Something to Say (From the top of my soap box)

On our way home from brunch on Saturday, Little Bubba is 21 weeks.

Hey guys, I've got something to say.

Up until recently, I would roll my eyes when pregnant women would say, "Yes, we've decided on our baby's name, but we're not sharing it with anyone." I'd think to myself Come on lady, what's the big deal? Well now I get it and wish I would have done the same. 

You see, I'm feeling irked that I decided to share my name choices with family and friends when they asked what I wanted to name my kid, and then they offered criticisms that got me to rethink my favorite name choices. If you know that you are one of these people, don't worry I forgive you. But I just want you and the rest of the world to know that it is not ok to offer your opinion about what I want to name my baby. No offense, but what you think about my name choice does not matter. You should just smile and nod and supportively tell me how beautiful you think that name is. Even if you think it's ugly and sucks. You wouldn't criticize my name choice to my face AFTER the baby is born, so why is it ok when the baby is still in my womb? 

Because of hearing what people think about my favorite names, I actually started considering other names, that I don't love as much. I know that you might think Well Amy, you don't have to be so easily swayed or care what others think. Well obviously. And this is what I'm getting to now. I'm ready to say screw what others think, I'm sticking with what I love. I don't want to look back and regret what I name him, or wish I would have named him my original favorite.  I just care so much and value my loved ones opinions so much that I always take what they think into consideration. I guess this is an example of a time though, where I don't need to take others' opinions to heart. Because this is the kind of thing where their opinions don't matter.

So, that's my message today, folks. If a pregnant lady shares her baby name choice with you, don't knock it. 

I also wish strangers would stop inquiring about my pregnancy. Especially with the "How far along are you?" question. What's it to you, stranger? Do you really even care? No. I feel like most people are just asking me so they can size me up and decide on whether they think I'm big or small for wear I'm at. And what shirt I'm wearing that day definitely makes a difference. 

When strangers out in public ask me questions, I almost never tell them the truth, after several encounters with strangers who dropped their jaws and said I look huge like I'm having twins. I need this t-shirt: 

It always feels better and more fun to tell strangers I'm due within a month or, even better, within weeks, and that yes it is twins, and then get all kinds Wows and Praises about how fantastic I look. Definitely more fun.

Now, this doesn't really work with the people in the elevator at my building. We live on the 17th floor, so I tend to face a lot of people in the elevator. I don't feel like I can lie to my neighbors. If I tell them I'm due any day, it would just look ridiculous when I am still pregnant months from now. So fine, I tell my neighbors the truth. But I also don't appreciate how people in the elevator also ask me about whatever purchases I'm carrying with me. Like yesterday when Noel and I got back from scoring our Craigslist items, and we had a cart full of baby stuff. We were asked about what we were doing.... "Just hoarding baby stuff" I told him. I guess I am just used to a more private kind of life. I thought that I left the fish bowl questions behind me in El Salvador. 

I know, I sound like I have a bad attitude about stuff today. Sorry to sound so grumpy. I feel like I have been pregnant forever, and I feel like I still have forever to go and sometimes I miss just being like a normal person- one that still goes out at night, doesnt need a nap everyday and can stay up past 9pm, and that doesn't get lots of questions form strangers. LoL, but it's all worth it.

I watched the What to Expect When You're Expecting movie and I actually really liked it. I was laughing out loud at the part where Elizabeth Banks calls bullshit on pregnancy. Here is a clip of it in the first part of the trailer.

I don't feel that terrible about pregnancy. Usually I don't really feel terrible at all. Maybe because I'm still in the sweet spot. But when I'm not too thrilled about things I try not to complain about it too much, except for to Noel and maybe a few other close people. What's the point in complaining about it anyway? And when people ask you how things are going with it, it always feels best to just say everything is great and wonderful and such a joy. I think people who ask almost always don't really care anyway. Maybe the same as how we ask others "How are you?" all the time as we walk by but we never really stop to hear what their answer is, and people almost never say anything other than "Good." 

We did really score some great stuff via Craigslist this weekend though. It may be somewhat early, but I don't know, not really! Baby will be here in about 4 months. I was keeping my eye out for good deals on good stuff, because you have to snag it when you see it. We decided to forego spending a fortune on all brand new store bought stuff, and find our stuff on Craigslist. I got the inspiration from my prego friend who also found great stuff for cheap that way. It's totally worth it. Baby stuff is expensive and we'd be spending thousands of dollars in the end getting everything brand new. 

So what did we get?

We got this nice glider for $50 :)

We got this great crib! I love that it is white because wherever we go it won't clash with whatever we end up having in our furnished home. It's also in great condition!

Our cart full of Craigslist baby stuff

And then the people we bought the crib from just started unloading all this other stuff on us pretty much for nothing. We only gave them an extra $30 and we scored a Gymini play mat, an Exerswivel, Changing mats, a jumpy bouncy thing, a baby gate, a baby bath tub and other toys. WHOA! Thank you kind strangers from Craigslist. They just saved us a lot of money. Now we just need a changing table.

We aren't going to get more stuff for a while now, because we don't have anywhere to put it in this little apartment. It feels good though to have crossed some things off our list for now though.

Noel and I had big ideas about getting out of town this weekend and going to visit Williamsburg Jamestown to see some historic stuff. But we are both still recovering from our colds, so we ended up just staying home and resting. It's COLD outside today too. In the 40s this morning. EEK! 

I need to go get some warm winter shoes. Like UGGS. Apparently my feet are going to get bigger being pregnant. For real? I'm already a size 10! Please don't tell me they are gonna get BIGGER!

Our kitties have gotten into this habit of being obnoxious in the morning. We lock them out of our room at night when we go to sleep because Mr. TJ attacks our feet under the blanket, which is highly annoying. And Liberty just crawls all over us and paws at us. But every morning between 5 and 6 I wake up to hear them scratching at the door, meowing, and even running into the door to try to push it open. I freaked out the other day when they were actually successful at opening the door. I thought, Wow these are some talented cats if they've figured out how to open the door! Turns out they really aren't that smart, they were just pushing on it and it wasn't latched closed all the way. Now we make sure to push it when we close it. Crazy cats.

There was a strange occurrence when I woke up 2 days ago. To my surprise I looked at the mirror on top of our dresser and it had broken in the night. There is now a huge crack all the way across it. How does that happen? I would blame the cats, but I have no idea how they could break a mirror, and none of the stuff on top of the dresser was knocked over. Spooky? Something to do with the change in temperature? Who knows! But we don't own this furniture. The apartment better not charge us for it!

Anyway, I'm off to Yoga! Happy Columbus Day!

Paz y Amor.

P.S. Had my first taste of Indian food this weekend! I was surprised by it and how yummy I thought it was. I don't know why it took me so long to come around to it. Here's what we had that we ate with this awesome bread called naan. It was all so flavorful and rich.

Palakpaneer, Daltadka- Yellow Lentils, and Lamb Vindaloo (spicy!!)

The only downside of the Indian food was all the stinky burping afterward. So I don't think it's something I could eat all the time, but I definitely will have it every once in a while.