Dear baby: it's been 30 weeks

Dear Baby Girl:

You have officially been growing for 30 weeks!  

That is 210 days and 5,040 hours.  

Woah.  

That sounds like a really long time to be trapped inside someone's tummy.  

You ok in there?

I feel like you must be ok because you are kicking me quite forcefully right now.  

Yesterday was one of my favorite days with you because daddy and I found a little hand or foot of yours at the very top of my belly and we pinched the teeny thing between our fingers.  

For that, I suppose I deserved all of the kicking I got for the rest of the day.

You also make me giggle because you really recognize your daddy's voice.  

He is always talking to you and singing to you.  

Lately, when your daddy puts his cheek on my belly you show him your best soccer moves. 

Every.  Single.  Time.  

Of course, he has to sing to you first.  

You definitely don't show off your moves for just anyone, but for daddy, it's for sure every time.

Daddy makes sure that I know that you are going to be a daddy's girl.  

It's probably true.

You are going to adore him.

He's already planning the weekend dates he's going to take you on.

Sometimes will you remind him to invite me?

I've finally started "prepping" for you.  

The first item of business?  

Buy a mom car.  

That's why I included this picture:

Our new mom car.  

I'm kidding.  

Baby girl, that is a PORSCHE and those things don't just grow on trees.

Nope.  Nope.  Nope.  

You and I will be rockin' the Accord until there get to be too many of us to fit.

Sound good?

Good.

I have started the diaper collection.

I hear we'll be needing a few of those.

So far we've got three boxes but don't worry, I've still got 10 more weeks to add to the stash (and with the new Sam's Club card that your Nana got for us last weekend, we'll be hitting the Pampers sales every week!).

At my last doctor appointment, he officially freaked me out about drinking enough water.

Enter: the Brita Filter Bottle.

Uh-Ma-Zing.

I begin to have anxiety if I happen to leave home without it.

Also at the doctor, I got to meet the wife of my OB who just so happens to be your pediatrician.  

I fell in love with her.  

You will too.  

She and her husband will be there when you're born.  

They are so excited to meet you!  

Here they are.
Dr. Lui and Dr. Rowe
You'll see these faces possibly before you'll even see  mine!
They are sweet, wonderful people.

I have also been prepping for you by splattering/spilling everything and anything on my baby bump.  

Super cool.  

This is just after making cupcakes.  

10 points I'd say.

Also, I've been eating so much watermelon.

I'm beginning to wonder if I'm going to birth a baby or a watermelon.

I seriously have an addiction.

(I guess I remembered to tell you that because my belly looks like a watermelon in the above picture.)

Baby girl, have I mentioned to you that your daddy is European?  

He likes small cars.  

He hopes that someday this will be his.  

At the Auto Show last weekend (that we had free tickets to because daddy did a story for them), he was sure to analyze every car he liked to make sure that there would be room for a car seat in the back seat.  Always thinking of his baby girl.

In other preparations, I've been preparing to teach you how to be a lady.

I've been reading and re-reading this book and laughing my head off, but learning grand things as well.

I'm overwhelmed by the unladylike acts of so many women in this world.  

Lets try to steer clear of that, ok?

I know you will come to this earth as lovely as the day is long and I promise to do my best to help you stay that way.

I've also been thinking about how I can teach you to LOVE.  

Love is a really glorious thing.

Loving someone.

Being loved by someone.

Loving people that you hardly even know.

Loving those who may hurt our feelings.

Feeling love for those who need it most.

Even loving those that we least want to love.

It's all grand and I believe there's no room in our hearts for anything BUT love.

Hearts are small.

We'd better fill them wisely.

We are in for some grand adventures, little one.  

I hope you're ready.

Personally, I couldn't be happier.

Love, Mommy

We like to move it, move it.

I wish there was a scratch and sniff widget for the bloggy.  If there was, I would share with you all the horrible fragrance we've been smelling for the past two months.  A quick whiff would help you to understand why we just completed our THIRD move in SIX months.

It goes like this:

We walk into our new apartment and take a deep breath.  Is that cigarette smoke or carpet cleaner?  We talked ourselves into believing it was just carpet cleaner especially since the girls who sold us our lease ASSURED the cranky pregnant lady that there was no one around who smoked and that it would not be a problem at all despite the fact that we were living in a "smoking building".

Fast forward the next two months of spending loads of money on air fresheners, purifiers, humidifiers, odor eaters, etc.  My faith in those fantastic febreeze commercials is diminished.  The Bed Bath and Beyond odor eaters that are GUARANTEED don't work either and the water in my humidifier is black.  Ash has started accumulating on the walls and the Mister and Lady have had permanent sore throats for two months.

We share vents with our upstairs neighbors.

We love them.

They smoke like trains.

I'm talking, NON STOP all day long.

I'm paying HOW MUCH to develop lung cancer?!?

Not happy.

Cranky pregnant lady waddles over to the leasing office to ask when we can move into a non-smoking building.  The girls tell prego that it will be a $150 transfer fee.  Prego reminds them that they assured her upon move in that this would not be an issue.  Prego leaves upset and the manager calls minutes later telling her that the fee will be waived and we can move on March 1st.

Happy Prego.

Last weekend was the big move...directly across the courtyard.  Easiest move in the history of the world.  Still annoying, but no U-Haul's or boxes involved.

This girl is staying RIGHT HERE for as long as she can manage because moving again sounds like the worst idea in the world.

This whole experience reminded me of a poster my uncles used to have hanging in the music store.  It looked like this:

Thank you very much but the Mister, Lady, and Little Lady will not be contracting lung cancer any time soon.  To all of you who like lung cancer and like to give it to yourself I say "good on ya".

Cheers.

Valencia County Fair

You know you live in the lovely dessert when there can be an outdoor county fair in February.

Sweet husband had to go and stand at the Univision tent and sign autographs for his silly "fans".  It was so funny to watch total strangers walk up to him, as if they're best friends, and give him big hugs.  It's so cute.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day in Belen!

 I had never seen funnel cakes be made before.  The girl that owns the tent kept asking me if I was going to order one.  Boy....did I want to!

 Once you paid to get in, all the food was FREE!  (Except OF COURSE the funnel cakes)  The lines were very, very long and the two times we made it to the front of the lines, they ran out of food.  Blast!

 Watching the pork being prepared was a very interesting and very disturbing experience.  Eek.

 

Javi had been asked to judge the "specialty dishes" cooking competition.  There were some gorgeous dishes.  He was in heaven.  He loved everything he ate.  Naturally, he scored everyone really highly.  I'm not sure he was the best choice for a food judge considering that he LOVES everything he eats.  He's a good eater.

While daddy ate loads of food, baby and I drank a large amount of amazing lemonade and laughed at daddy's love of everything edible.

 Until next year, Valencia County!

The pregnancy post that's been a LONG time comin'

A facebook status of mine, not long ago, stated that I love being pregnant.  I do.  It's true.  Now friends: many of you took that facebook status to mean that I love being pregnant because it has been a breeze and that would be incorrect...And that's why I'm writing this post.

I remember driving in the car in California with 3 of my favorite females in all the world and the pregnant one, I call her Fifi, was sitting in the front seat.  She said "I'm weird but I just love being pregnant."  I've thought about that lots of times and I've realized where she was coming from.  

Granted, Fifi is the Greek Goddess of pregnancy.  I mean seriously.  Look at her.  BUT I think she had a point.

Photos by Jylare Smith

You see, Fifi is one of the funniest friends I own.  We used to have sleepovers in my TWIN size bed (note: we were in college) and we would laugh our faces off all night long.  So I've realized that Fifi's comment about loving pregnancy wasn't coming from a "I love pregnancy because I glow so nicely and I look so good and I feel so grand" kind of place.  It was coming from a "I love pregnancy because I glow so nicely and there is something very large protruding out of my body and it's a miracle to grow a human and the most hilarious things happen when you're pregnant."  Fifi: feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

That's why I love pregnancy too.  I do glow quite nicely.  There indeed IS something very large protruding out of my body.  It IS a complete miracle to grow a human and most of all, HILARIOUS things definitely  happen when you're pregnant.  Here are just a few of my very favorites so far.

CRAVINGS

Lets begin by sharing a story about cravings.  I think cravings are ridiculous.  I believe that we have weird cravings our entire lives it's just that when we're pregnant it's "ok" to eat hot sauce with rice krispies and pickles on your pb&j.  So anyway, cravings=my whole life...not just my pregnant life.

As a newbie in this pregnancy situation, everyone kept asking me what I was "craving"?  I didn't know.  Milk, I guess.  And then it happened.  I had a "craving".  I wanted macaroni and cheese.  I indulged and made myself a whole box.  I ate it...all by myself...the whole box.  When husband returned from work around 11:00 pm I was sprawled out on the couch sicker than a little dog.  Naturally, I had thrown up the entire box of mac and cheese only hours after eating it.  Javi walked into the kitchen and saw the EMPTY pan of yellow death on the stove.  He asked "did you make mac and cheese?"  I groaned a "yes".  He then asked "where is it?"  "In the toilet" I replied.  And then my sweet husband stepped into the doorway and said, with complete shock all over his face "you ate the WHOLE box?!"  I hid my face because we all know that mac and cheese contains approximately 800 calories.  Embarrassing.

"MORNING SICKNESS"

I was substituting 3rd grade and I managed to keep my sick self together for much of the day.  Although, around lunch time we were discussing multiplication and it happened.  I started throwing up.  No warning at all just projectile exiting my mouth.  I had managed to earn the name of a "cool substitute" and as I watched the faces of those sweet children as they screamed "Ew!" and "Gross!"  I knew that I would quickly be losing my hard-earned name.  Yep.  I did.  No longer was I the "cool sub" I was simply the barf lady.  Awesome.

Monday night I had the twins whom I nanny.  We had had a wonderful, active afternoon and were getting ready to settle in for the night.  Gage announced that he needed help going to the bathroom and asked that I come with him.  Little did I know what that would entail as we went sprinting to the bathroom.  The sweet, little, barely potty-trained 3 year old had a bad case of the runs.  He had a difficult time making it to the appropriate location and I had a big mess to clean up SO while Gage sat on the mini toilet finishing his business, I was standing over the regular toilet "reacting" to the mess I was witnessing.

When his parents got home I told them that he was a little sick and his mother announced that she's not surprised because he had eaten 12 little clementines (the mini oranges) in the morning.  TWELVE.  That is approximately 168 little sections of clementine.  Are you kidding me?  It's no wonder.

Anyway, cue the reactivated gag reflex that has been on a lovely break for almost my whole 2nd trimester.

The next day I was sitting in my Social Justice in Education class and I was drinking my water like a good pregnant woman when I choked on it.  You know, the whole "it went down the wrong tube" thing.  Choking triggered my recently reactivated gag reflex and there I was, in grad school, over the garbage can, throwing up in front on my whole class.  I was so humiliated.

LARGE BODY PARTS THAT SERVE AS SHELVES

And then there was tonight.  I sat in class taking in all of the information and witnessing the brilliance of my professor, whom I love with all my heart, and I was feeling very overwhelmed with gratitude for the beauty of pregnancy.  I felt little sister kicking away as we worked on how to effectively teach fractions to children and I just relished in the excitement of this little nugget.  It was a glorious moment and I loved it and then I looked down to see that my chest and tummy were covered in granola that had somehow missed my mouth when I ate the granola bar 15 minutes earlier.  15 minutes of pure joy and gratitude all while my classmates were staring at me wondering if I'd ever realize that I was a mess and that I had granola bits in my hair.  Good game.

LARGE BODY PARTS THAT YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH

I will not expand upon this subject because those of you who have been pregnant know what I'm talking about and those of you who haven't...I won't spoil the surprise for you :)

In other news, I had cankles the size of Manhatten yesterday.  Luckily they are back to normal today.

BUT SERIOUSLY...

It really is glorious to spend 9 months attached to this lovely little lady.  I believe that creating life is one of the greatest miracles ever.  I cannot imagine going through this without the knowledge and relationship I have with my Heavenly Father.  I have said it before and I'll say it again: to carry a child and not believe in a God has to be really difficult.  I would imagine that someone who doesn't believe in some kind of higher power would likely spend the whole 9 months convincing themselves that there is no God because every day is a miracle and every change is awe-inspiring.

SO, TRUTHFULLY, I REALLY DO LOVE BEING PREGNANT

I love that I've made 3 darling skirts in the last week (pictures to come) just so I'll finally have something to wear to church.

I love that for a long time I just looked like I was really packing on the pounds but that FINALLY I actually look pregnant.

I love that a lady in class tonight said "so you've got to be pretty close to delivery, right?"  I answered "Nope.  Not until June."  To which she replied "Oh, wow.  Are you having twins?!"  Thanks for making me feel soooo petite, lady.

I love that Gage's twin, Asher, thinks that I'm having three babies: one growing in each breast and one in my belly.  (That's a great hint into the "LARGE BODY PARTS THAT YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH" section.)

I love that the twins have named the baby "Cars 2".

I love the way girlfriend dances like crazy when her daddy plays the guitar and sings to her.

I love the way her daddy makes sure to talk to her in Spanish every day.

I love the opportunity to evaluate, for 9 months, how prepared I am to be a mother.

I love that every day I realize that all my life's experiences have led me to this point and I'm as ready as I'll ever be.

So actually, I love being pregnant.

It's hilarious.