39 weeks belly picture

Yes, I'm still pregnant! :) Baby boy is due a week from today (on 3/6) and apparently my babies like to be fully baked (Addie was 3 days late) because no signs pointing to the baby coming any time soon.


And a short video of our ballerina/yogini

Baby's room transformation

As you all know, when Addie was born, we lived in a rental townhouse and so we couldn't do much to her room--and tack on the fact that we knew we weren't going to stay there long, we didn't want to do much anyway, so we hung some things up and focused on purple with some green and it was fine. And...the house we moved into had a purple room already--score!

But we're in OUR house now, and the baby room had flowers and butterflies on it--cute for a baby yes (there were twin girls residing in this room before we moved in), but we're having a BOY so...you know...no flowers and butterflies for him ;)

Well how's this for a transformation?

This is the before:

Stevo doing all the hard work--taping, primer...

Layer 1 of blue paint...

All painted! But then there's a question of the carpet--it's a lighter blue than the walls, and there are stains...so it's kind of gross. I've wanted to get rid of it for a long time, but you know, with time and money, we debated it. Today Steve rented a steam cleaner to clean up the carpet before moving all the crib, etc back in and he decided to lift up the carpet to see what it looked like underneath (Addie's room is just hardwood floor).

And look what we found!

After a good sweep....gorgeous :)

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day, friends and family! I woke up this morning to this gorgeous crown that Steve and Addie made me :) I feel so loved!


I told Addie we could make valentines day cookies, so we headed to Safeway yesterday to get the stuff we needed. I did not anticipate the time it would take to park (since half the spaces are taken up by mountains of snow) and the crowd inside (of people who are trying to re-stock after the snowstorm) so our shopping trip took longer than I thought. You can't tell a toddler that you're going to make cookies and not follow through, so we did it anyway, despite it getting a bit too close to dinner time...

So here's Addie's lesson on baking cookies.

First your nutrition counselor mommy buys a pre-fab, non-organic, refined sugar, artificial color-filled cookie mix because she didn't want to bother baking from scratch because she's 37 weeks pregnant and tired, darnit.

Dump cookie mix into a bowl

Add one egg (pictured). And an obscene amount of butter (not pictured because mommy melted it in the microwave and the bowl was hot, so she wouldn't let me dump it)

Stir and smile a la Vanna White

Then you get to rollll the dough out

And use heart-shaped cookie cutters to cut the dough.
While it bakes, complain "where my special cookie?" over and over and over again while your mom starts dinner amid the cookie trays and general mess made in the kitchen.

Have your daddy very carefully frost the cookies

Then shake...
...shake some sprinkles on.

Contemplate eating them even though mommy desperately wants you to eat dinner first...
...but they look so good.

Mommy loses. :)
Happy Valentines Day, everyone! Here are Valentines day of Addie's past: 2009 and 2008

Snow Ice Cream!

I had heard of snow ice cream but never made it before. Addie and I bundled up to go watch Steve shovel the driveway (again) the other day, but the wind was up, so Addie was not happy. To cheer her up I impulsively said "do you want to make snow ice cream?" The response was enthusiastic and I quickly googled a recipe and breathed a sigh of relief that we had all the ingredients.

In a bowl, you put milk, sugar, and vanilla. We didn't measure, but I think it was about 2/3 cup milk, 2-3 tbsp of brown sugar and a splash of vanilla. Then you stiiiiirrrrrr it up!


Add CLEAN WHITE ;) snow (about 3 cups?)

Take a tentative bite...

Hey, I like it!

Obstacle Course!!!

Some more snow fun! I tried to post a video, but it wouldn't let me. If you're my (Monica's) friend on facebook, you can see it on my page.

Snowmageddon! Brrr.....

Well, the DC area had a whopping 30 inches of snow this weekend, starting Friday. We were prepared with extra food and enough toilet paper--and for being inside a lot with new stickers and art projects, but I can't say we were prepared to wake up on Saturday to...no electricity. It went off around 3am and when Addie woke up for the day at 5:45am we had to convince her to stay in our bed with us until the sun came up. Most normal kids are dying to crawl into their parents bed, right? No...she whined...we convinced her to stay by telling her stories--no extra sleep for us :) So we got up and were all in good spirits. We still had water (hot!) and we have a gas stove, so we were able to cook. Hot meals, hot showers....this wouldn't be too bad, right?

This is the view of our backyard after the snow stopped. To compare, here's a picture from the "Snowpocalypse" post from December.


We started off the day with a picnic breakfast in the living room

And while Steve did round one of shoveling while the snow was still coming down...

....Addie and I worked on making valentines


When Steve came back, he and Addie played in a fort
Check out that cool shadow puppet! And we just bundled up and tried to keep busy.

At around 3pm, I checked the temp and saw it was a balmy 56 degrees...not that bad, but not ideal, we definitely were all wearing several layers to keep warm, and then just before 3:30...the electricity came back on!



So we got confident, hey, we're in the clear! We got our electricity back! Woohoo! So we started to bake apple oatmeal cookies. Addie got all geared up in her apron and chef's hat.


Making sure the baby is warm and happy


And we did the dishes after we were done and I was cooking dinner.

But alas, right when we were finishing up dinner....the electricity went off again around 6:30pm :( Here is Addie wearing the hat she was going to go to sleep in.


And after she went to bed, Steve and I played Scrabble by candlelight. Very romantic :)

For the record...I won ;)

In the morning...luckily a bit later of a wakeup (6:15p) but still no electricity :(

And the house was much colder

Eating breakfast in hats and layers of fleece is fun, right?

Thank goodness our portable DVD player we have for long car rides had about 30 minutes of battery power in it...We tucked a blanket over Addie and she watched some Curious George DVDs.

Not many pics from the rest of the day because...well...we were too cold to care. We waited and waited for the electricity to come back on. While Steve was outside scoping out the situation, a neighbor told him that we weren't supposed to get it back until...Tuesday (it was currently Sunday afternoon) so despite the news of terrible road conditions, we moved Addie's carseat from the Prius to the Outback which has All Wheel Drive and set off for Gaga's house in Alexandria. It took double the time to get there, and there was a good deal of slipping and sliding and cursing of the plows (or lack thereof), but we made it safe and sound....and it was warm! And Gaga is a wonderful cook, so we had a fabulous meal and Addie got to sleep in Uncle Dan's old room and Steve got to watch the Super Bowl on Gaga's flat screen TV. All was right with the world.

In the morning, Gaga had to go to work, but Steve's office was closed so we hung around the apartment. Addie found all sorts of interesting toys at Gaga's house, her favorite being a magnifying glass


"Eye" see you ;)

And about 30 minutes before Addie's regular nap time, we got an automated call from Pepco saying our power was back! We put Addie down at Gaga's and we took naps also, then packed up and headed home hoping that our street would be plowed. The roads were a little bit better, but definitely far from perfect and we got home safe and sound...to a warm house!


So you see all this snow? Yeah, we're supposed to get anywhere from 10-20 inches starting tonight. I wonder what it's going to look like on top of all of this?
So to all our blog readers, PLEASE cross your fingers, send warm thoughts, or say a prayer that our electricity stays on this time around.