Two Whole Bedrooms

Between countless doctors visits, trying to sell the condo, and trying to lease an apartment, I've gotten so busy that I'm (conveniently) forgetting to do homework.  The good news is that it looks like our condo might actually sell.  We are in escrow, the inspection is complete, and there are no red flags.  BA and I got so excited about the prospect of a sale, that last weekend we went out and put a deposit down on a two bedroom apartment - that's right, two whole bedrooms!!!  And it's only going to cost us $1860 a month!  WOW - what a steal, right?!?!  I realize that outside of LA and NYC, $1860 a month is outrageous (ridiculous, unacceptable, a scandal), but here it is actually considered "affordable."  The thing is, in LA, everyone pays so much more, for so much less, and everyone seems happy about it.  Of course, we don't consider it "affordable" because we still live in the real world and haven't quite been converted over to La-La-Land (translation = LA) price acceptance.  So at $1860 a month, I can forget about going out to eat or taking vacations.

Contrary to what you might expect based on our rent, our apartment is nice, but not luxury, and will still take BA one hour to commute to work.  It's by no means perfect, but I'm just so excited that the baby will get her own room.  It's common in LA for a middle-class family of three (two parents, and one child) to live in a one bedroom apartment.  I know, because we currently have a family above us doing just that.  So the fact that we can afford two bedrooms in Southern California, on one income, is incredible to me, and I am so grateful to BA for working so hard to make that happen.

Who Sits Next to the Queen?

Me: So we're having a girl.  Are you excited?
BA: Hum, that means there will be two princesses around here.
Me: No, just one.  I'm the Queen.
BA: (sarcasm) Great.
Me: So you know what that makes you?
BA: What?  The castle servant?
Me: The King.

BA was originally scared of having a girl for fear his entire world would start to turn pink.  He has now completely embraced the idea and says "Bring on the Pink!!!"  My dad has informed him that having girls brings certain benefits - mainly that instead of sitting outside roasting in the hot sun at a little league game, you're sitting inside in an air conditioned theatre watching a ballet recital.

Baby Dance Party

I woke up at 4:30 this morning to a dance party in my belly.  Lately the little peanut has been moving around big time.  I don't know what songs she was cutting a rug to last night, but here are some of her favorite songs to do her daytime calisthenics to.

• The obvious Mamma Mia hits 
• "Ice Ice Baby" - BA memorized the entire rap when he was about 10 years old and he's never forgotten it.  So I like to have him rap to the baby belly - I actually don't know if the little peanut likes it or not, but it sure is entertaining for me!
• Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" - this has become our mantra these days.
• Phish's "Bouncing 'Round the Room" - Peanut loves this one ... although I'm pretty sure she thinks they are saying "bouncing 'round the womb" which is more applicable to her anyway.

5 Months

5 Months!  I'm getting bigger every day; it's so obvious that people are getting bold enough to outright ask if I'm pregnant.  I actually overheard some one at school the other day mumble to his friend, "I don't know, maybe she's just chubby."  (!!!)  Haha - I don't care how big I get, just as long as that means the little peanut is growing as well. 

Here's the little peanut and me at aprox 5 months - only 4 more to go!

BA, not wanting to be left out, at 5 months.

Hungry Like the Wolf

Yes, I like Duran Duran - but this is about my appetite.

Example of just how hungry I am ALL THE TIME! 

4:00 a.m. - ate a bowl of granola and milk (then went back to sleep)
7:30 a.m. - ate a bowl of strawberries and cottage cheese
8:00 a.m. - ate a low-cal bagel with cream cheese
9:30 a.m. - ate spaghetti

Only now will I leave for school and actually start my day.  All this eating is great because this baby needs to grow, but we are quickly running out of food!

Lake Tahoe

We went to Lake Tahoe last week.  It was my spring break and BA took a week off for vacation.  My mom flew out to L.A. and we all drove up to Tahoe together.  I had originally planned this trip a year ago, before we knew I would be pregnant, so the plan was for us all to go downhill skiing at Heavenly Resort.  I booked a 2-bedroom Marriott hotel villa right by the Gondola to take us to the lifts.  Unfortunately, downhill skiing is not a pregnancy-approved activity, so I had to sit out, but it was still beautiful, and relaxing and the hotel was fantastic.  And BA and my mom got to enjoy some world-class west coast skiing. 

Check out these two ready to hit the slopes!  My mom is still wearing her ski clothes from the 1970s and BA's sweatshirt is probably from middle school.  We were proudly the least-fashionable group in Tahoe.

I rode the Gondola up to the base of the lifts on our first day.  There's a large lodge with food where I could sit inside and eat some lunch while BA and mom hit the slopes for a couple of hours.  It's a winter wonderland up there but oh so cold.  The lodge is at about 9,000 feet elevation.  The ski runs go up to 10,000 feet.

My sister sent some flowers to brighten our condo since she couldn't come with us this time.

My one pregnancy-approved activity - snowshoeing! 

Mom and I snowshoeing on the shores of Lake Tahoe.  It's like you are walking on the beach, only the sand is snow! 

My mom, 64 years young, making a snow angel!

It's an Honor, Really

I am a member of a law journal.  It was something I joined last year because my professors kept encouraging us to "push ourselves one last time" and compete to be on a journal because, "it's an honor, really."  So the summer after my 1L year, I opted to compete in the journal write-on competition which required me to do an extra summer research paper of 20 pages, and an editing assignment.  I was accepted on the journal of my choice in the fall and spent the past semester completing weekly sub-checking assignments (editing) that each take about 4-6 hours to do, in addition to completing my regular law school curriculum.  It's an honor, really.

Today, I turned in my law journal article.  For those non-law people out there, this is the main object of being on a journal.  You write a research paper, and you might get published.  It's an honor, really.  My paper was on employment discrimination and I ended up writing 30 pages with 147 footnotes - that works out to 6,000 words of article text, and 8,700 words total when you include my footnotes and source citations.  It's quite an accomplishment, and I am so relieved to be done.  But after all that work, I still have one question ... What kind of crack-pot "honor" did I sign up for?