Meant to be...

At the baby shower two weeks ago, my sister Jodi had made up a collage of photos of Ben & me as babies. Two things were evident in looking at the pictures.

First, as my sister in law Carly stated, there really isn't any question on what Joshua will look like. He'll have dark hair, big, round eyes, and he'll rival the Michelin Man as far as fat rolls go. I'm personally of the opinion that if he looks anything like his daddy, he'll be unbearably cute.

The second thing that was plain to see is that Ben and I were destined to be together. Look at this picture...

I realize it's not the best picture...it was taken with my phone. Sorry! Anyway, these two pictures were taken when we were about the same age, 2500 miles apart...and yet we're wearing the same overalls. In the same walker. And the floor is almost the same even though you can't see it in my picture. Coincidence? I think not. :) There's no doubt we were meant to be.

The OPPOSITE of nesting...

Ben has been waiting for the "nesting instinct" to kick in. Frankly, I have too! It's not that I haven't wanted to nest or have things ready for the baby, it's just that I get so overwhelmed with it all that I haven't done anything to speak of. After our baby shower two weekends ago, I finally motivated myself enough to wash all his clothes & things, start organizing a little bit and really getting ready. We figured out where to hang pictures & things in his room & started to buy things we really needed but hadn't gotten yet. Then we got the email.

Sunday night, I opened my email to find a letter from our landlord. She told us that they have decided not to renew our lease as we had wanted and that they were planning on downsizing and moving into this townhouse. We were completely stunned. And while we completely understand and sympathize with our landlord's situation, the news was still devastating. We need to be out of our house by April 30. Great timing, huh? Either we have to pack & move now while I'm mostly useless (I have developed carpal tunnel in both wrists and can't grip anything and I'm pretty clumsy with this ever growing belly) or wait until we have a newborn who needs our constant attention and we're sleep deprived. We've started looking for a new home, and are confident that God will provide someplace even better than what we have now. Our goal is to move at the end of February/first of March so that we are somewhat settled before Joshua arrives. So now I'm going against everything I feel like I should be doing. Instead of hanging things in Joshua's room and putting away all his little clothes, we are going to be packing up our house. This is definitely the opposite of nesting.

That's what's going on in our life...what's new with you? :)

"Our car is filled with baby crap!"

First off, sorry for saying 'crap' mom, but it was a quote! That's what Ben said as we drove home from Babies'R'Us & Target today. The back seat was filled with a huge carseat box and a bag from Target with clearance baby items (cute socks, jammies, etc). In the trunk was the snap'n'go stroller frame that wouldn't fit in the back seat. Seriously though, the carseat looks like something you'd find in the front seat of a race car! It's a bright orange-red and looks so comfy that I'd like to sit in it. :) See?

This past weekend was our baby shower at home in New York. I was totally overwhelmed by all the generosity! So if you were there, thank you so much. Up until this point, I've been a little panicked. I felt like time is running out to get all those little things we need (or at least all those little things that Babies'R'Us tells us we need!). I'd wake up in the morning thinking, "oh my gosh...Joshua doesn't have any socks! We are so not ready for this baby!" So now we have socks and a bunch of other things that I've been worried about, so Joshua can come anytime he likes. As long as when he likes is in another 7-9 weeks. But no later. If it's more than 10 weeks, he's evicted. Mommy has spoken.

Let's end on a high note. :) Here are two of my favorite pictures that I've taken recently. Just because I like them. And because it'll be another 9 weeks or so until these posts are filled with Josh. :) Talk to you soon...

This is Ben testing the Baby Bjorn with our 7 week old neighbor, Savannah. We watch her once a week while her parents are at bible study. Ben's in love with her. :) She's pretty comfortable with him too.

Our nephew, Timothy!! Isn't he handsome?! I love those cheeks!!!

The thing I miss the most...

I miss my brain. I used to be somewhat intelligent. I could form and finish a sentance without uttering "um, what whas I just saying?". I could remember words like 'remote control'. I could do math. Now that I'm pregnant and my blood is no longer flowing north, I'm having trouble with just about all of that. I thought I'd share three of my favorite "pregnancy brain" moments with you so you can have a laugh at my expense. :)

1. I pre-registered with the hospital this past week so that *hopefully* when I'm in labor I don't have to fill out all sorts of paperwork before they can give me the happy drugs. I received a postcard from them telling me that they had received my registration and that there were a few things we needed to make sure we did prior to arriving. Bring our insurance card, know who our pediatrician would be, blah, blah, blah. We also have to have our carseat installed and inspected. Here's how the conversation went:

Ben: "Where do we get the carseat inspected?"
Me: "At the...uh...the...I can't remember the word! You know, it's the place with the trucks and the pole?"
Ben: "A fire department?"
Me: "Yep. That's the word I was looking for. That's the place."

2. I was making cookies and trying to cut the recipe in half. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what half of two-thirds was. I finally gave in and asked Ben if he could help me. After pausing to try to figure out if I was joking, he said, "Well, half of two thirds is one third, J". Then he laughed. Hard.

3. This one is my personal favorite. I was at the bank trying to cash a check for $75. The cashier asked me how I wanted my money and I started to reply that I wanted my money in twenty-fives. I quickly realized that couldn't be right and shut my mouth. Then I tried to figure out how else to split up $75. I then decided to ask for quarters. Quarters? Nope, that wouldn't work either. I finally just sat in my car, waiting for him to figure it out. The voice came over the speaker, "Are twenties ok, ma'am?". My first thought was that there was no way he was going to get $75 out of twenties but I just told him that would be fine. I mean, if he wanted to give me four twenties, I'd take it! Of course, when I got my envelope and saw the three twenties, a ten and a five, I laughed the whole way home.

I have high hopes that my brain will come back to me someday. Of course, after nine months of blood not flowing to that particular organ, I don't have a whole lot of hope. I mean, if you were given a nine month vacation would you willingly go back to work?! I didn't think so. :)