Dog Days 2013

I've been spending some serious QT with the dogs during my maternity leave (currently on Day 7.)  They seem nonplussed, verging on flummoxed, by my constant presence in the house...but not unhappy.  There are benefits to having a human food source around nearly 24/7.

My day typically starts with a dog walk -- to the nearby park or down to the seafront.  It's good for me to be upright, employing gravity hopefully to good effect over the next few weeks.  But more than this, it's a chance to think, breathe, enjoy, speculate...a mind/body connection.  I highly doubt the dogs think of it this way, but their joy at being out, free and in the smells of the moment is the good kind of infectious.  

The latest photos from the dog days of summer below.  

Kibble?

Action shot

Among the wildflowers

Salthill Solitude

Moments before rolling in dead crab...

Post-walkies

If there's one thing Ireland does really well...

...it's rainbows.  

Fitting also, as it's the inaugural day of Dublin Pride 2013.

Salthill Monkstown Beach

"Didja know there's a never-ending kibble bowl at the end of every rainbow? FACT."

When the Shoe Fits

This was the Metro Herald horoscope (Aries) on my last of work before maternity leave.

100% correct when it notes that my sign does not easily relate to pause or taking stock.  But it's time for a new rhythm.  

Onwards and...downwards?  (Baby.)

PS: Officially NONE of my shoes fit.

Mawwiage

Two years today...still facing the world, happily and defiantly together :)

El Nursery, Part I

Given we don't know what flavor nipper we're having (my stock response to those who flash me incredulous looks: "it's definitely either a girl or a boy"), there's a lot of white, yellow and soft green floating around our house at the moment.  I'm pretty sure I would have gone with yellow for the nursery walls, even if I did know the gender...but aiming for surprize, we've no choice in the matter -- gender neutral yellow it is!  

Oh, but which yellow? 

I tried no fewer than ELEVEN different paint samples before finding The One.  The woman at the decor center clearly thought I was cray-zee.  Being visibly pregnant is good, in this sense, as it's actually your crazy "get-out-of-jail-free" card to all sorts of weird, wonderful behavior, including obsessive paint-color-testing.  

Lest you think I exaggerate:

And the winner is -- drum roll please -- Sunseed!  A warm, buttery yellow that brightens without being too "banana" and softens without coming across all "biscuit."  HEY.  I saw that eye roll.  Just for fun, the list of paint colors that didn't make the cut, as follows: buttermilk, cotton cream, golden fern, lir, pale primrose, fallen star, courtyard cream, banana dream and lemon crush.  [Aside: whose job is it to come up with paint color names? #careersyoudon'tthinkaboutinschool]

As to the actual act of painting, I kicked it off last weekend in a fit of rampant nesting.  It started out as "I'll just do a large-ish patch on this wall to make sure I really, really like color" and ended up being a first coat of the entire room.  Well...in all honesty, since I only realized halfway through that we've no ladder and I'm probs not in the best condition to be perching precariously on the trusty barstool M's friend "liberated" from a pub near our old house, there's about six inches at the top of the walls all the way around still in need of a lick of Sunseed.  Thankfully, my mother-in-law has taken pity on our lack of forethought and painting skills, as well as my case of pregnancy-induced carpal tunnel syndrome that makes it mildly agonizing to hold a paint-brush for any length of time, and has agreed to finish the remaining coats this week.  Hooray for M-I-Ls!  

Next up: putting-the-furniture-together.  Can our marriage can survive an IKEA flatpack chest of drawers and secondhand (with instructions, thank God) Mamas & Papas cot-bed?  Time will tell, my friends -- if I post the next iteration of photos, you'll know we made it through.
 

Mother's Day

Mother's Day this year takes on new significance, given I'm going to be one in a few short months.  (Gulp.)  For her part, my mother had already mailed ahead to say no flowers or unnecessary gifts expected, so I instead sent her the happiest photo I could think of:

Week 31

Exciting times ahead for all us Ima(s) and Safta(s) out there.  Oh, and let's hope baby's adult teeth, when they come in, really are as straight and perfect as the pic.  Will save us a fortune on future orthodontistry, though don't think genetics are with us on this one...