My 3D Ultrasound Experience.

Let me start by saying I had never had one done before. I don't think I was aware of them at all when I was pregnant with Chance and when I was pregnant with Shamus I was right at the end of being on the government health insurance. They aren't covered by insurance because (for most of us) they are considered elective and unnecessary so it all comes out of pocket. I am very sure (YES, COMPLETELY SURE, STOP ASKING ME PLEASE) this is our last baby so I felt strongly that I wanted to get one done. I was told somewhere around 32 weeks (I'm 31) was the perfect time to come in. By then they have all their features and have some of that cute baby fat. After 36 they're really big and there's tons of fluid in the way so it's harder to get good pictures. Also, this is about the time in my pregnancies when things get a little dull. I was right that it certainly amped up my enthusiasm.

We got to watch the baby on the screen for about 25 minutes. We got both pictures and video which I love. According to Yelp, most places add cheesy music to the video before they give it to you (gag) but the place we chose (3DBabyVu in Pleasanton) recorded us all sitting around in the room during the ultrasound. We will forever have the memory of the five-minute "Who farted?" discussion and Chance whining that he'd like to go home. Beats pan flutes!

I have a billion photos so I'll just put up a couple I found interesting.

^ Baby's foot. I'm sure it's an optical illusion but I'd swear this kid has six toes on his right foot. Hope not.

^ A most perfect little ear. The stuff on his head is the side of my uterus but those little wavy lines above the ear are hair, according to the technician. I'm looking forward to seeing what color it turns out.

^ A lot of shots of him frowning and looking cross. I agree with the general consensus he looks a LOT like James. The cranky faces certainly add to it. That bumpy thing on his chest is his umbilical cord. Looks like its draped across his chest, over his neck, and down his back like a necklace in all the pictures.

^ I'm particularly fond of the ones where he's playing shy. He rolled away more than a few times so his back was facing the camera and obscured his face with his hand quite a bit too. Camera shy, seems like.

In summation, it was awesome. The place we went to was awesome. Our baby's pretty awesome.

Pretty Boxes.

Since our last trip to IKEA reawakened my urges for a pretty house, I've become really interested in the task of beautifying two rooms- our bathroom and our kitchen. The kitchen will probably happen first, since it'll be easier. I have about a billion inspiration photos I've been hoarding since we bought our house a year ago.

I'm hoping 1. That I can finish it neatly by the end of the summer and 2. That maybe, just maybe, I'll go into labor from the sheer effort of working on it. I've been reading the Freelancer's Fashion blog for most of her/my/our pregnancy and she managed to go into labor a week before her due date by painting several rooms in her house over a weekend. I've eaten disgusting things, I've climbed the highest hills in San Francisco, I've gone BOWLING in the name of trying to jumpstart labor so why wouldn't I try this too, eh?

Nifty Thrifting.

Slowly picking up baby things here and there. Ruby's Garden in Oakland is becoming one of my favorite baby stores. Their used section is small but extremely good. I'm always a fan of a place that has equal-sized boys' and girls' sections. Anyone with boys can attest to this- That's a rare thing.

I seem to have inherited my mother's obsession for dressing my children like tiny Village People. I even took a rare departure from my sailor suit obsession.

Shamus and I found a huge bag of old school wooden alphabet blocks during our thrift adventures. Almost bought these from Melissa and Doug not too long ago, but the twenty-five dollar price tag held me back. Glad I waited as these were only five bucks!

Another great find this week- East Bay Depot for Creative Reuse somehow accumulated HUNDREDS of huge skeins of yarn in every color imaginable. Only a dollar apiece so I grabbed one in mint green (can't get enough of mint green) and this gorgeous multicolored confection called "Lipstick". How could I not buy it?

This doesn't technically qualify as a "thrift find" but my BFF Laura did surprise us yesterday with a bag of hand-me-down goodies. Vintage hats for me and VHS for Shamus. She certainly knows what we like. Can't wait to wear these somewhere!

This week we've already watched A Nightmare Before Christmas and Jurassic Park. (Which ironically are the only two they've seen before, my kids are so weird). I'm going to peer pressure them into watching a new one next. I haven't watched Alice in years but it was my favorite when I was little.

Things That Make Me Enthused.

1. Getting back in the salon this week. I'm armed with a couple of new hair colors in my bag and I'm ready to play around and have some fun.

2. Shamus' birthday party. Still lots of little things to put together like tiny felt hats, treasure boxes, cupcake toppers.. Time to get to work! Can we talk about how cute this kid is? He's hit one of the trademark three-year-old things I loved with Chance- The dressing himself. Plaid newsboy cap, striped pants, and camo boots? I suggested sunglasses and he reappeared wearing a scary breakfast food mask. Only Shamus could pull this look off.

3. Father's Day. We spent the weekend doing all of the things James wanted to do. After we dropped Chance off Saturday morning, we decided to head over to the Pirate Festival in Vallejo. It was pretty unpleasant. The heat was brutal so we didn't stay very long. That was followed by a trip to Home Depot where we picked up some things for the house, made a run for ceviche (PERFECT hot weather food, I can't get enough), and watched a bunch of movies, all chosen by James. I stayed home with the kidling so he could go see DI play at the Metro. Sunday we slept in a little, had breakfast at IKEA (fathers got a free breakfast), watched more movies, and worked on some more home improvement projects. This year I got him a ton of old issues of Profane Existence, a new Slingshot organizer, a few new "mystery cd's", some patches, and a zine full of stencils. That guy's easy to please.

Away and back.

It was a really lovely vacation. I was able to completely shut my brain off and enjoy it. Not an easy feat. I got loads of one on one time with Chance, which I think we really needed.

 

It's hard to come down after a really great trip. This week's positively packed with doctor's appointments and various important time-sensitive, not so exciting things that have to be done and next week I'll be starting summer school. Lot of stress to get things tied up neatly before I go back to school.

PT(n)A.

Saturday was a parent/kid's mixer for Chance's school. They've had a couple so it was nothing new. The last one overlapped with a burlesque show I'd volunteered to do merch for. I only had enough time to do both if I wore the same outfit.. Tried my best to tone it down but I was DEFINITELY very over-dressed. I think I was wearing more makeup on my face at that mixer than all of the other mommies there (probably put together). Got lots of funny looks and stares. This time I was determined to not stick out like a sore thumb. I wore a jumper and almost no makeup. Cute, comfortable, myself, with considerably less gawking. (Most of it was probably due to my being the size of a small planet, anyway).

It was nice. Chance's dad came with and we got taco truck after at my favorite spot. Loving us getting along. Loving even more how great it is for Chance. Woo hoo for family togetherness.

Spending the rest of my weekend working on little things for Shamus' birthday party and packing for our week in Fresno/Yosemite!! I'm so excited about it I'm going to use more exclamation points than necessary!!!!

Questionable Choice of Wording.

Starting to feel pretty massive! 

I'm more spry than I look, though. The house is starting to look a lot less terrifying, scratching projects off the ridiculously long summer to-do list every day, and I'm feeling ahead of the birthday party game. (July is Shamus' birthday, we're having a party for the baby in August, the baby's coming mid-September probably, and Chance's birthday's October 2nd). It feels funny working on invitations now for a party in September/ October but I know with a brand new infant there will be very little time for that stuff, so I'm trying to do it all now. Next year we're going to be having a fourth birthday, a seventh birthday, and a first birthday. All in the span of four months. I wish we had staggered our children a little more carefully!

Today Shamus and I are stamping and mailing a very large pile of invitations. I thought it be nice or personal or something to do the baby party ones written by hand instead of the usual flier style. Except we wanted to invite all of our relatives and a lot of our friends so it turned out to be a very large number. So I've been working on them three here, five there for the last couple of weeks. I got about halfway through the pile when I realized the wording was kind of.. odd. Some of them might sort of maybe imply that we are having (and eating) the new baby on the day of the party. Not really sure how it happened (goddamn hormones), but by the time I noticed I'd written so freaking many that I couldn't bear the idea of starting over, so I just changed the wording on the next half and kept going. You may get one. Enjoy.