a backyard baby-q bash

Jon and I were lucky to have our co-ed baby shower this past weekend thrown with love by the grandparents. No games, no rules, no polite chit chat. It was just our closest friends and family on a summer evening, eating and drinking and celebrating this baby on the way. It was perfect! Here are some shots from the party.

 Balloons to let you know this is more than a normal BBQ.

 

 Spa water for the mama.

The proud parents-to-be.

Gotta have my besties. 

Landon was ready for us to open our presents. 

These two little helpers will finally get a cousin!

A Sophie giraffe!

The perfect end to the best shower. (I had two). 

We felt so grateful and loved and can't wait to introduce this little man to all the loved ones around us!.

summer in full swing

 {Kirsten Dunst recently in Mexico}

I hope you aren't casting off your summer just because July is nearing an end. Plenty of time for summer fun and cute bathing suits. I think my next free weekend we are going to head to the beach instead of working on the nursery. We are running out of the just-the-two-of-us time. The two month countdown has begun!

sheswai.

 
Have you heard of sheswai nail polish? I had seen it around the blogworld and twitter and was so happy when my bestie gifted me so pretty and honeyfox for my birthday. I love that it is free of formaldehyde, toluene, and dbp’s, which is super important for this mama to be. I don't want to be breathing in those fumes! Often when products aren't the tried and true (and chemical laden) sometimes they don't work as well, like acetone free nail polish remover. But this is not the case with this polish! It goes on so well and dries so, so nicely. Plus, I love holding the cute little wooden handle while I paint my nails. Highly recommend!

to-do.

 {I cannot stand how cute my niece is}

Just a little peak at some of the things we need to do in the next 9 weeks or so. 

No big deal, right? And I thought planning a wedding was tough. 

-make drop side of crib stationary
-buy large rug for nursery
-buy glider cushion or have one made
-buy mobile (where can I find a cute one!?)
-install new blinds in nursery
-finish reading childbirth and breastfeeding books
-register and take infant CPR class
-finish childbirth and newborn care classes 
-write birth plan
-find a pediatrician
-discuss vaccines and tongue tie procedure with pediatrician
-buy nursing bras and tank tops
-figure out outfit for maternity photo shoot
-wash all baby stuff! (bedding, cloth diapers, clothing)
-install and inspect car seat
-pack hospital bag
-hang prints and shelves in nursery; decorate!
-figure out bassinet situation
-PICK A NAME.

We have a crib!

So we have known for quite a while that the crib was already taken care of, since before I was pregnant. You see, my mom has saved the Jenny Lind crib that my brother and I both used when we were babies. She has stored it at their various homes for the past 33 years! She went with my Grandpa to buy it back in 1978, a few months before my brother was born. And when she realized she was having a girl, five and a half years later, she went and bought a canopy for the same crib. And here we are, preparing to use it for our son in 2012. Crazy!

Even though my brother and I were fine, since this model is a drop-side crib, we are going to make it stationary to not take any chances. We were not wild about the dark wood, 

so Jon took on the huge task of sanding and painting the crib. 

We forgot to paint those buggers in the corner white! Back on the (massive) to-do list....

 We are super stoked to use this crib because unlike cribs you buy today, this one is made of real wood, was constructed in the USA and is generally of higher quality. 

I guess you could say, "they don't make 'em like they used to".

Almost ready for our bambino!

Wood Tavern

This year for my birthday dinner I decided to stray from Chez Panisse and try out Wood Tavern, another Bay Area acclaimed restaurant. We were not disappointed!

We have passed this place too many times on College Avenue in Oakland. 

And on a Tuesday evening, people were still spilling out the front doors.

Crispy Pork Belly with grilled peaches. Simply amazing.

This bloody mary was just missing one ingredient, although still pretty satisfying for this pregnant lady. 

Well, my pork chop was just sitting in a work of art, wasn't it? 

So beautiful I got sidetracked and forgot to photograph Jon's dinner!

smack dab in the middle of summer

Today is my 29th birthday!

In my teenage years I am sure I thought 29 sounded so old. I probably also was under the assumption I would be married with kids by 26. Ha! Ages seem and feel so different until you finally make it there.

For the record, I still feel like a kid. :)

A Bridal Shower for Brigitte

With the popularity of blogs and Pinterest, not only have weddings been taken up a notch but also showers. I went to a Pinterest worthy bridal shower for my good friend Brigitte this past week. Take a peek at all the sweet details!

The pretty garland made from paint chips!

The yummy spread.

Cute chalkboard signs and painted bottles. This was a little area to address your own Thank You return envelope. Such a time saver for a busy bride. 

 Well this was just random, but the bunny in the backyard was too cute not to take a picture of.

 I'm obsessed with how these painted Mason jars turned out. 

When I am allowed to be around paint fumes again, I am totally making some of these!

The beautiful bride to be reading a card. Happy shower Brigitte!! 

The wedding will be here before you know it. :)

29 weeks.

The belly is really popping straight out there, isn't it? To be fair, it always looks more extreme in dresses. Last time I posted, I was waiting for my glucose results. Well, I passed! Woo hoo. They say passing is a score of 130 and I had a very low 60, so hooray for that. No 3 hour test for me. I finished up reading Bringing Up Bebe (nothing to say on that topic that hasn't already been talked about at length) and am onto Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. It's like the difference between the kiddie pool and the deep end, those two books. But its time to get down to business. We also have our first class this week, on the topic of breastfeeding. Which is important, since I recently witnessed a single drop of colostrum escape! Exciting stuff, everything is working. Now we just need to cross our fingers and toes that my 30 week ultrasound shows that my placenta previa is no longer an issue and it would be nice to see him in the head down position as well!

lil seed

The new GAP Seed Collection for Baby GAP is so cute I can't stand it. 

Finally some really cute unisex/boy clothes and nary a firetruck or basketball to be seen. Love.

Pregnancy: what they don't tell you

No, this isn't a scary post about the freaky ugly side to pregnancy, but something that is downright weird! After we got back from Austin and were driving back from the airport, I suddenly felt like I was chewing sand in my mouth. I spit out the culprit--part of my back tooth! I totally thought it was part of a filling I had done, because why on earth would part of my tooth just chip off? Well turns out the baby was probably pretty pissed off I didn't provide him with enough calcium so he started depleting mine and I knew it when my mouth starting to fall apart. Imagine! Thankfully I have a pretty cool hippie dentist that has an all natural approach to things, so I was able to have the affected area "sealed" and am on a regime of soaking it in yogurt or milk to get it back to normal! So all you pregnant ladies out there, the calcium in your prenatal pills may not be enough. You've been warned!

Hotel San Jose

For part of our trip we stayed at the amazingly awesome Hotel San Jose located in the heart of South Congress street. This place was basically walking distance to like 10 places on my list of places to go.

Minimalist but cute!

 The bed was actually super comfortable.

 The cutest bathrobes at a hotel I have ever seen.

 Wow, nice touch. There was also the lotion in the room. My belly thanks you, Hotel San Jose!

 Everything was designed to a T. A little overwhelming for this camera happy blogger.

The pretty grounds were always the perfect backdrop to my bump photos during the trip. Not pictured are the cute pool, bar and common lounge area. I've often noticed when a place is trendy as this, the customer service goes down. Not the case here, nobody was snobby or Mr. Cool Guy. Loved that.

Swimming in the springs

Before I left for Texas I saw how hot it was going to be, so I knew swimming to beat the heat was a necessity. Because of this, Jon and I were able to hit up in-town Barton Springs one day and 30 minutes outside of Austin, Krause Springs another day.

Barton Springs is a large man made pool in the channel of water fed by natural springs. Because of this, the water is always cold, between 68 and 72 degrees. Even for a hot day, this was a wee chilly!

 You can see to the far right in this picture is an area blocked off by a fence. This is where the current is more aggressive and it is free to "get in". There were tons of people with dogs on that side. To get into the main area is $3 each.

The place filled up! And not to generalize, but almost everyone we saw was between the ages of 20-30 and had tattoos :) I didn't swim here as much as I wanted to, because it took me some time to get the confidence to rock my bump in my bikini. Once I did, I realized what a non issue it was and was mad I wasted so much time worrying!

We went to Krause Springs another day, which is in Spicewood Texas. It is straight out of a movie, completely beautiful and off the beaten path.

The man made pool at Krause, also fed by a natural spring and naturally colder. This day it was what felt like 115 degrees, so we didn't care. I was so surprised at how green Texas was!

And the natural spring, where we hung out! Kids were jumping off the bluffs and using the rope swing, it was the perfect summer destination.

This place was $6 per person to get in, but seriously worth it. The grounds of this property were absolutely stunning--complete with a snow cone stand! They must have put gravel in the bottom of the springs too because it wasn't slimy when we were walking around. We met so many nice people here and didn't want to leave.