*Apologies for the limited blogging this week, I promise to be back after the weekend with updates from all the happy madness that has been consuming my every moment over the past few days*

This Moment- A Friday ritual. A single photo- no words- capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

This week I have something a little more than an old wives tale to share with you, we’re looking to the art of the chinese for some gender prediction fun!

The Chinese Gender Calendar was supposedly created by a Chinese scientist and found buried in a royal tomb some 700 years ago. Using the mother’s lunar age and time of conception, this chart can predict whether a baby will be a boy or a girl. This method is supposedly over 90% accurate!

You can find this gender calendar over at:

www.thelaboroflove.com/chart/

At the above address there are two different types of gender charts to try. I did the first, more accurate version of the chinese gender calendar and it predicts that we are having a boy which is correct. The fun part about this little gender predictor is that you can go back and try it’s predictions for people you already know and see if it is right or not!

This Moment — a Friday ritual. A single photo, no words, capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

Us pregnant mama’s can thank the old wives for this one:

“If anyone denies a pregnant woman whatever she is craving, they will get a sty in his/her eye”.

Did you read that honey? Time to run out and get this mama some steak–CHOMP CHOMP!

Who would have thought that the most difficult aspect of pregnancy and parenthood for me and the hubs thus far has been the decision over a crib? I guess you could say we are incredibly blessed to have this be the biggest source of our stress and disagreement or maybe you’re shaking your heads thinking, “boy are they in for it they can’t even decide on a piece of furniture”. Yeah…I’m also a little scared of what the future has in store for us when the time comes to decide on schools, vaccines, dating…ok I’m going to stop while I get too far ahead of myself.

BREATHE. ONE DAY AT A TIME.

So the battle of the cribs went something like this: I decided that it was time to start looking at baby cribs. When I approached the topic with hubs he sort of rolled his eyes and went into a tail spin about how a crib was unnecessary, just another “fantasy” item to fulfill the dream version of a nursery…yadda yadda yadda.

True, we don’t need the biggest, most expensive, luxury crib on the market but PLEASE can we have something to put the darn baby in? We battled over the issue of cost, space, portability and still never came to any decisions. Meanwhile, I couldn’t help but wander into the baby furniture store across the street from my work and find the perfect solution–a mini crib! Who knew such a thing even existed?

It’s perfect! Compact! Affordable! Stylish and as a bonus converts into a toddler and twin size bed!

Instead of being even slightly excited about my wondrous discovery, hubby and I launched into a full on World War III style battle (except our battles are more of the silent, stare you down nature). Now all of a sudden he wants to…you guessed it…BUILD a crib.

I love this artistic, creative, skilled part of my husband. He thrives on getting to use both the engineer oriented part of his brain and the physical aspect of building something raw and pure with his bare hands. Not only are his creations breathtaking and perfectly crafted but it is so sexy to watch the man you love sweat over, hammer and focus so passionately on something.

With all this in mind, the idea of him building our crib didn’t sit well with me from the get go. What about safety ratings, materials, how, how much, how much time will it take? All of these questions flooded my mind and drove an even bigger wedge between the two of us on this supposedly “fun” and “bonding” purchase.

Finally after letting the issue sit for a while I made the decision to just go ahead and order the mini crib. Both of us had looked at it (several times), we both liked it and agreed on the price and functionality of a convert-a-crib, it fit well with the space we have and style of our condo. It sucks that this purchase wasn’t the “picture perfect” shopping experience I had imagined it would be ,but I think we are both happy with how things turned out and hubby got to choose the color all on his own

So…we don’t actually have the crib in our condo as of yet but it has been ordered and will arrive any day now. After such a long and difficult journey I’m excited to reveal the one, the crib/bed our first little one will snuggle into night after night for the next 20 years (because God knows I don’t even want to have to pick out furniture again!)

Here’s a photo off the manufactures website:

It seems that with pregnancy once you get used to how things are they all change again. This is probably much of how parenthood as well as life in general behaves but it has become even more apparent to me throughout my pregnancy. As with most changes we adapt, adjust our behaviors, our expectations and our approach to accommodate this new way of life. As one of my friends puts it, it’s the basic principle of “get in where you fit in or figure it out”.

So with surfing I am once again in the “figure it out” part. The first trimester there wasn’t much I had to change about my surfing other than working up the courage to paddle out and ignore all the fears and “facts”. Throughout my second trimester I’ve had to adjust my surfing to suit my growing belly but this was pretty easy once I figured out how to catch waves by paddling on my knees. Now, as I approach my third and final trimester it is once again time to switch things up.

My last couple of surfs have been interesting. What was once a challenge (balance, getting on and off the board) is now performed with such ease that I hardly have to think about what I’m doing. Paddling and actually catching waves is now the difficult part, the very basic mechanics of folding over and scooping water is quickly becoming impossible. My belly just simple doesn’t budge.

Hubby has been accompanying me on almost all of my surfs lately and has witnessed the increasing struggle–mad props to this amazing man for sacrificing his time in the water to push me and the little one onto waves that we simply can’t seem to catch on our own anymore. Being the constant creator that he is, this new obstacle for mama has turned into the perfect opportunity to bust out the tools and make something!

This Friday’s “moment” was a snap shot of my very own surf paddle in the making. Having never built anything like a wooden paddle, hubby jumped at the chance to buy some chiseling tools and raw wood. His challenge as if making something like this from scratch wasn’t a challenge enough, was to shape the entire paddle out of one piece of wood. After a weekend of chiseling, sanding and staining my paddle is only a few sun drying hours away from it’s first trial run.

Wish me luck!

This Moment — a Friday ritual. A single photo, no words, capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember. If you’re inspired to do the same, leave a link to your ‘moment’ in the comments for all to find and see.

A simple test from the old wives says you can tell whether a woman is expecting a boy or a girl.

When presented with a single key take note as to how mama-to-be picks it up. If the expectant mom picks the key up by the round part it will be a boy, if she picks up the long narrow part it will be a girl, if she picks the key up in the middle she is supposedly having twins.

This post is coming to you all a bit later than usual and that is because I’ve spent the entire day cleaning! Yes, it appears nesting is in full swing and has driven me to spend morning, noon and into the evening on my hands and knees scrubbing, polishing and organizing just about everything in my entire house! I’ve always been a cleaner and an organizer so imagine my excitement when my in-laws presented me and hubs with a brand new vacuum cleaner! I realize that most people wouldn’t be so over the moon ecstatic to receive a vacuum cleaner but I have a confession to make…

Hubs and I have been living for four years without a vacuum cleaner!

Before you go judging and getting all grossed out with us, we have tile floors in our house and I promise you we have been cleaning but always struggling with the best way to get the job done. We tried the Swiffer, the Swiffer Wet Jet, a traditional broom and then mop and bucket but nothing really did the job to my satisfaction. Our floors are slate and have lots of cracks, grooves and nasty little ridges for sand to get trapped in but…

NOW, with my brand new Electrolux, cleaning the floors, rugs, windowsills, and cabinets are no big deal– WHAM the job is done! Life is so much easier and cleaner with this beauty! Hubs snapped this shot earlier today as I hugged and kissed my new friend and thanked her for all of her hard work:

Ok, I’m done obsessing over my vacuum cleaner (ohhh I’m so smitten). Remember that list of projects I had made a few weeks back? I’m proud to have been able to cross a few things off of that list but in true preggo nesting fashion I’ve added even more to it. We have some big and exciting changes that I’m happy to share with you so stay tuned for progress reports and the big reveal!!!

Alright…one more photo since I know you love a good household tool as much as I do. Electrolux should really sponsor me for this amazing review don’t you think?