Say goodbye to the 2nd tri

Holy smokes!  It's two-thirds of the way over.  I can't believe it.  It has gone so fast, and I'm now less than 100 days away from my due date - which means it's really soon that we could be bringing this little guy home with us.  Yikes!

We are currently trying to enjoy as much as we can - while our house is reaching it's 15-20 life span apparently.  We went to another Bears game (season tickets are so amazing - I want them every year) and the weather was just beautiful.  I realize I'm wearing a poofy coat in the the second picture, but that was more precautionary so that I wouldn't feel cold and it was the end of the game.  And, it's the coat I bought at the end of last season on sale, so I'm trying to get as much wear from it as I can before I'm carrying a watermelon and it won't zip anymore.

See the sweet argyle scarf behind my left ear?  If we had been on time to the game, I probably would have gotten one.  Oh well, the spicy v-bloody mary and veggie burrito were worth it too.

Everyone looks happy because we won!!  It was a great game to be attending, it would have probably been a boring game to go to since it was essentially a blow out.

Just a random pic of the turned off Buckingham Fountain with the city skyline.  

So, how is our house falling apart you may ask?  Well, we had a chimney sweeper person (no, they were NOT dressed like those in Mary Poppins, nor did they sing and dance, or jump from rooftop to rooftop - seriously disappointing) come and check our dryer vent and our fireplace.  The insert in our fireplace is cracked (ugh) and the dryer vent through either their own methods of cleaning or through the problem of our venting being done poorly in the mid-90's essentially collapsed and fell apart.  That means we are a bit ghetto right now with venting our dryer through our back door because otherwise we could set fire to our building.  And as much as I do appreciate the work of our fine firefighters, I feel like I would like to not experiment with using a fire extinguisher.  So we are hoping to rip our ceiling a little bit and snake a new hose through there to fix our dryer venting.  

I guess that's the main of it, in the end it's more of a pain in the butt, and not actually that we are going to have our house condemned.  But seriously, as John said yesterday "it seems like owning our condo for the first two years was 'gravy' (yes, he said gravy?), and now we are getting essentially sh*t on at every turn".  I have to say that I tend to agree, although I don't know that I would have said gravy.  I'm hoping that these will be the worst of it, and we will only essentially be left with minor things after this - but I imagine that with such an old building it won't be.  I miss the days of calling a landlord when things were broken -- it's strangely difficult to dial my own number from my own phone.  I always get a busy signal.  

We're getting quite the eclectic start to our nursery.  Side note: we've actually started using the word "nursery" in every day conversation, so that it's not as shocking when we actually have to start using it that way.  We have a wooden moose (thanks Katie for our awesome present!), an orange corduroy aardvark (love him!), Paddington Bear, the Crawling Bear from when I was a kid (he doesn't crawl, but his shirt assures him he can), and of course our family motto print (Eat Well, Travel Often) -- this is probably a serious repeat, but I forget where I post things and who sees them, so figured I would also share on here.

And we are going to get a rug from Flor.  Molly works there and has been so kind as to off her services to help us getting it ordered (which I believe comes with a discount!).  Sorry for the poor quality of the picture - but I took a picture of the rug we want off my computer screen. 

We might change a couple of the colors out, I think the blue/green we will pick to be a bit darker to match the color in the print.  I'm excited for it though.  Should be fun, and bright!  

I wish I was better at figuring out those "inspiration boards", that would probably be a lot better presentation.  I'll work on that.  See what I can come up with.  I'm savvy, maybe not tech savvy, but I'm savvy.  I should be able to figure something out.

And finally, my last picture of my last week of my 2nd trimester.  I say adieu to the last 26 weeks, and bonjour to the final 13 weeks and 6 days.  

I'm pretty sure I'm not ready for this.  I don't think I'll ever be ready -- but I guess I don't have too much time left to think about it before diving right in. 

He's moving a lot more, although not consistent or anything.  I can actually feel him a lot more.  I don't notice any time more than others really, but I do realize that he moves around a lot more on Saturday mornings - which clearly is because Saturday mornings are the best time of the week.  So he's already brilliant!  Ha.. lame sauce, I know.  But it's cool to have him move around.  It's still kind of creepy since my body is no longer my own and moves on it's own accord, but you know, I'll take it.  Ha. 

I've realized in the last few days, now that I'm starting to actually feel big, I might have a bit more Hoyt in me than I would like, with worrying about weight and how I look.  I realize that getting round comes with the process, but I'm really struggling with it.  It's tough for me, and I have a hard time accepting that it's okay.  I'm hoping that as I start to feel more pregnant that it will help.  Until then, we'll see how it goes.  I just need to get myself moving and off the couch and maybe do some more walking and go to the gym or something (I'm paying that every month for a reason, right??).  So yeah, just some of the random things that I find hard .. I guess it's not so bad.

What was the favorite part of being pregnant for others?  When did you really feel pregnant?  I'm just getting there, and I'm 6 months in.. ha.  What are every one's plans for the holidays?  We are going to KC again until Christmas Day and then flying back home to Chicago.... doing something fun for our last New Year's as just the two of us... Should be a good time.

Personal gripe time:  Chicago bar bathrooms.  They are always so freaking cold!  Don't they keep heaters in there???  Grrr, gets me every time.  :)