Less than a month and counting

I am in the last month of my pregnancy and let me just say, it has felt like a very, very long haul. Starting out with the extreme sickness, the scares here and there, and now the discomfort, it feels like it's been about five years. BUT, here we are in the home stretch and we are ready for this little girl to make her arrival. Here I am at about 36 1/2 weeks:



I have put on more weight this time than I did with Dominick, but I already have my plan set on how to drop it (hopefully). This weekend we also put the finishing touches on the nursery. I am really excited with how it turned out.

From the hallway:





The "main" shot. I haven't set up the bedding yet as the two cats would get in the crib and sleep all over it and I don't want to wash everything for a second time. So I just hung it to give an idea of where the colors came from. The blanket on the left was the first thing we saw that we loved and the quilt is from the set we got. Yay Target!





And apparently I can't hold a camera straight to save my life, but here is the last shot:



We are really happy with how it all turned out. I bought almost all of the pictures on the walls through Etsy. A fantastic site with lots of great art. We bought these, this, this, and two other ones. It's a great site, I highly recommend it.

It is definitely spring time up here in NY and we've been lucky to not have too many heat waves. I say lucky just because I haven't had to deal with the ridiculous amount of swelling and sweating that I would have to endure come such heat wave. But it has been nice to just wear capris and flip flops, considering no other shoes fit. I have deemed my legs as either elephant legs, or overstuffed sausages and my toes as lil' smokies. Sitting all day at work does a number on my legs. It is all in the name of something great, and hopefully she will be here soon!

Pura Vida

The one word I keep using over and over to describe my trip to Costa Rica is AMAZING.  I have to keep pinching myself because I feel so damn lucky to have been able to go on this trip and stay at the most amazing place...for so cheap!  It's great to have great friends who, in turn, have great friends.  

I know vacationing in a place is different than actually living (and working) there, but I really feel that Costa Rica is a place I could live.  The southern Osa part, near Dominical.  I liked the atmosphere, the people, the beaches.  Oh my god, the beaches.  Like the one I pictured above and below.  Simply breathtaking. 

I spent the whole trip really never knowing what time it was.  I don't wear a wristwatch and my cell was turned off the whole trip (I had no service).  I simply woke up when the sun rose (around 5ish in the morning) and went to bed when I was tired (usually around 10pm by my best guess).  And what a pleasure it was to fall asleep to the sound of the ocean and wake up to the ocean and all the birds.  Had one bird who decided that he would be my personal alarm clock -- he liked to knock on my window every morning between 5 and 5:30am. And when I'd swing my body up out of bed to peer over at him, he'd cock his head at me like "Wake UP! You're in paradise, don't sleep the day away!" and fly off.   Now I'm not usually a morning person but I had no problems waking up so early.  Maybe the first time ever I ENJOYED waking up to greet the day.  I'd lay on the bed, peering through the screen door, across the balcony, and watch the ocean waves or the dozens of little silly birds that would flit from tree branch to tree branch.  When I felt ready, I'd walk down to the main dining area, have a cup of 100% Costa Rican coffee and sit some more, watching the landscape.  Very cool to be sipping coffee and watch a flock of macaws fly past.  

I traveled with 3 other derby girls.  It proved to be a winning combination - we all got along really well.  Sometimes traveling with other people can end up not being so fun but thankfully this wasn't the case.  Truly, it was a dream vacation.  And we hope to do it again soon...