Belly Updates!

Alright, folks, you asked for it. Here's the up-to-date on the belly!



~month 7, post christmas tree decorating. that's my excuse for looking so scaggy. :)

the rest of the photos are being a little tempermental. i'll see if i can work out the kinks and get the published in the next couple days.

T-Minus 6 Weeks and Counting...

Can you believe it? Six weeks?!?!?! It hardly seems real to me that in 6(ish) weeks, Tony and I are going to be parents. I feel like I am only just getting used to the idea of being pregnant, and now all of sudden, Bean is practically here! Crazy!

The holidays passed in a blur (like they always do). Tony and I hosted Christmas Eve dinner again, and then had Christmas Day breakfast at my mom's house. We had an impromptu dinner at my best friend's parents' house that night, which was wonderful. When I was a teenager, I spent many a holiday with Erin's parents, but being a grown up seems to get in the way at times of my childhood traditions. Erin's family is like my second family, and so its just...appropriate...that I spend the holidays with them. You know? We also went down to San Diego the weekend after Christmas for the Jaeggi celebration. We had the BEST white elephant gift exchange of ALL TIME! What is even better, is that Tony's family has decided to make it an annual tradition. Yay!!


~me and my mountain belly~

New Year's week started out with promises of catching up with some work, watching some movies, and maybe even catching up with some friends. Ah, the best laid plans of mice and men.... What my New Year's week turned out to be was getting a car accident on New Year's Eve eve. An over-dyed 19 year old in daddy's BMW rear ended me. I was near my mom's house, so after I got the information from the girl (she was poo), I took myself to my mom's to check in with Tony and let him know that I was ok. He insisted that I go to the doctor, which I hadn't even thought about, and frankly was kind of annoyed at the thought of. My mom drove me to the doctor's office, and to make a long story short, I found myself at the hospital later that afternoon. Initially, it was a precautionary measure, but after being told by one of the nurses that I had been having contractions for I'm not sure how long, it finally clicked in that Bean might have been seriously hurt!! THAT'S when I started to get really mad...and worried. The whole thing wasn't about me, it was about Bean, which was kind of a huge revelation for me. It was a total "I'm going to be a mom" sort of moment. I spent the night in the hospital (sooooo not fun!), but that was again purely precautionary. Everything turned out fine, and besides some extra sonogram appointments, neither Bean or I are no worse for the wear.

Luckily, Tony and I have AWESOME friends, and our good friend (Tony's best friend), Tim spent the entire weekend after New Year's painting Bean's room and putting up crown molding. Seriously, Bean has the best room in the house, and the best uncle in the world to make such a good looking room for our kid. Thanks, Uncle Tim! Tony and I have spent the last few weeks since the room painting doing a major overhaul on both our closets, the storage cupboard, and our carport storage making room for Bean. Its amazing how much crap a person (or 2) can accumulate!


Well, that pretty much brings us up to date. Bean's shower is a week from this Saturday, and all three of us can hardly wait! Tony and I (read: I) decided to have a Jack and Jill shower instead of a traditional baby shower. Our male friends are just as important to us as our girl friends, and Tony had SOMETHING of a hand in the making of Bean, so I figured he should probably be allowed to be around to celebrate as well. Now, everyone will be able to celebrate without the traditional baby shower games. So...there will be no smelling of the baby food, or making diapers out of stuff, or measuring of the belly, or anything else. Just mexican food, beer, and DELICIOUS cuppy cakes. Not to mention a crap load of our nearest and dearest. I'm really looking forward to this, by the way!

Hmmm...pictures are to come. I have to dig out the cords for the camera, which have gone missing since the room overhaul. Stay tuned for updated belly pics, AND a new 3D sonogram of my kid's adorable mug. You can hardly wait!

How Cute is this Baby?

...I know I have to say that, because I'm the mom and all, but seriously, how cute is that little face? I'm convinced Bean has my nose (the Kampmeyer tradition carries on), and Tony's chin (because that is not my chin). My kid is finally cute!!!!

Thanksgiving Shenanigans

Holy cow, its almost Christmas! I came back from my long Thanksgiving weekend and put a countdown on the front board of how many days there are until the start of winter break...according to my sources, there are 13 (school) days. That's nuts!


~'Cause he's an intergalactic superhero~


~Lydia, being goofy~

On a completely different note, Tony and I had a great, albeit REALLY hurried, Thanksgiving. We drove down to his parents' house on Wednesday night, after we figured the traffic would have died down. Tony hung Christmas lights with his dad all day Thursday while his mom cooked delicious yummies, and I did some reading for my class. Dinner was around 4-4:30, with about a dozen guests (including our adorable new nephew). All in all, it was a fantastic day, with great food, and even better company. The only bummer was the fact that we had to turn around and drive back to L.A. on Friday morning so that Tony could work all day. Bleh! Such is the life of working for "the man", I guess. The upside was the all day opportunity I had to work on my final paper for my grad school class. I guarantee all of you, there are NO distractions sitting in someone else's empty office on a holiday weekend. Now all I have to do is finish writing the stupid paper....

Not much else to report. Tony and I will be having our 5th annual holiday party this Saturday that we are both really looking forward to. After that, its Christmas shopping and Charlie Brown specials as far as the eye can see.

To make up for a rather dull post, though, I am including a really cute video of our nephew, James, providing a monologue about...I'm still not sure what. In any case, it was REALLY stinking cute to listen to his schpiel.



Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

Growing Beans and Santa Sightings

Greetings folks. Well, its been a month, and I have yet to post the ever-promised five month belly pics. What's even worse, is that Tony took the six month belly pics last night. Can you believe it?!?! Six months! Its going to be the start to the holidays in a week, and before we (well, mostly I) know it, Bean is going to be here! Yipes!

Speaking of Bean, s/he is doing swimmingly. Kicking up a storm now, and within the last few weeks, I have taken to turning on the TV when I get home from work, and then spending hours watching my belly move, allthewhile ignoring whatever is on the tube. It is the WEIRDEST thing watching your tummy move as if by magic, knowing that in no way are you the one making yourself twitch and jump. Bean has also taken to what I think is stretching as long as possible, and pressing him/herself into my diaphragm when I sit too long in what apparently is an undesirable position (this usually occurs about half way through my CSUN classes on Tuesday nights...I'm the student shifting like a four year old at my desk). Taking a complete breath is almost impossible, and I end up panting--for lack of a better phrase--like a fat kid. Totally hot. Aside from the respitory malfunctions, I am doing great. Still lots of energy (well, compared to the first trimester, and considering I never seem to have a moment to sit and relax...ever), and doing my best to stay up and active. Tony and I started Bean's registries this weekend (what else were we going to do when everything south of us was going up in flames?!?!?). We have starter lists and Babies R Us and Target, for those of you who have been asking, or who might be interested. My growing belly is very reminiscent of Santa Claus, although at my last doctor's appointment I was charted as having gained only 7 lbs, and my doula insists that my limbs are shrinking (maybe I'm imploding...everything is being sucked to my middle...that would be weird...). In any case, if anyone knows of any malls in their area that are a Santa short this year, send them my way! :)


*Lydia~Tony~Baby Max. Seriously, SUCH a cutie!*


*I'm not sleeping, in case you are wondering. How can you not melt at this though? Look how sweet!*


*Baby Max. He looks like his brother, James...only the pirate version. I want to smoosh his face!*

Tony and I are looking forward to the holidays. We will be spending Turkey Day in San Diego this year with his family, which is very exciting, due to the brand spankin' new nephew we have waiting for us down there. I have three weeks after Thanksgiving before Christmas break, and then about six weeks of work before I start my maternity leave. Like I said, time flies when you are baking a Bean!


*Bean-month five. I'm not so much a fan of this phase...mostly, you (well, I) just look thick...and REALLY tired.*


*Bean-month six. Whoa, momma! I'm soooo totally pregnant here!*

Bean, Doing a Headstand

Hi folks! Here's the 5 month sonogram as promised. Not the cutest yet, and I'm pretty sure that I am going to eventually give birth to Skeletor, rather than an actual human that looks like either Tony or myself. Hmmm...maybe Skeletor is a distant cousin of one of ours that I just didn't know about. That would be weird...



I apologize for the wackadoo position for the picture, but my computer refuses to let me rotate the picture. Apparently, Mac seems to know more about picture posting and saving than I do. Whatever.

To talk you through this a bit, Bean is on his/her head, with both hands tucked up next to the left side of his/her face. The two big dark spots are the eyes, and the smaller spot is the nose. Cute, right???

Month five belly pictures are still pending...stay tuned!

Yogurt and the Traveling Freckle

Once upon a time, there was a pregnant lady named Laura who woke up one day and couldn't keep her brain straight anymore. After some time of getting used to this pregnancy, however, Laura thought that maybe she had the whole pregnancy thing wired...she had told all of her students that she was pregnant, and was even getting used to her growing belly. Enjoying it, even. Then, out of nowhere, a young girl stopped Laura when she was in the office of her high school one morning. Laura carried her lunch bag in one hand, some letters to be mailed in the other, and her burgeoning belly poked out a bit from beneath her top (but not in a tacky, white trashy sort of way...she was at school, after all). "What are you having?", the girl asked, pointing to Laura. Due to her unstraightened brain, Laura had a hard time processing the difficulty of the question. She thought about it for a bit, thinking it was strange that the girl would ask her about her lunch bag (because what else could the girl POSSIBLY be asking her about???). Without another thought, however, Laura confidently replied, "I'm having yogurt". The girl looked at Laura like she was a crazy woman with an unstraightened brain, for obvious reasons.

Ok, enough with story time. On a completely different note, I have a deep and meaningful observation that I wanted to share. I have a freckle. Not just any freckle, mind you. This freckle, for as long as I can remember, has lived in the deepest, darkest depths of my belly button. This freckle was the keeper of my belly button, I suppose, as there is very little else in this world that has had such an up-close and personal relationship with this particular part of my anatomy. Low and behold, however, sometime last week I noticed that Mr. Freckle (I don't know how I know that the freckle is male, but it is) was no longer residing in the depths of my belly button. Over the course of the last couple weeks, Mr. Freckle has been taking a little road trip, and now lives just outside and to the right of his former home...belly button adjacent, if you will. Isn't that weird? Pregnancy is strange. It even makes belly button freckles jump ship and find new homes. Interesting...