Yesterday we had another visit to the midwife, at exactly 27 weeks. Everything is still going fine and dandy. The baby was positioned head down in a curve with his feet on my left side. He was kicking all the way through the examination. I had a different midwife then on my previous appointments, this time it was a lady. She seems a little more oldfashioned than the man I met with. She was very friendly, more informative and more specific on my diet. Personally, I prefer the man, who’s a little more distant. There are five midwives at the clinic here and the idea is to see them all at least once so that I won’t get a stranger to help me through labor. I wonder if it really matters. There will be so much going on, I doubt I’ll even notice.
My next appointment is scheduled in three weeks. I’ll have to remember to go to the hospital in about two weeks to have some bloodwork done, so they will have the results in by then. Oh, and I gained another 3,4 kg since my last visit! I think I can stop worrying about gaining enough now!

I almost forgot to mention: I gave in! The baby will have M.’s lastname. I had made my mind up a while ago, he’s so good to me and I realised it really means a lot to him, so I figured he deserved it. Last week we officially acknowledged paternity.

Craftwise I’ve been quite productive lately and this is a post dedicated to the fruits of my labors of the last month or so. The first finished object is, once again, a scarf. It’s a pattern I tried before, but I never found a yarn/needle-size combination that seemed to please me. I had some Patons SWS in Natural Plum in my stash for ages but it was bespoken to the Danica. But I only recently acquired a pair of 8mm needles. It wasn’t untill I finally gave up on ever completing a half decent Danica that I combined the SWS with these perfectly sized needles. It only took me two skeins (and two days!) to complete My So Called Scarf!

I knit the second project, Sheldon once before, but ended up giving him away. It struck me however that this green turtle would fit perfectly in our nursery which has a green theme. I still had enough anonymous green cotton left after completing the older brother, Stoffel to make a second turtle who is now called Schildje. He’s named after a real life turtle M. once owned. Schildje has a pointier head than Stoffel though, I don’t really know how that came to be. Oh and Schildje has eyes, Stoffel didn’t when I last saw him. Schildje is very lucky to have eyes actually; I almost gave up on them and the whole project after I had place them on his behind by accident and couldn’t get them off. Thankfully doctor M. was willing to lend me a hand there.

Last is this cute Cupcake I completed this morning. A sweet little time killer! I wanted to make more but sewing on the “sprinkles” (actually they’re tiny buttons) took more time than I had hoped, so there’s only one for now.

June 24
Instead of the RER train and metro, we took the car into Paris today, because we discovered it was considerably cheaper to park the car in a carpark all day than to get two round trips to the Parisian center. As it turned out, M. blends in perfectly among the average Parisian drivers; he’s just as reckless and frustrated when driving a car.
We planned to visit the Louvre this day so we parked the car near Centre Georges Pompidou and made our way through Les Halles towards the museum. Unfortunatly, when we arrived we were informed that it was closed for the day. We decided to go back the next day and instead headed towards Galeries Lafayette. On the way we had lunch at a bistro where the waiter royally messed up our order. After visiting the store we took the metro to the Eiffel Tower, where we chilled at the park for a couple of hours. I’ve visited the Eiffel Tower quite a few times now, but never actually went up. The lines are always outrageous and I just don’t really see the appeal. In the evening we had a pizza before returning to the hotel, exhausted!

June 23
We left Dieppe behind us quite early, considering that when at home on a day off we don’t get up untill 2.00PM. We did very well on this trip altogether, eventhough we were extremely tired most of the time, we never slept in.
One our way we once again avoided the main roads (thank goodness for the navigation device) and it took us about half a day to get to the Paris area. In Roissy-en-France we checked into the Ibis Hotel and we headed towards Paris by public transportation.

We had our hearts set on seeing the Sacre Coeur that day, so we got off the train at Gare du Nord and started walking. M. had assured me it wasn’t too far. Now whether it is a long walk or not, I’m still not sure, but I do know that it took us several hours to get there: we got terribly lost and walked in circles. Sometimes we saw a glimps of the white cathedral, only to lose sight of it a second later. Once we finally did reach the Sacre Coeur we were both so worn out that all we did was sit on its steps and be grumpy. Neither of us was in the mood to take pictures. After about thirty minutes of sitting and grumping, we got up and took a drink near Place du Tertre. We were fully aware how stupid this was since those touristic areas are always so expensive, so we were not surprized when the bill came and we had to pay 18 Euros for one Iced Tea and a Coke. It was money well spent because our moods really improved after that. We made our way back to Gare du Nord by Metro and travelled back to the hotel from there. In the evening we had dinner at the restaurant near the hotel: Steak Hachee and Fries. No one ever said this was going to be a healthy trip!

What’s a girl to do when her knitting project has gone wrong and instead of falling asleep peacefully, she’s just getting more and more worked up over it? That’s right, a girl spends money. I just got myself a Pro Flickr account. It’s not like I really have money to spare, but I haven’t had my priorities straight this month anyway, so a little more waste won’t do that much more harm.
Don’t look at me that way! It’s my summer break, remember? I think I’m allowed to be a little reckless.

What’s next is my report on the first day of my trip to France!

June 22
We left home earlier than expected, rushed through Belgium and crossed the border with France at around 1.00PM. We left the main road and took smaller, touristic roads in the direction of Paris. The night we spent at Dieppe, at the Hotel L’Europe. Dieppe is a lovely town with a lot of history to it and no doubt a lot of pretty sights to see. I wouldn’t mind going back there some day to explore for a day or two. We, however were tired of driving and had our hearts set to Paris, so in the evening we took a stroll along the pebbled beach and had dinner in the harbor. As a starter we both had the Salmon Salad which both blew us away, unfortunatly, the main course consisting of Steak and Fries were a lot less impressive. After dinner we went to bed almost right away. The next morning we left the town behind us, imidiatly after breakfast, heading towards Paris. More of our adventures in France coming soon! Do visit my set on Flickr dedicated to this trip for more pictures.

We came home late Wednesday evening and we’re still recovering! There’s another week of vacation left which we’ll spend working on the nursery and chilling. I’ll be filling you in about everything that happened on our trip soon. There is a lot for me to blog about and I’ve completed a handfull of items on my 101 in 1001 as well, so that needs some updating as well. For now I’ll just leave you with a picture of me at the Louvre. There’s a ton of pictures to come, so stay tuned!

This is probably my last post for a while. On sunday M. and I are off to Paris for a couple of days and after that we’ll be heading towards the south of France. The plan is to stay there for two weeks. I can hardly wait! I definatly want to visit the Louvre this time, I’ve been to Paris a handfull of times, but never visited the Louvre and I can’t see myself going there with a small child either, so this is probably the last chance I have in a long time. Wherever we’ll end up, we’ll be sure to take a lot of pictures!

I just came back from a checkup at the clinic. I was more relaxed going there then the previous times. Now that I feel the baby move almost all the time, I’m confident he is doing well. I weighed in at 65kg (143lbs) which means I’ve gained 7kg (15.4lbs) since getting pregnant. I’m 23 weeks along now and I do feel like work is getting more and more of a problem. I’m so very tired and my belly and back are starting to ache sooner every day. As of yesterday morning my legs are aching as well. I’m so glad I only have two days to go untill I have three weeks off!

During the last week of our leave, M. and I will be focusing our attention to the nursery. A couple of weeks ago we got the closet of the series we want because we’ve been showered with baby items by friends and family and needed a place to store them! On our next visit to IKEA we’ll be getting the cot and the commode. As for the theme color of the room, I want a light/mid green.

On a last note: the Netherlands will be facing Russia in the quarter finals of Euro 2008. This will be a very interesting match since Russia is coached by Dutchie Guus Hiddink!

Well ta-ta everyone, see you on the flipside!

Just completed: a Tiger Eyes Scarf (pdf). Knitted on 3.5mm with 2 balls of Lana Grossa Cool Wool/Merino 2000 in a hot pink. I’m very pleased with the result eventhough I don’t wear lace scarfs! It will be nice to look at every once in a while!

Yesterday was the first time someone who wasn’t “in” on it asked me if I was pregnant.
At least, I think he did. I can never quite understand what he’s saying exactly, but it sounded like, “Arupregnant?”
“Huh? Ehm.. Yes.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”

I think he asked me to have sex with him once too.