San Antonio

Mick and I headed out to San Antonio this last weekend to visit our friends who recently moved there from California and to have a get-away before Cash gets here. What a treat to get to visit with Tania, Tobias and Elliot here in Texas! We are no longer the lone California rangers in the Lone-Star State.

We spent most of Saturday walking around the Riverwalk and visiting the Alamo. Although it was quite warm, we broke up the day by heading into the A/C whenever possible and resting at the hotel when needed. It was so handy to be staying in a hotel with direct access to the Riverwalk, especially with a pregnant lady and 5-month old in tow.

Father's Day

Here are some pictures from Father's Day. We had a pretty mellow day; we went swimming, fiddled around the house, and bar-b-qued in the evening. I think Mick really enjoyed being able to choose what we did without any complaining (or, as I call it, "discussion") from me. His favorite phrase for the day was, "I reserve the right to change my mind because it's Father's Day." Although it's been fun for both of us to celebrate these holidays, we're well aware that this is the freebee year. Next year, we will have truly earned the titles...and we can't wait!



Also, Mick has been busily "hurricane-proofing" our house. The builder provided us with hurricane shutters, but we are responsible for drilling the pins into the exterior of the home so that the shutters can be afixed to the windows. We had been quoted anywhere between $750 and $1000 for someone else to do the job, but capable as he is, my husband decided he would take on the task. Plus he got to buy new tools. What is better than that? Since we have somewhere around 31 windows/doors that need to be covered, with many of them requiring over 12 pins each, this is quite the project. He has pretty much finished the downstairs, which thankfully holds the majority of windows. Hopefully, the storms will hold off until it's all finished!

Uhhhhh.......just kidding

So I am forced to amend my last blog post. We had our second childbirth class last night. Remember the part I wrote about the childbirth video making me "more excited and less anxious" about the process? That was because 95% of that video was animated. They pulled out all the stops last night with not one, but three (!), real-life video births and, let me tell you, I was more than a little horrified. So much for that "knowledge replaces fear" idea.

Crib and Nursery

Busy with Baby Stuff

This week marked the 27th week of pregnancy and, according to one of my pregnancy books, the start of the third trimester. I can't believe how fast time is flying! We had our first childbirth class on Wednesday. It was pretty entertaining. The teacher had us go around the room, introducing ourselves and giving various information including how we told our spouses that we were pregnant. Some of the stories were funny and I was surprised to learn that not one, but two of the couples had found out by taking a pregnancy test in the local Wal-Mart bathroom. If that's not stereotypical Texas, I'm not sure what is!

We were also shown the birthing video. I thought that we'd be given a few weeks to work up to that, but instead found myself watching in anticipated horror at the television screen. Mick made a sarcastic comment about it being a good time to take a coffee break, which brought an awkward silence from the moms in the room and a bunch of snickers from the dads. I was in the corner feeling my ears turn red. I didn't appreciate the joke at the time but have giggled about it over the past few days. He is such a funny guy and just said what every other man in the room was thinking. I hope Cash gets his sense of humor. Long story short, the video wasn't so bad and I found it made me more excited and less anxious about the labor process.

A few weeks ago we bought the furniture for the nusery. It's so fun to walk into that room and see it beginning to take shape. I can just imagine my son in one of his cute little outfits being rocked to sleep or snoozing in his crib. We have yet to set up the crib, but as soon as we do, I'll post a picture. These are the letters I bought and painted to hang above his changing station. Mick wanted me to make sure that I let everyone know that he designed the "H." It's my favorite one.



We also registered at Babies-R-Us last week. I had really looked forward to that but didn't realize how overwhelming it would be. We found ourselves starring at the shelves in a mix of wonder and confusion. What is that? Do we really need this? Just how many burp cloths is appropriate? Which type of bottles/diapers/pacifiers should we use? We began to feel as if we would never make it out of there. We finally made it to the toy/activity section and began shooting the price gun with reckless abandon at anything that caught our weary eyes. We then gave up before we could tackle the clothes department. After I returned home and checked the registry on-line, I realized that we had scanned four baby gates, countless bibs, and more toys than we would know what to do with. Needless to say, I've had to edit a bit.

Lastly, here's a semi-updated photo of the baby bump. It was actually taken a few weeks ago but due to technical difficulties with our computer, I haven't been able to upload it until now. Cash is getting much bigger and his activities inside the womb are a lot more fun to watch. Sometimes my whole belly shakes rapidly from side to side as if he were rocking out in there! I haven't figured out what he's doing but it makes me smile.