San Diego Babymoon Day 1

Now that it's almost been a month, I figured I should recap our little "babymoon" vacation. We debated where to go. Ideally, we wanted to go to Hawaii. It's one of our favorite places to visit, it's not that long of a plane ride, and who knows when we'll be able to make it back after the baby is born.

But it was still a little nerve wracking to be so far from home at 26 weeks. Plus we were planning our vacation for spring break and it would have been more expensive to go for a couple of days than it was to go for our honeymoon.

We decided that San Diego was a perfect location for what we wanted to accomplish (relax) and what we wanted to spend (not much).

On the drive down, I asked Brian if we could stop in Temecula for a couple of hours. That's where I went with Alexis and Rachael for my bachelorette party, and I thought Brian would enjoy it there. 

I was right! We had some awesome cheeseburgers for lunch and walked up and down Old Town antique shopping. We found a gift for my brother and some awesome old Golden Books (remember those??) for 69 cents each! Baby has quite the book collection started! Then we were on our way.

It was kind of like coming full circle because our first little vacation together was in San Diego.

San Diego Zoo, April 2010

The last time we were in San Diego, we went to the zoo, Little Italy, some museums... it was awesome, but we wanted to do some different things this time around.

We decided to spend more time in the downtown area- the Gaslamp District. So that's where we stayed! We spent the first two nights at the Gaslamp Plaza Suites Hotel.

Our view

It was an awesome location, right in the middle of the downtown area, within walking distance to all kinds of restaurants and shops.

The hotel itself was a new kind of experience! It's a historical site that was built in 1913 and at 11 stories, it was the city's first skyscraper! It used to be an office building and it was converted into a hotel in the 80s. Each room is a suite with a little kitchen and living area. They served breakfast each morning on the rooftop. It was quaint and unique!

After we checked in that first day, we explored the hotel and then decided to go for a walk around the city. We made our way down past the convention center and over to Seaport Village to explore their shops. 

I got really excited when I spotted a duck and her ducklings. Motherly instinct kicking in?

 

We walked, shopped, and people watched. Some of our favorite things to do!

We walked back towards the hotel and we passed Petco Park, where the Padres play. We had tickets for later in the trip, but it was cool walking around the stadium. It's so much more fan-friendly than Dodger Stadium. (Another reason not to like the Dodgers??)

We started discussing dinner. We were both still pretty full from lunch, but we had noticed a Ghiradelli chocolate shop near our hotel. So we split a chocolate banana sundae. Perfection! By this point, it was past my bedtime after 8:00 and we were tired from walking around all day, so we decided to call it a night. 

We had an early wake up call the next day anyway... Sea World!

To Be Continued...

So this thesis thing...

I had my final defense this afternoon. Basically, it's a presentation of everything that I've been working on for the last 5 or so years in front of a committee of my former professors (but it's actually open to anyone interested), and they have to decide if my work is good enough to be published and my degree granted.

I was really close to finishing before Brian and I got married. Like, I was done with all of my classes, but I still had writing to do. Well, obviously planning a wedding is a lot more fun than writing a thesis, so I took the 2010-2011 school year off to focus on wedding fun. I jumped back into it this last Fall, ready to be done once and for all.

I finished writing it last semester, and only needed to have it read by my adviser, make some edits, and them have my committee approve it. Easy. We all thought it would be done by January/February. Somehow, it still all got pushed to the last minute- like the deadline for submission is next FRIDAY! 

Believe it or not, 8 days early is actually pretty good for a master procrastinator like myself. That's assuming that my committee passed me, of course...

Well...

I PASSED!!! 

So that's all pretty much over! I was stressing about today too. I don't mind public speaking, but it's pretty intimidating to present years of work to professors in the field. Professors that hold my future in their hands. Professors that could potentially cost me more time and money if they make a lot of demands.

I spoke to quickly. I said "um" maybe 86 times. I stumbled over some words. I was dripping sweat.

But I was passionate about what I was talking about, I was able to give strong answers to each of their questions, and I had some pretty awesome visual aids. 

I am going to sleep well tonight!

I'm writing on my lunch break right now, so my time is limited. I just wanted to check in (if anyone is still reading) and let you know I'm still alive and well and very pregnant!

I have a lot of fun stories and pictures to share, but first things first- I'm defending my thesis tomorrow evening, so most of my concentration has been on that recently.

In short, I'm still going to the gym as often as I can (usually 5-6 times a week), work is going very well... so well, in fact, that I may have a happy announcement soon, I'm finally getting a rounder baby bump so it doesn't just look like a fat-guy belly, and I've been starting to "nest" but I don't feel like I can really concentrate on the nursery/house until after tomorrow!

I still need to post about our babymoon, update some pictures, and show you what the finished book case looks like! Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow night with some good news! :) 

DIY Silhouette Tutorial

Silhouettes seem to be all the rage right now and with a new room to decorate, I wanted to get in on the action! I found several tutorial that seemed easy enough- but I don't have a projector and after seeing how expensive self-adhesive vinyl can be, I decided to forgo that route for a first time project. This is my super easy version of  DIY silhouette art...

First, you find (or take) the picture that you want to use. I would say if you're just using someone's head, use a profile picture. But if your subject is an animal, it could be fun to use a full-body shot in an off-beat pose, like I did here. For this project, I decided to take a new picture of Kevin. The only problem was that Kevin happens to be a total ham.

He will pose for the picture and then as soon as the shutter clicks, he will lunge for the camera. He really enjoys smiling. Needless to say, it's not easy to get him to focus on something other than the camera to get that profile shot.

Unless I catch him looking out the window. In fact, that's what he's doing as we speak I type.

Cute, right? Neighborhood watch at its finest. Anyway, I said something to the effect of, "Kevin, look at that bird!" and I pointed out the window. (There was no bird. I feel kind of bad. But I got my shot!)

Boom! He looks intense, right?
I uploaded it to my computer and changed it to sepia so I could see the definition around his head better.

Next, I printed that bad boy out, cut out around his head, and gathered my supplies...

Supplies:

• cut out of your picture
• canvas in the size you want
• acrylic paint
• paint brushes
• something to mix paint in (if you don't care for the colors the paint comes in)
• double sided tape (not pictured)

Once my supplies were laid out, I stuck some double sided tape along the edges of the back of my cut out.Then I positioned it on the canvas. Because Kevin was looking down when I snapped the picture, I thought he looked kind of sad. I wanted to make sure he looked more proud in his silhouette, so when I attached the picture to the canvas, I titled his head at the angle I liked.

Next, I mixed my paint. I wanted a soft pink, but only had hot pink, white, and brown. So I mixed a lot of the hot pink with a lot of the white and a dab of brown to get the shade I was looking for.

Then I painted around the edges (cutting in, I suppose), brushing out from the picture to ensure that my paint started at the edge of the picture and didn't seep underneath. I wasn't sure if this technique would work until I was finished...

After I finished the edges, I filled in the rest of the canvas so that the pink would be on the outside and the actual silhouette would be white. (If you wanted another color for the silhouette, paint the canvas that color first, let it dry, and then begin from the start of my instructions.)

After I finished my painting, I peeled off the picture, and ta-da!!!

 It still looks a little splotchy in the picture because it was drying, but it looks pretty sweet now that it's all dry!
And Kevin approves!

Now I just have to find the perfect spot for it in the nursery! :)

Week 23

This whole last week has been kind of lame. The weather's been kind of cold and crappy, work was dragging on all week, and Brian had to work a lot of overtime. Kind of the opposite of perfect. All of the down time led me to try something new- attempting to crossover to a self-hosted blog. Turns out it was a little bit more complicated than what I was expecting and my patience was just too short to try to deal with it. And for as much crap as people talk about Blogger, I've really liked it. That's kind of all that really matters. I'm sticking with this for now. Enough of that.

This is what I'm looking like now:

Pretty hefty, huh?

I think the camera may have added those 10 (or 20) pounds though. I mean, obviously I'm getting bigger, but I look like a cow in the 23 week picture. In my own defense I ate a pretty big burger for lunch and I had just downed a cup of almond milk.

Or maybe it was a bad angle.

Or maybe I'm just that effing big now. I don't know... more pictures to come soon though.

On a positive note, I managed to squeeze into my old jeans last night (which I hadn't tried in a couple of weeks, so that's a good thing, I guess).


On another positive note, the baby is definitely getting bigger and stronger. She's kicking a lot more, which is very reassuring. And now, not only can Brian feel her, but we can see her moving! It's nothing too crazy yet, but if I lay down, all of a sudden my stomach will twitch. Right now it just kind of looks like a muscle spasm, but it's neat. :)
Saturday
Brian had to work all day yesterday, so that kind of sucked, but I got to spend some time with my family, so it worked out. My mom and I went to our step class in the morning. I noticed that although my energy level is back up, my dexterity level is down. Like, if I make the wrong move in class (which happens more frequently than I'd like to admit), I can't adjust my body in time to catch up anymore, so I have to stop and figure out where the class is, and then join them again. It's kind of frustrating, but if I concentrate, I think I can manage. Or I could just look like an idiot. Either way.

After class, we went to Joann Fabric to get some quilting supplies so we can finally begin our project. While I was there, I got a canvas to I could make an art project...

A Kevin silhouette for the nursery! I'll post a tutorial tomorrow- it's super easy. And Kevin-approved!

That night after Brian got home, we went over to our friend Rachael's house for some corned beef and cabbage. It was St. Patrick's day, after all! It was nice to get to spend good quality time with our buddies.

Sunday
Today was a good day. We rounded up the moms and went to Buy Buy Baby to start our gift registry! Buy Buy Baby is affiliated with Bed Bath and Beyond and it's basically laid out the exact same way- a huge store filled with baby stuff. We've been in there 4 or 5 times now and each time, I get super overwhelmed. Like, I don't even know where to begin to shop for things.

Brian put up with me pretty well because I was kind of being a jerk. Not to him, but in general. The long week caught up with me, I was exhausted, and being in a huge store and not knowing what's what was making me feel like a pretty inadequate mom-to-be. But the moms were patient with me and Brian calmed me down. So between us, the moms, and a very helpful saleswoman, I think we made some pretty good decisions about what we want to get for the baby. Oh, and we bought a crib, so that was pretty exciting! Things are starting to come together and I'm feeling a lot better. And I got to spend more time with this guy today,

and what could be better than that? :)

Testing the blog

I'm in the process of transferring this blog over to a self-hosted one. But it's getting frustrating. Probably because it's 2 hours past my bedtime. I'm going to put it down for tonight... not even sure if this is going to post.

Fingers crossed.

Good night!

Soooo... I'm supposed to be working on my thesis right now. I gave myself a goal for the weekend to finish all of the edits my adviser has given me so far. It's been difficult to focus recently, but I put off finishing my degree last year because of the wedding, and I definitely want to be done with now so I don't have to worry about it once the baby is born. There is so much that I have going on right now- exciting, fun things that I'm actually looking forward to doing, so I decided to do a thesis-writing break to write an exciting-things-post...

Short Term

• A nice, quiet night at home cuddling my boys and watching some Netflix.
• Step class tomorrow morning- I've been feeling pretty good during workouts lately. Definitely not working out as hard as I used to, but I'm feeling pretty good when I consider my new size. (belly is currently having over the lap top, BTW. That would be it to your right!)
• Picking up the guys right after class and heading over to watch my old softball girls play a game. I miss them and I miss watching them play, so it will be nice.
• Date night (I think Friends with Kids- I have high hopes since Bridesmaids!)
• Working on projects with my mom and dad... my mom and I need to get some supplies for our quilt and my dad and I are putting the finishing trim on the bookcase, then sanding, then painting! :)

Trim!

 Long Term

• We're planning a Babymoon... spring break is coming up in 3 weeks, and I'll be about 26 weeks along, so it would be perfect timing because I won't be huge and I'll still feel comfortable walking around. We're planning on going to San Diego. Not too far, but relaxing and fun!

 Which brings me to...

• Spring Break! Who wouldn't look forward to a week of no work?!
• I want to sign up for a short race while I still can. Just because I want to try. Not to PR, obviously. Just to say that I did. I found this one...

 Proceeds go towards victims of abuse (it has nothing to do with cats) and it's like, 20 minutes from my house. win-win.

•  I signed up for two online classes yesterday through mu old community college. They're six weeks long and I'm pretty stoked about them- a photography class based on how to shoot human subjects and a photoshop class. Photography has always been interesting to me. And photographers are so expensive these days, I figure if I learn more about this art, I can take my own portraits of the baby on a regular basis... something like that!
• A possible role change at work, but it's still hush-hush so that's all I'll say for now!
• I'm having a baby, duh!

There's probably more, but those are the big things on my mind lately. Time to get back to work before Brian gets home so I can enjoy more weekend fun-time with him! :)

Have a great weekend!

Passing on my inner nerd...

I always enjoyed reading while I was growing up. My parents have a picture in of me that is still hanging in their hallway from when I was like a year old, fast asleep with a book opened up and resting on my chest. My mom used to continues to tell people that I brought a book to my first Dodger game. Before I got a TV in my room, I used to put myself to sleep with a book every night. I still have my huge collection of Baby Sitters Club books hidden away in a closet, and you know I've read each one at least twice.

Needless to say, I like getting lost in a good book and I believe all the reading I did as a child helped me immensely in school and broadened the range of my imagination. I want my daughter to enjoy reading as much as I do, so like I discussed in my last post, I want to create a reading area in her room from the get-go.

Over the weekend, my dad and I started working on a book case. My dad's pretty awesome- as soon as I told him what I wanted to do, he sprang into action by creating plans and drawing out dimensions of shelves. We went shopping for a bunch of lumber and started construction on Saturday morning.

A couple of hours in, Brian came over and jumped right in to help. Why wasn't he there from the beginning, you ask? It's because he's the best husband ever! He stayed home to vacuum and do dishes while I went to go play with power tools. He's awesome! ♥

But like I said, as soon as he got there, he jumped right in, so this piece of furniture is really going to be a collaboration of love for this little girl! We're still not done yet. We still have some trim to add and then some sanding and painting to do, but it's looking good!

One of the highlights of my week was coming home to one of my first purchases for the baby... books!!!

Sure, they're well beyond the reading comprehension level of a baby-toddler-young child, but they're classic stories (that I want to read/reread myself), so I'm going to start young! I felt kind of silly at first, but I'm looking forward to diving into some of these stories with her. Plus, Brian and I found a bunch of Golden Books (remember those?) and Disney books that we'll read to her too.

I'm so excited for it all! These books are really cool too- leather bound with shimmery pages and even some very pretty illustrations.

Purdy!

And for anyone keeping track, I've moved into my 22nd week, so here's last week's picture:

And compared to the previous weeks':

Starting to get bigger! The cool thing is, aside from the occasional heartburn (which is bad when it hits), I'm feeling pretty darn good. I'm staying awake later, I have more energy, and I'm starting to look pregnant in clothes and not just fat and frumpy. I've been feeling good at the gym each morning and the ladies there have been very sweet and complimentary, which has been making me feel good too. I'm also starting to feel her kick (Jab? Upper cut? Swing a bat? Not sure but she's getting stronger!) and that's been very reassuring. It's been a good week!

More to come soon!

Reading Nook

So, first things first- this last week placed me at 20 weeks pregnant. In fact, today is 20 weeks and 6 days, which means that I am officially over the halfway mark! I've been feeling pretty good this week. My energy level has been up and I actually feel smaller this week than I did last week. Less bloated, I guess.

The proof is in the pictures!

Right? Don't I look way bigger at 19 weeks?? And whiter! But that's just the camera playing tricks. I didn't go tanning, I swear!


But yeah, it's been a pretty good week, so other than a little headache today, I can't really complain!

We got our new bed over the weekend so we set that up and it's so comfy! Our old bed was my old double that my parents bought me when I was like, 12 or something, so we were due for a new one. We got a California King and it is huge! I keep teasing Brian that I can't find him in the middle of the night!

We found this quilt deeply discounted from Bed Bath and Beyond. It's really pretty- pink with some light greens and tans. I never usually go for those colors and I thought they would probably be too girly, but Brian said he really didn't care as long as I liked it. So I steered away from my typical turquoise and went with something new.

Brian genuinely doesn't mind. Neither does Kevin!

I love that face!

And moving on to the fun stuff... setting up the nursery! Here's a quick before tour of the room that we're working with...

 That's the doorway into the room on the right and a walk-in closet on the left. Our room is the door straight down the hall. Once that mess is gone, the plan is to put the changing table/dresser/hutch on that wall. Notice the cathedral ceilings... they're like, 14 ridiculous feet tall...

 When you walk through the door and turn to your right, this is the wall you face. (Kevin says hello!) We're planning on putting the crib either directly on that wall, or in the left corner at an angle... we'll have to see once we get all of the furniture in there...

If you turn to the left after walking in, you face this wall. (There's a full bath all the right side of the picture.) I want to replace that old rickety turquoise book shelf with a sturdier bookcase, kind of like this one:

Just a little bit wider. And made with love- my dad and I already have some plans in the works to build it ourselves! I'm pretty excited about that!
Side note- I love that my parents are so on board with all of my shenanigans. Like, obviously they're excited about a baby in general, but I ask my mom if we can make a quilt together and she wants to, I ask my dad about making a book case together and he wants to... it makes me so happy! I love them!

Anyway, I'm pretty sure this last wall will end up being my favorite...

It's the first wall you see when you walk in the door. It's also the shortest wall in the room, so I feel pretty confident that I can paint it or stencil it or wall paper it without too much risk of falling off a ladder. So not only will I think it's going to be a pretty wall, but I want to make it a reading nook! It has close proximity to the bookcase wall (see the turquoise?). Under the window I want to put this love seat/sleeper sofa from Ikea:

I like it for a couple of reasons... 1st, it would give us a place to sleep guests if anyone wants to come stay with us for a night or two (hint, hint, SIL Melissa!). Second, I've read more than one mom say that they love having a sleeper as opposed to a glider in the nursery for those times that they fall asleep during middle of the night feedings. Third, it will be a good space for me and Brian to sit and hang out with the baby at bed time or in the morning or whenever. I know Brian will want to spend just as much time in there as I do, so we should both be comfortable, right? And last, as the baby starts getting older (heck, probably even before), I want to start a tradition of reading with her, and I can picture the three of us (with Kevin at our feet) curled up under the quilt, grabbing a book of the bookcase, and reading out loud. I actually already ordered some pretty leather bound books that are going to be decorative and hopefully inspire her imagination.

Don't act like you weren't thinking it...
:)

Oh, And I also want to hang this chandelier in that area too:

Cute, right? In my head, this is going to be the sweetest little nursery ever, and right now, the reading nook is one of my favorite ideas. Updates to come soon!

Week 19

I should probably update this blog more often because we have so much going on lately! We've been pretty much making over the house. We added a shelving unit from Ikea to the living room, we got new floors throughout the entire house (wood laminate in the dining room and bedrooms, and carpet in the living room and up the stairs), we just ordered a new bed and picked out some new bedding yesterday for our room in colors that are totally new to us, and then of course- most exciting of all- we're starting to put together the nursery! For example, my mom and I spent over 2 hours at Joann's on Sunday picking out fabric and patterns for a baby quilt. This is what I ended up with:

I've never made a quilt before and the last time she did was like, 15 years ago or something, so this should be a frustrating fun bonding experience for us. I will have to add some pictures of all of that madness soon!

In the meantime, I'm rounding out week 19 and entering week 20- the halfway mark! I'm noticing now that my stomach is finally starting to pop a little bit. I'm still not totally thrilled about it getting bigger, but it's starting to look more pregnant and less beer belly. So that's good.

The latest update from The Bump says the baby is the size of a cantaloupe at week 20. That seems huge to me! Especially since she's only halfway baked! The cool thing about her getting bigger is that I'm finally starting to feel her. I've been "feeling" her for a couple of weeks, but wasn't sure until this weekend.

Some people say it feels like gas bubbles or butterflies or tickling from inside. The most close comparison to what I've felt is the gas. Not like, farty gas though. Just like digestion, I guess. You know how you'll be sitting in class or in a theater or somewhere extremely quite and then all of a sudden your stomach starts to growl and everyone hears it? Well you know that little movement you feel right before that deep growl? Well it's a movement like that that I have been feeling.

Of course, I like to eat, so I didn't know that it wasn't my stomach growling... until recently when she started getting bigger. Like, now I can definitely tell it's her moving because it's starting to feel stronger.

The other day, I felt her so I put my hand on my belly right away and after a couple of seconds, I felt her bump again! That's been the only time I've felt it externally. Every time I start to feel her, I call Brian over, but he hasn't been able to feel her yet, so I think most of what I'm feeling is all internal. My little baby canteloupe!

Do you want to see something scary??

At our ultrasound last week, we could see her doing so many cute things like touching her face, sucking her thumb, kicking her legs. And then the technician pointed out that she yawned. The tech caught a picture of it and printed it out for us.
 Our baby went from this sweet little thing:

 To this yawning beast:

That's frightening, right? Every time I look at this picture, she reminds me of a t-rex, or an alligator, or this scene from Beetlejuice:

Do you remember when Geena Davis makes that face to scare Winona Ryder?? Yikes! :)

No, I can already tell she's going to be beautiful by her cute little button nose and I can't wait to meet her!