30 weeks

29 weeks!

28 weeks... sister time...

Baby sock advent calendar!

My husband kept saying that he didn't want anything for Christmas and I find that unacceptable. He did mention many years ago, however, that long long ago, in the year of 1982 his mom announced his existence by hanging some baby socks in the stairwell. He really wanted me to tell him about future babies using this same sweet method... but we were at the Peace Corps office when we found out and I'm not sure I could have handled the surprise by myself until I got my hands on some baby socks, so as soon as I found him I told him and we just looked at each other kind of shocked-like. No baby socks available.

*SO*

I decided to make him an advent calendar using baby socks. We've made non baby versions of these as gifts for friends and family many times over the years and I decided it was finally his turn!

I bought the socks from Target and filled them with little notes, treats, and funny little nothings. Our budget is pretty small so sentimental gifts are great! I sewed the permanent marker numbered felt circles onto the socks with buttons and hung them on ribbons hot glued to our new blinds. (I bought these cheap blinds to turn into roman blinds... http://www.scoutiegirl.com/2011/04/acute-how-to-no-sew-fabric-blinds.html Check out how easy this is! As soon as Christmas is done... this is on my list! :))  I glued the scalloped felt to cover the ugly blinds!

Day number one: an I love daddy bib! Awwwww! 

Week 27! Ooops, sorry we're a little late here! :)

This week dan laughed as he took the pictures, saying "You're getting BIGGER!" I'm not offended because I can tell I am too! I can't see my feet anymore and I find myself needing help putting on my hightop sneakers! "Dan, can you tie these for me" is usually my laughingly sheepish request anytime we are going anywhere! Horray for growing bellies and husbands who are willing to kneel down and tie their wife's swollen ankle hugging converse sneakers!

Baby is doing great. The latest trick little pea has been trying is laying sideways and pushing up with its hands and kicking its feet down! my belly gets really wide and stretched side to side. Funny and always surprising! :) This baby loves a good joke!

Week 26- Thank-sick-giving

 Our first holiday home and we were both sick. After making enough appetizers for an army of 22 and soup for 50, we got out to the car and started driving and the nausea hit. We pulled over about a few minutes down the road, felt my head, called the midwife and heard what we expected... most likely sick with what Dan was still sick with, and needed to go home and get in bed. We were brought some lovely turkey dinners over the next few days and had a few family visits... but not having that time with family after 2 years away was almost devastating. If Christmas wasn't so soon it would be harder... We just can't wait to be surrounded by family soon!

boo, sick!

week 25 - only 2 more weeks in the second trimester!!!

Baby is getting bigger and stronger every day! Of this I am certain because the kicks and punches have  gotten stronger too! Baby is getting into a sleep schedule, which, before Itbert, I didn't know babies in bellies did! Our little guy (quite literally) Kicks off the day around 5... waking me up either groaning, running to the bathroom, or giggling uncontrollably.... depending on where the kicks land! This morning was all three! Poor dan! Yesterday around three I was trying to fall back to sleep after my sidekick side kicked me... and baby was so excited to be awake and up and moving... the kicking was so pronounced I actually felt a foot... a bit flat foot bottom hit my hand! Pretty amazing!

This week Itbert is the size of an eggplant and weighs about as much as a rutabaga... Hmmm... not really sure I can compare that. Next week we hit the 2 pound mark! Amazing how fast this little guy is growing!

This weekend, among other things, we're going to try to start getting the nursery ready! I can't wait! I've been dreaming dreams and trying to get some good ideas and scheming themes... Right now it's between a bright red mushroomed blue wall grass green theme... and a robin's egg wall yellow and white bird theme. I'm torn. Dan and I are both leaning towards the robin's egg, yellow and white. Who knows what we'll end up with though! 

Life is moving so quickly! First thanksgiving, then Christmas, then baby! (plus, lots of good things in between!)

Last thing... The skirt I'm wearing in these pictures is from a pattern I drafted myself! I bought the fabric in a neighboring province in China. It was hand woven and beautiful so I had to find a good use for it. I'm in process of finishing about 10 maternity outfits at present! I'm pretty good with ideas and creating... it's the finishing that gets me every time! Hopefully there will be more to come very soon!!!! :)

24 weeks!!!

Hooray! We're officially 24 weeks and (depending on who you ask) the size of a papaya or as long as an ear of corn! I'm starting to be able to feel little Pea changing positions and guess what part is digging where. I'm pretty sure there's a foot up by my ribs and a little rump sticking out front right. Dan's been doing lots of talking to our little guy and I've been making an effort to narrate what's happening during my time alone with Little Itbert. Today I was humming a song in my head as I drove home and Itbert kicked... I asked if he/she wanted me to sing and there were some very enthusiastic kicks... (could have been negative but I just went ahead and assumed our little pea wanted it.) I got nervous for a second... I hate singing just for one or two people... then realized how silly that was and sang the rest of the way home to our little guy. Little Itbert kicked the whole way (in dance or protest... I like to assume dance!)

23 Weeks!!!

  I'm always late in posting these pictures! Here is me and baby on our 23 week mark. Baby is good, moving around a LOT! We've been spending our time working around the house and taking Grandma Nan to her physical therapy sessions but since she doesn't need our driving anymore we are going to spend some time helping out Aunt Jo. Dan's brother's wife works at a darling little tea house in West Chester. She is going to Michigan for about a week to spend time with her family and asked if I could fill in for her at the shoppe. Baby Pea and I were delighted to be asked, and apart from me always forgetting and having the cash register drawer bop us in the belly every time it opens, we seem to be enjoying the work. Even though the shifts I cover are only 2-3 hours, I find my feet and Baby Pea are dying for a good rest by the time I get back home. It's fun to help out, fun to meet new people, but it is even more fun to be home with Dan.

23 Weeks!

Baby, (who we call Itbert... baby pea never stuck with either of us... not sure where itbert comes from... it's just its name... :) so.... Itbert has been very excited to spend time with daddy. He has been feeling Itbert kick for about a month... he started feeling our little guy move about a week after I did. He'll lean over and talk to my belly and Itbert will roll and kick and punch and get all worked up. This morning Itbert was so excited to talk to Dan that it kicked so hard it hurt! I made dan put his hand on my stomach so I could go back to sleep! I couldn't. It is incredibly dear to see their relationship growing. I used to feel a little sorry for Dan, since he doesn't get to feel all the kicks and rolls... but now he can get his head right on Itbert and I can't even get close! I am so excited to see them together once Itbert is out of my belly!

HaaaaLLoooOwEeeeeeN

Happy Halloween!

   So perhaps you think us lazy for being "Chinese People" and believe me, in this house it is easy to find a Chinese costume. We've got enough to be differently clad Chinese people for the next 5 years of halloweens! When we got invited to our sweet neighbors' halloween party we had to wear something, and I was too late on the draw to make the skeleton screen printed costume I found on Pinterest... (with a little baby skeleton inside... very cute and innocent)  Instead I decided on a costume I knew would fit... Need you say we scrimped on our costumes, I want to inform you that we had accessories beyond our lovely peasant hats! Dan carried with him his copy of Mao's little red book and I am wearing a genuine Communist arm band that I took from my classroom (after my students said I could). It certifies that I am a party member in charge of picking up trash around the college campus! ha! We weren't just Chinese poeple... we were "Disgruntled Maoists". Depending on what I look like come October-post-baby we'll see what version of the same general idea we are next year! :)

also... are pictures of pumpkins... a cyclops, "boo" (though it's hard to tell), and a sneaky punkin...

Trash picked piece finds its home in our home!

About a week or two before we left for China I was driving out of my parent's neighborhood and I spotted a delightful piece of furniture someone had left out for large trash day. I was rushing to get someplace but called my mom and begged her to pick it up for me... (with her larger vehicle)


This gorgeous cabinet, armoire, leggy thing, lived on my parents' back porch for our two years in China and just recently found its way back into our home. I adore the colors... sea greeny with peach on the inside. It's perfectly me...

note: the handmade bamboo birdcage I bought in our little town in China is not a permanent decorative element on there... I want it hanging in our living room at some point... whenever we get there! :)

dining room re do

We do not have enough images of the amount of wallpaper I peeled! I let the chair rail live... though the living room chair rail did not meet such a pleasant end... but the wallpaper HAD TO GO!

We bought our dining room table and chairs for only $199 at a thrift shoppe near our birth center! Even on craigslist we couldn't find anything this low priced or with this much personality... (the end chairs have a little more personality than I prefer... chair slipcovers are officially added to the list of things to make!)

We started our painting... grey above and grey below... an Ani Difranco line comes to mind.. the sky is grey the sand is grey and the ocean is grey... not sure which is which but I'm happy thinking of any... the names of the paint we found were "intellectual grey" and "annonymous"
I HATE sherwin williams' paint names the same colors in behr were: "Elephant skin" and "toasted walnut"
Come on!

In all of these images you are supposed to not see the boxes in the bookshelf behind the couch... or the big piles of plastic drop cloths and cardboard from painting/moving... hopefully they will be out of our lives very soon! :)

family room re do!

Our "blank slate" which had a little too much wallpaper to really qualify as "blank" if you ask me!

Dan working on our second coat of what we were afraid was going to look like FLYERS ORANGE... it turns out it is much more pumpkinny and much less flyery than we feared!

Putting up bookshelves... who knew we had this many books!

Ta-Da!!!! our "not final but getting close enough to put up pictures" living room!

We were originally looking at painting the room the same color as our "Aunt Edith" chair, but decided a camouflage chair is bad taste! :)