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Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Baby Bump Pics

Ok, so I finally had S take some pics of me tonight. I think I look huge in them- and I don't think I look this big normally, but we just got back from dinner with the Ts, so part of it is a VERY full stomach... I'll be 23 weeks tomorrow.

This one hides my stomach pretty well.


Huge stomach!


Close up of belly!


So there you go. Me and my big belly. Baby T was kicking up a storm yesterday - I'm thinking it was the chocolate chex mix I was snacking on :). S and I are settling in for a night of wrapping presents and watching Love Actually.

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas and enjoys their time with family/friends tomorrow!

Monday, December 22, 2008

Progress

I think I'm done with Christmas shopping. I managed to get a lot done on Sunday and some today. No one was out yesterday so it was really easy to get shopping done. There were a lot more people out today though- too much traffic. Shopping has never exhausted me as much as it has this year- carrying this extra baby weight really wears me out. I'll be glad to sit on my butt all day tomorrow.

Our Christmas plans have changed again. S's brother is not coming up until Jan 3 now! So we're postponing Christmas with the T's until the new year. We will go out to dinner with mom and dad T Christmas Eve though. I feel bad that we're not doing anything Christmasy with them for a few weeks. But S says they're fine with it.

I also managed to get all my cards written last night and mailed this morning. Yay! I know it's late and a lot of the people who I sent cards to won't get them until after Christmas, but at least they'll get something from me!

So tomorrow is my parents' 40th anniversary. I can't believe they've been married that long. Forty years seems like a lot. And they've known each other for about 55 years! S and I won't have known each other that long until we're in our late 70s! I just hope 35 years from now S and I are just as happy then as we are now- and have a marriage that's as strong and long lasting as my parents'. I know I've been very lucky to have witnessed such a strong and happy marriage/partnership, and I can only hope Baby T and all her future siblings are just as lucky.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

Nursery...

So that's our crib. Well it's not ours yet, but it's the one we want. It's AP Industries- Lollipop. We like it in white. We both wanted to go for something more sleek/modern looking, but we're not going to shell out $500+ for a crib. I did really like the modern cribs at Walmart, but having never bought anything from Walmart, I was not going to start now. AP Industries gets good marks in Baby Bargains, so I feel good about that too.

Our landlords are letting us paint the bedroom. So we're thinking some kind of blue (yes, i know we're having a girl) for the wall behind the crib and then a sand/beige color on the rest of the walls. I bought the cutest wall decal from Etsy the other day. We're going to put it on the blue wall behind the crib.




I like the look of the white decal against a blue background like the picture, so I'm hoping the nursery will look similar to the picture when we do the paint.

Now we just need to get a dresser and a rug for the nursery- and all the cute accessories. I like this dresser from Ikea. I just have to check to see if it's deep enough to double as a changing table. If it's as deep as the taller versions, then it will be fine.



S has the larger dresser in a more natural wood color, so I'm hoping it will look ok to have his and this one in the room together. Yes, S is keeping all his clothes in the nursery. There's just no other place for them to go- and when I suggested we move his dresser into our room he threw a fit! He did not like the idea of having half his clothes in our room and half in the nursery- so he's keeping all his clothes in the nursery- makes a lot of sense, right? I even offered to give up one of my closets so that at least he could move his work clothes into our room, but he wouldn't budge. I guess he's already given up a lot- his man room art/paraphanelia will be taken down over the next few months to make way for baby.

If anyone finds a cute 8*10 rug that is not ridiculously expensive, let me know. That's my next big mission!
Finally made it to the mall yesterday, but it was exhausting. We started off by getting glasses for S. He has been wearing his military issue glasses- round and very ugly- for the past 2 years. Not only do they make him look like a big nerd, but the RX isn't even right anymore. So we took care of that errand first. Then we drove to Tyson's. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. We found a parking space right away and the stores weren't super crowded. It was not the most productive shopping trip. I did get my sister some things. S got my mom and his bro some things. We made one loop around the mall and I was ready to come home. Walking the mall is way more tiring than teaching. At least when I teach I can find a chair to sit in! I'm going to try and go out today to get some things for my mom- maybe head up to Friendship Heights where I'm hoping it won't be as crowded. I really should just wait to go out until tomorrow when public school kids are still in school, but I'm feeling anxious about getting everything done now.

So this year's Christmas is going to be different from the ones in the past. As with Thanksgiving, we usually end up having 2 Christmases on the same day- one at the Ts and one at the Ys. But this year S's bro has to work Christmas night, so he's coming up on Tuesday (mom and dad T are driving down to get him b/c he STILL does not have a license after losing it a few years ago for making some bad decisions while driving). Anyway he'll be up Tuesday- Thursday. S's parents are driving him back down on Christmas day. So we're doing Christmas at the T household Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. Which means we get to spend all of Christmas day with my family! Yay! I'm so excited about that. It's so much more calm and relaxing at my parents' house.

Here are the reasons I'm not a fan of holidays at the T household:
1) They have cats- 2 of them. They used to have 3, but one died. I am allergic to cats and now that I'm not taking any allergy meds b/c of the baby, my allergies are a lot worse. I can make it about an hour and then I start sneezing and feeling crappy. Plus they have carpeting everywhere so it makes my allergies that much worse (it's why I'm not really bothered by my parents' cat- they had hardwood floors).
2) You never know what kind of mood S's mom will be in. Sometimes she's great, very pleasant and nice to be around. But other times she can be in a mood. While she doesn't take it out on me, she does vent to S, which in turn makes him upset.

There are some things I do like about going to the T's for holidays.
1) S's mom is a good cook- I like what she makes for Thanksgiving and Christmas- her ham biscuits are sooooo good. I look forward to that ever year.
2) The T's are very generous gift givers. While I don't get as many things as the boys, I do get some very generous gift cards and things from the Ts. And, I know, Christmas is not about the schwag you get, but it's nice to be spoiled once in awhile. I'm hoping we get some baby things this year. Since we're trying to declutter the apt as much as we can, I've asked for baby things this year instead of things for me. I don't really need anything anyway. Clothes are out this year and I don't want things that will just clutter the apartment.

I still haven't written any Christmas cards yet- got to get on the ball!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Opposites Attract

So if you know S and me as a couple you know how very different we are from each other. He LOVES going to the movies, I can't stand going to the movies. He sleeps in every chance he gets, I'm up by 8 on the weekends. He likes his music loud and raucous, I hate loud noises. I could go on, but I think you get the point. I'm always amazed that we get along as well as we do considering how different our tastes are in just about everything.

That being said, there are some things that we both love- the Washington Capitals being one of them. If you know me from London you might remember a certain TV channel called NBC Super Channel. I think it showed mostly sports for some reason, not good NBC shows- Notre Dame football was on every week during football season and they had an ice hockey highlight show. Being an American overseas, I was hungry for anything related to the States and for some reason I gravitated to the sports show. My love of hockey was born.

Luckily it continued even when I moved back to the States and now it's one thing that S and I love doing together- watching the games on TV and going to Verizon to see live games, which we did last night. Two/Three years ago the Caps sucked. They were HORRIBLE, but we kept watching and supporting. And now we can actually be proud that we support the Caps b/c they are finally good- really good! But I think last night might have been my last live hockey game for awhile. While I am in no way huge yet, I am getting bigger, and sitting in a Verizon Center seat for 2.5 hours (even though they have cushions) is getting more and more uncomfortable. With all my organs shifting around and getting pushed up, sitting straight up in a seat and not being able to recline is not comfortable.

I'm sad that last night have been the last game we go to just the two of us, but it's kind of cool to think that this time next year we'll have a little baby to take with us... hmmm how do you think a 7 month old would fare at a hockey game?

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Blogging at school...

Blogging at school? Is this a good idea? We'll see. I think I've gotten Rachel's procrastination bug. I SHOULD be working on report cards as they are due mid-January and I don't get my kids today until 10:15, but I really don't want to think about my kids anymore. I am sooooo ready for winter break. We just had our Bird Festival yesterday which is our culminating event for the semester. The kids researched birds, wrote reports, made dioramas, and preformed a bird dance- ahhh the life of a 4th grader. Yesterday was also schmooze with parents day, as they were invited to our Bird Festival too. I'm just glad it's over with.

Things I need to do:

1. Buy Christmas presents. I have not bought one single present. Every year I always say I'm not going to leave shopping until the last minute, and every year I leave shopping until the last minute. But this year I have an excuse- does being pregnant work? I don't like Christmas shopping until after Thanksgiving, but clearly I need to readjust my thinking as the 3 weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas just aren't enough time. The first weekend in December I had vertigo (thanks a lot baby T). It was a horrible, miserable weekend. The only thing we managed to get done was some preliminary baby registering - where S decided he had to have the Quinny Buzz stroller (a $600 stroller). Luckily the vertigo didn't hit until we got home from registering Saturday night. Then last weekend we had to go to PA for Gram's 96th birthday. So that leaves this weekend- and I am exhausted from school and we are going to a Cap's game tonight, which means I will be exhausted tomorrow and in no mood to shop on a Friday afternoon.

2. Take a belly shot (fully clothed, don't worry, I will not subject anyone to my pregnant nakedness or partial nakedness). I have not taken a single pic of me pregnant yet- although technically I was pregnant when we took the pics at the Shore this summer- but that doesn't really count because we didn't know yet. I think it's always weird seeing pics of friends who are pregnant, especially if I haven't seen them their entire pregnancy and all of a sudden they have a baby bump.

3. Sell our sleeper sofa on craigslist so that we can start prepping the nursery. We bought it a year ago b/c my sister stole our extra bed and we had a crap futon in S's man room . While it's not the most comfy thing in the world (meg and tucker can attest to that) I do like how it looks and Chance loves it. But there's just no room in our apt for it, so I hope we can make a couple hundred off of it, although that might be ambitious. We'll see.

4. Write Christmas cards! Yet another holiday related activity that I have not started yet. I seem to be in the midst of pregnancy brain where I forget to do EVERYTHING that I think about earlier in the day. I really should keep a list of things to do, but I always forget to start that list. I guess I can refer to this entry now.

Ok I think that's sufficient for today. If I'm bored later on this morning I may be back with another entry.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Walking the dogs

In general S and I are very lazy dog owners. We don't take the dogs on a morning walk- if I did, I would have to wake up at least 15 mins earlier than I already do- and 5:30 is just not ok with me. S is not a morning person, so forget about him actually walking the dogs in the morning. It doesn't help that we have a fenced in back yard- which makes it very easy for us to just let the dogs out in the morning or when it's super cold. There are times that I feel very guilty that we don't exercise them before we leave for the day, but that's one battle I'm not fighting with S.

I feel like I've been making up for our poor parenting skills by taking both dogs on a longish walk when I get home from school. Before getting pregnant, more days than not, I would just let the dogs play in the back yard, or when the weather was really nice and I wasn't worried about getting busted by the park police (or worried about Chance's attitude with other dogs) I would take the pups up to the illegal dog park and let them romp with other dogs. But since I've gotten pregnant, I have stopped going to the gym and taken up dog walking. I have to say that the walks make me feel good- we get a lot accomplished on our little walks. I get some exercise (besides the exercise I get at school walking up and down flights of stairs every hour or 2 when I have to take my kids to a class or pick them up from one), the dogs get some exerciese, and we have mommy - doggy bonding time.

Chance's and Natty's walking behaviors have improved greatly over the last few months with our daily walks. I used to dread them at the beginning because both dogs would pull on their leashes and walk in front of me or each other, plus Natty would not poop on leash, so we always had to make a stop in the back yard. But I think I fixed the pulling issue by getting them both halters/harnesses. Chance still hates his, but he tolerates it and about 90% of the time will walk right next to me. Natty still walks in front, but she has stopped pulling and has started pooping on our walks! Which is a huge accomplishment- I'm so proud of her! (Sad isn't it?) We've had her for over years now and for the first 2 1/2 years of us owning her, she did not poop unless she was off leash. She's still funny about it though b/c she ALWAYS poops on the same block. I do have to remind her to pee and poop on the walk though. Our code word is "grass" when I say it, she walks along the grass and does her business.

I hope once the baby comes I'll be able to manage pushing a stroller and corraling (?) 2 dogs at the same time. At least the weather will be nice once she's born- which will make it more likely that I'll venture outside with all three at once. Stay tuned for how my dog walking will change once Baby T makes her appearance...

Monday, December 15, 2008

First Post Ever

It's funny that Rachel suggested I start a blog in her email this morning because I've been contemplating doing that for awhile now- just to document the baby and our life. With so many friends so far away, it's gotten hard to keep track of everyone. Maybe the more my friends can know about my life, the closer I'll feel to them, despite the distance.

I wonder how long it will take for S to find out that I've started this... I'm pretty sure he'll just roll his eyes and make fun of me for doing so. I'll keep you posted.

I haven't decided how baby oriented this blog will be- I think I'll just play it by ear. R- I'll post some pics of the tree soon so you can see how awkward ours looks!