flying over the Pacific Ocean and our plane crashed. Now we are stranded on this board in the middle of the ocean. We have to watch out for sharks!

Em: We were not in an airplane! This isn't the Pacific Ocean! This is the swimming pool!

C: Gasp! Look! I see a tiger shark!!!

Em: That's not a tiger shark! That's the bottom of the pool!

C: Look! I see octopuses!

And so on and so forth until she had spotted jellyfish, penguins, killer whales, and seahorses.

Em finally got into it when she got to pick which ocean we swam across each time, picking the Indian and the Arctic and the Baltic Sea.

And last weekend Ben and I got a babysitter and went to a mineral spa. It was heaven. The Germans know what they're doing when it comes to their pools. This place had several pools, indoor and out, all different temperatures, but none too hot. The hottest one was like a warm bath. I even participated in the water aerobics class with a bunch of elderly German fraus. Didn't understand a word, but just went with the flow. I could have stayed there all day, and I pretty much did.

Living the dream

And there was a crazy heat wave for three days where it was above 90 degrees. The pools were PACKED so we stuck to the good ole slip'n slide in the "backyard" with the neighbor kids.  The girls loved it.

 

And no, I did not attempt it.  Although I seriously considered it being so hot.  That would have made an awesome picture.

  

Living the Dream

So now I'm seriously considering a water birth.

 I might actually enjoy labor and delivery.

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Untitled

Sorry I've been MIA the past few weeks. No, I didn't have my baby... Still large and in charge going at 38 weeks strong. My computer broke. Yep, good ole Apple. When we finally made it to one of the handful of Apple stores In Germany they told us there was nothing they could do, Apple no longer makes the part they need to repair it because my computer is "vintage." Yep, 2008 is vintage. I guess according to Apple our 5 year old Em qualifies as vintage since we acquired her the same year.

So in the meantime I'm trying out this app for the iPad, called Blogsy. We'll see how she works. I've had no luck in the past blogging from my iPad... So this is a trial run. Here goes and PUBLISH!

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Graduation

Today Emily graduated from preschool.  Yes, that's right, PRESCHOOL.  I'm not sure she met all the rigorous requirements. After all, she only attended two months out of the nine month course. And she was about 45 minutes late every day (she is the slowest breakfast eater on the planet). But she still got the same "diploma" as the rest of the kids. 

I admit I think a graduation ceremony is a little over the top. If you think about it the term "preschool graduation" is a total oxymoron.  How can you graduate when you're not even in school yet? 

 I never went to preschool as a kid. And the first "graduation" I ever remember attending was my HIGH-SCHOOL  graduation. 

But whatever. Emily didn't even know what was going on. 

We still got really cute pictures and she had a good time eating cake. 

                                     As you can see the world's future is in good hands.

With her friend and neighbor Bridger.

And here I am in all my pregnancy glory. 

The after graduation party, well chaperoned by all the parents. Nothing too crazy happened except a kid got poked in the eye with a stick by another kid.  WILD.  

                                 And the blue frosting was out of control. Scary pic.