Joy!

Baby Boy has been moving a ton yesterday and today. I just love it every time I feel him! His moves are super soft -he hasn't kicked my ribs or kept me up at night yet- so I am enjoying every minute he is awake and moving immensely.

Just had to share!

We're staying!

On Saturday, Joe and I visited some apartments close to the center of the city. Of course, we fell in love with the last one we visited (on a whim) and spent the past 4 days trying to decide whether we should move there or not. That place is big, modern, luxurious, and right downtown (as in 2 blocks from my beloved B&N). It is also safe (LEED certified) and, well... pretty perfect. Of course it was a tad expensive. So the main decision came down to budget and sensibility -boring. I always worry that one of us is going to lose our job or that we won't be able to make the rent. Mind you, it doesn't look like we're going to be in this situation anytime soon, but... you never know. I don't want to live my life being scared of being poor but I also want to be smart now that we're going to have a baby. Also, we'll be able to save for a downpayment if we want to move back to OC and buy a town home in a couple of years. I just hope this house is safe for the baby, from the walls to the floors to the stairs.

So we're staying at our place, and let's just say it needs work. A LOT of work. In the next few weeks we're going to clean all the walls (I'd rather paint, but Joe thinks it's a hassle and the landlord won't let us paint anyway), scrub the stairs, install curtains (since the landlord doesn't want to insulate the windows), put rugs on the tiles, move the bookshelves from the nursery to the living room, put some art/pictures on the walls, move our bedroom from upstairs to downstairs, and install everything in the nursery -and in between I'll probably think about the other awesome apartment, sigh, cry a little (what, I'm hormonal) , and move on. In short, we're going to make this our home. We've never felt at home since we moved here because we always think we're going to move someplace else -which we have done quite a lot. Now it's time to settle for a couple of years and feel like we're not going anywhere. I'll post pictures of before and after, HGTV-style.

Gossip Time!

I'm watching the Golden Globes "live from the red carpet" show on E! and just saw Natalie Portman. She looks very pregnant! She said she's due this summer. Um, is she expecting triplets or something? She looks like she's 7 months along!!

Ok, that was my guilty pleasure of the day. I love the awards' season!

Let's Talk

A couple of days ago, someone shot dead 6 people and severely injured a congresswoman in Arizona. I am not going to go into a political tirade. I am only going to promise that I will not use violent words or imagery when talking about people I don't agree with. If each of us agrees to talk and have a reasoned dialogue instead of coming up with nonsense arguments and resorting to violence, we'll be that much better as a country and as humans.

100

Our baby boy is due in 100 days! I am quite excited about this, not even close to being ready, but happy to meet the gymnast who's inhabiting my tummy.

We have a few (oh, minor) things to do before he comes, such as: find a name for him, start buying stuff for the nursery (a place to sleep and a place to change him might be a good start), arrange the nursery once we finalize where we're going to live, read books about bringing baby home (right now I'm reading "Babywise"), install car seat, take labor/breastfeeding/CPR classes, sleep, sleep, sleep.

One hundred days... Let the countdown begin!

To move or not to move?

Joe and I are wondering whether we should move or not. Our current lease ends at the end of June, but we emailed the landlord, who said that because our reason to move was good (baby!) we could leave before June if we found another tenant.

We mainly like this place because:
- it is big -about 1,200 square feet. We can have our bedroom, a room for the baby, and a guest room for the many guests who will come this summer.
- there is ton of storage space.
- the rent is high but less expensive than some smaller apartments in the city. We could save money for a downpayment on a house once Joe is done with school -that is, if we move back to OC then.
- the area we live in is really nice, close to parks and my church, and diverse. It's not at thclose to restaurants (Joe doesn't like that but I do because we would spend a looot of money eating out otherwise).
- this is lazy-me part 104, but I like the idea of not moving again.

However:
- it's a little old which makes me worry about lead and mold. Plus I like modern over old/traditional.
- it's not quite updated. For instance, the insulation in the living room is pretty poor and we have to turn the heater on all the time because I'm always cold.
- the tiles in the living room are orange. Er...
- it has a lot of stairs/steps. That's not an issue, but I wonder how I'm going to like having to go up a flight of stairs to get to my door and another flight of stairs to get to the living room when I'm hauling the baby/car seat/diaper bag this spring.
- it requires a lot of cleaning, mainly because we are not really good with dog hair and because somehow the more space we have, the messier we get.

If we stayed, we'd have to put curtains pretty much on all windows to keep the cold out during the winter, put rugs in the living room because I'm fed up with orange, and I'd have to have a really intensive cleaning schedule (or, ahem, hire someone to clean for me. Whaaa?). We're still debating. I'll let you know what we decide soon.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you, my friends. I hope this year bring more joy, love, and laughter than ever. May your life be fulfilled this year.

I usually make about 53 resolutions at the beginning of each year -52 of which I abandon after a week. I love resolutions. I love planning for the future... but then I really truly suck at implementing anything. This year is different of course! 2011 is not really a good year for resolutions, since I know and don't know what it will bring. I know it'll being a baby, lots of planning around school, work, and family for Joe, and a lot of visitors during the summer. But I don't know how parenthood will change us, how the first few weeks with the baby will be, how I will handle lack of sleep (oh, how I am dreading lack of sleep!), whether my baby will be easy or fussy, and whether I'll enjoy work as much when I come back from my leave in August. In light of this big unknown coming into our lives, I only vow to be the best mom, wife, and friend I can be. I also want to be better to people around me and keep on volunteering in my community -through church or other organizations. But that's it. No pressure this year. Just be the best I can be -and also be patient with myself and the people around me (This is a continual joke in my head but I'm sure this mantra will come in handy a few times: do not shake baby. Leave the baby in crib and step back, breathe, and come back to soothe baby!!).

2011 will be exciting, challenging, and probably pretty awesome. I am loving it already!!