The Hood Experiment - Part I (pre-baby) - All Set..........Not So Much Anymore

I may have cursed us with the last blog posting......... the Saturday following Brett and I were doing exactly what we had planned to do the last few weeks without baby, watching TV and reading.  All the sudden we heard someone yelling 'FIRE' in our back alley.  I ignored the nonsense and continued reading.  After a few minutes though Brett decided to get up and check it out.  Well sure enough, the guy yelling was not lying; there was a fire at the neighbor’s house (about 6 feet away from ours). We quickly threw on some jackets and boots and grabbed Begley.  Below is the news clip of the events that transpired that night.  Our house (1824 N Wood) is the brown/khaki one behind the reporter and is mentioned in the newscast and article.


http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7928286


So the excellent news is the firefighters did an amazing job and prevented the flames from engulfing our house entirely, the not so excellent news is the amount of water damage we incurred from them dousing our house for more than an hour.


I was convinced all would be fine (my zen bubble hadn’t popped yet); we could live in a BBQ scented house and just air it out.  The contractors can tear walls down around us, but we would stay.  So we did for a week and I continued to pretend the house was totally livable.... even though this is what it looked like (yes it was chilly also).  

After letting the house “dry” out for a week, the contractors came back to reassess the situation and delivered some not so good news, the damage was MUCH more extensive than originally thought.  It’s never good when the insurance adjuster needs to come pay a visit again.  As it turns out, we lost our entire basement and north side wall which includes the kitchen, our master bedroom, bathroom and guest suite.  Displaced once again, not even 15 months since the first fire..........(zen bubble popped)


We moved this past weekend into corporate housing in a downtown hotel off Michigan Avenue.  It is NOT home but the place is really nice and the location is great!  Begley however thinks the location totally sucks and doesn't understand elevators, revolving doors and lack of grass to do his business.  He hopefully will learn soon.


Baby girl is due two weeks from today.  We are very grateful she hasn't made an early appearance yet and gave us some time to get settled.  She will not have her nursery right away, but eventually will be back home and we'll have a great story for her when she is older.


Our next blog update will be welcoming baby girl and you can all meet her for the first time..............

The Hood Experiment - Part I (pre-baby) - ALL SET!

We have been pretty busy the last couple weekends, mainly driving back to Milwaukee for baby showers (we are very fortunate to have such great family and friends and have been very spoiled).

The first trip home we ended up driving a rental car back to Chicago because Brett got in an accident on the infamous Bluemound Road.....oppps.  He was driving to get an oil change, got in a fender bender, and still proceeded to get the oil changed.  It doesn't make much sense to me why he didn't just get the oil changed when he brought the car in to get fixed???  But then again, lots of things he does don't make sense.  Needless to say, we finally got the car back a few days ago and the oil light is on again, looks like Brett has a job for the weekend :)

One of our final preparation steps was to attend a baby basics class which was geared towards the "not so experienced parent", and proved to be very helpful.  The most useful lesson was learning all the weird/freaky things and sounds this little baby will do and make over the first few weeks, but are normal.........so that saved about ten phone calls to the pediatrician.

Aside from attending class and baby showers, we have managed to complete her nursery and wash all her clothes, sheets, towels, etc.  We are even prepared with her "coming home outfit" and a pair of booties to keep her toes warm.

Her little sheepskin booties, cannot wait to put these on her tiny feet!

 When you walk into the nursery (the white, black and grey elephants above the crib are her mobile, not part of the wall.........bad camera angle)

 Her crib with her sleep sheet

The view with the changing table.  The pictures on the wall are from a children's book written by Bob Dylan based on his song 'Forever Young'.....mine and Brett's favorite song.

The other side of her room with a bookcase and wardrobe closet.

I always thought during the last month of pregnancy that we (especially me) would be totally freaked out and nervous.  For some strange reason though, we are both extremely calm.  I like to refer to it as my "zen bubble"and the bubble is the best place to be!  We are going to take the next few weeks and watch all the bad TV we can, sleep lots and go out to nice dinners.... all things we imagine we'll miss when the little one arrives.

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)