Baby Shower, Hurricane, 33 Weeks

Phew.

What a crazed past two weeks. Seriously. We just had an earthquake AND hurricane here in NYC. And our baby shower, which was just as exciting. (At least for me!)

My parents are out of town so S and I decided to head out of the city to their house to make sure everything was okay, and also to be with Lucy the cat. I'm so glad we did because there ended up being quite a bit of damage after the storm. There are huge trees surrounding my parents property which ended up falling (not on the house) and breaking off giant branches (er...directly INTO the house!) which was scary. S and I tried to get some sleep on Saturday night but ended up getting out of bed around 3ish and watching the news. I made some coffee and we sat with the kitten until the sun came up, all with the power flickering on and off for hours. After we surveyed the area, we went back to bed. And then it was clean up for the next two days. The basement flooded, trees were down all over. It was pretty crazy. Anyway, all is over and we are okay. Not the case for thousands of people still without power up and down the east coast.

Thank goodness that the weekend before was our baby shower! Yeah! It was amazing. Having so many people who love us and are all excited for baby boy there was an overwhelming amount of love. And since we are moving away, it made it all the more special. I can't say enough about how grateful we are. My mom, aunt, and I (and S!!) cooked all the food and I think it was a success. We had badminton set up, an ipod playlist, and plenty of afternoon drinks. My kind of baby shower. My friend Arielle made (and let me borrow) the amazing necklace I'm wearing. Isn't it so fun?

We asked everyone to write a message to baby that we can put in a book later. After the party, we read them all back and, of course, I was a mess of emotions thinking of not having all these amazing people be a part of baby's everyday life. But they still will be. In a different way. They will all be his cool New York/New Jersey aunts and uncles. Gah. I can't even think about it right now...

As the weeks are creeping up I am in full stress out mode. Have you ever tried to prepare a space for a baby? Fun, right? Have you ever tried to prepare that space in an apartment you are moving out of? Not fun. More like, "Why are you even doing this?". Ugh.

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!

If you have a second, don't forget to click on our little link! Thanks :)

Hi, I'm here.

I know you're on the edge of your seat waiting to hear about me.
Brace yourself.

I've been doing a whole lot of nothing.
Well, that's not entirely true.

I've been cooking. A LOT.
And now that I've officially stopped working (YES!), I am finding I have even less time to get everything done. It's one of those things when, the less time you have, the more you accomplish. And the more free time you have, the more you dilly-dally. Does that ever happen to you?

Sigh.

Anyway, I digress. Cooking - up - a - STORM.
Those photos are just a few that I managed to take before inhaling said meal. These last few weeks have consisted of pizza making, veggie burgers, baking english muffins, and tons of gazpacho, among other things. Oh yeah, and did I mention home made HOT POCKETS?! NO BIG DEAL!
This was meant to be a freezer item that we sampled for dinner that evening. Sadly, none of the pockets made it to the freezer before lunch the next day. Oops.

Other than cooking, I have been trying to really enjoy the remainder of the summer. Our last summer before baby. Our last summer of us two. While we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little guy, we are spending lot's of time just being together in the quiet of this last summer.

New York has been going through a heat wave, much like the rest of the country. Luckily, we have been able to go to the beach every week, which has been my saving grace. Every Sunday morning I bounce out of bed, as if it were Christmas morning, and we head out. I then proceed to spend the entirety of the day floating. It is absolute bliss. Ahhhhhh...

And how is baby?
Magical. Amazing.
I'm now officially in my third trimester. I can barely believe how quickly it is flying by. I'm in my 27th week, which means that baby boy could technically come in 10 weeks (when I'm considered full term). Is that crazy? I feel like I was just announcing my pregnancy on here.

Anyway, we are getting ready little by little. Our shower is in a few weeks and I am so excited to celebrate with all our friends and family and then begin preparing. I told Scott last night that after the shower, it was really go time. Eek!

Other than that, there has been a lot of picnicking, movie watching by the AC, and general loveliness.

Oh yeah, and here's my updated photo. I think this is 25/26 weeks...
It's just a crappy phone photo and the sun was shining in my eyes but you can see how much my belly has grown since my last photo update.

Gratitude

I watched this great TED Talks video this morning and was reminded to take the time out to remember about myself. I think that so often, we run around all day working on pleasing others...our bosses, coworkers, spouses, children, parents, friends, etc. It seems strange to think that we go through a whole day without doing one things for ourselves, but so often that is the case.
Today, I hope you take a moment, hour, or whole day to appreciate yourself and everything you do to make your life as perfect as it is. I hope you realize that you are fantastic, just because you are you!

Oh! And watch the video. It's only 20 minutes and it's great!

Splitscreen: A Love Story

How sweet is this video??

Splitscreen: A Love Story from JW Griffiths on Vimeo.

24 Weeks

Firstly, thank you all who read my last post. It was a tough story to write but I'm so happy I did. Thank you all for your comments here, facebook, via email, and text message (friends!).

Since writing it on Monday, I must have reread it about a dozen times and each time felt so sad for the girl in the story. I was telling Scott that it feels like such a distant memory now. Of course a part of that experience will stay with me forever, but just reading that post, it didn't even feel like my life. I guess that's the last step in grieving...acceptance.

Anyway, here I am. 24 weeks! Phew. Feeling all kinds of exhausted and energetic. There are moments that I am scrubbing the base boards (um, yeah...) and of course, moments that I am a walking zombie. But in general, I've been feeling pretty good. I have to say, being pregnant in the summer is not half as bad as I thought it would be. I was imagining myself laid out in front of the ac, with a wet towel over myself. Ha! Since it's been pretty nice in the morning and late afternoon, walking a lot is not too challenging. And when it's WAY to hot, I go to the gym. Or yoga. Or I sit in front of said ac. Can't be active ALL THE TIME!

Growing a baby is exhausting people.

But this week there have also been a lot of changes. I feel like I look really pregnant. As in, people asking me how many weeks I have left, pregnant. YEAH, I KNOW! Hello people! I still have three months to go!

Also this week, Scott has been able to feel baby boy kicking more from outside of my belly. I've been feeling him for several weeks now and Scott has felt a sort of something here and there but the past few night, little one has been practicing his high kicks right before bed and hubs has has a lot more time to bond, as they say...

What else? Well I'm officially off my cooking strike and have been cooking and eating up a storm. Want some summer meal ideas? Okay! I'll get on that! Why not?

And I'm finally able to eat cheesy foods again. Riveting information, I know...

This last week has been spent BBQing with family, reading trashy magazines on the beach with friends, and surrounded by lot's of love. Here's to summer!