Appropriate responses....

Okay, so Jamie's started to tell a few people at work that we're expecting, and most of the people he has told have been less than excited. It's like you cross a threshold once you have more than two - one guy even said, "Didn't you JUST have a baby like last year?!" Uh, no, that would be almost 3 years ago. Jamie says that he wants to say something like, "yup, just can't keep our hands off each other - you know what they say about bunnies...." but he holds back. However, I want to write up a little memo for their staff room just to let everyone know: "The proper response when someone excitedly tells you that they are expecting a baby is not an incredulous 'AGAIN????!!!!!!!' but rather a simple "congratulations"! Thank you." People just crack me up.

We are eight weeks along now, and I'm continuing to wade my way through lovely nauseousness and tiredness. Jamie has a week off next week, which I'm REALLY excited about (as then I can really nap in the afternoons, rather than closing my eyes on the couch while the girls watch a video!) We're going to Glacier, Washington with his mom and sister, and I do wish I was much more energetic for it, but I'm sure the girls will have an absolute blast!!!! Maybe if I'm lucky I'll feel much better once we arrive in the mountain air, and can do some hiking and exploring! Always one for positive thinking!!!! I'll post some photos of our adventures on our return...have a good week!

hot and tired....

I am so uninspired to do anything these days. Part of it is definitely this early stage of pregnancy (as Jamie keeps saying, I AM doing something - it just feels frustrating to not do anything externally!), but the other part is the hot hot heat wave we are having right now. You can find me flaked out on the couch, or in the kitchen making myself yet another snack to stave off the morning sickness!

Jamie and the girls have been busy in the garden, moving stuff around, weeding the garden and setting up our bean tent. They also helped install a hopscotch across the street, made with stepping stones created by all of the neighbours. Kea's and Tiegan's footprints frame the number 10, which will be neat to come see again in the years to come! Photos soon - as soon as I get up the energy to upload them all! For now, I'm off to the couch....hope you're all enjoying a fun-filled summer!!!

Eagled-eye Kea!

frog
Originally uploaded by the four mckays.

We were camping at Hicks Lake this weekend, and spent some time hiking around the lake discovering such wonders as broken robin's eggs, mice scurrying around, huge banana slugs sliming the ground, raccoons and squirrels.......and thanks to Kea's great observations, this fun frog! She's been taking a Science and Nature class with our friend Natasha, and now our hikes are full of information about poisonous and non-poisonous frogs, edible and medicinal plants (she LOVES to treat everyones cuts with chewed up plantain now!), which animals have backbones and which do not, etc. And she has this amazing ability to spot all sorts of things on the forest floor, making us stop much more often to notice and enjoy the huge variety of amazing life on the forest floor!

strawberries galore

strawberries galore
Originally uploaded by the four mckays.

Strawberries are ripe for picking, and so we gathered with a few friends to enjoy the sticky sweet mess at Emma Lea farms! For the past couple of years we have gone here to spend an hour or so picking as many berries as we can (starting with strawberries, then later this month we will tackle raspberries and finally later in the summer it will be time for blueberries!) and then I end up buying 4 20lb flats of strawberries to fill our freezer for the winter - we LOVE strawberry sauce on our pancakes, frozen strawberries in our smoothies and the occasional homemade strawberry ice-cream! Yum! Just click on the photo to access the rest of the photos, as usual!

Valentine's Day baby!

Valentine's Day baby!
Originally uploaded by the four mckays.

So, it turns out I'm pregnant! And very excited.......whenever I'm not feeling too nauseous and tired!!!!!! The girls are both really excited, especially Kea as I think she gets it much more. Though I find it really interesting going through pregnancy with a 6 year old. A couple of hours after we told her the news, Kea was in the backyard with Jamie and seemed to be mulling it all over and finally turned to Jamie and asked, "So dad, when exactly did you put your penis in mom's vagina?!!!" Just a little chance for Jamie to get used to all the awkward questions to come in the future, I'm sure!!!!

We've signed up to babycentre so that they can send us weekly updates of what our baby looks like - I've never used this service before, but we thought it would be fun for the girls to follow along! And we've learned that over the last couple of days the heart started to beat on its own! And the amniotic sac is about the size of a grape - sure needs a lot of food to fuel such a tiny thing!

View from our bedroom

View from our bedroom
Originally uploaded by the four mckays.

This is the view we woke up to this morning - and every other time the kids ran upstairs to check on their new friend! I don't know what he/she was thinking, trying to sleep in the bright daylight by the bedroom window of two young girls, but he/she definitely did not get a lot of sleep today! Kea was blowing him/her kisses, excitedly showing him/her the front cover of the book she's been reading all about a raccoon named Kit, and knocking on the glass to see him/her pop his/her head up! Tiegan started out scared of the idea of an animal out there, and then became increasingly obsessed with 'Kea's Friend'! When Jamie got home from work today, and Tiegan excitedly took him by the hand to show him Kea's friend, he asked her if she had a friend. And she said, "No, my friend gone - all gone." And when asked where her friend went, she responded with, "Mom ate it." HUH?!!!!!!

And here's a closer view of Kea's friend!

Camping on Denman Island...

As promised, I've uploaded some photos from our recent camping trip on Denman. It was a very last minute decision to camp there, and we had a wonderful time. The campground was right on a fabulous beach that we spent the evenings exploring, and nestled in an old-growth forest that was lush with green and full of towering huge trees. The highlight for us, though, was definitely hiking up to a ridge where we had a great view of a mother eagle on her nest. At one point she flew away, and we could see a couple of her baby eagrettes popping their heads up and down in the nest! Amazing - I'm so glad we brought our binoculars! Sometime this summer I want to camp on Hornby Island, which is one more ferry ride from Denman. However, it has to be on a hot and sunny weekend, as apparently there's white sand beaches and warm ocean water to swim in - sounds amazing!

Car Sick

We're back from our adventures on the island, and I'll upload some photos soon. For now I just wanted to share a little chuckle via Kea!

10 minutes into our trip to the Horshoe Ferry Terminal:
Kea: "I'm so car sick" in a big whine
Me: "Do you feel like you're going to throw up?" searching around for a container
Kea: "NOOOOOOOoooooo. I'm just so sick of being in the car"