the last belly shot

at least i hope its the last...i know this baby isn't ready yet, but i sure am - or rather my back is ready...i am being forced to post this...and i only do it for my girlfriends cross the country who can't be here to witness "the belly" this is for you...only about 10 more days until my "due date" - please keep us in your prayers! my mom comes tomorrow and i am so looking forward to her visit - it doesnt feel like the holidays without her for some reason. anyway - hope you all enjoy this seldom seen shot...which is seldom seen for a reason, but i couldn't resist sending it out for the viewing pleasure of my girls in portland, texas, chicago, new york, etc...love you!

BBQ

i love this cat. anyone who has met this cat and especially spent the night at our house has been fortunate enough to know the BBQ...he is "special" - we can't ever be mad at this cat despite his annoying 6:00 a.m. wake up meows and the fact that he eats EVERYTHING. this is why. i wish we would've waited to do christmas cards, because this would have been it. Bryson finished his breakfast early this morning and ran in to tell us "I gotta show you something" which is usually something that he did that he knew he shouldn't...i.e. pine sol on the wall or crayon on the wall, or a broken ornament, or scissors lying somewhere...or...or...or...anyway i follow him into what we call the "godfather room" and there is BBQ seriously trying to get comfortable in our "godfather tree" - like he really wants to nap there in between the bubble lights. that is why we love him.

Happy St. Lucia Day

Today is Dec. 13th...also known as St. Lucia Day - click here for more information because i know you are curious about it...it is making me miss my mother like crazy - but i only have to delay the celebration a couple days since she is attempting to come on the 15th. Hopefully i can convince her to make her Swedish T-Ring and some other goodies! The holiday brings back nightmares of the lighted candles dripping hot wax on my head and then my mom finally found an electric wreath (i believe in solvang - mecca of scandanavian goods for californians) - can you see the fear on my face in the first picture? you dont even want to know the amount of tantrums and i presume bribing since now i am a parent myself and know all too well the tricks parents use to inflict torture on their offspring. We always celebrated in our families that the eldest daughter was St. Lucia - a charge that i quickly outgrew and wished upon my younger sister, however she never had to endure the "real" wreath, which always made me a little bitter. After we were both grown they passed the torch to our niece Katlyn and now that she has outgrown it (14 is waaay to cooool for being st. lucia) Hope, her younger sister, is now our little St. Lucia. I hope that one day i have my own little St. Lucia to torture, but until then I will force poor Bryson and the "new one" and my dear Husband to endure Swedish Festivals and family traditions...and although he jokes about it, i know Bryan is starting to fall in love with the holiday too...or maybe its just my mom's T-Ring. Either way - this is a special day for many Swedes who covet what little light they have and their St. Lucia helps to bring some very needed lifting of winter spirits.

Bettie Page dies at 85

I just read in the paper that Bettie Page died today at 85 - the news story is here for all the details. I have always been a pin-up girl fan since my high school days, but Bettie scared me with her whips and leather until i saw the documentary of her in 1998 - Bettie Page: Pin-Up Queen - it was so interesting if you have never seen it. In fact, it was the last time she allowed an interview. She wouldnt show her face, so the interview is kinda from the back of her chair...she didn't want people to photograph her in her old age - she wanted people to remember her when she was young and smokin hot...anyway - it intrigued me because both that documentary and the movie in 2005 that Gretchen Mol played her in - The Notorious Bettie Page - that she really didnt have an agenda with the bondage and racy stuff she did. She didnt think she was doing anything wrong - she truly thought she was making people happy. She also had no problem with nudity - she even told Hugh Hefner in 2005 that she never felt shame with posing nude - that it was how the good Lord made us...i found it fascinating that here is someone that feminists have upheld as "paving the way" for women to express themselves and she viewed it as no more than a paying job...much better pay than a secretary's wage. Anyway after that I thought she was just great because the idea of someone so innocent and carefree with a whip just made me smile a little...I will miss Bettie Page in this world for that reason!

obsession #3 - BAKING!!!

i have been crazy baking. not even with the pretense of holiday gifts...sadly. i do intend on baking some holiday cookies for my jr. league girls tonight, but it just recently entered my head. i think this baby inside me is just really needing that good ol' home-baked sugary goodness. okay...probably not - its probably me - but i brought bryson into my madness. bryan came home to this picture and snapped a shot...bryson wasn't too happy about the "guhl" apron, but sorry we have no "boy" aprons yet!

obsession #2 - christmas tomtes

its december...i have been looking forward to this month for more than one very obvious reason...i love this time of year. as soon as thanksgiving was over we picked up our tree on the way home from my dad's...by we i mean i forced bryan to pick up our tree. he is such a good sport. i busted out the christmas cd's and we trimmed the tree and for all my cheesiness i think both my boys liked it. i know its going to be like this every christmas...the boys placating my holiday cheesiness, but secretly enjoying its traditional cheesy wonderfulness. at any rate - i am showing no signs of stopping. we put up lights a couple of days ago, and again by we i mean i made bryan put up the lights. and every night bryson demands that we go see them - which i am thankful for because they are quite wonderful. its about the only thing making me get out of the house at this point. i am in full hermit mode and attempting to make my hermitage as comfortable as possible...by filling it with pine and cedar and lights and reminding myself that soon...very soon...

this last weekend we were able to go to the orange county SWEA swedish festival. i remember going as a child and watching the st. lucia pageant (and at one point begging my mom to get the electric candle wreath instead of the evil wax-dripping real one! anyway - it was delightful to be around such delightful people...swedes are truly amazing people - don't you know? i was also surrounded by delightful swedish handmade goods...my little secret obsession with tomtes had to assuaded somehow - i was able to get an advent wreath and tomte knick-knack in one so i was pretty happy...let me tell you.

i was tagged

the person who tagged me was late on posting their tag, and i guess i followed suit...i was just reminded by reading a similar post...i was tagged by Whitney the creator of some beautiful jewery (hey...just in time for a holiday plug) Bel Kai Designs. The challenge is to share 7 facts about yourself...let me just grab a cup of coffee first...okay here goes...
1. i grew up on a farm...ish in yorba linda (i think barn, corral, horses, goats, chickens, ducks, tractors count as farm right?)
2. i have a strong loathing for ann hathaway for no good reason...just the mention of her name makes me mad
3. i had my day as a swing dancer and have a super small appearance in Truman Show (dont look too closely for me - you'll get dizzy)
4. i am a registered libertarian and closet conspiracy theorist and still think my name is on a list somewhere and freak out every time i go the airport (there was also a year in college in which i was certain taxi cabs were following me, but that is a different story for a different time)
5. cilantro, horseradish and wasabi all gross me out but i wish they didnt...dont hate on me for this one - i have tried...believe me i have tried...
6. i still think that Blame It on the Rain is a good song
7. i am planning a home birth and its just about all i think about lately - i can't wait to meet this boy!

turducken

so...we were going to deep fry our turkey, but it turns out to be pretty costly to get all the stuff to do it, so we are going to be roasting....however...in my search for something new to do with the thanksgiving turkey i came across the ever delightful Turducken...which is a de-boned chicken inside a de-boned duck inside a partially de-boned turkey...seriously...has anyone ever done this? obviously, because there are pictures, but really - is that appealing to anyone? that would take so much work. i have been obsessing over it all day long...

random thoughts

i have a quiet reflective night tonight and thought i would jot down some of my random pregnant brain thoughts...with bryson recently turning 3 i find myself shocked every day by how much a little man he is turning into to. i know - you hear parents say it all the time and how cliche - and how true and how overstated...but seriously...i can't get over it. i love the way that he is making sense of things and although we have days...like today - dear God...where i wish he would stop talking for just 2 minutes, at the same time his verbal sense is inspiring. for instance...two of my favorite words that he has made up are: 1) clawbster = lobster....because really - they are clawbsters...makes more sense doesn't it? and 2) jumpoline=trampoline...because really - we don't tramp on them...


also - whenever we question him about anything..."what did you do with the little piece that fits on the tripod that mommy just bought daddy?" his reply = "anything"....or..."what were you just doing to the cat...why is the cat running away like that?" his reply = "anything". its so perfectly fitting...we know he means to say nothing...but that would really be a lie wouldn't it? anything is a much more appropriate response for a 3 year old who is really up to anything and everything.

he is starting to ask why questions about his world and starting to make sense of his environment and starting to form social relationships and social groups and become geographically aware that we live somewhere different than other people. the awareness came into effect with our san jose trip last weekend. when we had gone before (i believe it was in September) we left long beach around 8pm and he slept - we told him that meema and papa live far far away. he woke up when we got there - recognized their house and said, "see i told you - it wasn't far far away!" this last weekend when we went we left around 6pm and he was awake until 9 and then woke up again at 11:30 because we hit construction on the pacheco pass, at which point he started singing, "I'm never tired...I'm not going to sleep" - he remembered that the last time we got to meema and papa's house meema woke up and played foosball with him at 3:00 in the morning for 30 minutes...so of course he wanted to stay up for that. anyway - he got a better sense of how far the trek was this last time and constantly asks me what the place is called where meema and papa live...

i love this age where their imaginations are bigger than the tiny world we have constructed for ourselves and where their excitement and wonderment can bring out inner children in all of us and where energy seems to be bottomless and sometimes (not nearly enough though) contagious. i hope as a parent i can help this phase to last a good long time and to make sure i do everything i can to keep the world exciting and fresh and new. i think their innocence is the best gift they can give to the world and i wouldnt want anyone or anything to taint that.

don't get me wrong...this is not an easy age. these last two days when i have said his prayers i have asked God to help me know how to parent this child...his will is relentless, his energy neverending (we put him to bed at 8:00 and he didn't fall asleep until just about 10:00 - talking to himself for 2 hours!) and his verbal knowledge that i love so much was constantly spouting...everywhere...loudly...but even through all the tantrums and whining and boundary testing there pop up these precious sweet moments that melt you and make you want to do it all over again tomorrow...just after some sleep...and maybe coffee in the morning would help too.

my time with him as my only child is coming to an end and i have mixed emotions. i look so forward to him having a sibling...especially a brother he can do whatever it is boys do with each other...probably fight...a lot...but i know that it will be hard to not have the alone time i have with him now like i do - to lay down with him when he takes his naps (which are becoming less and less frequent sadly) - to do a craft in the afternoon together...all the precious mommy and bryson times are now going to include another being. i am just about 36 weeks and the realization that this baby could be born anytime now is starting to hit and i am increasingly excited and nervous all at the same time.

Bryan's White Twin

bryan's cousin Mike was at the wedding and they wanted me to take shots of them because Mike evidently tells everyone he has a black twin/cousin...i hadnt noticed before this night, but the Italian really shows through when he is with him...hilarious!