29 Weeks

Here's your picture. I'm having a bad day and I am too cranky to write a post. Blah.

Picture Perfect

After many months of begging and pleading and demanding and threatening Kyle finally bought me a new camera. I suppose I could have just bought myself a new camera, but somehow I got it in my head that he should buy me one, so... Clearly, we have a camera, or else you wouldn't have all these lovely terrible pictures of me. But it is really bad at taking pictures. At least ones that are any good. Because we bought it to take high speed video. And it does that very well. But that's about all.

Anyway, with the birth of my child imminently approaching, I was starting to get desperate. It's one thing to have blurry bathroom mirror belly photos, but it's another thing entirely to have unclear and unfocused snapshots of MY BABY OH MY GOD. You know.

I demanded a Canon. Kyle bought one. It showed up the other day. I am in love.

Thusly, BFF and I went to the Tulip Festival. When we were there last year we discussed what a perfect place it would be to take maternity photos. And here we are, both pregnant, so...

On the way home we stopped by the outlet mall to visit the Carter's and the Gymboree. Sigh. Today was a lovely day.

Trimester the Third

Well then. Yesterday marked the first day of this last trimester of my pregnancy. The home stretch! 12 weeks right now feels about 10 weeks too many, but I know the time will just fly by. The last trimester certainly did. I have no idea where the last three months went.

And happy third trimester to me, what should I find when I leave my house for work but my brand new stroller waiting for me on my front step. (Kyle's aunties all chipped in.)

Yay! I was expecting it, but still. I probably let out some sort of high-pitched yelp when I opened the door.  It feels like a huge weight off my shoulders to have some of the big stuff out of the way. I'm expecting our crib to arrive tomorrow. A gift from Kyle's parents... you know, on top of hosting us and throwing me an awesome baby shower and making me that beautiful mobile. Cool.

Another exciting third trimester milestone: yesterday was the first time I peed myself a little bit when I coughed. Awesome.

Cleveland Part II: The Luck of the Irish

Kyle is half Irish. Yeah. His dad is the oldest of nine. He has approximately a billion cousins, ranging from age 6 to almost 30. Almost the entire family live in the same zip code. Holy cow is right. While we were in town, Grandma held her annual Irish corned beef and cabbage feast. Because they like to celebrate St. Patrick's day for a whole month. Because they are really into being Irish. Here is some of the decor, but I will have you know that their house looks like this year round, not just for this particular occasion.

Shamrocks on everything!

Just in case you forgot!

They do it up right.

Kyle's grandparents live in a modest suburban single family home. Approximately fifty people were at the party. And it was still too cool to move the festivities outside.

Yes you did count six tables. Suffice it to say, family gatherings can be overwhelming and exhausting. But also fun when you only have to do it once a year.

My brother-in-law, Chris with our cousin Kelly

Bonnie explaining the meaning of all of her bracelets to my mother-in-law.

Omigosh! An iPad!

We also spent some time with our friends and took in a baseball game, and Kyle ate at a few of his favorite local restaurants. One Chinese place in particular remembers him and still knows his regular order! We had a good trip, but I am so so glad to be home. 

From Seattle Rain to Cleveland Showers

Well, we're back in Seattle, and so glad to be home. Our trip was great, but spending time with Kyle's family is exhausting, and it's a relief for things to return to normal,  or at least as normal as they can be on the eve of my third trimester.

We got into Cleveland on Wednesday morning, but we didn't do a whole lot that day. Kyle caught up on sleep, as he is terrible at red-eye flights. Mostly just some catching up with the in-laws, and enjoying some free time off from work and home responsibilities.

On Thursday night Kyle got a chance to spend some time with some of his college buddies when my Mother-in-Law threw me a baby shower. It was fun, if very traditional and totally not me. I joke that I get to have a midwestern version of everything. We had our traditional midwestern reception in Ohio after our offbeat Seattle wedding, and this was definitely my traditional midwestern shower.

MIL got the whole set of corny decorations, and had me put my merchandising skills to work doing the decorating.

The shower was "small" with "only" very close family. So, about seventeen of us. And lots of wine. It was rowdy, to say the least. I think rowdy is the only way that Kyle's family does things. We'd played dumb shower games, and had some of Kyle's cousins show us their latest Irish step dancing routine.

We made out with a ton of loot, including some of the "big things" that I was starting to get anxious about, but my favorite gift was inexpensive and homemade. My MIL sent a piece of origami paper to each home in Kyle's family and had them all write us a wish. And then she folded them all into paper cranes and turned it into a mobile.

It is beautiful. Like, I gasped. It was hanging in the dining room when we first arrived, and I noticed it right away. "Wow, that is so pretty, when did you get that?" I asked. I was totally blown away that it was for me. For us.

I can't imagine taking it apart, but I also can't wait to see what's been written inside all of the cranes.  I think I'm going to unfold each one, take a picture of the message, and put it all back together, and then make a blurb photobook or something, so we can enjoy all parts of it. Seriously, I love this.

Long Away

Greetings from Ohio. No time yet for the full writeup, but I wanted to post my week 27 picture before I forgot/avoided doing it altogether. Super not cute, but you wouldn't look so hot either after a red-eye flight. And my husband is no good at taking pictures. Or rather he is not patient enough to take approximately 57 frames so that I can find the one that's not quite as crappy as the others since our camera is so terrible. But whatever. Here you go.

Good trip so far, details later.

Dear Baby

Dear Baby,

Hey boy! You are wiggling around underneath my laptop right now. It's wonderful. I'm feeling you move around a lot these days. You are getting big and strong, and sometimes your kicks can even be a little painful for me. No matter, I wouldn't trade them for the world. You do a lot of your kicking in the car when I am driving home from work. I think of that time as us time. I play you lots of music, and I hope you are starting to develop an appreciation for it. I know you won't like everything I do, but I think it will be good for you to be exposed to a wide variety of stuff. Although perhaps today's Avril Lavigne was a little much.

This week is week 26. Things are moving along very nicely. When I say "July" it still sounds very far away, but this means we've only 14 weeks left, and really that's not very long at all. And we've both got a lot to do in that time. You're very busy in there working on getting bigger and stronger. Your Daddy and I out here are doing our best to prepare for your arrival. You already have a pretty nifty little wardrobe, and we're slowly acquiring other gear. In another month here we'll start our birth classes, so we'll be better prepared for your entrance into the world.

Next week your Daddy and I are going to visit Ohio. It will be our first time seeing your paternal grandparents since you've been around. And your uncles and great-grandparents and great aunts and once-removed cousins and honorary Ohio aunties. They are all so excited to meet you. And don't worry, they will meet you on the outside, too. We will bring you there again in the fall!

Baby boy, I can't wait until you're here!

Love, Mommy