Quincy Baby Shower

I am a little late on this post, but we've been a little busy the last few weekends. Thankfully, from here on out its pretty low key until our little guy arrives. Plenty of time left to get last minute things done...or so we hope.

My mother-in-law and sisters-in-law threw me a wonderful baby shower in Quincy on March 21st.

My dear friend Phyllis from Yakima was able to make it. (LOVE YOU, PHYLLIS!)

And here are the prego girls - Amanda is due in early August.No, that is not my wedding ring on my finger. My fingers started swelling about two months ago, just enough that I finally had to take off my wedding ring. The snugness started to worry me a little, and my worries were only made worse by my jeweler telling me horror stories about pregnant women getting their beautiful rings cut off. The ring currently on my finger (and in this pic) is the mother's ring Justin got me for Valentine's Day, which was purchased a little big since I can re-size it for free once I no longer have sausages for fingers (and toes!). Its an emerald for the May birth stone, so Justin is hoping our little guy doesn't arrive too early, since April's birth stone is a diamond.
And I got to spend the weekend with my buddy Amanda, whom I hadn't seen since Justin and I were in Seattle last August doing our IVF (way too long!). We treated ourselves to a wonderful pedicure, a little shopping, and LOTS of chatting. It was great for Amanda to get to see the belly since the next time I see her will be after the baby arrives.

Belly boast

I've received a lot of requests lately for some new belly pics, so here they are. These were taken at our thirty week mark, which was actually two weeks ago. Since then I have discovered my first belly stretch marks - EEK! Actually, they were probably sneaking up on me for awhile, but since they are on the underside of my belly it took me a little while to even see them. I'm still convinced Justin saw them weeks ago and, knowing how poorly I would take it if he pointed them out, opted to keep quiet and let me enjoy my bliss of thinking that stretch marks were one pregnancy drag that I might get to skip out on.

I have loved the little table that my belly makes for my meals and drinks.And here I am demonstrating the funny "Binder women" perky head pose. My sisters will know exactly what I'm talking about.Only eight more weeks to go!!

Is it time yet?

I am not talking about if its time for this baby to be born, although we are eagerly anticipating getting to say the famous line "Its time!" in about two more months. No, today my thoughts are centering around another event that happens this time of year. For the last two weeks I have been wondering why I have yet to discover a little girl in a cute little uniform ringing my doorbell. Yep, its Girl Scout Cookie time!

And my little neighbor girl that has come ringing at my door for the last two years has yet to make her appearance. I am beginning to wonder if I need to break my loyalty with her and just go find myself another Girl Scout already. She certainly knows that we're good for at least 5 boxes, at least three of which this year will definitely be Samoas (yum! yum!). Honestly, if she new I was pregnant she probably would have come to my house first. Any assumptions she might make that I will be buying more cookies in my current state are absolutely correct! In fact, we discovered this year just how wonderfully the cookies keep in the freezer for use later in the year. I think Justin and I just finished off our last box of Tagalongs not two months ago. So I'm thinking 10 boxes sounds about right for this year. I'm giving her two more weeks to make her appearance, then I'll be looking for Girl Scout referrals.

The little alien inside of me...

This little guy is getting more and more active with each passing day, and I am loving it. He usually prefers to do his acrobatics while I'm at work, which is a nice alternative to keeping me up all night. I think he already knows I am a light sleeper. And Justin got to feel some kicks for the first time after the Superbowl the other night, which was such an incredible moment. Perhaps our little boy already gets excited over football like his daddy does.

Justin just loves taking pictures, and this pregnancy has only encouraged his hobby. Here is the latest belly pic from last weekend (I am 27 weeks along). In case you can't tell, Justin also enjoys playing with the color feature on the camera.

The Crib Champions!

After hearing a few horror stories about putting cribs together, Justin and I finally tackled the challenge ourselves this last weekend. Nobody suffered any injuries, no objects were thrown, and we even knew to assemble the crib in the nursery so we didn't have to suffer the realization later on that it would not fit through a doorway. Although we put the first few pieces together backwards (which we quickly discovered and corrected), and Justin did have about a 15 minute struggle with a leg that was being difficult, it all came together just right. We even timed ourselves at one and a half hours for completion. Even though I pretty much just held the pieces together for him, I like to think that my supervision skills came in quite handy. Yes, we are a great team!

On another note, the crib is quite beautiful and sturdy. Hopefully we will have our bedding by this weekend.