Happily Ever After... And Then Some.

Our Storybook, one page at a time.

Thursday, August 20, 2009

Forever Young



aldo's been a secret fan of Rod Stewart's so after a year of watching his concerts on DVD, we bit the bullet and watched him live at GM Place. out of all the big-name artists that have performed in vancouver, we had to pick one that catered to people older than us! LOL i swear, we must have been the youngest people in the concert.

it was a great concert though... either that or we really do not get out much! at least we heard all his greatest hits like "Forever Young", "Some Guys Have All The Luck", "Downtown Train", and a few others. i must say though, all his back-up vocals and musicians were young and sexy!

at one point he started giving away soccer balls. apparently, it's his thing to kick around these soccer balls during concerts, due to his passion for football. too bad we were seated too far away from the stage to catch one!

the only bad part of the concert was the acoustics of GM Place - it sucks! we've watched hockey games here and it was ok since all you want to hear are the clubs hitting the puck or some players being shoved into the glass, but for a concert it was pretty bad. if you didn't know the lyrics to a song, you wouldn't really hear the words clearly.

but at least we got to see a rock n roll turned crooner icon before he gets too old to tour!

Friday, August 14, 2009

summer updates



we're all having a blast this summer - with a new baby coming in the late fall, we're making the most out of the weather and my energy level!

we've spend time in outdoor pools, parks, and have even gone fishing! we're really happy that Amori is an outdoor girl - can't wait for her to learn how to ski when she's 4 or 5. hopefully she will be a better snowboarder than her mama.



some pregnancy-related tidbits: the first trimester went by smoothly. as during my first pregnancy, i wasn't too nauseous - the occasional wave of dizziness here and there, but no toilet-hugging episodes (thank you God!). the biggest difference is that since i have to run around and tend to Amori's needs, i couldn't really sit down much and rest despite being exhausted at the end of each day. thankfully it's summer and we got a bbq so aldo took up a lot of cooking chores. i'm in my second trimester, and things are going great. i feel like whining and complaining about mundane things but since i know this is all a part of pregnancy - and more importantly, this too, shall pass - it's all good.

(but i just have this to say: at my 18 week ultrasound, the tech told us it's going to be another girl, but by the way i look and feel, i think it's a boy. i've been feeling like an ugly humpback whale with scales on its belly!)

since a week or two ago i've started the nesting phase - the omigosh-our-house-is-not-organized-enough-for-a-baby sort of urge, so i've attempted to clean in bits and pieces... i don't have a lot of energy these days so i have had to divide and conquer. i've pulled out Amori's old stuff to make an inventory of what we need for the coming baby. compared to Amori's time, i am now more obsessed with baby things - i have specific needs that i want to address, so each thing i buy is not just an effect of marketing on me. LOL

i think i've become a bit too obsessed with customer reviews combined with my own experience! that and i'm more excited about baby shopping because i now know why and when i need something! aldo has been constantly teasing me about my stroller obsession because i've been at it for 3 weeks now. hehehe.

since i gave Amori's stroller to Lucas --




-- and we have to buy a tandem one anyway - i've narrowed down my choices to 2: a Joovy Caboose,



and a Phil & Ted's.



both have good reviews and suit our lifestyle/needs so it all boiled down to what Amori would be more likely to sit in. we went to a baby store and tried both. when she sat down in the Phil & Ted's, she asked to be taken out of it after 10 seconds: "papa get me out of here, i don't know how to get out of here!". but with the Joovy Caboose, the loved it and didn't want to get out of it. (Amori takes after her papa too, she didn't want the original Joovy Caboose, she preferred the Joovy Ergo Caboose, the much more expensive version!) add to that the fact that there is a toy version of the Caboose - and she saw it right away too, and wanted to bring it home. no, we didn't buy the stroller yet. i want to order it in purple but i'd like to make sure that it's a girl first, after our 3D/4D ultrasound in september. after all, a little boy in a purple stroller would be too... Davie St. =)

meanwhile, i'm making my christmas gift list early too as i have to complete it by the last week of november. i didn't realize having a baby in december means i won't have a lot of time shopping and wrapping gifts... worst of all, i don't think we'll have a fresh tree this christmas... i don't think having stitches + painful breasts AND unwrapping a tree will be a happy event. ugh. will have to set up a plastic tree in november so Amori won't miss out on christmas.