Honey-Do

I'm a list maker. At any given moment I have at least 2, if not 3 or 4 or 5 or more, lists that outline what needs to be done, for work, for the house, for the baby. I make lists when I am packing to go out of town for a weekend. I can barely stand going to the grocery store without a list. It's not even worth my time to leave the house to run errands if I don't have a list of some sort.

So in preparation for Cupcake's arrival, I have made a list that we need to complete. And by we, I mean a lot of times, Aaron, because there are only so many things I am able to do at this point in my pregnancy. Aaron is a good sport about it—he indulges me with my list of tasks—and I try and be realistic about what can get completed by December.

This weekend, he tackled a task that has been weighing on my mind for years. You see, Aaron loves technology, and consequently, all the wires that come with it. In fact, he may really love wires more than he loves the technology those wires drive. He has a crazy collection of wires and adapters and things I can't name. It's very handy, really—we always have whatever we need to plug this electronic device into that one. For example, I can move shows from the DVR to the computer, or from a video tape to a hard drive. Way more impressive than my own mixed-tape set up from high school, where I dubbed my CDs on to cassette tapes for the car.

So we have a lot of wires in the house, connecting televisions to cable, and computers to televisions, and routers to devices, and so on. This weekend, Aaron spent time planning out a wiring layout, and he hid all the wires in closets and made new jacks in the walls for all these things. I think he did a great job. And I only had to sit on the floor in some closets a few times feeding wires through walls to him, and he helped me and my pregnant self get up off the floor every time.

I even learned how to wire Cat5 jacks—I'm pretty proud of myself for that one.

Now, there are no wires trailing across the floor in any of the rooms, and you can most conveniently connect to the internet, wirelessly or wired, in any room in the house. It's gloriously nerdy. And now the baby can have a laptop whenever she's ready. I think Aaron will begin teaching her to code software at an early age.

Thanks, Aaron! One more thing checked off the list!

Still Kickin'

Me, the blog, and the kid are still here, in case you were wondering.

People are always asking me if the baby is active, and let me just tell you—the answer is YES! This little girl is a whirlwind already—there is hardly a time of day that she ISN'T kicking me. The doctor recommended that I keep track of how often she kicks by counting the amount of time it takes her to get to 10. It's usually around 30 minutes, but sometimes she kicks that many times in 5 minutes!

I feel it all day whether I am sitting or standing or walking or lying down. It's quite enjoyable, but it is SO weird. That something—no, someONE—is in there, flipping and turning and kicking and punching and stretching. A whole person, who will be born in around 12 weeks! WEIRD.

The only part that makes me wrinkle my nose a bit is when she pushes directly on my belly button (which, in other news, is getting smaller every day) from the inside. It always makes me kind of squirmy when someone, even me, pokes my belly button from the outside—and it's just as weird when Cupcake does it from the inside.

Otherwise, I adore feeling her move, and I think I'll be a little bit sad when I don't get to feel it any more. Though I do wonder if she'll ever take naps…

Showered With Love!

Cupcake's Grandma Sheila and Aunt Ashely (Aaron's mom and sister) hosted a baby shower in the Quad Cities this weekend, and Aaron and I came home feeling overwhelmed with love and incredibly blessed by his family!

Since we were going to be traveling all the way to Illinois for this party, we decided it would be fun to have a couple's shower--Aaron deserves to celebrate with his family, and we wanted to see everyone we could, so all the guys were invited, too! For a lot of them, this was the first shower they'd ever attended, and I heard a few of them were nervous about attending, but I think it turned out great.

Sheila and Ashley had TONS of great food for everyone to eat (including a great big tray of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, one of my current cravings--and it had a bowl of gummy worms in the middle, which is one of Aaron's favorite treats). There were cupcakes (my favorite!) with awesome handmade little monkeys on top, courtesy of Jon's daughter Marisa, who is an amazing baker!

When everyone arrived, Sheila got them to work on decorating onesies for cupcake--which was a GREAT project for the adults and the kids alike! They turned out so cute, and I am sure you'll see them featured on this blog as the cupcake tries them all on. Because she's so smart, Sheila made sure they spanned from Newborn size to 18 months, so we'll be able to enjoy them for many months to come.

At present time, Aaron's little cousin Tony helped us with unwrapping the presents (he's pretty much a present opening expert) and Aunt Ashley was AMAZING at keeping up with his speed on taking notes of who gave us what. It took some fancy pen work to keep up with that energetic little guy!

We received so many nice things--we have SUCH great friends and family! How did we get so lucky? We are so thankful, and we love all of you so much! Keep an eye here to see Cupcake enjoying each and every one of your thoughtful gifts.

Love,
Kate and Aaron

Cupcake's Dresser

Well, dear readers, it is apparently baby room improvement week here on the blog!

My parents, being the first-time grandparents of baby Cupcake, are pretty pumped, to say the least. Mom calls me about every day with something she's read or heard or seen or thought up about the baby or her room or supplies we might need after she arrives. It's pretty great seeing them this excited about their granddaughter--they are going to be AWESOME grandparents.

As Aaron and I were trying to decide how to furnish and arrange Cupcake's room without breaking the bank or crowding the space too much, my mom called to let me know she had an idea (she has lots of ideas, and they're usually good). She said she had an old dresser that she thought they could build a changing table top for, saving us the need to buy either of those two things. The old art supply chest of drawers from the garage was going to be the subject of the renovation, and I have to admit, at first I was a little skeptical. That thing had been out there for ages and ages, and I'm pretty sure there was at least a pound of glitter spread among the drawers.

However, with a little TLC (and some assistance from my carpentry-loving brother-in-law, Cameron) I am pretty sure this is the best dresser ever! Check out the photos!

A Furry Friend for Cupcake

I had dinner with my friend Amy P last night and she helped me review my registry and think of things I might be missing. While I was there, her ADORABLE son Aidan ran in with a box from Build-a-Bear and gave me (and the baby) this!

Aidan tells me his name is Monkey, and Amy said he picked it out, kissed the heart he put inside, and wanted it to be Cupcake's first furry friend. I'm SO excited to add this to our nursery décor!

What a lovely evening with some wonderful friends!

Wannabe Design Star

I've been looking at fabrics and knick-knacks for Cupcake's room since I found out we were having a baby--any excuse to design a new space! There's a great store in Springfield my mom discovered years ago, called FM (no idea what that stands for). If you drove past it you'd never give it a second look--it looks like a junk shop where you might be able to buy some really cheesy and cheap silk flowers. Inside, however, is a different story. They carry TONS of great decorator fabrics, so after we told my parents we were pregnant, it was one of my first Springfield stops.

At that point we didn't know whether Cupcake was a boy or girl, so I went in thinking I'd pick some fabrics I liked for a boy and some I liked for a girl. I walked out with fabrics that have chocolate brown, orange, sage green, and blue, and that's what will be used to decorate Cupcake's room.

The big squares of decorator fabric will be used for curtains, bumper, and crib skirt, with accents of orange and brown REALLY soft minky dimple fabrics (inside of the bumper, on a super soft blanket, back of a throw pillow for the rocking chair). Then we'll add a few monkey accents, too--a mobile, some wall hangings, etc. Aaron is a big fan of monkeys, and we thought it would add some playfulness to this otherwise very sophisticated room.

My oh-so-talented mother is going to work some magic and put these fabrics together to create a nursery design that I am going to love, and even though it isn't pink, I think the Cupcake will like it, too.

More to come on the furniture soon!

A Little Late

OmGEEE people, I have let myself down on this blog.

It was going to be this fabulous documentation of each moment leading up to the birth of my child, and then the experience of raising said child thereafter, and instead…

You get a lame update every 10 weeks.

Whatev.

Here is what's happening with me and Cupcake these days:

1. Cupcake is a girl, in case you hadn't heard. Aaron guessed it the week we found out we were pregnant. I refused to let my brain decide one way or the other for fear of getting fixated on one sex, and then being disappointed when it was the opposite. Toward the end I think I kind of thought it would be a boy (because I wanted to be the opposite of Aaron), but I didn't really care which. She's going to be awesome, and maybe some day she'll have a brother (who I hope does not want to play football, but I think Aaron would like that a lot).

2. I have still been feeling pretty much amazing, thanks for asking! It's everyone's favorite question these days, and sometimes I feel a bit guilty about answering, "I feel AWESOME!" I didn't have one moment of morning sickness, and I really wasn't all that tired. I probably get about the same amount tired now as I did first trimester—maybe because of the heat? This summer has been brutal in the Midwest.

3. The house is STILL for sale, but we've (well, I've) put a deadline of August 30th on that whole thing—then I need to hunker down and DECORATE! The current house is fine for us and a baby—we'll do a little bit of rearranging, but we don't NEED that other room or basement we were hoping to be getting…what we really need is less stuff. I imagine September will be the month of purging, rearranging, and redecorating. I'm not sure Aaron is as excited about all of that as I am…

4. Cupcake moves ALL THE TIME! I have a nagging fear that she will NEVER sleep and therefore I will never sleep after she is born…but hopefully this is not the case. She kicks and punches and does flips in there all day and I have a hard time not giggling every time I feel her. It is an AWESOME feeling. Aaron felt her moving once, but sometimes it seems like every time I grab his hand and put it on my stomach, she stops. Hmm…sounds like a joke her daddy would play on someone.

5. Baby registry—I just took a crack at that the last week. It's very overwhelming to walk into one of those giant baby super stores—there is SO much stuff in there! Thankfully I have great friends who can help me figure out where to start. (Thanks Missy and Amy P!)

So, that's a "quick" catch up. I would promise to do better but who knows when I'd rather be napping than blogging…so I'll just say here you go for now and try my best to keep up!