Maternity Pics

What a fun day yesterday was!!! I drove down to Coral Gables to meet up with my friend Anthony, his wife Magda, and their gorgeous little girl Autumn, to pick up some baby items they are so graciously letting me borrow. I only got lost a little bit on the trip, but that's just par for the course when driving around Miami. It was so wonderful to see them and visit, and they made it even more special by putting together a little photoshoot. To be honest, I'm a little self conscious about this changing body of mine, but I am so thrilled by how these turned out. Anthony is truly talented and I love his little family!!! Here are some of the shots he got, he's still working on putting more up, so I'll add little by little.

On my way out the door yesterday I noticed a HUGE box on my front porch that FedEx had dropped off. I lugged it inside and decided to wait until Tim was home to open it. Low and behold it was the stroller I wanted!!! My sweet dad, grandma and grandpa purchased it for little Connor and Tim and I put it together as soon as was humanly possible!! We love it. Thank you guys!

Baby Face

There are only two worthwhile things to leave behind when you depart this world of ours: children and art.
~Sunday in the Park with George

Dear Connor,
Over the past few months I have fallen more and more in love with you as I have felt you wiggle and stretch. I can't put into words the excitement and anticipation I feel just thinking about meeting you. My love for you deepened even more this week when I got to see your handsome, perfectly formed, little face. Watching your face appear on the screen took my breath away. I can now picture who I have been feeling and praying for. Connor, you have surpassed my expectations. If I could I would go back every week just to be able to look at you. I can't believe your daddy and I will be bringing you home in just a few months. We have been busy preparing for you, and your room is almost done. I can already see how you look in your crib, and I dream about rocking you to sleep. Daddy and I think about you constantly, and even last night we couldn't get over how quickly this has gone by. Daddy couldn't wait to show your pictures to everyone, he is so proud of you already. We love you little one, and we will see you soon.
Love,
Mommy

What's to Come

I must confess, I have found it hard to be consistently excited about baby Connor’s pending arrival. Don’t get me wrong, I am extremely excited and overjoyed at the thought of holding him and beginning a new phase in my life. It’s just that, life is happening. I am 4 weeks from completing my MBA which I have been pouring myself into for the past 18 months. Needless to say, over the past couple of months, I have encountered some of the highest stress I have ever dealt with. However, over the past couple of weeks I have been able to get a glimpse of things to come.
For those of you who know Kristin and me well, you know we love to travel. It is something that we both love to do, have always done and intend to keep doing long after Connor has joined us. We were both fortunate enough to grow up in families that traveled. In June, we took our first vacation of the summer. We stayed a week at Disney World in a cabin at Fort Wilderness. Shocking isn’t it…the Petersen’s went to Disney. We had a great time. We didn’t overexert ourselves and spent a lot of time resting and relaxing. However, I was able to see Disney in a different way on this trip. I no longer view it as a place to cram in as many rollercoaster and thrill rides as possible. Rather, I now see it as a place with so much to offer families. I am very excited about taking Connor to Disney (he will only be 2 or 3 months on his first trip). It was on this trip that I was able to allow myself to begin getting very excited. However, it wasn’t until this past week that things got really exciting.
Last week, we spent the week in Cashiers, NC. Most people don’t know anything about Cashiers (I didn’t until I started dating Kristin), but it is a great little mountain town in South West North Carolina. One trip to Cashiers is all it takes to fall in love, especially if you grew up in the hustle and bustle of South Florida. I have now been vacationing in Cashiers every summer since Kristin and I married. Every year I find more and more to fall in love with. This time, it was the playground. Not for me, although I wish I was small enough to take a ride down that slide, but for Connor. For the first time, I was able to envision what it was going to be like in 2, 3, 10 years when we take Connor to Cashiers and go hiking, river rafting, and playing in that playground. I would be lying if I didn’t get a little choked up. I realized that while it is good that I take my school and work seriously, they too will pass. The time spent with and memories formed with my family are the things that I should be focused on. In three months I will officially begin the greatest adventure I can think of. It may have taken 6 months and 2 vacations, but I can finally feel myself getting excited about where that adventure is going to take me.

Birds

Have you ever been to a place quiet enough for the melodious chirping of the birds to wake you up in the morning? We are halfway through our glorious vacation up in the mountains of Western North Carolina and I am enjoying every minute of it. We have spent time down at the lake that is the perfect crisp temperature to feel exhilarating, and watched the cute hummingbirds flit and fight over their spot at the feeder on the porch. We've had game nights with dad that have resulted in tears brought on by the uncontrollable laughter that won't stop and today I'm going to make baskets with my grandmother and I couldn't think of anything more peaceful. Don't worry, we've already managed to take our yearly "bear picture" in Cherokee, and did so in the pouring rain. We celebrated Tim's 27th Birthday yesterday and it was special to have the whole family (that includes the Davidsons) at Aunt Carol and Uncle Jack's house to celebrate. She was so thoughtful and had a birthday cake decorated with Red Sox emblems. We still have a lot on our itinerary to do, and I can't wait! Side Note: Change of hormones means that I can no longer read books in the car....I get sick. That has never happened to me before, I couldn't believe it! Motion Sickness=Not fun!

Change

“Necessity is the author of change”

Let me tell you a story about a sweet little VW Beetle named Daisy. She came into my life when I was a Junior in High School and I have loved her for a long time. Daisy kept me safe on long trips to Virginia, and always satisfied my desire for adventure. But alas, sweet Daisy will not be able to support me in my new role as mommy. Sadly, Daisy only has 2 doors and a very small trunk which is not conducive to the mommy lifestyle. Therefore Tim and I have been on the search for my next new adventure, otherwise known as my first "grown-up" car. I was so excited to find this wonderful addition which is a 2009 Nissan Rogue, and I can already picture little Connor sitting in the back in his car seat. I feel very safe in it, I love to drive it, and now all I have to do is give it a suitable name.

Also, here is a little glimpse of my "growth" at 23 1/2 weeks. You can surely see a bump! Tim and I spent the evening at BabiesRUs to start my registry and it was only a little overwhelming. How in the world is one supposed to know exactly which pacifier your child is going to like, or which swing will move the way your baby will best respond to. Let's be honest there are a lot of cool new things out there for mommies and babies alike but I feel sometimes we over complicate things. Why are there so many different types of changing pads and crib liners? It really makes one go a little insane and feel completely inadequate. I'm going to head to Target next, and for some reason I just feel like it will be so much simpler there. I just love Target!

Baseball Games and Baby Showers

What a crazy week it has been. Our church, First Baptist of Ft. Lauderdale, had organized it's Vacation Bible School for this week, and I was thrilled to be asked to sing on the praise team. We spent about a month rehearsing and it really paid off. We sang about 6-8 upbeat songs every morning, and when I say upbeat....I mean we were rocking the house (of the Lord). We did have dancers on stage, and because of the energy the singers got just as vested in the movement. It was my workout every morning. I'd come home completely exhausted, but there is no time for rest in my life, and I certainly had a full week of evenings planned as well.

One fun evening activity we enjoyed this week thanks to the Rainer's was going to a Marlin's Baseball game with Jenn and Joel Collins. We had terrific seats right in front of the bull pen and that's what kept my attention most of the evening. It was fun getting to watch each pitcher warm up before they were called out. At one point before the game started the catcher threw a ball right to us and Tim caught it. Yay, we have another thing for little Connor's Red Sox themed nursery. Yes ladies and gentlemen, we are about to go all out Red Sox for our sweet little boy. After taking him to his first baseball game in utero I can say his daddy is already planning subsequent trips to different ball parks in the near future once he gets here. I hear the Red Sox are coming down for Spring Training in February...

Another fun activity that we had this week was a beautiful baby shower for my dear friend Sarah Rainer. She is expecting a bouncing baby boy, Nathaniel, in August. It has been really amazing to be pregnant at the same time as some of my friends, some near some far. To be able to reach out to these girls and compare notes and feelings and experiences had been invaluable. As I sat there and watched Sarah open up all of her great presents I could feel the anxious bubbles building up inside of me, and no it wasn't Connor doing back flips. First, I need to get serious about what I need for baby Connor (ie a registry). Second, I need to get started on his nursery. Third, I have to put together some great lesson plans for when I'm on maternity leave. I know it will all work itself out, but up until now I haven't really had the time to think about any of it. I certainly have the urge to nest and it's starting to give me anxiety because I can't start just yet, not until Tim can help out, and he's alllllmmmmoooossstttt done with his MBA. When his classes start to ease off, he's all mine. While Sarah was opening all of her gifts, she did such a great job describing every item, and expressing what each is used for at what time in development. Haha, I need to do my homework.

One of my favorite things that happened this week was in the form of a sweet surprise from my incredible husband. I had mentioned to him only once about these very cool speakers that you attach to your belly to pump in music to the baby. I just thought they were the neatest thing. Well, he surprised me with a pair and little Connor and I have been enjoying this new form of stimulation. This little guy certainly jumps around to certain songs, and I love having another way to connect with him. Here is what Tim got us http://www.bellybuds.com/

Disney the Preggo Way

Well, I did it. I spent a week at Disney in the middle of June with a Heat Wave and survived. The few times we did venture out during the day it felt like you were standing next to a car muffler. I won't lie, it was hot, brutally hot. Thankfully my very loving and understanding family made the deal of only going to the parks during the extra magic hours, which translates to late at night. For example we did 10pm until 2am at the Magic Kingdom and it was pleasant enough not to want to streak. During the day we went to the pools, watched reruns of Friends, or spent time shopping at the outlets, and I even got to go Wedding Dress Shopping with Heather. We certainly found ways to stay inside the AC. We stayed in a cabin at Disney's Fort Wilderness, and I kept it right around 68 degrees....don't worry, I don't think it ever once hit that number, the AC had a little trouble keeping up. Should I even mention we lost power 3 times? Cooking dinner, AC blasting, people taking showers, and one blow drying her hair does not bode well for a circuit breaker. It also doesn't bode well for a preggo when the cabin is heating up and the power is out for an hour. At that point we scarfed down dinner and headed to Animal Kingdom. Side Note: Animal Kingdom happens to be the hottest park to go to because of all of the foliage and lack of room for air to blow around. In other words, Animal Kingdom is perfect in February. Another Side Note is that most of Animal Kingdom is closed during the extra magic hours and only people who don't have babies in their bellies can go on anything that happens to be open. My fun ride for the evening was in the wheel chair they rented for me. That wheel chair came in handy when we went to see Festival of the Lion King...talk about great seats and no waiting in line. Tim even got picked to lead our elephant group, and he did a fantastic job. We only rented a wheel chair 2 of the nights we were in the parks. The second place was Epcot, and that was purely because of the size of the park. Everyone was really able to enjoy every park we went into, and got to do all of the rides they wanted. I enjoyed the more relaxed Soarin', Pirate's, the Great Movie Ride, and lucked out with the new Toy Story Ride. Everyone else scored with multiple rides on the Tower of Terror, Test Track, Everest, and Space Mountain. Listen, I was fine with it because I sat in nice air conditioned shops while they waited in line. Don't worry, I've spent my fair share on all of those rides with my numerous visits to WDW in the past. The most important part was how much fun we all had together, even when our Mickey Bars melted before we could even eat them.

While we were in Orlando Grandma and Grandpa Hebebrand, and even Dale, came down to visit. We spent all of Saturday with them and it was so fun being together and having them witness my baby bump. To see the joy on their faces about this upcoming great grandchild really warms my heart. Grandpa was telling everybody about this little boy. Strangers in the lobby heard, our waitress at dinner, anyone he could find who would listen got the news. It's precious. Grandma of course brought her bags of things, and she had scored some very cute little outfits I can't wait to try on little Connor. I really enjoyed this trip with my family. Of course it's fun to go to Disney, and very interesting when rides are limited, but I enjoy the intricate way our personalities fit together like a puzzle. Kaitlyn of course had fun pin trading with every worker she could find, mom loved having us together in one place, Casey enjoyed all of the art we stopped to look at, and Tim loved feeling Connor kick everywhere we went. That little boy will be ready for Disney once he gets here that's for sure. We already have our first trip planned. Roxy even got to go, and she stayed at the Kennel that is right on Fort Wilderness property. We tried to take about an hour everyday to go over and visit her. She loved being out in the open, next to the horse stables, chasing after birds and retreiving sticks we threw. She's a spoiled-by-love pup.

Tim and I were lucky to stay longer in Orlando even after my family left. We got to spend quality time with the Allen's and nothing could be better than face time with Heather. While we were there with them we took time to go to De Leon Springs and swim in the frigid pool and eat in their cute little restaurant where you make pancakes right at your table. What a fabulous vacation. We will have one more get away in July up to North Carolina, and I'm looking forward to the temperature up there. Heaven is in those Smokey Mountains.

Here is Tuesday night, almost 22 weeks at Epcot. The bump is here.