The Big 3-0!

I was born on May 21st, 1982 at 6:34 in the morning.  That was thirty years ago!  And this weekend I was fortunate enough to celebrate my thirtieth birthday in Maryland at Harris Crab House surrounded by my family and friends.  We feasted on all sorts of creatures from the sea, watched the sunset on the bay, hosted a Preakness Pool, and celebrated my first 30 years of life!  It was so nice to celebrate with everyone!

I still don't feel 30, and you're only as old as you feel, right?!  If my age reflected how I felt, I would place myself somewhere in my early twenties.  I mean, I have to at least be old enough to drink legally!  But the numbers don't lie - and 30 it is.  I enjoy the fact that I don't fear being 30 or getting older.  After all, you are what you make of it, and I know this 30th year will be full of plenty exciting things!  (Reminder: We are having our first baby sometime in the fall!)

I know that there will be challenges that lie ahead but whatever is thrown my way will only make me a stronger, more balanced person.  I enjoy who I am still becoming, and, just as I welcomed my last year in my twenties, I welcome my 30th year with open arms.

The Big 3-0!

Heartbeat Hotel

We had another appointment with our doctor today to check up on our pregnancy.  We got to hear the perfect little sound of our baby's heartbeat again, which was steadily beating at 140 bpm!  Our doc said that it sounded wonderful.  We were thinking it sounded more like music to our ears, but I suppose we may be a bit partial!  We took this little viddie so that you could hear our wonderful music as well:

I've gained a total of two pounds since our last check up which technically still puts us in the negative because I had lost four at our previous check up, but, once again, our doctor is happy with how everything is progressing and she's not worried about a thing!  (Which is definitely relieving to us as well!)

Other than that, we don't have much news to report!  We are still smiling from hearing the heartbeat of our little baby AND we get to go back in two weeks for our nineteen week ultrascan where we will have a detailed ultrasound done and (hopefully) multiple images  of our little bambino to share!  That will also be the time where we hope that we will be able to find out if we will be on team pink or team blue - it will really all depend on how cooperative our wee one is being - so that means there are only thirteen days left to vote in our baby girl/baby boy poll!  :)  When we first scheduled this appointment it seemed so far away!  Now, it is nearly here!  My, how time flies!

We hope you enjoy hearing our little baby's heartbeat as much as we do.  In due time (no pun intended), we will all be able to put an adorable little face with that perfectly beating heart!

We ♥ you, Baby!

Sammie For Our Mammie

For Mother's Day this year we had Brian's Mom, Mary, over for a late lunch with Tom.  We made these little menu cards and catered to her every sammich desire:

Even equipped with 'Special Instructions'!

We had a great time gobbling down our sandwiches which I was told were akin to "Dagwood Sandwiches" because they were chock full of toppings and delish!  (I wasn't quite sure who Dagwood was, but thank goodness for Google because I found a whole slew of information and even some images!  Dagwood Bumstead was a character in the Blondie comic strip known for his enormous sandwiches.  My brother, Travis, would so love this guy!)

Dagwood himself with [one of] his infamous sammies!
I do see the resemblance of me in his appearance.
My hair gets frizzy exactly in those areas.

Either way, we had a wonderful time chowing down and celebrating Mother's Day together!

This is a Mama Sandwich!

In other non-Mother's Day news, we received an awesome hummingbird feeder for Christmas from Brian's stepbrother, Kevin, his wife, Brooke, and our nephew and niece, John and Leah.  We set it up on Friday and filled it with the secret hummingbird potion. 

Our hummingbird feeder!
Strategically placed right outside of our window!

Today we saw our very first hummingbird!!  We are amazed that these little guys found our food so quickly and we are really looking forward to doing some more bird watching!  Thank you, Kevin, Brooke, John, and Leah!

And Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful Mamas out there!

Motion Detector

Today marks the sixteen week birthday of our little bump!  Every night, right before I go to sleep, I lay in bed very calm and very still to see if I can sense any sort of movement.  I don't have any background noise, unless Jack is snoring next to me, and I lay completely still trying to detect anything.  From what I understand it is still a tad early to actually be feeling movement, especially when you don't really know what you are looking for, but it is still possible.  I wait for any sensation that may indicate our little bambino is up and playing instead of lounging and sleeping.  (I would just like to state for the record that lounging and sleeping is also ok!  Hint, hint, Baby!)

So far, I don't think I have any news to report on the motion front.  There have been two times that I've felt two distinct, short-lived feelings in my lower abdomen that made me wonder if that was our bambino.  But both times felt different, and I haven't since felt anything that I could point either feeling to.  I know the time will come when it's supposed to.

Until then, I will continue to take my five to ten minutes right before I go to sleep and perform my version of meditating to become more in tune with what is going on inside my body!

Breaking the News

When we found out we were expecting, we immediately started thinking of creative ways to tell our families and friends.  We thought of many different scenarios but ultimately decided on t-shirts!  One said 'Mommy To Be' and the other said 'Daddy To Be'.  It was evident that this was going to be a fun little surprise!

We told my parents when we met them at Niagara Falls for the weekend.  We were only eight weeks along and had wanted to wait a bit longer before we started telling people, but this was not something we wanted to tell them over the phone or over email, and the next time we would be seeing them was mid-May.  How would we explain our baby bump at that point?!  So, Niagara Falls weekend it was!

Brian and I both had hoodies on over our special t-shirts and once we got settled we told my Mom, Scott, and James that we made t-shirts for the weekend and wanted to show them.  (It was St. Patty's day weekend, mind you, so we both figured they would all think we put together some funny t-shirts with a leprechaun doing a little jig at a waterfall or something silly like that!  They had no idea what was in store!)

When we revealed the final product, my Mom said, "WHAT?!!?!?!?", and immediately gave us hugs!  Scott, I think, was a bit speechless but quickly came to and was also very, very excited and gave us our very first tummy rub!  James gave us a hearty, "Congratulations," and topped it off with the best Uncle Jimmy hug ever!  There were tears and smiles and laughs and shock and hugs and happiness, and what made it even more amazing was being able to be together!

A couple of weeks later, we broke the news in the very same fashion to Mary and Tom.  I kid you not, the first words out of Mary's mouth were, "Oh, SHIT!"  Now, I can honestly say that I think this is the first time that I have ever heard Mary use any sort of profanity!  It was hilarious!  (In Mary's defense, she apologized profusely afterwards about using such language!  I don't think she even knew where that came from!  I like to blame that on our inner "bad" girl!)  Tom was just as excited and, again, we all shared tears and smiles and laughs and shock and hugs and happiness!

The reactions from both of our parents, our other family members, and friends have all been priceless in their own ways!  We have enjoyed sharing and spreading our news and are having even more fun keeping everyone in the loop!

The parents to be!

(Yes, Baby, your Mimi used a bad word when she found out we were expecting you! You'll have to ask her why a little later...)

Stacking Up

Remember those shelves that Gangsta Tom built last week?!  Well, this past weekend, in addition to garage sailing, playing with sombreros and fake mustaches, making tacos and guacamole, and attending our Sunday family dinner, we put a little organization to the otherwise chaotic mess in our basement.

You have GOT to see the transformation so far:

Before.  No comment.

After!  Holy organization!

And we still have room to grow organize!  Amaze-balls!  Once again, thank you, Tom, for the splendid shelves!

Today Was The Day

Brian said that between yesterday and today I "popped".  Today makes us officially 15 weeks and 3 days!  He said that he can really tell a difference in my tummy, nearly overnight, and he noticed it most when we hugged tonight.  I guess my little tummy pooch is becoming quite a bit bigger!

I think reality set in for him at that pivotal moment because shortly after he said that to me I went upstairs to get ready for bed.  I was brushing my teeth - Brian was looking at me, and he said quite frankly, "We're having a baby, E."  (News flash, Bri.  I've been trying to tell you this since February...)  The sound and pitch of his voice was a mix between nervous and scared and excited and very excited.  That mixture's kinda been the vibe of our emotions recently.  It was so sincere and so sweet.

We really are having a baby, and now we've got the bump to prove it:

Our little bambino - nearly 16 weeks!

Cinco de Mayo

Happy cinco de mayo from our familia to yours!

Señor y Señora Hendricks.

Jack, aka "Paco", says, "¡Ay, caramba!"

Garage Sailing

Today we went to Mary and [Gangsta] Tom's neighborhood for their community garage sale.  We hopped all around the neighborhood looking for bargains, and bargains we did find!  There were a ton of baby clothes, but since we still don't know if we're on Team Pink or Team Blue we didn't go too crazy in the clothing department - we picked out one outfit for each team.  We did, however, get some great books to add to our growing children's book li-berry (read: library), a couple of cute stroller toys, some adorable shoes, AND a wonderful jogging stroller - of which we paid ten bones for and were pretty excited about!  In addition, we got to practice our math and bargaining skills! 

There was one house in particular that had some Dr. Suess books that we were going to purchase.  They were listed at $1.00 each, so I inquired with the seller if she would like to go to .50 cents each.  (Believe me, I know that Dr. Suess books are not cheap, and $1.00 is already a bargain, but we're at a garage sale and wheelin' and dealin' is the name of the game!)  Anyway, she agreed to .75 cents each.  We had four books.  So I said, "Great!  So, $3.00?"

She said, "$2.25."

(I didn't realize we were still negotiating, and, at first, I thought I had done my math wrong.  I did a quick, slower calculation in my head and determined I was indeed correct.  The total should be $3.00, which I was willing and happy to pay.)

I said, "I have four books."

She said, "Yeah, $2.25 is good."

At that point, Brian and I just paid her what she wanted and headed on out.  We could help but laugh because we weren't sure if she was just doing her math completely wrong or if she renegotiated the per book price to .56 cents each and didn't tell us or what!  Perhaps she had been garage sailing for a bit too long.  Who knows!

Anyway, we found some great deals and even Mary and Tom were able to find a couple of strollers in the mix too, so they are all set when any pint sized humans decide they would like to visit!

Click here for garage sale mania!

In the end, we got some fantastic deals on some fantastic items!  After all, one man's junk is another man's treasure, right?!

Gangsta Tom Up in Da Hizzouse!

Remember Gangsta Tom?!  He was the one that was wearing the hat backwards when we had our hot dog/canoeing/family picnic extravaganza weekend?!

Gangsta Tom.  (We may or may not have
twisted his arm to take this photo.)



He is also the one that built our fabulous cupcake stand, from scratch, AND helped us put up our storm door AND has voluntarily helped us with other multiple handy things around the house and in life.  He is a master carpenter, and, literally, is able to make any idea that you can conceive come to fruition.  He is that amazing!  He gives Geppetto a serious run for his woodworking money, and today we had the pleasure of helping watching Gangsta Tom create some masterpieces around the crib!

First, Tom got started on our storage shelves in the basement, then he swapped our dryer door so it would be more accessible from the washer (I didn’t even know this was possible – I thought you had to completely swap the dryer and the washer), then he built two shelves in our garage, AND, finally, he hung our bikes on four snazzy bike hooks! And this was all done in ONE day! He is a trooper, I tell ya!

We are so thankful that Gangsta Tom stopped by with his bad self and hooked our house up.  We are, once again, amazed at his mad skillz and are very appreciative of all the hard work and effort that he put into helping us make a little more room for baby and organizing our otherwise chaotic basement!

Click here to see more of Gangsta Tom's masterpiece!

Thank you, Tom!  Thank you!  Thank you!  THANK YOU!

(PS: Tom doesn't typically go by 'Gangsta' Tom, but he is referred to as such multiple times in this post.  If you recognize the person you are viewing in the photos, but find that you have never known him as 'Gangsta' Tom, please don't be alarmed.  'Gangsta' Tom also goes by Tom...and will continue to do so.)