Random Belly Rubbing

Yesterday I had my first experience with a total stranger and a random belly rub. I have heard other pregnant women complain about people's apparent feeling of entitlement to touch your belly when you are pregnant, but had yet to experience it myself. I was checking out at the grocery store and the cashier kindly greeted me with a, "Hi, how are you?" to which I responded, "Good, how are you?" She then noticed my belly and said, "Or should I say, how are we?" At that point, she reached across the counter and started to rub my belly. Can you say awkward?!? I didn't exactly know what to do or say.. so I just kinda smiled.
Now, don't get me wrong.. I'm a pretty touchy-feely kinda girl, so I don't mind at all when people I know touch my tummy and say hello to my little baby! But it's more than a little weird when a complete stranger does it.

Another check on the list

Before this sweet little girl arrives and totally changes our life, Justin and I have a few more projects we want to complete. We got one more of them done this week... the kitchen! Although it wasn't terrible before, the kitchen didn't exactly match my color scheme. My dishes are dark brown and we had lots of red accents from our old kitchen, so this green wasn't exactly cutting it.

Before

And after!!

We're so glad to have another room finished and we're very happy with the outcome. Next up is to work on the landscaping and that project is scheduled for... this weekend! Wish us luck!

27 weeks

Here's an update from Babycenter.com about Baby Shoe's development..

Your pregnancy: 27 weeks
See the big picture
How your baby's growing:This week, your baby weighs almost 2 pounds (like a head of cauliflower) and is about 14 1/2 inches long with her legs extended. She's sleeping and waking at regular intervals, opening and closing her eyes, and perhaps even sucking her fingers. With more brain tissue developing, your baby's brain is very active now. While her lungs are still immature, they would be capable of functioning — with a lot of medical help — if she were to be born now. Chalk up any tiny rhythmic movements you may be feeling to a case of baby hiccups, which may be common from now on. Each episode usually lasts only a few moments, and they don't bother her, so just relax and enjoy the tickle.

Packages!

Even though I brought my camera with to Chicago, we didn't end up taking any pictures until we got home. This was waiting for us on our front step....

Justin gets packages all the time for work.. they are filled with all the give-aways he brings to doctor's offices. The funny thing is it's usually only 2 or 3 boxes at a time, but apparently they had a huge shipment this time.. there were 12 boxes on our front step! It just cracked me up that we came home to this!!

Chicago

Justin and I had a great weekend in Chi-town! We decided on doing this whole weekend after I found out that my favorite Christian artist, Sara Groves, was going to be playing a concert in Wheaton. I've seen her once before but I check her concert schedule frequently because I've been wanting to see her again. She just so happened to be playing with some other great artists (Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Charlie Peacock, and Brandon Heath) at Wheaton Bible Church.. the church I grew up in. So, we met my long-time friend Amy and her husband Brian at Portillos for some yummy Chicago dogs and then went to the concert. Since my family has moved away from Chicago, Wheaton Bible has built a brand new church building and it's HUGE!!!! It was fun to see the new building and also run into some people I haven't seen since high school. After the concert, we headed out to North Aurora to stay with my college friend Rachelle. Although her hubby (this is the one that also happens to be my second cousin..) wasn't around because of a missions trip, we had fun with Rachelle and loved seeing their adorable townhouse!
On Saturday, we headed downtown to visit The Museum of Science and Industry. After telling the lady behind the counter that we wanted two tickets, she said, "Okay, it's free." We just so happened to be there on free admission day.. what a fun surprise! The main reason we wanted to go to the museum was to see the baby jar display. Those of you who know what that is will understand why I was sooo disappointed when I found out that part of the museum is closed because they are creating an exhibit there and won't be on display again until next summer!!! We were so bummed!! If you don't know what I'm talking about, don't ask. There's no way to explain it that doesn't sound extremely morbid.
Anyway, after checking out some exhibits, we left and did the Lake Shore Drive/Sheridan Rd route back to the suburbs. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed driving by the lake and the huge houses on that route! We drove right past my brother and sister-in-law's old stomping ground in Rogers Park. When we passed Albion Ave, I got very teary-eyed... I just wanted to stop by their place and say hi. It made me realize just how far away they are. :(
After checking into our hotel, we ate dinner at one of my favorite Chicago-style pizza places, Lou Malnati's. Yum, yum!! We went to Babies R Us after dinner to check out their HUGE inventory of baby items... it was very overwhelming, but we had fun. We ended our evening with a delicious Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks... mmmm.. the taste of fall!
On Sunday, we went to Ikea, Trader Joes, and Old Navy (this one had a maternity section, so I was excited about that!) and then had lunch at Egg Harbor. Unfortunately, we weren't able to visit all of our favorite restaurants, but we sure enjoyed the yummy food we had! Oh, how I miss those places! Being in the suburbs makes you realize how much we DON'T have in Iowa... we kept passing places we used to like going to. I guess we'll have to settle for trips out to Chicago every now and then to get our fix!

26 weeks

I'm 26 weeks today... that means only 14 weeks left! I had a doctor's appointment this morning. I only gained 4 pounds in the last month.. and that's even after going on the cruise, so yay!! The appointment was pretty quick and uneventful. I measured right on for 26 weeks and Baby Shoe's heart rate was strong and high.. in the 150's again. I have to go back in two weeks for the glucose test and then I'll have another ultrasound at 32 weeks to make sure the cysts on baby's brain have resolved. According to babycenter.com, the baby now weighs about 1 2/3 pounds and is about 14 inches long. She can now hear not only my voice, but the voices of other people talking as well. So, make sure to say hi to her next time you see us! :)

Double digits!!

See my ticker at the top of the page?? We're down to 99 days left in this pregnancy... in the double digits!! That sounds really crazy when you know that the day I found out I was pregnant, I had 247 days left until my due date. Now we are down to only 99! Although I still feel like she's never going to get here, at times I'm struck by just how soon that day will come. I went to the dermatologist last week (who, like the rest of the world, was shocked by the amount of moles covering my body...) and had to schedule a follow up visit in 6 months. My appointment is scheduled for March which means I'll have a baby with me at that appointment.. ahh!!! At times it feels so far away and other times it feels like it's just around the corner. I'm so anxious to meet this little girl and hold her in my arms!

Clothes

Look at all the pink!! :) These are some of the clothes that Baby Shoe has received as gifts from people... and some are gifts from her momma! :) It's hard to pass up the adorable girl clothes they have. She also has 3 huge tubs of clothes given to her by her cousin Annikah, who now lives in Africa!! Roxi gave them to me before they left in hopes that we would be having a girl. I know I would have been very disappointed if we couldn't use those!

Cruise in review

We had a fabulous time on our vacation. How sad to be home, back to reality, unpacking, and "enjoying" this rainy, 50-degree day. YUCK!! Hard to believe that we were lounging in 85 degrees and sunny weather just two days ago. If you haven't cruised before, I highly recommend it! There's nothing like laying in the sun all day (or visiting one of the port cities) and then getting dressed up for a gourmet dinner. The food was fabulous and I think Justin's favorite part of the trip. He gained 10 pounds!! Haha!! At dinner each night they give you a menu with appetizers, entrees, and dessert. You can pick one from each category. Well.. Justin quickly established himself and his eating habits to our waiter on the first night when he ordered two entrees! :) The rest of our table couldn't believe it at first, but by the last night, EVERYONE ordered 2 desserts!!

Here we are dining one of the nights.

We visited three port cities and had one day at sea. Here we are at the pool, enjoying some frozen drinks. (Don't worry -- no alcohol in mine!!)

Our first stop was Key West. We hopped on a trolley that took us on a tour around the entire island. After our tour, we walked along Duval Street and did some shopping. It was sooo hot!! We walked to the Southernmost point and stood in a long line to take our picture by this lovely land marker. Look how beautiful the water is!!

The next day we stopped in Cozumel, Mexico. We rented this scooter (it was SOO fun!!) and drove to the beach. We were just beginning to enjoy the beach when it started to downpour! Everyone else was just hopping in taxis to get back to the port... but we had this scooter to drive back. We waited awhile to see if the rain would die down, but it didn't seem to be letting up. We just decided to hop on and drive back. Luckily, on our ride back, the rain stopped and the sun came back out. We drove to the downtown area and did some shopping. We were able to dry off on the scooter from the wind... that is until a truck would drive by us through a puddle and soak us again. It was quite entertaining! :)

Next stop.. Belize City, Belize. This was the only day we booked an excursion. We boarded a boat that drove us out to this tiny, private island. It was gorgeous! Surrounding the island is this huge, beautiful barrier reef where we did some snorkeling. The water was crystal clear and just gorgeous. I didn't want it to end! After snorkeling, we layed on the beach for awhile, then the boat took us back. Justin got to enjoy some rum punch on the boat ride back, too!

Private island





We spent the last day at sea, laying in the sun and relaxing. It was a great trip!!

Formal dinner night

A gorgeous Caribbean sunset

24 weeks

Here I am at 24 weeks! I feel like I'm getting bigger everyday.. it's crazy! We are back from a wonderful week of vacation.. pics and updates coming soon.