Kimba

When animals attack!!!...animals

Besides fluffing the mutt's bed every night and allowing him to lick the remnants of his Dr. Pepper can (and then continue drinking from it), this is just the sort of thing Caleb would do for Bear.

No hesitation.

Me on the other hand? Well, I'd hesitate. At the very least.

I don't know what I would do actually, though I can't imagine diving into the water when I know without a doubt that it contains a very hungry shark.

I can't imagine standing there idle either.

Maybe search for a very large rock? A stick? A lifeguard? Someone burly enough to battle a shark?

Am I alone? Would the majority of the population really jump in and attack a shark?

The Wicker Curse

I am currently in the market for a clothes hamper. Two actually, one for us and one for le bebe. I've been in the market for quite a while now, not because of a lack of hampers in this world, but because every single one I've seen is either completely hideous or wicker.

Side note: I don't do wicker. Never have. Can't stand the smell or the crinkly sound it makes. Gives me the chills just thinking about it.

But here, see for yourself.

I give you, The Hideous.

This one.  (No picture, because they wanted to keep their precious Lester safe.)

There's this one, a little shout out to the 80's.

I can't even handle how awful this one is.

 

Here we have the "RV Clothes Bag". Name already signifies it's winning status.

 

And I know it's a team, but I can't think of anything better than the word "Trojans" written on my laundry basket.

 

And then we have all manner of wicker. Wicked, wicked, wicker.

 

 

I thought finding ice cube trays was hard (not that we need them anymore thanks to our new fridge, but for the record, I still haven't seen any) but this is far worse. The plastic laundry basket we currently use is wearing out it's welcome, and I know we'll need one to put all  the adorable little clothes we have for this boy that will inevitably be pooped and spit up on.

It's a battle of wills between necessity and my A-Type, everything-must-be-perfect-and-beautiful-and-functional self.

Please send in reinforcements.

Say 8!

Yesterday at our childbirth class we were discussing uh, pain. The pain you'll feel in labor. Our instructor put a chart up on the board, a scale of 1 - 10 next to a bunch of coordinating smiley faces.

Caleb leaned over and whispered in my ear, "Say 8! Say 8!"

We spent the next 10 minutes trying to muffle our giggles. You know when you're at something serious, some function where laughter would be completely inappropriate, and you're hit with a fit of giggles and it makes it that much more difficult to control yourself?

That's what happened to us.

If you haven't heard of Brian Regan, I highly recommend looking him up or renting his stand up routines. They're all equally hilarious and perfect for lightening the mood while sitting in an 8 hour long child birth class.

Well, you can just trust me on that one.

Day 2: Ouray

On the second day of our trip we decided to visit Ouray, another little town near by. Well, it would be near by, all we had to do was take a little road up over the pass, Ophir pass, but apparently it had snowed already this year and our little two-wheel drive rental wouldn't have made it. So instead we got to drive around the mountain, about an hour drive.

Thinking we'd be walking around a bit I opted for tennis shoes, and Caleb took this shot of me after I finally managed to put on and tie my own shoes.

 

Please also notice the state of our two suitcases. Can you guess which one is Caleb's?

When Caleb and his family went four wheeling in the area, Ouray is where they stayed. It's motto is the Switzerland of America. I'm not sure if they gave themselves this name or what, it seems rather lofty, but I have to admit it's what I imagine the Alps would be like.

 

Much to Caleb's delight, we spent the afternoon walking around the shops. One of the first stores we walked into was a glass and pottery shop. We browsed for a little bit and then I decided to purchase this glass ornament.

 

The inside of the tag reads that it's made by Sam Rushing, and as the woman was ringing us up she mentioned that every day at 1:20 she's allowed to let people out back to watch Sam blow the glass. Lucky for us, it was just that time. (Looking back, this seems like more than a coincidence, but we didn't mind.) So out back we went and sat enthralled for a good twenty minutes while he made two glass vases. It was absolutely fascinating to watch him work and put color into the glass. While he was working he told us about the history of glass making. I don't remember any of it, I was too busy watching the glass as he worked - it looked like honey, as he spun it around the steel rod.

 

 

 

We continued our walking and Caleb found his new project. So he says.

 

In black and white, at Caleb's request. He's in love with the black & white. He'd shoot everything in black and white if I let him.

We stopped at another little deli for lunch and snapped a few shots as we were waiting for our food.

My Freak Eye.

 

Caleb's ridiculous stretchy neck skin.

Then we decided to showcase the wonder that is Caleb's forehead. Again, Caleb seems to have an abundance of extra skin on his body. That, or I have paper thin skin. Or somewhere in between.

This is what I can do.

 

And this is what Caleb can do.

 

His brain, it looks like, has morphed to the outside. Squidged right out there.

Thankfully our lunch came and saved you all from further ridiculousness.

We continued our walk and took a few shots of the cute little town.

 

 

 

 

We walked into a cute little shop called Wheels, Wings & Nautical Things. It had all sorts of fun things, my favorite though was a wooden sign Caleb pointed out that read, "We don't skinny dip - we chunky dunk".

I immediately took a picture and sent it to my dad and sister. That right there is right up our alley, the inappropriate, the dirty, the sarcastic, these are things my family (well, my dad's side) thrives on.

My next favorite store was a cute little candy shop, and Caleb snapped a few shots as we wandered. They're all off center because Caleb has decided his New Thing is to snap random shots from his hip without looking through the viewfinder. Sometimes this works out and other times we get shots of people's crotches. So. There you go.

 

And you know, I was too busy looking around to see those cute little tins you see on the upper right, which is too bad because I would have purchased one of each to turn into some cute little decorative something. After first enjoying the hard candy, of course.

 

I was possibly distracted by this:

 

After sampling a few things (and yes, I partook of the chocolate) we drove up the mountain a little way and found a gorgeous look out.

 

This is Ouray. That's it. But it's beautiful.

 

 

 

After wandering around for a while we drove back to the Telluride area to the little spot Miss Maggie told us about. This was at my request because we were trying to get a good shot of the two of us and the first time we tried I was wearing that big green shirt and it looked ridiculous and huge and stuff. I picked it up at Old Navy and went for a size larger so that I'd have room to grow (this is the hardest concept to get used to, trying on something that fits and thinking, nope, I need something bigger to get my money's worth) and hadn't washed it (read: shrunk it) yet. So. That's the story.

 

(Side note: Caleb is going to be upset that I've posted these without letting him "fix them up". But I can't wait for him. I hope to be announcing his own photography website,  just as soon as I can get him to agree on a "suitable site".)

First though, we had to fulfill our mission. Find Tom Cruise's house.

I think we did it.

 

We saw it from a distance and drove around until we found the entrance, the only house that had a gate and security pad.

Caleb was freaking out thinking that some big burly body guards were going to come get us, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to snap a few cheesy shots.

I'll have you know these are all taken from the car, because that's as close as Caleb would get.

 

This one was harder, I could only jump about a foot off the ground.

 

After the jumping though, it became apparent that I was indeed going to have to use the roll of toilet paper that I'd thrown in the car, knowing we'd probably be in areas without a bathroom, and that I need to pee every single hour, without fail.

So. I peed in Tom Cruise's side yard.

 

Hopefully he doesn't mind, there really was nothing I could do. As a pregnant woman when you have to go, you have to go. Now. Then. Right that second.

I can't tell you how flustered this made Caleb, he sat in the car as my "getaway". It was hilarious.

 

We ended the evening with homemade hamburgers and ridiculously juicy Colorado peaches, and then a long bath for myself. It couldn't have been a better day.

The Night

My plan was to post today on Day 2 of our trip, (yes, you're so excited, I have MORE PHOTOS to share...) but uh, I'm far too busy trying to beautify myself for the So You Think You Can Dance concert. Tryin' to look all hip and with it and not so much like a snake that's swallowed a basketball.

Bridgette and I scored floor seats on Craigslist just a few weeks ago, and so we're feelin' pretty lucky. And I'm thinking that I'll be too busy trying to explain every single moment of it to Caleb when I get home (he is so excited for this...), how wonderful, how magical, how fabulous it was, leaving me no patience to sit and write a coherent post.

Not that I claim to ever write anything coherent, but whatever.

Caleb is equally excited for me to go, because tonight is The Night. The Office and My Name is Earl are on tonight (and I just discovered that Kath & Kim doesn't start for a few weeks, which sort of sucks, but whatever. It was a hilarious show in Australia, and I'm hoping they don't kill it here...) and Caleb requires a very specific ambiance on Thursday evenings in the fall. The lights must be on, but dim. The dog must be no further than two feet away. Caleb must be positioned in the perfect location on the couch, with an unobstructed view of the television. There must be silence, and possibly some sort of treat. With me safely at the concert, there will be no one to bug him. Wo be unto the soul who disturbs him.

So tonight? Everyone wins.

Baby Bump Wednesday: Week 33

We've got 7 weeks left and I still don't really believe this is all happening. Despite all the preparations and talking and imagining and such, I still don't feel like this is going to happen to us. I hope this is a common occurrence, because it makes me feel a little disconnected, even while picking and planning and buying. I keep thinking that we still need to purchase this, and do that, and get this ready, but the fact that this will all result in a baby is still a little out of my grasp. I try to imagine what it will be like, staying home, not working, feeding, changing, the sleep deprivation, the worrying, but it still doesn't feel real. Like when you used to dream about your wedding day while still in elementary school. You could picture it all day long, but in the end? You had no idea what to expect.

This week the baby is over 4 lbs, and somewhere around 18 inches. Again, he's got a lot of weight to gain still, but is pretty much there in terms of length, which I can totally attest to. I swear sometimes it feels like he's trying to get out of there, if he could just push a little harder, a little more, he might make it out. That seems to be his goal. He's fond of pushing from both ends, so that I feel it up close to my rib cage on the right side, and down lower on my left, so that my stomach resembles an egg rather than a big ball. At least it feels that way. We're constantly playing the Name That Body Part game, trying to determine if that's a foot, an elbow, his bum or his head. I still think his feet are on my right, and his head is somewhere on my left side, but who knows now. He might have switched positions entirely, that's how much he's wiggling around in there. Most sites reported that this week marks the point where the amniotic fluid is at it's peak, and from here on out it will start to reduce itself, reabsorb into my body. Maybe this is why my ankles are beginning to resemble that of an elephant, thick and fat. The weekly food comparison is a pineapple, and I wonder if that includes the pointy sharp leaves. It should.

As I mentioned, we made our first baby purchase, or I guess, our first clothing purchase. These adorable little wool booties, which will be perfect for this winter in our chilly single-paned window, non-insulated, gaping holes around the doorway, house. We have what Caleb fondly refers to as "central heating", meaning we have one large grate in the floor in the hallway that eeks out a little bit of heat, and that's it. Our hallway is toasty warm, and you can almost see your breath in the rest of the house. He'll be needing something to keep his little toes warm, and I think these will do.

 

I feel like I've grown a lot in the past week or so, I don't know if it's just my imagination, or if it's just because he likes to sit out there as far as he can, but little things are getting more difficult. Like putting on shoes that require tying or buckling. I just bought a new pair at Target, some cute yellow ones, and getting them on in the morning requires quite the coordination. If I'm really feeling lazy I'll beg Caleb, but most mornings I'm stuck figuring it out myself, contorting in several different ways until they're on. I remember thinking when I was first pregnant that I'd never get to the point that I would actually make grunting noises when bending over or rolling out of bed. Surely I had the restraint to not sound like such an animal.

I was wrong, it's almost involuntary.

Bending over to pick up the mail off the floor, or a stray dryer sheet (honestly, I swear those things reproduce in the dryer...I put one in and out come nine million and they scatter around as I walk into the bedroom to hang and fold), or feeding the mutt, or rolling over in bed (or out for that matter), or even just bending to put on pants all illicit some sort of pathetic grunt. I was talking with Bridgette tonight and she said it perfectly, you almost feel like you could throw up. Like the bending is going to force things in either direction, and you'd better be prepared. It's going to be so strange to not have this bowling ball in my way anymore.

And for the record, this underwire bra is driving me insane. My stomach keeps getting bigger and bigger and shoving that wire deeper and deeper. I might have to switch to...(hushed whisper)...a bra without one. I never thought I'd see the day when I'd willingly give up the wire. What would stop them from hanging to my knees?!?

This Saturday we have our birthing class. We opted for the one day course as opposed to the month long once a week deal, and I hope we don't regret it. It's from 9 am until 6 pm, and I'm praying they're merciful and let us out early. I'm really not into the practice sessions, the sitting on the ground pretending to breathe stuff, I get all sorts of uncomfortable. I'd rather it be formal, like a college course, where they hand out materials and go over terms and what to expect and where to go on The Day, and what to bring etc. I'd even take a pop quiz, just please don't make me sit there legs splayed along with dozens of other women, pretending to be in labor.

Speaking of what to bring, I'm anxious to pack the bag. I know it's early, but I can't help it, I've got to get it done. It's just a little of my A Type coming through, I can't sleep if I don't feel prepared. I've gone over a few lists I've found on websites and such and come up with a rough idea of items, but I'd love to hear of anything that you brought or didn't bring or wish you'd had.

A shot taken in Ouray, next to this gorgeous guardrail. So beautiful.

 

I'm giving my belly button another week or so until it pops out. Caleb has been awaiting the day since the very beginning. It's hanging on for dear life.

Day 1: Telluride

Our first day of the trip, because we're not even going to acknowledge that first travel day, we spent in Telluride. First though, we rolled out of bed around 10 and Caleb made me a lovely breakfast while I sat watching The View. When did Barbara Walters leave, bytheway? Not that I ever watch it, but uh, I guess I missed that. Anyway. After getting ready, we left our little cabin,

nestled in the valley of these gorgeous mountains

and headed to Telluride. To get there, we parked our car in a nearby town, Mountain Village, to ride the gondola in. On the way we saw some people setting up for some event at a hotel, and thought it looked pretty awesome.

We never did find out what it was for, but they were certainly going all out.

So we hit the gondola to ride into town.

 

See how happy and rested (well...sort of...) we are?

 

It's because we were riding through this gorgeous place.

 

Here's downtown Telluride, apparently in the throes of Bear Awareness Week. Don't let your dogs off leash, and don't feed them and stuff. That didn't seem to faze the locals, everyone had dogs and more than half of them wandered along with their humans, totally off leash and perfectly content. It is certainly a dog friendly area.

 

We wandered the little shops, which I completely loved. Western wear (saw the cutest little cowboy boots for a little boy, if we lived anywhere near a farm I would have purchased them. Insanely adorable.), handmade jewelry and all sorts of little tchotchke's, candy stores, deli's, T-Shirt souvenir shops, practically everything you could think of.

 

My favorite store was a little kids clothing store, we bought our firstbaby item, some insanely cute wool sock / bootie things. I'll post a pic of them tomorrow.

After wandering down one side of the street we decided to grab some lunch, and found Maggie's Deli, where Miss Maggie herself stood behind the counter. I ended up getting the chicken salad sandwich, because when I asked her what was in it she went off about the rosemary roasted chicken, celery, onions, with just enough mayo, on freshly baked bread, and I just couldn't resist. She was so charming. While we waited for our lunch Caleb started my photography lesson. It took me several tries to get it down.

 

While he was eating, of course.

 

This was the nine millionth attempt. He was such a good sport, I think I interrupted his lunch at least 10 times to tell him to sit back and smile.

We wandered down the other side of the street and found this little area, tucked in between the stores, and I rested my swollen feet while Caleb went about his photography business.

 

I wasn't sure that rickety bench could hold me, but it did.

 

 

After a good 10 minutes I'd had enough though, see, Caleb has this tendency to take hundreds of photos of me wherever we go, and I always hate every one of them. I am not photogenic. He always insists, "Just one more..." and 30 snaps later I've had it. So this time I told Caleb he had to pose and do whatever I wanted. So I got this fabulous shot.

 

I took extra long to fiddle with the settings, and forced him to hold this pose whilst several passersby looked on. Payback is so sweet. I think we'll call this one his glamour shot.

After his photo shoot we took pictures of the town and gorgeous valley we were in.

 

And then decided to head back to the car, taking pictures along the way, of course.

This is the view of Telluride as you ride the gondola back up to Mountain Village. I would like one of these homes, please.

 

I snapped this one on the ride up in the gondola. I just love when Aspens change colors.

 

 

On the way back we found this fun telephone booth and had to get a few shots in.

 

 

We decided to go check out a spot that Miss Maggie had recommended (after of course, giving Caleb the low down on her preferred birthing method, The Bradley Method, while I was in the bathroom...), up past the airport. Gorgeous at sunset, she said.

First though, I'd just like you to see what happens when you take food up to this kind of altitude. Also, my feet looked like sausages. Behold.

 

If you look closely, you can see the indentations of my sandals. Really hot.

Anyway, Miss Maggie did not disappoint.

 

 

 

On the way home we ran into some horses,

 

some sheep,

 

and even some elk.

 

After getting our fill of animals, we went home to make some dinner and curl up on the couch with some popcorn and....tv. Satellite doesn't work so well up in the middle of nowhere, we had about 5 channels to choose from. I think we ended up watching reruns of The Office, but we were perfectly content. We were finally, finally on vacation. And we wanted to soak it all up.

Keeping our seatbelts safely fastened

Hey, we're  back! Hi! And boy, do I have nine million pictures to share with ya'll. Seriously, I think we might have hit some sort of record, some picture-taking-while-on-vacation record. Caleb is fiddling with a few of them right now, but honestly, we're not going to have to do much. See, we spent the trip determined to figure out the manual mode on the camera. And when I say we, I mean I. I mean Caleb spent the entire trip forcing me to learn how to set the f-stop and aperture settings and hey! It makes a difference! Go figure!

But first things first. I need to tell the story of the first day of our vacation, our travel day, or really, The Day From Hell.

First though, I'd like to just say that none of this comes as a shock to anyone that knows Caleb. He is infamous for having these sorts of things happen, this terrible bad luck. He's had his car stolen and / or broken into 9 times all before we got married, and that's just the beginning. His business partner said he had to seriously weigh the pros and cons of going into business with Caleb, based on his history of ridiculously bad luck. I know the feeling, as I had to think about this too when I decided to marry him.

It started out just fine, the getting up at 4 am, the last minute packing, the crazed cab driver (not quite as bad as the last one, though), the long line at the airport (who knew 5:30 am was a popular flight time?), the two and a half hour flight to Denver, which, I'll have you know, Caleb spent at least two of those hours asleep while I stared bug-eyed at the tv on the seat in front of me.

So we're in Denver and we head to the gate to catch our connecting flight to Grand Junction. I'm immediately on edge, because these planes are considerably smaller, and I've been a little leery of small planes these days. I swear I read about one crashing every week, and it's getting a little frightening, don't you think? Anyway, we board the plane, climbing up the stairs like a bunch of celebrities, and start to head to the runway. We're waiting for our turn to take off, and the pilot announces they're going to run some "routine tests" on one of the engines (these planes had propellers on each side), no big deal, they were going to do it right there on the runway as we waited. One propeller slowed and stopped, and we waited. Fifteen minutes later they started up the engine and off we went down the runway. Just as we hit the speed we needed to lift off we heard a funky noise and the pilot slammed on the brakes. We came to a screeching halt and the pilot got on the intercom system and told everyone very sternly to remain in their seats.

At this point, I'm freaking out in my own way. I don't get all weepy or hysterical, I go silent. I stare ahead, I don't talk, I don't make eye contact, I don't respond as Caleb tries to make jokes and fool me into thinking he's totally cool with this, that he didn't just almost pee his pants as well. I wasn't having any of it.

At first they said no worries, we just didn't get a signal from the tower. I wasn't buying this lie though, there's no way they'd go barreling down the runway without getting a signal that it was okay, first. After a few minutes they informed us that a maintenance crew was coming out to take a look at things, no worries, hold tight.

A half hour later they said wait, no, sorry, we're going to taxi back to the gate and maintenance would fix things there. By this time we're all hot and cranky and more than a little nervous, and the promise of opening the doors was enough to calm people down. We arrived at the gate and sat there for another half hour or so, until they decided to de-plane us. We were to wait in the terminal, they'd fix it in 15 minutes and we'd be on our way.

An hour later they announced that maintenance had taken a look, fixed a few things, and then taken a test run and they "hadn't liked the outcome." The flight was then officially canceled and we were all bumped to the next flight out to Grand Junction, which conveniently wasn't going to leave until 5:45 pm. It was 12:30 then, already 45 minutes past the time we were supposed to be in Grand Junction, and on our way to Telluride.

We were given $200 for another flight and some money for lunch. Seeing as how we also had to drive an additional 2 and a half hours once we landed, Caleb and I spent the next hour trying to figure out if it would be worth it to drive from Denver to Telluride, if we could get a rental car, and how long it would take. Sadly, it would have put us into Telluride much sooner than if we were to wait for the flight, but there were no rental cars available. The 5:45 flight it was, then.

We spent those four hours eating lunch, very slowly, lounging in the terminal, me with my legs up to combat the crazy travel swelling, sleeping in an empty gate, and making a million trips to the bathroom.

We did eventually get to Grand Junction, but I think all of us were a little on edge the entire flight. There was to be a lot of turbulence, so the beverage services were canceled. We made it though, and so did our luggage, so we couldn't complain. We picked up the car (the guy gave us a free upgrade once he found out I was having a boy, three cheers for the bump!) and off we went.

We were staying in a tiny town near Telluride called Ophir, but first we had to stop at a larger town about an hour before, to pick up groceries for the trip. Ophir doesn't have a grocery store. They also don't have street lights of any kind, so finding the cabin was a little tricky, especially so because they also don't have street signs. We did find it though, around 11:30 pm. We let ourselves in (no one locks their doors in Ophir) threw our stuff down, and hit the hay, mentally and physically exhausted. I wish I could say I slept like a log, but the Diet Coke I'd had to keep me awake during the drive was still coursing through my veins. I lay awake for hours, wishing for nothing but sleep, while Caleb slept soundly next to me.

Thankfully this was only day one. The rest of the trip was fabulous, maybe more so after having such a terrible start. We were so grateful to be there, in one piece.

Pictures and lovely stories to follow tomorrow. You'll want to check it out, it really was an absolutely gorgeous place to vacation. I highly reccomend it.

Baby Bump Wednesday: Week 32

8 weeks left! Or less! We're slowly making progress on our huge To-Do list, Caleb lugged the desk and chair we were trying to sell up to his office and we're working on moving all the files on the EMac so we can get rid of the thing, and uh...that's about it. I've bought more storage bins in the last month or so than I ever have, and it feels good to make more room in my linen cabinet (read: two drawers in the hallway). I also finally finally went through my closet and got rid of the clothes that don't fit anymore, folded them up nicely, hopefully to be used again in the near future. Instead of like, ya know, two years from now. When we get back from our last hurrah trip I'm going to set up the armoire. That's right, me. Caleb and I have a little bet going on, see, when we first moved in I purchased a small cabinet for our bathroom from Ikea to hold our toiletries and set it up all by myself. It's perfect, the drawers slide in and out nice and smoothly and line up with perfect A Type Personality precision. Caleb put together both the dresser in our room and the one we just purchased for the baby's room, and um...well. The drawers don't quite line up perfectly, and a few of them have some issues sliding in and out. I've teased him about it, and so we decided I'd put the armoire together to see if it was just Ikea furniture being cheap and not perfectly made, as Caleb argues, or if it might possibly be the one wielding the tools.

This is the kind of thing we do, if nothing but to be able to gloat for months after.

The baby this week is yet again around the same weight and height. Nearly 4 lbs. and 17-ish inches. He's like the tortoise you know, slow and steady wins the race. The food comparison for the week is a large jicama. Those odd looking...vegetables(?) you see in the funky section of your produce isle. Next to the bok choy and broccolini. I don't have a clue what they are really, or what you use them for, but there you go. He has his beautiful blue eyes now (am curious to see if they stay that way like Caleb or if he'll be green-eyed like myself) and has hair. Or peach fuzz. His skin is smoothing out as he develops more fat and becoming much less red than before. All the better to munch on, if you ask me.

I had my 32 week visit on Tuesday, met my new doctor since my old one moved, and everything seems to be going along nicely. My belly is growing as it should (obviously...) and my weight well..it seems to be the same as last time. Not quite sure how that's possible as that was an entire month ago (I don't own a scale...I refuse to get one, scales and I go way waaay back and it wasn't a pretty relationship we had. So I've cut ties.) but whatever. I've been surprised that my appetite hasn't grown to enormous proportions like I expected it to. I'm most hungry in the morning hours for some reason, require some sort of snack every couple hours or so, but then after lunch I feel like I'm back to my old pre-pregnancy self, able to wait for dinner without gnawing my arm off. We'll see if that stays the same, from now on I'm supposed to gain an entire pound a week, half of that going to the baby, until I deliver. Thank heavens for the Palmer's Cocoa Butter, all this growing makes my belly itch like crazy.

I was looking up this whole backache phenomenon that plagues pregnant women and found that the reason for all these aching joints is because of two things, one, your growing belly pulls and stretches the ligaments making them prone to pulls and strains (don't I know that...) and two, one of the hormones produced actually loosens the joints and ligaments that attach to your pelvic bone. This "can make you feel less stable and cause pain when you walk, stand, sit for long periods, roll over in bed, get out of a low chair or the tub, bend, or lift things." Basically, when you do just about anything. This'll be great for labor, you certainly don't want anything tight when you're trying to deliver a little watermelon sized baby, but makes for some fun times until then. This is also why pregnant women waddle, though who wouldn't with loose joints? I'm just grateful I have a wonderful husband to rub my back at night. Right Cabe? My nightly massage? He loves it, especially with all these late nights we've had...

I've also had several of the dreaded leg cramps lately, always in my calves. I must have had a few in my sleep, because for the last day or so my right calf is so sore I can barely walk straight. I can feel them coming now, always right before bed and the first thing after waking up, and I immediately start flexing my foot to try and ward them off. It seems to help, none of them have progressed to the full on roll-out-of-bed pain I've experienced a few times so far (it doesn't even faze Caleb anymore, I can actually hear him trying not to laugh while I moan in pain, which always results in a swift punch to his arm) and I consider that a success.

All in all, we're just getting excited to actually meet this little guy. This last weekend we watched a few of our friend's kids, 4 total, Owen, an almost three year old, and twin girls (around 8 months? 9? I forget...) while they all went to a party. It wasn't as bad as it sounds,  the boys had fun playing with Play Dough (and by "boys" I mean Caleb included) and I couldn't get enough of the little girls. I think the only time it became apparent how much work it must be for their mom was when Caleb was busy setting up the pack-n-plays while I made bottles and watched all four of them. The boys were having a snack and they discovered how much fun spilled milk can be, and the girls were busy crawling around in the living room, and it was impossible to watch all of them at once. It was only for a few minutes, but I was able to get a small glimpse of what her every day life must be like, and I'm just amazed. She deserves some kind of award. It's great to have such wonderful examples around me of the kind of mother I'd like to be. Both of these moms are fabulous, and I can't wait to "join the ranks". As they say. (Someone says that, right? Right?)

 

I've been told by multiple people (one being my waxer today...) that I must be having a girl since I haven't broken out on my face. I have no real reply for this, except that no, actually, I'm having a boy. One lady even asked if I was sure, like I don't know, maybe I had forgotten that tiny detail? What did they say I was having again...I need to write it down next time... I've never heard that before, but maybe it's a common wives tale? Has anyone heard this? Or have firsthand experience?

Twas the night before

It's nearly 10 pm and I'm supposed to be packing for our last hurrah trip. We leave tomorrow morning and the only thing we've done to get ready so far is drop off the mutt (thank heavens...it drives me crazy when he's home and the suitcases are out, he follows us closely enough that you can feel his breath on the back of your knees and if you stop the consequence is wet nose) and haul the suitcases up from underneath the house (and as always, I mean Caleb hauled them up). We did make a Costco run for such necessities as toilet paper (pregnancy has severely increased my toilet paper consumption), paper towels, and Swiffer supplies. I also took a nice hot bath.  We're both currently sitting on the couch, me drying my toenails (that may be the last time I'm able to do it on my own) and Caleb fiddling with his new laptop, avoiding the packing. Not that we aren't excited, we are, trust me, we're just exhausted.

When I say we leave in the morning, I mean we leave in the morning. We've scheduled the cab to come pick us up at 5:15 am. I woke up today at that time to go to the bathroom, and I remember thinking as I stumbled stiffly back to bed that by tomorrow morning I'd be up, dressed, packed, and at the airport. I couldn't fathom having the energy to do that.

I love to travel. I get ridiculously excited and despite the books, magazines, or former Ipod, I spend the entire flight driving Caleb absolutely insane with nonsensical chatter. I like to look through the Skymall magazine and point out every silly invention, or read the other inflight magazine (we usually fly Southwest) and tell him every single detail. I look at it as a time to enjoy each others company, much like you would on a road trip.

Caleb brings his Ipod, a book, a magazine, and has every intention to read and listen to them. He would like nothing more than to sit quietly and sleep, to relax. Taking off seems to have a drug-like effect on him and if I left him alone he'd sleep through the entire flight.

I usually win the battle. I'm nothing if not persistent.

We're going to a little place outside of Telluride, we've rented a cabin and have absolutely no plans. We'll relax, we'll drive around and enjoy the changing leaves, we'll walk around downtown and maybe, if we're lucky, we'll find Oprah and Tom Cruise's house. (Caleb doesn't know this part yet...I figure we've got to at least try, right?) We'll sleep in and take naps and revel in doing absolutely nothing if that's what we feel like.

We won't have much internet access, if at all, or cell phone reception, so posting will either be very light or nonexistent. I promise lots of pictures and hopefully all sorts of lovely stories upon my return. Au revoir!

(Baby Bump will still be posted Wednesday afternoon, as always.)

Open letter

An open letter to the crazy punk kid I almost hit today:

Hi.

Forgive me, we didn't really get a chance to, ya know, meet, but given the circumstances, I'm quite thrilled about that. I don't know who you are, or what brand of crazy you happen to have contracted, but I hope it isn't contagious because if it is, I think I'm going to pack my bags and move my family to the hills.

Maybe you had some sort of death wish, or maybe you really are just a punk kid that likes to mess with nice pregnant women as they drive their cars on their way home for lunch. Either way, seriously dude, pick another method. Preferably one that doesn't involve me.

I saw you, you know, right before you went bat crazy on me. You seemed to be fairly normal, waltzing toward the street corner like any other low-slung jeans and black shirt wearing kid. But then something happened, you suddenly got one of your bright ideas, or the metal plate in your head had some sort of chemical reaction with The Crazy flowing through your veins, but you actually started running, full on running at me, your hands waving back and forth in the air and this African guttural scream coming from your open mouth. Dude, you came within mere inches of my car before you stopped, which does lead me to believe that even if you ARE certifiably insane, you had the wherewithal to stop before killing yourself. WITH MY CAR.

Bytheway, I almost had my baby right there, and you best believe I would have sent you a bill for the hospital charges. And the car detailing bill.

Sincerely,

The chick you picked

P.S. Get help. Don't make me come over there with my car.

Running out of these

Today we had Stake Conference, meaning we were done with church by noon, rather than 4. This is my favorite thing in the world, to have an entire Sunday afternoon to relax, and that's exactly what we did, knowing these kinds of afternoons are running out for us.

We ate lunch, Caleb made hot panini sandwiches with parmesan crusted bread from scratch, because he is that fabulous.

We talked baby names, and then took a long afternoon nap, the late sun peeking through the shutters. (This sounds more idyllic than it was, we also had the fan blowing because it was quite toasty...)

I made dinner, some wonderful comfort food, and set it in the oven to bake.

Then we took the mutt on a walk to the lawn of the local high school and threw the ball until he wouldn't bring it back to us. I just love an exhausted mutt.

After dinner (and a nice glass of grape juice...I'm lovin' the grape juice these days...) we settled in to catch up on a few of the shows we'd recorded during the week, The Soup, Mad Men, and Caleb's weekly favorite, his movie review show.

We rounded the evening off with Trader Joe's Super Premium French Vanilla ice cream (a mouthful, but totally amazing), topped with pecans and butterscotch chips.

It was a perfect way to end the weekend, one to remember when we're calming a crying baby or chasing an energy-laced toddler. For now, I'm going to crawl into freshly washed sheets and try to sleep while my baby imitates the cat Aunt Bethany wrapped up as a gift in Christmas Vacation.

7 years

So, where was I on the morning of 9/11? I was groggily sitting on the couch in our houseboat, trying to decide if I was going to have a toasted bagel or cereal for breakfast. We were planning our last tube war opponents, as we would be heading home the next day. We were soaking up the last bits of summer sun, hoping to go back to school (my senior year) with killer tans. We were swimming, relaxing, eating, and making fun of each other. We had no idea what was happening, we had no cell phone access, no internet access, no radio. As I've mentioned a million times, this is our favorite part of Lake Powell, being completely cut off from The World, enjoying each other in such a beautiful place.

The next morning we packed up and left our perfect little cove and headed back to the slips to fill up on gas, empty the waste tanks (our favorite part!) and clean the boat before heading home. When we arrived at one of the stations we were immediately told that they were all out of newspapers. That's....fine.....we told them, not sure why that would be their first greeting to us. We'd lived without access to anything for 5 days, we could certainly wait to read up on the current affairs when we got home that night. No one said a thing to us about anything that day, we went about our business and loaded up the cars and drove home.

When we were about 20 minutes away from our first stop in Hanksville my aunt called us saying something about a plane crash, she wasn't sure on the details. We didn't think much of it. We arrived at the stop to grab lunch and someone caught some of the footage they were showing on the TV in the corner. We were riveted. We sat there in the gas station / burger shack for over an hour trying to process what we were seeing. There wasn't much of an explanation, as I'm sure the news station figured everyone in the entire world had heard of it by then, so we watched the two planes hit the World Trade Center over and over and over, not saying anything. We finally managed to pull ourselves away, knowing if we didn't get on the road we'd be stuck putting everything away and cleaning the boat in the dark. We spent the entire ride home waiting to get reception to call home and try and get more details.

I don't remember much of what we found out,and how long it took until we realized the magnitude of what had happened, but I do remember feeling amazed that something like this could happen, something that would change our country forever, and we'd had no idea. Had we gone down any later we would have spent the entire week blissfully unaware. It scared and thrilled me all at once, how isolated we really were, but how safe we'd been also. Safe, while others had fought for and lost their lives.

Where were you?

Baby Bump Wednesday: Week 31

I have nine weeks left, supposedly, am officially into the single digits here, people. You best believe it's hit us, and we're constantly working on all the preparations. Right now on our docket is to sell various furniture to make room for the baby's crib and armoire. Things like, oh, a desk and computer (anyone want a 5 year old EMac?), a TV, a TV stand, and filing cabinet. Though we need to get a NEW filing cabinet, one that isn't such an eyesore, and find somewhere to put it. I'm thinking of putting it in the front room and having it double as a side table to the couch. We're getting creative here, people. Small spaces will do that to you.

This week I started looking through the various websites I check to see what's goin' on with mah baby, and uh...it seems not much has changed by way of size. Somewhere between 3 and 4 lbs and around 17 inches, which is what I found last week. Of course, the food comparison has changed, my baby is now the size of a bag of Navel oranges. I think it's a fairly accurate description though, because the way he's moving closely resembles that, a big bag of oranges moving independently of each other, in all sorts of directions. It used to be that when I could feel him kick I'd have to move Caleb's hand to the spot so he could feel it, but now when he moves on one side of my belly you can also feel it on the other side. And see it. Most of the time they don't coordinate, so my stomach ends up looking like, well, a bag of oranges. He seems to favor my right side, because it seems to always be lopsided, poking out all funny-like. I also felt a hand or foot this week, from the outside, and it was crazy to  push on it, this tiny little spot, and feel him squirm away. He's continuing to fatten up, and will do so until he's born. 1/2 pound a week actually, which is crazy. I'm going to get bigger than I am now, and it seems impossible. It's crazy to think that your skin can stretch this much, and that it will stretch more. And it doesn't pop. The human body, c'est magnifique!

Another fun little symptom they mentioned was leakage. Of colostrum. Like, NOW. Until I became pregnant I had no idea that they could leak BEFORE the baby came, I definitely knew they did after. I guess it's slightly comforting to know that The Girls are working, I just hope they don't work too well before he gets here, there's a reason we invented tampons. Pads are uncomfortable, no matter where they're placed.

I've started noticing more Braxton Hicks, though thankfully they aren't as painful as they were so early in my pregnancy, just a good reminder that it's coming. As I mentioned a few days ago, my back is starting to feel the strain, I notice it a lot more after sitting or laying down for a long time. Like during one of the three trips I take to the bathroom each night, I end up walking very slow and stiff like, like some sort of night zombie. I'm still amazed that Caleb doesn't wake up each time I get up, what with our insanely creaky bed frame (another item on our fix-it list) and my 20 point turns. I'm starting to think he really might be able to sleep through the baby's cries, which I've been worried about since we plan to keep him in the bassinet in our room for a month or so, or at least until my crib arrives.

What? My crib? Oh yeah. That. I ordered it on Amazon like I said, but was contacted the next day and told that it was on backorder until late October. Like, October 30th. I was afraid of that, it's on backorder everywhere else, and when I found it on Amazon I had hoped it just happened to be a straggler. No such luck, and ya know, I'm not going to stress. We've got the bassinet, so he won't be sleeping in our bed or in a drawer or something, like a cat. You see? I'm not freaking out! In fact, I had to talk Caleb into not looking for another crib just so we'd have one when he's born. There is no way I'd want to start from scratch on THAT project again!

I've been...more emotional lately. Crying over things like this, (though, who wouldn't?) or missing my sister, serving her mission for my church, or, ya know, baby wipe commercials. I thought that was sort of an early pregnancy thing, the emotionalness, but apparently not. It's still here! Hi tears! I started crying AT WORK today, enough that I had to run to the bathroom to compose myself. That hasn't happened before. I stood there laughing at myself, like, dude, you know your sister isn't here, she won't be here for the baby, and it's okay! You knew this going in! She's where she needs to be! CHILL OUT, GIRL! I think it was the first time I've cried about it since we dropped her off in February. Dang pregnancy hormones.

This weekend I walked to our library and picked up two different baby name books, just to get a few ideas to add to our list (cough! one name!). I got nothing. I read through both of them, and came up with one that Caleb turned down immediately. Boy names are SO difficult for me, coming up with a name that isn't too common but isn't freaky, is masculine but not too butch, one that doesn't remind us of this person we didn't like, or that person that bugged us. Bridgette suggested another book she liked, so I think I'll pick it up and hope for some more inspiration. We'd like to have a list of a few names (but not too many...you know how I am with too many options...) to mull around and decide on once we see him. That's the plan. 

  

Labor Day Weekend Day 2: Or, our day in the car

Day 2 of our Labor Day weekend took us to the Monterey / Carmel area. Mostly Carmel, I think the only thing we did in Monterey was stop at Subway to eat lunch at Emily's request (read: demand). We ate, got a little lost, and then found our way to 17 mile drive, a stretch of road winding through the famous golf courses like Spyglass and Pebble Beach. In other words, this day was for my Dad (he was in heaven) but we all ended up enjoying it. It was absolutely gorgeous.

 

The red plants in these photos are called Ice plant. Don't ask me why, I haven't a clue, but they were a gorgeous red.

Along with this fancy car. And I'm going to pull a total girl move and say I really don't know what it is, a Ferrari maybe?

 

We got out here and climbed down to the ocean and found these little crabs. I loved their blue little toes. Pinchers. Whatever.

 

We wanted to get a shot of the three of us, but then a fly landed ON MY LIP. I flipped.

 

Much better. Except for that tent I'm wearing.

 

 

Then Caleb decided to take nine million shots of me trying to get up the hill in my stupid not-right-for-the-occasion shoes.

 

Isn't this place gorgeous though?

 

This is the point of the day where Caleb suddenly figured out some amazing setting on the camera that allowed it to capture the real live COLORS we were seeing. Not washed out, half-representations of the colors. Don't ask me how or what or why. I just know he was excited.

 

These Cypress trees were absolutely gorgeous. And completely fake looking, but I swear they're real.

 

This little "Point of Interest" along the way is called The Lone Cypress. Not sure how it survives out there all by itself, but it does, and it's beautiful.

 

 

As we were admiring the scenery we found this little squirrel, and I kid you not, it ate right out of Liz's hand. And then let her pet him numerous times. It was the most domesticated little guy I've ever seen.

 

Next we drove through the homes along the shore in Carmel and I can't tell you how beautiful it was. I also can't show you because we don't have any pictures, we were too in awe, but the homes were amazing. We stopped at the shops in downtown Carmel, grabbed some pastries, and then headed home. Mostly because I had a roast cooking and that baby wasn't going to wait any longer.

Also because we were exhausted. As seen here.

 

Emmy didn't want me to post this picture, but I think it sums her up quite nicely. Sorry Em!

 

It was so fun having my family visit, I miss them already. Actually, I missed them as soon as they drove away, but I can't dwell on it any longer or I'll start leaking, as I'm wont to do lately. At the drop of a hat. Ah, pregnancy.

TV: Enhancing our lives

Since Caleb's been gone I've been a little bored. I was watching TV last night and saw this infomercial. I nearly died and immediately thought about how absolutely disgusted he would have been. So I had to post it. I just wish I could be there when he watches it. Priceless.

The shavings! Augh! And this wasn't even the commercial I saw, it was much worse. Like, dirty, scaled feet worse.

Cabe? Are you there? That was for you. You're welcome.

Labor Day Weekend Day 1: The city

This is long overdue, I know. Even at that, the pictures aren't going to be fabulous, I just dropped off Caleb at the airport for a conference he has, which means he has all the fancy photo-shopping tools on his computer. We haven't quite figured out how to get it working on this new laptop so the pictures might be (or...are...) a little washed out. It was a gorgeous day in the city, but the infamous San Francisco summer fog did linger a bit.

So, here we go. Day 1 of our crazy fun Labor Day weekend.

We started off at Pier 39, and I had my fortune told by Zoltar. After a 10 second "fortune", about as much as your typical fortune cookie, he ended with a plea to insert more coins to hear the rest of my very enlightening fortune. He didn't fool me though.

 

After wandering around the shops and visiting a few food booths (I think my mom went from cookies to dough nuts in 5 minutes flat) we headed over to check out the sea lions.

 

My family, pretending it doesn't reek like...well...sea lions.

 

Front shot of The Belly. And my Dad's really fabulous orange shirt and hat. We didn't lose him that day.

 

After having lunch at the Boudin Bakery we walked down to Ghirardelli Square to hop the trolley. Along the way we spotted this statue for sale and Emily was in heaven, pandas are her favorite, and she wanted to take it home.

Our transportation getting ready to take us to Union Square, aka Shopping Central.

 

Waiting to board the trolley, we decided to rest our feet. Or really, they decided to sit with me while I rested.

 

Everyone but my mom and Emily rode on the outside, and it was a lot of fun. Caleb snapped this of  Liz & I, me proudly wearing my dad's windbreaker. Because I had forgotten my jacket.

 

At a non-routine stop along the way. Made for great picture opportunities though.

 

Insert a few hours of shopping. We all split up in the indoor mall and I left Caleb to rest on a chair while I went inside a shoe store. I came back out no more than 10 minutes later to find him completely passed out. Poor little guy.

We made a quick stop at the bridge of course.  

 

(We've made an effort to take more pictures of the two of us, we don't seem to have many.)

(The wind only seemed to affect my hair in this picture. Because I am so lucky.)

 

On our way to Fort Cronkite we made a quick stop to reenact this photo:

 

Taken when my two sisters came to visit us the first year we were here. We had to substitute Emily for Kathy this time.

This is what we were SUPPOSED to have seen.

 

Our last stop before dinner, the barracks at Fort Cronkite where my dad stayed for a few weeks during his military service. Also happens to be Caleb's favorite part of our trips to the city. He always wants to come here.

 

We had a fantastic dinner at a seafood restaurant in Sausilito, Scoma's, and then headed home to crash. We had another long, fun-filled day ahead of us  and we all needed our beauty sleep. Some (me) more than others.  

Your Peanut Butter

The other day as I was cleaning out my pantry (which consists of three shelves in a cupboard...) I decided to consolidate the billion jars of peanut butter we have. Normally we have two kinds, one for Bear and one for actual human consumption. Bear has his own jar not because he's our preshus widdle pookie, but because Caleb likes to fill his Kong with it on occasion when we leave him at home (keeps him busy for oh, ten minutes, before he's licked the insides clean) and I couldn't handle the thought of the butter knife dipping back into the jar of peanut butter after it had been inside that nasty toy. So. We buy super cheap generic brand peanut butter for the dog, and fancy all natural Adam's Peanut Butter (ingredients: peanuts. So novel!) for me. For some reason though, over the last few months we'd acquired a few extra jars, not quite sure how it happened, but suddenly I didn't see the need to entertain more than the two. I scooped one inside the other and gave the mutt the nearly empty jar. You'dve thought I'd just offered him an entire roomful of bacon and an endless supply of Caleb.

 

He spent two days working on this little jar, and only because he couldn't quite get his tongue down to the last quarter of an inch. Must have drove him mad. There is nothing more that this dog loves than peanut butter (besides Caleb, of course) and it was quite entertaining to watch him enjoy it. He eventually plopped himself down and went to work, his eyes closed the entire time. He was in heaven.

As I continued to clean I started to think about things that made me that happy. Family, my church, friends, of course. I'm talking life's little pleasures. Like a hot bath. A cup of hazelnut gelato. The smell of wet sidewalk in the summer after a good rain. A perfectly ripe peach. That little zing you get when you put on new shoes for the first time. The smell of freshly laundered sheets. Chocolate. The crisp air in Fall.

My life has been so crazy these past few months I feel I've hardly had time to stop and enjoy things like this. The next few months are going to be equally, if not more crazy and I want to make a concerted effort to just enjoy this time of my life. I am really excited for Fall this year and all the sights, smells, and tastes that come with it, and I want to be able to look back and know that I enjoyed every minute.

So tell me. What little things make you happy? What makes you close your eyes and sigh with pleasure?

Grill and be grilled

On Tuesday Caleb decided to try out the grill for the first time. He was like a giddy schoolgirl.

Grilled chicken tenders, marinated in a tomato pesto sauce, and grilled corn on the cob, still in the husk. You can't get much better than that. We're sort of kicking ourselves that we didn't do this sooner, like, say, at the beginning of summer, but whatever. "Winter" in California is all relative. We'll be grillin' in February. It's a good thing we have that industrial sized golf umbrella. He's going to need it. Grilling is the perfect solution for the I'm-too-exhausted-to-think-about-dinner evenings that I'm sure will come when the baby gets here.

Not that it isn't already happening. Just this evening I thanked my lucky stars that we still had leftover pot roast from Sunday. I had just enough energy to warm it up and cut up some fruit (lathered with vanilla & raspberry yogurt, makes it feel fancy!). I think we're both still recovering from the last few weeks, we had the Olympics and then two sets of guests. I don't think we've made our regular bedtime in a month. Preparing me for a baby, right?

Speaking of which, we registered at Target tonight. Took us all of an hour, and the first 15 minutes were spent trying to get the stupid machines to spit out our registry information so we could get the scanner and be done with it. Anyway, it reminded me of something I was going to ask you all. Humidifiers. Beneficial? Ridiculous? Totally and completely necessary? They seem to be everywhere but I haven't heard of anyone recommending them. Or even mentioning them at all. Help please!

Also? Hi, it's September. Besides the holy crap, November is approaching fast fact, it's time for a new masthead. Will get to it soon, but for now I need a quick bath to soothe my aching back (seriously, where did it come from? It hit me tonight like a ton of bricks! I can barely bend in half!) and then it's time to catch up on my (very needed) beauty sleep.

Baby Bump Wednesday: Week 30

Look at this! I'm ahead of myself, posting Baby Bump Wednesday on Wednesday morning. So novel! I'm hoping to keep it up, and letting you all know about it is my way of keeping myself in check. Or rather, reminding myself. My brain these days isn't so good.

This weekend when my parents were in town we went up to the city. Before we left I reminded everyone several times to grab a jacket, just in case. I went to grab mine, and then halfway there wondered if Caleb had grabbed the camera. He hadn't, so I went to get it and then walked out the door, my jacket still hanging up inside.

Last night we went to Mark and Bridgette's and I made lasagna. I put the first layer of noodles down and then continued layering the dish. Just as I was about to put it into the oven I spotted the pot I'd used to cook the noodles. Two of the three layers of noodles still inside. This was after having forgotten three ingredients at home and begging Caleb to run to the grocery store to pick them up.

I'm having to write myself a lot of sticky notes lately.

The baby this week is still around three pounds or more, and 17 inches. A few sites added that most of the growing that happened this last week was in the brain, which is slowly getting all those lovely wrinkles. Mmm...brain wrinkles! Actually very desirable. Also developing this week is the baby's taste buds. Meaning he can taste and start craving the turkey sandwiches from Subway, chocolate covered pretzels and cereal that I eat.  Speaking of food,  the weekly food comparison states that my baby is a head of cabbage. Brings tears to the eyes!

Also mentioned this week was how it's getting increasingly difficult to sleep, what with the bump and the kicking and back aches. Their suggestion? Silk sheets! And while you're at it, silk pajamas really. I can see how this would help, rolling over would be one smooth ride. These websites are all about the fancy pregnancy pillows, the Snoogler or Snuzzle or whatever, but I've found I'm fine with another normal pillow. Throw it underneath the bump, drape my leg over and I'm good, usually. My back is starting to hurt a bit, I can feel my stomach pulling on my back muscles, especially after a long day. Like walking all over San Francisco.

Speaking of the city, my dad found me while we were at the mall in Union Square and told me he wanted to buy an outfit for the baby. Surprised, I followed him into Janie & Jack (love.that.store!) and watched as he picked out an outfit. It was so cute, he proudly told the woman who checked us out that this was the first time he'd been able to pick out boy clothes. I doubt he ever actually bought us clothes, but still. It's so fun to see him excited, it's going to be a strange thing to watch my parents as they become grandparents. Even stranger to realize I'm The Mom.

Scary.

My lovely friend requested a "night" picture. She said my morning bump wasn't big enough, so here's a picture from Tuesday night. Please enjoy my energy efficient bulb and it's yellow glow.

And of course, the usual shot.

I'll try and get a good cankles shot for you this week, it's going to be in the upper 90's again. Yeehoo!

Rise and shine!

I am never more glad that we have all wood floors than when we're woken up (twice) in the middle of the night to hear the mutt puking. He sat outside yesterday afternoon while Caleb was putting together his new grill, chewing up his old white frisbee into little bits. Little bits that he was swallowing. It didn't help that we were completely exhausted from the long weekend, I barely heard the second time, and had to shake Caleb several times before he woke up.

It was a great way to start the work week.

Pictures to follow soon, we had a great time this weekend. I just need to sort through all 400 that Caleb took.

I wish I were joking. There really are 400. Hope everyone had a great time! Happy...Tuesday!