Pieces of Anna

I hear that when women reach the middle of the third trimester, they either feel like their pregnancy is flying by or that it's dragging on. Turns out I'm in the latter camp, feeling like I will be forever pregnant. Time has slowed down to a crawl, and we are now impatiently awaiting the arrival of our daughter. Not that we are at all ready for her arrival or anything. I have yet to wash her crib sheets, clothes, and blankets. We still don't have a changing pad. The car seat is not installed (at least, it's been purchased). The house is in a state of permanent disarray, with rooms covered in boxes. Of course, the hospital bag hasn't been packed. You get the picture. I have to say, though, that aside from the occasional back ache, I've been feeling pretty good. I did notice the need to slow down overall. I walk slower, I can't lift objects I used to be able to handle easily (like shopping bags), and painting any other room is out of the question at this p...

As I mentioned in my last post , we painted the baby room. We chose to do it over the long Independence Day weekend because we knew that the prep and the painting would take a couple of days. But first, we had to choose a paint color. After much discussion, we settled on a potential color scheme for the baby room: gray, white, yellow, and turquoise. Yep, we are having a girl, and there is not a hint of pink in sight! Let's just say neither of us is a fan of pink. We knew that the white color would show up in the furniture, as we planned to get a white crib and a white daybed (the baby room will also function as a guest room). We decided that yellow and turquoise would make great accent colors, and we could bring those colors to the room in a rug, pillows, bedding, lamps, etc. And we thought that a well-chosen gray color would create a serene environment for the baby, and it would make a great neutral background for the bright accent colors. Finding the right shade of gray turne...

I've officially entered the third trimester of this pregnancy, which means we are in the home stretch now! (And woefully unprepared! We have yet to buy most baby items...) I have to say that I understand now why the second trimester is called the "honeymoon trimester". I didn't blog much about it and that's because it was mostly comfortable and blissfully uneventful. There were times when I would forget that I was pregnant, that's how normal I felt. Third trimester has been pretty good so far as well, but I am noticing some differences. My belly is growing larger every day, and it is beginning to interfere with some daily activities, like sleeping, getting (rolling) out of bed, reaching for plates in the upper kitchen cabinets. These are all minor details, though, and in general I'm feeling pretty good! Here I am at 27 weeks: 27 weeks This photo was taken in the future baby room, and as you can tell from the swatches, we are planning to paint ...

The lovely Amanda, of Poppies and Ice-cream , asked me to contribute to her breakfast club series, and so I happily sent along a recipe that includes some of my favorite foods: tomatoes, bacon, and eggs. :) Check it out here .

Forget-me-nots Pregnancy brain - a continuous, progressive condition in which you forget what you were thinking five seconds ago. May result in awkward pauses in conversations and poor hygiene. The only known cure is giving birth. I forgot to put on deodorant this morning. And I did not even realize this until lunch time. This is what I call pregnancy brain. I have to say that second trimester has been pretty great to me, I definitely lucked out. After the nausea went away, all the good stuff kicked in, sometimes literally. Like feeling the baby kick and having more energy. There is only one part of the second trimester that hasn't been kind to me, and it's affecting my brain. When I first read about pregnancy brain in my book, it was described as a feeling of absentmindedness. This sounded so innocuous that I mostly dismissed it. As it turned out, though, "absentmindedness" is a severe understatement, at least in my case. It started out subtly enough. I...

Dancing at our wedding Yesterday, D and I celebrated our one year anniversary. The weather cooperated with us once again this year, and so we packed a picnic lunch (complete with a quaint basket) and spent the afternoon in the park where we got married. It has been one roller coaster of a year for us. In June, we got married and went on our honeymoon to Virginia and Washington, DC. In July, D started a new job, and I got laid off . In August, we celebrated the wedding of D's sister. My grandmother passed away in September after a battle with ALS. The roller coaster hit rock bottom at that point. In October, hurricane Sandy hit the Northeast, and my stepdad's mom's house was destroyed. She has been living with my parents ever since (there is just now finally some hope of rebuilding). We also started looking for a house to buy at around that time. The next couple of months were all about family. My grandfather, having just lost the love of his life, visited m...

So we bought a condo and moved in a couple of weeks ago. But before we moved in, on the day that we officially closed, we stopped by our new place to take some photos before all of our stuff got piled into every nook and cranny. But let me tell you about the place first. It's a small (826 square feet), 2-bedroom, 1-bathroom condo that is on the first floor of a double-decker. For all of you who don't live in the Boston area, double-decker means there are only two units in this condo association. The house is really old - records say it was built approximately in 1900, which is what usually goes into records when houses are so old that they were built before any record keeping. So it may even be older than that. With age come some issues, but also some really awesome features. We love the fact that our ceilings are 9 feet tall! We also have some really awesome baseboards, chair rail, and trim around the doorways and windows. Without further ado, here is our condo:   Tha...