This one may bore you.

Not much is new right now which is quite refreshing. The summer is treating us well and I am glad that we're enjoying it. Dave has been doing some work on the house, trying to get us more organized. Well I should say, he has done a lot of work on the closets which in turn should encourage us to be more organized. He had been using the closets in both his music room and the (now) nursery for his clothes and other junk. Our closets basically consisted of a bar set high and a shelf above. Pretty boring and inefficient, if you ask me. The nursery has a "walk-in" closet that is 4' wide by 5' deep. He lowered the bar for hanging clothes to the lower half of the closet and added four 20" deep shelves above, then added five 10" shelves to the right side of the closet. It is now a storage mecca, and it is beyond nice to have that project completed.

*The target will be coming down soon.

Dave took off Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday with me this week to work on these projects and other things that needed to be worked on. Since he is working on his school stuff, we really only have time on the weekends to get things done and then every other Saturday is occupied by his actual classes. Needless to say, the time this week has been quite valuable for us. It's also been kind of nice to have more than an hour a day to communicate. Tomorrow we plan on going on a lunch date to see a movie (which we never do) and eat lunch, and possibly grab Bean Sprout a little outfit with a BRU coupon that came in the mail. I may even dress up a little for this occasion ;) Speaking of our time together we have played tennis for the last three days. Sometimes I enjoy tennis and other times I am really bad and don't enjoy it at all. On Monday evening we played in something like 98% humidity, which took the life out of me. It was so sticky out and I tired out far too quickly. Yesterday's games were played in the morning and were much more enjoyable and I decided to dress in more appropriate attire. Getting exercise in without hurting, cramping, or sweating to death was a real treat. Today we played around lunch time and it may have been 1000 degrees out, I was having a ton of fun playing and even playing better than I had been, but my body decided it was too hot. I was drinking tons of ice water but I still had to surrender to the heat and not over do it.

Yesterday I made something for dinner that I may end up craving all the time now. It was a delicious combination of chickpeas, cucumbers, red onions, and tomatoes. Ohh....how I love love love chickpeas, I could eat them everyday. I mixed all the veggies with olive oil, a little red wine vinegar, lemon juice, dill, salt, pepper, and parmesan cheese. Yummy!! Healthy and tasty!

Over on the left you can see my latest product of boredom. I had been joking about making "bean spout '09" tee shirts for anyone who wanted one (even if it is just me); and like most things I joke about, it came to fruition. I found zazzle.com and it's now one of my favorite things. You can get to my store by clicking here . The site is very nice, you can customize just about anything you want from postage stamps and travel mugs to dog shirts and baby onesies. Here's the shirt that I created, which you can get to by clicking on the image of the shirt in the zazzle box on the left.
The font that I chose for this shirt is called "birth of a hero" which I thought was fitting (but first I liked it for the way it looked). I also did a Bean Sprout beer stein but felt it a bit unrelated to the birth of my son. I put his "logo" on a mug too and I am considering dog shirts next. Oh let me know if you have any suggestions for anything that I should put on the back, like a slogan...he needs a slogan...

Hopefully I didn't bore you too much. Next time I should have much more exciting things to write about....I hope.

21 Weeks

21 weeks 4 days

We're past the half way point and every day I am more and more ready to meet our little boy. It won't be much longer till I hit the third trimester, and I am hoping that it's all down hill from there. Bean Sprout is a wiggler. I feel him all the time now. He still feels rather low, but I am starting to feel him a little above my belly button too. The other day I was laying in the bathtub and felt a pressure move across the top of my belly, as I looked down my whole belly moved to the left. He must be getting stronger. Dave still hasn't been able to feel him yet. I believe that Dave calms him down, because even if BS is moving around Dave will put his hand on my belly, then BS is still. Dave has a calming affect on me too. All the kicks and movement make this experience all the more real, and draws me closer and closer to my little boy.

The name debacle is still on going. I think I have something in mind, but Dave is still sitting on it. I swear, he is much more picky than I would have ever imagined. I am still trying not to rush the process, but I have some projects that I would like to work on for the nursery that involve his name. I guess they will wait.

My appetite is noticeably increasing. Even with my grazing technique, I am feeling hungry right after I eat. I am trying to keep lots of good foods around to munch on, but we eat them up faster than we can buy them. It would be nice for our garden to be flourishing, and to have the ability to run outside to grab whatever I am wanting. Too bad we're amateur gardeners. It's our first gardening experience and we're doing so-so. In the beginning we had 3 tomato plants, a cucumber, a couple of banana peppers, a jalapeno, and 3 bell peppers. So far we have been defeated by only one tomato plant. We have havested 2 banana peppers and we're waiting on everything else. It looks as though we will have an abundance of tomatoes, unless they're planning on kicking the bucket too. Next year I am hoping to expand our little garden to include a larger variety of veggies. I have read that the baby can now taste what you're eating via the amniotic fluid that he swallows, and that eating a variety of foods will accustom him to different tastes. This hopefully will make him less of a picky eater.

Becoming a Mamma Bird

At the moment I am taking a much needed break from painting. This is the forth day in a row that I have been painting, and it's starting to get old. The majority of this work has been for Bean Sprout so even though it's draining me, I am determined to get it finished and do it well in the process. I could be wrong but I think I may be "nesting." Even when we're not working in the nursery I'll still go in there and look around, and think about what's going where. It's a nice feeling, but at the same time it's starting to take me over. We painted the nursery with the accidental can of green paint that we had originally got for the dining room which didn't work out; despite the lack of planning it ended up being absolutely perfect for the nursery. We knew that we'd be using that paint, but couldn't remember exactly what the color looked like. It was a pleasant surprise to have it work out the way that it did.

So far I have painted an old night stand of Dave's that will live beside my momma chair and a dresser that Dave's parents were not needing anymore that will also serve as the changing table. My goal is to have everything painted by tonight...but that's quite a lofty goal. By the way, I did consult with my doctor about painting and I was assured that it was fine.

Yesterday I noticed paint on Lucy and realized that our living room had turned into painting quarters. All of us are ready to have BS's nursery ready.

Time for pictures!

The dresser before, well after I took a couple knobs off.

Dresser after, still needing knobs. We need to do some knob hunting. The little black bear sitting on the dresser came from the Pottery Mill, which we got on our Gatlinburg trip.

The left side of the room. The little green basket beside my chair was in the bath room, but I decided it would do a nicer job holding books. The turtle on the night stand is actually a little light. My best friend Liz got it for me a few years ago, and now it fits perfectly in Bean Sprout's woodland themed nursery. The curtains need to be ironed and a few other things touched up, but overall I like this side of the room.

This view is from the BS's bathroom (he has the master bedroom, lucky duck). I think that the crib will go in the corner, where the piece of it is. I am also considering a brown valance for the short window. I'm not a huge fan of valances but I think that it would tie the windows together.

I forgot to take before pictures of the room. Imagine a huge desk where the crib will go and boxes and other random crap throughout the rest of the room. It was pretty much a mess, so maybe it's better that there are no photos to document it.

Half Way Pregnant

The picture is from Bean Sprout's 20 week 2 day photoshoot. He was a lot more expressive during this one. The picture above shows him yawning with his hands around his head and the one below shows him smiling. I saw the PA, instead of Dr. Brody, and she took measurements of his head, tummy, leg, and arm, and determined that he is right where he should be. I am feeling him move around often, especially when I get up from sitting. He feels like he is sitting pretty low and he is starting to get kind of heavy...hopefully he won't fall out. In a week's time the official baby bump has debuted. It is seen with clothes on and I can't hide it at all. At work Friday my coworkers were noticing that they could see Bean Sprout. I had an emergency "Oh my gosh, my pants are too tight all of a sudden, and I don't have anything else clean" moment. A little MacGyver action with a rubber band fixed that problem..woohoo!

Last night we grilled out with our neighbors. They are absolutely awesome, and I can't wait to spend more time with both of them. And the icing on the cake--their little daughter is unbelievably adorable. She just may be a good candidate for Bean Sprout's first girlfriend :)

We started to work on BS's room and have put more thought into what we want in there. I knew that I wanted to get a glider/rocker chair of some sort but wanted to want to use it elsewhere in the house after it moved out of his room. For a couple of years, I have been interested in an Ikea chair, then I saw that there was a matching kid chair...it was meant to be. Sunday we made a trip to Ikea to get both chairs and they are both perfect. Although Jack really thinks that the little chair is for him. On other blogs I have seen where monthly pictures are taken of the baby sitting or lying in the same place to see watch him grow. His chair will be perfect for this.

19 Weeks

19 weeks 2 days

19 weeks is most exciting because next week means that we're half way to meeting our little Bean Sprout. He has been growing and sticking out a little more every day. I normally rest my laptop against my tummy and it doesn't fit in it's usual place. I also noticed just today that my belly button isn't as deep as it used to be, not much but a little different. It's uncomfortable to sleep on my belly now. This reminds me of the Princess and the Pea, except my pea is a baby filled uterus and directly attached to me.

Actually I lied about the most exciting part of 19 weeks. The most exciting part happened Sunday night while I was lying in bed. For two weeks now I have been concentrating on the movements in my tummy. I haven't really felt anything out of the norm, just the occasional muscle twitch or tummy rumbling. Dave and I have both been poking at my belly (we're already awful parents) trying to get Bean Sprout to play with us, but with no such luck. However, Sunday night Dave had his arm across my tummy and when he moved it I thought I felt something. A few seconds later I felt a little "pop" against my tummy. This was unlike anything I have felt before and it instantly made me grin from ear to ear. Since Sunday I have felt the fluttering that I have been hearing about, but only felt the kick once I am anxious to feel him again. I didn't realize that getting kicked would ever make me so happy.

My emotional state is changing; as much as I didn't want it to, there have been little changes here and there that make me less predictable than before. For example, I RARELY (if ever) cry during movies and I RARELY want to watch "chick flicks," but Sunday night I just had to watch He's Just Not That Into You and I finished it today and ended up crying at the end. WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME?!?! I understand the necessity of the physical changes, but why my emotions too? Hormones...ugh... Sometimes for "fun" I fake cry for stupid reasons, pre-pregnancy it was too obvious that it was fake, but today I made tears fall from my eyes. It was very convincing. I suppose I could use that to my benefit; but then again, I am not that conniving. (Dave says that I should add that he didn't like this very much and also says that I am not allowed to do again ;)

Next Tuesday should be quite an exciting day. In the afternoon I have my 20 week doctor's appointment and like usual I am excited about seeing how much Bean Sprout has grown in the ultrasound. I am very grateful that we have ultrasounds with every visit. Before having an OB I didn't realize the fortuity of getting to see our baby every few weeks, but now it's the most exciting part. I can't get the image of his little fingers out of my head from the last visit, and can't wait to see what new developments he's made. Tuesday evening we are grilling out with some new potential friends. I say potential because they may decide that we're too sarcastic or not funny or terrible cooks or any other possibility. "They" happen to live two houses down from us and we met briefly for the first time on Saturday. "They" also happen to be a young (I'm assuming around our age) couple with a baby daughter who will be one in October. We have seen them out and have meant to go out and introduce ourselves before now, but we're terrible neighbors and didn't ever do it. Our neighborhood is mainly older folks who have lived here for the last 20-40 years, so having a younger couple and built-in playmate for Bean Sprout is quite a blessing. I do hope that they like us.

I apologize for never adding pictures to my 17 week post, my photographer is slacking. I prefer taking the belly shots pre-dinner, so I am not showing off what I had to eat and just showing Bean Sprout. But I always "blog" after dinner while Dave does homework, so we haven't worked out a schedule for this yet. This said, I will make sure to get the picture taken and added tomorrow. UPDATE: I kept my word.

Dave trying out the baby carrier with Lucy, surprisingly she enjoyed it.

More Babies

Dave and I aren't the only ones expecting right now. Dave's brother Joey and his wife Kim are due just days before us. We just found out that we're getting our first NEPHEW!!! It must be boy season. We are thrilled and can't wait to meet him. I grew up with a cousin close to my age that I was very close with, and I am glad that Bean Sprout will have a little buddy from birth.
Side note: Bean Sprout is jealous that his cousin already has a name, and he is still without one .

In other news, I was searching through flickr and I found another baby that I want. He's a baby marmoset and he is the cutest thing I have seen all day.
There is a possibility that our child will look similar to this hairy creature, sans the tail and (hopefully) facial hair. I always joke that Dave and I are going to give birth to a baby caterpillar. We are both moderately hairy people. (This is possibly to much info to share) As a girl, I grew up embarrassed with my hairy arms and I also dealt with a tremendously thick head of hair. Dave is also pretty hairy, although I don't think he was ever shamed by his furry coat. On the bright side I haven't had much heartburn at all, which I hear is tied to the baby making his hair. So maybe will have a normal human looking baby, but that marmoset sure is adorable.

Our Happy Anniversary

Stopping to get gas in Knoxville. The heat was getting to Dave.

We celebrated our anniversary in an arcade, and had a blast.




Dinner at the Old Mill Pottery Cafe. Everything about this place was great, from the landscaping to the dishes.

17 Weeks

I am accustomed to being pregnant now, for the most part I have figured out how my body is going to act to certain things. I can't eat till it hurts anymore, because it hurts worse. I now eat little meals and then get hungry a couple of hours later. Sometimes I want to eat more than I should, but I know the feeling that follows and know I should avoid it. I rarely want sweets and recently I thought I wanted ice cream sandwiches, but now the idea of ice cream makes me feel slightly sick. Watermelon and apples are the exception to this sweet issue, I always want fruit. I have more energy than in my first trimester but I get tired more quickly than normal. Thankfully being 17 weeks pregnant isn't too out of the norm, there's not many surprises. I still don't really like being pregnant, and I still don't find it cute. I wish I could understand the women that love being pregnant but I just don't. I enjoyed my predictability pre-pregnancy, now it could change on a weekly basis.

My number one complaint about being pregnant is that I get hotter than normal. I knew this would happen, but I didn't know how bad it would be. It's only going to get hotter and I am only going to get bigger. Ugh. But when the weather gets tolerable and the sweaters come out, pregnancy will be over. Oh the irony makes me giggle.

Speaking of sweaters, we bought Bean Sprout his first cute little sweater. I never realized the effect that baby clothes would have on me. I had seen this sweater in Gap Kids prior to finding out the sex of BS, but there was no way I was going to pay the price on the tag for something only to fit for 3 months, but the cuteness of it almost brought tears to my eyes. This Sunday we ran into Gap Kids again, just for fun, and there it was, on the sale rack. The only 0-3 month one there, and to my delight had a much lower price tag. This was a sign that it would indeed be BS's first Thanksgiving sweater. Sunday ended up like Christmas for Bean Sprout, we had no intentions for this. We found our ideal stroller/infant seat set. I had to eat my words, because I said that I wouldn't buy anything from Babies R Us and I didn't want to own a travel system. I really should stop trying to predict my future. We went only to look and while we were looking at the strollers, Dave's eye was caught by a smaller lightweight one with a clearance tag. He pulled it down, we played around with it, and we were very impressed. It wasn't big at all and the seat leaned back further than the others in it's same class, had nice storage, and was easy to open and close. It also had flip up pieces on the side rails that we couldn't figure out a purpose for. I noticed a matching infant car seat on the clearance table and wondered if that had something to do with the unknown pieces. It did! The seat slide right on to those pieces and didn't add much bulk at all. This thing was great, exactly what we both wanted but didn't realize even existed. We hadn't planned on buying a stroller yet, and decided to go home to search the internet to compare prices. Turned out that this was a great deal on both, and the particular color was just being discontinued. It also has great safety ratings and got great user reviews. The deal was too good to let pass, so we now own a "travel system" from Babies R Us.

Our next doctor's visit is on June 23, and we'll be 20 weeks--the half way mark. Woohoo!!

*Pictures coming soon.

Our First Year

Summer is officially here. Normally I am not the biggest fan of Summer, this year is no exception. It has gotten hot already. The other day it was 91 degrees outside and 78 degrees inside my work. I really think my coworkers are secretly trying to kill me. I am trying to wear less and less to work, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. The only time I can really enjoy the heat is when I am near a cool body of water. Oh...I take that back. When I am at home there is a gorgeous pool staring right at me, but this pool belongs to my elderly neighbors and I have never ever seen anyone actually swimming in it. I have only seen Mr. Neighbor cleaning it, sometimes daily, but never swimming. This breaks my heart a little. Sometimes I think I hear the pool calling to me just to come over and feel the refreshment that it would provide, maybe that's just the voices in my head. Dave compares their pool to a formal parlor room in someone's house--the room that is always keep to the nines but that no one is allowed to actually sit or use. The jealousy from their pool makes me really really really want to go swimming. To add salt to my wound, I bought my first and only piece of maternity clothing so far--it was a maternity swim top.

This Sunday is our first wedding anniversary. We planned a last minute trip to leave town to just get away for the weekend. Dave was originally planning our anniversary festivities, but I busted his bubble when I found out that they were taking place at our house. My motivation to leave our house and to stay in a hotel is the pool. I need it to keep my sanity. His plan was really sweet and I felt guilty for ruining them, but we don't know when we'll be able to go out of town for fun next and thought we should take advantage of the opportunity. It will just be a little vacation but as long as there is a pool, Dave, our cake, and a bottle of sparkling grape juice, I think we'll have a great time.

Speaking of our anniversary, I CAN believe a year has gone by and I am surprised that so much has happened in the last 12 months. It has been a long year that has speed along at lightning fast speed. So much has happened this year; so much that I am very grateful for. Immediately following our wedding, we traveled outside of the country for the first time to the Dominican Republic. This was a fabulous trip and we had the best time, and it lit my fire for traveling. The August after our June wedding, we purchased our first home. At the time we had no idea that we were about to become homeowners, but we were both tired of our crappy little duplex with the series of bad neighbors, and I was tired of renting. We still have no regrets over our decision. The plan for our little house was to live here for 5-7 years and then move when we were ready to grow the family. Change of plans! Our first house will now be the home to our first child, and there are no regrets for that either. This year also involved Dave getting a nicer position at his long term job, which opened doors that we didn't realize would need opening. Dave also began working on his Masters degree. This means we don't have much free time together, but this will be such a benefit to carry to the future. The year has been full of blessings and I couldn't be more thankful. Over the past year my heart has been reconfirmed a million times that Dave was made for me, and for that, I am most grateful.

oh BOY, oh BOY, oh BOY!!!

Today was the big day, the day which we were allowed to get excited, the day where we found out what we were "getting." Three weeks ago I didn't think that my heart was going to be able to make it three whole weeks without exploding. For three weeks I had to be open minded to the possibility of either a girl or a boy, and in the last couple of days of the last three weeks I lost my gut feeling telling me that there was a little boy in my tummy. But today...today God answered my prayers, today proved my gut right, and today I felt a joy like I didn't believe was possible. My Bean Sprout, my former "it," is a HE!!!
WE'RE HAVING A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hip Hip Hooray!!!!! Dave and I are both beyond excited, and can't wait to meet Mr. Bean Sprout.

The stars were aligned this weekend and it worked out perfectly that it was a holiday weekend. I was able to get some nice relaxation and rest in without having a ton of plans or obligations. I am not one to normally stress, but I need "down time" to be my normal stress-less self. I wasn't necessarily stressing over the gender of our baby, more just stressing over not knowing. Our weekend was full of good timing events. For instance, Saturday we napped until 8:30 and got up ready for dinner. I woke up thinking about going to Ghengis Grill which Dave doesn't really like, but agreed to. It was cold inside, so I wanted to sit outside and a little after our food came out fireworks went off and we had a perfect view from our table. That worked out great. We walked around downtown after we ate and then as soon as we got home, it rained like crazy. The nice weekend led to the niceness of today.

My appointment was at 2:30 and if I wouldn't have had to work today, I may have just showed up at the doctor's office as soon as they opened. As soon as Dr. Brody put the wand to my belly, Bean Sprout was in position to tell us that he is all boy. Today he wasn't nearly as squirmy as usual and (obviously) we saw more than we had seen in the other ultrasounds. We saw the chambers of the heart beating, individual fingers, the skull, and the boy parts. Dr. Brody said that he is 99% sure that he's a he, so I take that as enough to get super duper excited. I had a blood work taken to test for the risk of spina bifida and Downs Syndrome and we'll know if there is an increase risk of either in a week. More than I wanted a little boy, I want a healthy little baby. Hopefully he will be really healthy and really happy.

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

Now that we have obtained the exciting news I will no longer live doctor's visit to doctor's visit. This should help time slow down. I cannot believe that we are already 4 months into this. It seems like just yesterday I was peeing on a stick. I want be able to enjoy this last Summer of just Dave and I (and the dogs). Although I am looking forward to having little Bean Sprout in the house (instead of in my tummy), I know that we'll be losing a freedom that we now have. Can't wait to see what the Summer has in store for us.

Today after our appointment we went to Target to do a little registering for Bean Sprout. Mainly I wanted to register so I could take some (more) time to look at all the cute baby things, and more specifically, only look at the little boy stuff. I was in cuteness overload, so I bought him his first little onesie thing.
That's Bean Sprout's bassinet filled with all of his stuff so far. It's an exciting thought to think of him playing with his stuffed animals, or reading his books, or sleeping in that bassinet. This will soon be much more than just a thought...