THREE!

Happy 3rd Birthday to my Easter baby!

(Well, this year she's an easter baby... and not so much a baby anymore.)

SURPRISE!!!!!!!!!!

Yesterday, my husband turned THIRTY! Wow. I have officially known him for more than half his life. In my attempt to be a good wife and let him know how loved he is, I decided to throw him a surprise party. Eight months pregnant. It was a major success, but WHAT was I thinking?

I know what I was thinking. In Ryan's perfect world he would have a surprise party for every one of his birthdays. When we were first married, he kept throwing me parties for my birthdays & I kept planning awesome, just us dates for his. We soon realized that we were giving each other what we really wanted for ourselves. (One of the many perks of being married to someone long enough is that eventually you learn how to make the other person happy on their terms).

*he was actually surprised. I couldn't believe it.

I tried to throw Ryan a surprise party once before, but it was a failure. He wasn't surprised and the party wasn't that cool. But this year he turned thirty. And that's supposed to be a big deal. I know his feelings & priorities are already being put on the back burning because I'm pregnant, so I really wanted him to know he's still loved.

*this idea copied from Martha Stewart was a big hit

I was SO happy with the turn out of people who came to show their love! Some of Ryan's best friends were even there from out of state. I had catered mexican food (his favorite) and a DJ so we could turn it into a dance party (also his favorite). I kept joking that I was basically throwing Ryan a wedding reception for his birthday. The man loves a good dance party. He also loved that he got to pick all the music. He prefers top 40 and early 90's hip hop. He HATES it when a DJ throws on something other than hip hop. During the party he whispered in my ear "Do you know what the best part about this being MY party is? No 'My Sherona,' no 'I Love Rock N Roll,' no 'Love Shack,' no 'Play That Funky Music White Boy'!"

The best gift anyone could have given Ryan was to get their booty out on the dance floor. And his friends did not disappoint. Here you can see them playing the game where everyone has to copy the dance moves of the person in front. It looks SO funny! Like a choreographed dance. I wish I would have videotaped it.

I love you Ryan. Happy Birthday.

34 weeks

Sunday, March 20th 2011 - 34 WEEKS!

And so the countdown begins. THIS was the week I really started to feel it. My belly is officially uncomfortable. It's no longer soft either, but firm and full to the brim of baby boy. Putting on my own shoes takes a lot of effort and leaves me breathing heavy. I have to raise my arms and put my hands behind my head to make room for my lungs to get a good, deep breath. I can see the pregnancy in the swelling of my face, bleh. But I'm feeling proud of myself, because all of these symptoms came on a lot earlier in my pregnancy with Wendy, due to the fact that I didn't take any steps (no pun intended) to monitor my weight gain the first time around. I'm still walking every day, but I think I'm done with things like Disneyland trips until after the baby. I'm down to weekly visits to the doctor instead :)

Pregnancy #2 - Fun Facts:
RE-OCCURRING NIGHTMARES

• Harvey is born a 6 month old girl
• Ryan is cheating on me
• I can stretch the skin on my belly & see my baby's face as clearly as if a balloon has been stretched over it. Everyone around me is grossed out, but I love it.
• I end up giving birth to SIX boys, but get sent home with 6 plastic baby dolls to take care of while they get bigger in the NICU

Lucky Number 7

Today I have been married to my best friend for SEVEN years! That sounds like a long time. Well on our way to a decade. I don't think I've ever stuck with anything for that long. Except for maybe piano lessons. People talk about the "seven year itch," but besides rarely seeing each other (Ryan's nights are filled with either school, work, church, or a'capella practices) I still consider him my best friend and boy friend.

During these last 7 years we've...

• learned how to read each others mood and know what to do to cheer each other up
• lived in 2 creepy apartments and one amazing rental home (and I have a feeling we might be here for a long time)
• been through 3 pregnancies and blessed with 1 and 9/10ths children
• traveled to Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Mexico, France, Belgium, & Taiwan (next stop? I'm thinking Italy.)
• blown through 3 dogs, a tortoise, lots of fish, and 18 birds
• worked through some random jobs to support each other
• attended a combined total of 4 years of schooling... only about 3 more to go!
• figured out how to cook some decent meals and manage a checkbook without overdrawing
• grown closer as best friends and developed a deeper love and appreciation for each other

abcd

*some of our favorite spots at the Ghetti Center

Every year, for our anniversary, we explore a different city. We stay in a nice hotel, go out for dinner and go a little crazy (like order an appetizer AND fancy non-alcoholic drinks instead of water and trying to stick to the cheapest things on the menu - like I said, at least one of us has been a student for a while).

Last year... we did Paris. This year we went ALL the way to Los Angeles. We tried to do LA on anniversary #4, but ended up with the flu and spent the night taking turns hovering the toilet of the rad hotel room we stayed in. So this year, we lived it up. We stayed in a different rad hotel, The Luxe. It's hidden on acres of lush, green LA jungle and used to be an apartment building in the 20's. We went out for a night on the town in Westlake Village, ate dinner at Jerry's famous deli, got a kick out of our wacky lip injected waitress, window shopped hand-in-hand, waited in line at Diddy Riese for the best ice cream sandwich you'll ever get for $1.50, snuck our desserts into the old fashioned movie theatre and saw "Limitless," closed the black out curtains and got to sleep in til 11AM!, had an overpriced breakfast at our hotel at lunch time (banana blueberry pancakes mmmm), then spent the day exploring the Ghetti Center, were both relieved to admit that we were ready to go and hour earlier than planned (he was freezing and I am uncomfortably large) and spent the last hour of our LA anniversary driving around the mansions in the hills of Bel Air, picking out our dream home. It was a much needed get away. I almost forgot how much I love being alone with Ryan.

*balcony of our hotel room

Happy anniversary babe!

Here's to another 7 and hopefully another 2 kids & another college degree by then :)

Strollin' with the hommies...

I have waddled my sciatic nerve ALL OVER Babies R Us, Sports Chalet, Bergstroms, you name it, trying to test out double strollers to see how well they glide, fold, lay back, ect. NONE of them had the strollers I was looking for (even though they claimed they did online). Then I took Wendy to Disneyland last week... WHY didn't I think of this sooner? Disneyland is a stroller shopper's DREAM! I worked up the guts to interrogate strangers on why they love/hate these three strollers, but I was too chicken to ask if I could actually pushthem around for a second. I wish I would have inherited some of my mom's gusto and just gone for it.

P.S. I have to apologize. This is a selfish blog post. It's solely for me to organize my thoughts and maybe get some good advice. I feel like I'm buying a new car. I need this thing to last. I've narrowed my double-stroller hunt down to 3:

1. Baby Jogger City Select

2. Phil & Teds Inline Buggie

3. Baby Jogger City Mini Double 2011

These are the features I'm looking for:

Large Sun Shade Canopy

Smooth ride (not too heavy to push)
Easy to push through doorways (not too wide)
Separated seating (difficult for the kids to mess with/reach each other)
Relatively easy (for a double stroller) to fold up and throw in the trunk

Ability to lay both seats ALL the way back (for a newborn & in case both kids are asleep)

Decent storage space

Any advice?

This is pretty amazing.

I usually just skip to 1:13 minutes in when it becomes a double.

THE door

Ryan & I rent a home from my in-laws. It has been one of the biggest blessings and I thank my lucky stars for it almost every day. Before we lived here, Ryan's brother & his family lived here. They have the oldest grandchild - Charlie. Charlie made this art when he was 2. He's now 10 and has lived in Arizona for 6 years. My mother-in-law wouldn't let me paint over this door for a while, but I convinced her to let me take some pictures of Charlie's artwork, then paint over it with chalkboard paint so Wendy could make some art of her own. I've been wanting to do this for a long time.

To be honest, I think I finally sanded, taped, primed, and painted (like a crazy woman, til my bones were sore) because it was one of the things on my "before baby to-do list" that I could get out of the way pretty quickly. I'm feeling overwhelmed and this was something I could do relatively quickly and actually SEE the results of my labors instantly. But now what? I feel like my head is spinning. I don't know where to begin, and I don't think the other "projects" will be so easy.

Thank you Bobbi for giving me the creative freedom most renters don't have. We love our chalkboard door.

All aboard the POTTY TRAIN!

*image courtesy of google images

In our house, we have been riding the potty train for about two weeks now. I am so AMAZED at how well Wendy is doing. We got rid of diapers cold turkey (not counting the "princess pull-ups" she wears to bed). As an incentive, we have a gift bag full of cheap plastic food for her kitchen we call "pee pee prizes." Every time she goes, we make a big deal over it and she gets to pick one. Getting her to go #2 is like pulling teeth, so we've upped the ante to TWO pee pee prizes PLUS a sucker for a #2. I liked the idea I saw here of instant gratification with a reward that can be immediate and small enough to repeat over and over again. (At this point, she could open up a plastic grocery store with all the plastic food she's accumulated). We sit her on the toilet every hour or two and that's it. All I can say is that it's been over two weeks and I can count the number of accidents she's had on one hand. That includes trips to target, the doctor's office, and 3 hours of church. Twice.

*my blurry daughter with some pee pee prizes: strawberry ice cream cones

As time goes by, I've come to realize that potty training is not something that can be done in an allotted time period. It's never ending. I wanted to cross it off my to-do list, but I don't think I can cross it off as DONE until she's going on her own, free of accidents, and making it through every night dry. I don't feel like that will ever happen. But I'm so proud of her (and for myself) for the progress we've made.