Tons and tons of info

Holy crap it's been a long time since I've updated this thing! I'm really sorry, there's just been so much going on, what with the baby shower and traveling and being sick and getting back to work... whew!!

First, my belly at 31 weeks...


We had our baby shower on February 2 at my parents' house in L.A. and it was really, really wonderful. As one of my friends pointed out, we really have an eclectic group of peers :) From family members enjoying a Coke and chatting to cherry red dreadlocked "hippies" sitting on the floor of the dining room playing Skip-Bo, we had it all... and we loved it :) We got literally everything we needed, including things we hadn't even registered for, like a bassinet! (I'll upload a picture once Sprint's website gets its act together.) My mother made the cake to look like our shower invitations...



We really had an awesome time even though it was hectic as hell!

The next day we flew out to Arkansas to see my sister and her family for a few days. The weather was entirely weird since it was sunny but breezy the day we landed and SNOWING the day we left. Who knew it snowed in Northwest Arkansas?? But luckily we were prepared clothing-wise since we were on our way to Maine next ;) Arkansas was great! I hadn't been in years and it was really cool to see how different it all was from the last time. We went to Devil's Den...
(Click for a bigger pic)

... and had banana splits and watched the Super Bowl...



... and played a ton of board games the day it rained and rained outside, and even watched movies in their home theater! It was so much fun. However, Rob got sick the day we left and the trip sort of took a turn for the worse from then on. We flew in to Maine, where my other sister picked us up, and had a long drive home with Rob in the back seat, miserable. The next morning we got up and went to a local restaurant called Big G's for lunch with my best friend, Ron, and Rob still wasn't feeling well. We took him on a short tour of the city (the town is probably 2 miles square so it doesn't take long to see it all) and then headed home to rest. Rob started feeling better that night, so we went to dinner with my closest friends in Maine; Book, TJ, Ron, and Jesse (not in picture below)...

We had a really good time and everyone seemed to get along really well. When we got home that night, I started feeling like my throat was sore and scratchy. The next morning I was sick as a dog. The next few days consisted of me being absolutely miserable and bed-ridden, with chills and hot flashes and aching bones and muscles and a terrible cough. It was just awful and I felt so bad since it stopped me from being able to take Rob around town or spend any quality time with my family. Come Saturday, I managed to suck it up enough to have the whole family come over to my sister's house (that's over 18 people, btw) for Lebanese food (for those not in the know, I'm part Lebanese and grew up in a very Lebanese town in Maine) and what turned out to be baby gifts :) We got lots of Babies R Us gift certificates and even a tiny pair of white and "violet" sneakers! She won't be able to wear them for a couple of years at least (unless she's born with abnormally large feet) but it's so exciting to see them in her closet! It was awesome introducing Rob to my whole family. They all loved him, of course, and he seemed to be having a really good time. It was very important to both of us that he meet everyone before Violet was born and before we got married, so I'm incredibly grateful that we had the opportunity to get out there.

The trip home isn't even worth getting into. Suffice it to say that it was horrendous and we're never doing another trip in the middle of Winter where we have to ride 7 planes in 10 days. It was a stupid idea and won't happen again. That said, I'm still glad we did it ultimately.

Now, when we got home, we started in on the baby's room. As you know, Rob already painted it (one wall yellow and the facing wall green) and we had the crib set up before we left, but we really got it together over the next few weeks. Rob put the changing table together and her little activity center. I washed all of the linens and clothes we had up here already and made up the crib with the bumper, sheets, etc. We hung art/posters on the wall and put up the cabinet to hold supplies. Very exciting!

The cabinet, changing table and crib on the yellow wall

changing table

Inside the crib

The double papasan and ottomans by the window
as well as the activity center

The green wall and its art (that's a Chinese New Year
calendar on the right, celebrating the year of the rat,
Violet's birth year)

Inside Violet's closet
(this was before we got the rest of the stuff... see below)

After we got all of that done, my dad came up to visit us (last weekend, actually, and it was so much fun!) and brought the rest of the stuff we'd gotten at the baby shower and before I moved from L.A.! Oh my GOD were there a ton of clothes and blankets and just STUFF! I did 4 full loads of laundry just to wash Violet's clothes and linens LOL! Meanwhile, Rob hung over the crib the "VIOLET" clothes line his mom made us (it looks beautiful but I don't have a pic, so here's one of us holding it at the shower instead)...

We also gathered up the duplicates and triplicates we had of things and returned them for gift cards so we can buy diapers in the future! LOL! It was so much fun putting it all together and getting it ready. We just put the stroller and the bassinet together day before yesterday. The bassinet is beautiful. Of course, as soon as it was complete, and Rob turned on the mobile, I burst into tears ;) Good, happy tears, mind you. We're both just so excited to meet her and teach her things and take her places that we well up when we think about it.

Last but not least, I had a doctor's appointment yesterday and everything looks great! She has turned from breach position to head-down again and, lo-and-behold, one of her legs is curled in to her chest while the other one is extended with her foot in my rib cage. Well THANKS FOR THAT, VY! LOL! ;) She's extremely active which is a great sign but HIGHLY annoying when I'm trying to go to bed and my abdomen is undulating and pulsating and my organs are being smashed. And, just think, I have at least another growth spurt to get through! ;) The doctor guesstimated that she's about 4.5 lbs right now and that I will probably have her around the 38 week mark, based on my progression over all. That's only 5 weeks from now so... *gulp!* She also predicted, after Rob asking her point blank about it, that my belly button will "pop" in the next 3 weeks LOL! Isn't he sweet? ;) She asked us to let her know if she was right, hahahaha!

We have a meeting with a prospective pediatrician today (I'll write about how it went when I get home) and I'm having the car seat inspected/fitted tomorrow afternoon. We have one more class to attend (Infant/Child CPR) and then it's just about waiting for her arrival. ACK!!! ;)

Whew! I guess that's everything!