Emskyrooney

I'm doing a bit of editing to my blog template.. So if things look funny just check back later- It's a work in process!

Wowsers... 30 weeks.. That means 10 to go.. Which means 70 days.. Which is 9 weekends from now.  And we have things planned for at least 2 of those weekends... I'm starting to freak out a little as it's going so quickly!!!  This week I have a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, I think this may be the last of my monthly checkups and I'll have to start going every other week at this point.  We also start our Childbirth classes at the hospital on Wednesday nights.. They're from 7-9 every Wednesday in October so I'm crossing my fingers that Paul and I can actually stay awake that late! Here's the 30 week update... "Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and he weighs almost 3 pounds ( like a head of cabbage ). A pint and a half of amniotic fluid surrounds him, but that volume will decrease as he gets bigger and takes up more room in your uterus. His eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after he's born, he'll ...

Here's my latest page for the Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Year series.. J is for "Just 10 More Weeks!" Turns out though that this hasn't really been such an ordinary year! 

You give them a photo op! Now mind you, I don't live with a professional photographer. Apparently I live with someone who thinks I don't have a top to my head as he chops off the top of my head in almost every photo he takes of me... (perhaps he's just jealous that actually have hair on top of my head??) Also, we were trying to take these pics quickly before it got dark out and before our quesadillas burned up in the oven. And my photographer is not very patient so there was no "let's see if this background looks nice." It was mostly just "Stand there and I'll take your picture, Chunky." Nice, huh? So here are the requested photos of me at almost 30 weeks pregnant.. I think I don't actually look that much bigger than I did at 21 weeks but as I can see less of my feet now I know that I am definitely larger.. Oh and I definitely have more "chin" going on... Lovely... And can those of you who know me well tell that I'm pretty t...

Dear Readers, I am in need of your help.  Our two-year anniversary is coming up on October 21.  We're not doing anything fancy (at least not that I know about!) and are being cautious about spending since the Baby (!!) and then Christmas (!!) are coming up so quickly... But I still, of course, want to get Paul something special for our anniversary.  Apparently the second anniversary is the cotton or china anniversary... And so I need your help. Any suggestions on clever gift ideas???  For the "paper anniversary", year one, Paul had a jigsaw puzzle made for me out of our wedding pictures which was pretty creative.  I gave him the recipe for his favorite meal from our favorite restaurant that we ate in on our honeymoon- I emailed the chef asking for the recipe and he was nice enough to send it to me.. So that was printed on paper and I also gave him a leather catchall for his change... But I am STUMPED on this cotton/china thing... He doesn't wear a robe so I ...

This weekend saw the completion of the crib skirt and bumper.  Now I know that the use of a bumper is controversial but they sure do look cute!  Ours is easily removable.... We also solved the dilemma of "what should we put on the wall above the mobile?"... We hit up a baby consignment sale with Paul's parents where they purchased one of those net canopies to hang over the crib- I was surprised that Paul didn't think it was too girly.. He hung it up today and seems to really like it.....  They also bought the baby a HUGE teddy bear and then we went to Target where they bought us a bassinet for our bedroom- it was quite a weekend! Here are some pictures! The whole crib set up (minus sheets on the actual mattress!) The skirt and outside of the bumper.  I went fairly simple on the skirt.  The outside of the bumper is red with white polka dots, it might be hard to tell in these pictures... The crib bumper.  (Click for a close-up ...

Wow... 11 weeks to go, assuming the baby is born on his due date.. So it could be 12 weeks, or it could be 10!!!!  This week "Your baby now weighs about 2 1/2 pounds ( like a butternut squash ) and is a tad over 15 inches long from head to heel. His muscles and lungs are continuing to mature, and his head is growing bigger to make room for his developing brain. To meet his increasing nutritional demands, you'll need plenty of protein, vitamins C, folic acid, and iron. And because his bones are soaking up lots of calcium, be sure to drink your milk (or find another good source of calcium , such as cheese, yogurt, or enriched orange juice). This trimester, about 250 milligrams of calcium are deposited in your baby's hardening skeleton each day." I think I'm getting plenty of calcium, that's never been a problem for me as I love milk and dairy products (hello, ice cream!)... Not much else is going on, I'm still feeling pretty good, can still sort of see m...

So did you know that blue eyes are becoming increasingly rare in America?  According to a 2002 Loyola University study about half of Americans had blue eyes at the turn of the 20th century.  Now we're down to 1 in 6 Americans with blue eyes.  Some researchers think that it's mostly a result of intermarriage amongst different ethnic groups.  Since brown eyes are dominant in the gene pool they're slowly taking over and fewer and fewer blue eyed babies are being born... My mother has blue eyes and my father has brown eyes.. Sure enough, out of 3 kids, only 1 ended up with blue eyes, but it wasn't me (one also ended up with insanely long eyelashes, again, not me).... Fortunately Paul has blue eyes so we're going to work on bringing blue eyes back!  According to my vague recollections from high-school biology and a cool " eye color predictor " we have a 40% chance of having a blue-eyed baby, a 10% chance of green, and a 50% chance of brown... Now, there...

Did you know that cellulite gets worse during pregnancy? Yup, I didn't know that either..  But at least now I can rationalize mine.. It's from being pregnant, not from eating too much ice cream! Yup.  Right.  That explains it...

Well I'm at week 28 which is pretty hard to believe!  Little Paul has been kicking and squirming and moving around a ton- you can see my whole stomach moving sometimes! Here's the official Week 28 update! "By this week, By this week, your baby weighs two and a quarter pounds (like a Chinese cabbage) and measures 14.8 inches from the top of his head to his heels. He can open and close his eyes, which now sport lashes. This movement is more of a reflexive blink than a deliberate opening and closing, but it won't be long before he's batting those beauties at you." I wish they'd use more typical veggies to compare the baby's size to, I really have no idea how large a Chinese cabbage is!  At least I can still see my feet- or, I suppose I should say that at least I can still see my toes... The ends of them anyway!

While Paul was away I decided to surprise him with a bathroom makeover (cause men ALWAYS notice and love that kind of thing!).... In actuality I was taking a shower and noticing how grimy our full bath looked (even though I knew it was clean)... So you can get a good idea, here's how the bathroom looked when we first looked at the house (we'd only changed the shower curtain since we moved in...)  Please note the LOVEY peachy-pink shower surround, toilet, counter top and floors... Now eventually the plan is to re-do the bathroom, possibly stealing a little space from the master bedroom to widen the bathroom a bit as it's rather small.  We'd like to put in a skylight (apparently at one point there was a window over the tub which was closed in when the previous owners installed the surround).  And we'd like to install tile floors and  a new vanity... For now though I just wanted to do something cheap and easy to make it a little more bearable.. So using paint ...

Since Paul has been in Las Vegas for the past 4 nights visiting his brothers (one night to go!) I decided to spend my weekend working on the nursery (along with working on some other projects and watching chick flicks)... Here's what I've sewn so far! Curtains for the windows... And decorative side curtains for the changing nook... So I'm getting there!  I'm off to work on a crib skirt next!

Seven years ago today I was sitting in a hotel room in Boston with the guy I was dating, a pilot for Continental, watching the world come crumbling down... He was supposed to have a flight from Boston to D.C. that morning but there was some sort of issue with his plane the night before and so the flight was delayed until later in the day. We spent the next few days watching the news reports in the hotel room and the hotel lobby, frantically calling our friends in NYC to make sure they were safe, talking to the other pilots and flight attendants at the hotel and wandering around downtown Boston, completely stunned. This morning the weather here is very similar to the weather on that day seven years ago, eerily similar.. In fact, I might be wrong, but it seems to me as though almost every September 11 over the past seven years has been a gorgeous clear day in a season where (at least in Boston) there's usually a fair amount of humidity and rain.... There's nothing that I can say ...

Ok I haven't shared with you any of my updated pregnancy "symptoms" since week 18. Since I'm coming up on Week 28 I figure now is a good time to go through the list again! Previously Listed Symptoms: Change and Soreness in Breasts and Nipples: no change, still sore. Ouch. Visiting the Loo More Often: Oh yeah, definitely. Every hour. Especially when I'm exhausted and just want to sleep. Change in Appetite and Cravings for Foods: Still no serious cravings, unless you count ice cream which has ALWAYS been my weakness... Fatigue: This has gotten much better. I'm still in bed fairly early every night but I can actually have a conversation with Paul when I get home from work without falling asleep in my dinner. Stronger Sense of Smell: No change here... Heartburn: Only once in a while if I eat too much... Constipation: Not too much of a problem at this point.. knock on wood. Changes in Skin and Hair: Still no obvious change, at least not to me.. Maybe other people...

This weekend we had dinner at one of Paul's colleague's homes. She and her husband had a little boy almost 3 months ago and live near us so we went over to meet the little guy who will hopefully be friends with our own little guy... I recently purchased Amy Butlers "Little Stitches for Little Ones" book and wanted to try out one of the patterns as a gift for the baby. I decided that since cooler weather is coming up I'd make the Snuggle Wrap Blanket which is basically a fleece-lined blanket with hood that can be wrapped around your baby, almost like a little papoose. Of course, there's no baby in our house yet to model the final result and Gabby wouldn't cooperate so I had to resort to another option (anyone who was a roommate of mine at any point in time will recognize the model)... I present to you: Huggy Bear in the Snuggle Wrap. (And please excuse my bad pictures, it was pouring rain all day so the light wasn't great...) Huggy Bear looks pret...

I'm halfway through Week 27 which means I am ALMOST 7 months pregnant which means I am days away from the beginning of the Third Trimester... Yikes! I can't believe the time has gone so quickly!!! Here's the Week 27 update: "This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds ( like a head of cauliflower ) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with his legs extended. He's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing his eyes, and perhaps even sucking his fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While his lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if he were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother him, so just relax and enjoy the tickle." The other big news is that Paul FINALLY felt the baby kick... H...

So this weekend I made a bit more progress on the nursery. I still haven't started sewing anything (am planning to get started this weekend while Paul is on vacation in Vegas and I'm home alone) but I DID put some things up on the walls... Here's the corner where the crib is. On the wall is one of my dad's vintage baby outfits and 2 vintage baby dishes- one was my dad's, the other was found at Brimfield Antique Show . The mobile is from the clearance section of Pottery Barn Kids and plays Brahms' Lullaby . I'm thinking of stenciling a quote on the wall above the mobile but haven't decided yet- any suggestions? Here's a close-up of the outfit and the baby dishes. Here's the wall to the right of the crib. The prints are reproductions of vintage prints, mostly from A Child's Garden of Verses . In the changing nook I hung a Lettie Lane Paper Doll print. My mom and I found this print at Brimfield too and I bought it as I have a similar ...

I'm officially obsessed with buying cute cute cute clothing for our little guy.. Here's my latest (and, in a moment of serious restraint, ONLY) purchase from Gap Baby when I was in NYC: Paul thinks it's cute too. Seems like everything I buy for the baby is either a reference to Paul in some way (this onesie, a Yankees onesie, T's with cars on them) or has dachshunds on it... Baby Gap also had a super cute quilted one-piece to wear in cold weather with a little hood and mittens attached... I don't think our little guy will need a snowsuit for his first winter but something to bundle him up in with a blanket would be good so I think this is perfect.... Just have to pick a color (and look for a Gap coupon!)

are made in my hometown.  If you visit Easton   you can visit the Crayola Factory .   If you visit my parents' house you'll probably find thousands of Crayolas down in the basement and scattered around- many of my relatives worked at the factory (not the fancy visitors center factory but the REAL factory where they made the crayons). So when I saw this quiz on the Crayola site testing how well you knew the crayon color names I had to take it!  Apparently I am a Color Genius!  I only made 29 mistakes on the 64 crayon box (and most of those were on the Kids Choice crayons which I've never seen- my personal box of 64 doesn't include those!)... Try it out if you're a Crayola fan!

This past weekend I went on a mini-vacation.  Paul is heading to Vegas in 2 weeks to visit his brothers before the baby comes so I decided to head to NYC and visit one brother and a couple of friends... I had a great time although it was definitely a different NYC experience than I've had in the past!  The last time I was in the Big Apple with this particular pair of friends (one lives in Manhattan, the other took the train in from Central PA) was before any of us had kids... My Manhattan friend is still living the single-girl life but my PA friend has a 2 year-old son and is in her first trimester with baby #2.  So while we used to stay out late drinking at the bars, this time around we ordered takeout and watched reruns of  90210 (can't wait for the new show to start tonight!) from the comfort of the couch... We still did a lot of walking and shopping during the day but there were many more bathroom breaks thanks to me and less public transportatio...