Monday, February 23, 2009

A post with no pics, eh, I'm tired

So I don't have any new pictures to post, but I will take some of my big belly soon and post them, because I feel so much bigger every day. I'm officially in my third trimester!!! It's all downhill from here . . . well, okay, so being a parent may have some challenges, but you know what I mean.

Basketball has officially ended. Thank goodness! We ended up winning a single, solitary, game. And my girls were screaming, jumping up and down after they won (keep in mind it was still pretty painful to watch). I'm glad they got at least one under their belt. The last game, we started doing really well, and I was thinking to myself, "I'm going to miss coaching a little bit." By the second quarter, I wanted to run away and hide. I was very relieved after the game was done. It was a little bit rough this season, but overall I do they think they improved. It would have been hard not to, considering how bad they were to begin with. Now I get home at like 3:30 p.m. every day and I feel like I have infinite hours of time on my hands.

While I like having time to clean and cook every once in a while after work (notice every once in a while), I'm reminded again how freakin' busy Nick is, and that basically I'm a single pregnant woman. I was very frustrated about the whole situation last week, so Nick told me as a present that I get to pick our baby's name. What can I say? He does know me well; its a wonderful present for a control freak such as myself. So I decided to put a few of the names out there (see poll to the side). Now before you judge me for liking weird names, keep in mind I don't really have a choice. My extended family (both sides) likes odd names. Its part of our DNA; its basically a requirement for being a member of the Kuykendall/Thompson and Ainge family. Besides, you should know that Nick and I were considering doing something "super cute" and combining our Mom's names (Julie and Stacy). We came up with Juicy and Stulie (Okay, we really weren't, but we thought it would be funny to tell people this). We've come a long way with the name situation. I always thought that I would feel really strongly about a name or two, but I really don't. We're not planning on naming her until we see her, but I would like to have it narrowed down to two, maybe three. So leave your opinion, and if you like one that isn't listed, leave a comment.

While I'm getting bigger, I'm still sort of in denial. I went shopping the other day and I would see clothes on the rack and be like, that shirt is HUGE, it won't fit me. Then I try it on and well, yeah, it does. I still feel pretty good, but my feet hurt pretty easily. I was able to jog a little bit last week, walk, and I even played a somewhat competitive game of tennis with Nick. I am still coping with being huge, particularly when Nick makes lovely comments like, "You're a whole lot o' woman!" or "It looks like you're wearing fat suit!" He still is having a hard time understanding that something like that is not exactly a turn on for me, and my general response is to give him the finger.

But we did finally buy a crib, car seat, and a stroller. It took us about an hour at the store to try to figure out how to put the carseat in the stroller. I could just feel people walking by us laughing, especially when we started debating how out it works.

She's still kicking away and more than anything, I love it when I can see my stomach move while she kicks me. I thought she would let up a little bit since she's getting bigger, but nope. She kicks/moves the most when I'm talking or singing, when Nick's talking, when I'm playing the piano, or when she hears a loud, deep voice (she's going to like Papa a lot!). I get more and more anxious to see her, but my dreams have been freaking me out a little bit. Here's a synopsis of two of the ones I've had recently:

- I go into labor beginning of March (two months early), and I'm knocked out during delivery. They hand her to me and I'm sort of confused, but she is this cute little fat thing. My Mom was in the room and I ask her how much the baby weighs. She goes and asks the doctor and says, "She's 9 pounds, but she would have been 18 had she been on time!" Yikes! Talk about a whole lot o' woman!

- I was delivering and the doctor tells me I'm having twins. I start yelling at him. "Twins! I only saw one baby in the ultrasounds!" And he was like, oh well, that happens fairly often, you probably just missed it. Then I end up having two boys. And I'm freaking out, "I don't have any boy clothes! And now I have to buy double everything!" And then the weirdest thing is they were polynesian. They came out like 6 months old, talking with polynesian accents.

Well, that's all for now. I need to go eat :)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Reasons Why I Like Mander

This last weekend, I was reminded of the many reasons why I like my dear friend, Amander.
- She generously came to visit me this weekend in Portland.
- She brought the good weather with her, even though she appreciates rain as I do. It was really nice all weekend.
- She appreciates a good view. Here she is at the Japanese gardens overlooking Portland.
- She loves little kids, particularly of a different race. At the Japanese gardens, there were quite a few adorable Asian children; one of which we tried to capture in this picture.

- She doesn't get embarrassed by me taking pictures of her in a restaurant (and having the rest of the restaurant look at us strangely).
- She also asks for free bread when I'm too ashamed to ask for more and look like a pig.


- She allows me to take a lot, a lot of pictures of her. She was my model for the weekend.
- She also likes to learn about random trivia, most of which will be completely useless to her the rest of her life (after posing at Multnomah Falls, we went into their exhibit and studied waterfalls in the Columbia Gorge).

- She is pretty much up for anything, including touring mansions of rich, dead, Oregonians. Here she is in front of Pittock Mansion.
- She suggests taking goofy pictures and breaking the rules by touching, sitting, and playing with things in the museum that we shouldn't. She's a bad influence on me!


- She was fascinated by the old school telephones!

- She loves books and reading. She was even nice enough to buy my little girl some classic children's books. She's a woman after my own heart.



- She has really cool jewelry. Look at her earrings in this picture, they're awesome.

- She let me drive her around Oregon and show her some stuff that was probably pretty boring for her, but was fun for me.
- She has the same taste in music and theater. We saw perhaps the WORST play/musical/jazz concert ever. It was Alice in Wonderland to jazz! Yeah, you can imagine. We had no idea what we got ourselves into. The good news is, we got a dose of the Portland Jazz Festival. Score!
- We both have an eternal love for Friends.
-Thanks Mander for coming to visit me. It was a wonderful and romantic weekend. I couldn't have asked for a better substitute for Nick. I can't wait to see you until this summer! It's too far away.

Monday, February 9, 2009

The Cottle Waddle

It's official, I have started waddling. My belly seems to get bigger by the day. I can't believe how fast it changes. Sometimes during the day, I still forget I'm pregnant, and then I try to bend over and realize I've become a rather large woman. And oh yeah, I waddle. My doctor called me last week and said that I am now allowed to exercise; I wasn't supposed to for about a month because of some complications, but now trying to exercise again has been interesting. During basketball, I try to run a little bit with my girls, but they call my "running" the Cottle Waddle. It doesn't help that I scrimmaged with them a little bit last week and I swear I pulled something while trying to shoot. This little girl did not seem to be happy in there! I can't wait until b-ball is over (this is my last week), and I will have time for some moderate exercise, like walking!


P.S. About the pictures . . . I don't generally wear shirts this tight, I'm not quite comfortable doing that yet, this was just for pictures sake so you get an idea of how big my belly is.