the month of ♥

our wedding anniversary AND valentine's day in 1 month?! according to chris that's almost (but not quite) as stressful as my birthday and christmas being in the same month. not to worry though- he made it through the celebrations unscathed and now has another year's reprieve before having to deal with the duo again.

"romance"... a word with such an ambiguous, subjective meaning. i looked it up on the internet and i swear the most common definition i came across was "a love affair". i was like- "well, jeez. that sounds fairly horrific to have go on during a marriage. let's try to find a different definition." and then of course, according to chris "romance" is an arbitrary term without any real definition- apparently people just pretend to know what it is and act accordingly. but, no matter what definition we're going for here, i'm just going to skip all pretenses and submit my opinion that it is a tad difficult to feel romantic in any sense of the word when one is very ripe with child. although i'm sure i could muster up enough energy to be coy and flirtacious if i really had to (and by that i mean really really had to), this year it felt much more appropriate to be straightforward and sincere. lucky for me, chris is all about straighforward sincerity (i love that man so much).

so on february 2nd we celebrated our first year wedding anniversary. chris was a darling and took me out to a trendy little restaurant that we frequented often back when we were first dating. not only was it SO nice to have a break from making & cleaning up after dinner (i had worked very long hours that day), it was also nice to reminisce about our first year together as marrieds in the place where we started out years ago. of course, all of this happened while i indulged in a giant bistro-burger and garlic fries... something i'd have NEVER done back when we were dating- you know, back when i had a dainty appetite and didn't feel like smelling of garlic the whole night (oh, how pregnancy changes things).
-oh yeah. and chris had a "bistro-pizza". because, you know, chris loses his super-powers if he doesn't eat pizza at least once a week.

for the celebration of our 3rd valentine's day together, we had an awesome date lined up at grossmont hospital's women's center for a new parent tour. we were the only ones in the group that evening (i guess people don't want to go to the hospital on valentine's day? how strange...), so it ended up being a more intimate experience than i anticipated, which was really nice. it was such a relief to be able to pre-register and take a dry-run of where we're supposed to go on the big day (preparing tends to calm a lot of my anxieties), and we were both impressed by the facility and the staff. as chris and i walked back out to our car he reached his arm around me and began planning our "for real" visit with tender excitement. it touched my heart to hear him. his presence with me at that moment was the sweetest valentine's gift i've ever been given.
-oh yeah. and afterwards we went to the souplantation. because i wanted to. ;)

so anyhow. back to "romance". i never found a conclusive definition. apparently, according to the internet, the general idea is that romance is some sort of ambient sensation that is relatively short-lived. meh. if that's the case, who needs romance anyways? i say a healthy base of good old-fashioned love is much more important. i promise that googling "love" renders much better results than googling "romance". love'll put up with essence of garlic-fries and voluntary hospital trips any old day. beat that romance!

taken 02/13/2011- the day before valentine's day.

january- 2011

time for new years resolutions... right? chris and i had a discussion new years day that went like this-

me: so, i think my new years resolution for this year will be... get back into shape. but procrastinate until march. i have a feeling like i might just spontaneously drop around seven or eight pounds in the middle of march for some reason. whaddaya think?

chris: what are you talking about? what the heck is a "new years resolution"?*

mmhm. real conversation. welcome 2011!

---

the recurrent theme for this month has been variations on "noel's brain doesn't work anymore"... never thought it would happen to me. but it has. and it has been rather pathetic. while i am getting worse and worse at what i am normally good at, chris is just functioning along just as well as he usually does. his new thing now is trying to see if HE can gain more weight. pah! gain weight. i got his weight gain right here:

(this was actually taken in february. i was a tad smaller back in january.)

 

while i am sporting a belly, HE is still flaunting these-

- which is SO fair, right? doesn't look like he's having a baby whatsoever.

related story:

so back last april while chris was gone to west virginia i attempted to aqcuire a tan via sun-bathing at our apartment pool area. to document progress, i took pictures of myself- or whatever i could get of myself with my cell phone camera, which ended up being the midsection between the top and bottom of my sparkly, sequined black bathingsuit. i had forgotten that i had taken these until i searched my phone earlier this month and found them. i was pretty overjoyed that they were still there- i've got a pre-pregnancy photo of my abs like they never will be, ever again!!! how priceless is that??
after finding this image on my phone, i handed it to chris and asked, "hey. whose body is that?" he raised his eyebrows, handed the phone back to me very cautiously and answered, "i don't know, but i don't recognize it."
awww. "you mean you don't remember? that's my body before i got all pregnant by you."
snatching the phone back from me he said "that's you? woah............ when did you take this?"
"last april"
"woahhhh..... it's like... your stomach doesn't even poke out it actually caves in.... yeah, you definitely don't look like that anymore. you'd better save this so our kids will know what you used to look like."

haaaaaa. i love my husband- he's so honest. i told him not to worry. i aint never gettin' rid of that photo ever. but i'm not going to post it either- my mother would die if i posted a picture of my scantily clad torso on the internet (she thinks this blog and facebook are bad enough).

anyhow, enough about stories. back to new year's resolutions.
after defining the term to chris, i was informed that he "doesn't believe in those."
"there are no 'new years resolutions' in this house," he declared, "only lifetime resolutions. we don't set ourselves up for failure. you want to make a change, then do it. no waiting around until next year to start."
"oh...." i said, taken slightly aback. chris generally isn't prone to saying such bossy statements (that's usually a noel thing), yet his words were very valid, and made quite a bit of sense to my mind, even in it's pregnancy-ravaged state.
"well... jeez.... then how about... waiting until after the baby is born to get back into shape?" i asked.
chris looked at me, an amused grin spreading across his face.
"i will allow that," he said, authoritatively.
i thanked him for his benevolent consideration.
and then he asked me to make him some cookies. which i readily did for him. hey, gotta figure out some way to fatten that boy up a bit... so i don't look so bad. ;) just assisting him in his "lifetime resolution" to gain more weight. gotta be supportive. :)

*chris maintains that he actually really knew what a new years resolution was. he said he just didn't understand the context in which i was using the term at that moment. so we're all clear here.

coming up shortly...

arright. so i realize that things are happening a little slowly on this blog. this may be attributed to the fact that the author of this blog has been reduced to moving along at a glacial pace while still attempting to keep up with a lightning-speed life and ridiculously agile husband. needless to say, i'm laggin. BUT, it's all good. january 2011 post should be poppin up any day now. i just need to take a couple pictures.

for those of you wondering, this squirmy little babe inside of me is due to enter the world sometime around the 17th of march (that's next month! oh man...). quarters are becoming quite cramped up here in the mama hotel- i've got surprisingly strong little feets jabbin at my ribs, and what i'm sure is a cute little noggin consistently head-butting my bladder. it is my hope that our little fetus decides to be punctual. although i have got to say, taking into account the "discomforts" of the 3rd trimester- the leg cramps, the not-sleeping at night, the acid refluxing (yes, more oblations to the porcelain throne from this one), the duck-waddling, the inability to bend at the waist or breathe while laying down, the fatigue- these things are NOTHING compared to the agonizing morning sickness that haunted me the entirety of my 1st trimester, and half of my 2nd. so i'm good with this trimester. and as far as i'm concerned, it's the best part of pregnancy.

so anyhow. stay tuned. next post will be up shortly.