She finally let me take pictures!

These my friends are pictures of my wife's most beautiful 20w1d belly.
Front view:

Side View:

Pregnant bellies are the coolest, most beautiful things ever!

In other news:

• I finally found bright and happy crib sheets! Why are they so hard to find?  Do all crib sheets really have to be in pastel?  I ordered cornflower blue and true blue crib sheets (the only colors available) and a true red crib skirt.  If anyone knows of places other than The C.ompany Store Kids to find bright baby stuff like this- I'm all eyes!
  
  
• We had a great time going to an Andy Warhol opening on Saturday night with Janet's fabulous parents.  I'm not a huge Warhol fan, but perhaps have softened my stance thanks to seeing his abstract pieces versus his silk screen and paint pieces. 
• Valentines day was great- we shared berry pancakes and then a potluck dinner with friends.  I very much appreciate being in a relationship without need for pomp and circumstance but instead its about little constant gestures.  One fun thing about this Valentine's day was daydreaming about helping Andrew write out his first V-day cards.
  
  

First Negative Reaction

I tend to live my life in an up front sort of way.  If you are going to talk about your family, I'm going to talk about mine, without regard to how it may be different than yours.  Its led to fairly open and respectful relationships with everyone I choose to allow into my life.

We don't choose our family- and hence, when my sister found out we were expecting, 2nd hand accounts recount she went through the roof.  She's a very conservative Christian Republican who lives in Alabama.  Need I say more?  I'm a bit unsettled- but then again, she didn't respond to our wedding invitation, so why would this be any different?

I truly shoudn't care.  She and I didn't grow up together- she's more than 20 years my senior-we're not biologically related.  I really don't want to care.                   

We're having an Andrew!

Oh Yeah- we're having a baby boy!  He'll be Andrew Wade- and I'm now having an amazing time visualizing our little boy. 

As Growing up Clangley might say, bring on the tighty whities and cargo shorts!

On a side note, being able to see your baby's bones and vital organs is both the neatest thing ever and a bit disconcerting.  Everything so far is right where it should be.  I was also super impressed at how good the sonographer was at using easily understood terms such as thigh bone instead of femur.

I will be buying fun onsies at lunch!

We Heart G.AP Maternity

So my beautiful wife (as was mentioned in my last post) is almost past the Bella/Be Band stage and into the maternity clothes.  My dearest is not a fan of ruffles, bows, low cut, smocked, swirly/frilly print type clothes- leaving us rather baffled by most things at T.arget, M.otherhood, etc.  G.ap Maternity has been our saving grace.  They have normal button up work shirts AND pants in ankle length for her lower height (If I called her short she would kick my rear!).  Today we ordered two more pairs of work pants, jeans and a plethora of shirts.  I'm saying all of this as a lead in to our conversation. 

I emailed her a confirmation of the order.

Her Reply:  Do you think not eating out for 2 weeks with cover this?
My Response:  Consider them your Valentines day gift?
Her Reply:  No, we aren't spending money on Valentine's Day gifts. How about, "you are carrying my spawn and it is making you pee all night long" gift?

"you are carrying my spawn and it is making you pee all night long"- Quote of the Week!

One hot mama!

My pregnant wife is hot. Hot, beautiful, glowing, radiating- all those and many more affectionate adjectives apply. Between being happily pregnant and in new maternity pants this morning- I couldn't help but stare.

Oh hand-me-downs- how I love the. You’re good for the environment, good for our wallets, and good for our friends’ closets/space.


I mentioned in my last post that we had been gifted a breast pump- now, out of the blue, a friend of a friend is offering us a 3 month old baby swing and some gender neutral onsies.

I’ve fully read the warnings and admonishments on Consumer Reports about used/hand me down cribs, car seats, strollers, etc. Yes, I understand wanting to be as safe as possible, but I refuse to be an alarmist. On the side of safety and statistics, we bought a new car seat system. On the other hand, we bought a used crib from Craigslist. It’s a P.ottery B.arn, not recalled, and according to the person we purchased it from, never slept in because her son wouldn’t get out of their bed. Our rocker is also from Craigslist. We could never have afforded to buy the crib or rocker at their lists prices. Just thinking about the money not spent makes me smile. Butterbean needs a college education!

A friend mentioned having a shower for us. In passing I said that it would be great it anyone who wanted to shopped thrift/2nd hand. I got the funniest face. Oh well, a few people in the room understood.

The next thing I’m going to start perusing for are book sales. Other than baby wearing, the thing that I look forward to most about motherhood is story time. I’ve been checking Half-Price books here for used hardback Caldecott winners, but all they seem to have are the soft covers. I may resort to half.com but I would rather discover the used gems locally.

I should probably worry more about getting a mattress for the crib than books right now- but books are so much more fun.

Ohohoh, and in other news- thanks my boss booking an operations review on top of Janet’s previously scheduled sonogram time, guess who gets to see Butterbean this Friday instead- Ohhhh yeah, that would be us!