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I saw this awesome link up on Gina’s blog, called Places I Love. I couldn’t NOT participate.
One of my favorite things to do is go through older photos and reminisce and this is a perfect opportunity. Feel free to join in.

I can’t say I’ve traveled A LOT, but I am very happy with where I’ve been and the turns my life took to get me there. My modeling allowed me to travel a bit, our love for tropical places and islands made sure we explored almost every Caribbean Island out there, my friends from all over the world gave me an opportunity to visit places I would have never gone to on my own.

The places I included on this list are the destinations that I would go back to in a heartbeat or places that I regularly visit or enjoy daily.

So in no particular order:

{Note: All photos were taken by me, except for Courchevel. Some photos OF me might have been taken by my husband}

BARBADOS:

One of my favorite Caribbean Islands. If you’ve never been to the Caribbean , it’s amazing how every single island is SO different and, while it’s hard to pick a favorite, I’ve always had a soft spot for Barbados. I love their British accent and attitude, the most amazing diversity in nature on all 4 sides of the island, its gorgeous Botanical Garden and cageless zoo, it’s southside beaches with their white sand and perfectly teal water, castle like cliffs and  the BEST and most dramatic landscape I’ve ever seen. I’ve been there twice, and planning on going over and over again.

OUR BACKYARD:

I’ve always been a backyard girl. I love fresh air so I always make sure that our backyard area is as pretty and comfy as I can make it (one day I’ll share a picture of our previous home in Jacksonville with the pool and patio area I designed myself). While at Key West, I saw these colorful hammock chairs and just HAD to have them. These hammocks completed our little tiny patio. I do have plans on extending the patio and planting a ton of gardenias and flowers, but for now I’m pretty happy with it. Being outside especially in the winter and spring always makes me feel better.
Note: At this point the patio looks nothing like this, because I am not gardening and  hubby doesn’t even let me go water them ( dirt and pesticides issues), so while the plants are surviving with him watering them sporadically, they’re definitely not blooming or looking like this :) I can’t wait till I can make it pretty again.

MY DESK

We have a full home office, where we both work and I have done a bit to make my space beautiful. Most of the time you’ll see papers all over our desks, credenzas, hutches and floor, but in this photo I managed to get it all cleaned up. I love working and by extension I love my work space. It is so uniquely mine: my Kleen Kanteen, my Canon lens, a Kodak Digital picture frame, my colored pens (lol) and a Disney figurine holding the business cards.

NEW YORK

Oh that place holds a VERY special place in my heart! I’m very grateful that I had an opportunity to live, work and play there ( though I wouldn’t want to live there permanently). I cannot describe the feelings that arise when I just look through my NYC pictures. I had so much fun there, but it was hard being away from my husband. I still remember what it feels like running around downtown always late for castings because my bookers scheduled them too close together, meeting new people EVERY SINGLE DAY, doing shows, going out with friends after shows and getting dinner, going from exclusive restaurants to exclusive clubs, not realizing that people have to stand in line for hours in hopes that they would get it, taking it all for granted, but loving it all the same. I remember freezing my ass off and hoping that I could go home that weekend, but then getting the news that I got booked or put on hold for the weekend and having to buy yet another warmer coat since I moved there with my Florida wardrobe. I remember first snow and how we would all text each other at the first sight of it, I remember sitting in the subway playing TapTap on my iphone, going to Brooklyn and being terrified to walk the streets at night after another fitting or test shoot. I had been to NYC before that, but living and modeling there was something else. It was an amazing time and I will never think of New York the same way.

ECUADOR

Ecuador is a very special place to me. I’ve gone there 3 times to visit a friend of mine: first two times with girlfriends, and the last time with hubby for our anniversary. Each time the experience was different, but unforgettable nonetheless. There’s still a lot to explore in Ecuador though. We hadn’t gotten around to going to Galapagos or to Quito and the famous market, or to the mouth of the Amazon river. We did get a chance to explore Guayaquil and everything it has to offer, we spent a few days in a little known amazing surf town of Montanita that hosts a world surf competition yearly and is known to be one of the world’s best surfing spot by surfers in the know. We spent a week in a beach house on a cliff in a resort town of Salinas, where my husband got food poisoning at 3 am from a beer bought on the side of the road, with the closest normal hospital being 2 hours away (all part of the experience, however I was terrified for him). I love going to Ecuador because of the opportunity it gives me to speak Spanish exclusively without resorting to English. It was also hilarious to witness all the attention we ( the girls)  received from the locals, since super tall, skinny blonde girls don’t really exist in the world of authentic Ecuatorianos. They were all very sweet and welcoming which made the experience even better. ” Buenas Americanaaaaaas!!!” was yelled out wherever we showed up. haha

MIAMI

Less exotic but still special for me. Miami is the place we’d always travel to, when we lived in Ohio. It was the epitome of Floridian tropics for us before we actually lived in Florida. At this point Miami is the place where a lot f my friends live, a few of my NYC friends come to for the season ( those who are still modeling), it’s a place to go clubbing ( the real way), a place to celebrate New Year’s, a place to get away without having to fly anywhere or drive for too long. I love Miami area hotels: Mondrian, the Standard, Delano, Loews, ShoreClub and their mid-day brunches and cook outs. The picture below is one of my favorites, Mondrian Hotel, I stay there whenever I have a chance because they give sweet model rates ( yeah I’m still getting some perks from modeling days lol)

GUEST ROOM

Ok, it might be a little weird but I love hanging out in our guest room. It’s not even close to being finished decorwise ( as isn’t the rest of our house), but the peach walls make me insanely, unreasonably happy :) So I go there once in a while to read or blog or just nap.

DISNEYWORLD

I don’t think this one needs an explanation but for those who have never been ( and I am sorry “once when you were a kid” doesn’t count), it is TRULY a magical place! You do have to go there under the right circumstances to experience the magic the right way ( i.e. not rushing trying to squeeze Magic Kingdom into one day and fly out the next). It’s a place where you feel true happiness, where , as cliche as it sounds, you’re a kid again, where just walking around the parks, taking it in, is all that you need to be content. We live 3 hours away from Disney and we go there any chance we get. Every other year we buy season passes ( we do one year of  Disney, one of Universal) and literally drive up every other weekend. Both my husband and I CRAVE Disney and this pregnancy has been the longest we’ve ever stayed away from the parks.

To be honest, before I made my first visit to Disney I was very skeptical, but I instantly fell in love with it. I’ve had a few friends, who were concerned they weren’t gonna like it, because it’s “for kids” ( Michelle, sounds familiar?) and but as soon as we went there, it became one of the fondest memories they have of being in Florida.

DISNEY RESORTS

For us a part of Disney magic is staying “on campus”. As Florida residents we get discounted rates and sometimes drive up there just to stay at one of the Disney resorts and maybe walk around the parks for half a day. Staying on Disney property is like being in the parks themselves and it sort of brings that feeling of vacation that we no longer get from just going to the parks. At this point, we’ve been to and dined at all the Disney resorts and stayed at about half of them, with my favorite being Animal Kingdom Logde ( when my sis was visiting from Russia with her two kiddos, we booked two rooms there for 2 weeks- it was glorious). It looks like…well… a lodge, an African themed lodge, with balconies and windows overlooking a preserve with all kinds of animals roaming free. We had the giraffe rooms and actually witnessed two giraffes doing the nasty in the rain (lol)
But even the cheapy value resorts are really magical, especially for kids.

UNIVERSAL

Well, no post about places I love can be without Universal Studios Parks ( yeah we’re a little bit crazy about the park thing). It’s our “adult disney”, with coasters and awesome 3D rides and shows. And now that Harry Potter land is there- maaaaan, it just can’t get any better.

COURCHEVEL, FRANCE

Ok, this one is a bit out of left field, since I am a self-proclaimed summer beach girl, but I LOVE skiing. I was first introduced to skiing when I was booked for a job in Courchevel for some hotel. They flew us to Zurich and then we crossed the border to France and drove to Courchevel, a very famous ski resort there ( I later found out it’s very popular with filthy rich Russians-ha!). We shot for about a day and a half and the rest of the week were allowed to ski, sled, and have fun apres ski. I think I was the only one in our group ( there were 4 other girls there) that had never skied before ( cross country doesn’t count- different technique), so I even had a personal trainer ( a HOT Frenchie to boot). I spent the rest of the week skiing non-stop, even when other girls would go back to the hotel. I had bruises everywhere and muscle pain, but I was loving every minute of it. Since that trip I’ve been asking my husband to go there again, but after his first miserable skiing experience in Vail in February, I don’t think that’s ever happening. (I’ll keep working on him). Aside from the area being beautiful and …hello… FRENCH, I absolutely loved the ski runs, the chalet we stayed at was INCREDIBLE ( rents for $100,000/week with a personal chef), the partying could rival New York’s (almost) and come on, it was the Alpes! How much better can that be?

TORTOLA

Ok, back to the beach girl in me!

Tortola is another Caribbean island I’m in love with. I can’t decide whether I like more than Barbados since I’ve been there only once. But that one time left a huge impression on me. It’s the quietest big island you’ll ever find in the Caribbean. People are INSANELY nice, beaches are ABSOLUTELY UNTOUCHED and they didn’t even have traffic lights until 2001. Some of the most beautiful beaches I’ve seen in my life have been on Tortola.

BOK TOWER GARDENS

This is a new favorite place on my list. The gardens are located in central Florida and are  honestly the most beautiful setting I’ve ever seen here in Florida. They sprawl for miles and have gorgeous manicured orange tree gardens and fields with native vegetations, an old mansion, huge oak trees, ponds and lots and lots of color. I did our anniversary photoshoot there and the photos turned out gorgeous (It also helped that since the area is so large, not many people were staring at us with a tripod ad taking pictures of ourselves, like they always do)

OUR BEACHES

While I love going to tropical places and islands, we really do have it pretty good here. The sand, the water, the sunsets ( see below), the palm trees- it’s all a tropical paradise right here under our nose. Whenever I get a chance, I always run to the beach ( used to before pregnancy)

SOUTHWEST FLORIDA

The place where I live is the place I truly love most. It’s very rare that a person is truly happy with where they live and I can say we both are. There are things I would change, of course, but overall, I ain’t going anywhere. This is it! With its sunsets and laid back attitude, upscale shops, manicured streets, tropical vegetation and flowers all year round, hot sun, liquid sunshine, torrential rains, Tuscan architecture, expensive homes, millions of golf courses, amazing restaurants… I’m a very visual person and this place fully satisfies my need for beauty. After many moves and much research we picked this place and we couldn’t be happier.

Have you been to any of the places above? If yes, what was your impression?

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After reading a few books about brain development in the first 5 years, I became determined NOT to expose our child to any TV (even so-called educational DVDs) before age 2. That’s what most baby books recommend and the research is pretty strong on it. I had no problem with that since we don’t watch TV at home either ( we do watch series and movies that we get from Netflix in our movie room, but never actual mindless cable TV) and just sold our 60 inch TV because we hadn’t turned it on for 2 years, so it was just a waste of space. Once our baby turns 2 or so, we’ll be doing family time with movies and select cartoons, but I cannot stand having a non-stop TV running in the living room ( and I am sooooo sooo lucky my husband agrees, because I know most guys do the whole “zombied out in front of the TV” thing)

However, what DID bother me about not doing any TV time before age of 2 is that I wouldn’t be able to expose our baby to  Disney characters and stories. Being Disneyworld and Universal fanatics that we are, even since before we got pregnant, we would daydream about one day taking our own kid to the parks and enjoying the parks with them on a completely different level. We often talk about where we’d go and what rides we would take him/her on and what characters they’d see.

So in my head I struggled against doing the right thing and not having any TV exposure before two and at the same time giving our baby the joy that cartoons and characters and storylines bring.

So today as I was going through Zulily’s book sale, something ridiculously simple dawned on me:

OF COURSE, I CAN EXPOSE OUR BABY TO DISNEY CHARACTERS! THROUGH BOOKS!

Its so simple but it never occurred to me that there ARE books based on Disney and Universal cartoons. They are bright, colorful and FUN! And most importantly, they will foster interaction and language development, all without any need to resort to TVs.

I’m just really so excited about it that I had to write a post ( which I will try to do more of- short posts like this).
I love books and I cannot wait to start buying some! Yeek- I’m going to go look for them right now :)

So speaking of books, which books did your newborns like? I have no idea where or how to find books acceptable for newborns and infants, but I do want to read from birth ( I read Russian fairy-tales out loud since the baby can hear now, but I’d like to find something appropriate in English, as well as Spanish)

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STATS:

How far along: 18 weeks.

How big is baby: The length of a bell pepper, he/she can hear ( so all those songs I sing and books I read are not going to waste), flex those tiny muscles, and show off its gender specific genitalia.

Total weight gain: 2 pounds (143lb) this week, for a total of  approximately 7 pounds from the start of the pregnancy. So at this point I am caught up with my first and second trimester (4 weeks) requirement.

Sleep: I decided to hold off buying a body pillow until I feel that surrounding myself with 5 separate pillows just doesn’t do it anymore. At this point I have 2 pillows behind me, two in front and one at my head and it works well. I have no trouble turning around to either side and am actually starting to enjoy sleep a lot ( aside from 3 bathroom trips). It’s funny that they say that your bathroom trips are supposed to decrease in the 2nd trimester, because for me, there has been no change at all.

Best moment of the week:
Read below in the movement section
Seeing friends on Wednesday ( I have a few photos to share that I hope to post next week here and on Selfie Magic)

Food cravings :
Nothing really this week. I’ve mellowed out with my peaches, though I still eat a lot of them . I started been able to eat Romaine again and made my favorite delicious ceasar salad with a home made ceasar dressing. I did ask my friend Elena to make me crepes, which I stuffed with Romaine, tomatoes and pickles and vegan ranch dressing (yum).

Food aversions: Veggie burgers. One of my most favorite things to eat now grosses me out. Being pregnant is really funny- it’s like your body is truly taken over by someone/something else. I can’t even stand my husband’s breath after he eats one :)

Symptoms:

I have some new players here this week:

Pregnancy brain – It always  made me smirk whenever I read about pregnancy brain. Not that I was skeptical, but I wondered if it was something that not-so-smart women invented as an excuse – haha! Well, I can tell you – it’s definitely NOT an excuse. On a normal non-pregnant day, I am sharp, on the ball, with excellent memory, multitasking like crazy, get work done and manage some of my husband’s work activities. Everyone who knows me can rely on me remembering what they asked me to do and never has to remind me of important things or push me along.
NOW- whether it’s pregnancy brain or just me being pre-occupied with feeding myself right and nursery thoughts or whatnot, but I have been LITERALLY forgetting the most simple things: I forget to email people back, to call clients, to check on things, I forget what I am talking about and lose my train of thought often. Then I remember that I had to do something and one second later I forget again. Seriously, it’s that bad.  I am usually reminding hubby about work things, but this week I had to tell him: “Listen, there’s something going on with me and I simply cannot trust myself to remember certain things, so if I tell you I need to do something, please understand that most likely I’ll forget, so it’ll be your responsibility to remind me.” I basically told him to start riding my ass (lol), which is something I always have to do to him and never the opposite.

Being out of breath – pretty much after any activity.

Stretchmarks – none so far. My skin looks nice and glossy.

Hunger – Very very hungry all the time. My taste for sweets (other than ice cream which came back earlier) has returned, but I am keeping it in check, of course.

Heartburn –  Very mild, at the end of the day, depending on what I ate that day. By the way, heartburn is supposed to subside in 2nd and return in 3rd trimester, right? Is that how it works?

Skin – Still suffering. It went from a  million little breakouts to more defined inflamed spots.

Movement:
So that little kick I wrote about last week was, in fact, our first movement ( hubby’s loving being right). I didn’t want to ascribe to much to it until I felt more and knew it was a movement. This past week I’ve been feeling a lot of dancing in “ma belleh”. It started early in the week with a few weird rolls, which were, like the first, so faint that I’d ask myself whether I even felt them afterwards. On Wednesday or Tuesday, I felt a few little rolls that made me realize without a doubt in my mind that those were actual movements. They were still very faint but there were a few more of them. And right on the day I turn 18 weeks ( Thursday) something amazing happened. I was lying in bed in the morning chatting with my husband. I felt a few rolls and some movement, that was more definite that other times. I brought it to his attention and we both lay there watching my stomach and talking to the baby while I told him when it kicked. The baby might been liking the attention because it continued moving. After some time, Andrew left to go to the bathroom and I kept feeling the movements. At some point, it kicked so hard it startled me. So I lay there looking down and enjoying the first real movement, when I could SWEAR I saw my skin move! I called Andrew back and he tried to put his hand on my stomach. I kept telling him “You won’t feel anything until the baby gets stronger at about 23 weeks or so”, so after a while he took his hand away. After a few minutes, we BOTH saw my belly skin move a bit  ( so I WASN’T imagining it the first time). Hubby put his hand back there waiting for the baby to kick. I felt a few rolls and he looks up at me and says “I felt that!”.
“Yeah, right!” -I answer.” You could not have possibly felt that”. And right at that moment, as if to prove me and the medical books WRONG, the baby kicked so hard ( it felt like a little tiny foot jab) right under Andrew’s hand, that BOTH ME AND MY HUSBAND GASPED at the SAME TIME! That’s when I knew he DID feel it!

The first several hours I was just shocked. I was so set on the fact that Andrew won’t be able to feel what I feel for quite a few weeks that this event baffled me! I am not sure if we were just lucky to have his hand be in the right place and time, or our baby is a “Hercules” like my mom says, but I am very grateful that he got to experience the kicks this early on. Needless to say, he has since been trying to feel the baby everytime I let him know it’s kicking ( which is really adorable to watch). But it hasn’t kicked this hard ( except for a few occasional singular kicks) or this consistently since. One time I was skyping with my mom and gasped from a strong kick while talking :) but it’s always a single event and the baby stops moving shortly after that.

Also, I’d like to mention that to me the movement felt nothing like butterflies. Some people compare it to gas bubbles, but after I finally felt it, I realized that I’d never had “gas bubbles” before ( just gas pains), so what I was feeling couldn’t be gas. I guess, if I didn’t know I had an actual baby inside of me and I felt a movement like that, the only plausible explanation would have been gas. But being pregnant, there was little doubt that it was movement, except for the fact that the first ones were so faint, I wasn’t sure I even felt anything.

Gender: 5 MORE DAYS! I guess this is as good time as any to let you know how we’re doing the gender thing. I will not be announcing the results immediately. In fact, I won’t even tell my mom or know it myself for the first few hours. We’ll be doing a video with a “grand” reveal that I will post on Friday or Saturday ( depends on how fast I can get it edited). Until that video is ready, noone will know the sex :) ( thanks to Lauren for this great idea!) This will be very hard for me, since I simply cannot keep secrets when they are my own. But I am very excited about it!

To be honest, I don’t have a feeling about our baby’s sex anymore. I have absolutely no idea if it’s a boy or a girl. But I’d like to open a poll for you guys to start guessing (see the sidebar)

What I’m looking forward to:
Finding out the sex and making our gender reveal video
Making sure everything is ok with our baby at the  anatomy scan next week.

What I miss:
Looking good. Having my skin and hair back. OMG-getting my hair done! I want highlights so bad :) Good old sushi.

Next appt: September 1st, the big one

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STATS:

How far along: 17 weeks.

How big is baby: It’s a Turnip. The baby can probably hear now so we’ve been singing him/her songs and reading books. Its cartilage is turning into bone, which probably means I should concentrate on getting more calcium, so that it wasn’t drained from my teeth and bones. It’s also gaining fat which is very important and soon I will be feeling the kicks which should be one of the most exciting part of pregnancy.

Total weight gain: 4 pounds (141lb) YAY! While, I was never afraid of pregnancy weight gain, I’ve never thought that I’d be ACTUALLY happy watching the numbers on scale climb, but I am. It’s been relatively difficult/slow for me to gain weight. Every pregnant woman worries about the well-being of her unborn baby and the only way for us to track the growth is through our weight gain.

Sleep: Figuring it out, getting used to sleeping on my sides. Still haven’t bought the body pillow, I am using 3 pillows currently. I still do wake up twice or three times a night to go pee, and dealing with pillows, so it’s tough but manageable.

Best moment of the week:
Getting started on cleaning out the nursery. I haven’t been working on the design, because I want the nursery to be gender specific.

Food cravings { again, these are not real cravings (i.e. I can easily resist them), but here are things I’ve been “enjoying” more than other foods I eat}:
PEACHES! OMG I’ve been eating 6 peaches a day! Love anything fresh and juicy. Out of junk stuff, I only eat 1/4 of a cup of Haggen Daaz pistachio ice cream twice a day, but man do I enjoy that 1/4 of a cup.

Food aversions: Bread

Symptoms:
Nausea – Pretty much gone, unless you count the unpleasant feeling in your stomach that fullness and heartburn bring on.

Hunger – Need to eat once an hour, preferably something fresh, like a fruit or cucumbers

Heartburn – Mild to medium heartburn all week. Due to a tip from one of the readers, I looked up papaya enzyme pills, and while I wouldn’t take them while pregnant due to some other ingredients, I found out that papayas themselves have the same effect. So I’ve been eating papaya when heartburn strikes and it seems to help.

Skin – Still pretty bad.

Movement: I felt something that seemed like a gas bubble or movement, but there’s no way to know whether it’s one or the other, so I choose to discount it, since it didn’t continue. Hubby keeps saying “You felt your first kick!” which is kinda annoying :)

Gender: At our 20 week ultrasound on September 1st.

What I’m looking forward to:
Finding the time to sit down and plan the nursery.
Working on my pregnancy photo book. I’ve been periodically taking themed pregnancy self-portraits for a pregnancy book. Basically it will be a book with my thoughts, feelings and photos that would portray the whole pregnancy experience. I am not too far along due to pregnancy symptoms and general laziness but today I was able to take another planned shot- our daily morning walk, a part of whatever meger exercises I get to do these days ( I do some light strength training and cardio as well). And yes, I totally look fat here and not pregnant :) lol

What I miss:
Feeling not pregnant.

Next appt: September 1st, the big one

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Since my laptop is no more and I am waiting for them to build and ship me a new one, I can’t really do the posts I planned, since I don’t have any of my photos or materials. However, what I can do is share my iphone photos for the last week (I was supposed to do it last Saturday but oh well)

Starting at top left:

• Blogging from my hubby’s laptop
• My buddha belly
• Getting ready to go over to a friend’s house  and looking completely different in my bikini ( whoa- boobs!)

More cat stuff- since they’re my babies for now, that’s what you get

• Jake, thinking he’s on top of the world
• Travis, waiting outside the shower for when I come out so that he could jump up on my towel ( he’s just a cute weirdo!)
• Jake holding my pinky and sleeping on “daddy’s” leg ( what a hog!)
• Some gay cat love going on there… Adorable!
• Spidercat, spidercat, does whatever spidercat does….
• Travis sleeping like a human with his paw under his head.

FOOD

While I don’t write writing recipes ( since I usually just invent all the meals), at least you can get an idea from pictures.

• bunch of veggies ready to be grilled
• whole grain sandwich made out of left over grilled vegetables ( awesome!)
• cucumber, tomato, olive, scallions salad
• another salad with attempted caramelized ( but mostly burnt and still yummy) onions

HOME

• We started on clearing out the nursery. Made decent progress in a couple of hours
• Very strange weather: rainbow, rain, thunderclouds, and setting sun at the same time
• Which created this weird yellowish light ( the picture of our house isn’t edited in any way- it’s simply that weird light) {p.s. my poor abandoned flowers}

I’ll hopefully be back for my 17 weeks update, which is officially tomorrow, but since I’m always officially late, you can expect it on Friday :)

It’s also hubby’s birthday on Saturday, but we had to cancel the previous plans and will probably either just chill  (which is what hubby wants) or meet a friend of mine who’s coming down.  He doesn’t like celebrating his birthday, and I am pregnant so I’m happy to just relax ( maybe plan the baby’s nursery).

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The next two weeks will be funky. My laptop died and Dell is sending me a new replacement ( and a much better laptop, since they don’t make mine but have to at least match or exceed all the components), so for the next two weeks it’ll be difficult to blog. I still have my work desktop and my hubby’s laptop that I am using but none have my pictures or editing software.
So that being said, this week’s pic was edited without my usual tools. I meant to do a bump progression but can’t do that until i get my data back ( or stop being lazy/busy and pull out the hard drives and hook ‘em up as externals).

Also excuse my blurry face, hubby isn’t so good with the focus and I really don’t have the energy to do the usual self-portrait set-up. ( and yes, I am cupping my butt- it comforts me lol jk)

STATS:

How far along: 16 weeks.

How big is baby: It’s a Avocado.

Total weight gain: +2-4 pounds (138.8-140lb) After two days of not inputting everything I eat into my software, I lost about 1.5 lbs, which made me realize that I really do have to track nutrition and make sure I eat at least 2000 calories. So the last two days have been better and I hope to get back to 140 lb and continue onto my 141 lb to be on track with 1lb a week gain. I am also paying more attention to protein  and making sure I have enough, which has never been a problem, but right now is the time to watch it.,

Sleep: Ok, I am finally at the point where it sucks to sleep and I wake up sore and tired. After a few days of messing with the pillows and finding out that my big tempur-pedic pillow needs to be supporting my back, I am doing better. But I really need to order a body pillow. I found one I think I like for $100 (YIKES!), but something keeps me from ordering it ( how about that insane price?). So if you, guys, used a body pillow, let me know which ones worked for you, ok?

Best moment of the week:
OB’s appointment and being told that if he had to pick a person to deliver a 9 pound baby today, he’d pick me ( to my question about my pelvic size). He also said that he doesn’t think I’ll get stretchmarks ( will see), and that I should totally go for an epidural, because “why go through all the pain” (lol). I also asked him if he’d touch my boobies, to which he laughed out loud and wondered why (to look for breast cancer of course :) lol ). Then we realized that hubby does my OB’s job daily while moisturizing me and my boobies before going to bed ( bonus for me, bonus for OB, and bonus for hubby- it’s a win-win)
Going over new friend’s house for some pool time ( there are two people I am making an exception for this pregnancy, partially because I can’t say no to them, and partially because I really want to see them- just know you’re either very special or, now that I feel better, I want some company lol ) .

Food cravings { again, these are not real cravings (i.e. I can easily resist them), but here are things I’ve been “enjoying” more than other foods I eat}:
Pistachio ice cream ( more of a real craving ), peaches, popcorn, salad

Food aversions: Slowly disappearing

Symptoms:
Nausea – Gone, except for…. I kept getting a weird feeling, like an unsettled stomach or something. I can’t pinpoint whether it’s a type of nausea, or maybe heartburn. It’s unpleasant, and feels like I ate something bad, it comes and goes. One day on- one day off. Seems to be worse after diary products. Any clue?

Hunger – There it is! I wake up hungry, I am hungry every half an hour. Luckily, a peach satisfies me, and I don’t eat junk, otherwise, oh boy, I’d be in big trouble.

Heartburn – Cross my fingers, but it seemed to have tapered off. If i get it, it’s usually for a really short time, or late at night.

Skin – OMG, it’s horrible. I have constelations on my face! I keep telling hubby that for every breakout I have, it’s that much more that I love him  (just to freak him out, because you should see his face when I say that :)) It’s these small ( and some big) breakouts ALL over my forehead and neck and some on my chin. I didn’t have anything even approaching this during puberty.

Movement: I keep waiting for some movement and nothing so far. We even tried singing to the baby and poking around a bit :) But I can’t feel anything. Can’t wait though.

Gender: At our 20 week ultrasound on September 1st.

What I’m looking forward to: Gender, gender, gender, of course- I’d like to get started on planning the nursery! Also, hubby’s birthday next week, which we’ll spend at a friend’s beautiful mansion, with those two select friends we decided to “allow” me to see haha ( this is the first time I am glad that we recently moved here and been too busy working rather than making friends, and most my friends are now far away and that 90% of population here are twice our age- that means I have only a handful of people who I have to see during my pregnancy and break our intentions of “no exposure to germs” ( still thinking about how to deal with baby showers and the coming up flu season- I’ll talk about that whole “plan”  more and how it’s been working out)

What I miss:
Ok I am totally done recounting what I miss… What’s the point? I can’t do anything about it until I give birth, so I miss nothing-  I’m living in the moment ( maybe sushi…well and going to parties… but that’s it)

Next appt: September 1st, the big one

Do you guys think I am not showing enough? I keep seeing photos of 17-18 week ladies ( and yes I know things can change in 2 weeks) and they have big big bellies, or at least a baby bump. Mine just looks like…. I don’t know… a beer gut? I don’t think I’m showing enough? Shouldn’t I be bigger at this point? Shouldn’t I be popping now? It’s all kind of just buddah belly-ish, it doesn’t help that the top part of it, my stomach, is always extended with all the food I am consuming to make sure I am at 2000 calories.

NAMES: I never wrote about the names we picked out!
We’ve had these names picked out fo a while now. We had quite a few favorites, but not all names go with our last name and we will be doing NO middle names ( our kids can pick them if they’d like when they are a few years older).

So finally we’ve decided on Alexis and Greyson

So that’s it for now, see you in a few days. I gotta go to sleep…zzzzzz…

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I  just read an article that I just couldn’t NOT share with you guys.

http://news.yahoo.com/protect-yourself-americas-drinking-water-toxins-132357425.html

EPA is finally tackling our tap water supply. These chemicals left unregulated by the previous administration cause thyroid problems, pre-natal and post-natal developmental problems and a slew of other issues, including cancer. Because unless you regulate for profit companies to do a good job and be safe, we’re always going to end up with unwanted health side-effects from our overly chemicalized world.

I urge you to read the article, but in short, it talks about 3 dangerous chemicals out of 6000 of toxic unregulated ones. One  causes thyroid problems, another one causes stomach, lung and liver cancer and the levels of this particular chemicals are 10 times higher in the city of Chicago than the safe standard ( the one that allows 1 cancer per million due to the chemical alone), and finally well known carcinogenic VOCs.

And while you can’t run away from every danger, there are certain easy steps most people can make to reduce the negative effects.  The first two can be removed by a reverse osmosis system, the last one by carbon filter. And was exactly the reason why we picked out this particular water filtration system  (plus it’s not too expensive)

If you haven’t read my post about the Reverse Osmosis Water Filter system we installed before I got pregnant ( or what it after?…can’t remember), check it out here

The reason why I am writing this here is because for 8 years of my adult life I was oblivious to the common dangers, ignorant and thinking I am invinsible. And while I’d still like to believe I am invinsible, reading and meeting people, who weren’t so fortunate, and planning a pregnancy made me realize how truly poisonous our world is. I will not stress out about things I can’t change, but I will definetely do all I can to make things better for me and my family and will do what I can to alert other people so that they could hopefully make the same discovery I did and most importantly make informed decisions about their health.

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Let me tell you something, ladies!

It is a BITCH to find super natural, super safe things to use when you’re pregnant ( and not). You buy teratogenically  tested line of pregnancy products and then a few weeks later, after hours of research, you realize that while they might be free of teratogens ( substances that cause birth defects), they are DEFINITELY not free from other potentially harmful toxins that didn’t make it into the teratogen list (yet), or don’t necessarily cause birth defect but have been linked with cancer or such (yikes!).

What pregnant woman in her right mind, who possesses this information would say:”Potentially carcinogenic? That’s all right! I’ll be fine and my baby will too”

So after I discovered the Good Guide ( a website that rates products based on their safety) or EWG Skin Deep, I was introduced to a whole world of “causes toxicity” and “developmental problems” and this and that. It didn’t stop there though. Good Guide apparently thinks that some ingredients are just fine, while there’s information out there about these that contradicts that. EWG Skin Deep Database is a bit more reliable in my opinion.

So there I was… on a QUEST to find the safest products I could find.

I think everyone at this point knows that parabens are bad, so I instantly excluded any product that had parabens in them ( look for methylparaben, and other words containing “paraben”). They are preservatives used in a lot of products and it’s just really really bad ( don’t want to take my word for it? google it). The sneaky part is tat fragrance/perfum might contain parabens as well, but due to trade laws, companies don’t have to disclose it.
Then I learned about Sodium Laurel Sulfate ( SLS- a chemical so strong they use it to effectively clean oil grease off the engines) – so there went all the products that had SLS ( and that’s pretty much EVERYTHING – look at your hand soap, under the first or second ingredient)…

So there I was spending hours checking drugstore.com and amazon.com for the best products according to good guide and then checking their ingredients against a few more lists.

Every time I’d think I found something, I would then discover another preservative that causes cancer or what not. And while I might be ok with a small amount of that product for myself, how could I possibly know what it could do to a tiny baby whose IMPORTANT cells are constantly dividing.

At one point I thought I found the perfect  line of products: Aubrey Organics, but the problem is they have vitamin A and as we all know, vitamin A toxicity is very much an issue. So since there’s no way for me to know HOW much vitamin A is in the product, it’s safer to avoid it. Though, as soon as vitamin A isn’t an issue ( after birth), I will definitely try Aubrey Organics – it’s a great company.

So finally, here’s what I came up with. It’s THE BEST line up I could put together. There were some other products that might have been just as good or maybe better, but they were $26-40 for a bottle of shampoo and that’s just ridiculous.
Also there were certain things I wasn’t concerned with, like warnings about ingredients that might be connected with some skin sensitivity or something like that. I basically went by what could possibly harm the baby, and not by the fact that “lemon oil makes you sneeze” ( joking of course).
Note: I also checked them against potentially harmful herbs during pregnancy.

So here is what I use now and where you can buy them:

1. HAIR TREATMENT

Burt’s Bees Pre-Shampoo hair treatment

It’s a super nice smelling avocado pre-wash. Not sure if it helps but it doubles as a really good hair product to use in dry hair and for fly aways.

2. CONDITIONER

Alba Botanica Gardenia Hydrating Hair Conditioner

Smells DELICIOUS!!! Works really well, too, compared to other organic conditioners I’ve used.

3. BODY WASH

Tom’s of Maine Natural Body Wash

Took me a while to find a reasonably cheap and safe wash. Lavender is very calming and the wash itself is, well, a good wash.

or

More recently I discovered the most amazing line of healthy skin care, Lavanila. They carry a healthy deodorant, healthy body wash, healthy body butter and even a healthy fragrance. I would definitely recommend that line over anything else that is non-pregnancy specific.

4. STRETCHMARKS OIL

Mother’s Special Blend - body/stretchmark oil and moisturizer
At first I was SUPER turned off by the smell. To me, it didn’t smell like cookies AT ALL. Plus I don’t like oil based moisturizers.
But after 3 months of searching for a moisturizer that didn’t have every single bad ingredient in the book, I gave up. This has no preservative, no chemicals,nothing but oils.
That is until I found Mama Mio Tummy Oil. This is by far the best pregnancy product out there and it smells heavenly. You can read more about it here

5. Burt’s Bees More Moisture Raspberry & Brazil Nut Shampoo

6. Burt’s Bees Super Shiny Grapefruit & Sugar Beet Conditioner

7. Weleda Almond Soothing Facial Cream

Facial creams ( along with body creams) was the hardest category to find something safe in. If it doesn’t have some harmful chemicals, it will definitely have Aloe Vera. While I love Aloe Vera in general, for pregnancy it’s one of the herbs to be careful with ( an emmenagogue (mimics hormones), teratogen and muscle relaxant). I don’t know at which point it can cause harm, but like I said before, I am not taking any chances ( a small sacrifice to make). At first I got Dr Hauschka Rose cream, but I just didn’t get into its God-awful smell and too thick texture ( was impossible to spread it out). Weleda is perfect, light but rich, smells amazing and is perfectly safe.

8. Tom’s of Maine Clean and Gentle Care

Surprisingly, toothpaste, the one thing we put into our mouths, is full of SLS. That’s pretty much how it “cleans” and foams. So we both switched to a SLS free version. Doesn’t foam as well as a traditional toothpaste, but it makes me feel 100% better, not putting a chemical that they use to clean oil grease off the engines into my mouth.

9.  Breast Firming Cream

For anything else you might need check out the safest pregnancy skin care brand (I checked their ingredients personally)- Mama Mio. You can read my review here

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We also changed our laundry detergent and dishwasher soap and detergent to a greener brand.

Hope this was helpful and will save you some agonizing over what to buy and hours of research.

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TRAVIS

Doing his favorite thing: watching the sunset

As I was saying before, all our cats have become pretty needy since I got pregnant. Travis, especially. He comes to me every night and every morning. He won’t lie down unless it’s ON me, that is, on my chest ( even if I’m sitting upright like in the photo) or on my belly. He’ll even settle for an arm. This photo was taken first thing in the morning when I woke up, he instantly crawled on my chest and started purring.

Travis trying to be a cutie

Another morning of snuggles

IF YOU HAVE CATS, READ UP

I want to show you our cat toilet room set up. We have 4.5 bathrooms in our house and only two of us, so we set the half bathroom up to be the cat’s bathroom. Over the years we’ve gone through many litter box contraptions with the ultimate goal being that we don’t have to touch litter or poop. We’ve gone though normal litter boxes, mechanical letterboxes, Litter Robot (which we used for 3 year with great success), and finally arrived at Cat Genie about 3 years ago. I don’t think it gets any better than Cat Genie, aside from the cat peeing straight into the toilet.  Basically, the concept is simple. It’s a toilet looking thing that gets hooked up to the sink with the waste hose hooked onto the toilet (as in the picture). The litter is fake, it’s plastic, so you never need to change it, only refill as it gets low due to cats tracking it a bit. The cat goes into the litter box, after that the water gets pumped into the bowl, along with a cleaning solution, it spins in the bowl cleaning the plastic litter, then the scoop comes out and picks up any solid waste, finally, the dirty water drains and gets dumped into the toilet, and  the litter gets dried by hot air. VOILA!
It’s absolutely brilliant! Over the last 3 years, we haven’t had ANY problems with it, whatsoever. And we never ever ever have to touch litter or poop. It’s completely self-sufficient, unlike other litter boxes, where you still have to throw out a bag full of poop.

Gifts:

I got a few cute gifts this week, since it was my birthday. I’ll do a post with pictures about some of my favorite ones, but here’s what I have on my Iphone.
Super comfy boyfriend VS pants from my Italian-Russian friend Elena- perfect pants for pregnancy

Super cute bracelet as my happy morning gift

Our gift to ourselves: set of coffee and side tables for our barely furnished family room. We so needed that. Now if we would ever get a chance to actually hang curtains, so that I’d stop possibly flashing our neighbors every evening….

Not really a gift, but a dress I got on my first thrifting outting ever. Perfect for when I get really big.

My biggest present to myself and hubster was hiring a permanent housekeeper. She comes every other day for two hours and our house has never looked this clean. YUM!

MSC

Food 

Whole Grain Burrito: Shrimp, eggplant, tomato, scallions, olives

Boiled  and roasted potatoes in dill with mushrooms
Tuscan White Bean Salad

Linking up with:

{a good life blog}
{ Iphonography }
{ InstaFriday }
{ Iphone Photo friday }

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Well, hello there, BELLY! I promise I am not sticking it out, but my hips are a bit tilted back in that picture. When I push them forward, my stomach looks smaller, so I am not sure how accurate this photo is. However, it’s very obvious to me, hubby and people who know me that I am pregnant and not fat or bloated. I like having a little stomach, but it’s so uncomfortable to sit. It just feel weird having a stomach in the way.

STATS:

How far along: 15 weeks.

How big is baby: It’s a APPLE.

Total weight gain: +4 pounds (140lb) I’m glad my weight gain is finally picking up!

Sleep: I was officially told not to sleep on my back and “better” not to sleep on my stomach, so it’s quite uncomfortable, but I am slowly getting used to it. Really need to order a body pillow.

Best moment of the week:
MY BIRTHDAY!
Having a clean house – we finally hired a housekeeper who comes in every other day for 2 hours and it’s HEAVEN!
Being able to exercise.

Food cravings { again, these are not real cravings (i.e. I can easily resist them), but here are things I’ve been “enjoying” more than other foods I eat}:
Pistachio ice cream, eggs, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, white bean tuscan salad, anchovies (lol), peaches, plums, apples, pears and anything fresh.

Food aversions: I’m down to only two: sardines and romaine. I’ve conquered my aversion to spinach, nuts and other fish, but my memories of being sick are just too strong to allow for the other two. I also can’t stand the thought of pizza- YUCK!

Symptoms:
Nausea – I think it’s gone. I still have a funny relationship with food, i.e. don’t enjoy it the way I used to, and only occasionally feel nauseous but mostly it’s gone.
Heartburn – Only really late at night and very light.
Skin – Better this week, but I’m not holding my breath
Skin dryness – My skin on my back and stomach is starting to feel dry, like it needs to be moisturized. Is it too early for that? I moisturize at least twice a day and whenever I feel the dryness, but I can’t help but feel like it’s dry and stretchy all day.

Gender: At our 20 week ultrasound in September

What I’m looking forward to: Tomorrow’s OB appointment and, of course, next month’s anatomy scan.

What I miss:
Being able to buy cute clothes, knowing my size. I am addicted to MyHabit and there’s so much cute stuff to buy there, but I keep stopping myself because I know soon I won’t be able to wear it and after birth I don’t know if i’ll be the same size. I know there are always shoes and purses, but those are not as much fun. And no, I don’t think ANY maternity clothes is cute. You can find acceptable stuff, but in the end it’s all about wearing what fits, not what one wants.

Next appt: August 5th

Note: I’ve been a sucky blogger friend and have barely commented on anyone’s blogs, however I promise I read them ALL the time on my iphone: every morning, evening and in-between. It’s been hard trying to rest, work, eat, cook and do some blogging