Nail Painting Milestone!

My super-long-time-friend Holly was the first to paint Ella's nails when she was 2 but since then it's been a fun thing for me to do with Ella every once in a while. Well, lately with flip flop weather we've been painting nails more often. Last time I let Ella try to paint a little herself and she did ok! This time she wanted to do it (almost) all by herself. It was a fun mommy-daughter afternoon event!

Finished product-not bad! And yes, she chose different colors for each foot!

Babymoon!

Since I first heard about it pre-Ella, I've been a big proponent of the "babymoon" (like a honeymoon but before a baby not after a wedding). We're all about making our marriage the priority and this is a great way to reconnect and spend some quality time as a couple before our lives change with #2. Last time we went on a cruise to Alaska (which was AMAZING). This time we went to DC for 4 days which was not as exotic but still wonderful! We didn't take many pics to tell the story of the weekend but I'll include a few.

Here are some of the fun things we did:
-Walked around Old Town Alexandria where we spent an hour in Paper Source (we were both enthralled!), went a in a couple baby stores (One was insanely expensive-Chris saw maternity jeans for $180, and the other one was so jam packed the sensory overload nearly had us twitching). We also decided to randomly stop and eat Nachos which were an amazing afternoon snack. It felt great/weird to have the freedom to just wander and eat when we wanted with no time frame-it started to kick in that we were really on vacation!

-We also got to go to a Second City Comedy Show at the Shakespeare Theatre which was AWESOME. WE're big fans of improv so it was awesome that the troupe that turned out Steve Carrell and Tina Fey among many others happened to be in town and pretty cheap! It was really an awesome show-I'd defintely see them again.-We explored Georgetown and ate at Filomena, a restaurant that feels like an old Italian grandmother's dining room :-) Very Tasty.
-Went to the Georgetown Flea Market (cooler than I expected and across the street from the fanciest Safeway I've ever been in-marble and wood floors, touch screen deli ordering menus, and of course, my reason for entering-Starbucks :-) )
-Went to church at the National Cathedral and got to hear Dr.Thomas Long, one of the foremost authors and professors on preaching in the nation. It was wonderful! And awesome to worship the same God in a REALLLLLY different environment. Loved it.
-Went to the Eastern Market to check out local produce, jewelry, crafts, baked goods, fish, meat, cheese etc. It was fun until...the clouds and tornado warnings rolled in...
then we retreated inside for lunch

That's Chris in the green shirt on the back right :-) Minutes later there was a down pour and they had to roll down the sides of our little enclosure (but all the people on the edges got soaked anyway). We're storm lovers so it was a fun little adventure.

-We did lots of walking around National Harbor and ate at Ketchup (BOO) and another night at Grace's Mandarin (AWESOME). At Grace's we timed our dinner reservation (9pm) and seating choice (outside, facing the water) around the time of the weekly fireworks at the Gaylord Hotel next door. It was beautiful!! (On a funny note-Chris was totally offended by this crochety guy at the table next to us who NEVER turned around to look at the fireworks throughout the entire show. Who has fireworks going on RIGHT behind them and doesn't turn around? Oh well, we were in bliss :-))

-I also spent a while in Charming Charlie a really cool accesory store I discovered a few months ago. It looks like a boutique but has CHEAP prices for seemingly decent quality jewelry, purses etc. It's also very aesthetically pleasing with everything in the large space separated by color family-beautiful! After an hour I bought a ring for $7 but enjoyed myself thoroughly :-)

-Our other shopping discovery was a kitchen store in National Harbor that we both loved and spent an hour in. I'm pretty obsessed with the Food Network and eating and cooking and Chris is way into eating and gardening so it was a fun store to explore! We found a game there that looked like fun (Foodie Fight-kinda like trivial pursuit for Foodies) but was pretty expensive. I'm happy to say I found it on Amazon for less than 1/2 the price and we played it a couple days ago-SO much fun!

-There was also a lot of talking about baby gear, room decor, the baby's name (secret and still partially undecided), and parenting techniques. There's not a whole lot we want to do differently with this baby as far as sleep/feeding stuff but we're trying to prepare for what "worked" with Ella to fail miserably with #2. But we're still hoping and praying for another kid who eats quickly and sleeps really well. Optimism never hurt anyone ;-)

And finally and quite sadly, the only picture of us from the whole weekend and it was taken when I wasn't looking. And it was post swimming so I'm looking ROUGH and you can't even see that I'm pregnant. Oh well :-) It was a fabulous weekend and I'm beside myself with excitment about having another baby with my seriously amazing husband.

Prego Friends Countdown...

When it took us a year and a half to get pregnant this time I had moments of fearing all my friends would be done with childbearing by the time I finally had another baby. I worried that I wouldn't have a "pregnancy buddy" which I distinctly remember Chris writing a paper about in college where he found research supporting easier pregnancies and better final outcomes if a woman had a close friend who was also pregnant. Well, as with most of my fears, they were unfounded and I know probably a dozen pregnant people right now and MANY close friends. In fact, there's a group of about 7 of us from college who still stay in touch and the 5 of us who are married are ALL pregnant right now! Insanity. Anyway, with no shortage of prego buddies, it's been so much fun to share all the joys and woes and of course-belly pictures! As of now, 2 friends have had their babies. I have one more due in June and then my turn!!

My friend Michelle at her baby shower...

and a couple weeks later Adyson was born!

My friend Jennifer from college at 39 weeks. I got to visit her in Boston and she went into labor 4 days later!

And her beautiful son Henry was born!

My friend Annie is due in June!

And Holly is due in October...with TWINS!

So much baby excitement all around. I'm loving it!

I love food

So, Chris thinks it's hilarious that though I generally love food (eating it, watching TV shows about it, cooking it, shopping for it) this has been magnified in this pregnancy. I have come to really appreciate what we now call "food porn." At work a few months ago I found myself having a spare minute and looking up pictures of food online. I'm watching the Food Network more than ever and subscribed to Food Network Magazine (mostly for the pictures!). It makes me very happy :-) Anyway, here are a few food pics of my own from a recent AMAZING meal at a restaurant in the city. Mmmmm....



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End of Preschool Year 2!

Ella is finished with preschool for the year! She did really well this year in her class of 14 and bonded much more than last year with the kids in her class. There was more clique-ishness in a class of 3 and 4 year olds than I would have liked/expected but hopefully Ella is learning some valuable lessons about how to handle that. A few weeks ago her class sent home inviations for a "Mother's Day Garden Party" to all the moms and we got to join them for a fun day at school complete with refrshments they made themselves, bouquets of paper flowers, a special song, and some beautiful artwork they'd made for us. It was a lot of fun!

Ella and her girlfriends :-)

Performing their song (Skinamerinki-dinky-dink...Skinamerinki-do...I-LOVE-YOU!)

And Ella with her best buddy from school, Sophie, playing dress up at our house.