Man-happiness

This past weekend, David convinced me that it was VITAL for us to go to the K-State Mizzou basketball game.

I conceded, mostly because I've been craving some Buzzard's pizza, and a trip to Kansas almost certainly guarantees that.

Notice that both of us are smiling.

It was before K-State stomped Mizzou.

Go Cats!

Moving on... on the way out of Manhattan, David and I stopped at Call Hall for ice cream.

Seriously, that's the world's best ice cream.  They milk the cows and make the ice cream on site.

Heaven!

When we got back to the parents, we went out for ribs with Kyle, Cher, and Grant....

and then on the way home I got to meet my new nephew, Kevin!

I think I'm in love.

Here's Kevin with his proud father.

He's currently the largest puppy in the litter, prompting the family that bred him to nickname him Vito.

I freaked Cher out by telling her that Maggie was also the largest of the litter :)

The next morning, David and I headed back to St. Louis, but got to stop at his grandparents and go out to lunch with them.

All-around, a good weekend.

In other news, Saturday marked the 20-week mark of my pregnancy.

Half way done!!!!

In honor of this, I conned Mom into taking belly shots.

Shirt down...

Shirt up!

And, for comparison, here's the 8-week belly.

Oh 8 week belly, I miss you .

You were kind of cute.

This week, the Cactus is the size of a cantelope...

Yep, that is inside of me.

Terrifying.

David's Shame

It was overwhelming.

but he finished it.

I thought I would share...mostly so you could share in my horror.

Nursery... Update!

After finding out that our little sprout is a BOY, 

I felt like it was time to go fabric shopping.

Plus, I had a coupon.  I love it when the stars align.

I only ended up buying one piece, but here are my colors.

Yeah, the lighting stinks... I should probably learn more about photography before the tinkler arrives.

These colors aren't "true" but you get the gist.

Here's my inspiration piece... photographed at home.

Here's a website shot.

Reality is somewhere in between.

I love the blues, greens, and yellows, but I'm not 100% I'll actually use THIS fabric in the nursery, because the backdrop is off-white.

I have a weird thing about off-white and white together. 

It bothers me.

Don't worry-- I only bought a fat quarter of the fabric.  So I'm just out a buck.

Here's the fabric I plan on using for the bed skirt.  

It actually matches the greens and blues (seriously, both) incredibly well.

It was amazing.  And cheap.

The orange fabric is actually a wet bag that 

I plan on using to store the dirty diapers. 

It'll probably be inside of something, but I like it.

Unless I can find some super-cheap yellow fabric, 

I might just buy some sheets. 

 I was on the look-out for fabric, but nothing was catching my eye.  

I don't want to do much pattern, since the bed skirt will be pretty busy.

Next step... CURTAINS!

Or...CHANGING PAD COVER!

The world is my oyster.

Oh and the idea of calling the baby Justin Bieber REALLY freaks David out for some reason.  

He's suggesting Cactus or Tex.

I bargained and the baby will still be called Baby Bieber...

 when David's out of ear shot.

President's Day Weekend

I had a glorious weekend!  I didn't have work on Monday and we didn't have any formal plans all weekend--which was amazing.  I feel like we've been over-scheduling ourselves lately, and it was nice to go with the flow.

Friday, David and I went out to dinner with his friend Bob.  We went to Syberg's, which remains one of my favorite restaurants in our area.  

Chicken Wings!!!

Saturday, I got some things done around the house, ran some errands, and then met up with my buddy Jess for a run.  We ran from her house...along a route that I used to use a ton when I lived in that neighborhood--it was awesome to run around Francis Park again.  Then we got pedicures.  I SO needed a pedicure.  My hooves are slightly less unattractive now :)  

David and I had a nice dinner at a new place--Pizzeria Tivoli.  I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed it, because most new places we've tried have been NASTY.  Yay for a new restaurant!

Sunday I went to church and then met up with Erin and Khadra for lunch.

I love these girls.  

They were my first non-school friends when I moved to St. Louis--they both worked at the Institute, where my first practicum placement was.

Erin got engaged the night before, so it was great timing--

we got to see her beautiful ring!

After lunch and a bit of digestion, I went on a run.  It was a STUNNING day outside, and I ended up running  8 MILES, my longest run in a LONG time. 

It was super slow, but I was so proud of myself.

Of course, David freaked out when I told him how long my run was...

but I felt good. So David can be quiet :)

Yesterday, I got up and ran some errands...one of which was to The Purple Cow, a kids/consignment store. 

I found a HAUL of clothes--three shirts, two pairs of shorts, and a pair of capris for right around $40.

I was thrilled--and I've decided that Baby Brady is totally wearing used clothing for his entire childhood. 

Yay for clothes!

Last night, David's intramural basketball team played their second game of the season...and the little guy was kicking up a storm.  I'm not sure if he was happy to be at a basketball game (with all the noise) and thrilled about the smoothie I was enjoying.  I think we're going to going to go with he was proud of his dad for hitting all those threes :)  At any rate, I'm excited that I can feel the little guy!

Also... I've been getting TONS of suggestions for a baby nickname.  

Thank you!

Of the suggestions, one was Justin Bieber.

Totally made me laugh out loud!

Nicknames

Since we know Baby Brady is a boy, I think it's time the little guy got a nickname.

David's taken to referring to him as Sherwood.  No sir.  Mostly because David wants to name him Sherwood and I DO NOT want that to happy.  I'm worried that if I give an inch and refer to him as Sherwood now, it's going to blow up in my face.

We haven't decided on the actual name yet... but we'll probably keep that a secret until he's born, just because I wouldn't deal with critiques very well.  I'm a little too hormonal/emotional to hear what people think of the names I like :)

So... what should we call the little guy before he arrives?  Give me your suggestions!

It's A....

BOY!

Yeah, we're so excited that I made David go buy a cake with me to take to work.

I haven't eaten it yet, but it was a fun way to tell people the second I walked in the door.

And I put it on the table outside of my office, so everyone gets to see it.

So yeah, no secrets here :)

Eh, I'm bad with secrets.  The only way the WHOLE WORLD wasn't going to find out the gender was if David and I never found out.

My friend Martha made this for the announcement... 

Cute, huh?  It matches the babyshower invites she made....yay!

Cloth Diapers

First of all, don't forget to bet on the gender of Baby Brady!!!

Click HERE to bet!

I've been kicking around the ideas of cloth diapers since before I got knocked up...and the more I read, the more I'm sold on it.

The main reason: I'm incredibly cheap.

Other reasons: good for the environment, less wasteful, cute, I don't mind laundry...

Plus, poo goes down the drain, not in the garbage.  Even in the garage, poo smells when stored for a week.

And, I'm REALLY cheap.

Luckily, my friend Martha's sister has done cloth diapering in the past and was kind enough to send me some to inspect.

Yep, I got a package of used diapers...and I was thrilled!

I even took a picture of them next to the Valentine's flowers.

After looking at them, I think I picked a winner... I really like the Bum Genious 4.0.

It'll accommodate babies 7-35 pounds (so we might need to use disposables with a newborn) and has a velcro closure, which seems a lot easier than snaps.

I got even more excited when I realized that I could REGISTER for them at Babies R Us!  

How great is that?

I also found a spot where you can rent new born sizes of diapers for the first two months...

Is this worth it?

It might be cheaper to regular diaper for that short period of time.

Now, I just need to convince David that this is a good plan.

Gender....bets?

 David and I have an appointment with the OB on Friday...and we're supposed find out the gender!

How excited are we?

Pretty darn excited...mostly so I can start buying things. 

I love shopping.

At work, one of the ladies said she was going to start bets around the gender... which sparked me to write David this email.

Me: I think you should start a pool with your buddies on the gender of the baby-- wouldn't that be fun?

David: A poll or a pool????   It is kind of hard to have a pool just for the gender, bosky….it is a 50/50 shot!  Although I like that you’ve got a gambling-oriented mind about it!!

Me: I have no idea.  But I like the idea of people betting.

David: You can’t.  Baby pools are for picking date, weight, etc where there are lots of options.  Picking gender where it’s a coin flip makes it impossible.

So... it looks like the gender thing won't be a betting matter.  

If you want to place your vote on what we're having, go ahead and write a comment.  

If you want to wager money... I don't know how to do that.  Figure it out, and I'm game.
I'll probably announce sometime Friday or Saturday.  

Maybe we'll do a formal pool for date, weight, etc.  

Maybe it can surround a BBQ.  

I love BBQ.

In other news, I decided to embrace my bump/gut today for work.  

It's the first day I've worn maternity pants, so I felt slightly more comfortable wearing a tight shirt... 

I didn't have that weird area where the rubber band was showing.

As you can see, I look a little nervous about this.  

I woke up David and made him tell me it wasn't obscene and was work appropriate.

He said it was, but I wasn't entirely convinced... especially considering I see this when I look down. 

On the way to work, I chanted, "I look cute.  I do not look like a troll doll," to calm my nerves.
It helped a little bit.

Snoogle

I was having trouble sleeping, so my husband bought me this...

It's a Snoogle!

Basically, it's a gi-normous pillow designed for preggo ladies.

It's huge, but I love it.

I love it so much, I convinced David to let me photo shoot with it.

Meaning... David had to take LOTS of pictures of me posing with the Snoogle.

Most of the time, I sleep like this....spooning my Snoogle.

They say it takes the pressure off your hips.

Or something.  I don't know... I just like it.

However, the pillow came with a variety of examples on how to use it.  

Here's another...

The Snoogle spoons you!

It can also serve as a prop for eating in bed.

Or a donut-like pillow if my bottom is hurting. 

Or a tv-watching pillow... 

There are a lot more "poses" for the Snoogle, but David ran out of photographer steam after I forced him to take a picture of the "Princess Leia" look. 

At any rate... I love the pillow.  Thanks, David!

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

David and I opted to celebrate Sunday evening because he has a paper due tomorrow.

And because I work out after work and don't LOVE the idea of getting "ready" twice in one day.

I'm lazy like that, even on Valentine's Day.

Maybe especially on Valentine's Day.

Anyway, after church on Sunday, Dan and Debra brought over Liam for a play date with Maggie.

Turns out, Maggie was a little big and scary for little Liam.  

He warmed up after a while, but never wanted to ride her the way he did before he realized that she was alive.

This is about as close as he got to her all day...except for when he was offering her his toys.

Maggie dutifully sniffed but did not lick or bite the toys.  I was very proud.

She also didn't move, even when he wanted play fetch.

A little less proud.

You might have noticed in the picture above that Liam has on a necklace...

That wasn't all...

For some reason, both he and David got into my jewelry...and Liam LOVES playing dress up.

Grandpa wasn't thrilled, but I think it's a good look on Liam, who also spent a lot of time going through my wedding cards.

It was cute.

After they left, I took some food over to my friends Rochelle and Kevin--they have a days-old baby that I was dying to visit.

I didn't take any pictures of Ace (how cool is that baby name????), mostly because I didn't want to accidentally drop the camera on him or something equally traumatic.

I have this irrational fear of "breaking" someone else's baby.

Anyway, Ace was darling--I probably overstayed my welcome, but it was hard to leave!

Then, David and I finally celebrated Valentine's Day.

We went to dinner at Harvest, a neat-o restaurant over by Wash-U.  I had never been there before, but I had eaten at the AMAZING place that shares an entrance, Hank's Cheesecake.

Our dinner was A-MAZ-ZING, but I was saddened to learn that they didn't serve Hank's, even though I could see the cheesecake.  Sad.  

Since Hank's was closed, David took me down to The Fountain on Locust.

OMG.

I ordered something called 3 Coins in a Fountain with three kinds of ice cream.  And David got a molten brownie cake in a mug.

OMG.

Towards the end, I was PAINFULLY full, so David barricaded me from the ice cream left in my bowl.

Cute.

We took a picture together... that wasn't all that cute.   

Something's wrong with David's face in that picture...

It's a good thing I love him.

We had decided that we weren't doing presents...since this is so close to other holidays AND the baby's coming, I wasn't too upset about this.  

Plus, I'm in at a stage in my life where I want to get rid of superfluous belongings.

In preparation for all the baby crap, you know.

I was totally shocked this morning at work when these arrived.... 

 Beautiful!!!!

 Wowzers!  You can't really tell in the picture, but they're HUGE.

The vase is at least a foot tall-- I'm so spoiled!

Clothing Drama

Getting dressed requires a lot more thought... I'm not able to just throw on clothes and run out the door---because my "regular" clothing is rapidly not fitting.

For instance, I thought I might wear the following dress yesterday for a meeting where I was presenting...

I thought it might be fine since it had an elastic waist that is normally pretty flattering on me... flattering because it usually hits at the narrowest part of my waist.

I'm glad I tried it on the night before...because it looked like I was trying to smuggle a honeydew.  And the tightness of my dress in the front does not make my boo-tay look nice.  It  makes me look like a troll doll.

And the short-ish dress got inappropriately short because of fabric stuck out front.

I decided not to wear this dress.  

I don't think I'm destined to be one of those cute preggo women who display the bump proudly.  

Maybe it's because of my years as a big girl--I feel SUPER uncomfortable of clothing that draws attention to bumps or rolls on my body.

Weekend

David and I had a nice little weekend.  After my three days in prison, I FINALLY went back to work on Friday.

Praise the Lord.  

I am so far behind.

Anyway, Friday night we went over to our friends Martha and Nick's house for a dinner party.  It was great--I so needed to see people.  My friend Rochelle was actually due to have her baby on Friday, but he wasn't ready to come out yet, so we got to see her in all her glory.

She gave me some maternity clothes--including some workout pants.  They are amazing.  

I ordered another pair, because I love these.

Saturday we woke up to another 4 inches or so of snow.

David was my hero and shoveled it for me.

I was furious, but David and I still went out running errands.

David went to Columbia for the game but I chose to stay in St. Louis.

I'm very exciting.

Yesterday, I taught Sunday School and then David and I ran out to St. Charles so his sister, Danna, could help me with my baby registry.  I'm so glad--I had no idea what I was doing and I hate having to store a bunch of unnecessary gizmos.

Plus, we got to hang out with Liam. 

I really wanted to buy him this hat...but he wouldn't let me.

Sad.

Sunday night, we went over to some friends of David's to watch the game.  It was a good time, but I was a little sad that I missed the commercials.  Turns out the group of guys was way more interested in the game than the commercials.  Go figure :)

Oh!  Over the snow day, I made a design decision.  My mom has agreed to help me paint the nursery AND our living/dining room when she comes to visit over my spring break. 

After consulting/stalking Young House Love, I have inspiration pieces.

Clearly, I'm not a super photographer, but I'm thinking sagey green, yellows, blues, and browns.

Yay.

Snow Day-Three

I made it through the third snow day.

It was a little rough.  I actually ended up leaving the house--MIRACLE!

I found some maternity clothes at a second-hand store for A DOLLAR!

A DOLLAR!

For real!!

And then I went to Target and to a Pre-Natal yoga class, which I enjoyed.

I wish I felt like yoga was a workout, because I like the way it feels.  

Unfortunately, it doesn't feel like a substitute for running.

I also made an apron.

I might not necessarily be productive, but I am constructive.

I'm hoping work is on for tomorrow.

I have cabin fever like no one's business.

Law School Prom

On Saturday, before Snow-magedon hit, we attended Law School Prom.  Other people call it Barrister's Ball...but to me it'll always be prom with an open bar.

I wore the same dress I wore to Uncle Sam's inaugural ball-- thank God the $17 wonder still fits.

Here we are, all fancied up.

And as close to a full-body shot as I managed to get.

The first thing I notice in this are my knockers.

Cheese and Rice.

This is getting obscene.

I'm going to start wearing a dickey or a turtleneck underneath everything.

From the boobs down, I don't think I'm showing, all that much.  

A few people said that I didn't even look pregnant...

but three people did grab my gut.  

In my head it was kind of like the scene from Crocodile Dundee II (where he goes to New York) where Mick "checks" the cross dresser to prove to himself that it's a boy and not a girl.  

At this stage, I feel like people are checking that this baby thing isn't an elaborate ruse.

Anyway...Law School Prom was head at the Fox Theater, which was really amazing.  The Fox is an old movie theater (from the 1920's, I believe) that's absolutely stunning.  

The coolest part was that the dance floor was on the stage. 

Seriously, I got to dance on the same stage where I watched Wicked, Jim Gaffigan, Sheryl Crow, Billy Crystal, Flight of the Conchords, Legally Blonde, ZZ Top and others I can't remember preform.

How cool is that???

 I had a blast at this year's prom, even if I was sober.

I think I'm getting used to this whole sober thing.

Oh!  Also, one of David's classmates informed me she reads the blog!  

I was thrilled, especially when she quoted the blog... Hi, Nellie!

SNOW-M-G

 The world is freaking out.  On Sunday afternoon, I went to the Lake of the Ozarks for a conference that was supposed to last through Tuesday.  David freaked out about the weather and, apparently my boss's wife did as well...because we made the decision to leave the conference at 11 am on Monday.  The hotel informed us that we needed to check out by 11 to avoid paying for Monday night AND if we stayed Monday we should expect to stay through Thursday.

Yipes.

So we drove back to St. Louis, arriving home a scant 22 hours after leaving.  I went to the grocery store for a few essentials (read: bacon and a rice krispie treat) and then Blockbuster.  

School for Parkway was canceled at 8pm last night AND about 4pm today for tomorrow.  In an effort to keep myself from going crazy, I started sewing.

Today I made... a maternity dress!

I got the fabric on the bottom in a clearance back (for $5 for the bolt...so this is probably $2.50 of fabric) and the top is a bra from Gordman's.  Total dress cost: $6.50.

I think it'll work for maternity wear...

I hope my belly never looks like this basketball, though!