Thirty Six

Today is my birthday. I am 36 today. Yup.
A few weeks ago my plan was to have some peeps over to celebrate the last birthday that I would be responsible for only myself, but that never happened. I don't have a lot of room for focus these days. I am preoccupied with work and getting ready for this baby. I am not sad that I didn't have a last hurrah because I don't want to think that this baby will change my life for the worse but for the better. I have been waiting and dreaming about her for a long time, I cannot wait to meet her and see her and tell her all kinds of secrets and dreams. So instead I woke up to a delicious breakfast cooked by my hubby with some super tasty coffee (half caf). My mom stopped by to give me a hug and spend some time with me and my mother in law talking about what we need for this beauty that is coming into our lives. Hubby and I were supposed to go out to lunch or dinner but cuddling on the sofa and talking about the future seemed like a better choice at the time. Then we indulged with a double chocolate fudge cake, YUMMY!!!
Life is good and calm and we are happy.
Thank you to all my family and friends for all the amazing birthday wishes. I am the luckiest gal in the world.
Ciao
xo
S

30 weeks!

Getting there!
xo
S

January out February in

Not that I don't love every month, but February is one of my faves. Of course it is because it is my birthday but it is also the shortest and brings us closer to spring... which I am desperately awaiting.
Not much to report. It's been cold... like seriously cold lately and we had a little snow last week but other than that not much to report. Here are some lazy musings of life...

• I was at a conference for the second half of the week last week. It was good, but not great. I think I had super high expectations of getting all the answers in one convenient place. When does that ever happen.
• I am now 7 months preggo and officially in the 3rd trimester. Wahoo. 
• The days are getting longer and that is so wonderful; even though it is only a minute or so a day. I'll take it!! March 10, I am ready!!!!!
• My mom moved closer to me. This has been a while in the making and it is great. She lives a few minutes down the road in a great apartment and seems to be loving it. I love that she is closer so I can see her whenever I want. The down side is that she wants to see me all the time. Who can blame her!?! No really it is wonderful and I love hanging out with her.
• My hubby painted the baby's room while I was at my conference last week and it looks great. He did a GREAT job. I realize now that it is the same exact color as the bathroom. Maybe we will paint that next. :) 
• We ordered the baby furniture last week. All I need is a rocker. Any comments/ suggestions? Do I need one? I know that I want to avoid feeding in bed as much as possible. We sleep on a sleep number bed and it doesn't seem like it will be comfortable for feeding. 
• I really really really need to make that goals list. Ha! I know that it is a priority to start wading through the stuff in the basement to see what is and isn't there... I just can't seem to get around to it. This might be a problem. But the bigger problem is that I don't want any help and I DON'T want anyone to do it for me. 
• My car is covered in salt and looks terrible. I absolutely hate getting my car washed. Especially in the winter. I am so lazy.....
• Saturday night we had a surprise visit from some friends from college. It was so fun to get together and have dinner and laugh and tell stories and just be....
• I know I already mentioned that my birthday is coming up. I'm not sure if I want to celebrate or not. I am really on the fence about it. I love to get together with friends and have a good time I just hate that the reason would be my birthday...

Okay. Enough for now.
Ciao
S

Pregnancy update: 25 weeks

Stats: 6 months and 1 week, 4 days; 179 days to be exact. Yup. 179/280. About 100 more days to go. Whoa.
Update:

• I have been wearing a ring on my right hand thumb since the day I received it as a senior in high school. Up until last week that is. My thumb is no longer the dainty thumb that I had in high school. nope. Can't wear that anymore. Also can't wear my diamond ring; am still rocking the band though. We'll see for how long.
• At my last appointment I didn't gain any weight. I was super proud because that covered the holiday month! wahoo. We'll see if that continues this month. My guess... NO WAY!
• Baby girl is moving around a ton. You can see my belly shaking and most of the time you can feel her kicks from the outside. Hubby has caught both the kicking and the belly rocking. 
• I try to talk to the little lady every chance I get. So not necessarily while sitting at my desk but if I am in the car or at home and she is kicking I am talking to her; sometimes singing.
• Some books say this is the last week in the second trimester some books say a couple more weeks. I am generally feeling pretty good. Mostly I forget until I get a kick or have to pee. My back hurts a little and my feel are somewhat swollen by the end of the day. Otherwise, really no complaints.
• Except the sleeping. I can't seem to get consistent sleep. I have my new boyfriend the pregnancy body pillow and most of the time that helps; until you want to turn over of course. I couldn't even really tell you why I'm not sleeping. It isn't the kicking, although it is when she tends to starts that jazzercise routine.  Side story; the other night her kicking was tickling me in my sleep. I think I was laughing in my sleep.
• I am getting larger but not too big, which is nice. As I understand that will end during the third trimester so there is no real rush to get there.
• Hubby has started working on the nursery. We picked out a color and we have emptied the room of all furniture. Little by little we will get there.
• The battle of the girl's name 2013 has begun. I shouldn't really describe it as a battle because we are generally on the same page. Mostly we haven't found the exact name yet. Hubby thinks we have but we haven't. We will not share this information, so don't ask. Mostly the issue is that we have so many women in our families and we don't want to name her after anyone... this too will get figured out. Right now hubby calls her cheesy because of her last ultrasound pic, she had a big cheesy grin. 

That's all for now. Oh except to say that I should have made the first goal on my goal sheet to make a goal sheet. I still haven't worked that out but I am getting there. The first few weeks of this year have been super busy, both at work and at home.

Ciao for now,
xo
S

Adriana Trigiani

Last week I had the distinct pleasure of hearing one of my favorite authors speak at the Mark Twain House. Let me back up to the having missed the opportunity last year at the WHPL and being so bummed about it. So when I heard that she was coming back and to one of my favorite places in Hartford, I wasted no time in making plans to be there. On of my very best peeps works at the Twain House so he set it up that I got to go to the reception beforehand to get some one on one time with her and that I did.
Within minutes of arriving I was being introduced to one of my favorite authors in the whole entire world. So cool. She is down to earth and hilarious. She had the whole room in the palm of her hand within minutes. She was walking up to people and talking to them as if she had known them for years. My mom was my date and they hit it off within minutes. We Italian sisters always bond! Sadly my real sister (who may be just as big a fan as I am) couldn't make it.
The talk was moderated by Giulia Melucci another fabulous Italian writer. She wrote "I Loved,  I Lost, I Made Spaghetti" which was adapted to a play this past spring by the one and only Jacques Lamarre.
The whole evening was amazing. Good questions, hilarious answers, amazing stories... beyond my every expectation. I have told and retold the stories already a million times. I am ready to reread "The Shoemakers Wife" so that I can see the story more clearly through Adriana's eyes (yes we are on a first name basis!!). Really truly an amazing experience. If you haven't read this book, I can't recommend it more!!

Happy New Year!!

2013! Is here and there ain't no stopping now! Mayans be damned!
I'm not a resolution makin and keepin kinda gal, but as I look at the calendar and realize that there are 16 weeks til this little lady is due and there are a million things to do I can't help but want to make a list. This will be a goals list. It is hard for me to look at the next 16 weeks as one big chink. One of the things that has been helping me stay calm through this pregnancy has been taking it a small chunk at a time. Not event just trimester by trimester because those are pretty long too, but rather by milestones, appointments and other smaller chunks. (I'm not quite sure what my deal is this morning with the work chunk but it seems to work!) Last week was the echo ultrasound where we looked really closely at her heart. Hubby was born with a heart defect so we get to take an extra in depth look at her heart. It is really amazing what they can see and detect in utero and at what stages. Her heart is perfect, I am happy to report. Next chunk is Dr appt. next week, so this was a really small one.
So I am looking at the next 16 weeks and assigning goals to each week. I'm not sure yet what kinds of goals, I'm sure some will be smaller and more fun, while others will be more important and big ticket kind of stuff like paint the room, order a crib, build the crib and most importantly go through the six tubs of stuff and figure out what I have and what I want/need. I don't think I will share the list but I will be sure to let you all know when I accomplish something. That's just the way I roll.
Lastly and sadly vaca is over. It was fun while it lasted. Hubby and I had a blast. We went out to breakfast, attended holiday parties, went to visit a little lady that was born about a month ago to his best friend, I spent lots of time with my mom, I read and rested and only set my alarm like 3 times. Ahhh.... it was heavenly.  Last night at about 7pm I realized that yesterday was the last vaca day that I will take until little lady is here. I don't plan on stopping working by any specific day. My work is mostly office work, I will stop traveling by middle of February, and the office is about 7 minutes from the dr office and about 5 from the hospital, and is full of women ready to take me anywhere I need to go so frankly I feel safer there than at home. 
Ok peeps. Hope all is well in bloggie land and that you are all healthy happy!
xo
ciao
S

Merry Christmas

Today is Christmas day and I am feeling pretty lucky right now. My family is happy and healthy and enjoying one another, my hubby is pretty amazing and my friends are all plugging right along. No complaints here.

I want to wish you all the merriest and happiest day and year.

Lastly hubby and I had a secret among us. At our last ultrasound the technician was able to determine the sex of our baby. She wrote it on a post it and gave it to hubby. For the last two and a half weeks he has known and I have not. It was a lot harder than I expected it to be. It was a lot of fun. Yesterday morning when I woke up he told me to check the tree for a new ornament and I discovered....

(BTW that wasn't the ornament. The ornament was an angry birds princess Leia.)

Happy happy, merry merry to all.
xoxo
Ciao
S