Dinner!!!

I am so hungry today!!! I have already eaten half of my lunch and it is only 11:42am. I have a pizza bagel that is sitting on my desk staring at me and I just want to rip into it. I am trying to hold off until at least noon so that I won't be starving in another hour-- but who am I kidding. I probably will be anyway. It is funny that this hunger thing just kicked in this week. Maybe it is the lack of sunlight? The Windy City is pretty dark and dismal today.

I am really looking forward to tonight. We are going to dinner for an early birthday celebration for Big Guy. He is so funny. He figured we would all be busy with baby once his birthday came around at the end of February, and his parents are going on a trip, so he casually suggested to his family that we have dinner together to celebrate. I visited the restaurant last weekend and really liked it, so I am excited to go back. I will let you know how my second experience goes- I really like to give credit where it is due for great service and great food.

Today I am feeling less than inspired like many of my blog friends, but i wanted to post about something so that people didn't wonder if I was having the baby! I can't wait for this week to end! I can't believe I have to work again tomorrow. At least some friends of mine are taking me to lunch as a sort of send off before the baby- I think we are hitting Nordstrom Cafe for some soup, salad and scones! Do you like how everything I talk about keeps coming back to food?

Cute New Gift Site in the Family!: Yellow Threads

My Cousin lives in Manhattan is has always wanted to start her own boutique. This year her dream came true and she has opened an online shop full of gifts called Yellow Threads. One of the reasons I like the store so much is the set-up; it is so clever. You can shop by type of gift or by purpose. There are different sections of the shop- for instance

Organize Her

Decorate Her Home
Accessorize Her
Encourage Her Passion
Nourish Her Soul
You can also shop by occasion as well and search under Birthday, Marriage, New Baby and House Warming.

Here are some of the things that I love from Yellow Threads

Since it is a female owned business, and that female happens to be related to me, I am more than excited to support her new venture. If you visit the site and see something you like- let me know just for fun- and if you decide to buy- tell her that her cousin in the Windy City sent you!!

Questions answered and Product picks

I thought I would share some of our product picks- I am by no means an expert, but we tried to do as much research as possible and purchase products that worked for our lifestyle.

The stroller we decided on, after much test driving and debate was the UPPA Baby. We LOVE it so far- and hope we still love it when we actually use it outside. We decided that the Bugaboo was too hard for me to fold up- if I lived in Manhattan, I would get it for sure- because I could just leave it in one piece and drive it in and out of the apartment- up the elevators etc- no problem. But to constantly fold and unfold it was too much for me- The Uppa folds and unfolds really easily (well, comparatively, I still have to get used to it). With the Quinny, we were worried about the size, and weren't sure how long it would last- we heard that most people graduated from the buzz to the zap (the travel version) rather quickly and never used the buzz again. With the Uppa, we are able to purchase an added second seat when/if #2 comes along and one of those kick plates for kids to stand on. All this combined with the fact that it is just as/almost as cute at the bugaboo, and I was convinced. PLUS...as a bonus, the bassinet attachment is included in the price! So there are three options, the car seat (which does require an adaptor, the bassinet, and the regular child seat. We got it in black, although I liked the red and blue models as well, and I can't wait to try it out! If you live in Chicagoland, I would recommend Galt Baby. They were really helpful and even offered free delivery that included an in home demo. I loved the service they provided. They will even store your stroller for you, free of charge, if you buy it early and don't want it sitting at your house. I really liked them.

For the Monitor- I was at a loss- so Big Guy Picked one...cross your fingers. Hopefully if it is terrible, we can exchange it.
We also picked a bunch of things that will hopefully entertain, stimulate and/or soothe the baby. All of this stuff adds up! We have so much baby gear! We settled on the Diaper Dekor as a diaper pail. I didn't want one that needed special refills, but I read that the Diaper Champ smelled like poo, so I had to choose this one.


We received the Evenflow exer-saucer as a gift.


We picked up the fisher price rain forest bouncy chair this weekend- my first selfless act of motherhood. I HATE the look of this thing, but I have heard from so many people that their babies LOVE it, so I made myself get over the fact that it is the ugliest thing I have ever seen.
Seriously...I hate it. I hope the baby loves it.

For the swing, I was convinced I needed to pick another hideous monstrosity- and this one was going to cost around $200. In the end we made a game-time gamble and chose the Graco portable car seat adaptable swing. This has the same muti-speed functionality, music and ambient noise features as the other models, but it isn't enormous and I can move it from room to room. I might have to put a mobile on it or something- Not sure if they care about them in the swing or if they mainly fall asleep- I suppose I will find out if our gamble pays off.

Our baby bath choice was the Summer Infant Bath

My Diaper bag is a Skip Hop- mostly because I HATED everything on the market, and people said this one was nice.
We also got a Baby Einstein Neptune Ocean Play-Gym- Big Guy set this up last night and was actually laying IN it..I think he liked it a little too much.



Plus we finally picked a couple options for going home outfits which is a relief! And we grabbed some Dr. Brown's BPA-free bottles because we heard they were good.


We still need to get a mattress for the bassinet that my grandfather built. It was modeled it after one that my aunt saw in a catalogue when she was pregnant and it got passed to us. It is special to us because he made it, and we plan to use it in our bedroom until we can bear to move the baby to the nursery.





That is all I can think of for now- I know we have purchased a million other things- because they are all over my house and basement. We are so excited about welcoming our little bundle and i can't wait to share the news! I hope this was helpful- feel free to ask any questions about why I chose something- I am happy to share!