Even More Things Pregnant People Like

Here are some goodies I got (hopefully the LAST order of maternity clothing, other than stuff for the home stretch when I am lying on the couch like a beached whale). Gap Maternity makes the most lovely and soft long sleeved tee shirts - I got this in yellow and lilac, and highly recommend it.



Babies need lots of calcium, and so do pregnant mamas. That said, I don't really like all sorts of yogurt. This Greek yogurt is thick, delicious and creamy. It's plain, so you can add your own frozen fruit or honey. It also has a lot of protein. I love it, and will even brave the dreaded Trader Joe's parking lot to pick it up. I think most Whole Foods carry it too - I've never seen a Trader Joe's in any city with decent parking!

This cotton and wool blend dress from Gap Maternity. Super comfy, and really cute for work. I'd even wear it on date night or out to brunch with friends. And, right now it is on sale for $24.00. Recommended!

I've only bought one pair of maternity jeans. These Seven for All Mankind from A Pea in the Pod. They are a nice dark wash, flattering, and incredibly comfy to wear. I bought them at about week 14, and didn't really wear them until week 20/21, but have been wearing them all weekend every weekend since! I did buy two sizes up, so they have been a little big and droopy. That said, I think I'll be able to wear them to the bitter end and probably afterwards! They are on sale right now, so you might want to pick up a pair.

Yes We Can?

It's pretty incredible when baby Icing is born, she'll live in an America where an African American man is president, and a woman was almost vice president. I don't discuss politics generally, but that's a pretty incredible thing to consider!

Adventures East of the 405

(Cost Plus - Chocolate Tasting!)

K's home made and DELICIOUS banana bread

How cute and petite are these little slices?

(My afternoon snack)

LA is a city of many neighborhoods (or a gross mass of sprawl if you don't like it)! Today I headed east to Toast for brunch/lunch with K and A. If you watch the Hills, you may recognize http://www.toastbakerycafe.net/ It's always adventures in skinny jeans, flats, aviators and slightly dirty hair (for men and women) over there - and the people watching is fantastic. People watching in Brentwood is much tamer and less interesting - it's just doctors/lawyers/ibankers and their spouses, their younger counterparts, or UCLA students - not a whole lot of skinny jeans and tattoos if you know what I mean. (I was wearing black ballet flats, 7 maternity jeans, and an Old Navy maternity tank and sweater - with a paisley headband and my red LV Alma) - definitely comfort over style these days here! I had my fill of the people watching, and a delicious egg white omelet with avocados, tomatoes, spinach and goat cheese. And, I got caught up on all the drama of weddings, jobs, drama - that happen when you can't see good friends as often as you'd like!

Then, K and I headed over to the Grove, for the ONLY Pottery Barn Kids in the city to check out gliders. Why there is only one store within a 20 minute drive of me seems odd - this is Los Angeles! That aside, I loved their gliders...but they are worthy of a separate post. We scampered over to Cost Plus - where we went straight to the food aisles. K is the most amazing cook I know. She baked the tiny banana bread pictured above - and it is superlative. It has candied ginger and chocolate chips inside, and came in an adorable little tin. We discovered that there were vast amounts of different kinds of chocolates available, so I bought a sampling of some interesting dark chocolates for my home samples. (BTW, I am always unreasonably paranoid at the Grove of terrorist attacks - not like West Hollywood is a worthy target, but there's something about it and the happiness, the dancing fountains and fake trolley that get me all worried...or maybe pregnancy just makes me crazy?)

At home, I beached myself on the couch for a little light reading for work and had some pomegranate herbal tea - please try it - it's a little tart and I think it would be perfect in the summer as iced tea. The work reading almost put me to sleep, but I got through it. Mr. Icing called and offered to pick up takeout on his way home, so the cats and I are awaiting delicious Indian food very soon! (They do not eat people food other than the occasional bit of hummus, yogurt or butter...but they are very interested in take out boxes and containers???) Indian food plus How I Met Your Mother equals happy Icing!

Oh, and I've been craving the Indian food since we saw Slumdog Millionaire on Saturday. It was good - very violent and some really sad scenes of children in poverty and ethnic violence. I was glad that I saw it, but it was very sad in places. Unlike Benjamin Button, a lot happened. I recommend it. We just need to find a way to see the rest of the good movies...living here you feel out of it if you aren't up on the films (probably the way people are in NYC or D.C. about important world events :)

A good end to a long weekend!

More Announcements

I discovered Reaves Engraving http://www.reavesengraving.com/ a few months ago from some wedding blogs. At the time, I was looking for some pretty engraved stationary (don't ask me why, but I love hanging onto the engraving plate from my wedding, and now this!). They do lovely work very timely (complete with that cute Southern accent). Plus, their prices are very reasonable for engraving - I am generally a straight up Crane's girl - being from Mass, you have to be! Reaves will do engraving on Crane's stationary...and it's beautiful!

So, I was poking around their website, when I learned that they also do baby announcements! And, if you send in your address list in advance, they can do the calligraphy. You can also order the announcements but not call to finalize until after baby is born (which gets around my superstitions, but also allows for a little more organization). I'm in love with the correspondence cards I ordered, and think I'll like their baby announcements too! What do you think? Obviously, I would request pink bows on the second option!

Right On Right Start

As you may have noticed, I have been better about the fun baby shopping than the practical stuff. So, yesterday, Mr. Icing and I ventured out in search of a car seat and a stroller. We had a lot of questions, and wanted to practice using the products before making any decisions - after all, we are stuck with these choices for a long time. So, we decided to start at "The Right Start." It's a chain of baby stores (you can find them online too at http://www.rightstart.com/). They don't really carry furniture, and the stores are manageable in size. What they do have are really nice and helpful sales people. We had a lovely woman help us for about an hour as we tested car seats and strollers.

I had gone in very interested in the Bugaboo Bee. As it turns out, I could not fold the stroller on my own. That is no good, because I want to be able to do most baby stuff by myself! So, despite the bigger size, it looks like we are going with the Chameleon. It was so easy to insert the infant seat, or to switch out the bassinet/child seat. Mr. Icing surprised me by indicating that he wanted the pink option (it will have a grey bottom, but a pink hood) to make it easier for people to see. Don't worry - you can swap out the hood if you end up with a boy the next time around! The Quinny didn't work with the car seat I liked, and the Bob was really heavy. Do you know of any other brands to consider? Since we're ordering, we have time to change our minds...please advise! (Mr. Icing likes the Bugaboo the best, but I think he is swung by the looks...and the fact that it kind of looks like an SUV stroller :)

Ok. On to car seats. I went in intrigued by the Orbit (which is pasted way at the top, because I can't figure out how to move it down here!). It seemed really neat on the web, and it looked like it would be easy to move from the car to the stroller because it has a unique snapping base. HOWEVER, without a baby in it, I had a difficult time lifting it. It was heavy empty! And, it was sort of an awkward shape, so not really easy to carry with one hand! It gets points for being very cool, but when the seat is that heavy, it didn't make sense to me.

We ended up with the Graco Snugride. It got great safety reviews in the Baby Bargains book, and it was nice and light. Plus, it's really easy to install on top of the Chameleon, and to take off to put back in the car. So, in short, we got a lot done on the baby front yesterday!

We also met nice people in the store who piped up with their love of our choices - apparently if you live in Brentwood/Santa Monica, you buy the Bugaboo and LOVE it. I promise I'll do some non-baby posting later this long weekend, but this was the big event. Tomorrow, I'm heading over to Pottery Barn Kids to check out stuffed and slip covered gliders. Any thoughts on those?

I'm starting to think about baby announcements and these all caught my eye on the Crane's website. I'm really drawn to the yellow one with the little ducks...it's very Make Way For Ducklings. Which one do you like best? I'm superstitious, so I don't think I'll order until Baby is here safe and sound, but I guess I could order and just not confirm until she does get here?

Will You Be Mine?

I'm a huge fan of Valentine's Day. I send cards, bake cookies, and for my 7th birthday, I had a special Valentine's Day tea party complete with crowns, heart shaped cakes, and my little brother trying to kiss all the girls. (My birthday is in June, but my mother likes parties and is a very good sport). So, here are some of my favorite Valentine's things so far. This will likely be the first of many posts - I LOVE Valentine's Day!

Aren't these cards darling? Perfect for all your Valentines - and available now at Crane.com.

This cake is for sale through Williams Sonoma - it's red velvet...but honestly, the heart shape has me interested. I know my mom used to make her own heartshaped cakes by cutting one round layer in half and baking the other layer in a square pan...I may need to try that.

This dress is arriving - I ordered it and loved it, but it fit perfectly at 22-23 weeks, so I went up a size to wear now for Valentine's Day. We have a little tradition of cooking dinner together on Valentine's, then going to our favorite restaurant another night. It's so much fun to plan the meal and set the table...plus traffic in LA is terrible on Valentine's Day, which can take the romance out of the evening! (I can't figure out how to get rid of the double image...in case you can't tell, I'm not very tech savvy).