East is East, West is San Francisco

We are back from a lovely vacation to California … 2 days in Wine Country and 2 days in San Francisco.

Dan and I were a little nervous hopping on our first plane ride (4 hours) with Lexi, but she did great. Hint: Bring a few new toys and time will pass much more quickly! I would love to say that Lexi was mesmerized looking out the airplane window at the clouds and the teeny weenie buildings below, but she was more interested in the tray lock. Either way, we were very proud parents.

Traveling with an eight-month old in Napa/Sonoma was not as difficult as we thought – we got to take in quite a bit of wine, and even an hour and a half at Ravenswood Winery (taboo to bring a baby? oh well).

There was also an emergence of a ton of babbling on this trip … see exhibit A:

Obviously Dan set that up - sneaky.

That’s it for my random post. Happy weekend!

All of Baby Nose to Toes

We are back after a *very* long hiatus! A lot has changed since I last posted. Let’s see … We’ve been feverishly decorating / updating our new home – including a complete deconstruction of the ugliness that was the railroad ties in our front yard. And oh yeah, we had a baby!

Lexi (short for Alessandra…yes, we unfortunately have confused everyone by choosing the Italian version of Alexandra) turned EIGHT months old today! EIGHT! That’s only four months until she turns ONE. In her short time here on earth she has accomplished quite a bit:

• Crying
• Peeing
• Pooping

Ha, ha, just kidding … well not really, but really. Other than those major milestones, she’s also accomplished:

• Sitting up on her own
• Pulling Benson’s ears
• The “plank” (see: yoga poses)
• Mastering Kristin Wiig’s infamous shoulder shrug
• Giving me two hickeys – one on my chin and one on my right arm

Oh and she has two bottom teeth poking through! Here is a picture of our Lexi Lou at our annual 4th of July Picnic:

It’s amazing how much life changes. I am 99% positive I could recite “Goodnight, Moon” to you in its entirety.

You’ll be hearing from us a lot more now that Lexi is sleeping through the night more consistently, thus letting mommy and daddy catch up on some much needed sleep. I should probably update the nursery room photos!

~ Nina

50 days!

So once again, it's been a while since my last post.

Quite a lot has happened in 2 months! I'm just about 33 weeks along, in my third trimester, with only SEVEN weeks to go! Actually - tomorrow marks 50 days left until my due date! GULP. I learned last week that apparently once you hit 34-35 weeks your doctors do not stop pre-term labor. Hopefully Dan and I are ready, there's no stopping now... =)

We've been trying to get our house furnished before the baby comes (we are so so close but our walls are still so bare), as well as the nursery room. We have some more organizing, building and decorating to do, but here is a sneak peek (excuse the quality, from my phone):

We went with a "cooled blue" on one wall, and then a beige on the other three so the room wasn't too crazy. There are still a number of to-dos on my to-do list, one of which is to read a few parent 'preparation' books. This is what I got in the mail a couple weeks ago, still yet to opened and read:

Yeah, that's 900 pages. In the same box, I got this book - which let's be honest, I've spent more time looking at than the previous :/

All I can say is - YUM. Awesome cookie cookbook for anyone interested.
Stay tuned for finished nursery photos! That's at least one room we'll be done with before Baby Girl OB comes!!

Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie

So I've been trying to hold off on buying ANY clothes for Baby Girl OB. For one, because I have this fear that I'm going to go into labor and Baby Girl OB is really going to come out Baby Boy OB. I've been hearing too many stories lately, and ultrasounds are only, what, 90% accurate? Perhaps that's why we painted the nursery room Cooled Blue.

Anyway, I caved a few days ago. The cutest baby boutique ever - Giggle - just started Giggle Deals online last week, which is similar to a Groupon, a RueLaLa, a OneKingsLane ... you get the picture... but for baby stuff! I get the daily emails so I was browsing and came across this:

So cute and only $15 for the set INCLUDING tax and shipping! It's perfect for the snowy end of November / early December weather - when she would like to make her appearance :)

If you're interested in joining Giggledeals and use my link below, you'll automatically get a $10 credit to spend.
http://curebit.com/o/a/iiQFB

Happy Wednesday! Weekend is almost here!

Rockin'

And once again I’m a slacker. Sometimes I struggle with finding something interesting to say or share and figure maybe no news is better than boring news?

Anyway, my belly has completely exploded over the last few weeks, so for any of you asking, I highly doubt I’ll be posting any photos any time soon. And since this is a time of self-consciousness, not sure I will be joining the club in pursuing maternity photos. Plus, we figure that maybe we can put a little more into a really great photographer for a newborn session. We’ll see.

We were in Chicago this weekend, catching up with some friends and running *lots* of errands. Let’s face it, Milwaukee does not have the greatest store or item selection whether it comes to home décor, baby furniture OR clothes. We ended up picking out a cute rolling dresser and a few bins for the nursery room closet, a small bench for the upstairs bathroom, a pair of jeans and a tank top from Forever 21’s maternity section (yes, I said maternity! And they are soooo comfy) but we still are still lacking in the ‘decor’ piece to our new home. Soon.

We did buy the cutest rocker online – it’s called the Nurseryworks Sleepytime Rocker, photo below, only the one I ordered has a higher back. I was going back and forth … and back and forth (no pun intended, ha) … on deciding if I really needed a rocker or if I should just get a comfy chair for the nursery. I tried to get opinions from present and past moms, but they were definitely mixed – some couldn’t do without their rocker, some preferred a nice chair that they could eventually move to the living room. I then found the below online – which I think is a good mix. It’s totally modern and a neutral color, so I think some day when our kids (oh goodness) are all grown up we could move it elsewhere.

In the meantime, I’ve been looking everywhere for a knock-off of this Jonathan Adler lamp, below left. How. Cute. Is. This. Bad news? Somehow it's $395. Who the heck can buy a lamp for $395!? The closest I could find was this second version at a shop in Madison (below right), but they aren’t sure they’ll get one in until September. I guess it will do, but nowhere near as cute. 

Time for bed. I'm exhausted. The shortness of breath and dizziness has kicked in here at the end of week 23!

Tutti Fruity

I'm 22 weeks along today, and for those of you who have been pregnant (or for those of you who see my Facebook posts), this means you get assigned a fruit! What am I today, you ask? A papaya! It's funny though - at week 20 I was a cantaloupe, and then last week (21 weeks) they claimed I was a banana. Now, wouldn't you think that a cantaloupe is much bigger than a banana? Then today, I find out I'm a papaya, and feel like my Baby OB might be shrinking! I then decide, well, it must have been quite a small cantaloupe.

Then lo and behold, my friend Anna sends me a photo via iphone:

Hilarious! She actually went and compared them at the grocery store :) Bottom line is that the papaya is WAY bigger than a cantaloupe and a banana! Actually ... I am more than frightened at the size of that thing. How does that fit into my belly!? Or oh my goodness ... worse ... how does that come out!? TMI. That's why I am not reading that chapter until November.

Which leads me to this - according to thebump.com I actually stay a papaya for 3 weeks. Which means, by the end of these three full weeks the baby will be this size. Which caused me to finally do this:

Yep, bye bye pre-maternity clothes that don't fit me anymore. How sad to put my jeans away for the next 4+ months ... probably more since it will take me quite some time to fit back into them. Although ... maybe my real question is why do I have so many pairs of pants :/

Stay tuned this weekend - I'm hoping to post a pic of the painted nursery!

Colorblind

I have been spending WAY too much of my free time trying to figure out the perfect color for Baby Girl OB's nursery. We're going for "safari chic," so we really wanted to keep our brown / white zebra rug in the picture...which is also making deciding on a color a headache.

I'm more of a natural earthy tone - beige, white, brown - type of person, but I refuse to paint yet another wall in my house khaki. And Dan doesn't like pink. SO ... we are going bold, and going AQUA!

That was my mess from yesterday. Amongst Festa Italiana over the last two days, I spent hours contemplating what TYPE of aqua. Do you know how many different tones of aqua there are? And not only was did the aqua have to be just right, but I had to make sure the aqua would go well with our bright accent colors, meet yellow and orange (yes - orange - yipes!).

And the winner is ... Cooled Blue. Swatch SW6759.

I'm a little nervous, but I think it's going to be a pretty cool gender-neutral nursery room. I've never been one for totally girly. Let's just hope this color turns out how I'm expecting! And if it does ... here is my first art purchase I'll be making on Etsy!

Nursery Progress

It's minimal ... but it's a start!

Our baby's crib was delivered on Saturday (or maybe it was yesterday?) and Dan went right to work last night putting it together. We aren't quite sure of the exact theme or color pattern just yet - although I recently used the term "safari chic" - but we saw this crib and fell in love with the modern look!

We really want to make this zebra rug work, but just not sure yet because of the color. I'm also dealing with some indecisiveness on what color to paint the room so everything blends well. TBD!

Building a Nest

I was wondering when the nesting phase was going to kick in, and boy, did I get a surge of it this weekend! Nesting is the stage where moms-to-be prepare their 'nest' for their soon-to-arrive baby. The instinct is supposed to start some time in the 2nd trimester once you have your energy back from the fatigue-ridden first trimester.

It started late Thursday night when I took all of my socks out of my sock drawer, laid them all out all over the floor (while chasing Benson since he kept trying to steal them, mind you) and matched them up one by one.  I threw out any that had the slightest hole or rip, any that the washing machine could no longer rescue and the solo socks that lost their partner. It was very liberating, actually.

Saturday Dan and I started our day ... and pretty much ended ... at Ikea. Got there at 11 and left at 4. Yes, 5 hours. Probably the most time I've ever spent there. And money. We borrowed my dad's van and it was packed to the brim - so mad I didn't take a photo! BUT we were able to check off so much from our furniture list, and furniture that we know we'd never buy come 4 months from now. We'll post pictures soon - particularly our guest room which made major progress this weekend. One of my favorite items from this weekend: the Strand side table in white and nickel:

Now, this picture just does not do it justice. As soon as the guest room is in better shape (hopefully in the next few days) I'll post and you'll see how adorable it is! I'm actually considering getting it for other rooms because the quality is actually that great for a $69.99 side table / nightstand.

After Ikea, we relaxed at Bastille Days some - Milwaukee's french festival downtown on the square. This morning, it was back to nesting. We bought a queen mattress for the guest room, registered at buybuyBaby and went to Target to buy some curtain rods and stock up on some other things.

Registering was quite fun ... Dan was most excited about the diaper bags area, because, let's be honest - he'll probably be toting it around the most :) Here's the one we agreed to:

Ha, he's so cute. And such a trooper for not only agreeing to this not-extremely-manly diaper bag, but dealing with me all weekend =)

More to come tomorrow! Have a great night.

Holy Lazy, Batman!

I'm back. And quite tardy. Three months to be exact! Whoops ... I just need to start a schedule up again and we'll be back up and running.

SO much has happened in the last 3 months. As most of you probably know, Dan and I are expecting! Today actually marks my 20th week - we're half way there - which is absolutely crazy. I have a feeling this blog might turn into a mommy blog, but we'll see what happens. The past few months have been filled with appointments, weddings, constantly looking online for nursery room ideas and trying to get this house decorated. The house decorating part isn't going so well, but Dan and I have a weekend of Ikea and errands planned and I'm hoping we'll make some good progress. Probably more progress to my credit card, but ah ... whatcha gonna do.

Since many of my friends in Chicago and across the US have been bugging me to post photos of my belly, I guess I'll cave in and post one:

Yep, so that's me. Awkward. It's growing. And it's big! Today marks the day it is the size of a small cantaloupe.  Yes, a cantaloupe ... oh the fruits and vegetables they compare our stomachs to. I've been very lucky thus far with a somewhat *easy* pregnancy, but I'm pretty sure that means I'm in for quite a fun time during delivery. Dan was 10 pounds (yes, ten, not a typo) when he was born, so I'm beyond frightened!

What else has happened ...

My sister got married! Here is the beautiful bride. It was a great day and my sister did an amazing job keeping calm even when things did not go as planned ... not to mention a glass of red wine all over the back of her dress =(

Also, Dan went to Colombia for Stephanie & Justin's wedding! I unfortunately could not go as I could not get the yellow fever vaccine (boo)...but I was there in spirit...or via skype. 

That's it for my update for tonight. Happy summer & stay tuned!

Nina

Jamaican Me Crazy

I finally dug my DSLR out of a box along with the nifty USB memory card adapter! What does this mean for you? Fun, professional looking photos, woo hoo! Oh stop, I know you can't hold your excitement.

This ... along with our recent touch of spring ... I'm hoping means no more lazy Nina. But don't hold your breath ;)

I was able to get out of work at 5:00 today and whipped up an AWESOME salad I wanted to share with everyone. It's a Caribbean-inspired recipe, adapted from "The Fat Belly Diet Cookbook." Now I'm not on a diet, but I absolutely had to buy this cookbook after I paged through the healthy, yet delicious, looking recipes. It's based on the Mediterranean way of eating, which means healthy fats - including olive oil! To my dismay, this does not mean I should indulge in my twice a week (or more) side order of fries. Boo. This means avocados, nuts, a few splashed of olive oil in your salad. I'm Italian, thus, a few splashes of olive oil anywhere won't cut it. That's why I just alter the recipes a little!

Enjoy!

Jamaican Jerk Spring Salad
1-2 Bags Mixed Greens
1 lb. Chicken Tenderloins
1 Mango, diced
1 Avocado, sliced (make sure it's ripe!)
1/4 - 1/2 small sweet onion, sliced
1 Tbsp Jamaican Jerk Seasoning (I found a packet at World Market for a couple bucks)
Orange Juice
Lime Juice
Olive Oil

Chicken: Sprinkle chicken tenderloins with 1 tbsp. Jamaican jerk seasoning, 1 tbsp fresh lime juice and 1 tbsp olive oil. Rub mixture into chicken and let sit for 15-30 minutes. Grill chicken strips on hot grill pan until no longer pink in the middle.

Dressing: Whisk together 2-3 tbsp of orange juice (I just used juice from a large orange), 3 tbsp of fresh lime juice, 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tsp of salt.

Salad: Toss dressing mixture with onions and greens until well mixed. Place mangoes, avocado and chicken on top and serve.

YUM! I had to play with the dressing a bit ... I didn't have enough lime so I ended up adding a bit more oil and a few dashes of balsamic vinegar. Turned out great and took less than 20 minutes.

Benson was jealous he didn't get any.

Spring in my Step

I'm getting pretty lazy with my blog updates =( Sometimes I don't think I have anything exciting to share, but I need to get better. My grandma bought us a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer for a housewarming present (Thank you Nana!!!), so I can tell you that lots of cooking is coming your way!

Anyway, I have to show everyone my latest spring purchase ... all this nice weather early in the season typically makes me jump the gun a bit and buy too many spring clothes that I typically can't wear for another 2 months thanks to Midwest weather. But so far I've only purchased ONE spring item ... I'm quite proud of myself. Excuse the unprofessional photo - I don't think it does the dress justice and I can't seem to find it online.

It's from H&M and cost only $34 buckaroos!

How adorable is it!? It's a light denim, sweetheart top WITH pockets and a skinny white belt. So perfect for summer. If only I could wear it now ...

On a house note, Dan, my mom and I did a little furniture shopping and bought ourselves a dining room table and chairs, a couch and a love seat! Can't wait to share with everyone - delivery is Wednesday.

Have a Happy Monday!

Lions, Tigers and Boxes, Oh My

Last night Dan and I looked around our living room and patted ourselves on the back for having only TWO boxes left unpacked on the main floor.

Where are the rest of the boxes you ask?

Eh, we threw them all in the basement.

We couldn't bare throwing them away after all of the madhunt scrounging up boxes from work, jewel, heck - the sidewalk! Obviously we need to go through these and break them down ... but if anyone needs any boxes you know where to come find them! We also should probably get on this fast before something tries to hide in there ...

Amidst all of the unpacking, we did have some great fun opening up wedding presents that have been stored away in my parents attic for 2 years and five months. It's like we got married again! I was super excited to open this:

Thank you to Judy and Andrew! I remember seeing this Laura curtain from Crate and Barrel back when we were registering and loving it, and we have been reunitied once again =) Coincidentally, it matches the painted walls in our full bath AMAZINGLY. I'll have to send a photo soon.

Family is coming over for my bro's birthday tonight. What's on the menu? Balistreri's pizza (no, not our homemade pizza but the famous Tosa restaurant nearby which is equally as good), BW3's wings (duh, what's a Sal-o birthday with out ribs or wings) and Simma's cheesecake. Can you say we're "Home Sweet Home" any better than this welcome?

Mission 1: Clear out boxes

This is what our house looked like a few days ago:

I'd post more photos, but 1) we haven't gotten around to taking any others, and 2) not sure if you'd have much fun looking at boring rooms full of boxes. After unpacking the kitchen, our first mission was to at least put the boxes in their appropriate rooms. Check. Once we get a little more unpacked, we'll post room "before" photos ... we have LOTS of furniture to buy and rooms to decorate over the next few months and hopefully we'll create some awesome "after"s.

Amidst the mess, Benson has found his special spot. He LOVES staring out the bay window. Mostly because he has a major crush on the golden retriever across the street. Today he almost had a panic attack when he saw a robin trespassing on our front lawn.

I'm not sure that Benson is going to approve of our Room & Board couch that will most likely block that window. We are thinking about making a cute cushion to attach onto  the ledge and I'm sure he'll squeeze his way through anyway.  =)

Who's your daddy?

Okay, so, I lied. Kinda. I know I said I'd post some pictures of the new place (or mess) tonight, but to be honest, I'm absolutely exhausted of opening boxes and can't find my camera cord for the life of me! Tomorrow, I promise. Good news is that the kitchen is unpacked and CLEAN! Then again, it's not that big, ha.

As I'm sure everyone knows, all of the moving, cleaning and unpacking and rearranging wears on you. To pass the time a few days ago, my sister and I decided to play on this ridiculous baby morpher to see what Dan & I's kid would look like. I pulled out one engagement photo of Dan and one engagement photo of myself, chose "girl" and wah-lah. Apparently Dan and I have fabulous genes:

Bahahaha. I still can't get over it. So we thought perhaps our baby girl turned out like this because my uploaded pictures were sideways ... so we tried different photos of ourselves and chose "boy":

You know, I have a feeling that someone is playing a really big joke on us. 

More tomorrow. Have a great night!