Bay Area Baby Shower

Had a BUSY holiday weekend in the Bay Area where I also had my first baby shower--it was adorable and awesome.  Check out the decor:

This was extra cute and my sister got baby pictures of Jason and me to put between the letters along with one of the first ultrasound pictures of baby parker.

There was an advice jar so that we could get some tips--and check out the really pretty flowers, my sister and mom went up to the flower mart in San Francisco the day before and made some great arrangements.

There was also a onesie decorating station where you could win a prize!  Tom and Bridie won my pick--an awesome super-hero onesie with a cape and everything, that I, of course, do not have a picture of right now...boo me.  And those super cute tissue paper puff balls were hung throughout the different areas of the shower.

Here's the tables where all the food was served--and the food was SO GOOD.  (and more adorable flowers of course) First there was spinach dip and french bread and crackers and yummy spreads, then the second course got served:  quiches, belgin waffles, ham, muffins, croissants, bagles, berry fruit salad deliciousness!  Of course after the shower started all of my picture-taking ended, but luckily my sister was on top of it, so perhaps I'll get to link to all of her pictures soon, which will be nicer pictures anyway because she has one of those fancy pants cameras that we need to get for adorable baby photo shoots and whatnot.  So THEN, dessert got brought out:  gelatto and biscotti, and it was really good gelato too (I heard it cured hangovers, not mine, since of course that would really not be appropriate, what with growing a person inside me and whatnot, but there was a high school reunion the night before, so do the math).

And look at the cute flags too!  Apparently my mom (hi mom on the left) cut out about a million of these fabric triangles, there were two more strips of these in the other room and she said there were still about 120 left over, since who knows how many would be needed for each strip of them...also, hi Jason on the right, he was very helpful in hanging everything on the ceiling--yay tall people, it would have taken ALOT longer without him. 

I'll post a link to more pictures, and ones with actual people in them too once I get them--it was SO GOOD to see everyone since I don't get to as often as I would like. 

Baby Class #2

When Harry Met Sally is a great movie, I could totally go for watching it right now...especially since I got to relive one of the scenes in awkward detail...So, after the "performance" in class #1 I was truly, only expecting an informative and PG class #2.  However, while showing us some "breathing techniques" our instructor showed us (of course) how we could make noises while we breathe in order to distract ourselves from the watermelons exiting our bodies.  So, picture it, diner scene, When Harry Met Sally, total re-enactment.  Moaning, of course on the ground leaned over the back of a chair. 

I really wonder if she realizes how uncomfortable everyone in the class is...or maybe it's just me and Jason?

In Other Way Better News

I love baking.  I've grown a bit more lazy lately, but I suppose growing a person will do that to you.  I baked a whole dessert buffet at my wedding and I think it turned out great (even though I curiously forgot to eat, but that's really beside the point).  However, when baking, Jason and I usually don't finish an entire recipe's-worth of stuff so it gets brought into work and...

I have received my first offical order for cupcakes earlier this week and I'm very excited about it.  Yay extra income!  I will be providing 4 dozen red velvet cupcakes for a co-worker's Thanksgiving feast.  Luckily, this year I am not hosting Thanksgiving (I will be going up to the Bay Area where not only do I get to see my family, but also get an awesome baby shower thrown by my sister and mom--pictures and awesomeness recap to follow), so I won't be baking these AND everything else, which makes me even happier.

good times

Argh!

Ok, everyone around me (though, not actually the people who will be reading this):  Correct, I am NOT DUE TILL THE END OF FEBRUARY.  Oh, you think I'm giant?  Am I sure it's not till the end of February?  Is it twins in there?  Great.  Yes.  No.  Oh, you only gained 12 pounds when you were pregnant?  That's so super awesome for you. 

Yeah, people have been very vocal about their feelings about my size, and mostly all at work, which is extra weird because then I have to be on my good work behavior.  I may just be extra annoyed because of all the extra hormones and whatnot floating around, but really, in what other situation is it ok to say how big someone is now?  Do I reply back about their weight gain/outfit/hair choices?  Obviously not, although we'll see as time goes on...

At least she didn't start to strip

So we went to our first prepared childbirth class this past Sunday.  Overall, just fine.  We reviewed the stages of birth, did some relaxation technique, and then the instructor showed us how to move to position the baby during labor so that he comes out easier...So she said that your should lean forward (in any position), then move your hips around (back and forth, in circles, etc.).  Ok, no problem.  So she has all the women get up and do this while leaning slightly forward on the back ok a chair.  Ok, no problem.  But then, she wants to show us this movement, like a slow belly dance, in literally every forward-leaning position that she can think of, she gets down on all fours and circles her hips, then she puts her elbows down on the ground and does it with her butt extra up in the air, then she leans over a chair, then she leans farther over the chair, then stands up and does it, then she presses herself up against the wall and does it some more.  I was watching thinking, hmm, is this really needed this many times, but all the men were really trying not to watch and all looked VERY uncomfortable...

Progress

So progress has definitely been made.  All the fabric is on the frames, there's a painted dresser and a fully functioning rocking chair!  (And a crib that has been there for a little while, but there's a picture of that too since most people haven't seen it)

Argh, can't get the picture to rotate, but I suppose since it's just pictures of squares/rectangles, it's still not too bad...and of course there's the bright orange wall behind them.  Not to worry the rest of the walls are a nice pale grey, so the whole room isn't really intense.

Here's the dresser I painted, it used to be my grammie's and was kind of a grass green color with bits of gold in it, but that didn't quite go with the rest of the colors in the room:I think it turned out pretty good and it's ready to be filled up with super cute baby things :)

Here's the rocking chair that we so generously got from our friends Laura & Ryan (bummer about that rotation again--I'll have to remember that in the future to only take pictures hamburger ways).  Since it had been sitting in their garage for quite some time and is actually really old, it was a little wobbly, so Jason took it apart and sanded and bondo-d and what not and put it back together and painted it.  At some point I'm going to make a cushion for it since I'm sure I'll be spending plenty of time in it in the middle of the night, but that just wasn't going to happen this weekend.

And finally the crib:

All I did for this one was put it back together, but I do enjoy it, and I'm sure it will look even cuter when there's actually some bedding in it...

Also this weekend, we went to our first Prepared Childbirth class, so more to come on that one...

ok then

So, at the urging of my very good friend Dawn Marie I will be writing to update all on things I'm doing to get ready for the baby (I'm pregnant, it's not just a baby I'm going to steal from someone) that will be arriving at the end of February, as well as other goings-on, but since it is getting into baby crunch time, it will probably be mostly that stuff for the time being...

so, that said, I'm decorating a baby room!  I know, super exciting and original.  But, in an attempt to be crafty, and since I have an awesome husband (Jason from now on, referring to him as "husband" kind of makes me feel old, and even though I kind of am, I'm going to just go ahead and delay that) that can build things (not that this is really a good example of the extent of his expertise), I have decided to get crafty in there.  So, at first I saw this nursury, which is of course after I became super obsessed with looking at all of the nursury tours--it's like crack! Also, obsessed with: the ridiculous awesomeness of the rocking chair in that room, I would freak out if I owned that, sadly, it's like $1,000, so no awesome rocking chair for me...not that one anyway. 

But I was going to do it with felt cutouts of birds instead of fish--this bird.  But then Jason (see so much better and younger!) was worried that gluing all of those birds to the wall might actually wreck the wall, which I can kind of see, so then I saw this one and decided that I would kind of marry the two together, so I had Jason build me some wooden frames to stretch fabric over (also different prints, but in shades of yellow & orange) and I'm going to sew the birds onto those, but with yarn, so that you can still kind of see it, so I'm hoping it will turn out like it looks in my head, because it looks super cute in my head.  So we'll see. 

Jason built the frames a couple of days ago and I finished buying the fabric last night and most of the birds cut out, so I cut out all of the fabric to the right sizes last night.  I was going to attach the fabric to the frames myself, but apparently it will work better to use the neumatic (sp?) stapler rather than just the regular staple gun, which Jason is also going to do.  Kind of a bummer because I hate making plans to do productive things and then not get them done because it makes me feel like a totally lame and not productive person, so even though I was just planning on attaching the fabric to the frames tonight--nothing more, I didn't even do that.  I totally suck at life.  Anywhoodle, then I'm going to hand those on the wall & plot out where I'm going to attache the birds when they're on the wall so that they flow nicely and whatnot.

So that's where I am with that.