Happy Birthday To Me

Not only was I surprised this morning with breakfast and a ride to work from my Michael, but I came home from work to find this in our front yard:

Mike and Steve were smiling at me from the window behind the lawn chair

Then we decided to take our pup for a nice walk around the neighborhood...



Now I'm relaxing and Michael is making me a delicious dinner of steak, baked potatoes, and steamed carrots with garlic. Mmmmmm. It's been a good day.

Big thanks to Michael and everyone else who wished me a happy day!! I'm one happy 32 year old :)

Babymoon and GT pics

We went to LA over the weekend. It was HOT and BEAUTIFUL and so much fun. My former boss, Daniele, was having her 40th birthday party on Saturday... and having had experience partying at her house (she hosted a bachelorette party for me), I knew I wouldn't want to miss it. Plus, I miss her and the other people I used to work with so much... I loved having an excuse to see some of them again. We stayed two nights in Woodland Hills with our good friends Jen and Rob. It was so much fun to see them! Jen and I had lots of time to chat and catch up - while Mike and Rob had fun being dudes and doing dude stuff.

We spent some time in Malibu before Daniele's party - here are a few pictures...

Paradise Cove Cafe - Malibu

Daniele and me
Jen, Daniele and me

Jersey (Jen & Rob's dog) and me the next morning... she sat like this for nearly an hour. She's the cutest. Even though she farted on me twice :)

On Sunday, we met up with more of our favorite people - Gabe, Ryan, Kelli, Kim & Scott. I am a super huge dummy and did not take a single picture with them. But we had lots of fun at Rick's on Main Street in Santa Monica, then at dinner at C&O in Venice Beach. Mike and I stayed at our "usual" place in SM called Embassy Hotel. It's on 3rd just south of the promenade. It's an old building with tons of character and located smack dab in our old hometown so we love it. On Monday, we decided to go out to breakfast on the pier in Hermosa Beach. We ate outside at Hennessy's then went for a walk on the beach and did some sun bathing on the pier. After that, we checked out Sharkeez, where we used to go for their "Make Your Own Bloody Mary's" on the weekends. It burned down 3 years ago and we hadn't seen it since it reopened. It's MUCH nicer than it used to be and I think it would again be one of our faves if we still lived there. I'm not a fan of the looks I get when I walk into those places with my belly leading the way... so we just did a quick walk through and left. We stopped at Fat Face Fenners Fish House (another old fave) for a Bud Lite and a soda water before heading off to the airport :(

At least we flew over Vashon on the way home :)

Yesterday I had my final ultrasound. Baby GT looks healthy as can be and did some good posing for the camera. She's a big girl already - weighing in at 3 lbs 1 oz (average at this stage is 2 lbs 13 oz), putting her in the 71st percetile. But the doc said that's still considered normal. I had a check-up following the ultrasound. Mike came with and we got to listen to her heartbeat. For the first time, it actually sounded like a heartbeat! Rather than the "woosh-woosh-woosh" sound, it was a "gugung-gugung-gugung." Pretty amazing!

Profile - hard to see, but her head is on the left, facing up with her arm in front of her face Here she is looking at the camera - the blob above her left eye is her elbow Her perfect little right foot - it's up by her forehead :)

26 Weeks!

I've been posting new belly shots every 4 weeks and intend to keep that going until our girl arrives - so here we are at 26 weeks!

Don't neglect to notice the "filled out" face :)

I told someone the other day that sometimes I forget that I'm pregnant because I'm pretty darn comfortable lately. Unless I eat too much. There's nothing more uncomfortable than a full, bloated, belly pushing your ribs out and testing the limits of even your stretchiest maternity wear. Add to that the little baby moving around and kicking what she pleases... ouchie-wah-wah! But I don't let that happen very often... usually only once or twice a day (you'd think I'd learn, but my darn pregnancy brain is relentless!)

We have the basics of our nursery set up. The walls are painted with cute decals decorating them, the rug is covering most of the hardwood floor, the crib and changing table are in their place, and the closet is organized and holding GT's tiny, adorable clothes. MT deserves all the credit. I did assist him with parts of it (handed him the carpet tiles as he placed them, helped with the wall decals and hung some of her outfits)... but he's the one who got it done! He even rewired and replaced outlets in the room so we know it's good and safe for our girl! We're pretty sure that hadn't been done since 1951. Here are a few pics:

BEFORE

AFTER

As you can see, we still need a few items... but it's getting there! Once it's completely done, I'll post another blog about it. I'll try to figure out my camera settings too so I can show better views of the room. Obviously we are in need of a bit of pink - she is a girl after all!!