Baby’s Room + Other Nesting September 8, 2009

With ten weeks to go, we’re not completely ready for our new arrival yet. We did manage to put our Ikea crib together the other day, though:

The cool two-toned paint job is courtesy of Shari and Ginger Matyas, two multi-talented sisters who painted many rooms in our house earlier this summer. Shari also made curtains for the living room and helped us replace some of the lovely 80’s light fixtures. Murray had the brilliant idea to post an off-topic call for painters on the OBRA listserv, and we were so happy to find them.

There are still a million projects we’d like to get to eventually, but it’s starting to feel more like home – we’re ready to hunker down inside with our November baby. Here’s the living room, where I expect to spend a lot of time:

living room after w/ curtains

living room before

living room after

California Cousins + My Big Belly September 7, 2009

I took the chance before getting into the thick of my third trimester to visit Jodi, Tom, Olivia and the baby boys in San Diego last weekend. We celebrated Olivia’s fourth birthday, spent lots of time snuggling and rocking the twins, and mostly stayed in the AC to avoid the heat.

It was eye-opening to see how small and dependent newborns are, even at ten weeks. They’re starting to show their personalities, though. Here’s Zack, with me sounding like a big dork to try to get him to smile:

And here’s Nick:

As you can see, I’m still figuring out this video thing and tried two different ways to do it.

Here’s big sister Olivia reading one of her birthday books with Tim, Ed, and the boys:

In case you’re wondering, Olivia really wanted to see what Nick would look like in her old Boston Red Sox cheerleading outfit. Cute, no?

Somehow I managed to miss getting any photos of Jodi or Tom, although I very much enjoyed visiting with them. I guess you kind of get pushed out of the spotlight once you have kids…

In light of that fact, I enjoyed the spotlight one last time while my Aunt Karen, a talented and generous amateur photographer, took some fancy shots of my belly in Jodi and Tom’s beautiful, tropical yard. Here are some of my faves:

Carolina Cousins September 6, 2009

Okay, the fact that our niece Kaytie and nephew Calev are her future cousins is the only thing baby-related about this post – I just really wanted to write about our awesome visit with Tammy, Charlie and the kids!

They flew all the way from Cayce, South Carolina to visit us in Portland for the first time a few weeks ago. We had lots of fun catching up, goofing off, and showing them some nearby sites, like the alpine slide at Mt. Hood:

Cannon Beach:

And a Monday afternoon Portland Beavers game at PGE Park:

We just hope they weren’t too freaked out by the colorful and unique characters on Trimet and in downtown Portland to visit us again soon after the baby is born!

First Look August 7, 2009

Here’s the first picture of our baby girl, back on June 26 at 20 weeks. Now that she’s almost 26 weeks, she’s even bigger and cooler by now:

Our sonographer was really good at capturing Kodak moments: