Mini Monday: 30 Weeks Pregnant

I really don’t want to be one of those people — you know, the ones who talk exclusively about pregnancy, babies and baby things — but today I’ve simply got baby on the brain so you’re getting a mini-earful of baby news.

• I’m at 30 weeks today and am still getting lots of kicks from my cucumber/cabbage size baby (and no, those two veggies are not similar in size at all…) who is approximately 2.75 pounds (which seems like an awfully heavy cucumber or cabbage…) and is about 16 inches long.

• I on the other hand cannot be compared to a fruit or vegetable as I feel that I am approximately the size of a beached whale, but other very kind people, my husband included, keep saying I look very fit for 30 weeks. I have lots of walking and Jazzercise to thank for that one! My fingers are crossed that the heat isn’t too bad this summer and I can keep up my exercise regime until the baby comes.

• To emphasize how “beached whaley” I am feeling, my husband and I were listening to classical musical for most of the afternoon yesterday and at one point, he started to dance with me. The next thing I knew there was a spin (no problem there) and a “lift.” Oh, my poor husband. I am pretty petite and stand 5′ tall whereas he is 6’1″ so typically a lift is no problem, but when he tried yesterday I’d say he got me about an inch off the ground and made such a horrible noise in his attempt to pick me up. Well, needless to say we both dissolved into laughter and I wasn’t feeling very petite anymore! He also said, “I definitely think this needs to go in the blog tomorrow.” So this one is for you, babe.

• It’s happened. I’ve started attracting the random belly rubs that I’ve been dreading all along and really, it is just plain weird. Why do strangers — and frankly even acquaintances — think that a woman wants them to rub her belly?? I’ve had good friends ask if they can touch my belly, which is fine, but people I barely know or don’t know at all? Paws off!

• Our baby hippo really likes being on the right hand side of my belly. I don’t know what it is — head, butt, elbow — but he frequently maneuvers himself so that I feel a huge hunk of baby sticking out. It’s always on the same side, usually in the same spot, and it is super weird. If I massage him, eventually he will find his way back into the normal realm of my belly space. All I can say is that creating a baby is definitely interesting!

• Over the weekend, my husband built the dresser that will also double as a changing table for our little hippo. Although we have a wall decal to put up for decoration, the room is pretty well put together. Now I can spend the rest of the summer (post-baby showers) washing tiny clothes and putting them, diapers and blankets where they belong. I’m trying to keep my nesting mania to a minimum for my hubby’s sake. I can see him rolling his eyes now.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday!

 

 

The Past 13 Days…

I hate to sound like a Debbie Downer, but things have been a bit rough around our house the past few weeks. It all started on June 6, when my husband’s bike lock was cut on our front porch and the seatless ride was stolen (he kept the seat and helmet in the house). Two days later our water heater stopped working in the middle of my shower and yes, I had conditioner in my hair when everything went ice cold. Needless to say, that was less than awesome. Now, 10 days later, despite three visits from the plumber last week which included 5 minutes of hot water when it was “fixed” Friday morning, we are still without a functioning unit. Maybe today will finally be the day when a new switch gets installed and, dear God, if that doesn’t solve the problem there will be a seriously cranky pregnant lady over here!

On top of that excitement I managed to break — and when I say break I really mean shatter — a large, seriously heavy duty duralex drinking glass INTO the dishwasher. Ah, the joys of home ownership…

Since I am well into a rant, let me add that I’m 29 weeks pregnant and it’s approximately a million degrees outside (again) so needless to say I am a little on the uncomfortable side.

With all those negative things floating around, I’m trying my best not to focus on the bad stuff (although it sure doesn’t sound like it in the previous paragraphs, does it?). There are many things I am grateful for this week:

• We can afford to fix our hot water heater (if anyone ever figures out exactly what is wrong with it…), that we have no shortage of water here in DC and that my brother-in-law and sister-in-law live just down the block so we have somewhere to take warm showers (thanks guys!)
• Our garden is growing in leaps and bounds thanks to the numerous downpours last week. Also the flowers I planted around the outer borders of each bed are finally starting to bloom and add color to our backyard.
• Speaking of the garden, my hubby was able to pick an entire bowl of delicious, tart blueberries from one of our plots on Saturday morning. Yum.
• And speaking of my hubby, he finished re-painting our bedroom Saturday, taking us from red to a really lovely blue/gray. And with the help of my brother-in-law our furniture is no longer all in the middle of the room, which is a definite plus when it comes to navigating my many middle of the night trips to the bathroom.
• Work is busy, busy, busy which is always something to be pleased about.
• After living in DC for about 5 years, we finally have air conditioning in the house, which has been a huge relief.
• And our baby hippo is roughly the size of a butternut squash this week. Or an acorn squash, depending on what baby app I’m looking at. Also I am feeling lots of kicks and jabs and who knows what from the baby, which always makes me smile.

Speaking of hippos, look what came in the mail from our financial planner’s office the other day:

Here’s to keeping the bright side in focus, even on rough days!

Mini Monday: The Seven Year Itch

I just couldn’t resist using this as the title for a post about our seventh wedding anniversary, even though research has shown that the “3 year glitch” is the new “7 year itch” when it comes to marital woes. So phew, I guess we’ve made it honey!

As we enter our seventh year of marriage, the most exciting thing on the horizon is the little bundle of joy that is scheduled to join our family in September. We are keeping things pretty low key this year in terms of anniversary celebrations, but the traditional seventh anniversary gift is copper and my husband just happened upon a super shiny penny from the year we got married the other day. I thought it was such a sweet gesture (I was really just impressed that he knew copper was the appropriate gift… I had no idea!). During the weekend we picked up this little copper heart from a vendor at Eastern Market to put in the nursery. It was our small, but sweet, gift to each other.

But I wanted to do something to surprise to him, and I decided that would be putting two tulips — purple like the day we got married — in the bud vase we were given on our wedding day.

As the years tick by, I know I couldn’t have asked for a better partner — who else would stay up until 11 pm working to assemble an Ikea bed? Or spend his entire weekend organizing and cleaning the house from top to bottom because there are so many things I can’t move or clean properly these days? Or who encouraged me to quit my full-time job to start my own freelance firm? Or who is willing to get up at 6:30 am on a Saturday to help me set up my Jazzercise class? Or who puts his hand on my belly and talks to our son in crazy voices (at first I was worried that our son wouldn’t recognize my husband’s voice when after being born, but then I realized he’s still going to talk to the baby with crazy voices so we should be good)? The list goes on and on and I am more grateful to have him in my life with every passing day.

 

Happy Administrative Assistant Day — To Me!

Being self-employed means I am responsible for everything involved in my business life. Not only do I need to make sure I complete my actual projects in a timely fashion (which is pretty important), but I am also my own IT department and responsible for taking care of all the mundane tasks involved in keeping a business afloat like invoicing, tracking expenses, filing my taxes, etc. You know, the really fun stuff.

So when I was reminded that today is administrative assistant day, I thought I’d better let myself know I am appreciated! I’m enjoying working from our new breakfast room this morning with my sweet treat thanks to my awesome boss — a peanut butter chocolate cupcake (totally good for the baby, think of all the iron and protein in the peanut butter!) and a (decaf) iced mocha. Also, I managed to get “I Am My Own Best Friend” from Chicago stuck in my head this morning. Of course, I am belting out “I am my own administrative assistant!” to myself which doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.

Happy administrative assistant day!

Mini Monday: Ikea Furniture Assembly

Well the title of this post pretty much sums it up — Ikea furniture assembly is a true test of understanding directions with no words, boxes with an endless amount of parts and, typically, missing or broken pieces.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. A few months ago we decided that it was about time we upgraded from our full bed to a queen. After 7 years, my hubby (who is 6’1″) and I could really use just a little more room — particularly since my body pillow is now taking up more than its fair share of space.

But I digress, we purchased said bed during the government shutdown when my husband had time to go to Ikea during a weekday. Since then it’s been sitting around in boxes waiting for our renovation to be complete and yesterday evening after a delicious, ham-filled Easter meal we finally got the ball rolling on setting up the new bed. (And by “we” I clearly mean “he” got the ball rolling. I *did* vacuum the carpet when the old bed was moved out. Five years of dust bunnies — pretty terrifying!)

Despite not starting the assembly process until around 5 or 5:30 and having a 30 minute interruption when our neighbors came by the check out the house, my husband worked continuously on that bed throughout the evening because he knew how much I wanted to be able to sleep in it. And he ALMOST had it ready for us too, but the screws for some of the support beams were not included… I believe this was discovered around step 48. He kept going and took care of everything else involved in the 53 step process, but we spent our evening in the basement sleeping in our old bed. This morning I was off to Ikea straight away for replacement screws. Fingers crossed that they gave me the right ones! Then we can cross one more thing off our lengthy to-do list.

 

Mini Monday: Five Month Hiatus

Hi there! It’s me again. I know we haven’t connected this way since early December … sorry about that! I’m mulling over the list of things I should have been blogging about since then and it’s a good one. So here’s a rundown of what’s been going on and I am hoping with this mini post, I’ll get my blogging booty back in gear!

Since my last post:

• Our house renovation has been completed! And it looks amazing! We are just starting to get used to having (and using) our new space. It’s wonderful to have the extra light and a much more open feeling to our floor plan than we had before the remodel. It’s leading to some interesting projects … more on those in a future post!

• In other “addition” news, my hubby and I found out in January that we are expecting our first little one in September! I’m so grateful that, despite being tired and hungry, I haven’t had any morning sickness or complications so far. At the beginning of the pregnancy the baby was making me so hungry that we nicknamed him/her the hungry, hungry hippo. Hopefully tomorrow our little hippo cooperates and we will find out whether we are having a boy or a girl. I can’t wait to know!

• Okay so back to the house, the contractor’s portion of the work was completed in mid-March. Now we (and I use the term “we” loosely as it is mostly my husband) are still taking care of all the little things — re-arranging rooms, hanging art, putting things away, yard work. Thankfully we received A LOT of help from my amazing in-laws and my mom who were all visiting in March. Quite a few things got crossed off the to-do list during their time in DC — painting, cleaning, hanging new ceiling fans, the list goes on and on. Now it’s just the two of us plowing through what remains of the list, so thank goodness for weekends allowing us to continue making progress!

• After a terribly long winter (it snowed like crazy on March 30!!) spring has finally sprung in DC. While our yard was a total wreck because of the construction, the garden beds have been cleaned up and planted (with the exception of tomatoes and peppers) and we have flowers going in pots and planters, too. The other side of the yard is still in need of a lot of TLC. One thing at a time!

• We briefly escaped DC for a long weekend in Florida, in fact we managed to depart while it was snowing and returned just in time for yet another snow storm. It was great to catch up with the family and friends we visited in the Sarasota/Tampa area and I made a new friend while we were there — Cliff the Penguin!

 

Phew! I told you that we have had a lot going on! It may be a Monday, but I can still say I’m grateful to have ice cream in the freezer (hey, I’m pregnant, don’t judge my four different pints…okay, okay there are five…) and for being able to have the windows open while I work. Hope you are all having a great start to the week!

Mini Monday: Gloomy Weather

Yesterday’s snow flurries started off grand — the fluffy white flakes were falling delicately from the sky, leaving a crisp, clean blanket of snow throughout the city. It was all the more lovely for sharing a tasty brunch with friends and seeing the snow drift past the windows while we were warm inside. But somewhere around midday the precipitation transitioned to tiny balls of sleet and then to icy rain. Ugh. So the pretty dustings of snow were washed away well before we woke up this morning and instead things are crunchy with ice.

I’m guessing that this weather means work on the house will be on hold for the next few days, although on Saturday evening they finished up framing the roof! It’s hard to see in this picture, but I’d have to walk through our icy yard to snap a better shot so for now this will have to do.

Now I sit in bed listening to it rain and trying to motivate myself to get moving on this grey Monday. At least I have tomorrow’s predicted 2-4 inches of snow to look forward to! I can’t wait to watch the flakes fall outside my office window, while sipping a hot mocha and thinking about the Christmas holiday being right around the corner.

It’s Beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas…

I love decorating for Christmas and typically do so the day after Thanksgiving, but this year with our California visitors we couldn’t skip ahead to the next holiday as quickly as usual. Last night we finally had the opportunity to get our house holiday ready. Since we spend a large portion of the holidays away from home at Christmas we typically don’t get a tree. This means getting creative with our lights, garlands, and the handful of ornaments we chose to display. I loved the way my husband decorated our grandmothers clock this year!

On top of decorating, we had a surprise visit from Sinterklaas last night. My husband is half Dutch which is apparently enough to make it onto Sinterklaas’ list despite our distance from the Netherlands. We didn’t have wooden shoes to leave out for him, but thankfully he left his own filled with chocolates, oranges and sprigs of greenery. What a delicious way to kick off the Christmas season!

Mini Monday: We Have Walls!

The renovation to our house is starting to take shape. We have moved from just a drawing on paper and a vision in our mind to four complete walls for our basement level storage room! Despite not being terribly interested one way or the other about incorporating bricks from our original pillars into the new structure during the planning stages, I love the way it breaks up the dull cinder blocks and ties back to the rest of the house.

Today, despite very chilly temps (which I am able to experience thanks to an open main level door… brrr…), the guys are hard at work on building the first floor. I am loving watching everything come together, I just need to find my gloves!

Mini Monday: November?!

I cannot believe that it is already November! Where has 2013 gone? After a gorgeous fall weekend full of sunshine and bright blue skies, the weather seems to have decided it is winter today. Just in advance of the cold shift, I managed to harvest a bowl full of cherry tomatoes and seven or eight small green bell peppers from the garden yesterday. There were also a few larger tomatoes, a cucumber, a handful of green beans and some cayenne peppers. We may get a couple more cherry tomatoes in the next few days, but I think that the garden season is pretty much over here in DC.

Front and center on my radar this week is our home renovation project (guessing it will be front and center for quite some time…). We are in the fifth day of active work and our back porches are gone! It has been (mostly) neat to be home while the crew is working so I can take pictures and see the house at all stages of disrepair. Sometimes it has been loud, but so far, I’ve been able to plug away on my own projects while they are tearing the house apart. Here’s the back of our house sans porches — we certainly will not be using those doors for awhile! Also we have never had so much natural light in the dining room — it’s amazing, albeit a bit chilly. It will be wonderful when these windows and the pair in the office above get replaced. They are the final four original windows in the house and single-pane glass from 1937 isn’t exactly the most efficient…