It's almost time for baby! (and fall fashion, too!)

The last time I wrote, the fashionista in me rejoiced as I realized one more department in Nordstrom would now be MINE to shop… a whole other area to learn and conquer was at my fingertips, as shopping for a baby BOY commenced. What a shopping spree it has been! (Some of my favies are stacked up on the left - who can resist chevron and sweaters?!) Now, we are days away from meeting this little guy, and I am proud to report his sweet mint-colored dresser has drawers filled to the top; his closet has multiple rods featuring tiny hangers that are nearly as cute as the clothes; and finally, his shoe collection rivals… well of course not mine, but maybe the husband’s (I can't wait until he fits into these!).

Speaking of the husband, he has been a real champ these last 39 weeks; though I have undoubtedly tortured him with my “hound dog” sense of smell (isn’t that an affectionate term he dubbed months ago?) and the Antarctic environment I have insisted on keeping in every joint environment (the car, house etc all must be kept at sub-zero temperatures, which leads him to freeze while I sweat), he has taken it in stride – volunteering to eat his smelly burritos on another floor of the house, tolerating goosebumps, and more.  He even custom-built a crib for the baby, and it only took him a few weeks to do it! (That’s my positive spin on “You have known this baby was coming for 8 months and you waited until the very last minute to build his crib.” And that sentence is the positive spin on the relentless nagging I did all summer that featured 4-letter words. Oh, the joys of marriage. Enough said.)

So, as you can see, the dad to be has been preparing too. So much so, he took himself to the mall a couple of weeks ago and had a little shopping spree of his own. I didn’t even know he knew where the mall WAS, since his entire wardrobe has been hand delivered to him for the last 5 plus years by the gifted personal shopper he is lucky to call his wife. But, miracles do happen, and off he went, to a MALL on a WEEKEND! (This was obviously before football season started.) And what does he come home with? His own “delivery outfit.” He tells me he needed a hospital wardrobe too…. Convenient that mine will feature a used robe with a hideous print, and he will be rocking brand new Nike Frees and Under Armour pants (running pants no less - ironic for him) – which he made sure to tell me are “sterile.” He also picked up a few new t shirts and a striped sweater/sweatshirt type number (probably because he will be cold).  Spoiler alert – you may see the t-shirt featured in a future post or photo featuring a little special surprise he added on…

Don’t fret though, fashionistas – I did extensive research on the all-important post-natal wardrobe, and picked up a few things for yours truly as well.  Actually, I dedicated a whole day to this project, and am pretty pleased with the results; I’ll let you know how it turns out! I must admit, especially after a long, hot summer, I’m looking forward to my mostly-black, Mary-Kate Olsen-esque loose look – convenient that we are descending into fall, which you know equals yummy chunky sweaters (this one is awesome and on sale now!) and leggings as well. I have to thank the babe for timing his arrival during such prime season for hiding the unwanted “extra love” that may be lingering.  I can tell this kid is already going to be a charmer! He knows what women want! (Speaking of - here is the link to the all black baby bag we will be wearing with our cute fall wardrobe and boots.)

So besides our 2 apparently perfect wardrobes, I read we should also bring some snacks to the hospital – not really sure why, but I do what the cute pregnant girl blogs say.  Thinking that would be a good job for the husband, he went off to the store about 9pm one night and came home with some milky ways for himself. First of all, I have tried explaining that milky ways are indeed the grossest chocolate candy there is. Who likes them? Second, he will be washing them down with those little 5 hour energy drinks he calls “5 hour booyas.” Whatever – he did pick up the luna bars and trail mix I requested.  I also texted him saying I wanted some chicken – to eat that evening. Not fried. Not fast food. But just some form of cooked chicken.  This was odd, as I am not a huge meat eater, but this pregnancy has made me a little more carnivorous. I have developed a disgusting addiction to French fries, but never requested a protein. Lucky for both of us Safeway still had warm roast chickens! I didn’t really want a WHOLE roast chicken, but the husband does not come home empty handed!

All in all, we will be waltzing into the hospital any day now looking like we are going on a week’s vacation. Between our mini cooler (featuring scented washcloths and individual champagnes), tote bag of food, and each of our own “overnight” bags (we all know I packed for more than 1 night!), this will be quite the sight. Wish us luck!

Mini!

Shortly after my last post (I know I know – way too long ago – I AM much more consistent with much else in my life – swiffering, cleaning my jewelry, rearranging my shoes – all of life’s important things), I got the best surprise ever. I’m talking BEST surprise – like Oprah screaming “You get a car! And you get a car! And YOU get a CAR!” And, if you’ve never seen that episode of Oprah, well, I’m more than happy to let you borrow my Oprah DVDs to let you enjoy that magical moment for yourself.

Similar to that momentous Oprah show, this surprise ranks right up there with someone telling you, oh I don’t know, you’re getting a Chanel handbag for free. I’ve never heard of that happening – even on Oprah. Do you get the level of pure ecstatic unspeakable JOY I’m talking about now? Like so exciting you can’t even STAND it?! Good. Now I can tell you the secret that’s not so secret anymore. This fashionista is having a baby! That’s right! A WHOLE OTHER TINY PRESON TO STYLE AND DRESS. With a WHOLE ROOM TO DESIGN. (Amongst other things, of course.) To top it off, this mini adorable wildchild human growing right now is a little BOY! A MiniMarshall, as I have taken to calling him. Will he be a mini-husband?! Probably. The good news is, he’s going to start his life off a lot better dressed.

So that is the best surprise ever that changed my life right when we were ringing in my new favorite year known as 2013. Here are a few fun tidbits of life with MiniMarshall thus far:

•      As you may or may not know, the husband is an emotional (but darling) wreck who has cried maybe more than his hormone-raged wife these last 5 months. He normally pairs his tears with a drink of choice – his friend Jamieson has helped him out a few times, and not 1 but 2 martinis were needed when we learned Mini was a BOY!
• ·     Hormones are kind of the best thing ever, because they get you out of everything. Tired? Hormones. Hungry? Hormones. Just feel like yelling at the husband? Hormones for sure! Can’t seem to make it from the couch to the kitchen to get your 9^th glass of fizzy water (which will never ever come close to replacing wine) and so you shed a tear or 2 to get “someone” to do it for you? Shoot, the hormones strike again!
• ·    I knew Mini was a boy. I am putting it in writing so maybe some day when his mother is rich and famous he will stumble across this lame blog and… I will feel validated that I was right! I knew it was a boy, so therefore I deserve a crown for already having that “motherly instinct” everyone keeps talking about. Crown aside (make sure it has diamonds and looks like Princess Kate’s), I really didn’t have the instinct, but I had this thing called an ultrasound. I’m not saying I SAW the boy parts. Any goofball could do that - I was the loser who couldn’t even see his feet. (Seriously, the kid has huge feet and I just pretended to see them until we left and I could figure it out myself. They were kicked back and resting – so obvious! What fetus wouldn’t be chilling out like that?) When we had an ultrasound early on, I knew this was a boy. Why? Because he was fist pumping! He had moves JUST like the husband’s. I don’t lie about Mini. He was in the womb, dancing around like a NUTCASE. And that’s when I knew.
• ·    I confirmed Mini was a boy several few weeks later, at the next ultrasound – again, I didn’t see the magical boy area, but this time, he was standing on his head the whole time. This further confirmed the craziness that is my future son. He was just the size of a bell paper, but he already had a much larger attitude.  The poor ultrasound technician was just trying to do her job, confirming he had normal baby stuff, like arms and legs. Of course, my child (in this case, the husband’s Mini for sure), had to be on his head. The entire time. Laying on his left arm.  Hiding it from us. Much to the tech’s dismay, we could not get o-stubborn-one to move around. This led me to believe for about 30 minutes that Mini did not have a left arm! This also led me to believe he was a boy, because no girl would be so uncooperative on a deadline. Finally, the tech finds the arm, hand, thumb and everything and she is so relieved (as am I – duh!). She proceeds with the appointment, and right when we are wrapping up, he starts WAVING his left hand around. I felt like he was saying, “Hey, freaks! Here’s my arm! Don’t know what you were looking for, bozos.”
• ·  Sure enough, an hour later, we were served a dessert covered in blueberries and my suspicions were confirmed… BOY. We were going to have a dancing, fistpumping, upside down, naughty, wild little boy! So, I gobbled down the dessert and like any good fashionista (oh and um parent) I went on a 3 day bender shopping spree.

I will share the tricks and trades of producing a fabulous and functional baby wardrobe in another entry, but here are some of my favorite pieces to wet your appetite. There are sure to be more, because I literally buy something 1-7 times per week. I’m not even going to get into how close my new office is to the best ever babies section at Nordstrom. Between that and the refrigerator and bathroom being just steps away, work is totally this mama-to-be’s paradise.

To say the least, Broke-O for Coco is getting broke-o from a whole new sector of shopping. Have you seen the strollers out there these days?! And did you know Burberry has baby line? Just sayin.

Signing off,

Broke-O and… MiniMarshall