The time is flying ...

and I had hoped to be "moved" into my new blog space by now, but with most things these days, it is taking a bit longer than expected. SO, I will continue to blog from UpstateHaven for a bit longer until I can get things organized and ready to go.

A is now a week shy of being a 6 month old, which BLOWS my mind! It seems that with each stage you are convinced they can't get much cuter or more fun, but then they pull all these new tricks and faces out of their hats and BOOM ... cuteness overload.

That tongue makes an appearance in at least 75% of all photos ha

Now that I FINALLY have my bearings and things have leveled out a bit, I will be back to normal posting on this blog (and hopefully the new blog very soon).

Hope everyone had a magical holiday and that the new year has gotten off on a positive note!

Meet Astrid Beatrice ...

Astrid Beatrice

Born July 10

6 pounds and 15 ounces

20.25 inches long

More pics to come!

The waiting game ...

I am not the most patient person, however, when it comes to having our little lady, I was willing to wait it out as long as possible since I was still feeling good, mobile and full of energy. Not to mention our "to-do" list is the size of Texas, however, things can really change in a day or two. Suddenly I'm feeling swollen, moody and just ready to have this pregnancy over with. I feel like I have been tethered to our apartment for the past few days, other than the bi-weekly Dr. visits. It doesn't help that the weather has been beyond toasty and humid, not a pregnant ladies friend, that is FO SHO!

My sister has this term that she uses when she is feeling unsocial and just all around moody .... she calls it feeling "savage." Well, that basically sums up how I've been feeling lately. It's to the point I actually am looking forward to labor to get out of the apt, have a job to do and then get back to reality .... well, reality with a baby ;) Hubs and I could be spending our down time preparing the nursery, but every time I come in to start sorting through things or organizing, I get completely overwhelmed and can't seem to get anything done. It's time for our little lady to come out now ... Mama is starting to go slightly crazy and Daddy cannot wait to meet you!

I would love to post some pics but for some reason, I am experiencing technical difficulties. When the Hubs comes home later today, I will get him to take a look!

Pregnancy and the subway ...

I only have 2 short items for this list ....

1. Ladies out there who are not giving up your seat for the pregnant ones, you are SO going to have bad karma when it is your turn. Beware!

2. Why do we pay so much for our MTA cards each month when the subway keeps getting worse and worse? I mean 25 minute waits on the platform PLUS waiting for 4 trains to pass before you can even board? The MTA should be ashamed of itself. I thought that they added more L trains to the subway service?

Ok, on to nicer topics ...

Today Magnus and I (because let's be honest, I did not get pregnant by myself) are officially 38 weeks preggo with our little lady. This is what 38 weeks looks like ... on me anyway:

I may complain at times that I am tired or feel a bit swollen, but honestly, I have had the easiest pregnancy so far I really am thankful to the pregnancy gods. Hopefully the remaining couple weeks and delivery will go just as smooth.

Last weekend Magnus and I worked really hard on the nursery all day Saturday, but it didn't prove to be enough since we barely touched the surface of our loooonnnngggg cleaning/organizing list. Sunday we were a bit burnt out after the all-day affair on Saturday, so we weren't nearly as productive. This weekend we are hoping to finally get the nursery done, finish packing up the hospital bag and then some additional organization that I know won't get done once baby is here. Wish us luck because this baby has been forbidden to arrive until her bedroom is organized and things are all washed ;)

We are finally getting somewhere ...

in terms of baby prep in our apartment.  Our trusty little helper, Emma, was kind enough to test out some of the new furnishings for the nursery...

* The mandatory sniff test

* Taking in the Brooklyn views

* I dare to say that our "baby" is rather enjoying herself

How could we NOT let Emma be the first to try out the crib? She is very light weight and loves small/enclosed spaces, so we plopped her into the finished product and I think she really took a liking to it! haha

Thankfully, I don't think that she can actually clear the side rails to jump in on her own, but she has officially made the crawl space underneath her new hideout.

We also purchased a new rug for the nursery via UrbanOutfitters, of course our tester was right there to try that out as well ...

* New carpet for the nursery... really breaks up all the white

Now that we have our crib assembled and a carpet, we can start organizing the babe's closet, hanging things on the wall and painting stripes on the ceiling. We have so much left to get done, but I think with a couple more free weekends, we should be able to pull something fabulous together!

Belated posts ...

I've started this long overdue post over and over again and just cannot seem to find the inspiration to write something worth while. SO much has been going on in our lives right now, all good of course, but it has been a whirlwind of activity and I've found myself too wiped out to come up with anything interesting to share.

I have managed to upload a picture that was taken after Baby Erhardt's upstate shower .... after the last guest left and I found Magnus outside power-washing the garage of it's built-up residue with an A etched into the dirt ...

* If you look closely you can see the A behind me ... (33 weeks preggo)

This particular day was gloriously sunny and I wish I could have trapped it in a bottle to let it out this week during all the rain and humidity. Let's hope it all dissipates before the long weekend coming up! I see sun in the forecast and I could do without my hair looking like Diana Ross for at least a day.

I totally want to get into Baby Erhardt's dual showers (both in BK and in Bainbridge), however, let's touch back on the nursery topic. It has been a while and although I THOUGHT Mags and I were dead-set on a replica of Jenna Lyons nursery (yellow and white striped ceiling .... black accent wall), it started to all feel a little too harsh for the little lady we are about to bring into this world. Granted, I also don't want an all pink situation either, but with all white furniture and draperies, I think a couple hints of pink and maybe gray (I know, so played out) could be the better option. Everyone keeps asking the theme for the babies room but we honestly don't have one. It will be a cross between contemporary (crib), traditional (changing table) and then some romantic touches.... I clearly have issues deciding on just one idea!

So here are my NEW inspiration items for the room:

We have both of these items already, but here comes the tricky part .... do we go with a more modern zig zag carpet ...

A little less modern scallop pattern ...

OR this modern take on the traditional oriental design to brighten up an otherwise all white nursery?



All carpets are courtesy of UrbanOutfitters, bed is Bloom and Jenny Lind changing table comes from Amazon.

In terms of lighting, we will be needing a night light, so I was thinking this little guy from Restoration Hardware could do the trick since we have a gift card there ...

These mirrors from RH also keep calling to me from the other side of my monitor ...

*I especially love the rectangular one in the bottom right

This will certainly end up being a very eclectic nursery and I cannot wait to share photos of it once it all comes together!



We will also be painting some very subtle stripes on the ceiling in a pale pale pink to break up the all white paint.

As we plan out the baby's nursery, Mommy is also making some changes to the master bedroom since I figure we will be spending loads of time there soon :) Pictures of everything to come!

We've been busy ....

therefore, sadly neglecting our blog. We are 32 weeks into the pregnancy and time could not be moving any faster. Before you know it the baby will be here and things will be crazy. We are really trying to enjoy our free time and friends/family before the big day but it's so hard when the time is just slipping through your fingers.

This past weekend my lovely friends threw Hubs and I a fantastic shower at this great little Mexican joint in our neighborhood ... Rosarito Fish Shack. The food was fantastic as usual and the company was beyond ;) It is always so great to have all of your close friends under one roof together and realize just how many special people you are surrounded with in this life! Baby A made out like a bandit and is the most spoiled little lady I know and she isn't even here yet. She is going to have some very special people in her life soon!

To get back on track with our housing projects, I have been told by my Uncle that our glass shower door has been installed and I can't wait to see it with my own two eyes this weekend! Besides the installation of the shower door, there really isn't a ton of stuff left to be done in terms of projects inside the house until we decide to finally upgrade the downstairs bathroom. Which will probably be a while ....

Outside the house is a WHOLE other story! Since the planting of our tree-fence out back, we have decided to possibly fill in the gaps with more mature trees to just give us and our neighbor some additional privacy. On the agenda for the summer we also have "installing a stone patio" right off of the back of our house. The pic below pretty  much sums up the look we are going for (although we have not yet discussed shape and size):

And in a perfect world, I would have this patio leading to an inground pool, however, we have a little lady on the way who will be demanding all our time and money this summer. With that being said, this is more along the lines of how you can expect me to be cooling off this summer ...

We better wrap up all of these tasks soon before the little one takes over our lives :)