Drool

I'm an only child.

I never had younger siblings hanging around for me to help out with. I did a little babysitting when I was in high school, but the kids were 7 and 9 years old and "babysitting" meant hanging out, watching 90210, and eating dinner on their Dad's country club tab... not too shabby.

Needless to say, I have approximately zero hours of baby training. I've never even changed a diaper. When friend's babies end up in my arms, I usually give them back pretty quickly, but only because I'm not sure what I should do with them.

As we're getting ready for Chuy's parole, I'm learning more and more about the mysterious world of babies... today's lesson... apparently, they drool... alot.

There's so much drool, in fact, that you need to be armed with things like bibs... and towels...

Thank goodness for Baby Stuff by Aranzi Aronzo! *yes, when I said I was going to make every single project in this book, I wasn't kidding*

Check out these awesome drool towels...



So cute - even if I do say so myself!

There's two different kinds here... Flimsy Bear...



...and Flopsy Bunny...



They were super dups easy to make - just a little terrycloth fabric, some felt for the eyes, and a bit of embroidery floss for the noses and mouths - that's it!

Best of all, apparently babies like to chew on the arms and legs of the Bear and the Bunny too - so, while he's being entertained, he's also staying drool-free, which makes this borderline OCD clean freak mom-to-be just a little bit more calm about the drool situation.

34 Weeks!

34 weeks! Only 42 days until my due date... which sounds like crazy talk, but it's true! We had our short and sweet doctor visit yesterday - measured the uterus, listened to Chuy's heartbeat, complained about my hot flashes, etc.


Dr. E said that 34 weeks is when the doctors all breath a sigh of relief. He said if Chuy were born today, he would be a bit small, but would be in good shape - lungs are developed and what not. So, that was nice to hear - not that I want little dude to come out before his timer goes off, but if he happens to pull the cord early, we're cool.





My uncomfortable-ness has hit maximum overdrive lately - clothes are not my friend - it's always hot no matter where I am (yes, I guess it is just me... and the basketball sized baby in my belly) - if I drop something, it's staying where it landed - I wore a napkin as a bib during lunch today and it was a good thing too because it was littered with ranch dressing upon completion of my spinach wrap...


42 days... 42 days... it will all be worth it!

Crafty Friends!

We've hit another milestone in our journey through pregnancy... the baby shower.

It wasn't so much a 'baby shower' as a party where baby things were discussed and presents were presented... we wanted it to be laid back with no 'shower' games and we wanted both ladies and gents to be able to attend...

Thanks to our friend Yasmine, we did have exceptionally gourmet snacks - there were cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off and everything - f.a.n.c.y.!!!

A great time was had by all and we received many many awesome and useful presents from our friends.

A few of these presents weren't off the registry, but instead, were handmade, and are so awesome, I thought I'd share them here...

Our friend Sara made us some hand screen printed onesies... a scooter, a truck, and a pill bottle...


So cute! She was concerned that the pill bottle might be a little inappropriate, but it is certainly the right amount of inappropriate for our family!

Our friend Catherine also made us some hand screen printed onesies - 3 black cats!


Yay! Kitties! But Noelle, don't you have 4 black cats? Well, kinda... but one of them has white on his face and a giant white foot... so, technically, I do have three black ones and one Oreo flavored one...

Our buddy Susann made us some hand appliqued onesies... an owl and a musical necktie...



There were two reasons I was a little tiny bit sad when I found out the little guy was a boy... one is that he most likely won't want to take ballet classes... the other was that I thought that baby girl clothes were cuter than baby boy clothes and I'd be stuck buying him sports related crap because there wouldn't be any other choice.

Well, I'm still a bit sad about dance class (I mean, if he wants to, that's cool with me), but am so glad I was wrong about cute clothes! My little boy gets to wear necktie onesies! Take that - frilly girls clothes!

Speaking of necktie onesies... why should baby get to have all the fun? Check out the Daddy and Baby matching set - handmade by our buddy Mandy Joe...


Isn't that the best ever? Can't wait to take a million pictures of Daddy and Baby in their outfits!

Last but certainly not least, check out the most awesome Knitty Robot - handmade by our friend Vickie...



How amazingly rad is this robot? The Hubs keeps asking me how long it must have taken Vickie to make Mr. Knitty... my answer is always 'if I tried to knit something that cool, it would take me 7 years... and it still wouldn't be finished...'

Here's a pic of the Knitty Robot with his new buddy Gigantor...


Aw... robot friends...

Thanks again to everyone that came out to spend the day celebrating the arrival of our little guy. And thanks for all of our presents - they were all awesome!

Portraits

Today, Chuy's most awesome Godmother is coming over to shoot our pregnancy portraits.

Hopefully, they'll come out half as good as these...

Baby Gear

And now it begins...Baby gear.



The stroller/car seat was easy enough to put together...and thanks to the LATCH system, the installation of the car seat was a breeze...mostly. The sucker still isn't totally level and wiggles just a little too much for our liking. Luckily we have a car seat fitting class this Thursday to make sure we figure the damn thing out.

It's totally weird having a car seat for Chuy in The Wife's car since the little man won't be paroled for another 44 days....I guess it will be even more totally weirder-er once there's an actual baby in it.

I've been handling my upcoming fatherhood pretty good so far..or is it pretty well? (Damn, I need to figure all this grammar stuff out so I can teach Chuy how to speak good English well!)

Anyway, I haven't freaked out too much these past 7 months...but I have to admit the stroller and car seat combo was a one two punch of reality. It was a complete, This is really happening moment...

Man, this last trimester is going to be over before we know it...and we'll be strapping our son into his totally level, totally secure car seat and taking him home sooner than later.

33 Weeks!

33 weeks today!



Only 49 more days to go until D-Day... give or take... you know, if Chuy wanted to come out in about four more weeks, that would be a-okay with me...



I've been getting more and more uncomfortable, tired, swollen, and sweaty day by day... pregnancy... it's so glamourous...

The boy seems to be doing well in there, so that's a good thing and makes every last stupid symptom worth it...

I just wish these last 7 weeks would hurry up and be over so I can have my prize AND be able to touch my toes again...

I'm sure these last weeks will be the longest/ fastest weeks I've ever lived in all my 33 years...

Bible Studies

Teaching Chuy about religion might be tricky...Luckily SPIDERMAN can help!


Click to embiggen!
(via QUEER THE PITCH)

Tweeting from the Womb??

Seems like everyone has a Twitter these days... I do too, although I rarely think of anything I deem important enough to tweet about...


The Hubs tweets with his bloggy friends about movies and stuff - but that's still limited use of the Tweet-phenom... neither one of us is telling the world where we're getting coffee at the moment... we loathe the drop-by...


Yesterday, while doing some 'work', I happened upon this article - about the Kickbee...




Uh... what's a Kickbee? Well, the Kickbee is a device, worn by pregnant women, that detects fetal movement in the womb and sends a message to Twitter... no, seriously...




Chuy's daddy and I would find this info incredibly fascinating - if it were Chuy's kicks - but I can't imagine others would want to 'follow' him on Twitter... maybe I'm wrong about that... people do love to Tweet...

For more info on the Kickbee, check out it's developer's portfolio here!

32 Weeks!

32 weeks! Only 56 more days according to my preggers widget...



This week the tiredness of the first trimester has noticeably returned, which does not please the client... I have crafty things to accomplish, shelves to move around, a job to, at the very least, show up to everyday... you know... life stuff to do? But all I want to do is wedge myself in the corner section of our comfy couch and watch tv or read or play on the 'couch computer' - my name for our new laptop - thanks again, Greg - that long walk to the office was just too much...







The belly has grown a half inch in a matter of days... pretty incredible! I had a couple days of back aches and lower ab pain, but now all of that makes sense - Chuy is hopefully gaining a 1/2 pound a week from here on out...







All in all, I'm getting really excited to meet my little guy and in contrast, really tired of being pregnant... but I know it will totally be worth it - I mean, I AM giving birth to a super baby genius...

The Godmother

Who goes there?



Why it's The Wife, Baby Chuy (in belly), and the totally awesome Ms. Aubrey Edwards.

We met Aubs (aka The Hurricane) 5 years ago through some mutual friends...and like everyone that's ever met her, we fell head over heels for this broad!

So, what makes her so special?

She's a saint:


She knows how to ride a bike:


She likes guns:


She's a real hot dog:

She's a go-go dancer:



And she finally did something about that wolf's tooth of hers:


Oh, and this Paul Engemann song pretty much sums her up:



She's also a rambler, a gambler, a lover, a fighter, a teacher and one of the best photographers on the planet!



And those are just a few reasons why The Wife and I could think of no other woman to be the spiritual co-parent of our child.

Thanks for being you, Aubrey Edwards! You're going to be the best mentor our son ever did have!

31 Weeks

31 weeks as of today!





Only 9 more weeks til due date... that's only 64 days... and that's if he's exactly on-time, which considering who his parents are - is completely likely...






We took our childbirth class this weekend - 5 hours of fun... it was mostly interesting - learned about some breathing techniques... different stages of labor... drug options... got to take a tour of the hospital - which was awesome - free wi-fi!







The experience of going to the class and taking a peek at the hospital really turned my focus from being pregnant to almost being done with that and having to deliver Mr. Chuy into the world...



It's so strange to think we're so close to meeting our little guy in person... and so very exciting! Oh, and just for the record... people who are close to actually having to give birth really shouldn't watch episodes of TLC's A Baby Story... oh, the screaming... I get it... it hurts... alot...