Old Wives Tales

In 4 days (eeek!) we get to find out if little baby Llambok is a boy or a girl, but I thought it would be fun to test out some Old Wives Tales that predict whether we'll be throwing mud pies or dressing up Barbie dolls in the near future.

Old Wives Tale #1:  Ring Test
Using a string, hang your wedding ring over your pregnant belly.  You are having a girl if the ring swings back and forth  and it’s a boy if it swings in a circle.   

Couldn't find a piece of string so I used some earphones instead. The ring swung back and forth which means... GIRL

Old Wives Tale #2:  Key Test This test involves a key.  If you pick up a key at the top (the roundest part), you are going to have a boy.  If you pick up the key at the bottom (smallest part), you are going to have a girl.  If you happen to grab the key in the middle, congrats, it’s twins!

Phew! Lucky I didn't grab it from the middle. haha! I did this test without looking at what the results meant first and grabbed it from the bigger side which means... BOY

Old Wives Tale #3: Position
This one you can do just by looking south: if you're carrying high, break out the pink. If your bump is low, you're carrying a boy.

I don't actually know whether this is high or low? Anyone?

UNDECIDED

Old Wives Tale #4:  Mayan Tale The Mayan tale adds the mothers age at conception and the year of conception.  If the result is a even number then mom is having a girl.  If the result is an odd number then a boy is on the way!  

24 + 2011 = 2035
Which means... BOY

Old Wives Tale #5:  HandsWhen the pregnant woman is asked to show her hands, it’s a boy if she keeps her palms down and a girl if she shows her palms up.  

Again, I did this test without finding out what the results meant beforehand.

Palms up means it's a... GIRL

Old Wives Tale #6:  Side You Most Rest On If a pregnant woman prefers to lay on her left side, she’s having a boy.  If she prefers resting on her right side, she’s having a girl.  

I mostly sleep on my left side which means... BOY

Old Wives Tale #7:  Headaches If you are having headaches, you might be carrying a boy.  

Definitely getting A LOT of headaches which means... BOY

Old Wives Tale #8:  Chinese Gender Chart
The Chinese Gender Chart claims to have an accuracy rate of over 90%.  It is based on how old the mother is at conception and the month that she conceived. 

According to this chart its a... BOY

So it looks like The Old Wives think that little Llambok is a boy.

What do you think?

Handmade Christmas

Do you realize that Christmas is 46 days away? WHAT!?

I have always loved handmade gifts instead of some of the rubbish that retail stores try to get you to buy.

Why not buy homemade AND support the little man? Well, Sarah has some awesome Christmas-gift-worthy stuff in her etsy shop. If I was you, I'd go check it out!

Helloooo! I'm Sarah and I blog over at A Lost Feather. Kate is super awesome for having me over today.. actually she's super awesome regardless, but today she's helping me out in spreading the word about my Etsy Shop.. conveniently called A Lost Feather

Since the holidays are coming it's time to compete with those big stores that can air commercials on TV. Maybe one day I will have a commercial- but not today! I'm offering anyone who can help me spread the word about my shop, a high resolution file of one of my popular prints, "Girl and Wolves" so you can print it at home and a 10% off coupon code to use in my shop! Please visit here for more information about how to participate! (it's super easy!) I appreciate your help immensely.

Thanks for reading! Happy handmade holidays! (Once it really is the season!)

Love, Sarah

16 weeks

How far along? 16 weeks, 4 days

Maternity clothes? Rocking the maternity jeans

Stretch marks? None

Sleep: Not great this week.

Best moment this week: Buying a new pair of maternity jeans that are the most comfortable things ever.

Miss Anything? Drinking beer when playing beer pong! I was the beer pong champ this weekend, but my poor partner had to drink all the beer.

Movement: None

Food cravings: KFC and oranges

Anything making you queasy or sick: Not really

Have you started to show yet: A little

Gender: Find out next week!!!!!!!!

Labor Signs: None
Belly Button in or out? In
Wedding rings on or off? On
Happy or Moody most of the time: Happy!

Looking forward to: Next week's ultrasound :)

The ferret with 9 lives (7 left!)

A while back I posted about the time we rescued our beloved ferret fur-son, Gumby, who was hanging out of our 3rd floor window, clinging to life with one little claw. We were so lucky to have heard his little squeak and had time to save him that time. On Friday, we weren't so lucky.

I was at work when my husband, Mike, called me in a panic to tell me that he couldn't find Gumby. At first I wasn't worried because we always let him run free around the apartment during the day and he usually finds the best hiding spots to take a nap in. Like this...

But a couple of hours later when he still hadn't showed up, I began to panic. Mike was cleaning the apartment and had left the infamous "window of doom" open to let in some fresh air so we had a feeling that Gumby had decided to go exploring up there and then slipped and fell out. Mike spent hours searching outside, up and down the street, and every nook and cranny and when I got home we went out again to search the neighbourhood with our flashlights. No sign!

Although I wasn't too optimistic about his survival (it's freezing at night and he would be injured from the fall), we printed out MISSING posters and stapled them to lampposts on our street on Saturday.

I'm pretty sure this is the first time many people have seen a Missing ferret poster.

I hadn't stopped crying since the previous day and by Sunday I was a mess and my eyes were totally bloodshot.

Sunday afternoon I was in the shower (mid-shampoo) when Mike bursts into the bathroom screaming "Someone found Gumby!!" I jumped out of the shower (soap still in my hair) and flooded the apartment while jumping up and down and trying to listen to what the lady was saying on the telephone.

5mins later Mike came back with a very tired looking ferret who had apparently not eaten too much in 2 days and was limping so after giving him a big bowl of his favorite food, I went to buy the hero's a box of gourmet cupcakes as a thank you.

We are just so delighted that Gumby is now safe and sound back where he belongs and it feels like such a miracle that he survived that fall and then was found and returned to us. 

International Cravings

Some people have the weirdest pregnancy cravings. We have all heard the stories of women eating weird combinations like pickles with chocolate syrup, french fries and ice cream, and sauerkraut/banana sandwiches; but just to be boring, my body has stuck to pretty normal things like tomato soup, KFC and oranges.   

But what happens when you have a massive crave-attack for a food that is not even made in the country you are living in? Well, you complain, search online international food stores and then cry about how expensive it is to ship.

One day, all of a sudden I started getting the most incredible cravings for a bowl of my favorite South African cereal, Pronutro. I practically lived off that stuff when I was growing up and right now my mouth is watering just thinking of it! Pronutro tastes like no other cereal out there and the feeling of the closest box being a million miles away can almost brings me to tears. After a couple of weeks of complaining, I received the best surprise ever! One of my best friends (who I had met in NY) sent over a package of pronutro all the way from South Africa as a surprise birthday present. Needless to say, the WHOLE box of cereal only lasted me 2 days. Yes that's right, I ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner!

I also keep a stash of British junk food (found at Fairway market's international food isle) for all my UK cravings brought on by living in London for 3 and a half years. Some staples are: Prawn cocktail flavored crisps, peppermint Aero and Ribena (the most amazing black current fruit juice you'll ever taste).

Hopefully these will get me by until my trip to South Africa next month when I shall be bring home an ENTIRE suitcase full of Pronutro along with a bunch of other junk food!

R.I.P compact disc

Do you (kids from the 90's) remember making the transition from cassette tape to Cd's?

Do you remember the very first CD you ever owned?

I wish I could say mine was something cool, but I'm gonna be honest; it probably wasn't.

Come to think of it, my first CD was probably a K-T-V (South African children's show) CD where kids sang covers of all the top songs at that time. Lemon Tree or Who let the dogs out, anyone?

I cringe!

I remember how cool I felt when my parents bought each my sister and I a cd/tape player/radio for Christmas one year. We had hit the jackpot! I also remember the portable cd player (disc-man) I got on an overseas trip to London one year. I would carefully place it in my backpack and connect the headphones before setting off for an afternoon bicycle ride around my neighbourhood, only for it to skip and stop and start when I hit the slightest bump in the road.

It now seems that the days of compact disks, like the cassettes; 8-Tracks and vinyls that came before it, will be coming to and end. According to a new report it seems that major labels are abandoning the CD-format by the end of 2012. Streaming and downloading music content seem to be the only future for new releases in this day of the ipod, smart phone and laptop.

One day; when our kids find an old dusty box full of Cd's and calls them vintage, we can reflect and tell them about the days of shiny disks we liked to throw around like frisbees and the pull out posters you would sometimes find in the album covers. Heck, we can even go back a little further and tell them how 'back in our day' we even played music on plastic bricks filled with wheels, gears and ribbons.

R.I.P Compact Disc.
Thanks for the memories!

Post halloween depression

So, Halloween is over and after spending the day reading every one's blogs about their spooky weekends and amazing costumes I have some major Halloween jealousy and sadness that I never actually did much to celebrate this year. Besides carving this orange of course.

I love dressing up, but we made the decision a while ago that we would not go out this year (pregnant ladies don't really belong in clubs/bars even if I could stay awake that late to begin with) But when the weekend rolled around I decided I could possibly muster up some energy, but of course I had nothing to wear.

On Halloween Monday I spent the day nannying for a little 1 year old pumpkin. I made her wear that outfit ALL DAY LONG until her mom got home to take her out trick or treating. My husband then informed me that he was off that night (he had very late notice from work and usually works evening shifts) so off I rushed to the Halloween costume store, Target and even Spencers to see if I could find any last minute costumes since I was now determined to go out! Unfortunately the pickings were pretty sparse (as they would be on actual Halloween night) and I am really fussy about having a good looking costume. PLUS I wanted something prego related as it is not every year that you are pregnant on Halloween. After my last minute attempts to celebrate failed my husband promised to take me out for a nice dinner, but of course I was totally exhausted by the time I got home so we ended up just ordering Chinese Take Out and watching horror movies. Of course after this whole fiasco I have found the perfect Halloween outfit via on deliacreates Blog


found here

Wouldn't that have been the most awesome AND SIMPLE mummy costume? My hubby could have gone as a daddy-mummy, and all we would have needed was some bandages! 

So after buying a bag of 50% off fun-sized candy today, I have learnt my lesson about feeling left out of such fun American holidays and swear that I will be prepared for next year! By then we will have a little 6 month old to dress up (what a crazy thought!) and I am already thinking up some ideas for an awesome family outfit!