A few of my favorite things: pregnancy edition

I will be celebrating thirty one weeks of blissful pregnancy this weekend. Okay, so not every moment of this pregnancy has been blissful. The back aches, weight gain, leg and foot cramps, bladder infections, fatigue, contractions... Oh I'll stop there. All these things don't always make me want to jump for joy that I'm preggers, but once I see this baby's face, hand, foot, leg, heart beat on that sonogram I am reminded that this little guy growing inside of me is truly a miracle. I am truly blessed and I am eternally grateful to be able to carry a healthy baby. In the moments in which I find myself lamenting my current condition and wishing for a cure for my ailments, these are the things I have reached for and found comfort in...even if it's only a few moments of comfort.

Preggie Pop hard candies: I loved these things when I was pregnant with N and was very glad to find them for my pregnancy with Baby #2.They truly relieved pregnancy nausea for me. Even it if it was a temporary relief it was relief nonetheless.





Mama Mio Tummy Rub Oil: I started lathering this oil on from day one...even before I started showing. It smells good, it feels good and I believe it works. Even though it's a bit on the pricey side, it's worth it!!





Loving Comfort Maternity Support Belt: "Loving Comfort" is definitely the right name for this support belt. At week 26 my back started caving due the extra weight of carrying the baby. After searching the web and local stores I found this one. I could not run fast enough to the store to get this!!! It can be worn comfortably under your clothes and does not irritate your skin. It truly does provide extra support. I am glad the clerk at the store gave me a quick tutorial on how to put it on because it does consist of three pieces and could be confusing to put on w/o help.


Kathy Smith's Pregnancy Work Out (Circa 1980's!)
Okay, so this is where I say don't judge a book by it's cover. I know the leotard work out clothes, mall bangs and colored tube socks SCREAM 1980's! The maternity rap song Kathy and her girls perform is even more hysterical (think Super Bowl Shuffle), but the work out is great. It's just the right amount of intensity and challenge you need while pregnant. Kathy's energy is great and her instructions are impeccable. Monitoring your heart rate when exercising while pregnant is really important. There are two segments built into the video that show you how to calculate your heart rate and even time you so you do it with the video.

Another exercise video I like is also from the 80's (think mauve decor and biker shorts). This one is Buns of Steel: Pregnancy and Post Pregnancy Workout. The instructor in this one (Madeleine Lewis) has done some choreography for Kathy Smith's videos. If you've done any of Kathy's videos it's pretty obvious that she uses quite a few of the same movements in her videos that have been used in Kathy's, but it's still a good video. Madeleine has a little bit more of a dance routine to her workout, so they can be a little tricky the first time through, but she's good at talking you through them. Once you get the routine it's fun to dance/workout along with her.

One last video I really like is a Prenatal Yoga with Shiva Rea. I am currently forbidden from exercising per my doctor... Ugh. However, I have been doing this yoga tape from time to time because it's mostly stretching and very low impact, fluid movements. This tape is relaxing, easy to follow and helps to ease some of the aches and pains of pregnancy.






Other than that, I am thankful for Caffeine Free Diet Coke, Cheese It's, Ghiradelli 60% chocolate chips and my body pillow, which at this point, gets more cuddle time than my hubby.

Nemo Birthday Party

We celebrated N's Birthday with family and friends last Saturday. I had fun shopping for all the Nemo paper products, decorations and utensils while D found a really cute set of removeable Nemo wall stickers at Menards. D and I were like little kids decorating the house while N napped. It was so much fun.

The party started about 4:00. We chatted and N opened gifts. Then we ate dinner. We had seven kids ranging in age from two to eight and overall we had people ranging in age from two to....well... maybe I shouldn't say the age of the oldest person because I'm not too sure of the age and wouldn't want to offend anyone. Ha! Anyway, it was a nice mixture of people, ages and backgrounds, so we had lots to chat about. This was the first party that we hosted where the kids filled the entire kids' table. They ate really well together. They kept their hands to themselves and didn't eat of each other's plates (that I saw anyway) or fight over drinks. I think I am mainly speaking of my child when it comes to snatching food off other people's plates. We're working on that....and many other things. :) After dinner the kids played upstairs, downstairs and outside. I was really glad to have my toy room project mostly done so the kids could romp around down there w/o worrying about them. One major part of the toy room project was getting a solid, sturdy shelving unit to store toys, games, art supplies in. Not only did we get the unit put together, but we also got it anchored to the wall so it won't fall over on anyone. I'd still like to get more baskets/bins to store toys and supplies in, but I need to shop around to see what colors and materials (cotton bins, more woven wooden bins or galvanized bins) I can find. Anyway.. I digress. The toy room was safe and functional for the kids to enjoy. I think because of that the adults were also able to enjoy themselves upstairs away from the noise and commotion quite honestly. Our stairwell is set up nicely because it blocks the majority of the noise coming from the basement, but lets you in on the jist of what's going on in case someone is crying or fighting.

The weather was gorgeous the day of the party (64), so we all eventually moved outside. The adults stood on the driveway and sat on the wicker furniture on the porch and watched the kids play. The kids actually shared the toys really well and didn't fight too much! I think between our neighbors collection of toys and ours, each kid had something to ride, scoot, operate at all times. (Thanks for sharing, neighbors.)

Thanks to everyone who came to the party. I really believe it's the people who make the party. We sure appreciate having you here to celebrate N's Birthday with us. He had a great time and recounts memories he has from the party on a daily basis. So cute!

Happy Birthday!!

At this time three years ago D and I were calmly and collectively walking into the hospital to be admitted as patients (well, I was the only patient, but D was there for me) and I got induced to give birth to our first child. Twenty five hours later...our boy was born!! He had a bit of a rocky start, but after a handful of days in the NICU and lots of support from the wonderful staff at the hospital and our family, we were ecstatic to take our baby boy home. Tomorrow we will celebrate his third birthday and are grateful to have this happy, healthy boy in our life!!!
Happy Birthday, N. Mommy and Daddy love you to pieces. :)

Magnetc Chalkboard Project

I have been working on several projects lately. I completed one today and am really excited to show everyone. It's a magnetic chalkboard (or chalk-o board as N calls it) made from a sheet of wood (not sure what type of wood, but it's thin, light weight and smooth on one side), a can of magnetic paint and a can of chalkboard paint. Pre-painted trim was added to give the chalkboard a nice finished look. I toyed with the idea of painting the trim orange or blue to make it look more juvenile, but decided to stay with white because it matches the trim in the rest of the room. I am really proud of myself for seeing this project through because, although it was not difficult, it took many steps of painting and waiting, painting and waiting, painting and waiting. That meant several rounds of getting out supplies, making a mess, cleaning up the mess and putting everything away. My least favorite parts of any project are the preparation and the clean up. I just like to jump in and "get my hands dirty," but you just can't do every project that way.

I found the "Inspire" sign at Pier One several weeks ago with the intentions of hanging it over the closet in our foyer, but I like the way it works over the chalkboard much better! The rail, buckets and paper towel dispenser hanging below the chalkboard are all from the Kroken series at IKEA. They will serve as storage for magnets, chalk and paper towel.

Happy 4th

This is the first 4th of July I can remember the weather being cool and rainy. It was 65 degrees and rained all day. We didn't let the rain stop our celebrating, though. D started his day bright and early with a local 5K. N and I opted to stay home and sleep in a little. Fortunately N slept in longer than I did, so I was able to get in some yoga before he woke up. D brought home our typical Saturday morning McDonald's breakfast after his race. D ran his best race time of all the races he's participated in this season. (Good job, babe!)

My sister Skyped from the Netherlands later in the morning. It was wonderful to talk to her! N threw kisses to Aunt J through the camera, she blew kisses back to him. He accepted the kisses first, then pretended to spit them out and said they were sour. What a goof ball! Aunt J laughed and took it very well. After we got off the phone with Aunt J, we played and painted red, white and blue pictures together in the garage. It was lunch time by then, so we had lunch and put N down for his nap. D and I worked on a few "to do's" while N napped. (Thank goodness for nap time!!)

I read about an interesting 4th of July tradition in one of my toddler activity books, so I gave it a try this year. I made a birthday cake for the U.S. It's hard to explain to N why we celebrate the 4th. I thought this was a great way to explain it to him. He loves birthdays and he loves cake, so I made a birthday cake for us to eat in honor of our country's independence and I explained to him that our country is turning 233 years old... I'm not sure how much he understood, but we can talk about it every year and he will eventually get it. I debated between making a reduced fat strawberry cake and a Portillo's chocolate cake recipe...I went for the gold and made the chocolate cake. It was delicious!! The recipe is below.

Portillo's Chocolate Cake

1 betty crocker super moist chocolate butter recipe cake mix
3 large eggs
1 cup water (or coffee as it brings out the chocolate flavor)
1 cup Hellmann's mayonnaise (not light)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.Grease 2 round cake pans (or your choice of pan; cupcakes works great too).Beat all ingredients for 4 minutes (makes it fluffy).Pour into prepared pans.Follow baking instruction on box for your choice of pan, elevation, etc.Use toothpick to check for doneness.


N took a great nap today! Thank goodness because we had some fun plans for the evening. We got to Old Chicago right at 5:00 to eat supper in hopes of beating the rush. We made it just in time. There wasn't a wait and N was very well behaved at dinner. It's sooo nice when we take him out to eat and he's a good boy!! There were lots of activities planned for the 4th on the river front. There were supposed to be free inflatable toys to play on, however they were cancelled due to the rain. We didn't realized this until we got down to the river front. N was really excited to jump in the bouncy house... It was hard to tell him it got cancelled because he got pretty upset. Poor kiddo. There was still one activity set up that held up in the rain, so we played at that tent for quite a while before heading home. When we got home we sang Happy Birthday to America, blew out candles and ate the birthday cake. We watched the Macy's Fire work display on tv and played for a while. Then it was bed time... Past bed time actually... N had a hard time falling asleep. He was still playing in his room when D realized we could see a great fireworks display from one of the bedrooms upstairs. Since N was still awake the three of us sat together in that bedroom and watched the fireworks. Those were the most comforable, relaxing seats I've ever watched fireworks from. :) So, it's been a nice day. We got to do a lot of fun things and it was even more fun to have a toddler to share the day with. It's fun to have a little kid around to bring the kid out in us. :)

Happy 4th!

Eyes

Tonight D and I were putting N to bed. The three of us were taking turns pointing out something blue in N's room. D said to N "You're eyes are blue like Mommy's." N looked at me and paused and said "I love those eyes." So sweet!!