Coda, Wellesley, Paco & Shemp

Amanda had been planning Michael’s nautical shower for months and put a lot of special, funny touches into it. She came up with nautical names for all of the foods and everything was well-thought out!

I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a Nautical alphabet and thought she put up flags from random countries. If you ever wonder how to spell “Michael” the nautical way, here you go:

Michael was spoiled rotten already. His great-grandma Pearl gave him this clothes horse that was built by his great-great grandfather. How precious is that? And of course, the poor fella is in for a lifetime of suffering during football season because he is being forced to be a Bills fan already.

I have to feature my college roomate, Nattie. She’s getting married this summer and I just love her. I need to thank her for driving in from Buffalo, and other folks drove in from Pennsylvania the morning of the shower- getting up with the sun. And the Skips flew in from Atlanta! Hard to believe so many people care about this little kiddo and he hasn’t even showed his face yet.

I also have the cutest cousins in the world. I mean, seriously. I don’t wish for Michael to grow up too quickly, but I so look forward to taking him camping with these kids when he gets older.

All of us girls went to high school together and now look at us with a plethora of babies and babies on the way!

I can’t thank everyone enough for celebrating with us. And Amanda, you did a wonderful job, even if you forced me to make the cupcakes, fruit salad and deli tray for my own shower.

How Far Along: 29 weeks

Size of baby: A butternut squash and about 2.5 pounds.

Sleep: Same ‘ol same ‘ol.

Symptoms: Nothing weird or new.

Cravings: I was back in my hometown for the baby shower, so the usual Bill Gray’s cheeseburger, Pontillo’s pizza, and a Wegman’s vanilla bean muffin. Not exactly cravings, but all things I enjoy each time I visit.

Gender: Sonny boy!

Since Bob didn’t travel with me, dad was his stand-in for the weekly photo.

Movement: Yup.

Maternity Clothes: I’m wearing maternity pants and a mix of regular and maternity shirts.

Best Moments this week: I was home with friends and family and Michael got spoiled rotten at his shower. He sure is a lucky boy to have so many people eager to meet him!

Worst Moment this week: Had to leave friends and family back home.

Funny Moment: Bob and I had an entire conversation about how it would be if I could lay eggs like a duck and sit on them until they hatched. And I reminded him he would have to be the food provider and even with a grocery list he still wouldn’t be able to properly feed me. He said he could provide enough sustenance to get me through.

What I’m looking forward to: Getting all of his cute new outfits washed and hung up on tiny hangers.

Milestones: I went fishing with my sister, dad, and Captain Calvin and caught my first fish of the season.

Dreams: I was on a luxury home tour with a realtor. All of her For Sale signs were made with glitter and bling so they stood out. (Hey Jen W- marketing jackpot). The homes were so big that staircases were unnecessary and there were escalators instead.

Here is the 29 week belly shot.

Santa gave me a Cricut machine for Christmas and I was very intimidated by it. So much so, I let it sit in the box until a few weeks ago when I hunkered down and watched a few online tutorials for how to use it. I’ll just summarize the Cricut as an electronic die-cut machine with thousands of shapes, designs and features to choose from. Meet Bertha, the beast:

My first project goal was to make a painted canvas with a lyric quote on it to hang over the crib. Bob selected a lyric line from Barbara Streisand. Did you believe me? HA! He actually chose Dave Matthews, of course.

I fought with the correct sizing for a while, then printed letters onto contact paper so I could easily peel and stick them onto the canvas. It was peachy until I stuck the letters down and painted over them, only to find that the contact paper wasn’t strong enough to stay adhered when I painted over it so letters started shifting. Attempt # 1 was a major fail.

I ended up purchasing vinyl online since it is thicker and more adhesive. Luckily by attempt #2 I at least knew how to correctly size the letters so it went a little quicker. Behold the multi-colour vinyl! The colours didn’t matter since I was going to peel the vinyl off anyways.

The vinyl knew who the boss was and didn’t even try to move when I painted over it. Speaking of the Boss and vinyl…

The finally project turned out…ehhh… it turned out. A little crooked, the spacing is off, the “R”s bother me, but after 5 total hours on this seemingly simple project, I’ll accept it for what it is. Besides, I ain’t perfect (see, my grammar is terrible), Bob isn’t perfect (he can’t boil salt water for Pete’s sake) and Michael won’t be perfect either. So really, it is a reflection of us.

You might recall the fence my dad put up around our veggie garden a few years ago. Here it is:

It worked great for about 2 years until dumb (or smart) Wellesley figured out how to paw at the scalloped bricks to move them out of the way then bend the chicken wire enough to crawl under it. There were many occasions he proudly chewed on a zucchini then farted us into oblivion. While I’m pleased with his healthy snack selection, I wasn’t too pleased losing out on veggies that Bob and I could have for dinner.

Bob and I went to Home Depot where he picked out a thicker fence that Wellesley wouldn’t be able to push through.

I helped put it up. And by “helped” I mean, he asked me to hold a few sections up so they wouldn’t fall over while he installed other parts of the fence. I decided that the sections I was holding were sturdy enough on their own so I abandoned ship to trim rose bushes. Guess what!? My sections fell over a few minutes later. But in my defense, it is so boring to just hold something up and I was much more productive with the rose bushes. And if I may add, we have 17 in our back yard so it was quite the task. And arm scratcher.

The weekend after the veggie garden was locked down like Rikers Island, I resumed garden duties on my own and spread about 200 lbs of fresh mulch. Before you get all sassy and tell me to take it easy, of course I didn’t lift 200 lbs at once. One bucket at a time was sufficient enough. I also bought 2 new lilac bushes to plant.

And some darling pansies to greet visitors on our front steps.

We still might get one more pesky frost at night this week. After that, I’m ready to get more plants into the veggie garden and some hanging baskets!

How Far Along: 28 weeks

Size of baby: An eggplant.

Sleep: Same- sleeping on my belly and back and I still don’t use pillows. Paco has been extra clingy lately and has been laying half on me. I appreciate the snuggles but he makes me feel guilty if I move.

Symptoms: Braxton Hicks contractions again but these will stick around until the end. Heartburn here and there.

Cravings: Nothing really.

Gender: Sonny boy!

Movement: Yes. I’m able to notice my belly twitch ever so slightly when I lay down, but Bob hasn’t been able to see it yet. Hoping this will happen someday.

Maternity Clothes: I’m wearing maternity pants and a mix of regular and maternity shirts.

Best Moments this week: I passed the 3 (4) hour glucose test, so no gestational diabetes for me! I was really nervous because my first test result was high, but I was way below average on the longer test. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a bucket of ice cream and a sheet cake calling my name.

(By the way- I did NOT put Shemp there. That was his own doing.)

Worst Moment this week: I’ll chalk all of Wednesday up to a bad day. I failed my 1 hour glucose test last week and was told to go back for a 3 hour test on Wednesday, which turned out to be a 4 hour test. And I had to fast before and during the test so that mean 16 hours of no eating and only drinking water. Sheesh was I hungry and I wanted to smack the receptionist while she ate a delicious breakfast pastry (In my best Stephanie Tanner impression, I say “How rude!”). After my never ending appointment I grabbed lunch and had to take Paco to the vet since he’s had diarrhea for a few days. The little guy has some bacterial virus and now I get to shoot pills down his throat twice a day. This vet trip included him peeing in his car carrier and I had to give him a bath when we got home. So you see, I hated Wednesday.

Funny Moment: I am forcing Bob to learn how to make 5 simple meals so he can pitch in here and there. For his first cooking lesson from yours truly, he chose grown-up grilled cheese. He was very into details. “Do I put the bacon strips side by side on the bread? Or should I cris-cross the bacon strips? Which way is right?”

What I’m looking forward to: Fishing with my daddy papa in less than a week! A big northern pike is waiting for me. And it will be baby Michael’s first fishing trip (kind of).

Milestones: I mowed the lawn for the first time this season, planted 2 lilac bushes, planted flowers for our front step planters and put down 200lbs fresh mulch in our gardens. It was in the 70′s all weekend so I just had to get outside!

Dreams: A police officer was stopped at a light and I pulled up behind her. She got out of her car to tell me one of my headlights wasn’t as bright as the other. While telling me this, my car wouldn’t stay in park and the emergency brake wouldn’t work and my car rolled into hers. She thought it was on purpose and wrote me up for disorderly conduct.

I was friends with the cast of characters from It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia and boy oh boy were they hard to handle. Frank put a hole in my boat so it took on water. Charlie always left my carton of milk out so it spoiled. And in general, I was always cleaning up after everybody.

Here is the 28 week belly shot.