Pack Your Bags...It's On

Brian and I have been preparing for our little guy's arrival for quite some time. We fixed up 3 rooms in the house - painting and/or redecorating. We brought our tub up to code and got it reglazed so we can bath our little guy in what feels like a new tub. We bought new furniture for the baby's room and the guest room, and put together all the important baby pieces that begin to invade your house when a baby enters the family. And then there are all sorts of other things that have been on our to-do list for ages that took us to get pregnant to get around to doing. I believe they call that nesting in the pregnancy books.

But there is one thing left to do...and that is pack our bags. For some reason, packing our bags made it feel too real. But tonight we will pack our bags and will be completely prepared for when it all happens. I will find out more tomorrow at the doctors as to when/if they will induce me. This will be the last post until our boy enters the world sometime soon. Check back soon...

Thomas' 2nd Birthday Party

Our neighbor, Thomas, turned 2 this weekend. It was a beautiful day and we celebrated outside with his family and friends. As you can see he enjoyed his cake. Brian whispered to me as they were cutting the cake, "I can't wait to have a baby so we can order big cakes for the first few years of his life, leaving the majority of the cake for me to eat." That's my man!

From You, I Learned to be Me

When I went into the card store to buy a card for my mom for Mother's Day, I found a card with one line that really encompassed how I felt. It was that simple line that gave me a lump in my throat - the one you get as you are either on the verge of tears or holding them back. It is not often a simple line can create so much emotion - in my advertising days, that's what you hoped a copywriter could deliver on the headline of an ad. It's not easy to do.

The line was, "It was from you, I learned to be me."

My mom is an amazing woman and the following are some of the important things I have taken from her to become the person I am.

1) Have Faith: Right out of high school my mom decided to go into the convent to become a nun. She was there for 10 years before she decided to leave and start a family. From this, you may think I was brought up super religious and know all there is to know about Catholicism - but that wasn't and isn't the case at all. In fact, I am embarrassed to say that I dropped out of CCD before I could get Confirmed because I just didn't 'get it.' From her not pressuring me, she taught me that going though the motions isn't the same as the trusting reliance in the things that are not known. I probably learned more about having faith from the positive quotes she would leave up on the bathroom mirror than any class could offer.

2) Give of Yourself: When I think of my childhood - so many good memories flood my mind. I feel very lucky to have had the life I had. Much of this is due to my mom giving of herself and her time to allow me to have the experiences I had. From violin lessons, homework, eurythmics class, piano lessons, cheerleading, tennis lessons...and the list goes on and on. My mom would give up her time to help make me who I am. And I continue to see this pattern all over again with her grandchildren.

3) Put Your Heart into What you Do: My mom took a lot of pride in her career as a music teacher - inspiring young children to be musicians. Each year she would put on a Christmas program. She would work tirelessly with the kids practicing the music, and in the end, she would put on an amazing show for the parents and family. I got a chance to witness my mom in action and was brought to tears of joy with how she commanded the auditorium and created a beautiful show. It showed me how hard work and dedication can make all the difference in the outcome.

There are so many more ways I learned to be me from my mom, but these are my top three. I hope I can show my son as much love and teach him similar lessons as my mother did to help him become a good person.

Happy Mother's Day Mom! You rock!

Baby Shower Part Two

Lauren and Melanie (former colleagues)Jenny (sorority sister, roommate, European travel partner and colleague) and Devon (sorority sister, roommate)Pregnant friends (Liz and Tracey)Diane (former colleague)Jeanne Jones and Abby (friend and caterer)The Kenney Crew - Mr. Kenney, Aunt Pat, Linda, Mary Pat, and Mary

Like my shower in Pittsburgh, it was so nice to be showered with so much love. Mary and Mr. Kenney threw this shower for us at Iron Hill Brewery and it was also very special. Everything from the guest favors to the cake were perfect. We received everything we needed between the two showers and can't wait to put everything to good use. As we did in Pittsburgh, we opened the gifts in a way that takes the focus off of me and onto the guests. Everyone got a gift (either their own or someone else), we all open up the gifts at one time, then we go around the room - each person tells how they know me and then explains what the gift was and who it was from. It makes gift opening a fun event for everyone and allows everyone to see who came to the shower at the same time. It made for an enjoyable event. Thank you all!

Alexa Visits

We didn't get to see Jessa (my cousin) and Alexa (her baby girl) at my shower, so my mom had a brunch the day we were heading home so we could get to visit before we hit the road. Alexa will be turning 1 later in May and we hadn't seen her since Stone Harbor. She is turning into such a big girl with lots of expressions. You can see she is like the 90% we mentioned in the previous post - in love with Val. Like we have said before, the more time we spend with our nieces and nephews and (in this case) our cousins, we get more and more excited for our own little boy coming into this world. They are so much fun and add so much more to our life than you can even imagine. I had to include this picture of Alana and Gavin - Alana showing such pride in what she had created.

Getting Aquainted with Val

When we walk Val around Glenside and run into little kids, 9 times out of 10 they light up with excitement and ask to pet her. They will get a little kiss on the face from Val and then giggle as we walk away. The other 1% will crouch in fear when they see this life-sized, black, furry animal coming their way. While I know the only thing Val will do to them is slobber their face with love, I can empathize with them as this was how I felt as a kid. So with little to no interaction with dogs (due to Ellen's allergies), it is a new experience each time Alana and Gavin see Val. Alana is more like the 90% I mentioned above, while Gavin was on the other end of the spectrum. The face you see here from Gavin was the face we got most of the time. While he had a few moments of laughter after he pet her, he was scared majority of the time. Hopefully they will become best of friends, but for now I believe Gavin will keep his distance.

Pomegranate

Alana brought over her Play Doh to my parents' house and Brian and I played with her. She has quite an imagination with what she creates. I focused on food items like spaghetti and meatballs, hot dogs, and blue berries, while Brian focused on items that were just interesting to hear Alana say. Our favorite of the evening was, "Pomegranate." Alana is showing it off above. She was great at saying it (and there is nothing more special than hearing that high pitched young person's voice talking and saying big words). My mom told me a week after we left, she asked her to make a pomegranate with her out of the Play Doh.

Baby Shower Part One

My mom and best friend (Jessie) threw me such a wonderful shower back home. I always get a little uncomfortable with having people shower me with gifts - especially those gifts that Brian and I specifically picked out. But this shower made me feel very special and loved. Not having seen the many family and friends in a very long time, it was so nice to catch up. Plus, while I have felt so ugly being pregnant, it was nice to have people lie to me and tell me I looked great and only pregnant from the front. When you hear it that many times in one day, you start to believe it. I thank my mom and Jessie for all the love they put into the details of the shower. It was perfect and all very much appreciated!

Candle Light & Good Company

We hadn't been into the Burgh since July of 2009 due to how I felt the first trimester and the many blizzards of 2010 throughout Pennsylvania. We chose a weekend at the end of April for my baby shower and hoped nothing would get in our way to making the trip. There were predictions of horrible thunderstorms throughout our drive, but we seemed to miss them all until we entered South Park, PA. It was like a war zone as we drove up the road leading to my parents' neighborhood. Trees were down everywhere due to the strong winds and rain. The entire town of Pittsburgh had been impacted with down wires and no electricity, but we headed to my Grandma's anyway to enjoy a dinner with family. Like the rest of the city, her dining hall also was impacted by the storm so our food was cold and there was not much of it to be eaten. Even though we all left hungry, we headed up to my Grandma's apartment and enjoyed catching up with everyone under candle light.