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Weather or not

We had a fantastic time in Miami! It's so great to go from a winter parka to a sundress and flip flops in just a 2 1/2 hour flight! It was gorgeous- 86 degrees F and a cool breeze everyday. At 1am it was still 76 degrees! So perfect!

















We stayed with our great friends Brandon & Bobby (and their 2 fur babies, Bentley and Boxter, Brussels-Griffin dogs) in their fabulous home on the 45th floor overlooking the bay and the ocean. It was SOO hard to leave!

Destination Maternity

If you haven’t yet seen my ill-fitting parka post yet (scroll down), you might not be aware of just how terrible the weather in NYC has been this week.  It’s as if Mother Nature decided that she was being just a bit TOO nice to us and needed to compensate by hitting us with a roundhouse kick to the throat of snow, freezing rain, hail, thunder, windstorms, and torrential downpours. All in one day. 

So you can imagine how elated I am that I’m escaping this ridiculous weatherman’s nightmare and headed to sunny MIAMI, where the white sand and sunshine has beckoned me for the weekend.  Elated, that was, until I realized that this means a swimsuit is going to be required. 

So I turned to my closet and pulled out a one-piece Diesel swimsuit that I’ve had for years. It actually didn’t look too bad! Except for one thing- there’s absolutely no bra in the thing, so my now most glorious asset (my new cleavage!) ended up getting smooshed flat and did not receive the glory the “girls” so rightfully deserve.

No problem, I thought- I’ll just pick up a cute maternity swimsuit! I’m sure I’ll get more use out of it, since I’ll be pregnant through the summer. 

I walked over to 5^th Avenue and found myself at a combination “Pea in the Pod”, “Destination Maternity” and “Motherhood” shopping center. I thought this would be easy: in and out and I’m done. Boy, was I wrong. 

The salespeople were friendly, offered me a water, and asked how they could help me. I told them I just needed a swimsuit- a tankini, preferably. A salesperson pointed me towards the swimsuits.  The “swimsuits” were a collection of polka dotted, florals, and pastel  shapeless blobs on plastic hangers. Gross. I dug around and found one that was blue tie-dye…semi decent, I thought. The problem is, the tops and bottoms ALL come as a set in ONE size. So although I wanted a Medium top and a large bottom, I couldn’t mix and match. That’s ridiculous! 

I headed to the fitting room, wrestled it over my belly and hauled up the bottoms over my hips (which as Shakira said, certainly DON’T lie.) The top was a bit too big, and the bottoms were a bit too snug.  While I was in the fitting room, the saleslady brought me some “suggestion outfits”, to try on.  These outfits were HIDEOUS! Everything was blousy and tented, and made so cheaply it was frightening to see that the pricetags were up to $200! I had no idea that maternity clothes look so dumpy and matronly! I thought they had come a long way to try and look like regular clothes…NOPE!

The salesperson brought me 5 more swimsuits to try on, and I tried on just the top of the next one before almost vomiting in my mouth. It was like a giant navy blue tent that came down almost to my knees, with a dumb little BOW between the boobs! Who would wear something like this?  I finally was honest with the salesperson and said, “Listen- I really don’t even want to buy ANY maternity clothes, and I’m only getting a swimsuit today. Honestly, I think all these clothes are ugly, and definitely not my style at all.” I ended up buying the tie-dye swimsuit, which was definitely the best out of the options I was given, and only spent a cool $30, since it was on sale.

The saleslady laughed about my comment and I think she kind of agreed with me. The funny thing to me was how many women were standing in the fitting rooms just GUSHING about how wonderful these bags…I mean CLOTHES were. I even heard the woman beside me telling her friend about how after the baby’s born, she can just take these jeans to a tailor and have them CUT OUT the maternity panel so she can keep wearing them as regular jeans! Seriously, lady? Ugh. 

So laugh at me if you like, but I am going to do my bestest to breeze through this pregnancy WITHOUT having to spend ridiculous amounts of money on dumb maternity clothes. I’ve been wearing my dresses from Diesel and AllSaints with high waisted leggings from American Apparel, and I’m doing just fine! This weekend, I’ll wear long maxi dresses from Forever 21 ($12 dresses! Score!) and stretchy jersey dresses with leggings.  

And of course, I’ll look amazing, as always : )

Little Lady as a Little Baby

My Grandmother had this picture of me and my Dad when I was almost 2. Do you think our baby will have strawberry blonde curls? Check out my dad's hair- does that count as an afro? LOL

Kelley Ryden Photography

This photographer is absolutely inspiring! I love her newborn photos- too bad she's all the way out in Omaha Nebraska!

Take a minute with your cup of coffee and check out her website and blog

Willpower vs. WON'Tpower

It's both a blessing and a curse to work right beside Grand Central Terminal- because there are SO many wonderful bakeries and restaurants but I'm trying SO hard to avoid sugar and sweets while I'm pregnant!

Take for example, this STUNNING window case at Junior's (which, you should know, is THE best cheesecake in New York City, no debate!)

I'm proud to say that I did, in fact just WALK BY, and stopped only to take a picture. But I could totally dive face first into that strawberry cheesecake and you would have to pull me out for air!

This is NOT working :(

We had a stunning glimpse of spring in NYC last week: trees flowering, children on their bikes with no jackets on, a warm and sunny 76 degrees Fahrenheit (24 Celsius!). I was almost ready to put all my winter stuff in storage and pull out my spring/summer clothes! And then...MORE SNOW! We have had snow the last 2 days, accompanied with freezing rain and hailstorms. It is rotten!

The worst part is, I thought for sure that I would make it through winter without needing a new coat- but as per the photo above, this is becoming increasingly more difficult! I CANNOT button my coat around my belly anymore! Now I have to wear a big sweater and just button my coat up around the neck/chest, and I look like a bloody IDIOT! So annoying- come ON, stupid winter! LEAVE! GO! SHOO!GET OUT!

Little Lady Big Bump!

Baby is definitely not shy- it is pushing right out for the world to see! Check out this mama at 22 weeks!

Awesome ideas for turning Ramen Noodles into...well, a REAL meal!

Serious Eats has a great article today about highjacking your instant ramen noodles into some really cool dishes. Can't wait to try some of these out!

Also- point of interest: we call Ramen Noodles, "Mr. Noodles" in Canada. Why? I don't know.

Check out the full article HERE 

Why having a toddler is like being at a College Frat Party

10. There are half-full, brightly-colored plastic cups on the floor in every room. Three are in the bathtub.

9. There’s always that one girl, bawling her eyes out in a corner.

8. It’s best not to assume that the person closest to you has any control over their digestive function.

7. You sneak off to the bathroom knowing that as soon as you sit down, someone’s going to start banging on the door.

6. Probably 80% of the stains on the furniture contain DNA.

5. You’ve got someone in your face at 3 a.m. looking for a drink.

4. There’s definitely going to be a fight.

3. You’re not sure whether anything you’re doing is right, you just hope it won’t get you arrested.

2. There are crumpled-up underpants everywhere.

1. You wake up wondering exactly how and when the person in bed with you got there.

from www.shitmykidsruined.com

Little Lady Little Weekend Trip

This weekend, we took the train to Philadelphia to visit our good friends Joe & Erika. Erika and I are just 5 weeks apart in our pregnancies (she's ahead of me) and we enjoyed comparing and poking each other's belly bumps :)

Preggo mamas!

Ta-Da! The bumps!

Does this count as our babys' first play date together? :)

Non-cheesey Grandparent gifts

Not only a fabulous gift idea list for grandparents, but a lot of these ideas are just great personalized gift ideas in general! I'm completely smitten by the notecards, and just $12.99? Deal!

The cutest twins idea

I'm in love with this ETSY shop called the Wishing Elephant. Gonna go grab my credit card and start shopping now!

cute- and on sale!

We love shopping at Viva Terra for eco-friendly and fair trade items for our home. This pouffy ottoman is on sale for $148! Love it!

Our bath mat is from Viva Terra- so luxe and actually feels GREAT on the feet! Plus, no mushy bath mat footprints!

PS: I bought this! Can't wait until it arrives- I'll show you pictures!

20 Weeks

 (click image to enlarge)

Great idea for using your kids' artwork!

I love this idea of making a tray out of crayon drawings (perfect for you moms out there who can't throw anything away!)

The step by step instructions are available HERE and if you can, spend some more time on this great blog called Dried Figs and Wooden Spools.

Gucci Baby

A little Baby shopping and Daddy shopping at Gucci yesterday. Just doing our part to save the economy, folks! ;)

Baby love

We had a little photoshoot with baby-to-be today! Little Bean is now 1 whopping lb!! I cried the whole time during the ultrasound- tears just streaming! It was truly amazing to see all the details of how our baby is so perfectly and preciously formed! We watched blood pumping through all 4 chambers of the heart, the lips moving and sucking, and the tiny little fingers and toes dancing around! Baby is measuring right on track and has no abnormalities or problems! We are so grateful for this little miracle that is growing every day!

I made sure to turn away when the tech was measuring the legs and lower half just in case I would see something I am trying NOT to! So we still don't know if it's a baby boy or baby girl! :)






Baby's profile




Here is baby giving us a high 5!

Clean it GREEN!

I found THIS ARTICLE truly helpful and very informative with 25 recipes for non-toxic, green cleaning products that you can make right at home! With little baby lungs soon to be in our household, the toxic chemicals found in most cleaning products are something worth thinking about!

20 weeks!

To celebrate our halfway mark in this pregnancy, my husband surprised me with a dozen gorgeous tangerine colored roses!





-- Post From My iPhone

go away, Winter!

Got this adorbz dress from forever 21 this weekend but I have to return it! By the time it will be warm enough outside to wear it, I will be too big for it! It's cotton and it's NOT stretch. I wish winter would LEAVE so I can wear these cotton flowy dresses!










-- Post From My iPhone

A girl?

For a long time, I've felt that this baby is a boy, but now all of a sudden I'm thinking maybe it's...a girl? Hmmm... My skin has been clear and great except this past week when out of no where, I woke up with dry, red patches near my eyebrows, chin, nose, and even jawline. The skin became so dry I was using vaseline as a moisturizer...nothing else would work. A friend suggested I try aloe, and that seemed to work really well. But today, I've got a rash of little red bumps (are they pimples?!) on my chin. I have maybe had 1 or 2 pimples in my LIFE, so this is really quite new for me. I've heard that women who are pregnant with girls break out more because of the double female hormones, but this could be an old wives' tale.

Moms out there- did you break out or have dry patches like this when pregnant? With boys or girls or both?

Makes me wonder... but we aren't finding out the sex of the baby, so I can only speculate until this little bean makes it's grand entrance!

Mama & Me

My mum came to visit this week! She brought a gift for the baby- a beautiful crocheted blanket she made. Oh, and did I mention it's BLUE? hmmmm... Will Grandma's intuition be right?




-- Post From My iPhone

Time flies!

Last week I noticed the baby belly sticking out even more! Must be the way the little one was curled up all snug in there but I think it looks so cute! This was at 18 weeks!




-- Post From My iPhone