Getting Ready!

The super-cool rocker we'd been drooling over for months and ordered last week (thanks tax refund!) came in a couple of days ago. It looks really great in the nursery:
It does make me realize how small that room is, but I prefer to think of it as "cozy" not crowded.

Stella and I also went to the mall Wednesday to find a going home outfit for BabyBean. Stella was a great helper and in fact wanted to shop longer than I did. She kept saying, "one more store, one more store!" It was crazy! I guess there was just so much to look at. We wound up finding an adorable little outfit that I worried Tim would veto as too frilly, but luckily he was on board:

We also got the most precious socks that look like little shoes to go with it:
I was so blinded by cuteness that I neglected to notice that the outfit has buttons on the back (huge annoyance with a newborn) or that it was short sleeved so I probably needed to get a sweater too to protect those teeny tiny little arms. Oh well, even experienced moms are choose fashion over function sometimes!

For some reason I have found myself much more seduced by cute little girl outfits this time around. With Stella, I was Ms. Practical and really bought almost nothing for the baby, but this time I find myself drawn to the frilly dresses. I also got BabyBean a dress for next Christmas and another outfit, both on super-clearance. If you're looking for cute baby girl clothes, don't bother looking any further than Dillard's, they have the most adorable stuff!

I know that the next 4-5 weeks will fly by, but I'm in that state where I am anxious to meet my little girl. What will she look like? How will she act? How long will my labor be? (I vote for something between 22 hours and "having the baby in the car it's so short"!)

Tomorrow we're planning to do the final push to get the nursery finished. I promise to post pictures as soon as we're done!

The Oscars: My verdict

The new format of the show SUCKED! And a lot of people at our party were saying Hugh Jackman was great, but just about anyone could be great if they only let him come out two or three times during the entire telecast, and then he just sang and danced, which is what he does well! He was fine, I had no qualms with him, but he definitely did not play the part of host. No jokes about how long the damn thing was, what's up with that? Let's bring back Jon Stewart, or even better, Ben Stiller. He came out to present as Joaquin Phoenix and was awesome. Just go back to one of my Jewish comedian teen crushes and I'll be happy. And these silly montages of all the films in different genres for the year: animated, action, romance. I forgive the comedy one because they had James Franco and Seth Rogan reprising their roles in Pineapple Express to talk about the comedies, and that was actually damn funny. In fact, I didn't realize that's what they were doing until later when someone told me. Make me laugh and you are forgiven. But the rest of them were pointless and just served to pad the 3 and a half hour running time.

But the worst change, the most absolutely horrible tweak they did, was to have past award winners fawn all over the current nominees when introducing an award. It was the most disgusting ass-kissing session I've ever seen. Hollywood, if you want to blow smoke up each other's butts, do it at the after parties. I do not need to see it. Plus, it took FOREVER, and you didn't get to see a clip of the movie to make you go, "huh, that looks interesting, I think I'd like to see that." Or at the very least to see the transformation of actor into character. It was just mostly the nominee trying not to look horribly embarassed as the past winner emptied meaningless compliments into their lap. Our party was about 75% against this new change and about 25% for it. There was actually squealing as some of the past winners came out, although there were also screams of horror at Sophia Loren. Jeez, it looked like she was there to give out two very tarnished Golden Globes, if you know what I mean. Sophia, you're lovely at any age, but hire a stylist. You looked like Peaches n' Cream Barbie.

Tim and I have decided we need to make one major change for next year: we need to have a "shut up I want to hear everything that's said" section right by the television and a "I am only watching this because of the company of good alcohol and great friends and we can be catty and make fun of it" section in the back. I swear, if I heard one more shush, I was going to yell out, "if you wanna' hear everything that's said, watch it at home!" You can obviously see what camp I was in;) Plus I'm a grumpy pregnant lady. I just didn't care enough about anything last night, although there have definitely been years when I wanted to hear some acceptance speeches more than others. I would have loved to hear Mickey Rourke had he won, although I'm certainly happy for Sean Penn since Milk is one of the top Best Picture nominees I want to see.

And one more thing: DO NOT GIVE AWAY THE END OF THE MOVIE IN YOUR STUPID MONTAGES! I am so pissed that they gave away the end of Benjamin Button, a movie I really want to see. Everyone was like, "obviously that's how it has to end, surely you see that coming." And I was like, "maybe, but I'd rather not see that image before the movie, it loses its impact." And don't show Schindler's List images either. Especially the one of the little girl in the red coat. Dammit, I got all choked up when they showed that. Argh!

Oscars, you know I will crawl back to you next year like Rihanna crawling back to Chris Brown, but please re-examine these silly changes you made. I only know one person who likes montages and while she and I have our battle every year over them, I don't think you're getting more ratings from adding montages! Or kiss-up fests. You've got a lot of talent on your side, find someone who has some and get them to make your show entertaining!

Yes, she's insane, why do you ask?

The outfit Stella came out wearing after lunch today:
I rest my case, your honor.

Couples Meme

I've gotten tagged on Facebook by a couple of people, but I would rather post it here, as I only use Facebook grudgingly. If you're part of a couple, please do it if you have time, I'd love to see your answers!

Much like the 'About me' notes, you also once you've been tagged, send it back to the person who tagged you, and all those you want to do it as well!! This is kind of like the 25 things - except they are pre-decided questions and it's about you and your spouse, not just you. Come on, play along - inquiring minds want to know! ;-)

♥ What are your middle names?
Denise (me)
Woods (Tim)

♥ How long have you been together?
We officially started "dating" when our friend Seth Riddle asked if we were going out. We answered yes on October 1st, 1996. We started dating just a few days before that. We've been married (odd it doesn't ask this question) since May 15, 1999.

♥ How long did you know each other before you started dating?
About a week.

♥ Who asked who out? Technically Tim asked me out, but I kept dropping hints. Our first unofficial date happened because I found out he was going to see a play, (Maribou Mimes), and I got a ticket so I could worm my way in and sit with him. We sat and talked for 2 hours afterwards and so I said a couple of times, "we should have gone for coffee in all the time we were sitting here." Luckily, he got the hint. I was in attack mode;)

♥ How old are each of you? We're both 31, although his birthday is 4 weeks before mine:)

♥ Whose siblings do/did you see the most? his. My brother is a bartender and works weird hours, so we only see him when we go to Houston, usually for Sunday lunch. Tim's family is more likely to travel to Austin, and there's more of them, so we see them a lot.

♥ Do you have any children together? Yes- Stella Lily, will be 3 on March 24th and BabyBean, a girl, due March 29th

♥ What about pets? Names? Lucy- a dachshund/chihuahua mix we got after we'd been married about 10 months, and Punky, an evil cat that I got about 2 weeks before we met. We also had a sweet Llapso Apso mix named Roxie who passed away last April. We would really like to get another dog, but we're holding off until the baby is at least a few months old. (It's taking all our will power!)

♥ Did you go to the same school? college, yes, high school no.

♥ Are you from the same home town? No

♥ Who is the smartest? He is. He knows a little bit about everything. It's really annoying. But I'm much smarter about music and pop culture, and he does bow down to my superior knowledge in that arena;)

♥ Who is the most sensitive? That's a tough one, I don't know. I guess I am, but I don't think I'm particularly sensitive.

♥ Where do you eat out most as a couple? El Chilito, P. Terry's, Pokejo's, Freddie's.

♥ Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple? England/Wales

♥ Who has the craziest exes? Neither, but I think I have better stories. Like "Cappio Man", the guy who wore women's shirts and worked at Contempo Casuals.

♥ Who has the worst temper? I think me. It takes a lot to get Tim riled up, although when he does, it's really scary. I'm the type that he used to be scared I'd get him into a fight when someone cut in line or something. Having children has mellowed me tremendously and I no longer do that sort of thing.

♥ Who does the cooking? Tim, although I make breakfast.

♥ Who is more social? Me, but we're both pretty darn social, thankfully.

♥ Who is the neat-freak? Me, but Tim helps keep it up. I just think if he was on his own, he wouldn't be as neat as he is with me.

♥ Who is the more stubborn? Tim, by a long shot! He always insists he's right. Often I just wait and let him make a mistake to prove he's wrong. I know, I'm evil:)

♥ Who hogs the bed? I think he does. He says I do. I think this is in the eye of the beholder.

♥ Who wakes up earlier? He's been getting up with Stella lately most of the time, so he does.

♥ Where was your first date? Mojo's coffee, followed by the slab at Jester. It lasted until 3:30am (completely innocently), we just didn't want to stop talking and say goodbye!

♥ Who has the bigger family? Tim. He's the third of 4 children. I just have one brother. He also has a large extended family (his Dad is one of 11 children).

♥ Do you get flowers often? No, but he does lots of wonderful things for me that show love a lot better than a bouquet of flowers!

♥ How do you spend the holidays?
With both our families, one at a time. We have spent it alone before though. It's just more fun with our families!

♥ Who is more jealous? Neither of us is jealous. We trust each other completely, so there's really no reason to be.

♥ How long did it take to get serious?
We were serious almost immediately! It was definitely love at first sight on both ends, I think.

♥ Who eats more?
He does. Which is why when we first got married I gained 20 pounds trying to keep up!

♥ Who does/did the laundry?
We each do our own laundry ever since he accidentally washed a dryclean only dress our first year of marrriage. I do Stella's and the household laundry.

♥ Who’s better with the computer?
Tim, he'd better be since that's what keeps me in furs and diamonds;)

♥ Who drives when you are together?
I used to drive most of the time, but lately I think we've been splitting it more.

My Decorating Style

I took this quiz to find out my decorating style and I came up 50% contemporary, 30% vintage modern and 20% Hollywood Couture. I have no clue what those monikers mean, but I think the description fits me to a tee:
" Contemporary

So fresh and clean! Antiques? No thanks! Vintage collections and clutter of any type? Not for you! You like your space new and sleek. Each piece is chosen carefully as though it were a piece of art, and your love of minimalism is expressed throughout each room. Furniture has clean lines and geometric shapes are preferred.

You're not afraid of color — in fact, bold color options only highlight the minimal items you choose for your home. But the key is clean. To master the minimalist interior you not only have to be selective in the few furniture items you bring into the space, you must also find a way to hide all of the real-life items as well."

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go clean my house! :)

Valentine's Day!

Tim and I celebrated our 13th(!) Valentine's Day together yesterday. Valentine's is not my favorite holiday. Even though I have had a sweetie for 13 years, I will never forget the first 19 years of my life when I was single. Obviously, I didn't care about being single for the first 10 or 11 of those Valentine's, but the teenage years were maudlin, full of eating candy by myself, listening to the Cure and, I'm sure, writing awful poetry. My last Valentine's Day spent as a single gal was my freshman year of college (I know, don't hate me, I realize how lucky I am to have met the love of my life at 19). My gang of friends and I decided to get dressed up and go out to eat, to alleviate the misery of being single by banding together and making fun of all the sappy happy couples. We first tried to go to Spaghetti Warehouse, but it was way too crowded, so we wound up at Chuy's, which is hardly a romantic destination. Then we headed back to my friend Rhonda's house who, by virtue of being the only one of us not living in a dorm, had become the keeper of the party house. We all lay on the floor, feeling miserable for ourselves and listening to Sarah McLachlan's Fumbling Towards Ecstasy. I remember us all singing "Ice Cream" together. I am sure that there was some sort of substance being passed around to try and lift the mood, but it probably failed.
So it was quite humorous that last night I started my Valentine's Evening out at Spaghetti Warehouse acting in a Murder Mystery. It was even more packed than that evening when I was 18, we could barely get through the entryway to where we needed to be. We had a really great audience and now that we're down to only a couple more shows, the show was really tight and went great. Plus I walked out $150 richer! (They scalp folks on the Valentine's show, but luckily I get a cut of the higher price: triple my normal check.)
After the show, I walked in the front door to find the dining table set up with china, complete with chargers, flowers, and candlelight. It looked so lovely, I was really surprised! Tim made a delicious dinner of filet mignon, garlic mashed potatoes, white asparagus and followed up with dessert of Chocolate dipped strawberries, which my daughter assisted in the creation of. After dinner, we sat down to watch Sarah McLachlan's Austin City Limits appearance, which aired last night and which Anna and I attended back in December. Sure enough, you could see us for a few milliseconds a couple of times. It didn't hit me until this morning how similar this Valentine's was to that one so many years ago, complete with Spaghetti Warehouse and Sarah McLachlan. Of course, there was no loneliness this year and no "substances" either!
I think Valentine's is a Hallmark holiday created just to make people feel miserable and guilt guys into spending way too much money on flowers, cheap stuffed animals and chocolates. Luckily, my chef of a husband is still willing to make me a delicious meal every year. We avoid fighting the crowds and get to spend a quiet evening at home. I have to say, yesterday was extra fun because we spent so much of it with our sweet little daughter, and I bet next year will be even more fun because we'll have two!

It's a Small World After all

We took the hospital tour this morning and saw not one, not two, but THREE people we know who are due to give birth soon. First in the parking lot on the way in we ran into my friend Nikki and her husband Richard. Then once inside we all sat down and started talking and my friend Rebecca and her husband Jonah come in. THEN a few minutes later an ex-coworker of mine, Lisa, who also went to our old church, walk in! It was a very funny and nice coincidence to run into so many friends! We're having the week of run-ins. Thursday morning at the regular ob's visit we ran into Tara and Jeff and then today at IKEA, we ran into Tim's Mom's friend Rebekah and her son Joshua. It was very nice timing because we were able to watch Joshua and chat with him while his mom went to the bathroom. I just hope no one I know decides to attend the murder mystery tonight at Spaghetti Warehouse!

The lady giving the hospital tour unfortunately didn't seem to know the answers to a lot of things. We did get to see the new Labor and Delivery rooms which are gorgeous, but found out the Post-partum rooms are same ones that were there when Stella was born, and actually will not be redone. That was disappointing, especially since you only spend a few hours in the L&D rooms and the rest of your stay is in the Post-Partum room. We did find out there are now 29 L&D rooms, as opposed to the 12 there were when we had Stella, so hopefully they'll be no hanging out in the waiting room during labor like there was with her! But it was a huge tour, so this continues to be a popular time of year to procreate. We also found out that they now do the bath, eyedrops, and Vitamin K in the nursery rather than in the room. I was disappointed to find that out because I really liked the fact that when Stella was born she never left our room after being born. Of course, as Tim pointed out, the lady doing the tour seemed utterly clueless, so I'm holding out a little hope that perhaps she was wrong about that part!

Stella was awesome despite the fact that the tour took over an hour and I brought nothing for her to play with or snack on. The one we had when I was expecting Stella only took 15 or 20 minutes, I think, so I hadn't prepared. But the lady today really enjoyed talking. I think someone should have told her that an hour is a very long time for a bunch of really pregnant ladies to have to stand!

Growing Girl

Yesterday I put a pair of jeans on Stella that in September, when her MeMe and I bought them, had to be rolled up. Yesterday they barely reached the tops of her feet, they were almost too short. So we decided to measure her again before bed last night. She's grown another 1/2 inch to 39.5 inches tall! Girl is growing like a weed!

The End of an Era

So I decided today it is time to face facts: Stella has given up her nap. She has taken two naps in the last ten days and I think both times Tim had to pull out some wicked voodoo magic to get her to fall asleep. I'm still able to get her to stay in her room for nap time, so at least I get some peace, but she's a pretty wonky child without her nap. She definitely still needs that nap, and I've read that kids really still need a nap until kindergarten, but you can't make a kid sleep. Even though she says she's tired, she says she's going to nap, and I leave her nearly passed out, 20 minutes later I hear, "Time to get up Mommy." Today she was kind enough to do that just as I was drifting off for my own nap. I was really looking forward to her napping to help me catch up on sleep after the new kid is born, but oh well. I'm sure this time will be easier anyway, I'm much more used to sleep deprivation now:)

Today at school was Stella's class Valentine's party. I brought Valentines for everyone in the class, as requested, but didn't attach a sweet treat because I didn't want to do that to parents. Well guess what? Everyone else attached a cookie or candy to their Valentine. Luckily, I was able to confiscate most of them without Stella even noticing. When did Tim and I become the hippy parents?

I got my diaper bag!

I got my diaper bag today and I just LOVE it, even more in person! I can't wait to have the baby so I can use it:)

I got Tim to take some pictures of me with the bag, but I just look awful in them, way tired and sallow or something. So you'll just have to see the bag itself. Trust me, it's really gorgeous!

My Girl Wears Panties all the Time, Panties all the time, panties all the time

Yes, that' s an Eddie Murphy song quote. After nearly a week of dry pull-ups, Stella wore panties to bed last night and was dry once again! I felt sorry for Tim, though, as she woke him up twice to go to the bathroom. Hopefully she will soon go to the bathroom on her own, but in any case, I didn't expect her to go dry at night yet and I'm really excited she is!

On the downside, she's only taken like two naps in the last week and a half. Today she couldn't stop coughing and so I gave her some honey, but I guess it woke her up because now she's playing. Poor thing was so tired on the way home from school that she nearly passed out in the car. We'll see how pleasant the rest of the afternoon will be! I know she's not ready to give up her naps, hopefully it's just a phase.

Dancin' Time!

Stella's old enough for summer dance classes at Ballet Austin! Of course, the first day of the class has to overlap with her preschool summer camp, but I've asked if the Ballet school will let her attend a different day just that one week. I think it's going to be so cute to see her dancing in a little pink leotard, pink tights and pink ballet shoes, I know she's going to love it!

Victory in the Cool Stuff Department

So Tim and I have been looking for a chandelier to hang in the corner of the baby's room over the rocker. It's to create a reading light that the baby can't try to get into once she's crawling (in several months of course). We've found nothing we were crazy about, and certainly nothing we could agree on until this:
So cute! I was reading Ohdeedoh and a woman had a really cute chandelier in her nursery that she said she got from Urban Outfitters, I went to check it out and found this one I loved even more! I called the UO on the drag and they have lots of them in stock, so I'm going to try and get over there soon to pick one up. I cannot believe how obsessed I've become with finding the perfect things for the baby's room! I guess it isn't everyday that you get to create a whole room from scratch. (Well, almost from scratch, we did already have the crib and bookshelves.)

The other thing I've been searching for, without success, was a diaper bag. I've looked at stores and found one at OhBaby, a high-end store in Westlake that I liked pretty well, and thought I might go back and get it with the 30% off coupon they gave me to use next week, but I still wasn't sure it was perfect. I really wanted something a lot like my purse, which is yellow and has a birds and flowers pattern. It's sort of mid-century modern, actually. I wasn't finding anything that came even close to that description, and then I remembered Etsy. I figured if anyone had it, Etsy would, and I was right. My bag was 3rd on the list of results:


It came from here and was a bargain at only $35. Tim even said he'd be happy to carry it, it was so cool. I can't wait to get it! This is my first experience using Etsy, but if it goes well, I'm sure I'll be back in the future!

In Stella news, she has woken up two nights in a row with a dry pull-up. This has meant Tim having to drag himself out of bed in the middle of the night and hang out while she goes potty (for some reason she needs us to be around, even though she doesn't want us involved at all), but it's still pretty cool. She asked last Friday to start wearing panties to bed and I told her she couldn't yet because I didn't have an extra set of clean sheets, but that she could wear pull-ups. So we bought some pull-ups and she's been having a lot of success obviously. We'll see if it leads to all panties, all the time which would be super-exciting! We certainly didn't expect her to reach that milestone anytime soon, but we aren't going to complain.

In sync

Tim and have an extra babysitting night tonight and there are no plays open (except Dancing at Lughnasa and Tim has forbidden that one), so we're going to go see a Best Picture Nominee. Out of the 5, my top two choices would be Milk (even though I shouldn't forgive Gus Van Sandt for Paranoid Park, one of the worst movies I've ever seen. But he did make Drugstore Cowboy, my favorite movie of all time and the movie that turned me onto arthouse and independent cinema.) and Frost/Nixon. Tim piped back with Slumdog Millionaire, which I'm sure is fantastic, but I don't really want to see right now. So Tim eventually comes back with, "man, I was just thinking about what a boring person I am that my first choice is Frost/Nixon." And I came back with, "that's my first choice too! i guess we're both boring!" Ah, I'm so glad I found my fellow history geek. I can't wait!

Bragging on my Hubby

I just have to brag a bit on my super-talented husband. His piece, Hungry Love, which he wrote for the Weekend Fling last fall - with me breathing down his neck trying to chain him to his computer;) - was selected for the Austin Scriptwork's Out Of Ink Festival! I'm so excited for him! Aimee Gonzales (SDFF 5 and 5 'Til for Frontera Fest), and Sarah Saltwick (SDFF 5) also had their pieces selected. My one complaint? The performances are the last weekend in March and the first weekend in April. So Babybean better be either right on time or a little late because I want to go! I'm going to go opening night, of course, can't take any chances there!

New Curtains and new Chair in our bedroom

We're loving our new curtains in our bedroom. During the day, open, they frame the view beautifully and at night, closed, they remind us of a luxe hotel room. Plus, we sleep so much better without bright lights in our eyes or the sun beaming in. Now we want to change everything else to match the curtains!

If you saw "Mrs. Witherspoon", put on by Different Stages at the City, you may recognize the chair. Yes, we have a showbiz chair! Karen and Jennie, the director and the lead actress, offered us an amazing deal on the chair because they wanted it to have a good home after the show closed and they thought it would match our decor. They were right! We'd like to go in a Hollywood Regency/high-end hotel room angle now that we have the curtains and the chair. Our inspiration pieces are the chair, the champagne/gold curtains, and the fabulous vintage turquoise lamps (also from Karen and Jennie), but everything else except the furniture can go. Any suggestions? We don't have time to be painting right now, of course, but we hate the walls as they are. Especially since we did touch-ups with paint we found in the garage that turned out to be enamel rather than flat so our walls look ridiculous. One of our more unfortunate home improvement disasters. But we are STUMPED as to what colors to go with! So any design advice - Ashley, sweetie, my kindred amateur designer, I'm looking at you:) - would be much appreciated!

I was SO domestic this morning, you all would have died. Stella and I baked cookies! We cut out little heartshapes from sugar-cookie dough and then decorated them with homemade icing and decorations left over from when my mom and Stella made Gingerbread cookies before Christmas. Stella was very meticulous in her decorating and would not stop until every cookie had icing and sprinkles on it.


Stella wanted to go to the park really badly today, but I'm laying low because I really gave my abdominal muscles too much of a work out this weekend with all my walking and cleaning and shopping and they have been SCREAMING out in pain since last night. So in order to keep her happy, I suggested making cookies. Luckily, she is her mother's daughter and the promise of sweets quickly placated her. There are advantages to being pregnant and having to "take it easy":) For example, just look at all the blogging I'm doing! I told Tim I felt bad being so lazy and he said, "you're not being lazy! You need to relax." I told him, I guess he's right, I'm doing the important business of baking a baby!

32 Weeks and Baby Room pics

So I'm 32 weeks today! Only about 8 weeks, more or less, to go. I had Tim take a belly shot outside since the weather was so amazing today. It's not one of my best, but you can at least see how huge my mid-section is getting. Tim says I really need to work on my potbelly;) Also, check out how low I'm hanging. For comparison, here I am with Stella at 32 weeks:


Everything's pretty much still pulled in. I'm sure the difference is due to the fact that my uterus is already all pre-stretched out this time around.

We got the curtains up in the nursery, so I snapped a few pics:
That big hole in the corner is where the awesome rocker we plan to get will eventually go.

There will be two shelves between Tim's cool handpainted tree and the changing table for diaper stuff, medicine, etc. I might put construction paper in the front of the drawers so you get color and not clothes. The baby's name letters will be above the crib, of course.

I am totally in love with the room. Is it bad that I want to live there:)

We were very industrious yesterday. We went to IKEA, registered at Babies 'R Us, and went to 3 different Targets to get curtains for our room. We found these curtains at Target that were on MAJOR clearance ($10 a panel!), so we scoured all the Targets to get enough. We had to pay $13.98 for 3 of them, but even at that price, it was a steal. So we don't have to spend the new baby's college tuition on curtains for our room. I couldn't believe Tim and I agreed on something AND it was on sale. Hallelujah! We had a great time doing all this stuff just the two of us. Tim said it was like stepping back in time when we could do everything at a leisurely pace and didn't have to worry about racing through stores while simultaneously trying to keep a toddler happy. We were pooped though. We are definitely out of practice as shoppers. Going to that many stores left us exhausted!