One year ago today...

We found out we were expecting! Its SO crazy to me. It seems like it's been a really long year...but that it was yesterday all at the same time. From what I hear, it only gets worse from here. Time goes faster and faster. I remember we were at Home Depot buying lights for our christmas tree and I had the strangest cramps. I went home and took a pregnancy test, after testing negative just a week earlier. And voila! Baby on the way! I promptly took another test. Then I cried. Both out of extreme happiness and my HOLY CRAP IT WORKED (and so quickly!) reaction! hehe. Anyways, it was such an exciting night...and now I get to enjoy all the memories while holding my beautiful little boy.

Look at him!



He sure does LOVE his bath time now! He figured out how to splash. I now could use a raincoat while I give him his bath. But it's so much fun!

I'm just going to pretend like it hasn't been nearly a month since I last posted anything. I have no idea where the time went. I would imagine this month won't be much better. My life has gone totally insane lately. In fact, I'd say it's been the last 2 months that have been a complete blur. The whole moving, returning to work full time and learning how to be a full time mom and full time employee has been...challenging. But it's so worth it. I've never been so tired, yet so fulfilled in my whole life. And when I say tired. I mean tired to the bone. WOW.

Oh and remember how I said, oh I'll take a few months and see how my work schedule is working out? Well, work had other ideas. I'll post more on this later...but I've NEVER been this busy at work. NEVER. EVER :)

This post is so scattered. It perfectly reflects how my brain is functioning right now. I'll try to pull my thoughts together and post again in less than a months time. I have lots of fun stories to share about all the growing and changing that's been going on around here!

Hi Ho, Hi Ho

It's off to work I go. Or went. *sigh* Those were the fastest 16 weeks of my life. The last day I was at work was July 12 when I left the office in a crazy "doctor called and said go to the hospital" whirlwind! I missed an entire third of the year and in Cushman and Wakefield time that's practically an eternity. There are so many new faces and some really wonderful people have left. I will say this much, my boss missed me. It's good to be missed :)

Before I got pregnant, or even when I was expecting, I never imagined it would be so hard to head back to work. I'm feeling pretty proud that I only cried in the ladies room once. And maybe a little bit before I left on Monday morning. Both JJ and I had some seperation anxiety. He put up a bit of a hunger strike and I had MAJOR baby withdrawl by 4:00 pm. (want to guess what time I was in the bathroom crying??). I know it's going to get easier with time. At least I hope so. It's going to be a few weeks of working on a new morning routine and getting LOTS of cuddle time at night. Do I sound crazy to say part of me was like...awwww JJ missed his mommy! He was as sad as me! But no, that's not right. I want him to be happy, healthy and independent. But missing me just a little this first week is ok ;)

But seriously, who wouldn't be sad to leave this sweet baby? Look at him!! I know many of you already saw this picture on facebook, but I'm obsessed with it.



I've promised myself to take a few months and get into the groove of things before I really try to analyze how I think it's working out. Right now, I'm having a gut reaction of this being terrible, awful, no good, very bad. I seriously can't think of one good reason I can't carry the baby with me all day at work! I want to work and not leave him all at the same time. Normal, right? Please say yes!

Oh and pumping at work is not the most fun thing to do. I'm dedicated to making this work, I really want to keep breastfeeding for another few months at the bare minimum. But it's not going to be easy. I'm trying to tell myself it's a good opportunity to sit back and relax for 15 minutes a few times a day. Organize my thoughts, day dream about holding my little man :) I'm hoping this is another thing that will get easier with time. Fingers crossed.

I discovered my brain is a bit rusty after 4 months out of work! Just getting through email was a challenge. I won't even tell you how difficult I was finding it to update my monthly office calendar. If everyone can just speak very slowly and repeat themselves often for the next week or so, I think that would be best. Baby turned my brain to mush and I'm assuming it's not appropriate to randomly starting telling people about llama llama red pajama on conference calls.

But for all my complaining, it was sort of nice to be back in the land of adults. I put on make up, high heels and had normal conversation all day long. Did you know that I used to do this every day? It seems so forgeign right now!! The nice thing is, between wearing maternity clothes and being on maternity leave, my work clothes actually haven't seen the light of day in a LONG time. It's been so much less of a struggle to figure out what to wear. I haven't worn any of it in ages! Nothing is boring...yet. Give that a week. Most of it even fits. Not all, but most. Gotta keep working at those last few baby pounds! joy...

Chilling out, maxing, relaxing all cool

How chill is this baby? :)

Or should I say, how chill is this 3 month old baby?? 3 MONTHS! When did this happen?

JJ is so alert now. Chatting up a storm, smiling, watching us very closely (gotta watch that PDA now! hehe). Best part though...he's sleeping at night. For many hours at a time. One night, it just started. 3 hours one night and then the next night...6 hours! He's gone as long as 9 hours. All of which means, I'm sleeping! Woo hoo. It's one of my favorite things to do. No seriously, it is. If my mattress wasn't approximately 150 years old, I bet I'd like it even more.

My time at home is winding down. Sniffle. I'm lucky enough that I work in DC and FMLA is 16 weeks instead of 12. I had initially planned on being back to work after 12-14 weeks and well, that all changed the moment this little boy entered my life. It's been tough, but I think taking all 16 weeks was absolutely the right thing to do. I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Well, onward and upward! Let's see what month 4 has to offer. I know one thing, at least...JJ will have a new baby cousin to meet!! Any day now. Sooner than later we hope :)

Blah Blah Blah

Warning: cute baby sounds can turn your brain to mush. Or is that just me?



Apparently, creating an unholy poopy diaper can make a baby very chatty. I won't go into detail, but needless to say I'm still traumatized.

At long last...the nursery!

Here it is! The Beatles themed nursery I've been talking about for months! We're really happy with how it came out. I wish I was even slighly proficient in taking pictures, I really can do no justice to how cute it is.



Here was the first of several projects we did. I found that fantastic Beatles fabric online and used my mad sewing skills to hem it to the right length for a tablecloth (yay for sewing in straight lines!) That lamp was previously...dirty. Is that a color? Because that's the best description I have :) So we painted that and I added the ribbon for a little extra something. April gave me those great pins, that had previously been used on the diaper cake she made for my shower. I think it turned out really cute!



This shelf was the next project we worked on. It was something I salvaged out of my grandma's house after she passed away, so I like the fact that it found a new home in my son's room. It used to be U-G-L-Y...off white and dark red. I spent time during snowpocolypse 2010 sanding it down and prepping it. Then we finally got around to painting it later in the spring.



I'm especially in love with the yellow submarine lunch box that adorns it. Its a gift from Granny Franny :)



The next two shots are just of the cubey storage units we went with instead of getting drawers. Plus, you can see some of the great framed album covers I scored on Ebay. I found 8 all together and I'm anxious to get my hands on a few more. Another big thanks to my coworker, Merridy. She not only sent me a few albums, but is responsible for many of the other items you see. We're both big Beatles fans!





The only project that I didn't get a picture of are the Yellow Submarine seat cushions I made for the rocking chair. I used instructions from my friend Stephanie's blog and it was really easy! Again, just sewing in straight lines...but I really impressed myself by making them the right size. Who knew I could use a tape measure!



Last, but not least...I had to get a shot of the little guy in his crib! Enjoying that mobile again :) I know I'm biased, but is he the sweetest thing or what?!?

Enchanted

I'm not positive...but I'm pretty sure this is what being enchanted looks like. JJ can really focus on things now and loves his mobile. (big thanks to one Miss Stephanie Sterling for the awesome mobile that by coincidence totally matches the nursery!)

The best part of this is that I got to shower while he ohhhed, ahhhed and stared at that mobile! Let me repeat, I got A SHOWER! woo hoo :)

JJ is such a happy baby lately. Lots of smiles, lots of cute little squeaks. He has been spending a lot more time awake and not crying! who knew...

enjoy!

Roly Poly

I'm not sure how this is even possible since last time I blinked my baby was just a few days old, but apparently he's 7 weeks old now! and he can ROLL OVER! Sort of. With just a little help. But check it out...



He will do anything and I mean anything to not be on his tummy! Isn't that just crazy??

When not on his tummy, he loves that play mat. He can really focus on things now and will bat at those animals and is completely captivated staring up at them. Plus this means he can really focus on mom and dad too now! That's the best. Maybe tied with the milk smirk for the best actually :) LOVE the milk smirk!

Baby shower!

I bet you thought I'd never do this post! I was starting to think that too :) But here it is. yay!

It seems like my shower was ages ago! I mean, it was a quite a while ago, but so much has happened since then it seems even longer (and um, have I done my thank you cards? No. No, I haven't. Argh! Stop judging me! The cards are staring at me right now...). But it was such a wonderful day and such a wonderful weekend, it really deserves a blog entry.

First, let me say. It was HOT that weekend. Of course, since I had so many friends and family coming into town it had to be completely unbearable to be in DC. You really have to love DC in the summer :) But that's been the story of this entire summer. My mom, brother, sister in law, best friend and her fiance all came to stay with us and it was quite the full house! But the more the merrier. We had such a great weekend and ate like royalty. That's just how we do it around here!

(sidenote, if you have a crowd for breakfast and really want to splurge...you MUST try this!
http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking/2010/05/cinnamon-baked-french-toast/)



Saturday was the baby shower and it was just wonderful! So many people came into town. It was so much fun to see everyone and I'm so thankful people took the time out of their busy schedules to celebrate with me. My mother in law and sister in law (ok, brother in law's wife, but we just stick with sister in law, right april?!? hehe) put together the cutest shower. I loved it! It had a beatles theme, just like the nursery. You can see the diaper cake in the picture above and below is the close up of the favor. Is that just the cutest damn thing? I love it! We had Beatles trivia and I got some great Beatles themed presents! I'm assuming most babies aren't rolling around with a Bealtes diaper bag, but JJ is :) BTW those great little Beatles pins on the diaper cake will make a reappearance in the nursery. If/when I ever get that blog post up, you'll see how I worked those into the nursery too!



I got oodles and oodles of cute baby clothes and a ton of gear. We were officially ready for baby after the shower. Which is a good thing since he came 2 weeks later!

Last thing is a quick shot of me with my mom (aka, Granny Franny). It's so funny to see pictures of when I was pregnant now that I'm not. Damn, I was BIG! I didn't think I was that big...but wow. I'm so glad I took lots of belly pictures during the pregnancy or I'd never remember exactly how big I got :)

1 month!!

Can it really be possible that JJ is already one month old? It seems so crazy to me. But the calendar does not lie. I'm sure part of the problem is I've lost all sense of time. Day, night...these things mean nothing to someone who only sleeps 3 hours at a time! I see 3:00 am as often as I see 3:00 pm. *sigh*

What a month it's been, too. As much as I thought I was prepared for all of this, I wasn't even close! There is no way to be prepared really. I mean, you can have the nursery set up, the car seat installed...all that good stuff. But that's just a small fraction of it. What I was really unprepared for was how emotional the whole month has been. It seemed so cliche to say your whole life changes, but it's SO true! My life is so wonderfully different now and I wouldn't want it any other way. He's made us so happy. And I'm saying that after he kept me up from 4:45 am - 8:30 am last night :) The hours seem to fly by and all I do sometimes is hold him in my arms and stare at that beautiful face!



There were a few things that really took me by surprise. The first is how conflicted I feel about returning to work. Don't get me wrong, I'm going back to work. Sadly, we're a two income house and there is no way around that! But almost every day I have this crazy internal debate. I really never imagined that I'd even question the idea of wanting to go back. But what I wouldn't give for some flexibility. It's strange because I really do want to work. I really enjoy what I do and have a lot of ambition in terms of having a successful career. I have a lot of opportunities in front of me right now, not to mention a boatload of responsibilities to return to. But the "want this more than anything" phrase isn't included in this right now. The idea of leaving JJ for 40+ hours a week seems like the very worst form of torture. I know it will all work out and what helps is I have a really supportive boss. But can't I just keep JJ next to my desk for lots of cuddle time during the day? That would be great!!

The second thing is my desire for time to slow down, yet at the same time speed up. Does that make sense?!? My leave is FLYING by. Every day goes so fast. I love every minute with JJ and wish the day was twice as long so there were twice as many minutes! But at the same time, I'm so anxious to see him grow. I can't wait for all the big milestones. It's amazing that he can already hold his head up so much more than he could just a few weeks ago. Before when we put him in the car seat, his little head would slump right over. Now he can hold his head up straight. He's so alert! It's amazing. So I need JJ to stay a tiny little baby but also grow and change :)

The last thing is how happy I am v. the horror film that plays in my head. I know I'm a broken record, but this little bugger makes me so happy! He's so cute! Such a little stinker. hehe. (is it awful that most of my nicknames with him involve the word "stinker"?) But, OMG, I am constantly worrying about all the things that could go wrong! So he's been home for a little over a month...and between me and Scott we probably check that he's breathing 100 times a day, so give or take 3000 times total since he's been born! Luckily, I can say with complete confidence that he's still breathing :) PHEW! Of course, what doesn't help with the horror film is that I nearly killed the baby last night. We had him on his play mat, which I promptly tripped on (the slowest, most drawn out trip EVER) and he flipped right over. Within 30 seconds, he was totally fine. Me? Not so much. I'm sure it's normal to cry on and off for like 2 hours after nearly killing your baby. Right? UGH.

I'm so ready for month 2! Can't wait to see what this little guy has in store for us :)

Welcome to the world, JJ!

Well, I've decided to work backwards here. I totally intend on posting about my wonderful baby shower and showing off the beatles themed nursery we put together. But first things first...it's time to say welcome to our beautiful son, JJ! He came a bit earlier than expected, but we couldn't be happier to have our healthy, happy boy home with us now.

Magnessium SUCKS

I'll try to keep the story short and sweet. I got the call from my doctor's office on Monday, July 12, to go in to Sibley for observation after getting some strange test results back the week before. My totally uneventful pregnancy took quite a strange turn at the very end. We truly never imagined they would decide to keep me! But they decided I was having an "atypical" presentation of preeclampsia and needed to be induced immediately (and later on Tuesday, was also diagnosed with Cholestasis, so strange). Luckily, we were prepared at home, but at work...hmmm, not so much :) oh well. I had to go on magnessium, which is some really crazy stuff and put me totally out of commission for over 2 days. I was induced monday night and started pitocin on Tuesday morning. I labored. and labored. and LABORED. All I can say is thank god for epidurals :) After not progressing much over 14 hours, we all decided that a c-section was the only way to go. So at 9:17 pm on Tuesday, July 13, our beautiful boy was born! I was so out of it from that magnessium, but even through the haze I know it was the most emotional, wonderful moment of my life. He was so tiny and perfect. Talk about love at first sight!

Happy Birthday, JJ!

Because he was born early and was very lethargic from the magnessium, he was whisked off very quickly to the special care nursery. Scott got to hold him and I got to give him a quick kiss. That was the last I got to see of him for 26 LONG HOURS. Never has a day moved so slowly before. I had to be kept on the magnessium and epidural for the entire next day, so I was stuck in bed. He needed constant care, so he couldn't be taken from the nursery. So there was no way I could see him. Ugh, it was awful. Luckily, Scott could! He took lots and lots of pictures for me.

Finally :)

JJ stayed in the special care nursery for 8 days. That sucked. No other way to say it. I got sent home on Saturday and was told to go home and "rest". Yet had to be at the hopsital all day for feedings. Not to mention, being away from him was pretty much out of the question for me. However, the silver lining was the incredible level of care he received from the nurses. In fact, all I can do is rave about all the the nurses we had at Sibley. One was more amazing than the next. The special care nurses spent a lot of time with us giving tons of advice and pep talks. Trust me, I needed some pep talks in order to leave that hospital without my son. *sigh*

Proud Daddy

But on Tuesday, July 20, we got to take JJ home! And here we are, 12 days after he was born happy at home with our son. Tired? Yes, oh god yes. But insanely happy. I now understand what people mean by your whole life changes. I could stare at him for hours on end! We made this handsome boy? Is that really possible!?! Apparently it is :) Welcome to the world, JJ! We can't wait to see you grow from our little baby to a big boy. Just not too fast, ok?

Our beautiful boy

JJ's first concert!

I'm so behind. SO behind. I'm sorry! The last few weeks have been total madness. Lots of cleaning, cooking and hosting all sorts of company. It's been tons of fun (which I also feel could be my nickname at the moment), but left very little time for fun things like posting pictures. I figure I might as well go back to the begining of June and work forward from there. I have a post coming about my amazing Beatles themed baby shower and nursery pictures are on the way! Need to get the crib up this weekend...but we're making really good progress in there and I can't wait to show everyone!



I figured I would do a quick post on JJ's very first concert. We went to see Jeff Beck at Wolftrap on June 7. What an AMAZING concert. If you ever get a chance to see him live, do it. He's a legend for a reason. I have to admit, I was initially a little nervous that I would get bored. He doesn't have anyone on vocals. This concert was 90% instrumental (his bass player sang maybe 3 songs in the 2.5 hour concert). But the man is insanely good and his entire band was fantastic. As we walked out I heard a woman say "he doesn't need a singer, his guitar does the singing". Such a cheesy thing to say. But 100% true.

His bass player is someone you need to check out. I linked her website and a youtube video below. She's maybe 24. According to Scott, super hot...and simply ROCKS OUT. I can't say enough about her.

http://www.talwilkenfeld.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdX6ly6ftUM&feature=fvw

On top of all of this...Wolftrap is such a great place for a concert. I'm not sure why this is only the second time we've been. It's small, cheap, the lawn was fantastic and you can bring your own food/drink in. You really can't beat that. As you can see, Scott enjoyed tailgating before the show :) It was a beautiful night...probably 80s during the day and 60s at night. In June. In DC. who knew!



Last but not least...here's a picture of JJ enjoying his first concert! I was about 31 weeks when this was taken (35 weeks tomorrow - holy!). Please don't judge me for the brownie. I'm pregnant, ok? lay off! hehe.

The great freezer cook down

I've gotten into the habit over the last year or so of really taking advantage of the freezer. Stocking up when things were on sale, chopping up my own fruits and veggies and having a great stash of chicken stock in there. Oh, and probably some kind of ice cream at all times. But that's unrelated to this :) We officially reached maximum capicity last weekend and began clearing the freezer out. You know, to make room for my next round of hoarding. We cooked and cooked all weekend (inspired by our recent trip to a cooking class!).

Scott had been stashing lobster and shrimp shells in there and have accumulated enough to make (a TON of) seafood stock. No picture of this since, well, its a big bowl of brown liquid. But it did stink the apartment up something fierce, I'll tell you that much.

Next step? Cooking the chicken I had stashed in there. See picture above. It was deeeeelicious. We made a quick herb butter to put under the skin and baked it in the oven (finished it off on our indoor grill - which had been used earlier for grilled corn, mmmm). The best part though? The potatoes! (see below) Want to make some seriously amazing potatoes? I know you do. I saw this trick on America's Test Kitchen and all I can say is YUM. See how're they're all brown and glistening? Yeah, that's because we cooked them on a tray with the chicken baking on a rack above it. So they cooked in the fat and juices coming off the chicken. Please do yourself a favor and try this! The flavor was seriously outrageous. Note I didn't say healthy. I said outrageous ;)



I was then able to make a big batch of chicken stock from the leftovers. I hate buying the boxed/canned stuff. There is no comparison. Plus making your own stock is beyond cheap and easy.

Next! The bag of previously fresh, now frozen blueberries I had. We made a blueberry buckle. I used this recipe:

http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/blueberry_buckle/

It's really just a blueberry coffee cake. Oh, it's so good...for breakfast, dessert, a midnight snack perhaps. Anytime!



I also grabbed a bag of homemade white beans, that combined with the chicken stock will become pasta e fagioli. One of my all time favorite soups (a favorite because Scott makes it, not me!). Also, a pound of ground beef and a bag homemade black beans that turned into beef tacos. MMMMMM. After was all was said and done, I had one tiny trip to the grocery store and an entire week of delicious food from one weekend of cooking. You really can't beat that. Sadly, this only put a tiny dent in the freezer and now that there is a ridiculous amount of stock in there now, we're pretty much back to maximum capacity again. Oh well!

Just for fun...I thought I'd end this with a super cute picture of the big brother to be (aka, marley dog!)

Oh no he didn't...

So I'm not sure if this story should be filed under "I should give him the benefit of the doubt, I'm sure he meant this in a nice way" or under "men are IDIOTS". I'll let you be the judge :)

I'm leaving work last week. It had been a VERY long day and I was specifically told to go home at 4:00 because I "looked tired". (sidenote, I know I'm being totally hormonal, but that alone took all the wind out of my sails. ugh. I'm working so hard, please don't call me out for being tired!) So I figure, who am I to say no and I take off. On my way out of the building, I run into a broker I work with. He stops me and asks how far along I am? I tell him 28 weeks. He says, no joke..."oh, you're BIG". He then asks, is this my first? I say yes. He repeats himself! "oh, you're definitely big". Oh, no you didn't just call a pregnant woman BIG! are you NUTS? A) yes, i'm "big", i'm pregnant, you jerk! and B) frankly, I would expect this from someone who say, didn't have a whole litter of kids at home. But he does! It took every shred of self control not to hit him. It really did. It truly amazes me the things people will say. I had another male coworker say "oh, no cankles yet!". Ugh, shoot me.

So, anyways, I figured this was a good time for another belly picture! This is 29 weeks along. See, how BIG I am? :) Of course, because that made me totally paranoid, my first question at the doctor the next day was "am i big?". So glad to say the answer was no! hehe.

I'm working up to a few other posts this week, I've been slacking pretty bad. I'm still trying to compose my thoughts on the Lost finale. We've also been cooking up a storm lately - doing a sort of cook through the freezer theme. So I have some delicious recipes to share! But first, thank you cards must be finished. Then I can get back to the fun stuff!

Baby Shower!!

I'm so behind in getting this post up. We got a new camera (YAY) and its taken me 2 weeks to load the software onto our computer so I could pull the pictures off. I must say, I am LOVING this camera. It's so much nicer! I am really looking forward to taking sweet baby pictures now :)

So, returning to the whole point of this post, I had my first baby shower a little over a week ago. My truly wonderful and thoughtful boss, Wendy, hosted a beautiful shower for me at work. All the C&W ladies...cupcakes...fruit salad...and LOTS of cute baby clothes! I can't resist posting pics of just a few of the items I received...



Are those just fantastic?!?



JJ will totally be a momma's boy :)

Ok...and just one more. Of the cute feeties!! Some of these aren't from the shower, but does it get cuter than all these feeties?



I also got hooked up with a ton of baby gear. I mean seriously hooked up. I have the best coworkers! If I thought anyone wanted to see a picture of my stroller, I would put one up. Because you know I have one. Granted, I have pictures of just about everything in my apartment right now because I have a new toy that is just crying out to be played with! Who doesn't need 30 different pictures of my dog and my big belly? :)

I'm officially in my third trimester now. How crazy is that? I can't even be in denial anymore. I've reached the point where there is no longer room for the baby AND all of my major organs to be sharing my body with any level of comfort. OWWWWWWW. Less than 3 months and we'll finally get to meet the little guy who spends all night kicking me and pushing on my ribs! I really can not wait!

Spicing things up...

Please don't let the crappy picture deter you from listening to me when I say...you need to make this recipe!!

We've had a jar of curry powder hanging around for months. We use just a little bit of it each time we make jamaican beef patties (which certainly warrant a post all to themselves, so I'm mentally adding that to the list). But we had a BIG bottle and it was getting used up slowly. I was watching Barefoot Contessa the other day and saw her make this curry chicken salad. We were feeling adventerous and decided to try it. Yes, I know it's sad that curry = adventerous...but it's true :)

Here's the link to Ina's recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/curried-chicken-wraps-recipe/index.html

I've made a few changes though which work well for us...

1 whole rotisserie chicken
2/3 c. light mayo
1/2 c. light sour cream
1/3 c. dry white wine (I used vermouth last time and it worked just fine. This time I had a bottle of reisling so I used that. did you know that when Erin stops drinking, wine lasts more than 1 day in the fridge? amazing)
1/4 c. mango chutney
only ONE tb. curry powder (one was definitely more than enough, 3 to me is overkill!)
1 c. diced celery
1/4 c. chopped scallions
I omit the raisins, just a personal preference
1 c. cashews (I like to toast them in a dry pan before adding them)

You NEED the cashews. that's a must. This salad is so delicious. So what if you stink of curry for a whole day after?!? :)

On a related note...we're finally ready to buy a new camera. So hopefully one day in the near future, the pictures I post won't look like garbage. New baby definitely means new camera. VERY excited about this!

25 weeks!

So suddenly, this isn't a little baby bump anymore! That's a big fat belly :) I swear, I left for Florida with a little bump and overnight it turned into this!

Time really seems to be flying...this picture is a stark reminder that things are moving along! 25 weeks!! crazy.

Love Is All You Need

Designing the nursery has definitely been one of the most fun experiences of the entire pregnancy so far! I started on it right away. I knew I wanted to do something a bit different and spent a lot of time on the internet searching for fun ideas. I came across this website early on...

http://homebuilding.thefuntimesguide.com/2006/12/unique_nursery_decoratingideas.php

(no worries, folks. We will not be naming the baby Abbey Rhode :)

I loved this idea. I immediately knew I wanted to incorporate The Beatles into the nursery. I spent a lot of time as a kid listening to The Beatles. To this day, they are one of Scott and my favorite bands. Plus, my dad is a huge (HUGE!) Beatles fan and I knew I could count on him to find us some unique stuff for the nursery.

After some time searching on the internet I found the perfect nursery bedding! Seriously perfect. Of course, also not being made anymore. Just for shits and giggles, I sent a desperate plea to the manufacturer and wouldn't you know, they had ONE more in the warehouse and it was all mine! To top it all off, I managed to get it for free :)

Next up, scouring Ebay for Beatles albums. I had a lot of luck, I'm happy to report. So baby will have some pretty sweet Beatles albums up on the wall. That is if I don't steal them for other parts of the apartment first! Plus, my wonderful coworker, Merridy, hooked me up with a bunch of albums from her personal collection and my dad bought us a great lithograph of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band. If I had known how wonderful and generous people were when it comes to a new baby, I would have done this years ago! I kid...I kid...

I am still on the hunt for a few more, but I found the most important ones, so I'm a happy camper. We really want to focus on the most colorful album covers - Sgt. Peppers, Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine. If nothing else, baby is going to have a damn good taste in music!


Last, but not least, I scored some fantastic fabric! I know that I'm going to make a tablecloth for a round table I have, but beyond that I have 2 yards to play around with. This is where you good folks out there in the "intertubes" come in! I need ideas! Keep in mind, my sewing skills are, well, mediocre at best. I like to sew in straight lines :) I'm getting better but I'm far from good. So, probably a few pillows for the rocking chair...but what else?!? help me out!

I'll post updates later in the spring as we start to get the nursery together! The crib arrived a few weeks and we have a great storage unit...so things are really starting to come together :) I'm thinking it's about time to start putting everything together. Well, we'll wait on the crib for now in order to keep the guest bed. But I can get started on everything else! can't wait.

In honor of...

In honor of the name of my blog, I wanted to share two just incredibly funny things.

First, can we all just agree that this detention pass is AWESOME? yes? ok. Moving on then...

I can't take the credit for finding this next list. Scott's cousin, Gregg, sent it to me after I had posted a "that's what she said" moment on Facebook. Said moment was...I at work a few months back and I heard my boss on the phone talking to someone. In the course of this conversation I hear "that's what she said" in the most innocent context. Did that keep me from laughing hysterically? of course not! I'm the same person who had a VERY difficult time studying for Astronomy in college because of the planet Uranus. Yes, deep down inside I'm an 10 year old boy. Go figure!

Anyways, back to the topic at hand! Here are the top 10 sexually explicit lines from the 3 original star wars movies...enjoy :)

Star Wars: A New Hope

"Get in there you big furry oaf, I don't care what you smell!"

"Luke, at that speed do you think you'll be able to pull out in time?"

"Put that thing away before you get us all killed."

"You've got something jammed in here real good."

"Aren't you a little short for a stormtrooper?"

"You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought."

"Sorry about the mess..."

"Look at the size of that thing!"

"Curse my metal body, I wasn't fast enough!"

"She may not look like much, but she's got it where it counts, kid."

The Empire Strikes Back

"Control, Control! You must learn control!"

"And I thought they smelled bad on the outside!"

"Possible he came in through the south entrance."

"I must've hit it pretty close to the mark to get her all riled up like that, huh kid?"

"Hurry up, golden-rod..."

"That's okay, I'd like to keep it on manual control for a while."

"But now we must eat. Cum, good food, cumm..."

"There's an awful lot of moisture in here."

"Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?"

"I thought that hairy beast would be the end of me."

Return of the Jedi

"Back door, huh? Good idea!"

"Hey, Luke, thanks for coming after me - now I owe you one."

"Short help's better than no help at all."

"Grab me, Chewie. I'm slipping - hold on. Grab it, almost...you almost got it. Gently now, all right, easy, easy, hold me, Chewie. Chewie!"

"I assure you, Lord Vader, my men are working as fast as they can." with reply

"Perhaps I can find new ways to motivate them."

"If I told you half the things I've heard about this Jabba the Hutt, you'd probably short circuit."

"There is good in him, I've felt it."

"Someone must've told them about my little maneuver at the battle of Taanab."

"You're a jittery little thing, aren't you?"

"I look forward to completing your training. In time you will call me master."

And stay tuned folks...I hit 20 weeks today, which means the 20 week ultrasound is just a few days away! We'll know if Baby Sawicki is a boy or girl and get to sneak a peek at baby! I'm beyond excited.

I hope everyone gets to enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend! I know I will :)

Help a sister out!

Ok folks, it's about that time. We officially started looking into where to register and what to register for. Now I'm hoping...can any parents out there help me out? What were things you loved or hated? The items you just can't live without or found to be an utter waste of space? Or even suggestions on how not to have my blood pressure go through the roof when standing in Babies R Us surrounded by screaming babies?!? Is that store too much or is it just me? As if the sheer size of the place wasn't overwhelming enough...

I know you have opinions. Frankly, we couldn't be friends if you didn't :) So lay it on me!!!

While you hit me up with ideas...I'll be working on putting together a post on how the nursery is coming along!! Question #1 is does the guard dog get to keep his bed in baby's room? Hmmm...he does look vicious, doesn't he? Will easily scare off any intruders, in my humble opinion.

Yup, this is how he spends his days. Rough life, isn't it? At least we know Baby Sawicki will have a nap time partner :) So I guess the bed stays!!

The Bump!!

Well, it's not a big bump...but a bump nonetheless! I officially got called out at work for starting to show, so I figured it was about time to post a picture here. I am finding it hard not to go crazy thinking I just look fat and spent a good hour last saturday agonizing over what to wear out. I'm certainly glad that maternity choices now include things that are form fitting and we aren't forced into wearing a giant tent during pregnancy (Special thanks to April for the cute dress I'm wearing!). This is just a strange...too big for regular pants (thank god for the belly band!) but too small for maternity clothes. FUN TIMES.

We also scheduled the 20 week sonogram for March 22! 19 days until we find out the sex of baby Sawicki :) Trust me, I'm counting down the days. Scott feels strongly that baby is a girl and I feel strongly baby is a boy. Any thoughts? leave them here and after March 22, we'll see who was right and who was wrong!! How some people wait until they give birth to find out is totally beyond me. Patience is NOT a strong suit for me...

Doc says its probably a bit early to be feeling baby move, but I swear I'm feeling something! I could be crazy, this is entirely possible. But something is going on in there. We know for sure that baby is very active after that last ultrasound...a sign of things to come?!? I wouldn't be surprised. If karma exists, we're definitely bound to have our hands full :) I just can't wait to find out.

Drum roll please...

So, it's official! Baby Sawicki is....

a DEMOCRAT!

Just kidding. We already knew that! Baby Sawicki is a BOY!!

We have proof! :) It's fairly obvious! Too funny. And makes Scott oh so proud!! hehe.

Waving to Mom and Dad...how sweet!!!

But not to gloss over the important stuff...baby was healthy, had all the necessary parts (brain, heart, stomach, legs, arms, etc.!). He was measuring right on target. It was such an exciting visit! And trust me, lately, they are not all that exciting.

Also, thought I'd throw in a 20 week bump picture! The ever expanding belly :) At least this weekend I got some clothes that fit (thanks to Katie for the loaners and Ann for the shopping trip!).

Pregnancy Brain

It's true. I thought, yet again, this was just a piece of nonsense made up by people. Oh, how mistaken I was. It's setting in and it's just awful!

Here are just a few examples...

1. Getting to the dry cleaner and completely forgetting my own phone number. In my defense, I don't call myself...right?

2. Completely forgetting names. Which I absolutely know. SO frustrating!

3. I put a box in my boss's office and not even 15 minutes later, was determined that I either lost it, threw it out or was having a practical joke played on me.

4. I KNOW there was another example, but guess what...I forget! ARGH!

It's a good thing my job doesn't require me to have a near encyclopedic knowledge of names, dates and policies. Oh wait. It does! Thank god for post it notes :)

So...um...I'm now going to wander from room to room through my apartment and wonder why I'm in each room. Hopefully I'll at least remember to clean while I'm wandering around.

On an unrelated note, is everyone enjoying the olympics?!? I've found myself completely drawn to watching it every night and staying up way past my bedtime. I definitely enjoy the winter olympics more than the summer olympics. Despite the fact that I don't enjoy even the IDEA of any of the sports I watch. I despise the cold (not to mention my complete lack of any athletic ability). So far my favorite moment has been Russian figure skater Yevgeny Plushenko throwing down the masculinity gauntlet to his fellow figure skaters. Dude, you're in a skin tight lycra and have sparkles on your pants. Which, to his credit, is one of the less flamboyant outfits in mens figure skating...but still! I would just like to thank Johnny Weir for making it possible to distinguish between the more and less flamboyant outfits :)

WOW

Can't wait for the ladies competition to start next week!!

snOMG Part Two - the SNOW DAY!

I officially take back all the bad things I've ever said about the people of this lovely region I live in. I love their great irrational fear of snow and their even greater inability to deal with the weather. I have not one but two snow days a full day after the last snow flake hit the ground and its the best thing EVER! Our parking lot still isn't plowed and the Death Train still isn't operating above ground. Better yet, with more snow on the way, the panic levels have really skyrocketed. We may be completely stir crazy at this point, but who cares. The stir craziness (added to my already present desire to nest) has led to me cleaning just about every surface in the house, doing laundry, ironing, making delicious white beans to freeze...just an endless list of chores to stave off the boredom. But I'm determined to enjoy the time off and will fondly recall this time when March hits and there's not a long weekend in sight.

It was one heck of a storm, I will admit. I haven't seen snow like this since the mid-90's. Marley went from loving it, to not being able to move in it. So he's pretty over the snow at this point too. Looking at it from the balcony suits him just fine. I'd share video of him jumping through the snow like a bunny, but my videography skills are just awful. So maybe next time :) We did get a few great pics, as you can see!

The one real bummer about the snow was it ruined all the weekend plans. We were really looking forward to watching the superbowl with good friends and eating the MOST delicious ribs. We had to quickly improvise and decided on making pizzas for the big game. I can't describe to you how good these pizzas are. We use the dough from Trader Joes (which I always have in the freezer) and Scott splits that one dough into four very thin crust pizzas. Top them with a garlic oil, fresh mozzarella, carmelized onions, roasted red peppers and pancetta...and its pure heaven. MMMMMM. We also made one with red sauce and cheese, but its just not as sexy as the other one. Still delicous though!

We watched Julie and Julia on Saturday. Anyone else seen it? I mostly walked away from it wishing it was just a movie about Julia Child. Oh and now I desperately want to make Beouf Bourguignon :) Maybe for the next snow storm...

One last thing, if you do make that creamy spinach from my last post, might I recommend one thing? Save some for breakfast the next day, make eggs benedict and throw that spinach on top of the eggs. You'll thank me later.