aww...

E: I wish I was Daddy.

me: Why honey?

E: So I could marry you real quick.

love my sweet boys!

30 week check-in

baby girl and i are doing great!

i finally hit 188 lbs. this is significant because it was my wedding weight. pretty proud to say that i hit the same weight at 30 weeks pregnant. i only gained 3 lbs this month, and doc says i'm doing great with managing that. last time around i couldn't stand to eat salad or chicken and ate a ton of processed foods. this time i have a salad for lunch about 3 times per week and have pretty much lost my taste for processed foods and diet soda. sure i've had my fair share of ice cream and oreos, but all in moderation.

here are a few more comparisons between 1st and 2nd pregnancy...

1st: "are you excited?"
2nd: "is ethan excited?"

1st: hips hurt so badly i couldn't sleep
2nd: sleeping like a rock

1st: carried baby up so high it was hard to take a deep breath. baby also had lots of hiccups.
2nd: carrying baby so low i can barely make the morning drive without pulling over at a rest stop

1st: read the books and mostly followed the rules
2nd: not reading more that weekly vegetable size comparison (we're currently at cabbage). breaking the rules a bit with some sushi and a glass of wine once in a while. well, just breaking the american rules. i prefer to follow asian and european guidelines when it comes to food & drink.

1st: 50% excited/50% nervous
2nd: 90% excited/10% nervous

nine weeks to go if i schedule c-section (still a little up in the air, but likely will go that route). ready to get this show on the road!

26 weeks pic

rescued

We found you one snowy Sunday, wedged between a wood laminate desk and a 1980s sectional at lonely little place called Bargain Barn. This place could have been the inspiration for Retail Rodeo from The Good Girl.

The nice salesman came down pretty quickly from $49 to $30, and then threw in a cute little bookshelf for $10 more. We were the first tire tracks in a week-old snow at the loading dock where a man in polyester pants put you in the back of the pickup.

When you arrived, you were missing a drawer pull, had a big gouge in the front, and one drawer wouldn't open. I cleaned the spider nests off the bottom of you and big poppa got to work before I could get a true "before" pic.

Some wood filler, a few coats of killz and a couple layers of honey milk latex paint did the trick to get rid of that ugly brown. A bar of soap helped your sticky drawers slide a little smoother. Then we found just the right pewter drawer knobs, lined the inside with some contact paper and hey.. you clean up kind of nice!

Wow, your drawers go on forever! Baby Girl won't have any worries about where to fit all of her clothes, hair bows, and blankets.

On top you have the honor of displaying the most precious of knick-knacks. You will keep safe all the little items not yet suitable for little hands. Currently on display is a replica ballerina jewelry box just like I had as a little girl. And Susie.

Susie is a little doll who was once rescued by my Grandma Nellie from an old attic. She was filthy, naked and nearly bald. My Grandma took her in, cleaned her up and made her an outfit. She put barretts in her hair and hand-stitched her bonnet, dress, under-slip, socks and booties. She put so much love into something others threw away... just like we did with you.

Welcome home. It won't be long now before you meet your new owner...

taking time for memories

we've been working on cleaning out drawers, closets, etc. in preparation for baby girl. i've stumbled upon quite a few treasures along the way, one of which is e's baby book.


"hm" i think to myself. "i wonder what all i wrote. i don't remember writing much."


there's a page where i filled in the family tree..


and that's about it. oh lord, i am in trouble.


so tonight i spent a couple hours filling in some blanks here and there. i did have his baby hospital bracelet tucked in there and i'm 90% sure i know where the little footprints and handprints are. just need to order a few photos from 2006 off of walgreens.com and we should be up to speed!


it's truly amazing how time gets away from us. maybe i live in the moment a little too much sometimes and forget to jot down the memories from just yesterday. then yesterday turns into last year. and i start to forget the little stuff.


i made a promise to myself tonight (over a jar of dill pickles) to do some better record-keeping from here on out. more photos. more videos. more note-taking.


life happens in a flash.






started to pull a baby pic from 2006... but landed on this one instead. even more of an example of why we need to capture and savor the little moments.

big brother's hot rod room

before tackling baby girl's room, we had the task of big brother's "hot rod" room. we also had not painted the trim in either bedroom since transforming the rest of the house's orangey 80's oak trim to a honey milk white about a year ago. so off to lowe's we go.

for the walls we found a great denim blue color, appropriately named Jekyll. i found a couple of cool vintage race car prints online to replace some french soda ads i had framed when decorating my first baby's room.

before...

and after...


i needed a large piece for over his bed, but struggled with the prices of stretched canvas and large poster art. my walls are textured, so i can't really use those trendy decals. i considered tacking a rug or pegboard up, and then finally found this little gem. a 24 x 36 floor puzzle for $19 - jackpot! a silver frame and a little modpodge later... and voila!

(striking his best vanna white pose)

everything else is pretty much the same or other pieces that i already had (such as the blue side table). i think it turned out pretty cute!

(orbs!)

next up...

home remedies

i've had a killer sore throat for almost a week now, and since i can't take much medicine i decided to try a few home remedies.

first i sipped an apple cider vinegar/honey/lemon/warm water mix. it felt good going down and tasted surprisingly good, but not much of a lasting effect.

next i tried gargling cayenne pepper and warm water. holy moses! it wasn't super terrible, but not pleasant either. and i noticed no difference afterwards, other than a burning sensation in my mouth.

everyone kept telling me to do the salt water gargle, and i hadn't tried it yet because i had memories of it from when i was younger and never thought it worked. but it was worth another shot. it was definitely better than the cayenne pepper, and has made my throat a little more tolerable, but i was disappointed at 3am this morning when i woke up and couldn't swallow without extreme pain.

during the day i am doing better but night is what gets me. i don't think going to the doctor will do much good since i can't take anything, so back i go to my google research...