Hey! Time flies by doesn't it. Especially when most of your day is taken by naps, nursing, bouncing, and more naps.
But I am still here. I am still thinking about this blog daily and one day, hopefully very soon, I'll kick back into gear and post daily and maybe even give this space a little facelift!
Oh yeah, the point of all this is to get you to go over to Bloglovin and follow along over there. Why? Because Google Reader shuts down on Monday! This has been a long time coming, but I kind of just realized that it's happening in a few days, and I'd love for you all to keep reading :)
If you want, there are many other ways to follow along in our daily life (at least until I start posting about it).
Find us on Instagram @mpmerrick
Find me on twitter @MichelleMerrick
Find some lovely reblogs on Tumblr @ A Green Season
And follow my riveting Pinterest Boards including one about ice cream and one about puppies.
In the mean time, I am going to go make some coffee and maybe make these cookies because I have been overcome by a serious sweet tooth.
What are your weekend plans?
Oh bloggity blog, how I have missed you. The saying goes that absence makes the heart go fonder and in the case of writing here it is 100% true. I think about starting up writing, and posts, and photos, and things to share daily, and then I don't do it.
Don't get me wrong, I love soaking up my new son and figuring out how to manage chores and get back to my real job. so I can't say that I regret how I've used my time away from posting regularly. But today is the day! The one where I decide to take action instead of finding yet another new tv series to watch on Netflix.
So, before divulging into motherhood and how it's changed my life forever, I want to share our "maternity" family photos, taken by the wonderful Emily Sill.
My initial thought for taking adorable photos was to share a bowl of Jeni's, but the line was epic long so we skipped over to the park where we found amazing light and scenery. I love all of the photos taken, but now can't stop gushing on the cuteness of what was growing inside me when these were taken.
There's basically an app for everything.
So how could I resist downloading "baby center's" preggo app that tells me exactly whats growing when and where, gives daily tips, has weekly terrifying birthing videos that I refuse to watch, and tells me all the ways that I am failing as a proper pregnant lady.
"Eat vegetables" it tells me. I have a bowl of cereal.
"Count your kicks" it says. I push a foot back into place.
"Write down a pregnancy memory" it suggests. I roll my eyes.
But because it's past my bedtime, and because tomorrow's Friday, here are my current thoughts on pregnancy...
1.) nesting. I don't think it's really happened to me yet and I'm not sure that it will. Yeah I like pulling cute little onesies out of the dryer, but I think I'm doing these things more out of obligation. I think that's just my feelings on laundry in general.
2.) It's hot. I sweat in the movie theater.
3.) Dear everyone who keeps telling me I'm too small...I'm not. Perhaps I just need to wear an "I've gained 30 pounds and still have a month to go" sign around my neck...
4.) I'm tired, not sleepy.
5.) My favorite place is a hot shower.
6.) My feet don't fit in any shoes, luckily, it's sandal weather just in time.
7.) My husband did some dishes last night. He's my hero.
Over the weekend I gave into my preggo cravings and crossed the street to the local Shipley's donuts. Here I bought a half dozen, carefully choosing two for the husband, went home and immediately poured out some coffee fresh out of the press and proceeded to eat all four donuts...and an orange.
While eating said donuts, I stitched up something for the little buddy. Some felt baby shoes!
I "pinned" the tutorial a couple of years ago intending to make some for niece kaitlyn. Now that she is almost 2 I found it about darn time to try these out. The tutorial is from The Purl Bee and every tutorial that they do is enchanting and beyond my skillset as a knitter, but I love looking at them just the same.
They took most of the morning. Cutting and pinning the felt was really easy. I'd guess that in total the little project maybe took 2-3 hours, but I took lots of breaks and was very distracted by season 3 of Parenthood on Hulu.
I've got another pair in the works for my niece who arrived on Tuesday! But I think I will wait to give them to her until I can put them on her precious little feet myself!
No, not my baby, but a sweet baby girl who is actually due today! I cannot wait to see her little face and hopefully meet her very soon :)
I made her big sister a baby blanket for her arrival (although the blanket ended up being a Christmas gift about 5 months late) so I knew I wanted to make one for my new little niece too. I decided to try and copy the "super easy baby blanket" by purl bee and choose some super chunky yarn in colors chosen for new baby by my sister: purple and yellow.
I quickly realized that I did not have enough yarn. I cast on around 120 stitches and it ended up making a blanket probably as wide as the crib.
After I figured out how much yarn I actually needed, the blanket didn't take too long to make. I used the pattern k-2, p-2, k-2, p-2, etc. and then reversed the stitch on the next row.
I think it turned out pretty.
Little niece-poo may not be able to use it much over the summer, but it's very warm and heavy to keep her toasty when it gets cool again in the fall.
Today we are going to take family photos! I'm so excited :)
However, because of my shopping hiatus my maternity wear wardrobe has been mostly things that I'm just lucky I can still squeeze into, and things that the awesome women from church are letting me borrow.
Nevertheless I've had a lot of trouble this week thinking about what to wear. I mean, this is probably the one time in my life that I am going to be exactly 33 weeks pregnant. I'm trying not to build it up too much in my brain and have too high of expectations, but Darn It! I want to look cute!
We have a plan to go to my favorite place on earth for some ice cream, and then take dillan over to the dog park. So I was thinking I'd have a cute ice cream outfit and a cute casual park outfit.
So this morning, I did a little impromptu shoot to see which outfit I had in my head will turn out best. To me there's a very clear winner, but I really want to hear what you think?
Which do you think? Any accessories to add? Any mixes?
Thanks for helping! leave a comment and let me know what you think, but nice comments only please! ;)
Even though the past 8 months have flown by, I feel like the change in my body has been gradual. Well...that's a lie, in this moment I feel like the change in my body has been gradual. Tomorrow I might be standing in astonishment at the lack of a direct eyes to toes visual, but we'll let that live in tomorrow.
I haven't done a great job at keeping tabs on my growing baby belly, so I wanted to do a quick recap of some growth moments.
Here I think I was about 6 weeks pregnant. you guys didn't know! But you probably could see that I had started gaining... umm... elsewhere.
Our anniversary. 8 weeks pregnant I think. I didn't eat seafood on this glorious trip to Charleston. All the more reason to go back!
About 12ish weeks preggo. I miss this skirt.
20 weeks preggo! I got a steak that night because as I recall I didn't get an appetite back until about that time.
24ish weeks. Dillan photobombed. I like to think that someone noticed the bump that day because a lady told me I looked cute.
Gonna go ahead and guess about 25/26 weeks.
Maybe one more week ahead at 27. My mom wanted a belly picture. I think this is my favorite t-shirt of all time.
Easter photos. Dillan always has to check it out. 30 weeks.
And that my friends is the update. This Saturday I will be 33 weeks with baby boy expected in about 5 (I have to be induced around 38 weeks). And we'll be taking some maternity photos! I'm so excited to document this time with the talented Emily Sill! Hip Hip!
Tuesday night, Nathan and I got free tickets to go see a Nashville Predators game! And we had so much fun.
Of course we started out with one of our favorite restaurants...
Yes, that is Five Guys.
Then we arrived just at the end of the first third (first third?). I'm obviously not super familiar with the vocabulary associated with the fine sport of hockey. Oh hey zamboni's!
As you can see, we had amazing seats. Just a few rows up (whatever number = K...) and were in between half - court? and the goal.
And this is us, probably not too much before we got kiss-cammed. Oh yes we did, the cherry on top of a super fun experience was we got to see ourselves up on the Jumbo-tron at which I think got super excited. We auto-turned and quick kissed and then only to have the camera stay on us for what felt like about 10 seconds. Which c'mon people is a very long time to be staring at yourself on a giant screen.
I highly recommend a preds game for any Nashville locals or out - of - towners. Even though the home team lost, we had a great time. Even Nathan exclaimed a word ( Yeah!) of encouragement at an almost goal.
If I can I offer the following words of advice, just to prepare you.
1. There are cheerleaders. I'm not sure why I wasn't expecting them, but there they are.
2. At the last minute of every ... period? ... the announcer says (as is proper), "OONNNEEEE minute remaining". to which the crowd sarcastically replies, "Thaaankkkssss Paul..."
3. No one will do the wave with you.
