just as we suspected

fortune cookie is a ...

girl

i have pretty much known this from the beginning ... which is so funny because since i was 16 years old i have felt that i will have 5 crazy male children that i will have no idea what to do with. but once this little girl started really cooking in my oven i could just tell she was the girl variety. we are beyond excited and feel very very lucky to be anticipating this great blessing ... i mean of course its a blessing already ... but whoa we are overwhelmed by the majesty and miracle of it all and pinch ourselves all the time ... we made a baby! and its still in there! and i think i actually felt it for the first time last night! it felt like a wave inside me! and then we saw her for an hour today and measured her every little tiny body part! she appears healthy and happy and was even playing with the umbilical cord in my womb! it was adorable (strange, i know)! sigh. we are in love ...

the next thing on my mind is how to make a pastel blue, green, and mustard yellow nursery girlie but not cheesy girlie (when i say "nursery" think multi-purpose baby room ... i won't be able to do a full out nursery like i have in my head ... but i will do what i can!) the queen bed is staying in the extra room (at least for the first six months of fortune cookie's life while we have family and friends visiting) and i love love love the Paisley pottery barn duvet i have in there in those exact colors. it was my first (and maybe my last ... you never know) "high end" linen purchase in my life. when i was living/working in DC i splurged and ordered it online. i have no regrets.

i like the idea of going with those colors for fortune cookie's room ... i think they are pretty and fairly gender neutral and then i can throw in pops and punches of girlie things .... like these:

pom poms and paper lanterns above the crib ... love this idea
i am thinking blues and greens with a punch of pink

more pom poms ... but these are made of t-shirt material ...
i like the texture and warmth
(again think pastel blues/greens/yellows and a punch of pink)

But I was also thinking of some oversized flowers in the appropriate colors ...
that would be soo soo soo fun.

eek! i can't wait! my mom and dad fly in tomorrow and we are going to get going on planning and prepping and sewing and crafting and just spending some good days together! yippee!

20 weeks

here it is ... my 20 week progress shot. my mother-in-law likes to guess the gender based on how you are carrying the baby ... what do you think? BOY or GIRL?? we find out on thursday!

the year of the baby

its probably because i myself am with child, but doesn't it seem like there are a lot of pregnant ladies around these days? every tv show i watch has a pregnant lady (either on the show or they are hiding the actresses real pregnancy) and i have lots of friends expecting too. everytime i look on facebook or a blog i see that someone else is expecting.

two thousand eleven ... according to the Chinese Calendar our babies will be the year of the rabbit which means that their sign is yin (as in yin and yang) and their "fixed element" is wood. It also means that rabbits are: "Gracious, good friend, kind, sensitive, soft-spoken, amiable, elegant, reserved, cautious, artistic, thorough, tender, self-assured, shy, astute, compassionate, lucky, flexible. Can be moody, detached, superficial, self-indulgent, opportunistic, stubborn."

Don't you love how it starts with a string of wonderful traits and then hits you with the negatives ... which seem so scary! MOODY! DETACHED! SUPERFICIAL! SELF-INDULGENT! OPPORTUNISTIC! STUBBORN!

And then i look to review my own animal sign to see how much seems to be "accurate" - the way the Chinease calendar works and because i was born before February 12th 1983 i am actually the year of the dog (while most of my fellow 1983-ers are the year of the boar) ... these are the traits it associates with those born in the year of the dog: "Yang; Fixed Element Metal - Honest, intelligent, straightforward, loyal, sense of justice and fair play, attractive, amicable, unpretentious, sociable, open-minded, idealistic, moralistic, practical, affectionate, sensitive, easy going. Can be cynical, lazy, cold, judgmental, pessimistic, worrier, stubborn, quarrelsome."

Whoa. The good and the bad ... i would say it describes me pretty well. Then again i feel like my astrological sign - Capricorn - fits me to a T as well.

Next step ... look at Nate's animal sign and assess my feelings about its "accuracy" from there: Yin, Fixed Element Metal - Acute, neat, meticulous, organized, self-assured, decisive, conservative, critical, perfectionist, alert, zealous, practical, scientific, responsible. Can be over zealous and critical, puritanical, egotistical, abrasive, proud, opinionated, given to empty bravado.

hahahaha ... i would NOT say this accurately describes Nate very well. the only things i think it gets spot on are conservative, alert, practical, scientific, responsible.

But is his astrological sign more accurate? He is a cancer, which means: Loyalty, Dependable, Caring, Adaptable, Responsive, Moody, Clingy, Self-pitying, Oversensitive, Self-absorbed. This seems a little more true to Nate.

Since our little fortune cookie will be born in October that makes him/her a LIBRA ... this is what we might have in store - "Diplomatic and urbane; romantic and charming; easygoing and sociable; idealistic and peaceable; indecisive and changeable; gullible and easily influenced; flirtatious and self-indulgent. "

First things first ... find out if its a SHE or a HE. Only two days!

4 months and counting

for the last few years i have not been much of a big picture taker ... not just of me ... but in general. but i do want to document this pregnancy which requires picture taking ... unflattering pictures taking. sigh. the bummer is my starting state was not ideal. i am trying not to dwell on it (although its hard to have this new body experience while you are already struggling with your existing body) and to enjoy the experience of a life growing inside me.

So here is "before" ... picture taken at 6 weeks.


And here I am at 16 weeks ... packing it on ... already. Its going to be a long summer :)