OK, so I understand now about shopping for girl vs shopping for boy

I haven't actually bought anything other than a couple of sale items from Old Navy but the window shopping...oh man.

Pretty sure little miss needs
this
and this (ok, ok...I know it's a 3T :p)
and this
and a couple of these
and this
and these

I could go on all day :)

I've been working on my miter blanket quite a bit. It sat for months when I realized how much seaming would be involved for a queen sized version. Once we found out about baby girl though, I realized I could turn it into a baby sized blanket lickety split. I have 2 more complete squares to knit (so, 8 more mitres...I've done 28 so far) and then the seaming. I'm trying to decide if I want to back it with corduroy or chenille (not sure of a color yet) What do you think?

So Saturday's Dream? Purple & Brown and I undertook a business venture together. After locating and extracting some rare mineral from the ground (one that had a striking resemblance to green slime) we all became fast billionaires. Just my luck that I woke up before I got to spend any of the money.

Last night? I obtained a coveted job as a cocktail waitress in a British pub owned and operated by PeeWee Herman. He stole me away from the pub across the street that was the brainchild of the crew from Lost in Space.

If there are any producers out there that want to option any of this stuff, my email link is in the upper right corner :)

all I can do is baby talk and random.

What's awesomer than awesome? Grabbing one of your husband's long sleeve t shirts out of the closet to wear for the day (because, you know, more belly room) and when you take it off for the day, realizing it says "arrogant bastard" down the back of both sleeves. And you wore a down vest over it when you took your son to school. And picked him up. Yup, I'm that mom.

The three year old watching a documentary about budo the for an hour this morning. We think a martial arts class would be good for the boys...if you're kids have done martial arts, what age did you start them?

Why didn't I start a dream journal when I found out I was pregnant? I mean, I have some pretty fantastic (and by fantastic, I mean weird as hell) dreams when I'm gestating. And I can never remember them for more than 15 minutes after I wake up. I do remember that the last one I had involved me being a member of a dream team of robots. We were traveling for a competition (still unclear what it was we were competing *at*) when there occurred a particularly heated conversation about sleeping arrangements. My line was "Relax everyone. We are Just Robots. We can sleep on the floor." Dreams also often involve birthing adult sized babies (that look a lot like this baby...and come out already diapered...and can talk) or having a fetus that pokes and stretches my belly so much that it's entire body is recognizable and I can HOLD IT IN MY ARMS while still in vitro.

On the topic of pregnancy, my brother Shawn asked me how far along I was on Easter. When I said 24 weeks, he said "Oh, almost halfway then, right?" To which I replied "no you crazy fool! I only have 16 weeks left" And smart guy said "isn't it 52 weeks" and I said "no you crazy fool! that's how many weeks there are in a year. And how long I might carry this child if I were an ELEPHANT. Don't make me get medieval on your ass." Perhaps it's a good thing after all that despite us bugging him and his wife to contribute to the grandchild pool, they haven't jumped in yet.

Jake counted to 100 last Tuesday, March 18th :)

I was behind a car a few days ago that had a license plate frame that said "I'm an Organ Donor." Not sure that's something I want to advertise to the person in the mammoth SUV behind me drinking his coffee, smoking his cigarette, eating his taco and talking on the phone.

What's the best wrong number message you've ever received? Mine is "Hi Dan, it's Pat. You just walked out and I realized you forgot your bagpipes. Thought you might need them." I saved it in my cell phone and still listen to it occasionally.

I've actually been scrapbooking quite a bit. Everything for BHG or 2Peas though so you'll have to wait to see most of it. I did do this one for the BHG Digital blog this week though.



Lots of knitting too but I've been bouncing between projects so no good "finished" photos yet. I also taught myself to crochet so woohoo! A whole new obsession. Hopefully I'll be able to share some photos soon!

OK, I think that's all I have swimming around in my brain at the moment. Oh and for the curious, not even a gas issue for nasty hard boiled egg boy. He survived without incident!

Happy Friday...Happy Weekend :)

In case anyone was wondering...

If you're 3 1/2 year old eats a hard boiled egg that's been sitting out unrefrigerated for close to 4 days, at worst, he'll get a little gassy (according to Poison Control.)

Mine was quick enough to realize after one bite that the egg wasn't really that tasty anyway. We still haven't determined if he swallowed that bite or not but regardless, he'll be fine ;)

Apparently a common call to Poison Control this time of year...even up to 2 weeks after Easter (ewww!)

so apparently...

this is my 200th post. Woohoo!

OK, party over.

Here I am at 22 weeks. Incredible how fast the time is going. (For the record, I probably *won't* be saying that in a few months) Movement is slowly increasing but I'm not yet to the point where I can see her little elbows poking out (I love that part :D) I spent the day yesterday moving all of my "stuff" from my office to Carlos.' I guess we'll be sharing from now on since my office will be the nursery...I guess it's ok ;) I made about a million trips up and down the stairs yesterday. I consider that my exercise for the month. I'm good till April.

That frame is from this Songbird Avenue digital kit that my buddy Kate contributed to. Be sure to check it out, it is GORGEOUS and the proceeds go to such a good cause. Here is a layout I created with it so you can see more of the pieces:

Good news today? The laundry is done (AND folded...AND put away,) the grocery shopping is done, my husband is off work all weekend and best of all? The HUGE snowstorm that was supposed to hit tonight went further south than expected and Ohio will be the recipient of the majority of it :) (Sorry my Ohio friends...well, not really. I hate snow.)

Oh, and Julie knows how much I love being tagged so I'm going to think hard tonight and answer her tomorrow. I'm not sure I can come up with 7 interesting facts about myself. I'm pretty boring :p

And look HERE. Finally! I think we were all holding our breath waiting for miss Camryn to make her appearance. So, so happy for the Bauer family!

why can't they add leap year day to a good month?

I'd seriously enjoy a 31 day June. You? An extra day in the month of weddings and graduations. A happy month like June deserves an extra day more than a cold, wintery, crappy month like February. Write a letter to your congressmen.

We got to see little miss again yesterday. She's still a girl. Her heart, kidneys, liver, stomach and head all look good. No indication of Down Syndrome or club feet (?) She was moving a lot at even seemed to wave a little to us. Carlos is in love :)

Her pretty profile:


And now she's looking at you :)


And, they moved my due date up a bit again. Originally July 25th...now we're up to July 13th! And my stomach is growing by leaps and bounds lately. Desperately trying to avoid buying too many maternity clothes until it's warmer. Wish me luck!

Some good stuff today:

Tonya's FABULOUS brushes - seriously cool and best of all: FREE.
My buddy Gillian - blogging again - yay!
Tons of new digital kits at 2Peas - have you seen the new 99 cent offerings? Good stuff!
Baby Bauer watch is still on :)

again with the random

I bought this Doodlebug bag from 2Peas on a whim awhile ago. No idea what I was going to use it for. It was just cute. Now that I look at it again though, it's gonna make the *best* little diaper bag. Perfect size for a couple of diapers and a change of clothes.

Carlos is getting excited about meeting little miss in a couple of days. He couldn't make it to the first ultrasound so he hasn't had a chance to see her in "action" yet. I'll be able to share some ultrasound photos after Thursday!

I've been doing more baby girl window shopping. I've always loved Mahar Drygoods - lots of beautiful unique stuff. I really love these alphabet cards. I want to come up with something "alphabet-y" for baby girl's room but I think I want to do it myself rather than buy something. Great inspiration though! LOVE these wall plates too!

I finally decided on a first knit for her as well. This Debbie Bliss pattern from Simply Baby - just a simple 2x2 rib sweater with some hemp yarn I've had for awhile. I love the color and while the yarn isn't the softest to work with. the knitted fabric is lovely. shouldn't take me too long to actually make some progress that resembles something sweater-ish.


Stamp winners - I *finally* packaged up the stamps today and will get them in the mail tomorrow...I told you it could be awhile but you should have them by the end of the week!

More snow today. Seems like it will never end. I'm so tired of looking out the window and just seeing a sea of white. I need green. NOW. I know a lot of you are in the same boat so I won't whine too much :p

And finally, this video had Carlos and I laughing our butts off (warning, might be offensive to some :p) Amazing how many celebrities he got to participate!

Later!

This past couple of weeks, my stomach totally popped. No more regular pants...I had to break out the Bella Band a couple of days ago :)

After lots of prodding, I finally started to cautiously do a little window shopping around the web for little miss. Yesterday, I made my first little girly clothes purchase thanks to an Old Navy baby sale. Nothing overly girly but I did buy her a skirt a hoodie with flowers. Big step for me! Now that I've actually laid out money, I'm sure my ultrasound next week will reveal an error and show that we're actually having a third boy :p

I've been checking out bedding too. Thanks to Lisa, I've been turned onto the Dwell line at Target. Nothing is *quite* what I've imagined though so after some more searching, I found this (which is *exactly* what I had in mind) and this which I completely adore. Not sure I can justify the price of either though.

Current food obsessions: Sweetarts, veggie eggrolls and grape tomatoes. Yum. And I could easily eat all three together for the same meal! The boys and I are enjoying smoothies too; frozen berries, a banana, OJ and a container of yogurt. Good stuff.

OK, loads of work to do in the next week or so (at least 7 or 8 layouts that I can think of - eeek!) and zero motivation so I'd better get to work. Oh, and a quick congrats to miss Gabby on the birth of Evansen and lots of happy thoughts to Mel who is expecting baby Bauer any day! Can't wait to "meet" him/her!

Have a great weekend!

Yes, "it's" a "she"

Trust me, I'm as surprised as anyone! I believe I did a double-, make that triple-take when the technician told me.

This one has me almost completely turned off food (at least for the moment) but addicted to grapefruit juice. I drank five glasses the other day. Then I read the calorie count...130 calories/glass. Also over 100% of your vitamin C. So how did I get sick? Now I'm trying not to drink more than 2 glasses a day.

This one has me vomiting a couple of times a week still. With the boys, second trimester meant the golden era of pregnancy. She's already demonstrating some of the differences between the sexes, huh?

This one has me wanting this shirt in a bad way. I just wish it came in a color other than pink!

Carlos is over-the-moon excited about this little girl. We've had a girl name picked out since before we knew Jake was a boy so at least that part is out of the way. We can talk to her everyday and call her by name. And she most definitely gets daily conversation with at least one of us.

I'm dreaming of spring. Ogling the Burpee catalog daily trying to decide what I want to grow this year. I have a black thumb so I know I need to start small. I'm thinking just some small herb plants on our deck this year. The tomatoes are calling my name though. And maybe just a couple flowers. (I clearly have no willpower and should not even try to limit myself.)

And this boy has a way with paper and scissors. Notice a resemblance? (probably not if you haven't seen Kill Bill before. And if you haven't, you should! And no, Jake has NOT seen Kill Bill...the resemblance is purely coincidental...we're pretty lenient about the content they see but Kill Bill is a little too liberal for a 5 year old :p)

so, tell me this...

How would one go about having a house put in a bubble? Because I am so ready to do just that. Just one after another we've all been fighting off various illnesses. I was actually forced to go to the doctor this week - the first time I've gone for an illness since before I met Carlos! Today is the first day since Monday that I've stayed upright for the majority of the day. Carlos has fought off a couple of infections (one that landed him in the emergency clinic with a 104 + fever) and Zack made his own trip to the emergency clinic last weekend with what turned out to be a double ear infection *and* burst ear drum. Why can't we just get sick during the week? I'm so done with this winter. And I know I'm not the only one.

Needless to say, I slacked on my stamp winner drawing responsibilities - I apologize for that! Random.org has deemed the following posters winners:

So, Julie, Amy, Paula and Stephanie email me please! I promise to mail the stamps out before the turn of the century :)

I also slacked on my blog comment returning...I normally really good about it but I'm sure you'll all forgive me if I skip it just this once? My inbox overfloweth and I'm ready to just hit delete a few times and be done with it :p Thank you all for the congratulations though. I certainly appreciate it! This little one is treating me a bit differently than the boys so I'm just taking it day by day and hoping the crazy-energy/nesting phase kicks in soon!

OK, back to my email...slog, slog, slog. Have a great weekend!

the old uterus, she ain't what she used to be...

ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be...

I shudder when people use "ain't." There is a song that goes something like that though, right? (OK, minus the uterus part)

I've been busy incubating :) Thanks for the congratulations! The third and final addition to the Hernandez family is scheduled to arrive mid-July. Look Ashley, I used my timer! Just for you to prove that I can actually learn a new camera trick.

Another cool trick? I can grow my butt at the same rate as my stomach! Nifty, huh?

I've had a lot on my mind lately. All random, fascinating stuff.

• I've been listening to a ton of Sara Bareilles the past couple of months. I downloaded the CD thanks to that damn catchy "Love Song" tune but was pleasantly surprised to discover the rest of the CD is really good too. Very reminiscent of Fiona Apple and that is very cool!
• Speaking of music, I've also been watching "We Are the 80's" whenever I catch it on VH1. 80's videos are so cool. They tell a story. And put Aquanet on the map. Unlike the crap videos we have now. They also feature a lot of scenes of people jumping of buildings and cliffs and turning into birds. The only video that I can immediately recall that wasn't a mini-movie was Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar On Me. And I'm not sure I need to see that song translated to movie form.
• I also caught a good chunk of the top 100 videos of the 90's. Was thrilled to find "Baby Got Back" at number 6 (go on, watch it...you know you want to.) It would have been a tragedy had that classic not cracked the top 10.
• One last music mention: the boys both got Sansa Shaker MP3 players from Santa. BIG hit. Especially with little Z who is a rockstar in waiting. Luckily, they share my taste in music so it's not torture when they break them out. Zack is particularly adept with the lyrics of Foo Fighters, Cold War Kids and the Gorillaz. Someday, maybe I'll seek out our video camera so I can tape him! Jake calls his an iPod (which it decidedly is NOT.) Zack calls his an ear pod...which makes much more sense, right?
  
• Last night we had the hugest wind storm I can remember. Was shocked to wake up to power and school in session still.
• I knit a whole sweater between December 26th and January 6th. More than 3 weeks later and I still haven't added the buttons. A little preview though:
• All of the boys got haircuts recently. Badly needed haircuts. A couple of days ago, I stepped on something sharp. I thought it was a glass sliver from a glass I had broken a few days earlier. Turns out, it was one of Carlos' hairs! Stuck in my big toe. It hurt like hell. No one should have hair sharp enough to penetrate skin. Barbershops in Mexico must be one of the most hazardous places to work on earth. Now I understand why he absolutely *must* take ashower as soon as possible after a haircut.
• I have a bunch of Autumn Leaves clear stamp sets to share with you guys. I have 12 sets so I'll break them into 4 sets of 3. Since we know how great I am at updating this thing, I'll wait until the weekend to draw names for them :) No promises on when they get mailed out though :p

I think that's it for now. Back to the grindstone!

on december 2nd...

we finished up our Christmas lists for the boys :) Still no purchases made but at least we have a plan of attack! Still all sick here. Zackie is about over the edge - so tired of being sick :( Poor baby. No progress made on cards yet but my list is at least done!

PS, this is the most recent layout I posted at the BHG Digi Blog - check it out if you haven't already discovered it! There are also some really informative blogs on stamping and photography if you're interested.

on december 1st...

our Christmas cards arrived. hoping to put a good dent in the envelope addressing tomorrow!

I've certainly done little else in preparation for the holiday.

I did place a good sized order at 2Peas for some Christmas goodies though...hoping it will motivate me to do something crafty in the next 24 days :)

the real Jake vs. the school Jake

So here is goofball School Jake with his cheesy fake smile and his tilt-your-head-just-a-bit-to-the-left-and-now-chin-UP pose. Sure, a handsome little devil but so not Jake. It's obligatory right? That we still order the photos even though they are cheesy and goofballish?


And here is At Home Jake. Still a goofball but this is the REAL Jake. This kid doesn't smile for "real" without his eyes all scrunched up. I love that about him. I have tons of photos that *I* took with the fake cheesy grin but I'm also the only one that can, on occasion, get the real Jake. I also dig the traditional Indian headdress courtesy of the lovely Mrs. Morse at his fine little school. Some school traditions really rock. Please ignore the fact that he is (inadvertently? let's hope.) flipping me off.This time last week, I expected to be hyperventilating over the pre-Thanksgiving to-do list yet to be concurred. Fortunately, I realized this time last week plus one day that the list just wouldn't be done. And that's cool. The food is accounted for as is the family. Sure, there are a few things I'd like to do still but if I don't have festive little place settings and a season appropriate wreath hanging on Thursday, the world won't end and we'll still all have a fine time. We have much to be thankful for this year. I'm sure (with my posting record) that I won't be posting again before Thanksgiving so to all my friends, enjoy the holiday!

lets just start slow...

since my last real post was a month and a half ago :p let's pretend this is a logical progression, shall we? From paper prototype to "real" Halloween costume execution :)


Cute, no?

sorry guys...

We got our keys early (yay!) but not expecting to get them until this coming weekend means we weren't anywhere near prepared! SO, we are in now (still tons of painting and unpacking to do) but our internet is up as of this morning and I plan to start going through my emails this evening after the boys are in bed. If I owe you one, you'll have it by the end of the weekend!

any ideas what these two might want to be for Halloween?

They've had their costumes picked out for months now. I'm on the hunt for overalls and fake mustaches. Should be fun (Carlos doesn't want to be Bowser for some reason..I'm perplexed)


Sorry for the lack of posts...I don't expect to be able to update much between now and the move. Thanks to everyone for the congrats - we're beyond excited to get in and make it a home!

OK, so about Friday

We closed on our house :)

We've been in the process of getting pre-approved, house hunting and closing for what seems like ever but now, we are so, so, sosososososo close we can taste it. I was close to talking about it earlier but I didn't want to jinx us by sharing before it was a done deal. And as of Friday - it IS!

We've been actively searching since June (July?) It's been awhile. And in this market, with pre-approval, you'd think we'd have an easy time finding something! In typical fashion for us though, every step of the way we had to overcome some hurdles. We ended up making offers on THREE houses in total.

The first was beautiful, had a large yard and was less than 10 years old. Not in a "cookie cutter" neighborhood but nearby a nice new development that would provide lots of playmates for the boys. We made our offer, found out later the same day that the house was a mere 3 days from going into foreclosure (sad for the sellers but hot-damn! good for us!) prepared for a possible (but unlikely) counter-offer and basically, just felt fortunate that we had found such a great deal! Then, 2 days later, we found out the house had already *been* in foreclosure for a couple of days when we made our offer. And the bank hadn't yet decided when they would be considering offers on it. So, we were basically out of luck.

The second house, while in a nice neighborhood and already empty just felt not-quite-right to me. I had a feeling that maybe the sellers would be a pain to deal with. The house had been on the market for 18 months and they had an abnormally high deposit requirement. We liked the house and saw a lot of potential though so again, we made an offer. And the offer expired without them ever responding to it (and let me say here that it was a VERY reasonable offer...below asking, obviously, but not outrageously so. My former-real-estate agent dad assured us it was a fair offer) Your house is up for sale for 18 months and you don't even take the time to counter? Huh?

So finally. This house. This is the one I wanted to make an offer on from the beginning. An elementary school in the neighborhood. Quiet but still lots of young families and kids around. Walking distance to the town area (not a tiny quaint little walk-around town but people, there *is* a Starbucks within walking distance!) At the end of a street that ends in a cul-de-sac. A beautiful kitchen/dining area (that I will change eventually but it works great for now) Four bedrooms (my own office - FINALLY) all small but all perfectly adequate. A large family "hang" out area. It's perfect :) The owners though. They didn't want to let go. They fought us every step of the way (apparently, they were working under the delusion that this is a *seller's* market. Um. No.) And we weren't too keen on meeting them for closing. I won't get into too much detail but there were tears involved. Oh, and the title company's representative telling us something to the effect of "this was the first time ever that I thought the seller might not sign their papers" Lovely. But in the end, they did.

And now, they have till the end of the month to GET OUT. Because it's our now. And they're renting from us :) And we're busy making plans for decorating (little by little...starting with the boys' room so they have something cool and completely finished to welcome them) We haven't packed yet but basically, we never unpacked so we don't expect it will be too difficult!

Oh, and the house meets all of the boys' (OK, Jake's) requirements for a new house. There are indeed stairs.

So, as we take possession and start redecorating and moving in I'll share more pictures. This is just the front, taken from the realtor's site when the house was still listed. It's not listed anymore though. Cause we bought it :)

(Oh, and the digi goodies from scrapgirls and scrapartist)

one whole hand

and now this one's five. Five hit me much harder than three...this was the hardest birthday yet I think. Five is just big. His processing and logic, his verbal skills, his maturity (most of the time...ok, some of the time) and just size period. He's tall and strong. I just can't believe it's been Five whole years. Five years. Five. Crazy.

He started his day by watching his favorite lego-reenacting-german-metal video on youtube. C'mon, I know your 3 and 5 year olds no the lyrics to Rammstein, right?


Then it was a dentist appointment (yes, I'm the awesome mom that scheduled a dentist appointment on her son's birthday) where he told me to stay in the lobby...he could go in by himself :( He did amazing without me. I was a nervous wreck but he did fantastically well.

Then a trip to the grocery store to pick up the cake ingredients...he wanted "mamilla" cake with chocolate frosting (at least one tiny part of the day that affirmed that there's still a bit of little kid in him). Then Target to spend birthday money. Then lunch and home. Grandma and grandpa came over after dinner to sing and observe the annual blowing out of the candles.


It was a good day for young Jacob. Happy birthday to my big boy :)


Tomorrow, I'll share the story about last Friday...(I chose B - I did good!)

thursday random...

because sometimes, that's all that fits.

I've run across some interesting people lately.

<<--These guys. Who are only doing their job but I took a picture because I immediately thought of oompa loompas when I saw them. And nothing puts a smile on my face like a good oompa loompa song!

And then the woman I saw roller skating the other day.
"roller blading? big deal! lots of middle aged hipsters roller blade to stay fit!"
Oh no, but she was roller SKATING. 4 wheels. and sweat bands. and Three's Company style shorts.
"Well surely she was just skating through a neighborhood, minding her own business in a private, secluded are."
You'd think, wouldn't you? Nope. Right down a busy street. In front of a middle school no less. Crazy. No shame.

And I think my favorite. The woman I saw at Tubby's yesterday. The one that was wearing a business suit and heels and couldn't have been more the 4'11" I guess she didn't want to dirty her hands on the garbage can so instead of using a napkin to push open the garbage door, she PICKED UP HER FOOT AND PUSHED IT IN. Please, take a moment to visualize.

OK, now despite me being insanely jealous of her nimbleness and balance, that's not the typical response to being a bit of a germaphobe, right? I immediately scanned the restaurant hoping someone else had seen it as well. Someone whom I could lock eyes with and connect on a meaningful "did you see that crazy bitch?" level. No such luck though...everybody else had their back turned so I was forced instead to hide my snicker lest someone thinks me the crazy one...sitting their giggling to myself.

Finally, tomorrow I have to do something that involves some people that I've never formally met, but whom have still managed to be a complete PITA to the Hernandez Collective the past few weeks. Do I a.) give them the cold shoulder making it perfectly clear what I think of them and their shenanigans or b.) turn on the charm and kill them with kindness?

B, right? That makes me the better person (ha!) and makes them feel like assholes for being such, well, assholes for the past month.

OK, enough weirdness for one night (Carlos is watching House of 1000 Corpses and DWIGHT is in it! Awesome! OK, now *that's* enough weirdness.)

August 25, 2007

*sob*

and now he's three.


We went to breakfast at ihop and had his favorite 'funny face' pancakes. We went to his favorite store (Target, of course) We made cupcakes.











And they were good.


























He still wears diapers (totally fine with that...Jake wore them until 3.5 and then, overnight was potty trained) He still sleeps in his crib (again, totally fine with that. He *can* get out but just doesn't...and Jake was climbing out before he was a year old so I'm happy to get some mileage out of the thing!) I love that I can still see some baby fat but man is the boy growing up. Apparently, 3 is the age is self-confidence. Today, he said "he-yo, my name is Zackie" to every person he talked to. From the hostess and server at ihop to the cashier at Target to every person that called to wish him Happy Birthday. Make no mistake about it, his name is Zackie!

Other than birthday, I've been working my way through this:


(a gift for someone that reads my blog so I can't show it until they get it...I love that ribbing though!)

And I'm getting ready to turn this:


Into this.

And, I'm also working through this:


Which includes a few kids books and a few books that I've finished but for the most part...lots and lots of new reading to get through :)

Oh, I've been working my way through a metric ton of those things in my banner too...I didn't think I liked them when I bought a box of a bajillion for the boys but I guess now that they're "33% real fruit juice" they've morphed into some kind of magically addictive mood enhancer. And, only 25 calories each so I can replace a meal with Freeze Pops on a daily basis :)

And now I need to do some work. There's my update for the month I think! lol