Category: NEW

I have a host of to-dos before the baby arrives: finish unpacking, order layette and baby gear (unpack, wash, put away), create a photo album with my favorite photos from our wedding, stock the freezer, move this journal over to WordPress (almost done!), etc.

One of the projects that has been on the back burner, but that I have strongly wanted to complete, is an updated photography portfolio. It’s been mostly done for over a year, needing just those final touches and corrections before the final upload. So, after an evening of coding and adding an events section, my new photography portfolio is live. Please check it out and let me know what you think!

As always, it’s a work in progress. (Though who knows when I’ll get around to updating it again once the baby gets here!)

Window texture at sunset. We tacked up this beautiful paper on our front door.
Little decorating details like this are slowly making our rental feel like home…

We are slowly unpacking and turning this house into our home. The first thing we did when we moved in (after unpacking basic kitchen and bathroom supplies) was unpack our books. I feel like this somehow provides brilliant insight into who David and I are and what we value, but I am not quite sure what it is other than the fact that it shows how we love to read and missed our books at our last place (we only unpacked around 5 of the 20 boxes there).

The rest of the unpacking has been slow and steady. We’ve been here over a month and we still haven’t unpacked our clothes — we’ve been washing the same two weeks worth of shirts/pants, etc. over and over again since we moved in. That’s one of the projects I plan to tackle this week: sort, purge, wash, put away. (For example, I’ve decided that I really don’t need to still be wearing shirts from middle school. You think I am kidding?!) I also want to set aside my favorite pre-maternity clothes, so I have some cozy and loved things to wear after the baby comes.

Because my belly is so in the way now, I tend to drop food on it all the time. David says this is just a preview of our life to come with the kids: we will be wearing stained clothes for the next few years… unless a miracle occurs and we can suddenly afford to dress like those girls on Sex and the City and only wear our outfits once. Ha!

28 weeks pregnant — arms crossed, posing in front of our new bedroom curtains

and the only time you’ll catch me lying flat on my back…

Today I got up at 5am so I could spend some time with David before he headed off to Colorado (for a business trip), replied to some emails and tried to troubleshoot WordPress errors on my Audrey Hepburn Tribute website, headed out to yoga, ran into my friend Chelsea (and got to say bon voyage before she heads off to Mexico for a friends wedding), hung out with lots of pregnant women, checked out organic baby clothes at the local consignment store, picked up a treat at Whole Foods, and headed home, made lunch (and burned my finger for the third time this week on our new convection oven — bleh!), chatted with David, took some belly photos, and updated this blog. All before 2pm. It’s nice to have a busy day. Keeps me distracted and not thinking about how my honey is away for the week.

Good thing I have the baby to keep me company. ;)

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+ Updated: Baby has the hiccups! (We now know that our little one has already turned and is in position! All right, little Leyba!)
+ Had a great visit with my mom last week! The baby wishlist is now almost ready to go online.
+ So upset that I can’t go help with the San Francisco Bay cleanup efforts. One of the downsides of being pregnant.
+ On the upside, my skin is the clearest its been in over a decade. (I need to take comfort in the small things. Pregnancy, while rewarding and totally worth it, can be ass-kicking.)

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Recent flickr favorites:

Click above to view more.

In our house David and I each have our own way of getting ready for the baby. While I’m reading The Womanly Art of Breastfeeding, David is reading Calvin and Hobbs collections. I think they are equally valid (and could be a good commentary on differences between the sexes).

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. Now that I am an adult I couldn’t care less about dressing up or gorging on candy. But I still love all the witch stuff and Halloween movies. In October I always want to watch episodes of Charmed and my favorite witch movies like Practical Magic, and of course the Harry Potter films (the last couple anyhow!). Now I also enjoy seeing the kids dressed up. This year we spent the holiday with friends and their children. It was a blast:

When I was a child I loved decorating the house for Halloween even though we’d only have a handful of trick or treaters (I lived on a very small street where we were the only children for most of my childhood). Instead of the usual filling up a pillowcase with candy like my friends did in the big development neighborhoods nearby, I would spend the evening visiting my fifteen or so neighbors and chatting with each for 15 to 20 minutes at their home. I used to love the fires in the fireplaces and spending quality time with these diverse and interesting people who I had known my whole life. Even today, years later, I feel a bit sentimental about the whole thing. During this time of year, I always feel a little bit sad that I can’t visit with my beloved neighbors from Manning Lane: Natalie, Madeline, and Margaret, who have all passed away (in their upper 90s). (It even makes me sad that my children won’t get to know them. Ah, I am so pregnant and extra-sentimental!) I feel lucky to have such warm childhood Halloween memories.

For me this holiday is still about good friends and that extra element of magic that’s missing from every other day…

Okay, I also have a thing for candy corn.