The Hood Experiment - Part I (pre-baby) Cabo and a foot???????

It's been awhile since our last update, but we have been spending a lot of time doing non-baby related things.  We have been spending evenings out in the city and also caught Seinfeld standup live.  Most fun of all though, we just returned back from a trip to Cabo San Lucas.  For those who do not know, this is our absolute favorite place on earth and we try and visit once a year.  We stay at a different place each year and opted to stay on the Pacific side at a resort built on a cliff.  The vacation ended up being the best vacation we have ever had, so very relaxing and beautiful!!!!!

The hotel lobby, I made Brett pose by the tree, he felt like a nerd, ha.

 One view of the resort, there were villas scattered throughout the cliff. LOTS of hiking up and down, our legs were burning the whole vacation but the views were amazing

A morning walk on the cliffs and great view of the main building (this time I felt like a nerd).

Walk on the beach.  

Christmas Dinner.

The Sunset on our last night, so gorgeous.

Even though we may have not been focusing on baby things, baby girl doesn't let us forget she is there.  She is a very active baby (even the doc made a comment) and is constantly moving around and hiccups every night after dinner.  The most amazing (and strange) experience throughout this pregnancy happened on vacation when we actually saw the outline of her foot when she kicked!  Now, I have heard people talk about this happening and just blew it off because it is a bit weird and creepy to me.  BUT when we saw it for the first time it was very amazing, that is after I got over my initial hibbie jibbies and the creep factor.  It is pretty crazy now that we can tell how she is positioned and where her hands and feet are.  Only 8 more weeks to go until we are parents........OH MY GOD..................

HAPPY NEW YEARS TO EVERYONE.  CHEERS!

The Hood Experiment - Part I (pre-baby) - Snowflakes, booties, onesies, and more

The third trimester is here, which now means doctor visits every other week, stronger kicks from baby girl and only 12 more weeks to go......oy ve (DEEP BREATH)!

This weekend brought two firsts, the first snowfall and the first baby shower. On Saturday morning, Chicago awoke to a winter wonderland. The first snowfall is always so pretty. Begley thought so also and had the best day of his life......(so far). He frolicked in the yard all day, it was nearly impossible to get him to come inside.

When we finally did get the little guy inside, this is what he did the rest of the night, which made for a very relaxing evening for all of us.

Sunday was my first baby shower in Milwaukee. The Chicago girls and Milwaukee girls all got together and we had a great time. The food was wonderful, as was the atmosphere. I must admit I was a bit nervous about the baby shower game, seeing as I am the furthest thing from being a baby expert.  But, "Baby Family Fued" ended up being very fun and even got a bit competitive. It also made me feel better about my baby knowledge, so thanks for the confidence boost.

Baby girl was VERY spoiled by all my friends, and her Grandmas's and Aunt's!  She will be a very stylish girl, there is no doubt about that. We had a great time and I can't thank the hostesses as well as all the guests enough. Everyone went way above and beyond, which was not necessary, but I really do appreciate it all.  Now I just need to find room for all this stuff :)

Some Snapshots From the Days Events!

The Hood Experiment - Part I (pre-baby) - The Start of Nursery Design

About a week ago Brett and I found ourselves with one full day with nothing on the agenda (this never happens).  We took advantage of this time and decided to start nursery design.  The baby's room is going to be what is/was our office.  We spent some time moving the office furniture and found the perfect new space for all the items (a bit more crammed, but we can deal).

After the move, we hit up the store and got baby girl some furniture and ordered her crib online, which much to our surprise was in stock and delivered three days later.  Having boxes laying around the house is something that drives me nuts, so part of the weekend was filled with furniture assembling.

When the crib was complete, Begley JUST HAD to test it out......he actully took a liking to it and later was found under the crib.......I think he wanted to get back in but settled for under and got his big puggle body stuck!

I went downstairs after the assembling was complete to get Brett to show off my work.....this is what I found:

  In all fairness, Brett was very productive when not napping:)

Lots more nursery work to be done, but for now, at least there aren't any more boxes.  Next, we need to get a mattress, some bedding and choose the wall decor.  I have found a new obsession, Jonathan Adler, and plan to use many of his designs in the new space.

Aside from nursery design, we are also happy to share that all is still well and healthy for baby girl, everything is on track and she is continuing to grow!

Popper Stoppers

These are hilarious, they really do have everything for pregnant woman.  I will be investing in a few of these over the next three months :)

The Hood Experiment - Part I (pre-baby) - Baby Registering and Morphing

Registering:

So things are coming along with us and all seems to be going well and everyone is feeling good.  Baby is growing and we assume this because my belly button looks like it might pop out very very soon.  Brett finds this absolutely hilarious and I do NOT, as belly buttons, along with toes and veins really creep me out! I might have to put a bandaid over it for the next few months :(

We realized the other day that this pregnancy is already half over and February 28th is going to be here before we know it, YIKES.  We weren't sure where to begin this process of preparing for a baby but since some baby showers are marked on the calendar, we thought it would be best to begin registering!  The city of Chicago seems to only specialize in expensive boutique baby stores so drove to the burbs and hit up one of the big baby superstores.  Neither of us had any clue what to expect, all we could relate to was registering for our wedding, but even that is different because we had a better sense of what we needed.

What I had learned from wedding registering is that Brett LOVES to register and loves the price gun, so of course, when the  gun was offered, he grabbed immediately and headed towards the first aisle.  He had lots of fun and just about scanned everything!!!!  I would walk away for a bit and all I could hear was that scanner working over time.........thank goodness registry lists can be edited online.

The aisles just seemed endless, neither of us realized how many things there are for babies.  We got to the bottle aisle and were both totally overwhelmed, there are seriously a million different types of bottle brands to choose from.  Then there were wipe warmers (really?) and aisles of blankets and bibs.....who knew there was a receiving blanket (I still don't know what this is) and a stroller blanket (this one I can figure out).  Oh well, we tried our best and hopefully did ok.  Worst case scenario, after baby girl is born, one of us might need to make an emergency trip to the store to get something we forgot.  Thanks though to a very good (and experienced) friend for reviewing my list and making some helpful suggestions, she may have had a good laugh at some random items :)

Morphing:

We had asked our parents to send us baby pictures from the day we were born, as it is always fun to imagine what the baby will look like.  Well after receiving both pictures we got a very good laugh at baby Crissy and decided we hope baby girl takes more after her Dad than her Mom:) Of course then I had to go one more step further and use a morphing website.......well you can see the result of that baby below also.

Baby Brett (very angelic)

Baby Crissy (hmmm)

Morphed Baby (hahaha)

The Hood Experiment - Part I (pre-baby) - What is it going to be?

Welcome to "Peeking under the Hood," our documentation of The Hood Experiment (AKA starting a family). We decided to start a blog so friends and family could get a look into our lives both pre- and post- baby and of course offer any tips or helpful advice new parents need. Seeing as neither of us have changed a diaper before, I think we will be needing a lot!

But, before we get ahead of ourselves, let's start with how we got to where we are today. We won't drag you through all the boring parts of how we met, fell in love, married, etc....but instead will start with the the last year and half, which has been the furthest thing from monotonous. We have both switched jobs, lost loved ones very close to our hearts, lost our first dog, and experienced a house fire. After having to move out of our house for four months, we moved back into a new and improved house in March of 2010 and had even got a new puppy named Begley. Things finally had seemed to be getting back to normal for us and the summer of 2010 was going to be a busy one with friends weddings, bachelor/bachelorette parties, wedding showers, 30th birthday celebrations, summer BBQs, etc. In early July, much to our surprise (and 10 pregnancy tests later) we found out that a bambino was scheduled to arrive in late February. There are no words for what we felt at the time we heard the news......but as we had learned from the last year or so, life is not planned and throws unexpected surprises at you!

 The Fire.....Our House SCORCHED

 The Cause of the Fire

 Day After the Fire, All Boarded Up and Time to Find Temporary Housing 

 Begley Arrives...AWWW Brett will be a Great Dad!

 Begley Getting Adjust to the Temporary Housing

 Still Adjusting

 All Adjusted, Time to Play!

 It's Been Stressful, Belly Rub Please!

 4 VERY LONG Months, But Finally the House is Complete, Time to Move HOME!

 Front Yard BBQ

 Fun at a Friends Wedding

 Go Badgers!

Soon To Be Four!!!

It is hard to believe, but 5 months have already passed. We have been very fortunate and have had no complications or crazy hormone outbreaks (Brett so far has had it incredibly easy). Some changes though that have occurred over the last 5 months include my insane cravings for anything orange (oranges, orange juice, orange soda, orange mambas...mmmmm, yum), my inability to stay up past 10:00 PM, and my great napping skills (something I was never able to do before). Brett has also acquired these excellent napping skills (he says he naps so I feel less guilty...oy!) and has formed a liking for onions which is just strange considering he use to not touch anything that was even on the same plate as an onion.

So the day had finally arrived when we get to find out the the sex of our baby. There was a lot of anticipation going into the appointment. We had conducted every non scientific gender predictor test and even performed a few "old wives tales" tests (dangling a wedding ring over my stomach to see which way it moved, analyzing my cravings, and paying attention to what side the baby was kicking on.......) and all results pointed towards a girl. However, Brett was having dreams it was going to be a a boy........(if you are thinking that you thought the woman WHO IS ACTUALLY carrying the child has these types of dreams, you are correct, but what can I say, Brett is having them).

After a very long and exciting doctor appointment, we found out we are having a baby GIRL due on Feb 28th!!!!!! We are both very excited and over the next four months will start preparing for little bambino Hood. The blog will be updated every couple weeks, feel free to continue to follow or delete if this is the last you want to hear from us.