Happy Birthday Bailey! And Our Block Party

If you go off of the assumption that Bailey was 6 months old when we adopted her in December of 2008 (which we do), she turned 5 sometime in June.  Every year the local pet store sends her a "free toy" coupon so on Saturday we walked over and let her pick out her own birthday present.  She chose a Kong Wubba and couldn't be happier. 

Pant break

Thanks Mom!

Saturday evening we met up with our neighbors to check out our local block party.  Our block isn't the, ahem, nicest, block in Chicago, but aside from one unpleasant house, the whole street seemed to be having a good time. There were a TON of kids, one of which voluntarily informed us that he ate a lot of popsicles that day.  There was a band setting up at the end of the street, so we hung out for a while and listened to them.  Bailey and I took off early, she wasn't too fond of the loud noise and me, well, do I need an excuse? Just in case I do, my feet were KILLING me and I was tired and I had to pee about every 10 minutes.  Which stunk because normally I would have loved to pull out a chair and a cooler of beer and just chill all night.  Ah well, sacrifices ;) 

The band

Our neighbors - Bailey loves them so much!!

Some Baby B Updates

Forgive me for not updating since my last post! We've been busy trying to get things ready for Baby B's impending arrival and honestly after work I'm just kind of exhausted!  I've had two appointments since my last post, the first one everything was the same (BP still high, baby still low) but the OB I saw wasn't as concerned.  At my most recent appointment, my BP came back down again (thankfully) so I'm hoping it will sit pretty where it's at for the rest of this pregnancy.  I had an ultrasound and she actually had a difficult time measuring him because he is so low, but let's just say we're all 100% positive he's not going to be a tiny baby, regardless of when he makes his appearance! 

Yesterday a good friend from work hosted a small shower for us. It was so nice to just sit around and catch up with some close coworkers outside of work.  The weather was fairly cooperative, and everyone was so generous to Baby B.  We felt very loved even though we don't have a lot of friends and family in the Chicago area.

Me and Jen, the lovely hostess

Jen made everything herself - It was so delicious!

Cupcake Cake!

36.5 weeks!

Mmmmm sugary baby cookies

This weekend Tom also hung up the pictures that Aunt Judy got us for Baby B's nursery (or, his side of the nursery/office).  I love how they turned out and they are the perfect compliment to his little room! 

Modified Bedrest = Crafty Little Saturday

So, I had my 34 week appointment yesterday.  I'll spare you all of the details but basically my blood pressure is a little high and Baby B's head is a little low (actually much lower than it should be at this point).  I had strict orders to "be a princess" this weekend and I'm only allowed to go to work next week if they can accommodate me and allow me to work seated.  I think I'll be able to sit for most of my patients but there are definitely some that I won't be able to see, and there will still be a moderate amount of on my feet in between patients and at the beginning/end of treatment sessions.  We're going to try and see how it goes. I have to take my BP again Monday morning at work and call it in and I have another appointment on Friday. I had a talk with Baby B last night about staying put, but at 3am he tried to kick his way out, so already he isn't very good at listening ;)

So I decided that today was a perfect time to work on a few sewing projects I had been wanting to do. Luckily I had all of the supplies and had even prepped a couple of them, otherwise I wouldn't have been able work on them. 

I made two crinkly taggie blankets, one for me and one for a friend. I used (clean) cereal bags as the crinkly material on the inside.  These will be perfect to just throw in the diaper bag for a simple stay-busy toy.  They're machine washable too!  And I love the fabrics, the flannel pattern is leftover from the boppy cover I made and the green minky is leftover from the changing pad cover. I kind of wish I used this combo on the changing pad cover, but oh well.  I followed this tutorial.  I just made mine a little bigger (I think 10 x 10 pre-sewing).

I also made a large wet bag! (This is what used cloth diapers go in until I do laundry - then everything, including the bag, gets dumped into the washer).  I received one wet bag from my Aunt Judy for my shower which I love, but I quickly realized I will need more than one, because baby will inevitably soil his diaper when the wet bag is in the wash :)  I found some remnant PUL at JoAnn a few weeks ago for 50% off and snatched it up. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it at the time, but I knew it would come in handy.  I have enough fabric leftover to make 2 more small wet bags for the diaper bag (I just need to get 2 more zippers).  I pretty much followed this tutorial, except I used bobby pins to hold the fabric together instead of pins (because the less holes in the wet bag, the better) and had to use common sense a few places (which doesn't come easy for me in regards to sewing) where her instructions weren't clear.  But I did it!  

Relaxing Fridays, Garage Sales, and Friends in Town

Why does the weekend have to go by so fast?!  I feel like it was JUST Thursday night.  I had another 3 day weekend this weekend, thanks to my awesome work schedule.  Friday I spent relaxing and doing a little freezer cooking (I made 3 chicken almond and rice casseroles - 2 for the freezer, 1 for dinner). I prepped a few sewing projects (more on that later) and relaxed some more on the back deck with Bailey.  I made a concentrated effort to NOT do too much because I was mad at myself for not enjoying my downtime the weekend before.  Besides, I won't have too many more Fridays all to myself...which is a good thing :)

Saturday morning I went garage sale-ing and scored a few more awesome baby finds.  No pics, but I got a few outfits (I swore I wouldn't buy anymore baby clothes, but these were too cute/cheap to pass up), a breatheable bumper, a super cute mobile, an infantino baby carrier (it looks like a cross between a bjorn and an ergo), a couple of toys, a sound machine, a carseat/stroller Bundle Me cover, a few bottles/sippy cups new in packages, and a few free stuffed animals for Bailey :)

Which she promptly beheaded

Saturday afternoon I went downtown and spent the afternoon with my friend Audra who was in town from Birmingham. Her husband was here for a conference, so we went to lunch and spent the afternoon shopping on Michigan Ave.  Audra has some dietary restrictions, so I found a gourmet vegan restaurant that was to her liking, Karyn's Cooked.  It was actually really good! I had probably the unhealthiest thing on the menu - whole wheat pancakes with syrup and strawberries, which was delicious!  Audra had a tofu scramble of some sort - I sampled the tofu and it was surprisingly good! 

All in all a good weekend!  Now if I can just get through a 5 day work week.......  ;)