Happy Mother's Day!!

Our "Larger" Sweet Honeydew?

So, thebump.com told me that Chickie was roughly the size of a honeydew melon around 33 weeks, and apparently they liked this fruit so much that they decided to use it again. At 36 weeks, Chickie is once again the size of a honeydew melon, just a larger, more riper one? Exactly 4 weeks from today marks my last day of work for the school year, and I'm crossing my fingers that Chickie holds out at least that long. We have so much to do between now and then that we really do need all the time we can get. Last night I washed all of Chickie's bedding so that we could finally put the mattress in the crib. While I was busy doing that, Chris put together the pack-n-play in the living room, as well as the car seat. We also went out to Babies R Us and bought a second car seat loading station so that we can have one in each of our cars, as well as two car mirrors, and a small bin to hold stuffed animals in Chickie's nursery. We're getting there, slowly put surely ...

Graduation Day!

Feels good to be a Master!

Storybook Shower

Last Sunday, May 6th, my wonderful friends - erin and Amy - threw an amazing, storybook themed shower for Chickie and I, attended by all of our closest sorority sisters. Professional party planners don't even come close to matching up to what these two creative geniuses are capable of. All of the decorations were handcrafted from old children's book text and illustrations. Each entree was inspired by a well-known tale (i.e. Clifford's Puppy Chow; Strega Nona's Spaghetti and Meatballs; etc.), the names of which were classically displayed on mini-chalkboards - my new favorite trend in party decor! After lunch, we grouped off into teams of 3-4 and put our storybook trivia skills to the test. Some questions were definitely hard, others easy, but all loads of fun to guess. Chickie felt so lucky to receive some special new books from some special old friends. The books focused on a range of pretty serious topics from barnyard animals to critters under the sea, from colors to numbers, from poetry to nursery rhymes, and so forth. Much thanks to erin, Amy, Liz, Lauren, Christina, Heather, Katie, Colleen, Angela, and Caryn!! You are all amazing, and I've very grateful for our friendship.

Cooking Countdown!

1 month!

Spring Showers

My Aunt Robin and Cousin Kim through Chickie and I another fabulous shower last Saturday. If I had to choose one word to sum up the entire event, I'd definitely go with "cute" - everything was just so, sooo, stinkin' cute :) Every place-setting had a little yellow chickie peep - sprinkled and dipped in white chocolate, sitting in a bed of coconut grass that had been dyed green - along with a sparkling saying about the many blessings babies bring. They had a "Wishing Tree" (inspired by Pintrest) made of white orchids and branches that lite up and allowed for every guest to give wishes and advice to Chris and I. The punch was a delicious blue to mirror a spring pond newly inhabited by a flock of baby ducklings :), and the cake - OH SO CUTE - baked and decorated by the hostesses themselves, was also adorned with baby ducklings swimming across a cool blue pond. They catered the event from Maggiano's, leftovers which Chris and I have been enjoying since. Thank you - both of you - so much. I'm sure everyone had a great time. 

It was wonderful to see my wonderful cousins, friends, and family members. Thank you everyone for all your well wishes. Chickie is so excited and thankful to meet you all!

Butternut Babe

Chickie is now 35 weeks along, marking our official countdown status at around one month, one week to go! Size-wise, our little babe is only comparable to that of a butternut squash, yet apparently my uterus has grown about 1,000 times its original size ... no wonder I can barely walk! Actually, that's not entirely true. I had my 34 week check-up this past Tuesday, and the doctor told me that even though it sounds like a crazy idea, the best medicine for my aches and pains would actually be to drag my booty to the gym and get whatever mild workout I could. Since it had been a decent amount of time since I'd actually stepped foot in the gym even though it's only a hop, skip, and a jump away, Chickie and I managed to work out for 45 minutes both Wednesday and Thursday. We did the elliptical for a half hour each day, and supplemented that with a little biking and power walking. Even though I wanted to quite pretty much every second of every minute of both workouts, I must say that my limp-waddle has decreased to just a jolly-old waddle. I'm not in nearly as much pain as I have been the past two weeks, so maybe this doctor knows what she's talking about after all.

At Tuesday's check-up, all was well with the Chickster. He/She had a good heartbeat somewhere in the 120 range. When I commented that I thought Chickie might be a boy now that the heartbeat has been lower than 140 for the past month or so, the doctor gave me a look and joked about how excited she is that google is finally catching up with the latest and greatest in ultrasound technology. She assured me that none of the old wives tales out there are true, and that the only certainty is that we still have a 50% chance that Chickie is a boy, as well as an equal 50% chance that Chickie is a girl. My due date is still set for June 8th, so I guess we'll all have to wait until then to find out! It's still fun to guess though. Sometimes I am so sure we're in store for a little Mister Chickster (the heart rate is now low; I'm mostly carrying low and in front; I didn't have any morning sickness; all my friends are having girls so I must be the odd man out; etc.), and other times I think we better prepare ourselves and get cracking on that middle name, because we're totally in store for a little Missy Chickie (the heart beat was high for many months; maybe I'm really carrying everywhere and am just in complete denial; my mom didn't have morning sickness with me, yet she did with my brother; all my friends are having girls so I'm clearly a part of that club, right?!). Either way, we're going to be so excited and so surprised, because we really have no idea who is getting ready to come greet us. Guess we'll find out soon enough!