December 13, 2018

Aurora's Travel-Themed Nursery

When I found out I was pregnant, there were two things I knew for certain right away - that I didn't want to know the sex of the baby and that I wanted a travel-themed nursery. We had a travel-themed wedding, why wouldn't we have a travel-themed nursery? It's kind of our thing...The Pilot is, well, a pilot and I've been addicted to traveling for as long as I can remember.

Photo Credit: Urban Row Photography
It started with this wallpaper that I found on Pinterest. It was a map of the world that had to be custom ordered from Portugal, was going to cost something like $500, and that The Pilot was adamant about not putting up after our brick wallpaper project (more on that later!). He was the one who came up with the idea to have a mural painted and we're fortunate to have a friend who graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art come over to paint our mural.

Photo Credit: Urban Row Photography
Eventually, Aurora's name will be painted into the plane's banner! Above the changing table are prints of some of our favorite cities that we hope to take her to one day - London, Sydney, and Dubai! I bought and printed them from Etsy shop, Brooklyn Print Company.


I adore her nursery. Even though she won't be sleeping in it for quite some time, I love spending time with her in there to nurse her, read to her, change her, play with her, or rock her to sleep. It's such a bright, fun space!

When I told people that we weren't finding out the sex of the baby, the first thing almost everyone said was, "Oh I could never do that! I'm such a planner!" Ugh! Anyone who has ever met me knows that I am too! But we planned her nursery just fine without knowing what she was! I think her nursery is perfectly neutral and would have worked just as well for a boy! It's bright, fun, colorful, whimsical, and I adore it! 

If you're interested in some details and links: 
  • Her crib is the Connor 4-in-1 from the Carter's by DaVinci collection.
  • I bought her mobile at TJ Maxx for like $6! It was a total steal! 
  • The hot air balloon sheets are from Target! We also have matching pajamas, a onesie, and a muslin blanket which I love!
  • Our changing pad is the Keekaroo Peanut and I love it. Seriously, this thing is so easy! It's made of a soft, foam-like material that is easy to just wipe down when it gets messy (which happens often!). It gets a little bit cold so we cover it with a muslin blanket but this changing pad is perfect! 
  • I bought my glider from Wayfair and it is so comfortable! I was nervous about buying a Glider online but this one is perfect and very reasonably priced at under $200.
  • The hot air balloon print is another Etsy find from a shop called Dream Paper Company
  • The cloud lamps are from Ikea! These provide the perfect, soft lighting for her nursery!
None of these are affiliate links, I just wanted to share in case anyone else is in the market for baby gear!

October 25, 2018

It's A Girl!!!

Two weeks ago, The Pilot and I welcomed our sweet baby girl, Aurora Olivia, into the world and I couldn't be more in love.


We've been thinking about and planning for these early weeks with a baby for so long and now that we're finally experiencing it, we've jumped right in. We're learning to respond to her cues and what different cries mean, what she needs when, and even getting her on a very loose schedule (eat, play, sleep). For the first week, we didn't have any visitors - I wanted that time for us to figure out our new family and I don't regret that decision for a second. Although, now that my mom is here, I'm so grateful for the extra help!

I thought I'd write this post to share a little bit about how we're doing and answer some of the most common questions I've gotten since bringing Aurora home!


How am I doing? Postpartum recovery has been tough. I thought I managed my expectations well but two weeks postpartum, I still can't go up or down stairs without pain and I still can't get in or out of bed while holding Aurora. I've graduated from being mostly bedridden to being able to get up and about the house. We've left the house quite a bit but it's always a struggle. I didn't expect to still feel like this two weeks postpartum without major complications or a c-section but here we are. I didn't have any complications but it took 27 hours of active labor with almost 5 hours of pushing to bring her into the world and that isn't easy to recover from. I honestly thought I'd be back to walking Peyton within a week of coming home and thought that timeline might even seem generous. I'm listening to my body but I really want to be able to just go outside and take a walk. I talked to my midwife about it and she said that I could still be feeling like this for another week or two which is a little disappointing so I'm just doing what I can to try to heal.

Did we really not know what we were having? Yup! It was a total surprise and the absolute best moment when, right after she was born, The Pilot said, "It's a girl!" I never really had a feeling one way or another through my pregnancy. I wouldn't really let myself have a strong feeling one way or the other. The night before I found out I was pregnant, I had a dream that I had a boy. Right around the start of my third trimester, I had a dream that I was having a girl. We had already picked out names for both a boy and a girl and two weeks before she was born, I was driving and got cut off by a truck with the name Aurora written across the back and then I really started wondering if she might be a girl. 

How did we choose her name? The Pilot and I had a really hard time thinking of baby names. It was really important to me that our baby's name could easily be said by my Spanish speaking family. I didn't feel like the name had to be Spanish but it needed to be easily translatable and that was tough. The Pilot came home one day and asked how I felt about Aurora. He had just heard the name somewhere and liked it but what he didn't know was that Aurora was my great grandmother's name, is my grandmother's middle name, and my aunt's middle name! And that was it! I've always liked the name Olivia so we chose it as her middle name.

How is Peyton handling a baby in the house? Peyton doesn't think she's allowed near Aurora. It's pretty adorable. She gets pretty close to her but won't come too close even when we try to get her to, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Every time The Pilot takes her out, she comes back in and runs to the bassinet to check on Aurora. It's adorable. She definitely doesn't mind having a baby in the house though. When she wakes up in the middle of the night, Peyton runs to her bassinet and lays down underneath it. It's super cute. 

So that's it! We have a baby and I have to say, it's pretty great!

October 1, 2018

38 Week "Bumpdate" + Maternity Photos!

I'm going to have a baby this month. 


It feels weird to type that out but at the same time, it feels so right and I definitely feel ready.

I haven't written much about my pregnancy on this blog. 


Ok, I haven't written much about anything this blog lately but here we are, in the home stretch and I thought it was time to write something!

At 38 weeks, this little one could make their appearance any time this month. At one of my very first appointments, my midwife made it very clear that I could have our baby any time between 37 and 42 weeks. Honestly, I think this is the best thing anyone has told me. I've been prepared that baby could come "any day now" for the last week but I also know that I could still be pregnant for 4 more weeks. Yes, I'm tired. Yes, I'm uncomfortable but knowing that the whole concept of a due date is arbitrary is really putting me in a good headspace to just be prepared and take things one day at a time. 

I really wanted to love being pregnant but the road to getting here was too bumpy and my first 20 weeks were really hard. I found out I was pregnant at just 3 weeks and started getting sick almost immediately. I was throwing up 5-6 times a day and couldn't eat anything. With my history of loss, this terrified me. I was trying so hard to just take things one day at a time and not be scared of this pregnancy but not being able to eat made it hard. When I finally stopped being sick at around 14 weeks, I didn't have the energy for anything. I kept hearing about how magical the second trimester was but I felt awful. After a diagnosis of low iron and adding in a supplement, I finally started feeling better around 20 weeks and have felt really good right up until the last week or so when I've just started feeling tired and uncomfortable as I've come to full term. 


I've tried to stay active, walking almost every day and going to prenatal yoga every week. I haven't run my entire pregnancy and I desperately miss it. During my first trimester, I was honestly too scared to run. I know that running is safe during pregnancy but with my history, I couldn't bring myself to start running. Not to mention how sick I was. To be honest, I lived in a little bit of a bubble during the first five months of my pregnancy. By the time I finally felt like I could start running, I was already too big and uncomfortable. I tried easing into a walk/run routine but ultimately, I stuck to walking. I know that it will take a while before I'm able to run postpartum and I hope I'm not too lofty in dreaming of a fall marathon next year but I'm pretty good about managing my expectations and plan to take it slow and see what I'm able to do. 


One thing I wasn't prepared for was how real the nesting instinct would be. We moved into our house just a few weeks before I found out I was pregnant and because I got so sick so soon, there were a lot of things that needed to get done around the house that were left undone for a long time. I didn't unpack the last moving box until about a month ago! Before I could even think about the nursery, I had this desperate need to get the living room gallery wall up, the pantry repainted and organized, my office completely done, all of the outlet covers in the house replaced (they had been painted over by the previous owners), the laundry room redone, and a whole host of other projects. Surprisingly, I got through all of them and the nursery is finished (save a hole in the ceiling that appeared over the weekend!) and I'm ready to just take it easy and wait to bring home our little one. 


It's crazy to think that exactly one year ago, I was reeling from a second miscarriage and didn't think I ever wanted to get pregnant again. It was too scary and too painful and it took a lot for me to be in a place where I could think about getting pregnant again. We haven't even met our baby yet but I'm so glad I didn't give up. This journey is one that I wouldn't wish on anyone - it is cruel and painful and unbelievably lonely - but I survived it and I hope that there is a lesson in here somewhere that I can carry with me as I welcome our baby into this world. 

Thanks for reading.

September 28, 2018

Reading Lately: September Edition

Last month, I shared some of the top books I've read this year. I had been in a pretty bad reading rut and, while those books were my favorite reads of the year, there really weren't many others I've read but lately, I can't stop reading. The Pilot keeps commenting that he's never seen me go through books so fast. This definitely isn't a bad thing. Once I finally put my bookshelves together, I started going through them, reading books that I've had for months or even years without ever picking up. I've made a pretty good dent in that pile but I'm starting to get antsy for another library trip. I don't know what it is about the library but I love browsing the shelves and coming home with a stack of books! 

Here's a look at what I've read this month:

"Us Against You" by Fredrik Backman - I've said this every time I've finished a Backman book - if you haven't started reading Fredrik Backman, RUN to your nearest bookstore and pick up everything he's written. You will not be disappointed. This sequel to "Beartown" surprised me in the sense that I didn't really feel like "Beartown" needed a sequel but I'm so glad we got one. I liked this "Us Against You" even more than "Beartown" and I really like how Backman gave some of the characters more of a story and shared what happened in the aftermath of what shook up the town. I don't think this book can stand alone so definitely read "Beartown" first. 


"A Moveable Feast" by Ernest Hemingway - I feel like every time I tried to read a classic book or author, I'm disappointed. In some ways, I liked that this book felt like I was having coffee in Paris listening to Hemingway's musings about his friends - Picasso, Gloria Steinham, Scott Fitzgerald - and in other ways, I felt like this was just the musings of someone talking about their day and was bored through most of the book.

"My Not So Perfect Life" by Sophie Kinsella - This is definitely not the type of book I would normally ever read but my sister gave it to me and I really enjoyed it. It reminded me of being 20 and broke and living in London, trying to make the most of a job that was both exciting and would make my head spin. In "My Not So Perfect Life," Katie Brenner is trying to do all of those things until she loses her job and ends up moving back home to help her parents run the glamping site they've started when her old boss shows up as a guest. A comedy of errors and a very light, easy read, this one was cute. 

"The Yonahlossee Riding Camp for Girls" by Anton DiSclafani - I had had this book on my reading list for years and finally cracked it open...only to be really disappointed. You know from the book's description that 15-year-old Thea Atwell has been sent away in the midst of a family tragedy that may or may not have been caused by her. 300 pages dragged on constantly referring to the "mistake" or the "secret" before you finally find out what it was and, well, it was pretty anti-climactic. This was a huge disappointment. 

Somehow, even in the middle of reading all of the baby books, I'm finally making a dent in my reading challenge! Even though I'm still 9 books behind schedule, I'm determined to hit my goal this year!

What have you been reading lately? Are you a Fredrik Backman fan? Have you started reading his books yet? If not, I highly recommend starting with "My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry." I loved that story and definitely want to read it again while I'm on maternity leave!


As always, happy reading!

September 24, 2018

4 Magical Days in Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon, Portugal. My first trip to Lisbon was planned on a whim. My mom and I had plans to go somewhere else that didn't quite work out and we wanted to go somewhere new and different. I don't remember what I read or saw but I texted my mom one day and said, "How about Lisbon?" And a few weeks later, we landed in a city that I have since referred to as the city that spoke to my soul.


I can't really put into words what makes Lisbon so magical. When The Pilot and I were planning our biennial trip to Paris this year and realized that the likelihood of us getting on a flight to Paris on standby was slim, we shifted gears and decided to go back to Lisbon. We were planning a babymoon and I really wanted to go to a place we had been to before so that I could take it easy when I wanted to and wouldn't feel the need to constantly be doing something!


I admit I was nervous. What if I didn't love it as much the second time around? What if it felt different? But the minute we landed, I knew that wouldn't happen and I was so happy to be back in this place that I've been dying to go to back to since before I even left the last time.


We landed in Lisbon on a Monday morning around 9:30 after the most miserable flight I had ever been on. We were on a super old plane (no TVs ashtrays still in the armrests!) and the seat in front of me was broken and reclined so far back that I had no leg room...not fun when I was getting up once an hour to use the bathroom! I was so grateful when we touched down! Lisbon airport is a breeze and we cleared customs in no time and were on the metro to the Airbnb we had booked in the Santos neighborhood of Lisbon.

We got to our Airbnb by around 11 and luckily, were able to check in right away. The Airbnb was lovely and the neighborhood was quiet but I wouldn't recommend staying there. It was more out of the way I thought it would be. I wanted something away from the hustle and bustle of the main city but this was a little too out of the way. It was about a 15-minute bus ride from central Lisbon but the buses weren't very reliable and came pretty infrequently.

Exhausted from our flight, we planned to take a nap and ended up sleeping until almost 3:00! Normally, I would have been upset about this but we were on our babymoon and I knew I needed the rest, so I embraced the long nap, took a nice, long shower, and then headed out to explore!

Having been to Lisbon before, our agenda was pretty slim. I was 22 weeks pregnant when we landed and had felt pretty miserable up until that week. We almost canceled our trip a few days before because I was still so sick but I'm so glad we didn't because this trip ended up being exactly what we needed. Although, as we explored the city revisiting some old favorites, I quickly learned that on our first trip, we had barely skimmed the surface! Here's what we got up to:

Seeing
Jeronimos Monastery. This 16th-century monastery is absolutely worth a visit. The cathedral and grounds are absolutely stunning. There isn't too much to do there other than to see the cathedral and the grounds but the grounds are stunning enough to warrant a visit.




Torre de Belem. The Jeronimos Monastery is in Belem, which is a neighborhood on the outskirts of Lisbon. When getting there from central Lisbon, you hit the monastery first and then it's a short walk to the Torre de Belem, a tower overlooking the water that was used as part of the defense system guarding Lisbon during the 16th century. I didn't go up to the top because the steps were narrow, slippery, and steep but The Pilot did and said the views weren't much different than from outside the tower. The architecture and intricacy of the tower are impeccable though and it's in unbelievable condition for being as old as it is!




Castelo Sao Jorge. The Tram 28 is Lisbon's iconic Lisbon tram line that takes you across the city and up the steep hills. It's also the best way to get to the Castelo Sao Jorge if you don't want to walk up a mountain. When you get to the top, you have to walk a bit to get to the castle entrance. There are street vendors and souvenir shops and a few coffee shops leading the way up the hill. It reminded me a little bit of Montmartre in Paris. As soon as we entered the castle grounds, I was shocked that we missed it the last time we were in Lisbon. The views of the city are unreal! The castle grounds are pretty cool to walk through too. We didn't spend too much time there because it started raining as soon as we got there and the castle is really just ruins, but it was pretty cool to explore!





Lisbon Under the Stars. This was a short-lived exhibit in Lisbon that has already ended so I was hesitant to write about it but since it was such an amazing experience, I had to! Hosted in the ruins of the Convento do Carmo, Lisbon Under the Stars told Lisbon's history - from the city's founding to the earthquake and tsunami that wiped out the city to Portugal's independence - through a multimedia presentation featuring art, music, and performance. I've never quite seen anything like it and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go because it was incredible!



Sailboat cruise on the Tagus. On one of our nights in Lisbon, we booked a sunset sailboat cruise on the Tagus River through Airbnb. Set up on a vintage sailboat, the 3-hour cruise was a perfect date night. We were able to get off our feet and see the city from the water. There were only about 8 other passengers so it was small and intimate and the boat had wine, cheese, and bread for us to nibble on. About an hour into our cruise, it started downpouring but we still managed to enjoy ourselves despite being cold and wet on the water!


Eating
When people think of good food in Europe, they always think of France and Italy, maybe Spain but I think Portugal really needs to be on the map for excellent European food. I have yet to have had a meal in Lisbon that I didn't absolutely love. Here are a few highlights of places and things we ate!

Pasteis de Nata. No trip to Lisbon is complete without feasting on these delicate pastries. Just before we went, Martha Collison (famously of The Great British Baking Show) had been in Lisbon and went on a mission to find the best pasteis de nata in the city. Having let her do all of the work, and having already tried natas all over Lisbon on our first trip, we made our way to her top pick, Mantegenaria and we were not disappointed. The pastry shop only serves pasteis de nata and coffee and they're one of the very few places in Lisbon that serve the treats warm. Top them with both powdered sugar and cinnamon and you're in for absolute divinity. Alcoa was a close runner-up but they weren't served warm. I would skip the insanity that is Pasteis de Belem (where they were created), as they were warm but the egg custard had curdled and they weren't very appetizing. If you're planning a trip to Lisbon, try out a few different places but I think you'll come to the same conclusion that Mantegenaria's natas cannot be beaten.


LX Factory. The LX Factory isn't necessarily a place to eat - it's more like an outdoor market with little shops and restaurants. It's got a really cool hipster, industrial feel and is definitely worth checking out. While I typically stick to local cuisine when I'm traveling, I was also entertaining pregnancy cravings in Lisbon and jumped at the chance to have tacos when we spotted a Mexican restaurant, Mez Cais, in the LX Factory. Built to look like a wrestling ring with luchador masks adorning the walls, this was a pretty cool spot with fantastic Mexican food!



Santini. If you like ice cream or gelato, you need to stop by Santini. Get the nata flavored ice cream and mix it with something delicious like chocolate-hazelnut. You won't be disappointed.

Ribeira Market. The TimeOut Ribeira Market was definitely a favorite during our last trip to Lisbon and worth repeating. I had some kind of bacalhau (codfish) deliciousness at a spot called Felicidade that was honestly one of the best things I've ever eaten. I keep a very short list of some of my all-time favorite meals and this was easily one of them. The Ribeira Market has just about everything you could want and is perfect if you're eating with a crowd since everyone can get their own thing. Bonus: There's a Mantegenaria AND a Santini ice cream shop there!




Pharmacia. On our last night in Lisbon, we went to dinner at Pharmacia, a restaurant located in the Museum of Pharmacy with exceptional views over the city. While the interior of the restaurant is gorgeous, we opted for a table outside to enjoy the views. I didn't realize until we got the menu that that Pharmacia is run by the same chef that I had raved over the night before at Felicidade, Susana Felicidade. The food was just as excellent as the night before and my only disappointment was in not being able to enjoy a glass of Vinho Verde alongside my meal!


Our second trip to Lisbon was even better than the first! I fell in love with the city all over again and it was the perfect spot for a babymoon! We learned on our first night there that Portugal recently passed a law exempting pregnant women (and women with children under 2, seniors, and people with disabilities) from having to stand in line. We didn't want in line for anything, anywhere...ice cream shops, tourist sites, customs at the airport...it was amazing! As soon as I got on any form of public transportation, half the people would jump up to give me their seat. It was great!

I also really loved that we had been there before and could really just do one major thing a day and spend the rest of our time just being in the city, having long, leisurely meals and just enjoying each other's company. It was wonderful! Oh, and one of my favorite things was watching the World Cup in the Praca do Comercio. I always root against Portugal in the World Cup but I had to support the home team just this one time!


One thing I didn't include in this post is our day trip to Sintra - that deserves its own post so check back later this week for that!

Have you been to Lisbon or anywhere in Portugal?
If you took a babymoon, where did you go?

PS: You can check out my posts about our first trip to Lisbon here, here, here and here!

August 31, 2018

9 Books I've Loved This Year

I think it's finally safe to say that the reading rut I've been in for almost two years is over. Last year, I fell pretty short of my Goodreads reading challenge because I hated almost everything I read. This year started off pretty slowly too and reading one too many bad books followed by morning sickness that lasted well into my second trimester kept me out of the libraries and left me with no desire to read. It's why I haven't posted any book reviews since January!

But this summer, after finally unpacking all of my books from our move in December, I started reading again and finally have some good recommendations to share!


"A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles - This book was getting a lot of hype last year and I picked it up while in London and wasn't disappointed. Do you ever read a book that moves slowly but in an absolutely perfect way? That was "A Gentleman in Moscow." The book follows the long life of the aristocrat, Count Rostov, who is put under house arrest at a hotel in Moscow for being part of the aristocracy. Amor Towles' ability to craft such a beautiful story that never leaves the four walls of the hotel is remarkable. With a main character whom you grow to love more and more by the page, this book was one that I didn't want to end and can easily be considered a new favorite.

"Big Little Lies" by Liane Moriarty - I picked this up off of my friend, Carolann's bookshelf when I was in Hawaii. I hadn't read a book in almost two months and wanted a light, easy beach read. Honestly, I had avoided reading anything by Moriarty. Her books never really appealed to me but I loved this book. It was the perfect beach read and I couldn't put it down! I love a good mystery and this one kicks off with a murder but you don't know who was murdered or who the murderer was, which definitely made for a good page turner! I haven't watched the HBO series but I've heard good things about it!

"Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah - I listened to the audiobook of Trevor Noah's book and wasn't disappointed. It was a fascinating, funny autobiography about Trevor Noah's life growing up in post-apartheid South Africa. I normally don't read books by celebrities because I've found that they all come across as extremely self-absorbed and have made me really dislike some of my favorite celebrities but Noah's book wasn't a "how I got here" story, it was about his life growing up and made for a good read.

"The Alice Network" by Katie Quinn - Historical fiction is easily my favorite genre and I'll read just about anything written about the First and Second World Wars. I'm not sure why but I'm really drawn to these books. I picked up "The Alice Network" at a local bookstore here in Baltimore and really enjoyed it. Told from two perspectives - that of Eve Gardiner, a young woman recruited to be a spy during the Great War, and Charlie St. Clair, pregnant and unmarried who lands on Eve's doorstep 30 years later, at the tail end of the Second World War. Unexpectedly, the unlikely pair ends up on a journey through Europe trying to find Charlie's missing cousin while the plot hints at a surprising connection between the two women.

"The Beekeeper's Apprentice" by Mary Russell - I love a good Sherlock Holmes story. "Sherlock" might be my favorite television show. This novel introduces a young, sprightly, American, Mary Russell who quite literally stumbles on a much older, retired Sherlock Holmes while walking through a meadow with her nose in a book. The two become fast friends as Mary apprentices under Sherlock. I felt like this book did the Arthur Conan Doyles stories justice, adding a female voice to the Sherlock Holmes stories while maintaining some of the originality of the ACD books. While I really enjoyed this and would recommend it, I'm not sure I'll seek out the other books in this series.

"Paris to the Moon" by Adam Gopnik - I picked this up in a Little Free Library ages ago for the title alone and surprisingly, I wasn't let down. Adam Gopnik is a writer for The New Yorker who decided to up and move to Paris with his wife and their 8-month-old son (something I am now trying to figure out how to do). Each chapter is an anecdote and a glimpse into their life in Paris. It was easy to read, enjoyable, and made me want to pack my bags immediately. I loved this book and recommend it to anyone who loves traveling to Paris.

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer - I reread this for our book club this summer and loved it just as much the second time around as the first. This is one of my favorite books of all time. I enjoyed the film but wish it had incorporated more of the letter writing, even just as a bit of background narration. If you haven't read this book, I highly recommend it. It's a beautifully written compilation of letters written by Juliet, a young writer in London and a group of friends she makes (via letter writing) in Guernsey, who tell their stories of living under German occupation during the war.

"Next Year in Havana" by Chanel Cleeton - Like "Paris to the Moon," I picked this up for the title. I will read just about anything about Cuba. As a Cuban American, I'm always looking to read more and learn more about the island that is so much a part of me, but that I have never been to. This is easily the best book I've read about Cuba. Alternating between two perspectives, that of 19-year-old Elena living in Cuba at the height of the revolution, and 31-year-old Miami-born Marisol, Elena's granddaughter who heads to the island for the first time to scatter Elena's ashes. This book wasn't without a few problem points that I won't get into because of spoilers, but I felt like this story so closely mirrored mine and my families that it was easy for me to forgive. If you're interested in Cuba, I recommend this book. It's a wonderful story that feels very true.

"My Life in France" by Julia Child - I'll admit that I never knew anything about Julia Child until I saw the movie, "Julie and Julia" but I've had this book on my to-read list for ages and finally dove in. This story gave me so much life. Julia Child didn't become the Julia Child that the world fell in love with until she was in her late 40s and then went on to have a fabulous career. In a world of food photography and food bloggers, it was refreshing to read a book that doesn't use any pictures to describe mouthwatering foods that had me wanting to run to the kitchen with my copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." I loved reading about Julia's and Paul's fascinating life and appreciated just how seriously Julia took her craft. If you're feeling like you're in a creative rut, this might be a good read for you. Warning: Don't read it on an empty stomach!

Have you read any of these? What have you been reading lately?

August 1, 2018

Mid-Week Coffee Date

Hi friends. Happy August! I'm happy to see July behind me. Last month was brutal. I took on some extra projects at work and with my ever-growing pre-baby to-do list, just felt like I didn't have time for anything. It doesn't help that I'm super unmotivated to do much of anything these days. I blame pregnancy, but I'm pushing through. I haven't had the chance to post since my big announcement so I thought I'd ease back in with a coffee date and fill you in on what I've been up to!


If we were having coffee, I would be drinking Mommee Coffee. I found this stuff on Amazon and love it. I'm not a coffee snob but this is really tasty coffee! It's low acid, quarter caf coffee (also comes in half-caf and 3/4-caf) which is perfect for a soon-to-be mama who is limiting her caffeine intake but can't drink regular coffee because pregnancy heartburn is real.

If we were having coffee, here's what I'd share:

I'm officially in my 3rd trimester! I shared a little bit about our experience going through pregnancy loss in my last post so this feels like a huge milestone. I'm feeling surprisingly good at this point, if not a little run down but everything is looking good.

I have a mile-long to-do list of stuff I want to get done around the house before the baby comes and surprisingly, most of it has nothing to do with the baby. The list is things like...painting the laundry room, reorganizing the pantry, and hanging our bedroom curtains. It feels a little overwhelming and I wish I could take a week off to just work on house projects but unfortunately, I need to save that time for maternity leave.

I miss running. I haven't run a single mile in 2018 and I was fine with it until very recently. I always wanted to be someone who ran through my pregnancy but with my history, honestly, I was just too scared to run. I lived in a bubble my first trimester and I know that that's what I needed to do for my own well-being. I didn't feel well enough to even attempt to run until I was close to 20 weeks and by that point, I had a sizeable baby bump that I wasn't used to running with and I didn't like running the few times I tried to get out there. I hope that my return to running isn't impossible after being out of the game for a full year but I have every intention of running again as soon as I feel up to it and am cleared by my doctor!

I've finally gotten out of the reading rut I've been in all year. I'm 11 books behind on my Goodreads challenge (which I had actually set low this year) but I'm finally back to reading every day. Everyone keeps telling me I'll have tons of time to read on maternity leave so maybe I'll be able to catch up. Right now, I'm reading "Paris to the Moon" by Adam Gopnik, a New Yorker writer who moved to Paris with his 8-month-old son in the 90s. Let me tell you - if this doesn't set my wannabe expat wheels turning, I don't know what does!

I'm working on my recap of our amazing trip to Lisbon and will have those posts up next week! But I can tell you right now, Lisbon was an amazing choice for a babymoon...for a lot of unexpected reasons!

To all of you who commented on my post, thank you, I'll be responding soon now that I'm out of a busy July!


What would you share over coffee?
What's your coffee shop drink of choice?

July 6, 2018

We're Gonna Need Another Passport...

There's more than one reason I've been MIA on my blog lately.


The Pilot and I are expecting a baby!  

For a long time, I wasn't sure if I was going to write this post but ultimately, I felt like I couldn't leave it off of my blog. I've had this blog for 8 years and it's a huge part of my life. Sure, I haven't posted much in the last year or so but for those of you who still read, I want to share our news, and outside of that, this blog has been a chronicle of my life since graduating from college and it feels like a missed opportunity to not write about something as big as this!


The thing is, it took a long time for me to feel comfortable sharing this news. We didn't even tell our families until after my 16th week. 

Because this isn't my first pregnancy. The Pilot and I had the hardest year of our lives dealing with unexplained pregnancy loss and doctors who were so dismissive and flippant, it set my head into a spin. We also dealt with a lot of people who had no idea how to respond to something like pregnancy loss and said all the wrong things.

"Everything happens for a reason."
"It's all part of God's plan."
"At least you know you can get pregnant."
"This is probably for the best...there was probably something wrong with you baby."
"Now when you do have a baby, you know you'll be ready for it."

It was hard and I just couldn't take these comments in stride. My hormones were out of control and I was grieving and I really needed people to just tell me they were sorry and be there for me, not try to justify something that seemed so unjustifiable. Instead, with each passing comment, I crawled deeper and deeper into a hole until one day, I started to really worry about myself. 

But I got help. I found a therapist who finally made me feel like I had a right to feel the way I felt. I found friends who were open to listening to me and who made an effort to see how I was doing and I finally got to a place where I wasn't terrified to get pregnant again and, when I did get a positive pregnancy test, I didn't cry myself to sleep out of fear, I smiled a little bit and said, well, let's take this one day at a time. 

And here we are, 25 weeks later. I'm finally sharing the news and planning a nursery and thinking about buying cute hooded bathrobes and onesies and things for our little one and I'm finally, finally over the moon excited about having a baby. 

June 15, 2018

A Late Winter Getaway to Oahu

Anyone who knows me well knows that I loathe winter. I don't like anything about the season. This winter, I found myself questioning why on earth I not only still live in the Northeast but bought a house there! 

Compared with the last two winters, this one was nothing. We had about 5 days of temperatures below 10 degrees as opposed to entire months but it was just too much. When March rolled around and the forecast didn't call for a single nice day, I started going crazy...and then Carolann told me I should come to Hawaii and 10 days later, I was on a plane.


Everyone I know who goes to Hawaii goes to Maui. I've only been to Oahu but I highly recommend it! Hawaii is a long flight from the East Coast and it's nice to land in Honolulu and not have to get on another plane! While I would love to visit Maui someday, I'm perfectly content to keep returning to Oahu as long as Carolann is living there! 

My only agenda for this second trip to Hawaii was to soak up as much sun as possible and revisit the farm cafe. Carolann was more than happy to oblige on both accounts. As soon as I landed and got to her place, we made our way to the beach. I was in heaven. 80 and sunny? This was so much better than 38 and raining.


The flight to Hawaii isn't terrible but the time difference is tough. After roughly 11 hours of flight time, you land in the middle of the afternoon, 6 hours earlier than the time it is back home. I didn't last too long my first day but I was so happy to be on the beach.

The next morning, I was up before the sunrise. Carolann woke up shortly after me and we sat on her lanai drinking coffee with condensed milk and catching up...I was definitely on vacation!


We made a game plan for the day to head up to the North Shore to visit Waimea Falls and the Farm Cafe. We had gone to Waimea Falls when I last went to Oahu and I loved it! Although this time around, the water was ICE cold!


Carolann first introduced me to the Kahuku Farm Cafe shortly after she moved to Hawaii when she sent me a box of goodies including their vanilla bean caramel sauce. This stuff is heaven and it's even better poured over ice cream that's melting on top of grilled banana bread. If you ever go to Oahu, this should be one of the top things on your list. It's a little farm on the side of the road but the food is unbelievable and you can bring home some of their homemade goodies like lilikoi butter, pineapple papaya sauce, and that vanilla bean caramel sauce I'm talking about.


One thing I should tell you about Hawaii is that if you're planning a trip there and eyeing the weather forecast ahead of time, don't be alarmed if all you see is rain. It rained every day that I was in Hawaii but Oahu is a big island with a mountain right in the middle and, as Carolann so accurately pointed out, it's always sunny somewhere on the island! 

In search of the sun, we spent the next day in Honolulu on Waikiki Beach. It was still on the cloudy side but I didn't mind since I could still sit by the beach with a book and indulge in ice cream...which I did on this trip more times than I'm comfortable admitting!


Feeling the need to work off all of the ice cream I'd been eating, Carolann and I were up early the next morning to hike the Makapu'u Lighthouse Trail, a steep, but well-paved hike that's prime for whale watching and stunning views! It was a great hike and I loved watching the last of the whales migrating for the season!



After our hike, we brunched at and then whiled away the rain at the local bookstore where I bought so many books, I had to ship them home! (Two months later, they're still in the box on the floor of my dining room because of the saga we've dealt with my home office, but that's a story for another day.).


My last few days in Hawaii were all about beach time...we went back to Waikiki (the Hilton Hawaiian Village is awesome just to walk through!), trekked to Ko Alina (my favorite of the beaches), and made a detour to Disney's Aulani.


This trip was everything I needed to cure my winter blues. While it wasn't quite as warm when I got back to Baltimore, it definitely wasn't snowing anymore! I think a late March vacation may need to be exactly what I need from now on!

Have you been to Hawaii? What did you think? I hope this post adds Oahu to your wanderlist! 

June 8, 2018

Back to Blogging

Wow! I can't believe it's been three months since my last post! This is definitely the longest I've gone without writing and while, my absences from this little blog have become more frequent than I'd like over the last two years, this time around, I think I needed the break.

Today, I'm writing not just to catch up and fill space on this blog but to start an earnest commitment to getting back to blogging. Lately, I've realized that a lot of the pressure I've been putting on myself to work outside the typical 9-5 is self-imposed and I'm desperately trying to scale back and work normal hours so that outside of work, I can do things like run, blog, adventure around Baltimore, and spend time with friends.

The last time I posted, I was in Hawaii and ended up staying there 3 days longer than planned due to flight availability and maybe a little bit of my unwillingness to leave 80 degree Hawaii and head back to 40 degree DC. That trip was so restorative and I'm honestly still living a high from how good that trip was!


Since coming back from Hawaii, we've hosted a lot of friends in Baltimore which has been a great way for me to finally get out and do some exploring around my new city! We've taken a few trips to TX and NJ to visit family, and have only made it to one baseball game (during which it rained the entire time).


The Pilot and I have both been working a lot but we've also been working on our house. Unfortunately, most of the projects we've done around the house have been things we needed to do that popped up on us, instead of things we actually wanted to do which has been really frustrating but, I guess that's homeownership for you!

As I'm making an effort to get back to blogging, here's what you can expect to see from me this month:
  • A recap of my Hawaii trip with some tips for anyone planning a trip to Oahu;
  • An update on how our house is coming along, six months later;
  • A glimpse into what my days look like both when I'm working from home and when I'm commuting to DC'
  • A recipe or two that I've been cooking up in my head; and
  • Our next trip to Europe (location TBD despite the fact that this trip is coming up really soon).
I hope you'll follow along as I get back to writing more in this space and that you'll let me know what else you'd like to see! I've thought a lot over these last few months about this blog and what I keep coming back to is how many ideas I have for it! So, it's time to put those ideas into practice and start sharing all of those ideas. Stay tuned!

April 10, 2018

Coffee Date: April( (in Hawaii!) Edition

Aloha from Hawaii!


Remember me? I started off the year with a bold determination to get back into blogging...and then I let two months go without even trying to write a blog post. It makes me sad because I really do love this space and it's been hard to make it a priority for a long time now.

I wish I could say that this time, I've been away for a good reason - that I have so much to catch up on from all of the wonderful trips I've taken and fabulous things I've done over the last few months, but the truth is, I've been working a lot and I haven't really wanted to leave my house much because this winter has just been brutal.

But I'm exhausted. Until now, I hadn't taken a vacation in 5 months and this endless winter has just really worn me down. So a few weeks ago, I called up my good friend, Carolann, and asked her if I could come visit her in Hawaii, and I came as soon as I could.


Carolann asked me what I wanted to do when I got here and I told her, "absolutely nothing." We've done more than that but there has been a lot of down time and sitting on the beach, which is exactly what I needed. I feel immensely better. I was supposed to get home yesterday but one downside to the perk of being able to travel whenever and wherever is the risk of not getting a seat as a standby passenger. Getting out of Hawaii right now is proving a little bit difficult, so I'm working some immensely early mornings from here until I can get back home. 


Since it's been so long, let's catch up (over a steaming mug of Hawaiian blend with condensed milk, if you want to match my Aloha spirit!).

I turned 31 in February...and said good riddance to 30, the hardest and worst year of my life. The Pilot and I celebrated both of our birthdays, which are 1 week apart, with a road trip to Charlottesville, VA.


I haven't run a single mile in 2018... and its (mostly) been by choice, though the endless winter we're having hasn't made me miss running and I had a few doctors suggest that cutting back on running might be good for me. This isn't by any means a permanent thing and I think I'm going to start running again this month, easing back into it if (and only if) the weather cooperates. I'm over this 40-degree nonsense and I won't run in it in April.

I haven't been reading much lately... unless you count all of the reading I've been doing for work on education systems in West Africa and our current government's practical guarantee of another financial crisis. I haven't just skipped mine and Carolann's monthly link up because I haven't been blogging, I haven't been reading either. It took me almost the entire month to read the last book I read and I've been suffering through a horrendous nonfiction audiobook for 2 months that I can't seem to quit. I didn't even bring any books to Hawaii but luckily, Carolann has plenty for me to borrow! 

The Pilot and I are planning our next trip to Paris. We've gone to Paris every other year since 2012, merely by coincidence but on our third trip there in 2016, we decided to make it a routine. We want to add on to the trip either with some time om the south of France, or going back to Portugal, or seeing somewhere totally new. I have my heart set on Budapest but we'll see. 


I really miss living in DC. The Pilot and I both do. I fully expected this. Neither one of us ever really wanted to leave DC but the city's housing market is pretty inaccessible. I'm glad I still commute to the city a few days a week but I miss living there. I like Baltimore enough but DC is home. I have zero regrets about buying our home or moving to Baltimore and I hope I come to love Baltimore in its own way but I think I'll always miss DC. It's the first city I've lived in after London that I ever truly loved living in.

I wish I had more to say about what I've been up to these last few months but to be honest, I really don't. The Pilot has been flying a lot and I've been working a lot. I really hate cold weather so outside of going to work and walking Peyton, I've spent most of my time hibernating and getting settled into our house, but Hawaii has been so good for me and I'm excited to get home to (hopefully) warmer weather and head into spring with a new perspective!

What have I missed in the blog world lately?
Have you taken any vacations lately? Planning any exciting trips?
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