Live music is good for the soul

Even though this was during the week and we were both tired, we decided to go and it turns out, Nick was right (YES!!! I know!!!) and live music is good for your soul. Especially when that live music is from one of your favorite bands ever. It was my first sober concert experience, and I have to say...it was still fun. Crazy, right?

Dear Baby,

I don't know how I missed putting this photo up, but this is your big brother, Chino.

We'll always refer to Chino as our "first born", which isn't too far from the truth. Even though he's a dog, he's managed to teach us so much about what kind of parents that we hope to be. When we brought him home, we were expecting "rainbows and sunshine", but what we got was a crying, screaming puppy that had no idea what was going on. Once he settled in, that was a whole other story. We had a crazy lunatic puppy on our hands. He was housebroken, but felt that crate living was beneath him and also had predisposition for chewing on and eating random things. We eventually figured it all out though. He was patient with us and we tried our best to be patient with him and what started out as "what did we do?" ended up as "what did we do without him?" This is what I expect our transition into parenthood to a two-legger to be. We're in the planning stage right now, and before you know it, you'll be here. It may take us a little while, but we'll figure it out and before long, it will be like you were here the whole time.

A few things that your "big brother" has taught us:

1. Its always important to take turns
2. It will all be ok. Adaptation is key.
3. Unconditional love is the best kind (he doubles as momma's on-staff psychiatrist)
4. Its ok to fake it 'till you make it
5. Don't ever underestimate learned vocabulary
6. Just when you think your house is childproofed, you'll probably find something (he found a rum cake, a ball of yarn, knitting needles, a digital camera, an ink pad, pens, carpet, the wall and lots of paper)
7. Ice cream cones fix almost anything
8. Bribery is ok...sometimes
9. Always follow signs that tell you to "keep your dog on a leash" (this will apply less to you, obviously)
10. Family time is mandatory
11. A good walk is fuel for the soul
12. Bunnies are evil and must be chased out of the yard, at all costs
13. When its time to play, its time to play. Everything else can, and should wait.
14. Breakfast and dinner must be served promptly at all times
15. A good routine keeps the household running smoothly
16. Family members don't necessarily have to be two-legged
17. Trust is earned

As we get ready to welcome you to our crazy life, its important to us to make Chino feel loved and included. To neglect him after so many years of happiness and love would just be unfair. He's been a part of the whole preparation process, so far. As we were getting your nursery ready, he was there to watch and observe. Actually, because of the curtain debacle, he was also able to overcome his fear of the power drill and tape measure. He came to our first baby shower in Pittsburgh and was on his best behavior. He enjoyed the cake and helped momma open some presents. 

Everyone who knows us, knows how important he is to us and is always asking how he'll do when you get here. My answer has always been "He'll be fine...he has no choice." We're going to proceed cautiously, but if you get a lick in your face when you come home, that's just your big brother saying hello and seeing what you've been up to. We're pretty sure that he already knows you're there, based on how protective of me he's been lately. You've probably been hearing his voice during these last few months. He runs a tight ship in the backyard and if he's not walked every night, he usually barks his head off around 9pm every night, while we're relaxing and watching TV. Hopefully, you're used to this sound because we have no idea how to make him quit. So far, I haven't felt you startle when you hear him, so maybe that's a good sign.

Here's hoping for a baby who sleeps through crazy barking fits!

Love,

Momma

The Stuff

The blog is back after some light remodeling, nothing too major, but here's the explanation:

I'm shifting the posts a bit to be more about us trying to remain “us” as we figure out our next adventure: PARENTHOOD. The new blog title is a nod to Nick who equates our crazy experiences together as “the stuff”.  I'm not sure where the phrase actually started, but its become an integral part of our marriage. From walking along the Sienne in Paris to last minute trips to Boston, that “stuff” is what’s been making our marriage so much fun. It has been stories, laughter, fights, photos and fun and its made us who we are and will help us become the parents we’re going to be. The stuff can be anything and everything, but its mostly things that don't come with a matching souvenir or magnet. Its the everyday fun that makes us...us. Its dancing in the kitchen, getting lost in London (I'm lucky enough to have a photo of this one), inside jokes and invented games. 

Big changes are ahead and we're not quite ready, but we're going to figure it out together. Baby L has already become an integral part of "the stuff" that makes us a family. The upcoming arrival has forced us to make some compromises and changes that we've taken in stride, laughing and trying to enjoy every moment. Of course, sometimes "the stuff" comes with frustration, but more often than not, we look back and realize how ridiculous the whole situation was. 

As we enter into our last months of being a family of 3 (Chino most definitely counts). I want to remember all of the craziness that is leading up to the biggest adventure we'll ever take. The mundane details are what make the story and without them, its only half written. Hopefully this will be a place for most of those blanks to be filled in, after we stop laughing of course.

Dear Baby,

I've been out of denial for quite some time now, especially since you've decided to show yourself a little bit more as you start to grow. For awhile, you were in a bitter battle with my beer gut/frontal muffin top, so it was kind of hard to figure out whether I was pregnant or just bloated with a drinking problem. Last week was YOUR week. You really popped out and started to develop quite the personality.

It was our first solo trip together, probably the easiest one we'll ever take. We went to Atlanta to work at the Thirty-One National Conference. My co-workers were all very concerned about how this would affect me, but luckily I was mostly unaffected. As long as I kept you fed and hydrated, you were just fine, choosing to stay quiet all day. The mornings were your time. Right before I got out of bed, you'd throw yourself a little party in there - bopping around, kicking and punching. Its now much more distinguishable than before, no mistaking what's happening in there!

You and I must be jiving really well because I wasn't ever sore or swollen as I worked some longer-than-normal hours with less than normal sleep. Your favorite food last week was a peach scone from Starbucks. You had a party about 1/2 way through my first one!

When I got home, your dad noticed the difference in your size. As I was coming down the escalator to see him, his eyes got a little wider and when he hugged me, he took a step back and looked at my belly and said..."Babbbbyyyyyy" in his funny voice. The week away made the "pop" a little more dramatic for him, especially since I had on a tighter shirt that accentuated the bump.

As I'm sitting here now, you're kicking me a little. It might be the Hershey Bar that I ate a little while ago, or maybe you know that I'm thinking about you. OR maybe its the 64 oz of water that I've already consumed today and you're feeling happy and hydrated. Either way, was we continue to prepare for your arrival, I'm both scared and excited. The planner in me is trying to get the "must do's" done so that we can really enjoy our time together when you arrive. That also includes work...which is becoming increasingly hard to focus on.

This week's agenda:  Finishing up the nursery decor, Thank-you notes from our Pittsburgh shower and more babysitter interviews. You're sure keeping us busy.

XOXO,
Momma

Nesting...Lunacy...same difference

I've heard that nesting is another symptom of pregnancy, but I'm convinced that nesting falls under the same category as lunacy. Maybe lunacy is the blanket term and then there are sub-bullets underneath to describe how your hormone-fueled body deals with each one of the symptoms? Its similar to an out of body experience, or so I think, because I can hear the craziness coming out of my mouth and see the look on Nick's face when I have yet another thought, but I'm powerless to stop any of it from happening.

Case in point. Our garage.

What started out as an innocent walk one evening with Chino, ended up to be a two week process involving multiple trips to Goodwill, mountains of trash and a new workbench. The conversation went something like this:

L:  "We NEED to clean out the garage because there is no way that I'm going to be able to get my car in there, and get a car seat out of the back, without hitting the other car. If we had things rearranged, we could move both cars over, to make more room in the middle."
N: "Umm ok. But if you can't get your car in the garage, you can always just use the driveway."
L: "Let's pretend that my rational mind already thought of that and that it didn't just dawn on me now that the garage wasn't my only option."
N: "Uh huh."

Fast forward to the following Saturday when the garage purge started. Nick began by categorizing things and sorting through piles of garbage that we had literally been storing in our garage for over a year. He sat me down in a lawn chair and asked me to sort things into several categories; keep, shred; giveaway, trash. My hormones didn't fail me as I ruthlessly began throwing things out. Nick was thrilled, because some of these same things had been points of contention the last time we had attempted this project (hence the trash storage).

Fast forward to this past Sunday when we stepped back to see how much we had accomplished. It was pretty impressive. Not only can two cars fit in the garage comfortably, the back door opens wide without hitting the other one (I checked). The space is arranged in a logical fashion - in sections that make sense, and there's not a pile or box of trash in sight. By the end of it, Nick was really into it, and glad that the crazy woman made the suggestion to get things started. Perhaps nesting is contagious?

Lunacy is a symptom

Now that everyone knows why I'm carrying around a hodgepodge of various foods and snacks at all times, chugging water and not drinking, I can begin to get into the symptoms of pregnancy. Don't think I'm going to talk about being bloated or about my boobs that are both "ridiculous and out of control", because I'm not. I'm going to talk about my fixation with making sure that the curtains, valance and sheers are hung up to the exact specifications of the picture in my head.

It all started innocently enough with a trip to JC Penney, where my sister found curtains to match the bedding and that wouldn't distract from the orange walls and green chair. Once the curtains were secured, it was time to find the hardware from which they'll hang. This posed a new problem because our house is somewhat lame in that the window frame of the nursery is only 3" from the wall. That leaves me no room to add any of the zillions of cute curtain rods with equally cute embellishments to the ends. Armed with a scale drawing of the nursery, I selected a rod with balls (TWSS) that would be appropriate for the space, proudly showing it off to Nick. He was impressed that I selected the curtain rod with careful consideration and with the assistance of a tape measure.

Fast forward several weeks later. Its the week that the nursery is getting painted, so we decided to hang the curtains, so all holes would be drilled in the wall, pre-paint, hence avoiding any flip-outs by yours truly, when Nick uttered the word oops after drilling a hole in the wall. Monday night, my poor husband headed upstairs for what he thought would be a routine installation, only to be confronted with a new window treatment (a valance) and a crazy wife who couldn't help by articulating the vision in her head. After several rounds of "oops" and re-do's, and "oh shit's", and a broken curtain rod, we called it an evening and decided that my balls were too big (TWSS - yes I did) for the window frame.

If you're keeping score:  Valance: 1, Linda&Nick: 0

Tuesday evening, I triumphantly arrived home with a new curtain rod, with smaller balls, which I thought would fit better into the stupidly designed space. I also arrived home full from a dinner with a friend and with a bad case of heartburn. I'm only mentioning this because it added to an already cranky situation. Nick did his thing with the drill and we stepped back and looked at it...and it looked weird. Nothing like the picture on the back of the package (and the perfect installation that I have in my head). When I wasn't showing any hint of being satisfied, he called his mom and received quite the tutorial on double curtain rods, tension rods and cafe rods as they relate to the configuration that I was hoping would work. That conversation pushed him over the edge and he declared that we were done for the night.

I pouted and went downstairs to research new ways to install everything, desperately looking for a magic set of hardware to achieve my look, but with no luck. After being coaxed into stopping for the night and going to bed, I had a eureka about how what we had could maybe work if we hung things up slightly different than what they were supposed to be. I think I went to bed mumbling about valances, Nick tried to calm me down and coax me to sleep. This morning, it was the first thing I thought of when I got up, and I think I have the perfect solution....in my head. We'll see what happens when we get home and try to make it work. If not, I've been promised a shopping trip to find the perfect solution - for both of us - which will stop the temporary insanity.

Big changes ahead

Last week, my friend Marci called me out on not posting anything about the big changes that are happening in our life and in Chino's life. It wasn't ready to be social media public yet, but as of last Thursday, its officially out there. That's right. It. It is a big change that Nick and I are still getting used to. It is going to rock our world. It is going to make Chino a big brother. It is making us parents this year. That's right. Parents. Our furbaby is going to have a two legged big brother or sister. I'm not sure that he's grasped the enormity of the situation, I know that I haven't.

What I do know is that we are so blessed that we have been given this gift of fear and uncertainty and love. We are holding hands and ready for our adventure into parenthood, which will consist of trips to Babies R Us, projectile vomiting, breast pumps, elastic pants, onesies and lots of love and laughter. Its hard to say that we're actually ready, but I know that we're as ready as we'll ever be. I can't imagine our 20-something selves handling this as remotely well as our 30-something selves are doing (so far, anyway), and I'm so grateful that we got to spend time together "growing up" and making memories before we decided embark on the adventures of parenthood.