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22 weeks

I think the baby is doing somersaults or something.  Its like I’m on a boat and can feel my insides sloshing around – but I’m not moving.  Weird.

He has been pretty active this week in general.  I guess its just that he’s getting bigger and I’m feeling more of his movements than before.  It can be quite distracting at times.  Last night we had a breast feeding class and he was all riled up.  It must have been the whole grain pizza with nitrate free meat, or the granola bar -whatever it was, he was digging it.  Anyway… Whenever he would kick or make a sudden jarring motion I would look around to see if anyone else noticed it. It was so distracting to me that it must have been at least detectable to the other people in the room.  Turns out it wasn’t.  Either that, or they were too enthralled with lactation.

I look forward to the day when my Dallas can feel him kicking too.  

A couple weeks ago a friend and I took a sewing class at Stitch in Hayes Valley.  It was Sewing Basics II. Turned out it was a little too easy for me, but I still learned some neat things about my machine.  I also learned that taking crafty classes is fun!  

Someday I’d love to take a Letterpress class.  It would be neat to be able to make my own invitations, announcements, cards, whatever!  Pretty much THE place to go locally is The San Francisco Center For The Book.  

I just went down to Mountain View this week and picked out our new tree!  As you may remember, back in January we lost a tree in our yard.  It was a sad occasion and it has been a process to get to this point.  

First we had guys come out to haul away the tree – which took forever because half of SF had trees down, and since ours wasn’t coming through a wall on our house or trapping our newborn baby underneath, we weren’t considered a priority. After that we had the tree people over with their special, and very loud, machine to grind and remove the stump.  

Then the search for a replacement began.  I wanted the same kind of tree (Geijera Parviflora), but was unable to locate one locally and the correct size (24″ box). After a couple months of that I finally gave up and set my sights on a fruitless Olive. Another couple months have gone by with some hope sprinkled in there, but not until this week did I actually meet the tree that will be in my yard.  Its all very exciting.  

Without further adieu, meet the new addition to our backyard…

(its the one on the left)

There was talk of getting both the above trees, but after some thinking I decided that just the one will be enough.  The tree will be delivered and planted on Monday afternoon.   Then after that I’ll be able to finish the beds underneath with lavender and maybe some rosemary.  I’m going to do the whole Mediterranean thing in that sunny spot in the yard.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

We are finally starting to make our house OUR house. Its been 3 years and we are doing some of the things we meant to do a long time ago. We painted (had painted), our dining room, hallway, and hallway doors. What a difference it has made!

The spiffication process also included some yard work.  It is by no means complete, but we have made some changes.  The most dramatic of which is more flagstone patio.  We originally had 3 raised planter beds.  We ripped out 2 to make more room for entertaining.  Those 2 boxes never got enough sunlight to grow anything useful anyway.  Now when we sit on our new patio it feels like we are actually in the garden, not just looking over at it.

 

I’m starting to need some maternity clothes for real. I have one pair of skinny black jeans, which I love. Now its time for a couple cute versatile shirts. Nobody wants to see my belly hanging out the bottom of my pre-prego shirts. Ewey.

I’m really liking the stuff over at Isabella Oliver right now. I might order some online and see if it looks as good in person, and on my person.

This wrap top is super cute:

(its actually something I’ve had my eye on since way before I was pregnant!)

Don’t these just make you want to have a garden party?
I’d love to fill one up with lemonade!

I’m so excited. This whole time I just felt like, almost assumed, we were having a boy. Its kind of neat to know I wasn’t wrong. Mothers intuition perhaps.

I think today is when the whole thing became more real. It was really nice to be able to see our baby boy and see for myself that he had all his limbs, all his organs, and no cleft pallet. He’s actually quite cute too! When they were checking his lip for a cleft pallet they had to get in real close. We were able to see his face pretty well, including his cute little nose. Also he was moving his mouth like he was chewing or just finished eating.

The ultrasound technician asked if I had just eaten lunch because he was very active. I guess he likes how japanese food makes him feel! Me too.

We saw him put his hands up to his face, roll over, uncurl his body, and kick his legs. Right now all the moving seems so cute. I’m guessing I won’t feel that way in a few weeks when those little kicks are getting me in the ribs.

Here he is on his side facing us. Head on the right of the shot. He is holding his arms up by his eyes, and that is his knee on the left.

And finally here is the money shot… This one shows off his boyhood. No mistaken.

(Just like Ronin, we are hoping this is the first and only time his boy-parts will be on the internet.)

I think these night lights would be adorable in the baby’s room.

According to Brett the most important function of a burp cloth is to be absorbent. With that in mind I beefed up this second batch with crazy wooly fabric on the back. The latest round of fabrics was purchased at Britex, which is a really fun store!

Here is the ONLY blog entry I ended up writing while we were in Thailand. Sorry I’m posting it so late and sorry its the only one. If you are dying to read more about the trip check out Riley’s Blog and idallas.com. They are both packed with info and photos.

Feb 15
Fly to Phuket – Mom Tri’s Boathouse – 1 night
We arrived late in the day to The Boathouse. It was already about 4:30 pm and the better part of the sunny day was over. This is our first beach destination and we wanted to make the most of it. We had about 1 1/2 hours before our dinner reservation and used it to play in the ocean, then a quick dip in the heart-shaped pool. The water is a little murky off Kata Beach, which presses right up against the hotel patio. We used the snorkel gear for a short bit, but there was no wildlife to speak of – except for something that kept stinging us all. Just little annoying pinchy sensations on our skin. It was possibly some sort of mini jellyfish. The scenery was beautiful and it was nice to be in a place where relaxation was the key activity.

The restaurant here at Mom Tri’s Boathouse apparently won some sort of Wine Spectator wine list award. We originally chose this hotel because it is said to house the 3 best restaurants on Phuket. Dinner was fine. Not really good, but fine. They seemed to think they were a fancy french restaurant by the way the menu read. I read about 5 dishes that had some sort of velouté sauce. It had the chance of being wonderfully delicious, or a failed mess. —– Lets just say, we are terribly lucky to live in the food mecca that we do. We are able to enjoy fresh seasonal produce from farmers who pour their passion into their product. We have cheeses, meats, wine, breads, pastries, all from artisanal producers… Basically the San Francisco Bay area has some of the best food in the world and I am reminded of this pretty much every time we leave California.