Rainy weather, cozy socks.

Love cool, rainy Northern California winter days. Just the perfect weather for staying warm, drinking tea, and being with friends. And today I enjoyed all three things. After yoga class, three of us (plus two babies!) walked over to a local tea shop and had some social time. (Yes! Mamas can have a social life after babies are born!) I loved the tea shop — all organic! super cozy! so delicious! Just the perfect winter destination. And so nice meeting and getting to know new people. I think I am going to totally embrace the whole mama-baby playgroup thing.

Virtual Baby Shower

In case you haven’t heard, we’re hosting our baby shower online!

Because we have friends and family scattered across the country, we’ve decided to forgo the typical baby shower gathering. Rather than travel to New Jersey or Northern California or New Mexico, you can participate sitting at home in front of your computer. All our friends and family can then take part, feel included, and not spend a cent.

Our first Baby Shower activity is a photo matching game. To join in, please email Carrie one of your baby photos, as well as a photo taken recently. Then we will all get to guess which baby photo belongs to which friend! Photo submissions are due by December 21st, so please hop on it and email me your photos!

David and I hope you all join in. The more folks participating, the more fun and the greater challenge it will be!

UPDATED: No stress if you can’t find photos to submit! Everyone is welcome to join in and play the guessing game!

And please stay tuned to learn more about our next virtual baby shower activity…

Monthly Baby Polls  

We’ve also been hosting polls about the baby! Check out and vote in our month six poll (what color hair will the baby have?) and month seven poll (when will our baby arrive?). Our month eight poll will be online soon. (Please email Carrie or leave a comment bellow with topic suggestions!)

California window surprise

All across the web, folks are posting photos of first snows… while here in California it’s just beautiful. Granted we’ve finally turned on the heat in the house… but look at the gorgeous sight greeting me this morning from our bathroom window!

p.s. Guess who has the hiccups? I know, I keep posting about this. It happens at a minimum of five times a day now. Always in the same spot. I think our baby is already wedged in there — luckily in perfect birthing position!

The 20 worst foods in America

Have you seen this article? Many of the foods listed are no-brainers (giant sized burger, sugar loaded hotcakes, ), but others are a bit surprising:

Uno Chicago Grill Chicago Classic Deep Dish Pizza – “Downing this “personal” pizza is equivalent to eating 18 slices of Domino’s Crunchy Thin Crust cheese pizza.”

Macaroni Grill Spaghetti and Meatballs with Meat Sauce – “This meal satisfies your calorie requirements for an entire day.”

Jamba Juice Chocolate Moo’d Power Smoothie – “Jamba Juice calls it a smoothie; we call it a milk shake. In fact, this beverage contains as much sugar as 2 pints of Ben & Jerry’s butter pecan ice cream.”

So shocking! Granted I have never eaten any of these dishes, but I have eaten at these restaurants in the past.

Here are two other terrifying desserts that we’ve steered clear of after looking up the caloric content on our own:

Cold Stone Creamery Vanilla Shake – Almost 1400 calories and 70 grams of fat. (Their French Vanilla flavor also contains High Fructose Corn Syrup. YUCK!)

Cheesecake Factory Chocolate Mousse Cheesecake (prepackaged) – Once slice contains 800 calories and 30 grams of saturated fat. Enough said. (Their official restaurant site doesn’t post nutritional information, so we assume it’s just as bad, if not worse, since they don’t have to disclose…)

Just a couple more reasons to cook healthily at home. (Luckily, we have a number of fantastic vegan/vegetarian/healthy restaurants nearby. We’re planning on going to one in a couple hours, before we head to our acupressure for labor/partner prenatal yoga class! Should be fun!)