It's a Girl!

Color me very surprised - I really thought it was a boy this whole time!

Because AJ hasn't been allowed in to appointments, for his Father's Day present I booked us an ultrasound at a boutique place here in Irvine so that he could experience seeing the baby in utero and make sure that we were able to find out the gender together.

It was a really great experience and the ultrasound tech was great. It was really fun to be able to interact with the baby that long and find out the gender together. I booked an appointment that included a DVD which seemed a little excessive at the time, but I have really loved having it and being able to rewatch it. She even recorded and labeled when she had AJ push down on my stomach and we could see it push her little head down and react to her dad's touch. They added some lullaby music to it too which was a cute touch and makes it very emotional to watch!

 That evening, I started looking at baby stuff online and I just fell in love with this little llama from Anthropologie that felt so perfect for my little girl - and it's insanely soft too!

We had the gender ultrasound on June 12, and my anatomy scan ultrasound with my doctor wasn't for another 11 days on the 23rd, and I wasn't sure how long we were going to be able to keep the gender secret and not let it slip somehow, so we arranged a gender reveal zoom meeting for last Saturday, June 20 to announce to our immediate families. I told everyone to wear the color they thought the baby would be (blue for boy, pink for girl #genderstereotypesiknow) so everyone wearing blue was WRONG and owes the baby college fund money!

Our reenactment lulz

Zoom wasn't exactly the best method for recording the video, since the big screen changes based on who's talking, so you have to look for our little square, but still fun to capture the moment!

From Kathleen's perspective

From my mom's perspective

Since we had the gender ultrasound at the end of 17 weeks, we were pretty darn positive the girl result was very accurate, but I was looking forward to the reassurance at my anatomy scan ultrasound to confirm.

I had that appointment yesterday and it was very relaxing! The room was dimmed with a salt lamp and essential oil diffuser, the ultrasound gel was warm, and I just laid on the table while the tech did her thing for about 20 minutes. After she was done, she turned the screen to me and let me see the baby and hear the heartbeat. It was fun, she was kinda crouched on all fours looking towards my back so we never got a good profile shot, but we got some cute ones of her with her hand on her face and seeing her fingers and her foot and face. I scored so many pictures out of that appointment! I think I got like 10 or something. And she did confirm it was a girl!

So then we decided to take better pictures of the gender reveal, so Kathleen came over and what a fail LOL. First of all, these confetti cannons were also supposed to have streamers in them, but either way, the puff went into the air... and was taking straight away LOL.

We tried to take a better picture with leftover
confetti from the family reveal (no, we haven't
bothered cleaning it up yet LOL) and my clump
just fell right down so that was another fail. We
were pretty over it after that - ha!

It was funny and it doesn't really matter so who cares. Made for a great picture sequence, and we even have a slow motion video of the experience.

We are five months in... it's starting to get real! And no, no clue what we'll be naming her just yet.

Lavender Fields Forever

This past weekend was nice - one day relaxing and doing nothing, and the other with a day trip out to Cherry Valley to visit the Highland Springs Ranch's Lavender Fields. They did a small opening with reservations needed, spaced out timing of guests and social distancing required. It was a long drive, but what the hell else are we doing? It's the only thing I've done since lockdown in March. Three months of this and all of spring cooped up indoors!

The fields definitely look bigger online in the pictures, but it was pretty, and nice to walk through, and they had music going and the essential oil distillery distilling so a nice scent in the air, and we got some nice photos.

Bump looks pretty prominent here

 

They had a lot of stuff for sale, but the kitchen was really cool. They had an entire menu (appetizers, entrees, alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks and desserts) that all prominently featured lavender. AJ got a lavender cream ale that I couldn't drink since it was alcoholic but he really liked it, and I had a lavender lemonade which was deeeelish. So, it was a fun little getaway, albeit pretty far. At least it was cheap.

Also, does anyone know what this tree is? It was at the lavender store and I thought it was really pretty. We're redoing our landscaping soon and I was thinking about getting a tree like this for it...

Then, Shannon and I were able to play Animal Crossing together and visit each other's islands. It was really cool because they're in local time, so going to her island it was nighttime and raining, but we came back to my sunny and clear island - it really was like we traveled. And oh my God, Shannon's island blew my mind - I have a long way to go! But, I made sure I was well prepared with a mask for when we visited each other LOL.

In a moment of boredom, I hit her with my axe so she pulled out her butterfly net and whacked me on the head with it, so we chased each other around the island hitting each other. I was crying I was laughing so hard. That's what quarantine has done to me I guess.

Wedding Soundtrack

I was enjoying my own mixtape yesterday while I was on the treadmill, aka, putting all my music on shuffle, and Tom Petty's "Here Comes My Girl" came on. I just love that song so much.

I don't for a second expect that people picked up on all the small details that went into our wedding, but it makes me happy to remember them. "Here Comes My Girl" was the reception entrance song when everyone was being introduced into the dinner. And I feel like that song was so perfect.

And for the hell of it, here were the songs that we picked for all the big wedding events. There really was a lot of thought and meaning put into each one!

Wedding Party Processional: When Ginny Kissed Harry (Nicholas Hooper: Harry Potter Soundtrack)
Bride Entrance: Apotheosis (Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty)
Recessional: The Way You Make Me Feel (Michael Jackson)
Wedding Party Reception Entrance: Here Comes My Girl (Tom Petty)
First Dance: Stand By Me (Florence + the Machine)
Mother/Groom Dance: Forever Young (Rod Stewart)
Wedding Cake Cutting: Started From The Bottom (Drake)
Bouquet Toss: Let's Get Married (Jagged Edge, ReMarqable Remix)

Wish we could relive that day!

Working at 4:00am

With everyone grounded, a lot of events that we had planned to attend got moved to online virtual events. And while I really don't mind at all, they still take place during the local time, which means that for the Central Asia fair happening this morning, it's actually 3:00am-7:00am California time. Yikes.

So, inbetween texting away and the presentation I have to give in 45 minutes, I'm trying to keep myself awake and what better time to show off all the cute animal photos I took this weekend. We decided to take Anana to the nearby (manmade) lake for a walk, and all the animals! Mostly the baby animals, but still.

Look at all the ducklings!! There were 10!

It was a pretty nice sunset

I just loved watching them fish and the way their little butts go straight up in the air

After the lake, AJ and I took a mini-trek to the nearest Dairy Queen because we wanted to try the cotton candy blizzards, but the line was out the door - way out the door! WTF! But next door was a Which Wich and I always loved their banana shakes. So I sent AJ in but he texted me they no longer did banana shakes but not to worry. He came back out with mind-blowing birthday cake shakes. Ermergerd. SER GOOD!

Oh and then there was the fun event on Friday night when I was catching up with a friend on the phone and in the middle of it Khaleesi decides to bring in a (live) baby rat.

They don't scare me, but I certainly don't want a feral, outdoor one in my home to potentially bite me and give me rabies and Lord knows what else. She dropped it on the couch and it started going wild running around everywhere, but Khaleesi was really good on staying on top of it. Once she caught it again, me and Anana started coming after her, so she ran back outside with it. I followed her and when she set it down, I picked her up by the scruff of her neck and let the rat run away. The poor thing was trying desperate to jump up our small wall and kept missing. It finally caught the side and ran up into our planter and up a tree. Khaleesi went nuts and wouldn't take her eyes off it. When it was safely away I let her go, and then she waited below guarding that tree for another half hour ha. What is with her lately?!

Here's her in normal attitude:

(This was my mom on FaceTime talking to her and she couldn't care less...)

Lastly, I finally decided to see what all the fuss was about when it came to Animal Crossing on the Nintendo Switch. I mean, I'm holed up at home and what the heck else am I doing? Well, as you can imagine, I got addicted and I just love it! It is so soothing and the sound effects are all just so calming.

My favorite part is how you keep most stuff in your pocket. And you sell things you find on the island, like shells and bugs and fish. But it's so disgusting to me how, after you catch a fish, if you want to keep it to do something with it later (sell, donate to the museum or display in an aquarium somewhere) you just put it right in your pocket LOL. I took this video to show to Kathleen:

Nasty!

So, that is my life lately. My presentation is coming up soon so I better skidaddle. I don't mind being up at this hour, but it's really going to suck trying to sleep during the day with the hot weather coming (hottest day of the week today) and all the gross dry air! Hopefully that crazy wind from yesterday is done. It was scaring Khaleesi the way it caused mini tornadoes with all the leaves in our backyard. Isn't this supposed to be weather for the fall...?

Big Announcement

Well, in the middle of these very dark days, and today, on mine and AJ's year and a half wedding anniversary, here's the official announcement that we're expecting!

Yes, we found out right before lockdown happened, so that was fun (not), but we've been weathering the pandemic and general life in these days okay.

We weren't able to tell family in person due to the lockdowns, but I was able to tell my mom, on my birthday, right before lockdown happened, so here's a fun video of that happening.

For the rest of the immediately family, we mailed them fun surprises to announce (scratch-off lottery tickets and a Mother's Day card for AJ's mom in Nashville that told her she was going to be a grandmother for the first time), so it was still exciting. We also arranged a Skype call with Shannon and Luke in England to tell them personally, and that was fun too and we got footage of that as well.

To answer all the questions that I can for now:


-No, we don't know if it's a boy or girl yet
-Yes, we plan on finding out (my anatomy scan ultrasound is scheduled for June 23)
-Current due date is November 16, 2020 (a Scorpio!)
-Yes, it's definitely a singleton (I was convinced it would be twins for a hot second)
-I hardly have any semblance of a bump! I am 17 weeks along today, and while you may say, "what are you talking about, that's a bump!" I look EXACTLY the same as I did 5 weeks ago at 12 weeks along, and I've always had this FUPA gut, it's definitely genetic, it's even there in my wedding photos (and like, all my photos). But, I guess it's a little something.

And here's a picture from last week of Khaleesi keeping her watchful, suspicious eye on Anana.

I wish I could let them know how different their world is going to be in about 5 months!