What's in a Name??

Well, a lot if you're in charge of assigning one to a little person that they'll have for the rest of their life! We've obviously given a lot of thought as to what we're going to name our little guy, but we can't imagine tacking that name to him until we actually see\meet him. So, our plan is to go to the hospital armed with a small list of favorites and decide after the birth. We've narrowed down the list to each of our top five (well, I've got 7...couldn't quite edit it down to 5 yet) and are playing with middle name combinations. I thought we were making pretty good progress....until yesterday.

Yesterday, which was a beautiful Sunday and I was feeling better than I had most of last week, we had my good friend and her husband and 8 month old daughter over for a little afternoon cookout. It was a great lunch with great people and I enjoyed it immensely! However, I knew that she had delivered her adorable little girl early and remembered to ask her how far along she was when she had her. Her answer....36 weeks! Uh, yeah, that's where I'll be in 2 short days! Yikes! Perhaps we should work hard on 2 things this week - packing some sort of hospital bag and working on our name list!

Oh, and we're not sharing our name list so don't even bother to ask. With all due respect to friends, coworkers, family and even complete strangers, I'm not interested in opinions on our names. We're making this decision together....just the two of us with no outside influences. Love y'all though!

Our New Neighbor

I am always completely stunned that in such an urban setting (ok, we're in the burbs but we're still in the city of Boston city limits, not even the actual suburbs) that we see so much wildlife. Before moving to Boston, I used to see lots of interesting animals in Texas as roadkill on the long stretches of highway in between cities and "normal" city animals such as opossum, raccoons and squirrels actually within the city limits (even in Austin which I consider to be a lot less urban than Dallas). Since moving to Boston, though, I see a lot more wildlife at home.

When I lived in Jamaica Plain (granted, across from a very large park with lots of wooded areas), I used to get skunks in our yard pretty often. I always carefully walked up the back steps to my door after finding one on the porch one time. Since moving to West Roxbury, though, I've seen what I consider to be more "wild" wildlife. There are the wild turkey flocks that are around my home and work areas. I've also seen, of all the strange things, a coyote running down the middle of my street. One of our more frequent visitors are the wild rabbits that live about. We spotted one just out the back door last week. Luci, always at her back door post, somehow missed it because he was as still as can be. However, Mike saw him clearly and snuck out to get a great picture of him. What a cutey!

A Relaxing Memorial Day Weekend

As I've mentioned before, the long weekend we had with my parents was great but definitely took a toll on me. So, on the menu for Memorial Day weekend was lots of relaxation! It was spent the way the inaugural weekend of summer should be spent - being lazy, bbq's with friends, being outside and having fun!

One of the things I did that weekend was to cash in on part of my Valentine's Day present from my hubby - a day at the zoo with a picnic. We pass the Stone Zoo just about every time we go to Mike's parents' or sister's house. I've never been to it and Mike hadn't been in probably 20 years. It was time to drop back in!

The weather was absolutely beautiful that day and we had a great time walking around and looking at the animals. Below is the llama. I know, not the most exciting animal to be pictured, but he reminded me of the Llama Song (classic online sensation). If you haven't listened to it lately (or ever), it's time you did!

Not surprisingly, our usual favorites at the zoo are the large cats. This jaguar was napping right by the plexiglass so we got a good close look at him. He also did some super adorable stretches....he may have even stolen the moves from Mr. O.

Also cat napping in close view were the cougars. They were too darned cute! I have to keep reminding myself sometimes that these guys could literally rip my head off.....their bellies just looked like they were asking to be rubbed!

One of the highlights of the day was the Birds of Prey show we went to. We got to see lots of cool birds literally fly right over our heads or parade in front of us. Of course, it was also educational and we learned lots of fun facts. Here were some of our favorites from the show.

Egyptian Vulture - One of Few Species to Use Tools to Crack Ostrich Eggs

Vulture - His "Walk" Was Laughably Goofy

European Eagle Owl - Biggest Owl (He Was Beautiful)

Barn Owl - He Was Stunning!

At the end of the show, their "gimmick" to get you to donate was that they had a bird (can't remember the kind) "take" your donation and put it in the box. Well, it worked. There was a long line to donate dollars and I was in it.

After our trip to the zoo, we dropped by Mike's parents house for a little chat and a walk to the local ice cream parlor. Great weather, fun day at the zoo and ice cream...it was a GOOD day!

Kitties and Kid Stuff

For the most part, the cats have been pretty uninterested in all the baby stuff that's been flooding into the house. Sure, they pretty much now live in the baby's room, but it is the coolest room in the house now so who can blame them? However, all the swings, bouncers and activity centers that arrived and were assembled were untouched by the cats. I considered that a pretty good thing...no big territorial fights would happen between kitties and new baby arrival.

However, when this gift arrived (thanks AMF!), Luci quickly decided SHE had a new toy! Uh-oh! While we did get some amusement out of seeing her excitedly play with the mobile and "crunchy" toy on the tummy mat, I'm wondering what will happen when baby is on the mat.

I'm hoping that a slobbering, screaming baby will scare her desire to play with the mat away. I guess only time will tell!

Happy June and Welcome to the Countdown!

5 weeks people...that's (approximately) what's left of my time to be pregnant. That also means I'll have a baby to care for in that amount of time but that's a whole 'nother story! 5 weeks. Wow! Some may say that's not much time at all. I think it seems like a ways to go, well, depending on the day. Some days, I get to sleep and feel pretty good and it doesn't seem so bad. Others....well....let's just say that 5 weeks could be excruciatingly long. I guess that's natures way, though. You have to get to the miserable point to be willing to go through all the pain it's going to take to get the baby out of your body!

After the fury of activity the 5 days my parents were in town, we took it easy for a while and I, obviously, neglected the blog for a few weeks. I've got stories and pictures to catch up on the last couple of weeks and will be posting those in the next few days, as long as I have relatively "good" days that allow some energy left at the end of them to do so. Cross your fingers for all around me that I do have more good days than bad or cranky Kara might be coming out some more! And nobody wants that.....

The Nursery is Done!!!

On Sunday, my Mom and I worked fast and furiously on the nursery to try and get it completed so that she could see the final product before hoping on a plane Monday morning. Since the boys had gotten all of their project list done, I also had to come up with a few things for Dad to do (Mike was at a soccer game all morning) to keep him from being bored. A lot of the final details I left to my Mom since she's infinitely more talented than me in the painting department. We all stayed busy and the room got done! I think we got everything cleaned up and photo ready at about 9 pm that night. It was a several days of A LOT of work but the end result was worth it!

My original idea for the nursery was safari animal themed. When I got to thinking about it, though, there were lots of Australian animals that I also really loved and wanted to include in the room. With 2 other continents being represented, I couldn't in good consciousness not include some local critters, so it kind of ended up being an around the world of animals theme. I had so much planned in my head, that I really never thought the ambitious project would come to fruition before this poor kid turned 3 or 4. Thanks to the amazing help of my husband, Dad and, of course, my Mom, the room looks better than I could have ever envisioned it! Mike and I have considered moving into that room since it's now the coolest room in the house!

Okay, so now that you know how the idea was inspired (and spread like wildfire), on to the tour!

What's a posting without a kitty picture? We made up the crib to see what it would look like (still need to get a mattress) and stuck Oliver in there to see what he thought. I think he thought "get me out of here" but he still looks cute next to the awesome quilt and cute sheets.

I'll refer to this as the "window wall." My mom made the fabulous curtains in Dallas (before heading up here). Mike and my Dad constructed the wood frame for the valance. There are about 160 felt leaves on that valance, which my Mom and I cut out in one night and Mike and I hot glued on in under an hour! Making the valance went much smoother and faster than I would have thought it could have. The tree trunk was drawn and painted by moi!



Since this is the wall that the 2 bedrooms upstairs share, it shall now be referred to as the "bedroom wall." Pictured here, from right to left (that order to stay with the Australian animals first): Wombat, Kangaroo, Sea Turtle (that would be the ocean representative), Mama and baby elephant. My Mom gets pretty much ALL the credit for the Wombat and Kangaroo (though I did paint the "boing" line and the whites of the eyes on the kangaroo...impressive, I know ;-) ). She also did a fabulous job of all the detailing in the sea turtle while I focused on giving him some water to swim in. I did most of the elephants, including giving both of them their lovely pedicures, but my Mom painted on their interior detailed lines, which definitely made them come to life!

Wrapping around the corner, my Mom made this great tree and wonderful Lion. I gave the Lion a hill to stand on. I also did all the giraffe myself, except for the great job my Mom did on the hooves, which are, unfortunately, hidden by the changing table. Above the door is a cute stuffed animal Monkey. He is one of Mike's additions to the room.

Continuing around the room, to the left of the door is our Bear and, next to him, Moose. Mom did a great job on these....they were actually her first two animals to complete! If you look closely above the door frame, you'll see a cute Chipmunk, which is also solely my Mom's handiwork.

This is the "closet wall." To the left of the closet door is the Deer. This little guy gave us the biggest challenge. It was difficult to get her eyes "nice" (instead of looking like rabid attack deer). My mom did the whole deer on first attempt, I took a couple of tries at redoing the eyes, Mike did some sketches for some kind eyes and my Mom finally got them painted just right. So, hopefully the baby won't have any nightmares about attacking deers! On the slope of the ceiling are the Dad&Mom silhouettes. This was another Mike addition to the room. He thought we should be included somewhere. And last, but not least, are the Whales which I actually completed all by my lonesome (I took great pride in what I was able to do since, obviously, the artistry of my Mom is responsible for most of the coolness).

A little closer look of the characters on the left side of the closet wall.

After completing all the work, cleaning up and taking pictures, we sat down to just admire the room and revel in a job well done together!

So, there you have it. That's the nursery! It was truly a labor of love! I hope our little boy loves it half as much as I do. I'm absolutely thrilled with how it came out! So, if you're somehow crazy and don't like it, please just lie to me and tell me it's wonderful! Also, if you're interested in seeing more close up pictures of all the critters, I have one of each on this link:

http://gallery.me.com/mhines57#100370

Scenes From the Shower

On Saturday, Mike's mother and sisters threw us a baby shower! So sweet! It was a great time with family, good friends, good food and good fun. With everyones busy schedules, it's often hard to get to see some of my girl friends on a regular basis, and this was a great event for me to get to see so many of them at once. I was truly honored to have them all there! Some even traveled great distances to share this day with me which was truly above and beyond. I've got some pretty awesome gals in my life!

Maureen (hostess),Sue,Kristina(hostess),Betsy(hostess)

Mom, Me, Dad

Family!

As my Mom said, and I wholeheartedly agree, I "have some generous friends!" We got SO many necessities for the new baby. Baby Boy Hines is fully stocked with the most adorable clothes (up to size 24 months), awesome "equipment" to keep him happy and safety equipment to keep him, well, safe! Oh, and very importantly, I got a super awesome stroller to help me start getting back in shape in July (thanks Tom and Betsy)! It's such an honor to not only have such an event thrown for us and our new baby, but to have so many folks come and "shower" us with gifts. Wow!

As much as I love and appreciate each and every single gift, my Mom spent quite a bit and love and time on some items that will be treasured in our household and, likely, passed on to future generations. She made a very special quilt for Baby Hines with (most of) the animals painted on his nursery walls. I knew she was making this for him (because I asked if she would be willing to do so) but this was my first viewing. Also, there was a surprise on the back of the quilt - a world map (because the room features animals from around the world) which was marked with all of the locations Mike and I have traveled together. Pretty cool!

Me and Mom with the Quilt

Another hand made gift was a total surprise to me. She made a baby toy with the Noah's Ark animals that had been in MY nursery as a child! A very emotional gift, but I managed to keep it together in front of the crowds.

I just had to get Mike a special Daddy gift!

Of course, no party is complete without cake and ice cream! After the presents had all been opened, the wonderful hostesses brought out a full ice cream bar and a beautiful (and yummy) carrot cake! My favorite!

It was such a fun day. However, after the hard work of the two previous days and the excitement of the shower, I found myself pretty exhausted again. So, it was a low key night at home with Mike and the parents. The next day was our last chance to finish the nursery so we needed some rest!