One more Moore

Day tripper

Hi-ya! This is where we've been. Well, we just went there on Thursday. Chris' Mom is in town to help out with the new babe and we decided to high-tail it up to Solvang. Have you ever been? You really must. It's great and only about a 2 hour drive north of LA.
They are famous for these bad boys. Æbleskivers. Yummmm. We have an Æbleskiver pan, you know. We make them every Christmas morning. Delish! We ate here:
The Red Viking Restaurant. It was recommended by the folks at the Visitors Center and it was pretty darn good. Very authentic Danish food. Very Smorgasbord-y.
There are a ton of windmills in this little Danish town:
It's so nice to get out of the city once in a while and soak-up all the adorable-ness of these villages.
We were talking today about how it didn't even feel like we were still in California. Anyway, no trip to Solvang would be complete without getting your picture taken by the life-size clog:
It's been so helpful having my Mom in town last week and then Chris' Mom here this week. I had a rather telling conversation with my Mom one night when we had run out to the market.

Scene: 9:00 p.m. at the stoplight on Sepulveda Blvd.

Mom: "You'd better lock your doors."
Me: "Huh?"
Mom: "You don't want to get car-jacked."
Me:...."huh? Car-jacked? Are you  serious?"
Mom: "Don't you ever worry about getting car-jacked?"
Me: "No. I've lived in LA for 3 years. The thought of being 'car-jacked' has never once occurred to me."
Mom: "Really? I lock my car all the time."
Me: Mom, you live in Provo, UT.

I've thought about this conversation long and hard and Mom, I think it's time to cut back on the COURT TV. I  love you, really I do.

The next day I noticed my purse had been moved from it's usual resting place (by the front door.) 

Me: "Mom??"
Mom: "I moved your purse so people walking by outside wouldn't be able to see it."
Me: "Because I might get purse-jacked?"

Yes, definitely cut back on the COURT TV.

So guys, I just wanted to say THANK YOU for all your comments as of late- esp regarding those thoughts of having a new babe in the house. I had no idea that I'd ever been feeling those emotions. It still makes me a little sad, but each day gets easier. He just wants our attention so desperately. Chris has been off work since DWTS ended, which has been soo helpful (and now, I'm trying to scheme a way for him not to go back to work until season 7 starts! LOL! Think we can pull it off??) Anyway- you guys are so great. Thanks for being so supportive and helpful.

I can't believe I'm going to say this out loud, but I am REALLY struggling with the name Margot. I never call her that (none of us do). She is referred to as 'the baby.' Someone the other day asked me what her name was and I nervously said "Margot" like, 'is that okay with you???"Just totally unsure of myself. I've just been sick about it. The thing is I don't even know what I would change it to, if we changed it. I think I just like how it looks on paper, with the 'T'  at the end, but the 'T' is silent (unless you are my 85 year old Grandma Betty who pronounces it with the 'T'). Oy vei. All the stress has turned me Jewish. I know, it's not too late to change it if I'm not feeling it, but I'm not feeling ANYTHING. I want a name I can feel good and proud about. She needs a name. She's a person, too! Man- this baby business is tough.

Have a lovely weekend!

xoxo

Is this what happens when you have a girl?

Ridiculously cute hats, coy little poses. She may be smiling here, but I know she was thinking something like this:
Henry calls this her "Pirate Face." Argh Matey! She was a big 5 days old here. Wow. I'm in love.

Today he turned 3

He said he wanted "strawberry cake." But he doesn't like strawberries. And then I remembered he had strawberry shortcake last week, sans strawberries. Just cake n' cream. I think it was mostly the whipped cream that he was after. So I made an angel food cake, added heaps of cream and threw on some mandarin oranges and berries (okay so it was only for looks.) He got his little train, ran it over the whipped cream and sucked it off the bottom of the wheels. It was a birthday dream come true.

"Henry you are turning 3!!" I said to him last week.
"And then I'll be 4, and then 5!" he replied.
"When you turn 5, you'll get to go to Kindergarten."
"What's Kindergarten?"
"It's school for all the boys and girls who are 5 years old."
"I don't want to go to Kindergarten. I just want to go to The Olive Garden,  K, Mama?"

I curled up next to Henry in bed the other night while he was sleeping and just cried. He seems so much bigger today than he did last week. Having a new baby in the house means he is no longer my baby and that makes me really sad. He's the 'big' brother now. But he doesn't like being called 'big'. He always reminds me that he's little. That he's my little boy. Having a new baby has given me all these emotions that I just don't know what to do with.  A part of me is sad that I can't be 100% Henry all the time like I was before. He's having to grow up in new ways now that there's a baby around. The first few days with Margot were a little tough. He was talky-talky all the time, bouncing off the walls and very loud. He warmed up to her real quickly though and is constantly hugging and kissing and even eeked out an "I'm so lucky to have a sister" yesterday. He seems to have mellowed out back to his regular self and we are trying to settle into some sort of normalcy with all the changes, re-assuring him that he is still our #1 boy (to which he reminds us that he's a KID!)

Things I love about my sweet Henry:

• You like telling jokes
• You wanted to go to El Chollo for your birthday so you could have Enchilada soup. You think  you are so funny when you call it "El Chollo Loco"
• You love trains and will play with them for hours a day
• You love asparagus and rootbeer
• You are so sweet natured and tender-hearted
• You and Papa dancing around the house at night to Johnny Cash's "Orange Blossom Special" singing "Going down to Florida to get some sand in my shoes, or maybe California, to get some sand in my shoes..."
• You, walking around the house singing "Sugar, Sugar, Honey, Honey" and "Lollipop, Lollipop, Oh lolly lollipop." You love that Papa made you your own playlist on his iPod and ask for songs off your 'list' when we are in the car, often calling out "Louder, Papa. Louder!"
• When I tell you I love you, you ask me to tell you what I love about you and when I list out all the things, you ask me to 'tell you that story again'

Happy Birthday My Darling Boy! I love you to pieces.

xoxo

She's here!!

Hooray!! I thought the day would never come. We headed to the hospital on Wed around noon and were sent to triage to see if they were going to admit us or have us come back. 2 1/2 hours later (why do those things always take so long?) they decided that since I was dialated to a 4, I could stay. We got checked in, I had to have some penicillin administered and yaddy-ya-ya. I was given a small dose of pitocin at 5:45 and by 6:45 she was ready to come out. They called the Dr., got the room ready and out she came at 7:13 p.m. She is so lovely (swollen eyes and all!) and we are over the moon with her. She smells so delicious and I can't keep my cheeks off her soft hair. They just smell so yummy, don't they? The recovery and everything is going much smoother than it did with Henry. I just remember feeling so awful, and I was really dreading this part, but all is well. I'm feeling really good.
Chris brought Henry by today to meet his new sister. He had the following to say about it:

1) She cries a lot.

2) He can't sit on the bed by me and the baby because it will make him grumpy.

He was totally uninterested in her (can you tell???) and that is a-ok. He'll come around when he is ready. It's a lot to take in and I'm not going to push all this baby-business on him.

So here's the deets: She was born 5/14,  weighed 8 lbs 14 oz, and her height, well it's a mystery. No one can agree. Around 20". And her name? Uh...we still haven't handed in the birth certificate forms.  After MUCH deliberation, I think we are going for Margot Ryan Moore. I was really gunning for Tess, but then realized that Tess Moore just didn't have enough syllables. It sounded strange if you said it too fast, like it was a college or a corporation. Chris really wanted Maggie but we wouldn't name her Margaret, we'd name her Magnolia and call her Maggie. In fact before we ever got pregnant, I told him that when we had a girl, I wanted to name her Maggie. I really like/liked the name but for some reason, it wasn't sticking with me this time around. I think it's becoming more popular anyway which was a bit of a turn off for me. I could never get Chris to agree on Olive and Amelia was actually something I originally liked that Chris didn't but he had a change of heart this past week and we had it in our top 5 but we decided against it. So I guess if her name is Margot, you could still call her Maggie. I really don't like not feeling 100% and being up against this deadline. It's completely stressing me  out. I just want to be sure because your childs name is a big deal and I don't want to settle for something. I really like Margot. I just don't know if it's right. We are both going to sleep on it and see how we feel in the morning. We don't want to drag it out and have promised ourselves that we are handing in the paperwork before I check out in the morning.

Today is our 10-year wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary, Hon! We got ourselves a family!!

xoxo

**edited to say: She's officially Margot Ryan Moore!

Ready to rock-n-roll!

Having contractions. Going to the hospital. Right. Now. Wish us luck!

One of my most favorite places...

I love the Huntington, I really do. We have annual passes but Chris has never been. It was his first day off in the last 7 so we packed up the car and headed out. It was overcast and just the most perfect day to be out strolling the grounds.
I know I've bloggd about this before, but they have the most incredible Children's garden. Like this get-up. You can't tell from the photo, but it's miniature with little tables and chairs inside. Everything in there is made for the little people in your lives. Little tunnels for running through, little hills to climb, and little doors to open and close.
And the Japanese Gardens, they are just the best. The Huntington is just huge, everything there feels like it goes on forever. Anyway- back to the Japanese Garden:
Aren't the Koi gorgeous? There were just a ton of them today- all bunched up, swimming together.
The Rose Garden smelled incredible as usual. Anyway, I was hopeful that all the walking would get things moving around here. No such luck.
We headed downtown to Union Station last Saturday to get our choo-choo on (did you know it was National Train Day?) I've done so much walking. And eating of spicy foods. And pineapple. And drinking of Raspberry Leaf Herbal Tea. I'm too chicken to try castor oil. Have you heard of the side effects? Like I want to be dealing with that while in labor!  Everyone keeps telling us about this place in the valley where we can order a "pregnancy salad." Allegedly it's supposed to put you in labor. There's always the Pregnant Burrito. Whatever that is.

What I'll be doing today...

Did you know:

When a pregnant Plains Indian woman was near term and showed no sign of going into labor, tribe members would tie her to a rock in an open field and stage a mock "attack," pulling up their horses only at the very last minute, in hopes of inducing labor. The Pilgrims, for their part, would stand women whose babies were late against a pole, strap them to it, and pound the pole up and down against the ground -- apparently hoping to shake the baby loose.

All I need is a rock, open field and volunteers.

By the way, I have the exact same look on my face.

I deserve a medal and I can't believe it didn't put me in labor

Hi folks. 40 weeks. Today. Cripes. Last night I braved the "Dancing with the Stars 100th episode/wrap party" in Hollywood. If that wasn't going to put me in labor, nothing would. I was the most pregnant lady there (and I think the most clothed.) I even wore heels. Where's my award?? More people accidentally rubbed up against my belly than wanted to. My favorite was the 20-something, super-tan, spike-haired stranger who came up to me and said, "Puhhhhleeeezzzze tell me that thing is coming out soon." You have no idea Mister. Marlee Matlins eyes about popped out of her head when she saw me. She even poked my belly (trying to pop it) but to no avail. Baby has not popped out yet. Puhhhleeezze tell me she'll be here soon.  I think I'm dying.

The (tragic) tale of the lounge pants

Hi-ya. So that took a little longer than expected (as do most things in my life at this point.) The other night, whilst stapling the L-shaped tear in my lounge pants shut, I decided it was time for some new ones. It's sad that it got to that point, isn't it? Don't ask why I didn't just sew the tear in the old lounge pants. Stapling seemed quicker and more logical, although the staple weaseled it's way out by nights end, so clearly that was no better solution. But it was quicker than having to change the thread in my machine. You know I've had those lounge pants forever. Every time Chris witnessed me in them, he'd ask why I didn't just buy some new ones. I have people. And they shrunk and  yaddy-ya-ya. I'd seen these Amy Butler lounge pants popping up all around blog-land for a while and it was one of the last things on my to-do list before the baby comes. I thought they'd be perfect for taking to the hospital, etc. Plus they were all wide-leggy and comfortable looking.

I had some old vintage sheets that I wanted to make them out of. The first pair, were these white ones with blue flowers. They have about a 2 foot border of flowers and the rest is this crisp white cotton. They are sooo soft.

The second were these pink ones with pink roses. I picked up this sheet at a thrift shop when I was in Utah in February. I just love the print and thought they'd make the most perfect lounge pants. The great thing about using sheets for these particular pants is that they are the perfect weight for summertime. Light and airy, comfy and cozy.

The great thing is, if you match the pattern up right, you can line-up the bottom of the pant leg with the border of the sheet and avoid having to hem them (one of my least favorite things.) I was so thrilled and spent the evening extending out the pattern (the pieces in the book are small and so you'll need freezer paper to extend them for the length), cutting, sewing, catching up on TiVo, getting more and more excited for my new lounge pants. Sacraficing my sleep for said lounge pants. Working my little fingers to the bone until well after midnight. I was so excited to try them on, so I did.

Bad idea.

Very bad idea.

Even worse idea at 1:30 a.m.

Note to self: Don't make clothes when you are 10 months pregnant, especially when they are in your pre-pregnancy size. Seriously what was I thinking? I'll tell you what I was thinking. I was thinking that they looked very generous and loose-y goosey in size and that they'd surely fit. Never mind the 50 pregnancy lbs I've gained (did I just say that out loud?) 50 lbs. Does that really have an effect on your clothing size? For reals? You mean I'm not just 50 lbs of belly? I should start preparing myself now, that I won't be having a 50 lb baby? Now you know why the pictures are taken from the knees down. I couldn't get them past my giant rear-end (or thighs, or belly or..okay anything north of my quickly disappearing knee-caps.)

Heidi says, "Hey, at least you'll have something to motivate you to get that baby weight off."

Looks like I'll be seeing you in 2009, lounge pants (if I'm lucky.)

Still here...

Just popping in real quick- will post on Friday. No baby. No sign of baby coming soon. No  name. Finally packed hospital bag. Grungy, disgusting bathroom cleaned. Phew. Feeling a lot better about things. Making some lounge pants tonight that I am so excited about. Will share tomorrow.

If you haven't heard, a new childrens craft blog was recently launched called The Crafty Crow by the fabulous Cassie of Bella Dia. Lots of wonderful childrens crafts, for all ages, can be found there. Check it out and be sure to bookmark it!

xoxo