having henry.

settling in as a family has been the most life changing experience. people keep asking "how's it going?" and i kind of default with "sleepless!", but what i really want to say in my heart is:

so sweet.

when we found out we were expecting henry, i hadn't quite decided i was ready to be a parent. but by the time 9 months passed by, and especially with that bonus week tacked onto the end, i was so ready to meet our little baby. and now that he's here (and i am SO excited it's a "he"), mark and i keep asking ourselves what the heck we used to do with our lives. watch househunters, i guess, and going out the door only took 2 seconds, as opposed to now - 2 hours.

now, we just sit around and look at henry's little nose wrinkle, nuzzle his chubby cheeks, and play with his teeny fingers while he sleeps on our shoulder, lap, arm, etc. we've managed to get out every day for at least a walk around the block. sunday, we walked all the way to the hirschhorn museum to look at mobiles for henry. i love our family walks.

friday, we took our first car trip to hillwood estate. we aimed to get there around 2pm, but it ended up being 4pm. ahh, the life of being a new parent?

grateful.

grateful for family, new and old. (but, especially the newest little family member!)

Henry, we LOVE you. I'm so grateful for this sweet little boy, grateful to be his mother, and grateful for Mark and what an amazing father he is. My heart has grown 100 times bigger since becoming a mother and watching him become a father.

a baby.

Henry George Taylor

born november 15, 2011 at 12:21 pm.

weighing in at a whopping 8 lbs 11 oz, and 20 1/2 inches.

life is so good with sweet henry. we have no idea what we ever did without him.

it's a lucky kind of day.

on a crisp, cool windy day, with red, yellow, and brown leaves falling all around, a girl awoke and decided "today is a day for babies to be born". and so she goes about her day doing everything under the sun to make that happen.

spicy thai lunch with a friend, ginger and cayenne cookies, words of encouragement from grandma, some red leaf raspberry tea, acupressure, and enough walking to make the hips so sore.

now how to communicate this to baby...i had mark tell baby that today is the day in romanian in case that is the baby's language, and i interpreted into spanish, too. can't hurt, right? :)

have a great weekend!

celebrating due date day.

apparently baby had no idea that yesterday was its due date, but we didn't let that dampen our spirits. TH took the afternoon off so we could do some baby celebrating. starting at chick-fil-a and ending in georgetown at the movie theatre, it was a perfectly lovely evening spent with my husband. we did lots of walking, bought a cute outfit for the baby, had lots of good talks about being a mom and dad, and lots of talking to the babe to let it know that TIME'S UP! you get a good 40 weeks in my belly without pressure, but now mama is actively trying to get you to come out and meet the world!

this morning, my midwife gave me some tips to bring labor on and hopefully we'll be meeting this baby soon. full moon tonight, low pressure system is here, and i've been hip swiveling on my yoga ball all day. baby, come out!

40 weeks today, and i'm in good company.

today marks the official 40 weeks for me. but i've been anticipating this for a while. two things i didn't expect while pregnant? my sister-in-law and sister are both pregnant, too!

we found out jodi was pregnant a few months ago (a little boy due in December) and i was ecstatic to know little tiny T will have a cousin close in age. and then jenny dropped the bomb on me on halloween - she and AJ are expecting their second baby in June! my whole pregnancy i've been trying to convince one of my sisters to get pregnant so we can have little tummy babes together, and finally it worked. and not a moment too soon!

i can't wait till next summer when all the new babies are here, and we can all play together. i'm preparing you now for the ridiculous pictures of the baby trio.

and with that, i'm off to hip swivel and walk some stairs.

almost there.

how in the world did i get to 40 weeks?

i totally credit my friend naomi for prepping me for a late baby. her little one was 2 weeks overdue, and she said "count to 42 weeks"! so i'm really not stressing that here we are, just about to week 40 and there is absolutely no sign of this baby coming. i'm calm. pretty relaxed. excited. and i'm really looking forward to some down time this week to bake, finish some craft projects, and finish baby's corner. but, we have begun the long walks around the neighborhood, spicy foods, and next up, this dance. let's get it started in here.

so long, office!

winding down, after 2.5 years of coming into this job every day. today marks the last day of working non-parent. from here on out, any job i have, i will be a working mom! a mom, i tell you!

i can't tell you how happy i am that i gave a definative end-date before baby. there's no way i could continue to come in day after day. my belly has doubled in size over the past couple of weeks and it's getting a little awkward sitting in business meetings with a basketball shaped bump under my shirt.

after today, if anybody wants to find me, i'll be:
at home planted firmly on the couch,
taking long walks around the neighborhood, or
eating spicy, spicy food

happy weekend!

the storm before the calm.

i have been on "go" mode for the past few months. too much work, too many meetings, too much planning and crafting and buying for baby, just too much. it keeps me up at nights thinking how un-ready i am, but how can that be?! i am busy all the time!

yesterday i took an early day and finished some things around the house that had been nagging me. like packing the hospital bag. geez. who waits until 39 weeks to pack that thing? hopefully it will be finished after a target run today. i bought some frames to hang in baby's corner, and some crafts to work on should the baby want to cozy up for another week or 2 or 3. i also worked on some freezer meals.

i feel a little more prepared. but in a way it's nice to have been so busy. i haven't had time to sit around and fret about waiting for a baby (yet, anyway). i know baby will come when the time is right. and waiting for a baby has to be the weirdest thing anyone ever does in their lifetime. waiting for this tiny human that will change your life in ways you cannot even dream.
waiting for...
...that first cry
...a new voice in your house
...giggles and coos from a beautiful babe

waiting to see TH be a dad. waiting to be a mother.

our life of "just the two of us" is soon coming to a close, and we couldn't be more crazy/nervous/happy/tired/excited/anxious/joyful.

accordion for sale.

does anyone want it? oh yeah, it needs some repairs that we haven't had time or patience to fix. womp, womp, womp. oh the tragedy of this story.

a day off.

yesterday was one of those days.

couldn't get out of bed.

belly too big to get dressed.

doctor's waiting room full of crazy people.

baby still very very cozy in my belly.

no parking spots in my neighborhood because of crazy halloween.

but things did get better. i went on a good walk with a friend that helped clear my head a little bit, got a phone call from someone i love with some extremely good news, and then TH rubbed my feet while we talked about our day. turns out his wasn't so great either - we both had a wicked case of the mondays (or manboobs. have you seen this?!).