She's got Rhythm

Baby girl and I are still cruising along over here. February 25 is the six month mark. Lately, I've found myself thinking more and more in terms of "how much time do I have left to buy a car seat?" instead of "how much longer until we will see our baby girl face to face?" This is either a funny result of the pregnancy hormones, or just another example of me needing to get my priorities straight. I suppose it could be both.

Also, all of those comments I made about her "dancing" are really not far from the truth. She starts kicking whenever fast music comes on. She kicks in the middle of Sunday morning worship, or just yesterday she was getting quite a kick (pun intended) out of that Jose Cuervo song when it was on the radio. You know the song; it goes: "after 1/2/3/etc. rounds of Jose Cuervo..." and it's all about this guy that goes to the bar and gets drunk on tequila and acts ridiculous. I don't like it, but Josh thinks it's funny, and apparently Emmeline has chosen to side with her Daddy on this one. She makes me laugh. I don't know what it is that makes her start kicking, but I guess she hears something she likes.

I also caught her punching her daddy in the hand this morning--over and over again. Josh slept through it, but I could tell.

People keep asking me if I've had any cravings since I've been pregnant. Josh is probably the better person to write about this since he's the one that's had to put up with all of it, but I can tell you it's been a wild ride. During the first trimester I decided I didn't like sweets, but during this second trimester my sweet tooth has returned very much in full force. There was the week I wanted wildberry skittles everyday (until I made myself sick on them), and the week I wanted gummy bears everyday (until I decided I only liked Haribo gummy bears) and then there was the sudden, inexplicable desire for wedding cake. Yes, it was very late at night. Yes, I walked up to Josh, deadly serious, and asked him to get me wedding cake. No, I did not get any wedding cake that night. :-) My latest kick has been cherry coke icees. I can't pass them up (they're available in the Wal-Mart and the Target closest to us). I do share my large icees with Josh, but only with the understanding when I share with him it's to be considered a down payment on a future icee. Right now I'm thinking how nice it would be if there was an icee machine at Lifeway. Maybe I should call my local congressman and ask him to make provisions for that in the stimulus package.

Oh yes, there was also a phase when I hated meat, and another phase when I hated whole grains. Both of those have passed, but now I don't like jelly anymore (except sometimes on biscuits). It's all very complicated. Josh does a good job of keeping up.

Babymoon

Never heard that word before? I swear I didn't make it up. Google it and see for yourself! A "babymoon" is a romantic getaway which is taken by an expecting couple. You see, since your life is about to change completely, you go on vacation and take some time to cherish each other (and your freedom) before the baby comes. Josh and I went to Louisville, KY last weekend and had a fabulous time. And now...pictures!

For breakfast on Saturday morning we went to Lynn's Paradise Cafe. It was featured on Throwdown with Bobby Flay and on Oprah. If it's good enough for Bobby and Oprah, it's good enough for Josh and me! It is crazy in there, and I'm not just talking about the crowds--there are legs growing out of the ceiling, pants made out of used tea bags, oh, and our table had a train set underneath it. While we were waiting to be seated we browsed in the World of Swirl gift shop, which is mostly full of items from FredFlare. Among the crazy merchandise was a hat section. I sensed a photo opportunity!

I like to call this, "A wolf in Josh's clothing"


What an egghead!

Oh, and the food at Lynn's? Worth the wait. It was amazing! I had smoked sausage frittata with tomato cream sauce, served with a side of the best cheese grits I've ever eaten. Josh had french toast (which was sliced at least an inch thick). His french toast had a crusty layer of cinnamon and sugar on the outside, and it was not soggy--the mark of a good french toast.

After returning to the hotel for naps (when you're five months pregnant, what could be more romantic than sleep?) we got spiffied up for our evening out. We started the evening with an early dinner at The Melting Pot. It took us 2 1/2 hours to eat, and it was good. We were so stuffed! We decided that The Melting Pot made a very nice, romantic dinner, but it's a lot of work. It may be a while before we want to go back. Oh yes, our favorite course? The cheese course. The bread was our favorite thing to dip, but I surprised myself by also loving the Granny Smith apples dipped in the cheese sauce. Here we are with our dessert course.


After dinner we went to see Wicked! at the KY Performing Arts Center. Josh and I have wanted to see it for a long time, and it was the main reason we wanted to visit Louisville this January. It was wonderful. The seats in Whitney Hall, however, were some of the most uncomfortable seats I've ever sat in. Puny armrests plus no cushioning, they definitely failed the sore butt test.
Here's proof that we were actually at the theater:


I realize I look drunk in this picture, but I promise it's just the poor quality of the photo. We had to take it ourselves. Of course, it could be the sugar high from that super sweet chocolate fondue we ate.
Here's our view of the stage:

And Emmeline kicked whenever an especially loud song came on. Now, it could have been that she was on a sugar high too, but I think we have a little Broadway baby!

On Sunday afternoon we went to go see the world's largest baseball bat.

Pretty impressive, huh? Oh yes, I'm also exactly five months pregnant in this picture.


Josh, sensing the imminent danger posed by the leaning bat, rushed to save the Louisville Slugger Factory and Museum from certain doom.

Don't worry, he can fix it!

We decided that while we were there we should try to find me a good baseball glove.
Remember, when you're looking for a glove, it's essential to find one with a good fit.

This looks about right!

In case you were wondering how big the giant glove is, my sweet, obliging husband climbed inside of it to show you.

We bought Emmeline a couple of souvenirs from the gift shop. After all, she is half the reason why we went on the trip in the first place.

You'll never guess who wanted to buy her the little bat. :-)

Baby is kicking--I think.

Josh and I have found something new to get excited over: we can feel Emmeline kick now! Well, at least we think we can. It's very possible that we're "oohing" and "awwing" over a gas bubble or a muscle spasm. But, considering the fact that these mysterious little interruptions are occurring more and more often, and always in the same general area of my belly, I've decided it must be our future Rockette practicing her eye-high kicks.

I get to feel her kick more than Josh, which I think made him a little bit jealous at first, but then one night he was talking to her and she kicked him a couple of times, and he was over the moon about that. Also, little Emmeline's favorite time of day is first thing in the morning, apparently. The alarm goes off around 6:30 am, and then it's like a mini version of A Chorus Line until I get up to take a shower. I guess Josh and I should start bracing ourselves for life with a morning person.

It's a girl!!!

We're going to have a daughter!

Halfway done and counting...

It seems that time has been getting away from me. I'm halfway through my pregnancy and I haven't written anything pregnancy related on my blog since I made the first announcement. The baby will be here before we know it and my poor blog readers would be none the wiser. I can hardly believe it, but I'm four and a half months pregnant. Time has been speeding by so fast I feel like I just found out yesterday. The first trimester didn't have any newsworthy events, unless you consider some extra pimples and more exhaustion newsworthy. Granted, I did have acne on my neck that kind of looked like vampire bites--maybe I should have posted about that, eh? My back did bother me more than usual, and that meant I had trouble sleeping at night, so I was pretty tired all the time. However, I was so grateful to not have any morning sickness to deal with that I felt like I'd be whining if I complained too much about my little problems. And therefore, the blog went ignored. And now that I've caught you up on the last three months, let's move on to the good stuff, shall we? Now that I am actually visibly pregnant, I have to admit that I spend alot of time staring at myself in the mirror, because I can't believe it's really me that looks like that. The fun part of that is now I get to wear maternity clothes! After over a month of nothing fitting (I had two pairs of pants and a couple of shirts that I wore ALL THE TIME) it's nice to have cute clothes that are actually comfortable to boot. I think part of the pregnancy "glow" is just sheer relief that I have outfits in my closet to choose from! My mom took me shopping for maternity clothes when they were in town and I had a great time picking things out with her. The weird part about actually having a belly now is that it gets in the way! It still feels so early to me, but already it's harder to do things like bend over, sit on the floor, or roll over in bed at night. I have to admit, I feel ridiculous. Call me naive, but I thought it was only the women who were "really pregnant" that had trouble doing those things. I figured that gave me at least a couple of more months. And oh yes, I got a prenatal yoga dvd, and it's really funny to see those pregnant women in their unitards doing all of the yoga poses. At least I thought it was funny until I was really sore after I did the workout the first time! I guess I have alot of progress to make before May 25 gets here! That's all the news for now, but we find out the sex of the baby tomorrow (YAY!!) so you can expect another post pretty soon. And here's my week 20 picture:

My project for next week is to find a better backdrop! That white wall would wash anyone out.

Thanks for reading!

Pictures!

As promised, here are the pictures of our apartment. They aren't in order, so you won't get the "walk through" effect. Sorry.

This is the living room, complete with pretty Christmas decorations, and a blue blanket which I neglected to put away before I took the picture.

This is our dining room table. Josh promised to paint the chairs white for me to match the table, and as you can see, that hasn't happened yet.

This is where we sleep and get dressed. Josh also promised to make me a headboard for our bed. It's going to be very cute when it's made. He's also going to paint the dresser red. He's going to be very busy!

This is the bassinet, in the corner of our bedroom. I realize that the baby will not be here for several months, but it comes in handy for storage.

This is the bathroom. It's pretty self-explanatory. I actually took this picture before we moved in, but it hasn't changed much since then.

And this is my pretty kitchen!

So that's it! It's still early, so there aren't any pictures on the wall, and we don't have curtains. It will get homier over time though. I guess I'll just have to post more pictures later!

Oh yes...I realize that y'all really just want to see the "belly pictures," and you'll get some eventually, but it will have to wait until I feel cute enough to take a picture. Honestly, I'm still pretty small, so I only look pregnant in some of my clothes, and even then, that's just if you know what you're looking at.

Movin' on up...

Well, we haven't moved to the East side. And we have moved to an apartment, but it's ground level; it's not in the sky. But that makes such a clever little title, doesn't it?

Josh and I are in love with our new apartment. We just moved this weekend. You can be jealous of our commute: it only takes us 20 minutes to get to work! Yes! So instead of leaving the house at 7 am, I'm waking up at 7 am.
My other favorite part is the kitchen. It's newly remodeled with brand new, shiny black appliances. Josh said I can have the kitchen all to myself. I don't think that's a huge sacrifice on his part, but it's still all mine. :-)
Also, it has a really big laundry room, but until we find a permanent home for all of our boxes of books, the laundry room is functioning as interim bookshelf.

In the process of unpacking I discovered that the baby bassinet we were given (it is very cute) makes an excellent holder for all of my stuffed animals. I'm not sure where we'll put the baby though...maybe a drawer? Josh could give up one of his probably.

We also have our Christmas tree put up. We had an interesting time decorating it. Last year we had a nice 6' tree, but this year they were all out of the 6' trees. So, we got a great price on a 7' tree, but we really only have enough ornaments for a 6' tree. We can just enjoy lots of lovely tree branches in all their evergreen glory I guess.

Oh, and in baby news, Josh and I heard it's little heartbeat last week. That was very exciting, and it was also a nice little reminder that, yes, there is a little person in there. If I think about that for too long I start to feel like somebody out of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I mean, of course it's the beautiful miracle of life and all of that, but let's face it, the whole concept is a little bizarre.
We will find out the sex of the baby on January 8.

I will post apartment pictures as soon as our internet is connected, which will be Saturday.