Getting Ready for Baby - My Baby Shower

I'm so blessed to have such a wonderful mom, mom-in-law, and sisters, who threw me the nicest baby shower on July 21, 2007. Just two days before, my friends at work surprised me with a shower as well. We have been overwhelmed with everyone's generosity! The baby poll taken at the shower was heavily leaning towards a boy! All the guests received a year 1 through 18, and wrote the baby a birthday card that he or she will read at that age - what a nice gift!
My family: Amanda, Katie, Mom(Rita) and Becky
Me and Marilyn Bernacki, she made my tasty shower cake. So Cute!
Mommy & Proud Papa
The Guerra Girls: Grandmoo(Mae), Lori, Mae, Chris, Katie, Gwyne
Check out all the prego's at the shower, in order of due dates: Christy, Becky, Rosanna, Katie, and Lori

Our 3rd Anniversary

It's hard to believe it's been 3 years, but then again it's like we've been together forever. To celebrate, we went out to eat at a cute little Italian restaurant and sat in the wine cellar room. (Torture for a prego who can't drink the wine!)

4th of July at the Shore

Knowing that life will surely change once the baby is born, we vowed to enjoy the last of our time as "just the two of us" as much as possible. We made sure to appreciate being spontaneous and traveling without a diaper bag or stroller. After our trip to Chicago, we spent the next 3 weekends at the NJ shore. Albie's sister and brother-in-law rented a shore house at the Margate beach and were kind enough to let us crash on the weekends.
We spent the days at the beach and the evenings at the local hot spots like the 'Two Cents Plain' ice cream shop having waffles and ice cream or on the Boardwalk in Ocean City. Even though I had to be in a swim suit, it was the first time I didn't care about my figure. I mean, what are you going to do with a belly that big?

Here we are at the Boardwalk with our nephews and neice: Cruz, Vincent, Nico and Gwyne
Me and My Honey
Sneaking a smooch from the top of the ferris wheele at the Boardwalk.
Chris, Albie and Lori (missing Nick in this photo)

Dancing the Night Away!

This reception was a huge party! The band was totally jamming and you couldn't have dragged the guys off the dance floor! Also, notice how cute Melanie looks - you can't quite tell yet, but she was 18 weeks pregnant with their first baby GIRL! (Future Chi Omega, I'm sure). By the end of the weekend, I swear that baby had a growth spurt. Probably because of all the food Aunt Amy prepared for us!

Love is in the air!

Here we are in Chicago for a long weekend celebrating Erin & Jason Adam's wedding! It was a great weekend with my college friends and all their wonderful husbands! Albie played 18 holes with the guys while us girls headed to the nail salon with Erin. Amy was the hostess with the most-est, having a full house with us Guerra's, the Kingsley's and Monster! I have lots of great pics from the weekend, here are a few favorites!

Becky and me in NYC!

Us prego's took NYC by storm! Not really, we were in bed watching a movie by 9pm, but we spent all day Saturday exploring Central Park. It was both of our first times seeing the park and neither of us could believe how big it was. If I were a New Yorker, that's where I'd spend my weekends! (Becky was about 23 weeks here and I was 31.)

The Nesting Instinct

We've finally reached the finish line! We've painted, put up ceiling fans, ordered nursery furniture, picked out the bedding, registered for baby stuff galore, ordered the rocker, set up the life insurance, and coordinated child care. Whew!
Thank you, God, for giving us 40 weeks to prepare because there sure is a lot to do! :)
Now we are ready to relax and enjoy the last months of our time together- just the two of us! On the docket includes two trips to NYC to see Emily, Lisa and big sister Becky, and a trip to Chicago for my sorority sister, Erin's, wedding. Other than that, we'll be spending as much time as we can at the Reyes's Margate beach house.

June - Baby Girl Month

I have to admit, it's a little harder to imagine this baby being a girl because every passer-byer keeps guessing it's a boy. But it would be fun to have a little princess. So far, our top girl names are:
-Lauren
-Juliana
-Mikayla
-Marisa
-Brooke
-Kaylee?
-Avery?
-Lillian/Lily?
-Bridgit?

Bon Voyage Lisa! Happy B-day Em!

Lisa, Emily and I met up in New York to say goodbye to Lisa Monaco before her Bon Voyage to London and to celebrate Emily's Birthday. We miss you already, Lisa!!!

This is the also the weekend that I discovered non-alcoholic beers. Who doesn't want a cold refreshing beer in the summer? Don't I look like a responsible mommy!?!

May is "Boy Month"

Each month, we're taking turns referring to the baby as a boy or a girl. May is "boy" month, so we're trying out all the top names when we talk about the baby. We had lots of time on the beach to hash out names. Here are our top boy names:
-Andrew
-Landon (this one is becoming a front runner)
-Christian
-Maximus (secretly, I'm glad to say this one is losing ground)
-Jason
-James/Jaime
-Jake
-Michael

A Neutral Nursery - not easy!!

Wow, looks the poll is leaning towards 'a girl!' Very interesting, especially since I am getting a lot of strangers coming up to me saying, "you're having a boy right?" This is going to be quite a surprise, because Albie and I have NO gut instincts! Over the weekend, we changed direction with the nursery. We decided to go with light colored furniture b/c it's really neutral and so much of our furniture is espresso stained, so we didn't want to over do it. Here is (I think) our final decision on the nursery. The bedding is sorta funky, but I think the bright colors will be fun!

Amanda & Frank Tie the Knot - in Mexico

Congratulations Team McKeon! I can't believe my baby sister is all grown up and married! She looked absolutely gorgeous and Frank looked handsome in his military 'dress blues'. She rode in on a horse drawn carriage and everything was fairy-tale perfect! Madeline (flower girl) didn't quite make it down the aisle b/c she was waiting in the back for the "horsey" to come back and was a little less interested in the wedding procession!

'Babymoon' in Mexico

We had such a nice family trip to Mexico for Amanda & Frank's wedding. Albie and I considered it our "babymoon" and tried to enjoy the last time we would be traveling carefree (i.e. sans kid/diapers/stroller/toys, etc.)! We took a day trip to a sight-seeing place called Xel-Ha and spent a wonderful day snorkeling and doing a nature hike. The baby bump got lots of attention in the bright pink swim suit that my mom bought me for mother's day. Albie also got me a new outfit to celebrate my first mother's day!

Planning for the Nursery

We've finally gotten serious about shopping for the nursery. The first two pics are of the two bedding sets that I think I've narrowed it down to. The last two are of furniture styles and colors. What do you think? I think we're going to get the coffee colored furniture, but the white may be cute too. Decisions, decisions!

Our First BBQ

To celebrate Albie's deck-building hard work & his 1st grill, we had some friends over for a BBQ! Here is a fellow prego, Rosanna at 22 weeks and I am 24 weeks. (She's an Italian shortie, so I look like a beast next to her.) The gals kicked back and watched a movie while the guys played poker.