SURPRISE!!!!

My birthday weekend held quite a few surprises. All I knew was that a few friends were going to come over friday night to hang out on my birthday. Allison and Mike were going to be up from Atlanta because the boys were competing in a duathlon on saturday. So I won't go into details because this is the unfortunate part of the weekend...but Friday I ended up feeling rather sick and ended up at the doctor to make sure the baby was still ok. Quite the scary day...but all is well! So I spent most of Friday laying around trying not to be in pain so I was not ready for the company to get here, hadn't gone shopping to feed anybody, didn't clean the house...nothing. I hate that. But Mike and Allison were understanding and the company ended up bringing over whatever food we ate that night which was nice (not that I got to eat any of it). So anyway, sometime during the night Aaron gets a text message. I pick up his phone and see that it was from Jillian...hmm. So I'm suspicious of course. And then, not an hour later...she walks through my front door to join the birtday party! Or so I thought :-) But we got to meet Ian and have some time to just hang out that night which was great! Aaron and I got a little practice with the little guy too :-)

Saturday the boys went and did the race (and did well of course, despite the cold rain!) The girls had a lazy morning and planned on going out to lunch after the guys got home. So we got dressed and started to leave for lunch. We had to drop off Lauren's coat at her house cause she left it the night before (mm, hmm). So I run up to the door (yes, its still raining) and as I knock on the door, I see balloons in the window and now I understand what's going on. I open the door to a house full of people for my surprise baby shower!!! Fun stuff. Lauren, Lani, Melissa, and Betty put together a surprise shower for me and had been scheming together for a long time! The house looked great, there were tons of people there, and I had a great time! I opened wonderful gifts (some of which were home-made masterpieces!), and basically got spoiled. It was so fun to have all the Charlotte friends as well as Jillian and Allison in town to join the festivities. Talk about feeling special :-)

Sunday, I actually had another shower. Aaron's Grace soccer moms put one together for me too. I was a little nervous because I don't really know most of them but it was also a great time. They told stories and we ate good food, and once again, I got spoiled. It was so thoughtful of them to do that for me and it basically shows how much Aaron means to them and their boys.

And then, the following Sunday the YMCA threw me another shower! Three showers in two weekends...what a celebration! Now, we are really set to go and have everything we need and much more for this baby to come. Now, it just needs to get here :-)

Had my 37-week appointment today and things are moving right along. I'm right we're I'm supposed to be I guess and the baby's moving down and "dropping" as they say. The next post will probably be a birth announcement unless something rediculous happens that I need to share!

Winter Happenings...

this is going to be a bunch of random updates from the last two months or so that just never got mentioned. first story on the agenda...aaron has entered a few swim meets this winter. he joined masters meets with a few friends (mainly lani) and had two meets. as if competing in triathlons weren't enough, during the slow season for those, he still needs to compete so swim meets were the fill-in. he's done pretty well and seems to enjoy them so thats good. he also mentioned that he doesn't get nearly as nervous as he used to so the high school swim meet anxiety attacks are possibly a thing of the past :-). the first meet was pretty small and he did well, winning a few heats and races. the second meet was a lot of bigger and more competitive but he still did pretty well. this second meet was LONG though. we spent two solid days there. my poor parents were such troopers. they were in town that weekend visiting and spent the whole thing at a hot humid pool. they loved getting to se him compete of course, just like i do, but there's so much down time between his events it requires a lot of sitting around. so theres a few pics below of the meet and aaron swimming. hopefully the video will work too...the video is to serve as motivation for my mother-in-law to embrace the fact that she could indeed enter one of these meets...she would be WAY ahead of the game compared to the swimmer in the video...my narration of it also mentions that this lady doesn't help the time factor connected to this meet!

random preggo story for ya...i have a new hero and she is a manager at the local old navy. so i have one pair of maternity jeans that i basically wear every time i need to wear clothes that aren't workout related. (no, mom, i don't need more clothes....i just really like these jeans). its hard for me to find pants because most stores don't sell long lengths but old navy has a few and this one has worked out perfectly. so i notice that the stitching on the beloved stretch panel are coming out and then i notice that there's actually a hole in the panel too! scary because these are literally are my only pair of pants...can't have a pregnant lady with no pants! so i don't have the receipt, the tags are obviously off, etc. i go to see if i can just swap them out for another pair but they don't have any more left. so i go to the counter and ask if another store has them anywhere. the only other store that carries maternity is about 45 minutes away...boo. so my new hero asks me if i'm willing to drive there. now, granted, i would have because thats how much i needed this one pair of pants...obviouosly though, i didn't want to make the drive. so i told her that. she just nods and then picks up the phone. in the interest of shortening the story i'm just gonna tell you the result. she took back the pair i had for full price even though they were worn and i had no receipt. she then calls the old navy shipping place with the style number and has them send me a new pair to my house! and she didn't even charge me shipping or anything! so you may think that she'd been pregnant and understood the importance of a pregnant girls only pair of pants...nope, she was really young so she was just THAT helpful. so, bottom line, i am now a loyal old navy shopper! and you should be too!

other news...we've made some household updates. last week my parents were here so the new floor in the living room and entryway finally went in! it was a group effort at times including aaron, my dad, bobby, mitch and his dad, and jory (who was in town for a class all week). my dad worked so stinking hard to get it done for us and it looks great! i love it! the carpet was so old it made the house look old and dirty...now the house looks so much newer! i have already noticed however, you see everything on a wood floor. more cleaning necessary. oh well. i don't have a picture because we just finished repainting the molding and stuff so we're just now putting the room back together. i'll post some pics in the next few days. the other household change is the baby's room. the painting is done, the crib and dresser are in place, the glider chair is ordered and most of the clothes are washed and put away! getting closer and closer to being ready. again, i'll post a picture when its more put together. next on the baby agenda is getting the car seat and stroller out of the boxes and set up as well as packing the hospital bag. i have a little over 4 weeks left so i guess it can happen at any time now. what a scary thought!

we also just came home from the MAI staff retreat. it was a great time of connecting with people from the other offices. we don't get to do that often. it also served as a reunion for the chicago staff which was fun. we got a chance to plan a little in person, as well as meet the new couple that will be there with us this summer. they seem great and i'm really excited about them joining us!

well i guess thats all for now. aaron's got a duathlon this weekend and friends from atlanta are coming up to do it with him so we'll have company again this weekend. after that i think things will slow down a little...maybe. i always think that and then it doesn't quite happen that way :-)

Merry Belated Christmas

I know its a little foolish that I'm blogging about Christmas in the month of February but this just goes to show you how far behind I am on life in general. Christmas for us was over two weeks of fun family times. We started the trip by stopping in Erie to meet up with some Academy kids from the summer. We all crashed at one girl's house for some winter fun. We only spent one night there but we got the chance to catch up, do some dangerous sledding, and relive some summer times. There were quite a few of us there and it was wonderful to see everyone and get excited for those coming back again next summer.

After our stayover we made the rest of the trip up to the Faro house. It was pretty snowy there. Amy and Mama Faro had planned a shower for me but the snow ended up keeping some people away. Who'd have thought??? A blizzard in Rochester! It was still a great shower. Sadly, the only pictures we have are of me opening presents. We didn't catch the cake before it got cut and we didn't get one of us together at all. Big oversight. I was largely blessed with sage advice, baby gifts, and good food. What pregnant lady doesn't appreciate good food?!? :-) The only drawback was some info that came out during the shower games (thanks Amy). First, we established that as a child I had no ambitions and second, we all got a chance to guess how large around I was. Hmm, good times. On a higher note, the games did point out that Aaron and I were both pretty amiable babies so I'm hoping that is genetic!

The rest of the week was similar to other Faro visits...games, movies, and laughs! Christmas took a different twist this year when the "oldest" (Aaron) and "bossy" (Amy) siblings planned our gift giving for us. We had a hoodie exchange where we each drew a name. We had a DVD exchange in which Dad concocted a sweet game using quarters, states, capitals, and stealing, and finally we each gave gag gifts based on some funny memory or inside jokes. There is no shortage of jokes between the siblings in that family so the gag gifts produced some good times! It took us forever to finish opening presents!

After the Faro Christmas, we drove down to my side of the family for the O'Flaherty Christmas. We opened our presents when we got there (web cams seemed to be a good idea for all) and had a good relaxing time there. I slept in, read a lot, caught up with some old friends, and opened lots more presents! Mom got the ball rolling with Christmas presents for the baby already even though it's not out yet to open them! The baby even got a stocking! Sneaky tricks. New Years Eve really showed our age...we watched a few movies, ate some food, played some games, and practically fell asleep before the ball dropped. Right before we made the trip home, I had another baby shower. Mom and Jen put a lot of work into it and it was a great time. I was spoiled yet again! We played some more games, ate some more food (which included a huge fruit salad in the shape of a carriage), and of course, opened some more presents. I made out like a bandit. Between Christmas presents and both showers we actually had to switch cars with my parents to get everything home. The boys actually loaded all the stuff into the car at the shower and we started the drive right from there! We couldn't see out of any of the car windows! Not safe but we made it.

Well, there's much more to blog about since Christmas but I'm gonna space them out. We've encountered many house changes, had a few house guests, and I've experienced many things to rant about...it's all still to come :-)

JAMAICAN BABYMOON!

This vacation was blissfully uneventful. After all the stories that came out of our honeymoon I half expected to have a few more after this trip...not true. In fact, there's not too much to write because we did NOTHING and it was wonderful. :-)

The weather was pretty good but there were a few days of clouds and rain that put a halt on the tan I had hoped for. Even through the rain and clouds, it was still a great temperature and we were outside swimming or something anyway.

The first two days we basically lounged on the beach and went swimming even though it was kinda cloudy. We had a nice rotation of laying down, reading, swimming, getting a new fruit smoothie, repeat. The third day we took a catamaran ride to snorkel and see the famous Dunn's River Falls. It was a great trip...the snorkeling wasn't that great but the boat ride was fun and the the waterfalls were amazing! They were kind of touristy but you actually got to hike up in them the whole hour! Literally...up to our waists in the rushing water of the waterfall climbing up the rocks. Aaron was in his glory. A few minutes in, I was pretty sure this wasn't an activity for someone 6 months pregnant but I didn't know ahead of time and I wasn't about to get out...so don't judge me...Aaron had a good hold of me the whole time so I didn't fall or anything.

The next two days were good and sunny so we went back to our original plan and did nothing but lay on the beach...we added an afternoon kyack and tennis session though. For active people, we were remarkably still until that point. Funny story...so we're playing tennis...mind you, we haven't played in a while and I'm WAY less mobile than I'd like at this point considering my shifting center of gravity. So we're playing and some videographers come up and ask us if they cam tape us playing for the resort commercial!!! YIKES!!!! I was tempted to say they were better off looking elsewhere but we were the only ones playing. So somewhere Aaron and I will be in a RIU Resorts commercial playing some really bad tennis.

The food was good but not as good as it was on the cruise we took with the rest of the Faro fam last Christmas. But that goods cause if it was really good I would have eaten a whole lot more! As it was I was already feeling guilty because I consumed WAY more sugar than I normally do. The all inclusive makes getting smoothies and fruity drinks way too easy and we made good use of it. Poor baby Faro...on a sugar rush all week...it's probably going through withdrawal already. A plus of the sugar rush is that it was moving a whole lot more which made me feel better about being so far away from my doctor...a little peace of mind never hurts. And it's finally kicking hard enough to Aaron can feel it! And one night it was so severe that if you watched my stomach, you could see the kicks show though...a lot! And that's why I didn't sleep so much. It's hard to sleep when something on your insides wants to be on your outsides :-)

So hopefully the pictures have given you a look at our five year anniversary/babymoon trip...

When we finally got home late last night, I was greeted by an early Christmas present from my thoughtful and crafty husband. I have had a few home projects in mind for a long time now but wasn't too keen on doing them myself. A few of those tasks included painting the ceilings, sanding and restaining the kitchen cabinets (they were a hideous orangey color), and redoing the living room carpet. So we walk in the front door and I say, "it smells like paint", and he gets this little grin on his face and says, "oh does it?" He had a bunch of our friends come in and paint the ceilings and redo the kitchen cabinets while we were gone so I didn't have to do it and I didn't have to live in the fumes! What a guy :-)

Sidenote, we also got home to a few early shower presents! I guess a few people have shipped them so we walked in to see our carseats and a stroller...not that I know who they're from yet!

The "JUST WAIT" Phenomenon

This past weekend Aaron and I hit the road again. This time it was for two different things. We drive to Jillian's in Virginia and then he continued on home to meet up with the rest of the Faro family to see Brett's playoff games. It was a lot of travel again but well worth it. Brett won so they're still in it! While Aaron was there watching that all go down, I spent the weekend immersed in baby shower activities for Jill where I learned quite a few things...

Brace yourself, parts of this may sound like a rant against pregnancy...I assure you, its not. It's funny, once you are entering the next phase of life, everyone that has already been there assumes that you are just waiting to hear all the things they've learned and all the "wisdom" they claim to have. It was like that getting married and it's even more like that when you're pregnant! It's a lesson I'm trying to remind myself when my first instinct is to share my personal experience and oh so wise advice...think before you trap someone with your own story! Better yet, ask them if they want to hear it, don't just assume they do! I'm not saying you can't learn from others...I know that is quite false...learning from people that have already been down a certain road is wise...I just rather it be from people I know well, like family and close friends. People you barely know think they have the right to advise you on being a parent! P.S. - They also think that can touch your belly...they can't. It's weird and rude. I've grown to really appreciate those that say, "oh, can I feel your belly?" Merely asking makes it a little less invasive and awkward. Again, family and friends you know well are a different story...I'm referring to the people you barely know.

Pregnancy has also made me aware of another phenomenon...the one mentioned in the title of this post. The "JUST WAIT" phenomenon. Why is it that every single person asks you how you feel, and if you've had your ultrasound, and if you've picked out names and all that other fun stuff, but really, they are just waiting for you to stop answering so they can tell you about themselves...and inevitably...after you tell them things you're experiencing they say...you think that's hard, "JUST WAIT". It's really rude to minimize what is happening at the moment purely to tell someone what happened to YOU later on. It is not encouraging either! There are quite a few things that require lots of physical and emotional adjustment...and they do feel difficult sometimes. Why must you tell me that what I'm dealing with right now is nothing in the grand scheme of what's about to happen to me? You're not fostering the excitment that should be coming with each phase. Regardless of the strange things that are happening, each phase feels very different and I'm trying to enjoy the positives of each one without sprinting ahead to other things. So please stop volunteering all the negative of what I'm walking into and stop making me feel like what I'm feeling is trivial.

On to a more positive side of things...for those that are wondering...I'm between 21 and 22 weeks at the moment and yes, I have a belly and can't fit in my pants anymore. So those that will see us at Christmas will get to see a belly for sure. As far as how I'm feeling, it's up and down still. I've been having tons of headaches and dizzy spells and don't really feel as good as people told me the second trimester would feel like. My doctor told me I need to drink more water so I've been doing that but so far it hasn't changed much. I am feeling the baby move around in there...that is pretty surreal! It moves around a lot so its a fun reminder that something is actually growing inside me! Makes the headaches not seem so bad sometimes :-) Sadly, you can't feel the movement from the outside yet so Aaron has yet to feel it move. Maybe soon.

The baby shower plans are in motion which is also fun to think about...especially just coming from Jillian's. I'll have one with the Faro's right before Christmas and one on Long Island right after. The registry is up and running for the showers and I'm looking forward to them! Amy, great work on the invitations....they look great!

Little Faro Pics

The pictures below are from today's ultrasound. This second one blew our minds! I didn't know that my practice did the 3D/4D ultrasound and had never seen one before. She started with the basic one shown first. Those are the only kind i've ever seen and that's kind of what I expected. She had some trouble getting the baby to move into the right positions to get the measurements and pictures she needed. She definately already pinned our baby as "stubborn". Not much of a shock...that one was pretty much a given. But the baby was basically on its head, and looked like it was doing crunches. My kind of baby...already doing abs :-) So we got quite a few printouts of pictures. In both dimensions. The two here are the only ones I've gotten scanned into the computer so far. I think they are the clearest. The doctor's report said that all is well and thre are no problems seen by their measurements. Good news! She also said the baby was measuring a little big. I immediately got nervous. I'm not up for delivering a 10 pound baby! Aaron of course thinks I'm overreacting. The baby can ether be older than the original estimation or just a big baby. I'm hoping its older :-)

Next on the baby agenda is registering. I've done a little research and made a long list of all the recommended items. BTW...babies require massive amounts of stuff! So after I check with the local moms, Aaron and I will be off to Babies R Us in the next week or so and get the registry up and running! More "stuff" to accumulate.

On a very different sidenote...I am so ready for this election to be over. Besides the commercials that just make outrageous claims and lie about everything, I got another unpleasant surprise Sunday afternoon. The doorbell rings and I answer it to see an Obama campaigner at the door. First Strike: He says, "hello Christine". How on earth do you know my name!!! I don't like it. I'm immediately annoyed that campaigners are at my door and calling me by name on a Sunday. He proceeds to tell me what he's all about while I ever-so-nicely inform him that I've already voted so he should move on. Then he asked me, "oh, well did you husband Aaron vote?" Strike two!!! How do they know our names and marital status and then proceed to think its OK to come to my door and talk as if we're close friends. After he finds out that I already voted he throws in, "well i hope it was for Obama". Strike three. To which I say nothing because its none of his business...instead I just stared at him waiting for him to get my obvious disgust. Then he asks, "well, do you mind me asking who you did vote for?" Strike four!! And I boldly say..."YES, I do! i mind you being at my door, thinking its ok to intrude on my Sunday, and ask personal information that some of my close friends don't even know...it's personal and none of your business". I must say, regardless of who I voted for, if I hadn't already voted, this little interaction would not have helped their cause. Lets just finish this election and get on with whatever is going to happen...and PRAY for God's mercy cause we're gonna need it either way!

Big News

Well, most of you already know...but Aaron and I are gonna have a baby!!!! Yes, we've waited a long time to tell anyone but the secret is out. I'm almost 18 weeks (4 and a half months for those that are not familiar with the "week" system). I'm due on March 31st. Seems like it's right around the corner. We finally told people a few weekends ago. Well, we told the Faro family when we saw them all for the boys games and then we waited until we were gonna see my parents in person.




To tell the Faro's we give ben a package od Uncle Ben's rice to see who would be quick enough to get it. We knew John would be the first but the rest of the fam really stayed in the dark. It was hilarious to watch Ben...he thought we just got him some rice to make in his room and was trying to act so appreciative even though it would've been so random if it were true! Finally, after John prompted him with "Ben, what would make you an uncle Ben?", he and everyone else caught on along with him. Good times. For my parents, we wrapped up onsies that said Grandma and Grandpa on them and had them open them as a surprise gift after they picked us up from the airport. The Faraci's were there too which was fun. Mom was so stunned that she just sat there with her head in her hands for what semed like an eternity before she started to cry. It took Dad all of 30 seconds to go to the neighbors back door to share the news! All the while, Grandma was yelling and Grandpa wasn't sure what was going on :-) Classic.
the happy grandparents to be!


It was a good weekend to start spilling the news because we were going to see quite a few people that we wanted to tell in person. The whole reason we were up was for Chris Rosario's wedding so we got to tell him and Jillian (who was also there for the wedding and is also pregnant!). Those two are my oldet and closest friends and it was great to tell them. Now, little Ian Green and baby Faro will be close in age! Along with those two, there were quite a few old high school friends at Chris' wedding so they all found out too. After the wedding we flew up to Boston to see the Crowell's and their new little addition. Jory was the best man at our wedding and we're now the godparents to Sam so it was good to spend time catching up and sharing good news. We had a great time in Boston and got a little glimpse of life with a 5 week old! I was pretty relieved to come home still feeling excited...I was nervous I would come home shellshocked and scared to death to start this aprenting journey. Below are some pics of our time in Boston...I'm still waiting for Jillian to share some pics from the wedding so when I get those, I'll share.

celebration dinner with jory, laura and sam!

aaron and i getting a little practice wawlking around boston :-)

After that momentous weekend we came home and started spreading the news here in Charlotte. We told our Bible study people and then thanks to facebook, nobody else around here got to hear it directly from us. It's been so much fun to ask questions of the professional moms around here and have our friends share in our excitement. The Academy kids were amazing as well. I've never had as many phone calls or texts as I did that morning. I guess when you share so much of life with a group of people, they feel like they're a part of everything for you too :-) So we've received a few gifts from people...some shoes, a blanket, some cute little onsies, a pregnancy jouornal...a whole new world of presents. Crazy stuff!

Just a little warning, I'm not posting "belly pictures" like most people do these days. Especially not before there's a recognizable bump there. I really don't understand the fascination and draw of following how large you get. Maybe for all you out-of-towners, I'll post some pictures when it looks more like a pregnant belly and less like a huge lunch and a lack of exercise. I have my ultrasound in two weeks so I'll put thos epictures up when I get them. No, we are not finding out what it is...much to the dismay of those trying to buy us presents. We're going with the surprise route :-)