Geez! Take a picture!

Now that my belly is huge, I'm noticing that strangers tend to fixate on my abdomen. Friends who have kids told me about the belly touching phenomenon, and I prepared myself for that invasion of personal space. (Just for the record, most strangers haven't been so bold as to touch my baby bump without asking.) However, I didn't anticipate the stares, focused glances, and obvious belly assessments. I have to say, it's a little weird.

A lot of folks smile and are very nice about it, but I can't help but panic for a moment or two thinking that I've probably met the person and should recognize them -- a normal response to such nonverbal cues. Then, I remember that I'm knocked up and that they are clearly smiling at my "condition". I wonder how many people are smiling because they are happy for me versus smiling because of thoughts like, "Oh honey. I hope you know what you're in for."

I wonder if asking them directly why they are staring and/or smiling at me would come off as rude. Hmmm...

This Old House is Looking Good!

The basement looks a lot different than it did a few weeks ago. The drywall is up, and we just finished painting.

We were supposed to go on our annual river trip this weekend, but a bad weather forecast changed our plans. Both Ryan and I wanted to have one last river adventure together before the baby comes, and a pretty mellow trip on the John Day River in Oregon seemed perfect. However, something about snow and thunder told us that this was not a good time for a multi-day trip in high spring flows. Instead, we painted the new walls in the basement, which was perfectly fine with us. With just a couple of months to go before the bun arrives, we are both feeling the push to get organized and settled.

Why does Ryan look frightened when I'm taking his picture?

Guest room!

Ryan bonding with the paint after a job well done.

A future office space under the first window.
The brown room in the distance is the media room or "man cave."

Looking from the media room at the open space, which will be an office (near) and play area (back area near the stairs).

This week, the new flooring is installed, and Ryan will start adding finishing touches like trim work and lighting. Next weekend will be spent moving stuff from the nursery -- currently a storage space -- to the basement and shopping for more stuff. It's amazing to me that we had a hard time filling the place when we moved in, but houses have a way of filling up.

Strawberry!

Recently, Ryan called me a "gardening geek" on his Twitter feed. Well, I embrace the label. It's true. All geeks are useful, and as a gardening geek, I get to grow stuff that we can use and enjoy. This year, I planted strawberries for the first time ever (yeah, I'm a little slow). While out watering my fruit and veggies, I noticed that we had two strawberries ripe for picking. Sadly, some animal already enjoyed one, so here is a picture of the first berry of the season!

Oh strawberry, how I love thee.

Garden geek... out. Word.

Belly Pic!

By popular demand, here's a photo of my huge baby bump at 25 weeks (almost 6 months).

Life of Ryan

First, we had a couple ultrasounds, and the Nonerick oven is in good working order. Hopefully, the baby will continue gestating like he's supposed to, but next week we hit the 26-week mark. Third trimester, here we come!

Some of you may have read the posts from the last few months and wondered what Ryan's been up to. Well, he's been nesting in his own special way. Ryan has spent every spare minute finishing our basement so we can have an office, a guest bedroom, and a play area for the bun. This is in addition to the bathroom/utility room and Ryan's own play area, a media room, that we added late last year.

I'm amazed at how Ryan -- someone who has never done construction or electrical work of any kind -- figures things out. I think he's enjoyed the work, but as he told me the other night "he's done." Despite the challenges and exhaustion, he's done a phenomenal job, and now we're entering the home stretch with drywall going up next week and flooring installation the week after.

Future guest room!

The basement remodel has done nothing to help Ryan's sanity.

And what about Soma? Well, he's been helping Ryan with the construction, although he seems to love the tape measure a little too much.

Oh and Soma gets tired easily. He has to take a break about every 15 minutes or so.

Once we, I mean Ryan, wrap things up in the basement, we can move all the stuff out of what is our current office and start preparing a nursery. I can't wait to get things organized and begin nesting myself. Something tells me Ryan feels the same way!

However, don't feel too bad for poor Ryan. He's comforted himself with a new iPad, which he loves and adores. I have to admit, it's pretty damn cool.