Family Baby Shower May 15th

Here are pics from the "family shower" that my mother-in-law threw for me. Dan's aunt Maureen hosted it at her house. It was so much fun spending a morning with the women from Dan's family and mine! We are so grateful for the gifts we received {baby's are quite pricey}. The grandma's-to-be had a great time. My mom gave me the diaper bag I had been pining-after. Gretchen designed some fabric years ago that I fell in love with and her gift to me is to make cushions for my glider chair from that fabric. I also received an incredible gift of Dan's baby-blanket that Grandma Lynch hand-sewed for Dan before he was born. Here are some pics...

Getting Caught-up Again... But With Good Excuses

Here we are at 35 weeks along! I can't believe how quickly time is flying by! I am finishing up my year of teaching art at an elementary school. Tomorrow is my last day on campus. Today was my last day teaching and prepping the multi-use room for the art show {in conjunction with Open-House}. It was exhausting, but completely worth it {it looks great}. I started to tear-up today as I helped the kindergarten classes paint murals for their year-end performance of "The Three Piggy Opera" and realized I wouldn't be there next year to see all of the students meet a new year in a new grade. My heart hurt to think about the fourth graders excitement over projects they heard about doing with me when they reached fifth grade {maybe the new art teacher will implement some of my lessons}. I want to see all of the students next year after a summer of fun and new ideas. I know I won't miss them as much when our baby girl arrives and I have a learning curve to tackle and little fingers and toes to tickle! The pics that follow are more comparable-sized objects to our baby in weight or size for weeks 30-35... {according to internet sources, that is}.

Speed Bumps Come in All Shapes and Sizes

Many of you have been asking me to post pics of my baby-bump. I do have to say that I like my pictures more now that I'm looking back on a smaller me than I did at the time they were taken. One of my roommates from college inspired me to take care of this so here goes...
The first pic is from last week April 2010... start of month 7 {taking the pic in the mirror for my sister}
The second pic is from February 2010... end of month 5 {Dan took the pic with his phone}
The third pic is from January 2010 when I first started showing...start of month 4 {yes, that is Dan behind me taking the pic in the mirror}
Enjoy!

Speaking of Squashed... I Can't Fit As Much Food In My Stomach As I Used To

She is getting bigger and pushing my stomach smaller and smaller. Pregnancy doesn't always make sense= the bigger the baby grows, the more you feel like eating
{generally} and the less you can fit in your stomach!
Babygirl Lynch has been paddling all over with her hands and feet. I hope my daily swim is rubbing off on her {not that it has anything to do with her future love of swimming but I'd like to hope that it might}. When my mom was pregnant with me, she dreamed that when I was born I was a dolphin {and I loved the water and swimming from the start}.
In other news...
A QUICK WARNING ABOUT CHI FLAT IRONS!
Make sure when you purchase a Chi flat iron that it is NOT made in China. I purchased a Chi {yes, for a deal online} last August... it just fried a section of my hair yesterday when the ceramic panels came off! Without my knowledge, I ran it through a section of my hair that still feels fuzzy today. Dan did some investigative research online, that informs to not purchase any Chi that is made in China due to quality issues {the company has since moved their production elsewhere}.
Luckily I can send my Chi back to the company I purchased it from, along with $10 and get a replacement.

Playing "Ketchup" With Veggies That Aren't Tomatoes

So, I have been a bit lazy/busy/experiencing pregnancy brain-loss... whatever you want to call the reason I haven't been blogging regularly with my comparable object-to-baby pics. So, I'm catching-up by posting all of the pics that I should have posted all on this post.
As far as updates go...baby girl Lynch is moving and moving and moving. She seems to like tickling my ribs with her feet or hands... obviously not sure which appendages of choice she decides on.
I have been swimming laps every weekday for the past month and I feel wonderful. I am definitely one of those {possibly annoying to some} women who absolutely loves pregnancy {granted, the first trimester is out-of-site out-of-mind, which helps}. Dan received a promotion at work and now commutes down to San Jose and Carmel every day until we can find an apartment for me to manage {because I won't have my job anymore when we move}, that is in his new territory {he deserves an A+++}.
We are finally narrowing down some name ideas for the baby girl Lynch. I suppose it is fast approaching considering we have 10 wks left starting tomorrow {I'll be a full 29 wks}.
Now for the pics...

Lend Me Your Ear

I am late in posting from last Sunday when our baby was the size of an 8.5" ear of corn at 23 weeks... but I posted today, now that life is calming down.
I survived the art lessons this week. I began with a scoop of teaching first graders how to work with clay {the kind you fire in a kiln}. We made heart-shaped pockets for Mother's Day. Lessons like these, I want to record and replay for students when they act as though they can't follow one direction to save their lives, let alone the gazillion I gave them on clay day {that they were able to execute flawlessly... might I add}.
Follow that up with a scoop of one complete day filled with fifth graders working with firing clay to create mosaic pieces for the 5th grade mural {you would think they'd be competent... oh well}.
Top it all off with a splash of the boxes of clay state that pregnant women should not touch the clay directly with their bare skin due to chemicals and minerals in them that are known to cause birth defects {yet one more thing I didn't know before getting pregnant and am happy that I read the side of the boxes of clay as I was unloading them from the trunk of my car onto my art cart} welcome two full days of working with clay, hands adorned with vinyl gloves from the nurses room in the office and I'm glad that I get a one week break before I have to do it all again with more first graders and the fourth grade clay project. I also seem to have caught some kind of terrible deep-lunged cough from one of the many hacking kids swarming the school each day {especially those kindergarteners still learning to wash their hands and cover their mouths...UGH!}

"Sugar, Sugar..."

At 22 weeks along, we continue our "prenatal photos" of our baby who is about the weight of a 1-lb box of sugar and about the length of it too {8"}. She {and I} had a growth spurt last week. My belly has really filled-out {if you are wishing you could be an astronaut to see the curvature of the earth for yourself... just give me a call and I'll be right over with my baby-bump for you to gaze at}. Aside from that, Dan and I started our birthing class this past week and we adore our instructor. She is positive, super friendly, and makes the best popcorn EVER! I have also been attending prenatal yoga classes that I am addicted to. I am a believer. I've never been able to relax as much as I do during yoga and I crave the next class the whole week in-between. In other news, our little box of sugar has been quite the mover and shaker too {especially on Sunday during church... Dan says it's because she knows where she is}. Tune-in next Sunday for the next comparison-object of our baby.