Tales from Astoria: January 2012

7 Quick Takes Friday! (err Sunday)

1- Obviously the week got away from me, I started writing this post on Wednesday because I thought things would be a little crazy toward the end of the week. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, it didn't work out.

2- Last weekend, we stayed in Newport, RI despite the 10 inches of snow. We enjoyed ourselves and our accommodations were beautiful! We look forward to going again when the weather is nice. Maybe with our little one in tow?

3- This weekend the hubby's parents came for a short visit. We enjoyed our time together and are grateful that they had a safe and quick ride to and from MD. I believe the next time we will see them is in two short months for my BABY SHOWER!

4- No, the baby shower is not a surprise. I asked my mom to tell me when it was so that way I could be prepared. There are just some days that I really don't want to do anything and with my luck it would fall on the day of my surprise shower. lol So, I have enjoyed being part of the planning and look forward to the special day all of the women in my life get to celebrate the impending arrival of our little one.

5- Last Saturday, our family welcomed my sweet cousin. My only female cousin gave birth to her second child and adorable little boy named James. We are all so excited! Today, we went to visit and he is just so wonderful!

6- I love all of the little infant outfits that come with animal hats and feet. Carter's had a bunch of them. Precious little James was sporting his monkey outfit today. Our friend Carolyn gifted us an outfit that has a ducky hat and ducky feet on the pants. I can't wait to see our little one in it.

7- This week is the hubby's last CLE class which means that he will be able to come home at a reasonable hour again on Wednesdays. For the last three weeks I've been picking him up at the subway around 10 PM.

Marriage Lesson of the Day

We are preparing for my inlaws visit this weekend by cleaning up around the apartment. I must admit I haven't been the greatest at keeping up with chores since I've been pregnant. So, needless to say, we have a lot of work to do in order to make the place presentable to company. I thought I'd start cleaning by doing something easy... (Obviously that was my first mistake.)

I grabbed the vacuum cleaner, put down the powder, and turned in on. Of course, the vacuum cleaner wasn't sucking. The hubby had it in his first apartment about two years before we were married so, it's possible it finally gave up. However, what we didn't realize was that we had NEVER changed the bag!

So, I opened the canister and sure enough the bag was full and backing up through the hose. Now, next problem. Do we have vacuum bags? Well, we remembered the hubby's parents giving us some when they gave us the vacuum cleaner. We just had to remember where they ended up after having been moved three different times. After careful deliberation, we figured out where the bags were.

I was shocked to find out that the only directions on the bags were look at the owner's manual for the vacuum cleaner. Since I had taken the bag out already, I just put in back in in the reverse order that that I took it out. SUCCESS! Our vacuum cleaner is working better than ever before!

It's the little things that get me excited. lol

7 Quick Takes Friday!

1-The Happiest Baby On the Block (video & book) - A new mom friend of mine lent us her copy of this book and my mom got us the video from the library. I found the book to be much more useful than the video however, the video was only about a half hour long. If you are pressed for time, the video gives you the essentials.
To Summarize: Soothe a crying baby by swaddling, "sushing", holding them on their side/stomach, sucking, and swinging.

2-We have decided on a nautical themed nursery. I know mobile's aren't necessary but, one of the only things I remember about my brother's cribs was that they had cute mobiles. I'd like our son to have a cute sailboat mobile above his crib. There are several posted on Babies R Us but, there are all kinds of adorable ones on Etsy.

3- Packages! We received several baby packages this week. It is so exciting! Our crib arrived as well as both pieces of our carriage. We will keep everything boxed/packed up for awhile but, it's good to know we are getting closer to having ourselves set for the arrival of our little one.

4- Finding time to scrapbook for the baby /Finding time to fill out a baby book once the baby is born / Finding time to make burp cloths and receiving blankets for the baby are all things that I'd love to do but just cannot manage to find time for now, let alone once the little guy is here. It should be interesting to figure out how to find time for all of these little things.

5- What to do about going back to work/Obtaining part time employment - One of the other things we've been mulling over is when/whether I will go back to work in September. I don't think I will be ready to go back full time but, there are lots of part time positions around so, we'll see where the road takes us. It will definitely be a bit adjustment either way.

6- Babycenter.com/thebump.com/whattoexpect.com - There are so many baby websites! I have found that Babycenter.com is more helpful than the other ones. Thebump.com was just too much negativity for me at the beginning and not much in the way of actual information. I am fairly new to whattoexpect.com however I am not finding it useful. I love the book What to Expect when You're Expecting just for the basic information but, the website seems not to be as useful to me.

7- We are so excited! This weekend our good friends, Sara and Matt, and the hubby and I are headed up to Newport overnight for an overnight getaway. We got a fantastic deal at Newport Beach Hotel & Suites and figured why not take the opportunity to get away. The website looks beautiful! It will be great to get away!

7 Quick Takes Friday!

1- We've had a week to get used to the idea of having a little boy and we are still so excited. This week our little one got his first rugby shirt (just like Daddy)!

2- Another big step in the baby world is that we ordered the crib! Isn't it beautiful? We got it on super sale at Babies R Us with a coupon! Yay!!!!

3- We also decided on our nursery theme. Yes, you guess it we are going nautical!

4- We have officially registered at Babies R Us and Buy Buy Baby.

5- We have 18 weeks until we possibly get to meet our little one.

6- I have been gifted a ton of maternity clothes from a friend of mine who has had three girls. It was such a wonderful surprise!

7- We are getting more and more excited as the days go on. There have been several requests for a "belly picture"at some point (hopefully this weekend) I'll get to that.

7 Quick Takes Friday

1. This was a short work week. (Thank goodness!) Despite the short week, things were a bit crazy since the semester is ending and the students are starting to feel the pressure. It is unfortunate that they wasted almost two quarters and are just starting to understand what they need to do as the semester is ending.

2. It was wonderful to be back at work with my friends. We all went our separate ways for Christmas break and enjoyed sharing our stories with one another.

3. Tuesday was a bittersweet day. Bitter because we said to Goodbye to my brother who was headed back to Italy. It was not an easy thing to do since we had such a wonderful visit. While I understand that it is not goodbye forever, it still feels like forever until he can come home again since we don't actually have a date to count down to. We are hoping that he will be able to come back for the Baby's Baptism.

4. Tuesday was sweet because we had our 20 week scan and we learned that we are having a sweet baby BOY!! We are absolutely excited. It was kind of funny because the hubby was so shocked. He was sure it was a girl. We had the doctor show us twice that it definitely was a boy.

5. Knowing the gender of the baby has made everything seem more real. We are going to be parents to a sweet baby boy. He is going to be a momma's boy!!!!! We are going to dress him like his daddy! I can't wait to meet him.

6. This week I am more than halfway through my pregnancy. I can't believe how quickly time flies!

7. We are trying to figure out what kind of crib we would like to get for our little man. I've asked a few friends their thoughts. Do you have any input?