And another...

Yeah, Baby Racoons!

The Magic Vanishing Belly Button!

We've reached week 34 today. Our little one weighs 5 lbs and may be 20 inches long already! At least that's what the book says!

Just a few pics of the disappearing act of my belly button. It's kind of freaky! Shannon asked what you call it when it's not and innie or an outie any more. I call it a flatty!

Apparently judging by my maniacal grin, the St. Louis heat wave and ever growing belly is making me a little crazy!

Harmony and the UPS man

We have a peaceful new friend nesting just above/next to our garage by our front window. Shannon has named her Harmony, as she is a dove. She sits on the nest all day and night and doesn't seem to mind when we walk up and talk to her. We can't wait to see (and hear) the little chickies hatch. Peep Peep Peep.




We had some exciting deliveries come to the door today of baby things we ordered online. First was our wake up knock (this afternoon), we're getting pretty bad at staying up late and sleeping the day away. The first delivery was a shadow lamp I ordered from The Star Magic Store. It was listed as "see the ocean come alive in your bedroom with a magic shadowy lamp". The one we ordered has tropical fish on it, and when you turn it on, the heat from the bulb makes the lamp shade rotate and is supposed project the fish on the walls and swim around your room. So naturally as soon as it arrived, I wanted to try it out right away. It looks very cool when looking at the lamp up close (the fish swim around the lamp shade) but it doesn't throw the image past the shade. It just does general illumination in the room. No fish swimming on the walls. Also the construction was QUITE shoddy. I would not recommend it, but we will still use it. I wrote an email to the store complaining a little bit. It gives me ideas for new artsy projects for Sheena's business.

Later in the day, the UPS man arrived with ANOTHER package! This one contained the diaper bags we ordered online. Unfortunately, I was not to good at keeping Malta sitting calmly by the door when he arrived, and she decided to step out on the stoop to have a sniff for herself. The poor man was holding the "sign here palm pilot thingy" over his head, doing a little "I have to pee" dance, and saying in a high pitched, girly voice "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear" as Malta wagged her tail and sniffed his legs. I apologized profusely and said she was friendly, which I'm sure means nothing, cause that's what everyone says about their dog, even if they take a chunk out of your leg. I managed to get Malta back inside while juggling the package and continuing to apologize to the nice man as he said "have a good weekend" and walked down the driveway repeating "Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear". So we opened the diaper bags and admired their awesomeness, but aren't really sure what we are supposed to put in all the cool compartments. I'm sure we'll figure it out when we start using it! We got a regular size one and a small one for "little trips".


Did some sketching of more animals in the mural today. Got the baby racoons in the trees, swan, mama and baby duckies, fox hole and jumping fox base coated. The base coat gets pretty much completely covered up by the finished coat, but I thought I'd include a pick of the fox, as I find the multi-colored base coat interesting. I usually just base with one color, but I was chatting on the phone with my sweet Mommy and was feeling extra creative, I guess, and dipping in 4 colors instead of just one. I think the base fox looks like some cool style choice for maybe a children's book or something.

The First Animals Spring to Life......

On Sunday Shannon and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary and his first Father's Day. It was a pretty special, romantic day. We had originally planned to take a camping trip to some state park within two hours of us, but decided at the last minute that because of the extreme heat and restroom necessities, I would probably be really uncomfortable. So we stayed home and planned some fun activities here, which included going to the Aquaport by our house. It is like a mini-water park with water slides and a lazy river. I watched Shannon go down the slides and spent most of the time relaxing in the lazy river in a double innertube with him. Unfortunately, I started experiencing some strange lower abdominal pains, which we were worried might be labor, and we chose to leave the Aquaport earlier than expected. Luckily the pains just turned out to be Iddy Biddy kicking in weird new (painful) places. We went home and napped for about an hour and all was well after that. We went out for a romantic dinner then came home to work on our lighthouse puzzle, and finished the evening with playing some Never Winter Nights questing, just the two of us. It was a pretty fun day.

We are still searching and shopping in preparation for our little one's arrival. This week we went and bought a car seat, and today we picked up a dresser we found on craigslist. Still a lot of things on our list, but we're whittling them down, one by one. We are excited for our first child birth class on Tuesday night. I've been terrified that I would go into labor before taking the class and be totally clueless. Pretty silly, I know. I'll probably be sitting there on week 40 wondering how I ever had that concern. Saturday will be the start of week 34. So much left to do.

Getting the mural done is my top priority these days. Once I finish painting the room, we'll be able to move the furniture in and get everything where we want it. As soon as that happens, I'm sure I'll feel a lot more prepared for our little friend to join us. We re-arranged our bedroom this week also to accommodate the cradle by the bed. This is a special family cradle that Shannon's dad made for his first grandchild that has been passed from sibling to sibling. Malta has been adapting well to all the new things being brought into the house, from the baby swing to the fun squeaky baby toys. We had previously trained her to understand that not everything is hers by leaving random balls and stuffed animals on the floor that she wasn't allowed to touch. So when we bring new baby toys in, we quickly let her know they aren't hers. She seems to be doing really well with all of it. Isabelle, I think, will be more of a challenge. I caught her in the cradle the other day and got out the squirt gun to quickly let her know that there are no cats allowed in the cradle (sorry Cat Stevens). It's good that we have it set up early so we can make sure she has that rule down before there's a little sleeping bobbin in there. So here are some pics of the first animals in the mural and the cradle by our bed. Enjoy!



This is the wall with the door on it (not shown to the right). I chose to paint the mama deer and fawns first to help set the scale for the rest of the animals. Also added the rock and branch which will have a frog and birds on them.

Here is the cradle next to our bed. We chose to wrap the bumper pad around the outside ends of the cradle because it was extra long and there were not tie offs in the corners of the cradle. It still rocks fine, it just looks a little strange. Notice the wedge pillow on the bed. The best invention I've found for helping with sleep when the tummy keeps getting bigger and bigger. It definitely helps my back feel better.



Malta likes to help paint too! Hey, isn't that my paint shirt?

Malta likes it when we put her bed in the closet. Must be that wolf-den instinct or maybe she has something she needs to tell us about her sexuality!

A Little Paint Goes A Long Way...

Each day is filled with progressing through the mural for me. I am excited that I'm finally almost to the animals. I tried taking multiple photos and photoshopping them together, but it looks like the room has all kinds of cooky cool angles. It's just two walls meeting in the corner. Scope out the hidden door! Fun!

Last visit to the baby dr. went well. Iddy Biddy is still growing on schedule. Lots of movement and little feet pushing out of the belly. I'm ready to film my own alien movie now... Have I said that already? We're still trying to pick a pediatrician and have more organizing to do. We're prepping to start buying the last necessities off the registry in our final stretch towards the arrival of our little one. But all in all, things going well. Trying to avoid the sweltering St. Louis summer outside!

The Baby Hugger Harness!!

You've heard all about it, I'm sure. It's sweeping the nation. Well, not really, but it really helps my back ache even though it's the most un-user friendly contraption I've ever seen. It's the Baby Hugger! The inventor describes it as "back packing your belly". I won't even tell you what I have to go through to be able to go to the bathroom, but it's no easy task! Sheena can tell you where the extra socks go for comfort!! Tee Hee. So here's a pic of this thing and below is a bare belly pic with our kitty, Isabelle, getting some camera time.

The Mural in Progress

We are back from our wonderful trip to MN and the graduation party in WI. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to everyone who helped out with the surprise baby shower in Wausau and everyone else who made our trip special. We had a great time hanging out with Erin and Shawna in Chatfield catching up and learning much from the wise mothers! Our breakfast gathering in St. Paul with Katy, Peter, Freddy, Jason and Lyndsay was also splendid. It's nice to catch up, but I wish there was more time. We never feel like the visits are long enough! But it is nice to be home and relaxing now. The nine hour car ride was hard on my back and my bladder, good thing I have the sweetest hubby in the world who is patient and doesn't mind stopping a million times for me. Thanks love!

We are now happily filling up our house with baby wares from our journey! Also I've been making slow progress with the baby mural. Below are some progress shots. I'll keep them coming. Sheena was a great help with the mountains! This is only one of the two walls in the room. The angle in the room is too steep to get the whole mural in. I'll have to buy a wide angle lens.

We are now 31 weeks along! Not too much longer now. We're feeling pretty stressed about being ready in time, but I'm sure I'll eventually feel like he/she will never arrive. Probably around the middle of July when the sweltering heat has decended. For now we're just enjoying the prep time and the staying up late watching TV and sleeping in til noon. Enjoy it while we can!