New Addition

The news is officially public wide and far; we're expecting an addition to the family on or around March 22, 2013! We're thrilled (and a little nervous)!

It's been kind of a whirlwind since July. We got the offer on the condo on July 8 and found out I'm pregnant on July 18. If we'd gotten that offer a few days earlier, we may have held off on expanding the family. But, at the end of June we had no expectation that we'd sell any time soon and our plan was always to start trying once Lainey turned one...just turned out we didn't have to try so long this time. : ) Great timing or ridiculous timing, I'm not sure, but I'm going to say great--this assumes we are able to find a house and get move before March.

The house hunting pressure is ON! And that pressure comes just as we move into fall and the market starts slowing. But, I have faith. That perfect gem is out there and we're gonna' find it! We rented a three bedroom apartment, just in case, but I really--I mean REALLY, REALLY, REALLY--do not want to bring my newborn bundle back to this place. Obviously, it's a more than acceptable environment or else we'd never have moved Lainey there, but it's not home and it's never going to be. And I want to bring my baby HOME after the hospital. 

In brighter news, it seems I've made it over the first trimester hurdles of nausea and excessive fatigue. Mark has been absolutely incredible and taking on way more than his share of the domestic duties these past months. I've felt kind of lazy and useless, but on the other hand, I am growing our child inside me, so....  During my sickest days, Lainey seemed to sense my need for quiet time and let me read books to her instead of chasing her wildly about the condo. I had to haul her into the bathroom a few times when I was getting sick, and she would stand next to me and rub my back and then hug me when it was over. Such a sweet girl, my little one.

It's going to be another wild ride, but we are ready for the rollercoaster!
Without further ado, here are the first images of our little butter bean...

Pool, Parks, and the Beach!

I'm finally getting around to recapping the fun adventures of last weekend (just in time to head into the chaos of this weekend).

I was able to slip out of work early last Friday and get home in time to hit the Holstein Pool for our second (and sadly last) dip of the season. When I first got home, I was so tired from the work week, I really was not into the idea of rushing back out. But, thankfully my awesome husband intervened and gave me a push to get going. So glad we went! Lainey loved it even more than last time. We also ran into our good friends Lezlie and Whistler, so that was a fun surprise!

Saturday we headed out to buy a new car seat for Lainey. Instead of going to the Babie R Us near us, we decided to venture a little further out hoping for a better selection. We arrived about 15 minutes before the store opened, but there is a huge park across the street. We headed over and let Lainey chase the squirrels--her new favorite past time. She is such an active little girl these days. She adores being outside (we had multiple tantrums over the weekend when we had to go inside) and loves to run, run, run. Her little legs can't always keep up with her momentum, however, so she had quite a few topples resulting in various scrapes and bruises. By Saturday night, she looked liked she'd been in a bar fight. But, she doesn't let a little bloody knee keep her down. She gets right back up and keeps going!

Sunday night we accepted a last-minute invite from our friends the O'Grady's and headed up to Evanston for a block party. Elaine was on FIRE! She did not sit still from the moment we arrived until the moment we strapped her in her car seat to head home. (It was quite the battle to get some sort of dinner into her belly.) The entire evening she ran up and down the street with a huge smile on her face, waving to everyone and talking non-stop. (It appears she's over her stranger danger). She had the time of her life!

The final adventure on Monday was to head to Montrose Beach--Lainey's first beach visit. We weren't sure how she'd take to the sand and assumed the water would be too cold for her, so we really thought we'd mostly end up in the grassy park area. We were wrong--and slightly underprepared (no swimsuits). Our little bug LOVED the sand and LOVED being in the water. She truly is a water baby. As with the pool, it's sad that we only just made it there on the last weekend of the season. We can still go back if the weather holds, you're just not supposed to swim, because there are no lifeguards.

In between all the big events, we took lots of walks, visited the farmer's market, and just enjoyed being together as a family. It was an awesome weekend and I don't regret for one second not doing any chores and skipping out on several errands (remind me of this Sunday night when I'm exhausted from fitting all those into THIS weekend)!

Below are some pictures from the park and here's a link to our pictures from the beach: Beach Time. They aren't that great. We couldn't get Lainey to look at the camera at all. She was too interested in what was going on around her!

She's got such a great smile!

Beach Baby

The New (Temporary) Place

The move went as well as moves go. Everything got from one place to the other and as far as we know nothing broke (although there is a substantial about of stuff still in boxes). The unpacking was a little more difficult with a busy bee buzzing about the apartment...we'll definitely do the next move on a weekday when Lainey can be safely away at daycare. Adding my mega work week on top of things, the unpacking and organization of the place is still behind where I'd like to be at this point. But, we're settled in enough and chose family fun this weekend over working on the final, lingering boxes. A very good choice indeed! (I'll do another post on some of our adventures once I get around to uploading the pictures...hopefully before the end of the week).

The apartment is fine. It has enough room, so we don't feel cramped. But, it's definitely not home and we're really missing some of the conveniences of our old place...ice maker/water dispenser in the fridge door, garbage disposal, A/C. I honestly think I miss the garbage disposal more than the A/C. Also, the microwave doesn't work, but our landlord was very responsive and brought us a small one to use while he orders a part for the other.

Of course having mild discomfort will just help us keep our eyes on the prize. And now that things should slow down just a bit, we can refocus on househunting and find that perfect place!