Los Angeles

LA Light from Colin Rich on Vimeo.

This will be our new city. This is where we will be raising our baby. At least for a while...

It's difficult to express how we feel about it. Of course, we wouldn't be planning this move if we didn't want to or feel like we needed to. The truth is, we're not sure how we will feel once we are there.

Staying in New York is not an option at this point. I am planning on not working for at least a little while and for us to be able to stay here, we would both need to be working. And we also don't want to move to the suburbs. Why? We're not at that point yet. Maybe one day...

But for now, we still want to be in a city.

So when we found out I was pregnant in January we reevaluated our living situation and looked around at some neighborhoods here that we would be open to living in and feel comfortable raising baby in. As the story goes, we came up with nothing. At least nothing we could afford and also love. So we began thinking of other options. As not much else on the east coast appealed to us, we explored western cities. After narrowing down our choices, we settled on LA.

We've both spend quite a bit of time there, apart and together. We have some really great friends there as well as my lovely sister-in-law and her family.

On top of that, we genuinely like it there. Quite a bit.

Whenever we tell our New York friends, most are surprised at our decision because it's so different there. But I think that why we like it so much. An honestly, any city is different than NYC. It's the only city in the world like it. Truth.

And yes I know about the traffic, the smog, etc. Despite that, we're excited about the farmer's markets, beaches, and travel opportunities. (Hello, five hours to San Francisco!) And of course the weather, opportunity to live in a much bigger place for the same price as our tiny apt here, and growing as a family in California.

The most difficult thing being that our families are on the east coast. I can't even begin to think about baby boy not being able to see his grandparents whenever we can or not having all his aunts and uncles around. This is, by far and obviously, the most heart breaking part of deciding to leave. Gah. Enough. Not time to think about it yet!

Anyway, I love this video. And I'm looking forward to exploring our new city.

Anyone from LA?

30 weeks!

I can not believe that in just two months S and I are going to be parents.

I had an appointment with my midwife today and when I asked her if I should be doing anything special, she just replied with, "Relax."

Seriously? Great. Well in a sense I can find myself doing a whole lot of nothing these days while also having a million things to do. The thing is, we are moving.

That's right. We're moving out of NYC. Out of our sweet little apartment where baby boy will be born. Away from the city that we met and fell in love in. Where we planned our wedding and shared our dreams while walking around this neighborhood that we love. We'll be leaving behind our friends and most of our family. We'll be leaving behind our favorite coffee shops, bike paths, and brunch spots. And all this is happening just a few short weeks after baby makes his appearance. It is our choice, albeit a difficult one, but ours alone. And so we are trying to soak up our last New York summer with all that we have...

This weekend is our baby shower and I am super excited! Family and friends coming together for a summer afternoon to share our excitement - I couldn't be more grateful for the amazing support we have around us.

Oh, and I'm a red head now. There isn't much a seven month pregnant girl can do to jazz up her look. So I went big! I like it. It's sassy, no?

Baby Style: Cute Shoes

Are these a cute alternative to the popular kids crocs? (ew.)
Or am I delusional?

I might go for and get a pair of these for bebe.

via

A Day In Flushing, Queens

S grew up in Queens, which is a borough of New York City. For ages we have been planning on spending the day in Flushing, which was his neighborhood. Last weekend we finally made it out there for the day and had a great time.

We started by driving past the house he grew up in and around the area. He was so happy to see that a lot of places like his elementary school still looked the same. Although that was not case for the rest of Flushing. Sometime around the late 80's, there was a huge number of Korean and Chinese immigrants who moved to the area. Since then, most of downtown Flushing has transformed with whole malls dedicated to the new thriving population of young Chinese and Koreans. Lucky for us, this includes some delicious food!

We found ourselves at one of the many famous Flushing mall food courts, which are similar to the food courts so popular across Asia. This particular food court was in the basement of a sort of dilapidated mall. The mall was almost deserted but the food court was packed as expected! Most of the signs and menus were not in English so we just ordered based on the photos and we were not disappointed. Dumplings, the best scallion pancake I have ever had, a cold sour broth soup, and a scallion bun were all so fresh and surprisingly light.

Next, we headed over to Flushing Meadows Park. The World's Fair was held here in 1964 and included amazing structures built to showcase the different pavilions. Sadly, since then, the structures have been vandalized and mostly ruined but it was still amazing to see what remains and imagine what it looked like at the time.

We finished off the day by bowling a game at the bowling alley that S grew up going to. He was excited that it hadn't changed much! He won. I am a decent bowler but he has some kind of hidden bowling super power.

Anyway, for those of you living in the NYC area, I recommend heading out to Flushing for the day. Great food, interesting shops, and a beautiful park.

Also, note my giant belly at 29 weeks. Hi, I'm officially in my third trimester and it shows!

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