heyy batta batta

So, sometimes on this blog I will write about more than baby updates and fun things I found on the web.  This is one of those times. 

Saturday was a day of vacuuming, David golfing with the guys, trying (and failing) to find the iPhone 6, and then finding out Dave's work had an extra ticket to the Dodger's game that night.  Dave was planning to go to the game with his team that night and I was going to make a cup of tea and watch chick flicks til I fell asleep on the couch, but, you know, plans change. 

What with me being an 8 month pregnant lady I was skeptical about what kind of bleacher style baseball stadium seats I would be able to endure for 9 innings, but it appears the pregnancy angels were smiling on me that night.  Those seats were actually comfortable-ish and baby boy didn't kick my badder once.  Plus I somehow scored a seat on the aisle close to a bathroom - miracles do happen.  Also we had pretty stinkin' good seats: second tier behind home base.  Not too shabby.  Thanks E&Y!

Technically I guess I'm an Angles fan, but I can't really back that up with anything except I grew up in Orange County, went to a handful of Angels games as a kid, and somewhere along the way I picked up a bright red Angles cap (that I never wear).  Now that we live in Dodger territory I'm more than happy to root for the blue over the red.  Shhh, don't tell anyone.

The munchies at Dodger stadium didn't disappoint this time around either.  Those Dodger dogs??  Give me another one please.  I can go for a good hotdog and a baseball game any day. 

Also worthy of note:  I actually watched a baseball game for the first time pretty much ever.  Since going to college I can get into a good football game, but baseball has always been a snooze fest in my book.  Not so on Saturday night.  The Dodgers were putting on a great show and when the Rockies hit a home run in the top of the 9th that tied the game we just couldn't leave early.  There ended up being 12 innings (which I predicted) and the Dodgers came out with a win.  I think I could like baseball now...

It was pretty fun night, topped off with a great view of the little skyline LA has to offer us a backdrop on our way home.  It's a pretty fun city we live in.

baby journal: week 32

We got to go to the doctor again this week and watch baby boy squirm up on the big screen.  Holy cow, he is the most entertaining little bean - you know I could watch him all day.  Which is what I fully expect to do once he comes, by the by.  We saw him open and close his little mouth and twist about (in what room he has left - not much!), and I just about died.  Doctor gave us the thumbs up that all is well and we're going to start having appointments every 2 weeks!  Ah!  That means we're getting closer!  Crazy.  Baby boy is even set to go and in postilion with his head pointed down, which is nuts.  Who said we were ready for you come yet darlin'?  Hold your little horses a bit longer, alright?

I'm also starting to feel like, all of a sudden, I have this huge bump attached to me that came out of nowhere.  I was just going along, minding my own business and then all of a sudden I'm most definitely, unmistakably pregnant.  Surprise!  I'm having a baby.  Now everyone knows.  Baby boy is also favoring the left side, as of late, so this big baby bump is, every so sweetly, lopsided.  Also, since real estate is becoming scare, baby has transitioned from little kicks to a lot of...twisting?  Squirming?  Wriggling feels like the right word.  During the day it doesn't really register, but when I lay down at night to sleep?  Totally feels like I ate a bucket full of worms.  Kind of a weird sensation...

Dave and I also went to a class up at the hospital on nursing on Thursday night and I think it was a success.  It wasn't so much that the instructor told us anything super new, but more that she just reassured us that such and such is normal or this and that is to be expected and gave us some good resources for extra info.  I'm also pretty sure it was just good for Dave and I to sit down and get the same info on at least one topic concerning this babe.  At least we'll be on the same page about something!  Maybe?

highlights #105

This has been one of those weeks where I'm just begging my hair to grow faster.  Something about a long, tussled ponytail is sounding so darn fantastic these days and my hair is...not there yet.  Darn you Pinterest.  Patience.  Patience.  All good things to, well, you know.  Speaking of things we can't have, I am dying for it to be fall-ish around here already.  I've been lighting candles in hopes that the outside world will get the message and start cooling off, but so far no luck.  We're still stuck in the mid 90's.  Bleh.

While I take my fall addiction one step further and go find more pumpkin recipes, here are some fun finds from around the web:

these knit dolls are pretty stinkin' cute (Pierre the Bunny?  I die)

we liked Spot It before it was cool ;)

my current watch love

what if you only wore ONE COLOR - kind of crazy

this made me laugh

I love all these prints

smart people jokes (confession: I didn't get a few of these...number 21 anyone?)

great DIY art

one dapper kid - also I love Shark Tank

I love her beauty routine

I'm not really a bird person, but these guys are pretty fantastic

for Christmas? (with a newborn?  Ha!)

and the coolest cotton candy you've ever seen

xo

baby journal: week 31

One of my favorite things to do now days is to look up what a sweet little preemie baby looks like born at such and such weeks.  Since hitting week 30 it's crazy how fully developed they look!  (ie: here)  I know I've said it before, but seriously, it's so crazy to think there really is a little baby in there squirming around, hiccuping, and growing like mad.  I'm starting to get so excited to kiss his fat little cheeks.

This week baby boy is, apparently, the size of a pineapple - a pineapple folks!  Dave and I went to the market on Saturday and I held one up to my belly and I gotta tell you, pineapples are kinda big.  Maybe it's his added growth that has now given baby boy the ability to tickle me...from the inside!  It is the strangest feeling.  He's also heating me up like a bonfire so the A/C is really non negotiable these days.

Big week highlight: we went and toured the maternity ward at the hospital we'll be delivering at.  I have to tell you, I felt so funny walking into the hospital while pregnant without any signs of labor.  It just felt a little anticlimactic.  The tour, however, was fabulous and they gave us as many cookies as we wanted.  Be still my prego carb craving heart.  (Yes, Dave grabbed four for the road.  Yes, we were the only ones that took that many.  Embarrassing.)  We weren't able to see the actual labor and delivery rooms because they had a full house that night, but it was good for my muddled pregnant mind to see what I could expect, be told where we should park, and what we needed to bring.  I have zero desire to be in labor and filling out forms so when they gave us everything we'd need ahead of time I knew we were a match made in heaven ;)  And, yes, I went home and filled out almost every form - fortune favors the prepared, right??

The cutest thing this week?  My bump has finally made it to that stage where it doubles as a shelf (not the cute part), so on Wednesday night when Dave called to tell me he was on his way home from work I put the call on speaker and placed my phone on my new found phone rest.  And when Dave started talking?  Baby boy started kicking like crazy.  He knows his daddy already.  Kind of adorable.

highlights #104

First of all, can we just talk about how it should be illegal for the temperature to be over 90 degrees when there is a pregnant lady in the immediate vicinity?  It has been in the 100's - the 100's - here this past week and we are melting.  Ok, I'm being dramatic.  I have friends who don't have A/C, so I really shouldn't be complaining at all, but this heat has more or less trapped me inside our house because just walking to the mailbox has had me sweating bullets.  And last night it was in the 90's well past 8:00 - it's crazy times, I'm tellin' ya.

Whilst I refill my 22 ounce cup full of ice water and crank up the air, here are some fun finds from around the web:

a nicely done upcycle

love everything about this flowy look

this tumblr makes me laugh

the every present battle

what's wrong with marriage in movies

the cutest invites

the person who invented this car seat is a genius

pretty cool moving wedding pictures

what $1500 will get you around the country (I always wonder things like this)

lets be honest, I want this little toggle

genius

party proof curls - worth a try

he who must not be ticketed

as stinkin' cute bday card

and just for fun

xo

baby journal: week 30

This week has been characterized by hip pain - holy hannah keep you up at night kind of stuff - and fatigue.  Ah, third trimester, it will be a nice thing when we are through with one another, no?  But by then I'll be a sleep deprived, hormonal mess, so I guess you just have to pick your demons.  And, ok, the hip pain was really brought on by a sub-par mattress I slept on over the weekend.  When I got home and back to my memory foam mattress topper?  Heaven.  Sweet, sweet heaven.  I even (almost) slept through the night.  Miracles do happen.

We also took a little mini babymoon/3rd anniversary trip this weekend down in Laguna Beach.  Needless to say, it was delightful.  Dave and I have done a lot of vacationing the last month or so, but it was great to get away just the two of us for a few days and enjoy the sun and sand.  Dave had to enjoy the waves for both of us though, as they were crashing a little too high and hard to tempt baby boy and me...

Also worth noting: I am officially running at a higher body temp than David.  Normally I run southward of 98.7 and David is a furnace, but these days I'm sleeping sans blankets with the air blasting while he's snuggled under the covers.  It's really strange actually.  Good thing summer is turning into "fall" around here (the forecast for next week is in the triple digits - ugh), maybe I'll get a little bit of a reprieve soon!  Or maybe not...

highlights #103

If I'm being honest, since we've been back to reality I have been tethered to my laptop trying to bust out a baby registry.  Holy moly, it's a task.  I had (thank heavens) already done some legwork research on the bigger ticket items, but the rest?  I have read so many blog about nursing pillows, bottles, and binkies that my eyes are popping out.  And the funniest thing?  I feel that basically it all comes down to trial and error once baby comes.  So make a nice educated guess now and get ready to do some shopping post baby anyway.  The irony of it all, I tell ya.  That's not to say that it hasn't been kind of fun, and part of me feels just a little bit more prepared for baby boy just knowing I have a list drawn up of our needs. 

Anywho, while I got read more about the difference between the Boppy and My Brest Friend (seriously, who named that?), here are some fun finds from the web:

my dream nursery 

and maybe this one too

also these mobiles kill me - love the lion one to pieces

a good read

girls just wanna have fun in minor key - really interesting

what the moon smells like

these make my eyes pop and mouth water

shocking news

love these two guys

and thinking ahead to Christmas...

xo

babymooning

No matter that Dave and I have been out of town pretty much every weekend for the last month - we left again!  But hey, with a baby coming in a few short months we're trying to enjoy the time we have left with just the two of us.  Which is why we took a kind of impromptu babymoon down to Laguna Beach this past weekend.  It was a short trip, down Friday night and back up Sunday afternoon, but I'm not complaining.

We spent Saturday morning enjoying a continental breakfast and satisfying my doughnut cravings (score) and then sauntered on down to the beach where we planted ourselves for the full day (beneath the shade of an umbrella - no burns this time please!).  Part of the fun of sitting on the beach is just people watching, and we got a full show on Saturday.  Crazy kids, surfer dudes, and a lifeguard with her hands full, it was pretty entertaining.  Also, there is probably nothing better than a salty sea breeze and sand between your toes.  Just sayin'.

 ^^^  This might be one of my favorite pictures from our weekend.  We were walking back from the beach when a darling lady is the brightest royal blue dress you could imagine stopped us and started to gush about how great we looked: just like a painting!  All that orange and blue!  She insisted we get our picture taken before we changed, so of course I asked her snap one.  She was hilarious and probably took 8 pictures of us.  Made me laugh.

That night we cleaned ourselves up and strolled downtown Laguna along PCH.  When the restaurant we really wanted to go to told us there was an hour and a half wait for a table my starving pregnant heart pretty much fell through the floorboards.  I just couldn't make it that long without sustenance.  Our solution?  Go get dessert first.  It was a perfect plan.  And that dark chocolate hazelnut gelato was on the crazy side of delicious.  We then ended up having a lovely time strolling shops and watching the sunset while surfers caught the last of the day's breakers beneath our lookout.  It was a happy upset, and, yes, don't worry, the food was worth waiting for.  Those deviled eggs?  Ohhhh baby...

Also thank goodness for kind strangers who take pity on a couple trying to take a selfie and offering to take our picture.  You are the best.  We are sending good karma your way.

The next day we lounged, slept in, went to a later church meeting, and strolled the ocean cliffs.  We would have stayed and watched the waves longer, but honest to goodness, it was 89 degrees and I was seriously going to faint.  Being 7 months pregnant is no cake walk, I tell ya.  I needed air conditioning and ice water stat.

Despite it being gone in a blink, it was lovely weekend.  The nice thing about staycations though, is that they're never too far away :)  See you soon Laguna!  (and maybe a gelato too...)

baby journal: week 29

Week 29, aka: bump goes to Utah.  And what with the plethora of good food we ate whilst up north, the bump might have come home with a little extra padding...

Sorry, not sorry.

One nutty thing that clicked together in my head this week was the fact that baby boy really looks like a little baby in there now!  A girlfriend of mine delivered her baby girl prematurely a few weeks ago (mom and baby are doing fine) and posted the baby's picture at 29 weeks out and about in the world, and holy moly!  She looks like a for real and serious little baby!  Of course, this is silliness.  What else would that little karate chopping machine in my womb look like, but it's still crazy.  I showed Dave those pictures and his eyes got as big as saucers - "Seriously?  That's what our baby looks like right now??" He had an even harder time wrapping his mind around it than I did.

Another milestone in the holy crap it's third trimester and there's so much to do checklist is we got the crib set up and put together!  It looks pretty crazy in our little second bedroom (which is presently half nursery/ half storage space - add that to the checklist), but things are starting to feel real around here.  We also ordered our glider so check, check, and check.

Baby boy is starting to have some REAL opinions about my sitting positions around here.  It's pretty funny trying to find a posture where we're both comfortable.  Slouching appears to be a thing of the past.

Also hilarious is how little routines have had to change to accommodate my growing bump.  Example: checking out at the grocery store.  I used to unload from the front of the cart, then scoot around the side to get to the back of the cart to push it through to the bagger.  Not anymore.  That narrow aisle was not built to graciously hold both baby boy and myself.  Que a whole lot of squirming and finagling and a funny look from the cashier. 

Weekly highlight: I'm pretty sure I felt baby boy having a hiccuping fit on Monday night.  And I'm even more sure Dave and I caught him at it on Tuesday night.  It's silly how much I enjoyed it.

spring/summer reads

“Books are a uniquely portable magic.” 
- Stephen King

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The Shell Seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher

A while back, my mother gave me a stack of books she recommended and which I promptly put on a shelf to read after I'd read through my own stack.  Well, this was the book on top of the pile and I have to tell you, I was pretty hesitant about it.  The cover kind of makes it look like a sappy romance novel and it's over 500 pages long.  Plus the type is pretty tiny.  I wasn't super excited, but I picked it up one afternoon to peruse the prologue and...couldn't put it down.  The story takes place in London, the English countryside, pristine Spanish beaches, and wartime Cornwall. I just got lost in her character development, the scenery, and this family that the story is centered on.  It's a lovely read that leaves me with a better vocabulary and wishing for more.  And it makes me want to move back to England ASAP.

 Saved By Her Enemy - Don Teague and Rafraf Barrak

Ok, let's be honest here.  This is not normally the kind of book I would pick up.  If the books I read in my free time fail to make me smile and lift me up, they're not normally something I choose to read, but this was another book recommended by mom and, you know what, it was a tough real life story, but it was worth reading.  It is a chronicle of friendship between a Iraqi woman and a NBC news correspondent during the US invasion of Baghdad and, thought it's not easy to read about, I learned a lot about the US's involvement in the war and about Iraqi culture.  I also closed that book with thankfulness in my heart to have been born an American citizen. 

Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson

Alright.  It's ok.  You can label me a nerd, but David and I enjoy listening to books on tape together and Brandon Sanderson writes some darn fun fantasy nonfiction.  Fantasy books walk a fine line of being dorky beyond belief and just being darn entertaining - this book walks that line, but doesn't tip over into the oh gosh I can't believe I'm reading this side, so I'm satisfied.  I seriously resisted listening to his books back when David and I were starting to enjoy books on tape, but I've finally given in.  This is the second book in (one of) Sanderson's sagas and we really enjoyed it, in all its nerdy glory.

 Princess Elizabeth's Spy - Susan Elia Macneal

Alright, I read this book out of order in the series.  There's actually one before it called Mr. Churchill's Secretary, but oh well.  This was a fun mystery novel with all sorts of good twists set in WWII England in the middle of MI-5.  I was surprised that it was a tad racy - nothing crazy - but definitely colorful.  And, if I'm really being honest, half of me just loved reading it for the descriptions of Britain and the royal family.  All in all, a good mystery novel - and now I think I need to go find the first book...

Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand

I know this story has gotten a lot of hype lately (mostly because they're making it into a movie), but it is definitely worth reading.  It follows the story of young Louie Zamperini - Olympic runner, WWII bomber, plane crash survivor, shark fighter, Japanese prisoner of war, and unbreakable spirit.  His story is incredible, I mean, really incredible.  And did I mention this is all historical?  Louie actually just passed away a few days after I finished his memoir at the ripe age of 97.  My mom got to see him speak a few years back and she said he was still sharp as a tack and energetic as ever.  What a guy. 

labor day weekend

This was a Labor Day sans any signs of labor around these parts, and we were pretty to keep it that way.  Stay in there cookin' baby boy!  However, on some pretty short notice, we did decide to join my folks and little sis on the trek up to Utah to take her back to school.  Why not??  Dave and I are trying to squeeze out as much fun and spontaneity as possible before baby comes (and our world gets turned upside down), so we made some last minute arrangements, finagled Dave to get off work early on Thursday, and said adios to Pasadena...again.  Pretty sure our neighbors might think we've permanently skipped town...

Once we got Brookie Sue all settled in her dorm and had my favorite combo at Zupas for lunch (hellooo tomato basil soup and nuts about berries salad), we headed back to the Nemrows to get ready for game time.  There is really nothing more nostalgic for me than watching BYU football with the Nemrow family - feels just like old times.

And that view from David's brother's place?  I'll never get over it...

Did I mention we stopped off to get my favorite shaved ice in the US of A?  I will never get enough.

Our Saturday started the best way a Saturday could possibly start: with brunch at Communal.  It was a treat beyond treats with chocolate, coconut banana bread, the most delicious pancetta hash, and topped off with butterscotch custard - which no one had room in their bellies for, but somehow we managed to demolish it.  It was divine.

In the afternoon we headed out to Seven Peaks water park to meet up with a few of our favorite people.  The boys hit the slides hard - seriously, you should see the red marks on their backs - and we ladies chatted, played with baby E, and enjoyed the wave pool.  Pregnant ladies and water parks don't really go together, but I'm pretty sure they put in that lazy river just for me.  I could have floated in that thing all day long.

David also got to meet baby Evelyn for the first time, and I'm pretty sure they were a match made in heaven.  He had her laughing and smiling all afternoon.

We topped off one last summery Saturday with some Mario Cart, a delicious tri tip salad, and a pizookie to share at The Chocolate in Orem, aka: one of the main reasons I miss Utah.  That cookie?  Melt in your mouth deliciousness.

But, of course, Sunday came much too soon, and it was time to pack it up and call it a trip before Labor Day traffic made the 15 a living nightmare.  We hugged our favorite people, kissed a few baby cheeks, and said goodbye to this full-fledged college student one more time before heading southward again.

Ah Utah, it was a crazy idea to jump in the car and come see you again, but we don't regret it one bit.  Thanks for topping off summertime for us.