Ventura Baby Shower

My mom's sweet, fun and fabulous friends; Megan, Barbara & Sandy hosted a baby shower for me in Ventura on March 19th. It was so great to celebrate this baby with my friends and family in my hometown for the weekend. These ladies have been there to help me get down the aisle without any hitches and are now celebrating Ava as if she is their own granddaughter. I'm so thankful for them in my mom's life and now Mark, Ava's and mine.

"4" generations

My mom was there even though her dad was very sick back in W.V.

Grandma Ginger & I

Sandy, Susan & Karen

Sandy, Sam & Karen

Megan, the hostess with the mostess

9 months

This was taken last weekend, with one month left to go. Now it's down to only 3 weeks! At 36 1/2 weeks I was told she was  measuring 38 1/2 weeks, two weeks ahead. This could mean a couple of things. Either the measurement was off, it's not an exact science by any means. Or she'll be here early. Or she's HUGE! As much as we'd love to meet our Little Lady a bit earlier than her due date, she can't come until after May 7th. That's when I'm hosting one of my best friend's bridal shower at our place. She's more than welcome anytime after that!

I was at Rite Aid last weekend and this older gentleman, and with this story I use that term very loosely, asked me when I was due. I said the 20th of next month, he looks me up and down and with shock in his eyes asks, "Twins?" I politely replied, "Nope, just one." Instead of just letting it go, he busts out with, "Just one 12 pound baby huh?" Nice. Thanks for that. I'd love to leave out the part about what I was there to buy; mint chip ice cream and nail polish remover, but can't. It's funny how you can get seven sweet compliments about how good you look  during the day, and still go to sleep thinking about the one from the clueless old dude at Rite Aid. Ugh.

On another note, Mark is nesting way more than I am. I already wrote about our steam-cleaned carpets, which look incredible by the way. Then, when I hopped in the shower this morning I was just about blinded by how sparkling clean it was. Gorgeous really. I honestly didn't know it had the potential to look that good. God, I love him. And a clean house.


A friend is doing a maternity shoot for us this weekend, that should be fun. I'll be sure to post the ones where I don't look like a whale... who ate a smaller, but still good sized-whale. Lord, please let there be some.

8 months

Ava's Room

Is it bad that I'm jealous of my daughter's room...? It's just so beautiful and elegant and full of damask and PINK. I keep sneaking in there just to look at it. Even at night when I get up to go to the bathroom, which is more often then you'd think possible or ever necessary, I flip the light on as I walk by and just stare at it. It came out so perfectly and there's so much love that went into it. Between all the planning I put into it, and the hard work Mark put into it, and the gorgeous gifts from precious friends, families and co-workers, she is one loved chick. Even her dad is nesting a bit. He steam cleaned all the carpeting in the entire house. On his day off. He hung the mirror and the shelves in her room at 11:30pm last night. She is sure loved. And by the looks of things, she better be a she...

Ava Shay decal above her crib

"Ava Bird" decals above her changing table

Shelves by daddy

Never too much damask

Shabby chic vintage mirror, an Etsy.com find

Grandpa Waterhouse

My Grandpa Waterhouse died at 4am on Thursday, March 24th. Since then I've been reflecting on how incredibly generous he was and how many life experiences I have to thank him for: my first car, a brand new Toyota 4 Runner that is still in the family 15 years later; 6 months studying abroad in Sydney, Australia; the ability to quit my job and move to Denver only two weeks after the idea got into my head; attending grad school at Denver Seminary full-time without having to work; earning a Master's in Leadership that I use on a daily basis in my dream job. Denver. Where I met Mark... thanks Grandpa. For everything. 

His most recent generous gift was the reason we called to thank him that Monday afternoon in late January. My mom, Mark and I all hovered around the speaker phone as it rang, we could hear in his voice the second he said hello that he wasn't doing well. 

What's wrong?
Oh, I have some pain on my side.
Which side?
My right
Isn't that the side your appendix is on?
Yes
How long has the pain lasted?
Oh, I'd imagine about three days now. Dad, you need to get to the hospital, you probably have appendicitis
No, no, I'm just going to sweat it out a little longer, I think I can kick this thing.
Tell him Mark
Paul, she's right. You need to go to the ER right away
I think it's gotten a little bit better
Paul. You appendix has probably already burst, providing you a bit of relief, but now you have poison cursing through your body, you need to get to the ER NOW.
Well, okay, if you think so Doc.

That's my grandpa, a stubborn son of a gun. His 92 year old friend came to pick him up to take him to the ER. What a sight that must have been. Sure enough his appendix had already burst. The doctors took him to surgery, which he did fine in at 89 years old. It was the complications that were relentless and finally what he died of two months later.

Here we are celebrating his 85th birthday a couple of years ago on his beautiful 26 acre property in Wheeling, West Virginia. He would have turned 90 in May, only days away from Ava's due date. One family member leaves this world as another one enters it. Life is so interesting that way. My grandpa will be missed by his two children; my mom Paula and my Uncle Mark, and his grandchildren; my brother John-Christian, my cousin Jill and I, and unmet by his great grandchildren; Ava for one, who knows how many more. But one thing's for sure, they will know of his generosity and will benefit from it as we all have. That is his legacy.

Babymoon

Mark and I went to San Diego for three days for one last horrah together before our twosome becomes three. We stayed at Tower 23 in Pacific Beach for the first night, what a treat!

Yes, water came out the ceiling to fill up the tub. Awesome.

Brooke and Hank live just a couple of miles away from the hotel so we got to go out for drinks (virgin please) and appetizers with them. It was great to see them doing so well. The next day we got up early and went for a walk on the promenade by the beach, watched the surf, picked out what beach houses we'd want to be ours one day, shared a breakfast burrito and got some coffee.

 

Then it was off to Sea World for the day. It was a Friday so we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We had the best time going from exhibit to exhibit, hitting everything there was to do and of course going to the Shamu show.

And I only got kicked off of one ride. A British ride operated looked at me wide-eyed and asked in his accent, "Wait, you're in the family way, aren't you? I'd never heard that phrase before but guessed he was asking if I was pregnant so I said, "Yes." He quickly whisked us out of line. It was part funny, part embarrassing. We've been referring to me being "in the family way" ever since. So we settled on a ride I could go on, a gondola going across Mission Bay and back.

We traded the beach for the city our second night there and stayed at our of our favorite hotels, Hotel Solamar in the Gaslamp District. We had THE BEST burgers at Bare Back Grill, a New Zealand inspired bar/restaurant.

The next morning we got up early and explored Ocean Beach before meeting up with Josh and Sara and Sara's two year old cousin who was staying with them. She took quickly to calling Mark "Daddy," which we all got a kick out of.

We were supposed to stay in SD Saturday night too but we started to get antsy to get home and start on the baby's room so we canceled our reservations for that night and made plans to see Danielle and Gabe on our way out of town. After seeing their place and catching up a bit we headed home to tape of the room, cover the carpet, buy paint and get to it.

Crack kills.

We couldn't be happier with the finished product and hope Ava loves it too!

7 months

This is the belly these days:

Her pink and chocolate brown room came out perfectly! We just love it and know she will too. It looks like a chocolate cupcake with pink frosting and makes us hungry every time we go in there. It's completely bare right now, the month of April will be about buying and assembling furniture. But her closet is already pretty well-stocked and this is before any baby showers.

 

[Ava Baby, we promise to get the surf board out of there before you arrive.]

After putting all her miniature clothes on miniature hangers I stood back and just stared. It was a sobering sight. One of those moments where it just hits you like a ton of bricks, "This is really happening, isn't it? Whoa." I showed Mark when he got home from work and he did the same thing, just kind of stood there and stared without saying anything. I asked him what he was thinking and he said slowly, "That's a lot of pink... she better be a girl." Agreed.

Baby's got new moves too. She has traded her spastic kicks and punches for slow rolls and big stretches. It's the weirdest sensation. My stomach drops like when riding a roller coaster when she does a full roll. She must be running out of room because she stretches her arms and legs at the same time, really using her elbows and knees for leverage. I feel her and see her all the way to the left and the right of my belly.

I'm starting a four-session Prepared Child Birth Class on Monday evening. Mark can only go to the last session so I'm a bit bummed about that, but I'm excited to learn more about this whole process. As soon as you get this pregnancy thing down, it's time to learn about the "big event" and what to do after this little alien arrives.