Clara Juliet

Born on September 27, 2011 at 1:59 am. She weighed 8 lbs. 3 oz. and was 20 1/2 inches. She is an absolute precious gift from God and we love her sooo much. I will write her birth story soon - it was a pretty amazing experience - but in the meantime we are just soaking every bit of parenthood up.

Waiting

The countdown is in the single digits now!! Since Thursday was my last day, of work, I have been home this week. I am vacuuming my house like every other day, obsessively cleaning the kitchen, and going to Hobby Lobby and Michaels way too much after staring at the walls and dreaming of new ways to decorate.

Last night I had Braxton Hicks for about 4 hours, although they were not at regular intervals. Every morning Charlie and I wake up and say, "another full night of sleep!" because there won't be many more left. Although I get the feeling that this baby is very comfy where she is and maybe I will just stay pregnant for the rest of my life. If that is the case, I'm definitely going to have to buy some more maternity pants. I keep wearing my favorites over and over and they are starting to come apart at the waist. I can't remember the last time I wore something so often that happened!

37 weeks!

We had fun today with an ultra-professional maternity photoshoot in our house. Ha! Not really. We just used our camera timer and did it ourselves. But we did have alot of fun and enjoyed the substantially lower price. :-)

The countdown: 35 weeks

I have been taking a picture every week for fun. This was last week!

We went to look at a bunch of giant model homes (also just for fun - we are definitely not moving again). This was one of the garages we saw. I am normally not interested in garages, but this was pretty amazing!

Lizard Invasion!

Did you know lizards can hiss? Leopard geckos can. How do I know this? Because WE HAD ONE IN OUR HOUSE. It was so scary (to me) it was ridiculous. I caught it behind the garbage can, it hissed at our dog Stanley, then it ran under the fridge, where I thought I was doing a pretty good job of a stakeout until Charlie came home, moved the fridge, and it was nowhere to be found. Until the next morning when we found it in the dining room and finally asked it to leave. The funny thing is, my description of the lizard to Charlie was something like this: "Well, it looked almost like a turtle, with a round body and a short tail... what could it be??" Apparently I would not make a good eyewitness because after we took it outside, we took a picture of it.



It is not a turtle. It just lost its tail.

Since then, we have caught another small lizard. We think they come in the garage when the door opens, and then when we open the door to the house, they are poised and ready for their day at the spa. (Don't you think that's what it must feel like for them to be in air conditioning?)

Baby Shower

I had a somewhat-early baby shower given by family and friends in June - the date kept getting pushed up because everyone was going to be on vacation or moving in July! However, I did not mind at all, because I got to see almost everyone and also I was not too large for people to look at yet. Ha. These pictures area all from other nice people who sent them to me, because I didn't take a single picture all weekend, despite having my family here from out of town.

As I look at these pictures again, I am realizing two common themes.

1: The hand on the belly pose
2: I am not looking at the camera






So fun! I want to do it again!

The Wild Side

So this morning I was taking Stanley for a walk before my water aerobics class (it is the best exercise ever and so fun and refreshing) and we were walking by a house that has see-through backyard fence. Background: they have 3 yappy dogs that bark constantly, and they even have this high-pitched alarm that goes off when they bark - I guess to try to get them to stop, but it never seems to work. But we love walking that way anyway because it is so nice and shady.

Anyway, we walk by their house, the dogs start barking, the alarm goes off, and then this incredibly loud screeching begins. I think to myself, "Wow, they got a new alarm sound." Then I look up and see a very realistic owl attached to the top of the fence. I think to myself again, "Wow, they really invested in a realistic alarm." Then before I can realize what is happening, the owl starts FLYING, circling just above Stanley. In about .05 seconds I have this discussion with myself:

"Self, do owls eat dogs?"
"Well, I'm not sure."
"I think they might eat something like small rodents."
"I think you are overreacting. Maybe you should just relax and keep going."
"The owl is still circling. Pick up the dog."

Hah! So I picked Stanley up and walked away from the house. As we were walking along the street, a large dog started barking from another house. When I looked up, the entire front half of the dog was over the fence. What is going on today??

As I walk the other direction back home, I look back to make sure Stanley is not being selected again by Mr. or Mrs. Owl for dinner and I see off in the distance beside the canal (we live kind of next to a canal) 5 or 6 little figures. Then I realize they are baby owls!! I think they are adorable of course, and so I no longer fear their mother. Or maybe Stanley was going to be their dinner. We will never know.