"Next Time You See Us, We'll Have a Baby!"

Paul and I had a great trip home this past week. We did a lot but it wasn't too exhausting like previous trips have been. This time we got people together for meals instead of going to each individual house to visit and that helped a lot. Still, next trip (with the baby) will definitely have to be the start of the open house thing where people come by to see us. 

We got into Nashville Wednesday night and our first stop on the way to Jackson was dinner at Cracker Barrel. I told myself I was not going to eat on this trip like I did on the last one, but this meal wasn't a promising start to that resolution. Granted, we had been traveling all day so all I had eaten was a fruit and yogurt cup, a cup of soup, and some crackers. Baby Wilder was kicking me for some real food so for dinner I ordered Chicken Fried Chicken with gravy, mashed potatoes with gravy, macaroni and cheese, steamed carrots, and cornbread. And I didn't just order it, I devoured every bite. It was totally worth gaining a pound or two for sure. 

On Thursday my mom and I had a fun girls day full of mani/pedi's and shopping. Then that night, Paul and I went out to eat with my best friend, Jinny, and her family. Her little girl, Aniston, is 3 1/2 and she was too cute. She wanted to sit between Paul and me so she could talk to me, and at one point she said, "Do you miss me very much?" I really do :) Love these girls! 

Friday night Paul's paternal grandparents had us over to their house for dinner with Paul's dad, sister and brother-in-law, and my parents. As usual, Mama Sue fixed a true Southern smorgasbord for dinner including steak, chicken, okra, cheesy potatoes, salad, rolls, and de-lic-ious homemade strawberry cake. Another blow to my resolution but, again, totally worth it. 

Paul and me with his sister, Audra, and brother-in-law, Michael

Paul and me with his grandparents and dad

And with my parents

On Saturday we left bright and early to drive to Starkville for the MSU/GA game with our good friend, Russell. We got there around lunchtime and tailgated until the game started at 6:30. We hadn't seen our friends, Kristin and Richard, since our trip home last September so it was really great to see them and get to hang out. And, our Bulldogs won the game that night so that made the day even better! Being in that packed-out stadium brought back such great memories and I loved hearing all those cowbells in person instead of on TV from across the country. 

Paul and me with Kristin and Richard

Yeah, it was just a little hot

Paul and Russell (Way to ruin the picture, Paul!)

Maroon! White! Fight fight fight!

We got back to Jackson around 1:00 am Saturday night and then on Sunday there was a shower for baby Wilder at Jinny's house. I was a little tired but the shower was sooo nice and all the details were super cute! Jinny and my friend Celia did an awesome job putting it together and I got to see a lot of people there that I wouldn't have been able to see otherwise. Not to mention, we received so many nice gifts, as well as gift cards that we'll be able to use to buy the things we need to complete the nursery. It was a great day and I feel so blessed to know so many caring people who already love little Wilder. :)

My beautiful sister-in-law and me

Wilder's four great-grandmothers chatting

All the nice gifts (yes, that is a six-foot long alligator and yes, we did manage to get him back to San Diego... crammed into a suitcase, poor thing!)

Cute decorations and yummy food

My mom, grandmother, and me

My sweet mother-in-law and me with the crown and wand she made me :)

My grandmother and me

The lovely hostesses and me

On Monday we ran some errands, started packing (we came back with twice as much stuff as we went with so this required some planning ahead), and went swimming at my grandmother's pool. That was one of my favorite things to do as a child so it was super relaxing. I can't wait to take Wilder there on our next trip. That night we went out to eat with Paul's maternal grandparents and his mom. The food was so delicious and it was really nice to get to visit with them and listen to their stories. 

Tuesday we were going to Memphis to meet my brother for dinner so we drove up a little early and got to see our good friend, Megan, and her new little baby, Mason. We hadn't seen her in a year so it was fun to get to visit and hold the baby, if just for a little while. Then we went and ate some awesome BBQ with my brother and his girlfriend, my parents, and my grandmother. 

Megan, Mason, and me

Paul and baby Mason... seeing him made us really excited for Wilder to be here soon!

Yum... eating at Central BBQ in Memphis

We flew back to San Diego yesterday and the dogs were super excited to see us. We were glad to be home, but it was really hard to leave Tennessee. Everybody we saw I would say, "The next time you see us, we'll have a baby!" That was so weird to think about. We love it out here and wouldn't change a thing, but we're kind of sad not to be around all of our family during this special time in our lives. 

I'm 32 weeks today so we only have 2 months to go. It seems like the last 8 months have flown by so I know the next 8 weeks really will. We have a 4D ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow morning and I can't wait to see his little face. :) I'll post pictures when we get home. OK, now I've got to go get some unpacking and laundry done. Adios!

Stress/De-Stress

I sat at work all day stressing out about how we are going to fit in visits with everybody we want to see while we're in TN this week. It's sooo exhausting running from house to house and trying to spend ample visiting time (usually a couple of hours) at each place. This seriously cannot persist, especially once we have the baby to load and unload at each stop. Therefore, I've come to the conclusion that we have to start consolidating visits, like parents and grandparents together, and maybe even set up a couple of of "open house" days where whoever wants to see us can stop by wherever we're staying. It's really way too hard to spend our entire "vacation" rushing from place to place and trying to fit everything in. I wouldn't go so far as to say it makes us dread coming home, but it definitely makes something we enjoy doing--visiting family--much less enjoyable and much more stressful. 

Thank goodness, when I got home tonight a lot of my stress faded. Paul had done all of the laundry and was in the process of cooking some yummy spaghetti for dinner. I have to say, I kind of like having a "house-husband" :) I also got to Skype with my best friend, Jinny, and her little girl, which was a treat. Then after dinner, Paul and I swaddled a stuffed manatee (which Paul was able to show me how to do thanks to his first-time dads class) and took it for a spin around the neighborhood in our stroller with the dogs in tow. I had read that we should start practicing walking the dogs with the stroller to get them and ourselves used to it. They actually did pretty well with it. I think Posey was a little afraid of it so she actually walked better than she normally does on leash. I don't know if I could walk both of them together with it just yet, but maybe with a little practice. Here are the girls checking out the new contraption and wondering "Is that this 'Baby' fellow Mom and Dad have been talking so much about?'":

I'm also pretty excited because we went to Ikea on Sunday (Best store ever, by the way! Thank you, you wonderful Scandinavians!) and found, not what we went there for, i.e. a changing table and a coffee table, but something much more exciting... CURTAINS! The perfect curtains at that! They are a light sage green linen that perfectly matches the sage green in the crib bedding and they are floor length. Actually, since the Scandinavians are so smart, these curtains come super long with little strips that you use to iron a hem into them to make them whatever length you need. Even a sewing dummy like me can handle that. So now, my curtain dilemma has been solved! Here are the results: 

These pictures make them look a little more chartreuse, but they really are sage green...

They are a little long hung a little low but that's something we'll fix later ;)

OK, well, I better go finish packing... We'll see all of you in a couple of days! Can't wait for the MSU/GA game on Saturday, my baby shower on Sunday, and all the quality time with family to come in the next week! Bear with me if I have to take a nap break in there somewhere. :)

Baby Has a Bed!

Just a quick post to show off Paul's hard work from the other night. He was so sweet to put our crib together for me and then I got to make it up with our bedding. I still have to wash the bedding but I couldn't wait to get it on there and see how it looked. Don't laugh, but I actually had to look up on the computer how it was supposed to go. We're learning as we go around here. :)

It's starting to get real now :)

This is the dot pattern on the inside of the bumper and the crib sheet. Wanted to show it because it just looked white in the other picture. 

Rider's practicing keeping watch over baby Wilder :)

Oh, and the midwife appointment went well on Tuesday. I passed my glucose test, but had to be prescribed an iron supplement because I don't eat enough red meat. I guess I could just frequent In-N-Out burger more often, but since I've now gained 20 pounds (!) I think I'd better just get my iron from a pill. Oh, and she also told us we won't have another ultrasound at all unless something is wrong, so we've decided to go back and get another 4D U/S in the next few weeks. We haven't seen him in 2 1/2 months so I cannot wait to see him again, especially now that he has some baby fat on him. I'm just dying to see his sweet face! :)

A Blah Weekend

This weekend had some good points, but overall I would rate it as "blah". Paul's final project for the quarter is due on Monday, so he has been at the studio from 9:00 in the morning until about midnight every day since Thursday. Being an architecture widow is NOT fun! Although I do have to say, his project looks amazing! I'm so proud of him... but very ready for this quarter to be over so he can come home! Here's what he's been working on (I'll post some better pictures of it later): 

Thursday was sort of a good day because I called in sick to work so I could stay home and watch the MS State football game (shhh, don't tell my boss). I had the whole day to relax, which I needed, but we lost the game so that kind of sucked. 

Friday started out good just because it was Friday. But that night I found out that a high school friend's 11-day-old baby who was born with a heart defect had died. Baby Weston Lee Brake fought hard, but was just too sick in the end. Being pregnant, this absolutely broke my heart and I sat here crying all night. The scary thing is, the defect didn't show up on their 20-week ultrasound and they didn't know about it until just a few weeks before their due date. I can't imagine having to go home to a fully-stocked nursery without your baby -- the thought just kills me. You can read the Brakes' story by clicking here... Have a box of tissues handy. 

Saturday I was busy with errands and interviewing a pet sitter for the dogs, so that kept my thoughts off of Baby Weston and missing Paul. Instead of boarding the dogs when we come back to TN for a week, we are going to leave them here at the house and have a pet sitter come over and feed and walk them daily. It's soooo much cheaper and doesn't disrupt them as much as being stuck in a tiny kennel all week. With their newly discovered love for digging though, the only thing I'm worried about is coming back to a yard that looks like the surface of the moon. But, oh well, can't be helped... unless, if anyone knows how to deter a dog from digging, please let me know! Anyway, I also did a little art project on Saturday for the baby's room... It turned out OK: 

Today I had lunch with a friend from work and, to my surprise, she showed up with all kinds of baby gifts from her, my boss, and another coworker! It was like a little mini-shower for baby Wilder, so that was something fun and unexpected :)

Tomorrow is the start of a 3-week break for Paul and that makes me super happy! Don't tell him, but I've already started on a honey-do list for him. But, most of all, I'm looking forward to getting to spend a lot of time with him since it will be his last break from school before the baby arrives. We have a midwife appointment on Tuesday where we'll find out the results of my glucose test. Then a good friend from college is coming into town for a night either Wednesday or Thursday so that will be fun to get to hang out with him and have our first house-guest in the new house. Oh, and update on the loud neighbor situation -- miracle of miracles, we haven't heard a peep out of him all week and I promise I didn't slip acid into his drink! I think his neighbor complained to the landlord, and probably wasn't the first to do so, and the landlord must have threatened the guy. I don't really care how it happened, I'm just happy he has shut up! We'll see how long it lasts. 

OK, Paul just got home (yay!) so I have to wrap this up... We're counting down the days to our TN trip and can't wait to see everyone! 

Current Obsessions

1) Finding the perfect curtains for the nursery. I registered for the curtains that match the bedding we got for the crib but I have a few problems with them. First, they are short curtains, which I'm not a big fan of; second, they are way more than I would want anyone to pay, myself included, for curtains; and third, I think that so many dots would just get to be a bit much. I'd rather have curtains that a) go all the way to the floor and b) coordinate with, instead of match, the bedding. So, I've been obsessively scouring the internet all week for cute curtains that are the right length, color/pattern, and price. No luck yet. 

I've even considered making curtains myself. I went up and down every aisle yesterday at JoAnn Fabrics looking at fabric options but didn't really find anything that inspired me. Who am I kidding anyway? I have a sewing machine but I might as well be a monkey with a computer for as much as I know how to use it. Actually a monkey could probably use a computer more successfully than I could create anything decent-looking with the sewing machine. 

2) Multigrain Cheerios with bananas and honey. Mmmm :) I swear, my brain will not start functioning in the morning until I have a bowl of this. Poor Paul has had to make many an emergency grocery run for milk so the baby and I can have this deliciousness for breakfast. 

3) Coming up with a way to make the guy across the street turn his music down. Seriously, this guy blares his music from 9:00 in the morning until midnight or later just about every day of the week. I can hear it in our house with all the windows and doors closed. In addition, he has the loudest, most booming voice I've ever heard and seems to always find someone to project it at, aka "talk to." I thought he must have a roommate or a lot of visitors, but, no I've recently found out that most of the time it's just him talking to himself. 

Apparently over the weekend one of his neighbors approached him about his general loudness and they got into an altercation. The police were called and, being the nosy neighbors that we are, we stood behind our fence and listened to his explanation to the cops (wasn't too terribly hard to hear anyway). The guy actually claims he has a "monologue brain system" and, therefore, must speak his thoughts out loud to himself in order to be able to process them.... What?? For the record, I looked it up and there is no such thing and, even if there was, I highly doubt that blasting his music helps him "hear" his thoughts any better. This cannot persist, especially once we have a baby trying to sleep in here, so now I'm considering my options for forcing him to shut up, including sending a power surge through his apartment to fry his electronics in conjunction with some kind of acid drink that will seal his vocal chords closed. That's not too drastic, is it? ;)

4) Mexican food. And what better place to be obsessed with it than right here 20 miles from the border? San Diego has SO MANY amazing Mexican restaurants and we eat at one at least twice a week plus making our own Mexican for dinner at least two other nights a week. Some of our favorite restaurants around town include Rancho's (organic and authentic Mexican food), Mama Testa Taqueria (amazing tacos, beat out Bobby Flay on "Throwdown with Bobby Flay"), and Lucha Libre (best burritos in San Diego). I have to say I've become quite the salsa connoisseur and I love trying all the different dishes and comparing them between restaurants. 

5) Making myself continue to get my daily exercise. This is becoming more and more of a struggle the bigger my belly gets. Plus, just like in the first trimester, persistent exhaustion is a problem again in the third trimester. I just keep reminding myself that the baby is supposed to double or even triple in size in the next few months and I don't want to do the same. So, I literally force myself to walk or take the dogs to the park or do my prenatal yoga every single day. I always feel so much better afterwards, mentally and physically, and certainly less prone to sending a power surge through the neighbor's apartment.

                  

Getting Settled

It's been a few days since my last post, but that's because we've been working our butts off and I haven't had time to sit down much. The house is finally starting to come together courtesy of the long Labor Day weekend and lots of elbow grease. We still have a lot to do, but everything is unpacked and just about everything is in it's place. I spent about an hour down on hands and knees yesterday scraping dried paint off the floor in the baby's bathroom and Paul reseeded the front yard. Today I broke down the many boxes we've unpacked that were in piles by the back gate and Paul put together the stroller our great friends, Holly and Jacob, surprised us with last week. 

All weekend we've been hanging pictures, arranging things, and cleaning, among other things. We've been laboring hard all weekend, so I think tomorrow we'll rest. :)

Here are some pictures of the house up to this point:

Bedroom with new paint job thanks to Paul

(The painting over the bed is one Paul brought back from Brazil years ago; the one on the left on the other wall we got in Spain on our honeymoon; and the one on the right our friend Martin brought us from France for a wedding gift)

Living Room

Paul's work corner in the living room... He's so happy to have room for the desk again!

Nursery so far... We're expecting the crib in the mail next week!

Baby's Bathroom

Kitchen

The dogs' room

Finally have room to display some of the beautiful serving dishes we got for our wedding (and my cookbook collection)!

Side yard

Front yard... A little bit of grass is growing and hopefully more to come. Notice the awful hole in the bottom right corner of the picture next to the sidewalk thanks to Posey :(

This is in the little area between the back of the house and the garage...Have you ever seen such a huge elephant ear plant?? Looks like ol' Fong's been over here gardening :)

So there ya go! That's our house so far. We're really enjoying it and the location... so many great restaurants within walking distance and an awesome park 3 blocks away that I can't wait to take Wilder to. 

In other news Paul has just a couple of weeks left in this quarter (thank goodness!) and then we'll be heading back East for our last trip before the baby gets here. We are so excited to see everyone again! Also, my parents booked their flight to come out for the birth, so hopefully Wilder will decide to come on or before Thanksgiving. If not, I'll be doing a lot of hill-walking, pressure point-massaging, and Eggplant Parmesan-eating (did you know the seasonings in that Italian dish are supposed to induce labor?). Paul and I are both so thankful they'll be here for a week and a half to help us out! 

Well, I hope everyone has a wonderful remainder of their long weekend! Adios!