Good and Bad Things

Today is one of those days... good things.. then not-so-good things.. Hopefully to be followed by more good things.

I am back on Weight Watchers trying to shed the unwanted baby weight - and today when I weighed in I was down 3.8 lbs! Christmas you are no match for ME! It was a great motivator for me to stay on track. I am down a total of 5.4 lbs since I started about a month ago and that makes me feel hopeful that someday soon I might actually fit back into my jeans & my wedding band.
That was the good..

...the bad is that Drew got his first round of vaccines today. I think I actually felt my heart rip a little when he started waling from the 3 needles being stabbed in his thighs. The nurse, God bless her, was very quick but nothing could quite prepare me for the total anguish that my 10-week old son was going through - both physically and I assume a touch of mentally & emotionally as well. He's been sleeping for roughly 2 hours now and seems to want to block this day out by continuing on a marathon nap. I know all kids go through this & he will not remember it even as early as later today but still, going through that for the first time is a bit overwhelming. When they put the bandaids on the baby they should also hand the mom and nice glass of wine to calm her. Needless to say, I will probably partake in that glass of wine later today.

In some whimsical way I think that today's little medical adventure is a good preparation for parents; there will be times when our kids have to go through sucky things and all we can do is stroke their heads, tell them it's ok & promise that you will stay with them until it's all better... and then head straight for the booze.

Just kidding... sort of.

Merry Christmas!

I'm a bit late but I hope everyone had an amazing Christmas & is looking forward to the New Year. Our little guy had a great first Christmas - Made out like a bandit! We enjoyed both Christmas Eve & Christmas Day with my husband's family; the weekend before with my family.

Christmas Morning... New bib thanks to Auntie Robin



Christmas Family Photo



Happy Holidays to all!

Christmas Photos

Last weekend we were going to try to take pictures of Drew & his cousins, Jordan & Caleb, for Christmas. We ended up having to cancel our appointment due to a scheduling conflict but we thought maybe we'd try to take some pictures of Drew since he was already in his sassy outfit... All I can say is that maybe it was a good thing that we had to cancel our appointment since our subject was being rather non-cooperative.

Attempt One, on mom's lap:
(now we're just getting cheeky!)

Attempt Two, on the couch:


After this we thought.. maybe Christmas photos were overrated.
Our last attempt....



Hmm, maybe not.

Holding my own...

This cracked me up - Drew decided I wasn't doing a good enough job of feeding him so he decided to take over. I tried to explain to him that it was too early for him to be feeding himself but he wouldn't hear it.


I can't figure out where he gets his stubborn streak from. :)

Smiling!

Drew is 6-weeks this week & that is when all the books say he'll start smiling & giggling. And sure enough... this is the cutey-pie face I got yesterday!



Love!

Facial Expressions

Drew definitely takes after me & has the best facial expressions. I think he is looking at me like I am a crazy person in this one... but it is still pretty cute!


This one just says he's tired of me taking pictures of him.

Sleep...

I love this picture... There is a similar one of me & my dad when I was a newborn. Drew is currently sleeping with us... he sleeps about 2x as long when he's in with us rather than in the bassinet so for right now, we all share one bed. I admit it gets a little squishy from time to time but the pay off is 3-4 hours of uninterrupted sleep between the hours of 11pm & 3am. After that it varies.. but that first block of sleep is the best gift ever!

Welcome, Baby Drew!

This is VERY overdue but I just wanted to introduce our son, Andrew William - we call him Drew. He was born via C-section on October 20th at 4:28pm. He weighed 7 lbs, 13oz & was 20" long.



We are thoroughly in love & are so excited to have him in our lives.
Welcome home, baby!

Modern Technology

Technology is amazing. Mark and I got to see our wee one in 3D the other night. Of course, Flash was being a pill and had his hand over his face... and then his hand AND his foot... but the pictures still turned out pretty good. What an experience! He's been a little hyper bean this week so it was fun to get to see him again and actually feel like we saw the real him. He's pretty cute for not being fully developed yet. And we think he has my nose. Lucky for us all the noses in our family are pretty cute so we didn't have to worry too much about that.

So on this lovely summer Friday I leave you with the latest paparazzi shots of our little man.
Happy Weekend!

Nesting, Phase 1

I think it's officially time I started nesting. Or so I'm told. I don't really want to spend my weekends cleaning and painting, etc but I suppose the poor guy deserves his own room and deserves it at least somewhat put together. So, I've started planning.

First we have to get rid of the furniture that is currently occupying Flash's room. Good-bye Craft Room... it was nice to have you for the last year. See you in the garage. Next, we need to paint. When we bought our house last year all the bedrooms were painted in this lovely ace bandage-colored hue. We managed to paint our bedroom but have left the other 3 alone for the time-being. So, Flash's room will get a nice coat of white paint.

White? you say? But that's so boring! Let me explain to you... I've been reading about this & baby's can really only see black, white & red for a while so I'm just being sensitive to that. Plus, I figure he'll have an opinion in a couple years and we can paint his room to his liking then. Until that time, Mama wants a nice clean, white room. There is a lot of natural light in there & white will make it lovely.

As far as "theme" there really isn't one. No zoo animals or baseballs or other weird boy things. Our baby is far beyond that :) Afterall, coming from artsy parents, he'll have much higher design goals than an oversized soccer ball on the wall. Bleh! So, I've been looking for some design inspiration from 2 of my fav blogs: Decor8 and Style Files. Love. And they've been oh-so-gracious with said inspiration. In addition to white walls I am also adding accents of a couple blue tones (one jewel and one a bit more subtle) and greys.

I've found Kat at Hearts and Crafts to make me some custom paper garlands for the walls - I love these. So simple but yet so fun! It's like a party all the time!


And I am eyeballing this paper crane mobile as well as this poster. Cranes are a symbol of loyalty & peace and I think those are perfect themes for our baby's room.


Next on the agenda is finding a dresser and building (or I suppose buying) some bookshelves. I found a picture of some that I like and am trying to commission my husband and father-in-law to build them for me but not sure I'll get them. *sigh* One can always hope.



Happy Friday everyone! Here's to spending a very hot weekend converting a craftroom into Flash's room!

25 weeks

Tomorrow I am 25 weeks into my pregnancy. I realize it's been a while since I uploaded any new pics so here we are.


Also including a picture of the cute onesies I made for Flash & gave to Mark on Father's Day. No, we're not naming the baby Flash.. that is just his nickname for now while we decide on his real name. He will be the most stylish BMX baby ever!

Isn't it a bit early for Karate?

Yesterday I felt our little guy, who has been dubbed "Flash," move for the first time. And right now, I feel him in there kicking away. At first I wasn't sure that was what it was but I am pretty certain that what I am feeling is Flash taking a Tae Bo class. He is definitely an active guy!

As weird as the feeling was initially, I like feeling him move around in there - not only is it reassurance that he is actually in there but it makes me feel like he is comfortable enough to spread out & make himself comfortable. Silly, yes... but true.

Next up... buying headphones for Flash. What is karate if you can't listen to music while you're doing it?!

Introductions

I had a post all ready to go about this crazy braided lemon bread I made last week but instead, I'd rather share these....




And introduce you to our son....

Dizzy

Today I am feeling a bit dizzy... and a little nauseous... and a tad light headed. This picture really does sum it all up.

Maybe I'll go back to sleep.

17 Weeks

Today I am 17 weeks - our bebe is the size of a turnip. For those of you, like both myself & my husband, who have no idea what size a turnip is... allow me to share:



That's pretty big! I think it's hilarious that the photos that are emailed to me every week with my "updates" show this super skinny woman with a baby snug inside... and very little bump. I'm sorry... I have a TURNIP in my uterus... I'd be shocked and appalled if I didn't have much of a bump. So, without further blathering, here is me at 17 weeks.



It does sort of resemble a turnip..

One more week until we find out what flavor baby we're having and we can hardly wait!

Dear Baby,
Please be spread eagle next Tuesday so we can see if you're a girl or boy turnip.
Love, Mom & Dad

Granola

Today I am making home-made Granola. It is a recipe my mom has been making for years - and still makes for my step-dad. After many weeks of craving Cinnamon Toast Crunch I've decided to try to eat a bit healthier & cheaper and just make my own cereal. Plus, this tends to stick with me better and longer than a silly bowl of CTC. It's so yummy -like a bowl of cookie!



So, in the spirit of giving and sharing, I will be so nice to share with you below the greatest granola recipe! Enjoy!

Granola

1 C Honey
1/2 C Vegetable Oil
Stir together in a saucepan until melted. Remove from heat.
Add:
1 Tbsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Almond extract
Set aside

In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients:
9 C Oats
2 C Wheat or Oat Germ
2 C Sunflower seeds (shelled, obviously!)
1/2C Brown Sugar
7 oz Shredded Coconut (I prefer unsweetened, but to each their own)
2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Nutmeg

Drizzle honey mix over dried ingredients & mix. Divide mix up onto 2 cookie sheets (sprayed with Pam or something similar) with 1-2" sides. Spread evenly & put in 350 degree oven for 8min. Rotate sheets top to bottom & back to front, bake another 8 minutes until edges are browning, like an oatmeal cookie. Remove from oven & stir while cooling. This is important - if you don't stir while cooling the oatmeal will form one big sheet and will be a mess! Once it is thoroughly cooled store in an air-tight container. Granola should be good for about 2 weeks in the container. You can always freeze it if you need to.

Yum!!!!!

New Landscaping!

Mark and have been working on our yard for ever... or at least it feels that way. I think I posted a bit earlier this year about the dramatic down-turn our back yard took. Ugh. Well, things are on the upswing! Yesterday, Mark and I completed the first re-planting done since we moved in almost a year ago. And we have conquered the driveway strip! Yes, it is true!

Mere weeks ago it was dirt & sprinklers... now it is beautiful with 28 society garlic plants and lots of friendly mulch. Oh... it's just so beautiful.


Now we're pumped to keep it going... this weekend while Mark is continuing work on the sprinklers, I will be plotting and planning for the Front Garden!



It's almost too much!

Without Further Ado...

.. I bring you, my belly.

Here's the first official picture of me and my growing belly - 15 1/2 weeks. I am pretty sure that, since I am showing this much this early, that I am going to be very large towards the end of my pregnancy. Good thing it'll be the hottest part of the year... oh wait..



I promise more pics to come.. and fingers are crossed - next week we might find out if we're having a mini me or a mini Mark! hmm... Mini Mark... scary. Cute, but scary.

Mother of all Slackers!

I'm not going to get into it because we all know I am slacking big time. I bet you didn't know that I am already almost 4 months along & going strong into my 2nd trimester. Yep, I am! How the time flies.

So, mini recap from First Trimester...

- Nausea was kicking my butt - felt hungover all the time (without the fun drunken escapade from the night before)

- only ate like a teenage boy for about 2 weeks - then got to start eating a bit more normal

- not too many food aversions or cravings. I definitely am wary of ranch dressing and some chicken things... but mostly good to go for most food

- got our first pictures of bebe and got to hear its heartbeat - precious

Now we're into the 2nd Trimester - I'm still waiting for that burst of energy that I hear is supposed to happen. No dice yet. I do feel better - no nausea! Yay! We have our 3rd Dr appointment next week and there is a chance that we might be able to find out the gender of our wee one. That would just be SO great!

I will do my best to keep updates going. I've also promised pictures which I'll get up this week. Why people want to see pics of my ever-expanding waistline is beyond me!

Until then...

First Photos

Today we had our first doctor's appointment and got to check out our little bebe bun. Measuring in at 1.7 cm, our little blueberry is going strong. We even got to see the little flicker of the heart. I teared up of course... I think Mark was trying to figure out what we were looking at. In his defense, it did look like a little blob on a monitor. We could have been looking at a butterfly pupa for all we knew! But, we weren't... we were looking at our future.

There are days when I stop to think about what having a baby means and I get a little overwhelmed. But then I realize that people do this everyday so it must be even better than I can imagine and we will definitely survive. I think I felt this way when we got married, when we got our 2 cats and when we bought our house too... and so far all 3 of those have been great decisions. We will do awesome.

I can hardly wait to meet our little bun... but not yet.. you keep cooking in there & we'll prepare the world for you out here.

Teenage Boy vs Preglet

Who knows what this is:

1 Cup of Nonfat Milk

1 Plain Bagel w/Light Cream Cheese

1 Bottle of Water

1 Fruit Smoothie (Berries, Pineapple, Banana, Orange Juice)

2 Hard Boiled Eggs

3 Graham Crackers

6 oz Vanilla Non Fat Yogurt

1 Peanut Butter & Honey Sandwich on Wheat Bread

10 Apple Slices

4 Marshmallow Bunnies

1 Bottle of Water

4 Slices of Cheddar Cheese

8 Saltine Crackers

1 Bottle of Water

1 Apple Sauce Pack

25 Peanut Butter Pretzels

1 Serving Orange Chicken

1 Serving Brown Rice

1 Cup Nonfat Milk

2 Joe Joe Cookies

To most people they would guess it is the food consumed by an entire family over the course of 1 day... but no, sadly that is what I am consuming on a daily basis. Variances occur... for instance yesterday I ate oatmeal instead of 2 hard boiled eggs but the pure mass quantity of food is comparable. Yes, it is true... I am pregnant with the worlds hungriest blueberry-sized fetus in the world. I have actually gotten to the point where eating is not fun anymore. You know the trick where if you make someone smoke 20 cigarettes in a row they won't ever want to touch them again because it makes them so sick? That is how I feel about many things. I am trying to push through because I know 2 things: 1) it is good for my little blueberry's development and 2) eating makes me feel better.

I am one of the lucky few that does not really have traditional morning sickness. I have not thrown up. But I do experience constant nausea unless I am eating. Thus, I eat constantly. I could put most teenage boys to shame! When your husband looks at you and says "an entire package of top ramen is not a snack" you've crossed over to the other side. You are at a whole new level. I am at that level.

Next post... why tights are no longer a part of my wardrobe.

Progress?...

When we bought our house last May the landscaping had just been redone & looked very nice. Wait, back up... when we first looked at hour house last April the landscaping had just been redone & looked very nice. Then we entered escrow & the owners of the house stopped caring about the yard & by the time we moved in we had dying grass & a ton of weeds. Then it got hot and even more grass died and more weeds popped up. Sadly enough, after that we decided just let things die out & we'd just attack in the spring. Well, it's spring!

First, a few side-by-side comparison shots... just to paint a picture.







The pictures on the left are from my first visit to this house. The grass is green, the trees are happy, there are accent plants all over. The pictures to the right were taken this morning. Dirt and weeds... and no trees.

One of the first "improvements" we made was to rip out all of our trees. Most of them were fruit trees and they really just were a pain. They attracted bees and dropped fruit all over the ground constantly. I realize that fruit trees do need some maintenance but this seemed excessive... especially for fruits that neither of us really ate all that much of to begin with. If it was a cookie tree or a beer tree, by all means... but lemons? Not so much. So out they went. The guys from Dana Pacific Landscaping did a great job!

This is an on-going project but we're both confident that it will look awesome once we're done. Maybe then we can finally have our housewarming party... a year later!

We did it!

It is true... Mark and I are expecting a baby! My due date is mid-October and we couldn't be more thrilled! We decided that this was news we wanted to share right away instead of waiting until the end of my first trimester to divulge.


So far my only symptoms are fatigue and a cold. Ok, well the cold may not be due to the bun in the oven, but I am still suffering and due to that bun, I can't just pop a couple Dayquils & press on. But it's worth it. I'm on cloud 9! (and my head is a bit cloudy too!)

Let the wild rumpus begin!

It's the little things..

We had a productive day yesterday... A while ago we made a "master list" of all of the household things we needed to do - some small, some pretty decent projects. Yesterday we actually got to cross a few off the list!

First was our shower door - bye -bye! I don't know about you but we weren't fans of our glass shower doors. The seemed to be dirty all the time & noisy and just a pain. So, Mark ripped them off yesterday & replaced them with a nice white shower curtain. Already the bathroom feels bigger & is definitely much brighter!

Next he installed a door guard for our sliding glass door. Since the construction of some of the doors in this house leave us questioning their reliability we're doing what we can to make them a bit stronger. So, in comes the door guard. A simple metal bar that rests between the far side of the door and the back of the actual sliding door. Keeps unwanted people or big animals out!

And last but definitely not least, Mark ripped off the cabinet doors and moved them over so they actually shut now. Before you pretty much had to throw your entire body into the doors to get them to close & stay closed but now it is so simple. I love it.

So... now you're asking "what did YOU do?" It is true... Mark spearheaded all of the above improvements even though I was the one who navigated Home Depot to find silicone caulking and razor blades. But while he was being Handy Manny I was making Creme Brulee and Tomato Soup from scratch... so THERE! Both turned out amazing, by the way.

Another productive day at the Lepperchaun farm!

Jillian Michaels is trying to kill me...

It's true.


Little did I know that Monday night, while perusing through Target, I would sign myself up for my imminent death. While browsing through the exercise DVDs I came across the Jillian Michaels' "Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism" DVD and I thought, "Hey, this is only $10... let's give it a go!"




I am a fanatic Biggest Loser follower and really like Jillian.. until now...



I was actually excited to try my new workout DVD - I came home from a quick trip to the grocery store, threw my exercise clothes on and flipped on the DVD. I was ready! We started with a warm up.. but this was like no warm up I've ever done... I was gasping for breath at only the midway point! What ensued for the next 40 minutes (well, 40 minutes according to the DVD player... probably more like 25ish in real time) was a series of circuit combinations that are meant to give these little "bursts" of calorie burning moves. Each circuit is done 2 times. I think I made through about half of each circuit. The moves are a combination of kick-boxing kicks and punches, jumping drills and a bit of floor work.



I admit fully that I am a bit out of shape - it has been about 3 months since I donned my running shoes for a quick sprint around the neighborhood... but this was a whole different beast. As I watched the DVD, doubled over, gasping for breath, hoping to not pass out on my new yoga mat, I was continuously impressed at how flawlessly the girls in the DVD completed each circuit. You could definitely tell they were working though - not just glossing through each move & then off camera taking a ten-minute breather.



I like this DVD and I think that if I can ever get to a place where I am doing even 75% of the workout I will consider myself triumphant.



Mark asked me if she yells at you the whole time you're working out (sort of like on Biggest Loser) and I said no, she's actually quite pleasant... however, like on the Biggest Loser, she does make you want to throw up on your self! Here's to good health!

New Shoes Baby!

I am so excited today that I just had to share... I got a new pair of shoes. Well, I haven't gotten them yet but I ordered them. It is love. A friend enlightened me to the joy that is Jeffrey Campbell shoes and when I saw these I knew I must have them. Not one second thought plowed through my budget-happy mind when this purchase went through.



I just can't wait until February 28th when they ship!!

Lingerie Party Invitations

Our friends Kelly & John are getting married in about 2 months & I have the proud honor of hosting the "personal shower" next month. I have named it the Tail Feather Lingerie Party. I thought personal shower sounded sort of lame so I came up with my own name for it!

I had today off from work so I decided to put the rainy day to good use and get the invitations put together. I chose to use navy blue invitations & envelopes with a green & pink envelope liner and a peacock feather motif. Check them out...




All supplies are from my favorite store on earth: Paper Source

I can't wait for the party!

Eating Healthy

To keep in line with my new year's resolution of being healthy, I have started buying alot of organic, kosher, free-range, hormone & antibiotic free.. everything.

Last night Mark and I decided to make hamburgers for dinner with a nice side salad - using organic lettuce & tomatoes and hormone/antibiotic free, vegetarian fed, free range ground beef... thank you Trader Joes!

This is my burger. Simple with just a touch of mustard.

And this... is Mark's burger. Complete with 2x as much meat as mine... and don't forget the bbq sauce, sauteed onions & cheddar cheese to complete it.







I'm not sure we're on the same wave length!