California Girls

May 2010 I can't believe I forgot to add my California trip to the blog. 

We had planned a birthday/graduation girls trip with Aubree before I found out I was pregnant.  We were spending some time with my cousin Chris who lives in Hollywood and then going to Disneyland for a few days.  My Great Aunt Carolyn was planning to come from Seattle and meet us there as well. 

Josh has turned into this insanely overprotective type who feels like I shouldn't be doing much of anything.  Work and then take a lot of naps at home to rest up from work until the baby comes (his exact words.)  This for anyone who knows me sounds ridiculous.  I get bored and I lose my mind.  Then he told me we should be saving up.  This sounded much more logical.  Then I got to thinking.  A four day quick trip won't cost anymore than he's spent snowboarding without me.  So that was the end of that.  I booked a plane ticket to fly out a few days later and catch the end of the week and a half trip.  Josh was not happy about me taking "his baby" on rides.  I was instructed not to ride anything I shouldn't.  This wouldn't have been a rule I broke had he not included Peter Pan and Dumbo in the list..... How these rides could harm a developping baby is beyond me, but he is still upset I went on them.

So after a not so happy Josh dropped me off at the airport Sunday morning, reminding me again of his list of rides not to dare go on, I was off.  The greatest thing happened, on my way out of the Long Beach airport the TSA lady asked how far along I was and told me how cute my baby bump was!  Up until now I just felt like I looked like I hadn't done an abdominal exercise in my life.  Chris picked me up and brought us to the Farmer's Market where we met up with his good friend Frank.  Chris has a lot of friends I've met through the years and Frank is one of my favorites.  He and Chris act like brothers, Frank being the older brother, no offense Chris. I bought the cutest little soft leather shoes and Uncle Chris bought her a cute little rocker tee and nightgown.  I will of course be posting lots of pics as we dress her in all her outfits.  We had breakfast which started me on a maple syrup craving from then on, I find myself really wanting waffles or pancakes.

Chris brought us around LA being our tour guide.  Aunt Carolyn had only been to LA one time before to see a relative so Chris acted as tour guide and showed us where all the celebs lived, where this was filmed, etc and had been the last few days before I got there.  We went to Zuma beach in Malibu.  Later that night my mom and I went back to Chris' to hang out and stayed up til after 3am talking.  Chris' night doorman can testify this happened again the next few days.  This has happened when Chris has stayed with Josh and I too.  Josh eventually will politely excuse himself and let us stay up til four without him. 

We went to Disneyland the next day.  This was Aunt Carolyn's first time at Disneyland.  We had a lot of fun.  We went to the Blue Bayou where Aubree and I should have shared one Monte Cristo.  I thought I was really hungry.  I snuck a cup of coffee.  I ended up telling Josh about it.  He has vetoed any coffee consumption at our house until after the baby is born.  It's like his fish thing, it doesn't matter what our doctor or the baby books say, he says none.

Aunt Carolyn got her first earhat and didn't want to go on any rides I couldn't go on after they brought her on Indiana Jones so that made it easy enough for me not to be tempted.  We had a lot of fun.  A few days later and it was time to go home.  We drove to Las Vegas and stayed in a really nice room at the Aria that Aunt Carolyn had comped.  Aubree is too young to gamble and I am not a big Vegas fan so we hung out in the room and went to bed and let Mom and Aunt Carolyn try their luck in the casino.  No winners this trip though.  We dropped Aunt Carolyn off at the airport in Vegas and stopped in St George to see Josh's grandparents on the way home.  Josh's grandparents have never met any of my family and my mom was dying to meet them after hearing all the wonderful things about them. 

We got home and Josh was very annoyed to hear I went on Dumbo, Peter Pan, and the Teacups.  He still complains about it from time to time hoping someone will agree with him that this was not a good move on my part.  lol

The halfway mark

We are halfway done with our pregnancy.  If you haven't heard, we are having a little girl.  "Daddy's little girl," Josh says.  Josh doesn't want her to look like him, "She'd be ugly!"  So he is saying she looks like me even though facial features aren't developed enough to tell who they resemble until 30 weeks.  We'll just let him say that and wait and see if he's right that she looks like me. 

He's also decided she can live with us until she is at least 25 so he knows what she is doing.  Heaven help us.  She'll have the best daddy in the world until she is 12 and has boys liking her.  I bought some clothes for her and spent a total of $150 but Josh is convinced I'm sugar coating it and that $300 would be a more honest estimate.  He kept telling me, "I'm not going to be mad.  You can tell me the truth." 

Josh has given me carte blanche on the baby's room.  My first idea was the Disneyland castle with an entourage of different characters as a wall mural.  Then I decided to do Peter Pan.  I even found this amazing Thomas Kinkade Disney fabric.  The walls will be blue and I have two ideas for the mural the Darling children with Peter and Tinkerbell flying over Neverland or flying over London with a J. M. Barrie quote from the book about flying to Neverland above it. 

Names, unfortunately, haven't been an easy task.  Josh doesn't like any of my names and has no suggestions of his own.  So we have a middle and last name.  Something Emy Rieske.  Until we decide I'm just calling her Little Baby Rieske and Josh calls her Baby.  Josh talks to her all the time and gives her kisses.  He talks in this high voice of his so the baby may be surprised to find that the deep voice and that high voice both belong to her Daddy.

We are getting ready to move in a few weeks so I have been packing boxes, sewing baby blankets (everyone is pregnant so they aren't all for us or I'd wait until we've moved), and getting ready for Disneyland in a few days.  I pack the boxes one on top of the other and fill the living room with stacks of labled boxes and then Josh takes the stacks of boxes from the living room and puts them in the guest room.  I won't actually be helping move anything from this house to the next just packing and unpacking boxes really.  Which makes me worry about things.  I may empty out my cedar chest to make it light enough I can move it, then no one will have to deal with the inevitable meltdown if anyone were to injure any of the four paintings on it.  I've wrapped it inside blankets and moved it in my backseat to insure it's safety every time I've moved.  It's a Kimberlee Falk  original I was given for graduation.  When Josh met her he said, "Oh, you painted the chest I'm not allowed to put anything but a blanket or pillow on."

Josh has gone camping twice this Spring already.  I was invited the last time but it was cold at home so I sewed a patchwork quilt while he was gone instead.

Well, hopefully I haven't bored you to death.  I'll try to post again after the Disneyland trip before we move.  I guess I could even post while everyone else moves.  Now I need to pack for Auntie Carolyn's first Disneyland trip!