Five Favorites

Linking up with Hallie via Grace for Five Favorites

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1. The Royal Postpartum Baby Bump.

I might be crazy, but sometimes I get discouraged when I see the seemingly millions of new moms in the blogosphere and on Instagram who seem to have it all together right after they have a baby.  They are out and about in gorgeous, and at a few days or a couple weeks postpartum, it seems like they have no telltale bump leading the way for them. It is silly of me, but I do get down. After I gave birth to Ryan, I still rocked quite the bump (plus a lot of extra weight), my face had swollen so much and was covered in broken blood vessels, I didn't want to wear anything at all because breastfeeding was painful (but I did ... I don't think visitors would have appreciated me in my birthday suit, Ryan's inaugural birthday or not), and I practically cried at the thought of possibly being without reach of my Peri bottle. 


I completely expected Kate to look flawless with her hair and makeup team because, well, she is married to the future king and just birthed another future king! She's a duchess, folks. And I knew she would probably be in heels because again, she is a duchess. But I was floored when she stepped out as a glowing new mama in a dress that didn't hide her bump at all, rather it accentuated it. 

The Duchess of Cambridge brought sleeves back, but my kindred spirit alarm is sounding off because she brought no-baby-in-there bumps back. Girl after my own heart. 

I do have to say that she did an impeccable job hiding any fear of postpartum gore as the whole world watched her family of three debut, although I don't think anyone can top the Mongolian mother who gets onto a motorcycle to ride home on after giving birth.

You can hop on over to Buzzfeed to see Ellie's round-up of photos from the future king's debut!

2. The ice cream truck

Last week for the very first time ever, I took Ryan out to the ice cream truck that constantly roams around our neighborhood letting us know that the weasel goes pop! 90+ thermostat inside the house makes me a fun mom. We will ignore the fact that the watermelon pop stained his skin so that the thorough sprinkler shower didn't suffice. Soap is needed for those suckers.

3. My new last name dictated by Ryan.

Ryan changing our last name from Katrina on Vimeo.

I will be stopping by the Social Security office later to change our surname. Or maybe I should just set Ryan's sights high and not settle for a two syllable pronunciation of a three-syllable last name. 

4. Sweet moments. 

On my parents' last night here, my dad was just sitting out on the porch probably because our house is a sauna, and Ryan just wandered out and took a seat next to Grandpa. It was so sweet. Then they played for almost an hour just the two of them and just on the patio which is a miracle because going outside makes Ryan resistant of staying in one spot.

5. Maternity Swimsuits. 

Okay this isn't a favorite because I don't have one, need one and can't find one that I like that isn't $100. Does anyone have a favorite maternity swimsuit that isn't mucho dinero? If so, send them my way! My bump is in no way fitting into any of my swimsuits. Preferably not a matronly number, although rest assured... I get the irony of that request. Pregnant = mother = matronly by default.

Hee-hee-hoo!

Should I be over this by now? Probably. No, definitely.

This morning after I handed Ryan off to my parents who are here visiting and wake up at the crack of dawn and beg for me to give them their grandson (sleep in past 5 something? Fine by me. No objections here), I checked my email. Two Google News alerts were awaiting me. The first one said that Carole Middleton would come stay with Kate and Will. Wow, that is some shocking news. Not. I deleted the next one since I expected something of the royally disappointing caliber. Right as the email started to do it's genie-slim-down to fit into the trashcan on my phone, I saw the words, "...admitted to hospital, in labour." I gasped!! Chris bolted up! It must be noted that Chris sleeps very deeply and normally only wakes up if he thinks something is wrong with Ryan so the feeding wake ups of yore never even caused a stir. So the sleeping log thought Ryan had to go to the emergency room or something.

"Kate is in labor!!" A slew of unprintable words from Chris answered my joy. I did a little dance, kicked my feet and giggled because, hey! A prince or princess is on the way! Chris was NOT appreciative. Bold, all-caps, italicized and all.

I also might have started crying. 

Anyway, as much as Chris teases me about my shared fascination with millions of other people around the world being part of the reason there are a million reporters camped outside anywhere Kate might be, I do really feel for the girl! No one wants a barrage of messages asking if the baby has arrived yet, let alone thousands of cameras monitoring your swollen ankles' every move. I was annoyed having to have a monitor on my belly at all, and all of our monitors are focused on her. Yikes. 

I am happy to be able to pray for someone in labor and for the baby and for her husband. I normally do so I don't feel guilty that this morning I can put a face to the prayer intention. No guilt at all. Plus, the names we like for this baby aren't exactly on the short list for the future king or queen. I'll be monitoring Ellie's updates all day. 

When Ryan's labor was looming over our heads eighteen months ago, I told Chris that I didn't want him telling anyone that I had gone into labor. I had some insane thought in my head that I would feel so much pressure to have the baby quickly! Okay to that 1) our family and friends already knew that we were having a baby and 2) I should have been infinitely more worried about the insane pressure of the baby descending. After fifteen minutes of rage at the mere suggestion of Chris alerting the familia, I calmed down and agreed. (Shhhh ... it actually was adorable that Chris was so excited). 

Our kind friends camped out in the waiting room after driving through the snowstorm plus the family updated via Chris' thumbs was about as much extra pressure that I could take. Poor Kate has the whole world wondering if she is an efficient pusher or not! I do hope she and William and the baby take their sweet time that they deserve as a new family of three. 

But I'm sitting here waiting with bated breath. No, hee-hee-hooing over here. 

Irrational pregnant mind dump, over and out. The sincerest wishes for a safe and quick labour to you, Duchess Catherine! 

Almost Verily My Biggest Frivolous Moment Thus Far

Last night, Alexandra and I were chatting about Verily, the marvelous and inspiring women's magazine that is just about to print its very first issue. She mentioned that the cover was going to be released today, and I remembered that this morning soon after I woke up and was checking Bloglovin'. My internet was being wonky (surprise, surprise), and the photo of the cover wouldn't load so I just forgot about it and got out of bed to try to be a little bit productive. I picked out my favorite spring skirt and threw it on with a tank top and started checking tasks off of my to do list. Later when I sat down at the computer, I thought to check our Verily's blog again to see if my (un)trusty internet would allow me a peek at the cover. 

And then the second biggest frivolous moment of my life as of yet happened. 

What. 

(And no, I don't normally sit with my skirt on top of the desk. You just do some crazy things when you are wearing the same exact skirt as the model on the Verily magazine cover like spread your skirt over a keyboard to take photos of a computer screen. And yes, our current background is an eagle. I love my husband).

About three years ago, I called my best friend and told her that I was about to buy a skirt that I would wear for years and years. She is always dressed impeccably and has many classic pieces so I knew she would love to hear about it. The skirt was at Forever XXI, not exactly the most classic place, and I once I saw the watercolor, bright floral design, I was sold...or I guess, it was sold to me. 

1. Holding Baby Johnny and hanging out with Bailey in San Diego (How old is this skirt? This is a photo of Johnny, Bailey and Ryan from yesterday!) 2. Summer trip to Chicago 3. Easter 2013 4. Venice! 5. Aubry was lucky enough to organize a private Mass in the Clementine Chapel in St. Peter's Basilica 6. My host dad, Marc, snapped this photo of me when we were at Mont St. Michel. 

Boy, do I wear this skirt a lot. And boy, does Verily do a much better job styling than I do! 

Since I'm being happy go lucky I decided to do my own Open To Interpretation a la Grace, Kayla and Erica based on the cover. So here we go: 

Cover: Effortlessly casual young woman on the go. Me: Stay at home mom trying to wear this skirt as many times as possible before the bump makes it scandalous. Didn't even attempt at the fanny pack since I already have the baby fanny pack going on. 

So why is this only almost my biggest frivolous moment thus far? Because I will just always have a special spot in my heart for Kate and William.

Just two newlywed couples in their going away outfits

If you reached the end, wow! Thank you for putting up with my silly rambling. 

P.S. Everyone subscribe to Verily! The first print issue is for June/July 2013! Go on, scoot. 
P.P.S. I am not exactly a trendsetter so these occurrences are extremely surprising. 

Likes and Shares

There are quite a few gems on the internets right now that I really liked, even loved, and I wanted to share them with you.

- First, please continue to pray for Baby A and the rest of the family! Here's to hoping for a smooth recovery with rare trips to the hospital.

Source: Buzzfeed

- Have you seen The Royal Family's trip to Hogwarts? My study abroad friend writes for Buzzfeed, and she has the awesome job where she gets to sift through photos of Kate Middleton (I know she is the Duchess of Cambridge, but, come on, she will always be Kate Middleton to me). Ellie did such a great job with this one! And, of course, I love how wonderful Kate looks in her Topshop dress. She needs to get on Prince William though...how has he not read the books?!

- Even better than a royal baby bump...a baby bump blessed by Pope Francis! I adore this photo of Pope Francis blessing the unborn child of Ali Landry and her husband, Alejandro. Now how do I obtain one of those for the babe in my belly? ;)

- If you read Tess' blog, which has a sweet new name that is perfect for her next stage in life, then you know that she has a twin, Lillian. Well, Lillian wrote a wonderful article in defense of reading mom blogs. It's no surprise that I have quite the affinity for reading mom blogs, and I feel lucky that I have never felt shame in reading way over fifty shades of mom blogs. 

- Speaking of blogs written by mothers, Grace was very generous with her tips in her blogging 101 post. For your wisdom, I thank you. 

- I think Anna of In Honor of Design did such a perfect job with her new site launch. I love reading about her family especially since both of our husbands enjoy rugby. 

- The blog of my childhood friend, Michela, is also wearing a new look courtesy of Jenna Riley Design. So pretty and clean!

- Alexandra posted!! I am going to hold her accountable to writing more so, hey, I'm linking to you, girl! In all honesty, I'm just being a bit selfish because I love her clever stories and how can you have too many photos of Peter and Mary Frances?

Happy Weekend, all!