Nursery Solved

Well, thanks for all of your input on the nursery linens everyone! Jen and I tooled over to the Forum today to check out the PbKids and my favorite thing in the world happened -- we found a super great deal! As soon as I get myself put together I'll get some pics of it online. It's definitely girly, but there's room for more than just pink. It's a patchwork quilt with pinks, blues, and greens. Another fun thing about today was that Ben took care of Lydia, so Jen and I had a girl's shopping day just for ourselves. Of course, it wasn't exactly normal because I had to stop every once in awhile just to sit down. It's amazing how your body changes as you go through pregnancy. My low back is a part of my body that NEVER hurt me before, but lo and behold, that and my buns are achey after a day after shopping. The great news is that I had enough energy after a long day to come home and make supper. For those of you who have the red & white plaid cookbook, the recipe for Tostada Pizza is really good. A good mix of Mexican with the concept of pizza. Yummy. And, (note to Amy) totally fake Mexican food.

And So It Begins

Yesterday, Jen called me with an all important question: "Are you ready to register?" Calmly I answered, "No," and we hung up after some chat. REGISTER??? Are you kidding me?? Well, I decided that since I had neither GCA nor Sylvan today I was going to sit down and do some major internet shopping. As I sit here at midnight, I'm clicking back and forth between Pottery Barn, Target, Babies R Us, Benjamin Moore, and Restoration Hardware. And, at a critical point in my decision making process, the PBKids website decides to have a breakdown! Fortunately, I have their catalogue as well, so I begin cutting up pictures and doing a bit of mix & match. B the B, I did discover something HIGHLY exciting in my random search for paint colors. Benjamin Moore carries a Pottery Barn collection. In fact, their regular catalogue is matched by color to specific Benji M. palettes. So, if you've ever lusted over colors in THEIR catalogue -- hope is in store. All that to say -- I love decorating. I just wish that all of these stores weren't so dang far away from each other, so I could do power comparison shopping in person. I was wondering if anyone knew where the closest PBKids Store was? So far, I've toyed with bedding from BRU -- Wendy Bellisimo Honey Bee collection. I am also toying with two really cute sets from PBKids, both way more girly. We're planning on putting beadboard in the nursery and I'm looking for the perfect paint color for the rest of the wall. One idea is to find a great blue shade and go for blue, pink, and green bedding & accessories. If I go with the Honeybee set, I'll paint the room green, I think. Thanks for letting me brood online! Enjoy the links:

Honey Bee Collection from Babies R Us -- Josh's pick
http://www.wendybellissimo.com/nursery/honeybee/index.php

This one is in the Nursery Bedding and Nursery Bedding
I love sheets in this set! Cherry Blossom Sheets/Duvet in the Floral Matelasse Collection
http://www.pbkids.com

This one is in the Kid's Bedding
Possibly my favorite -- but Josh brought up the point that it is a little grown up. . Bella Quilted Bedding
http://www.pbkids.com

Ultra Sound Off

Finally, I took the trouble to walk over to my scanner and scan our 20 week ultra sound picture. Apologies! We also have our visit recorded for those of you who may be at my house over the holidays. This ultra sound experience was much better than the first. The tech didn't gouge my stomach with her wand. Everything looked great as far as her organs and measurements. Her heart was a textbook four chamber. She weighed .8 lb, which is right in the normal range. We still haven't come to any fixed conclusions about names. It seems as though all my favorite names are either already in our family or our close friends. I.E. I love the names Emma, Lydia, Caroline, and Ella. Oh well, I suppose I'm glad that all of your little girls have absolutely precious names, but I'm still in a quandary about our selection. I've even started getting experimental with names like Sage and McKenna -- Josh shoots them down in about 1 sec. I know I won't pick a name like that, probably, I'm a little too traditional. :-) I've been checking out the Social Security Administration's website about popular names for each year, and you would be soo surprised by some of the names that are WAYY down on the list like Zoey and Anjelica and Imam. But, they are still in the top 1000 names for the 1990's.

Babysitting the Pooks

When Ben and Jen moved a couple weekends ago, we had the privilege of keeping the little girl at our house. She had a good time, I think. We had most of her stuffed animals and toys here, and somehow, she discovered the "secondary" pup. I tried to capture a cute pose of her enjoying TWO Pups at a time. Josh was worried that we would completely distort her sense of Pupness, so eventually, I took secondary pup away from her. Friday, I took Lydia on a cute little shopping day -- just for her! We got her a cute outfit and even got a little Chick-fil-A kid's meal. She also played at Barnes & Noble and picked out a Dora, The Explorer book. We had just started calling her a little Explorer in Minnesota because of her peripatetic ways.

Lydia is the queen of all the animals. She has quite a selection of stuffed toys. :-) This was Lydia's first time spending the night away from her mama and papa. She seemed to do really well, probably because she's very used to our house. Josh got her up in the morning, and she was ready to play.

And finally, a recent picture of me and the little baby. I thought some of you might like to see some evidence of a little "baby bump." I'm definitely gaining weight, and people are finally beginning to say that they can tell I'm showing. I still haven't gained back all of my weight from the begining, but I'm getting there.

It's a . . . . . . .

Girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, I had my OB checkup and ultra sound. Both were really great. It was incredible to see our little baby girl drinking a nice amniotic fluid cocktail and hiccuping. I immediately fell in love with the cuteness of my baby's nose. She also had one of her arms up around her head in a position that her daddy often sleeps in. By the end of the ultrasound she had moved her legs up so that they were touching her forehead. I was intrigued to think that all the "kicks" I've been feeling might actually be her little arm up over her head poking me. She weighs a mere 11 or 12 oz. She'll be growing a lot in the next few months.
Now that we know that we are having a daughter, things seem a lot more real. For all of those out there who thought we were having a little boy, I hope our surprising news brings a smile to your face. If any of you have seen Josh with his little neice, you know that having a little girl will be a perfect fit for someone destined to have a "Daddy's Little Girl." Lisa informs me that I will have to be the strong one. :-)

Fun in the Sun, part 1

PUKE WATCH
The last few weeks have been quite eventful, even for a regular non-pregnant person who sadly counts true excitement as going to the grocery store for the 2nd time in four months! But, enough sadness! Two weeks ago I finished my last dose of Zofran, went to fill the Rx, discovered I wouldn't be able to because the insurance company doesn't want to spend a gazillion dollars keeping me puke free, and left for vacation with fears & worries which did not materialize. Thankfully, I've been feeling marvelously better. I was eating the same food that other people ate, and it all tasted good!

PINE CITY
The euphoria of these discoveries, plus the plain joy of being with family in some of the most beautiful surroundings ever, made my vacation pretty fantastic. Ben, Jen, Lydia, Josh and I flew into Minneapolis with little event. We spent a few days visiting with my aunts, uncles, and grandparents on my mom's side. It was nice to visit the farm again and soak up relaxing pace of life in Pine City. We had several family dinners and lots of good time talking and laughing. Uncharacteristically, we didn't play our family sport, Dutch Blitz (or, as I grew up calling it -- Demon).

LAKE KJOSTAD
Sunday morning we left for the cabin to join up with the rest of the family. Imagine: one cabin, two bedrooms, one loft, eleven people (including one toddler), not enough beds, and most importantly, only one bathroom. This could be a picture of hell on this earth, but amazingly, it worked out much better than we anxiously were imagining. First of all, Josh's wonderful Uncle Dave & Aunt Diane had purchased an a/c window unit which made the loft bearable. Secondly, Lydia slept like a rock and even Grandpa's snoring didn't wake her up. Thirdly, Matt & Jake made the huge sacrifice and slept on couches that were more and/or less comfortable and had climate control issues AND had people walking right by them beginning at six o'clock in the morning.


HIGHLIGHTS
Highlights of the vacation were spending most of my time reading, eating home made junk food fresh out of the oven, watching Lydia yelp with delight every time Bosco the friendly dog walked past, sitting in a lounge chair by the lake reading some more, and sitting in the front of the boat with my eyes closed feeling the wind wooshing past me! I didn't participate in some of the super fun activities that the rest of the crew did such as fish, fish, fish, canoe, swim, play water baseball, frisball, or play Spades. I just sat very contentendly surrounded by my favorite people and read. According to Ben, I was pulling a Susie. Sometimes, that's just enough. Also, I only meant SOME of my favorite people. There many of my favorite people who weren't present, although for this I am thankful, as the presence of 10 more people would have severely compromised my ability to enjoy the lovely cabin by the lake.

BABY BAILEY
On a baby front, there's exciting news this week. Just before we went on vacation I started feeling these little twitches in my abdomen that felt remarkably similar to muscle twitches in my legs and arms that I have while my body is trying to fall asleep. The location led me to believe that I was in fact, feeling little kicks or jabs from baby Chip. Over vacation, the frequency of the these twitches increased and last night, as Josh and I were watching tv, the amazing happened. Josh felt the baby kick, too. The force was much stronger than any time before so he could actually feel it outside my belly. It surprised both of us, and I think we both sort of jumped.