Due in March...

Still, but just barely.

UPDATE: Since the ultrasound our scheduled due date has been moved back twice. Originally it was March 15th 2009, then it was changed to March 24th and now it is March 27th. She's just a little younger then we previously thought. But don't you think it's kind of cool that all those dates are divisible by 3??? March is the 3rd month of the year, '09 is the triple of three, and 15, 24, and 27 are all multiples of 3!!! I will be seriously disappointed if she is born on the 16th or the 25th. Ok, enough of that...

Why is this photo on it's side? I don't know why and I can't figure out how to flip it, so we'll just have to tilt our heads to read it.

Most improved...

I wish I had a "before" picture so you could really tell how much better our new closet system is. I am so happy with our latest Container Store purchase!

So now that this closet exists we can start the really fun work: decorating the nursery! I'm so excited! In other baby news, I have an appointment with my midwife today (I work with two midwives actually, Jennifer and Amy, at A Woman's Place in Lincoln Square) and I am anxious to hear her little heart beat again. It's something I always look forward to, but it'll be especially reassuring this time, as I have been feeling paranoid lately that I might have squished her or something...Oh dear, I hope not! I don't know what I'm doing really with this big belly. It's weird. Anyway...Hopefully/most likely all is well. My mom is going with me today, to meet my midwife- I'm not sure who will see us today- and check out their office. I'm looking forward to having her with me today!

Tiny Sweater

My mom is a very talented knitter!

Accent Wall!!

I'm not sure if you can tell in these pics how freakishly awesome this asphalt gray is on our accent wall, but I'm standing here looking at it and I think it looks dope. Mark heartily agrees, and praise generally means more coming from him because I'm fairly easy to please. ;-) It even makes me feel okay with our super white cabinets!

Flint from Benjamin Moore, satin finish

Pig Face

Oops, we got stuck chatting in an unflattering light!

I realize that "pig face" is a really mean thing to say! I didn't mean to refer to her as pig face, but I just thought it was funny that she got stuck on the internet making a porcine expression! It also reminds me of this scary movie I watched when I was a child. In the movie two mean girls were making faces at another girl. They were aiming to taunt her but meanwhile they looked pretty ugly making those faces. Anyway someone walked up from behind them and smacked them on the back and lo and behold the ugly faces got stuck and they looked like little monsters for the rest of the movie and, I would assume, for the rest of their lives. Let that be a lesson to you! The old pat-on-the-back theory might scare some children out of making faces momentarily, that is until they realize it's ludicrous, but the possibility of an ill-timed computer freeze up is all too real.

My sister is gorgeous. She can really pull of this look!

Mom Cooking

Can you believe she actually makes dog food?

Shopping With Mom

We've been all over the city today looking at baby furniture and we even bought some really cute clothes!!!  Here's mom at DWR where we came to see my rocking chair (which I found to be very comfortable).

Bedding: Which is Cuter??

I just can't decide! I think our nursery is going to be lavender after all, if that influences things, and also I forgot to mention there is a big chocolate brown leather couch that is going to stay in the nursery. That needs to be factored in! That is the reason I decided we should go with lavender. It's a nice girly shade that hopefully will neutralize the masculinity of the couch. I will also have to get some throw pillows or something! It'll be fine.... Oh dear, I'm obsessing now. Help!

Coco Snoozes

click on coco to see more pics of coco!

Baby's First Pics!!!

I know you all have been excited to see the results of little Wilhelmina/Sloane/Abernathy's first photo shoot, but I haven't had a chance to scan them. Finally I just gave in today and took pictures of the pictures. They didn't turn out that great, but you can definitely tell it's a baby, which is about what the original photos convey. Without further ado here she is:


I have no idea how but from the picture above our doctor was able to almost positively ascertain (he said he was 95% sure) that our baby-to-be is a girl. I don't see it myself, but I have a soft spot in my heart for this picture because he wrote BABY GIRL on it and made my day!

Isn't she adorable????? swoon.

The Make Over Begins

Master BR:



Mark has been painting all day and our bedroom is a new color! Yay! I love it! Wanted to show you all! We have lots of painting going on right now. This blue-gray is Benjamin Moore Brewster Gray in an eggshell finish. As you can see we have the TV in the bedroom now, which is awesome.

Kitchen:

This is the color we chose for the kitchen yesterday. I think of it as a eucalyptus shade of green, but Benjamin Moore calls it Silver Pine in a Satin Finish. I think it is perfect and I love it madly! It is 100% better than the icky baby blue we had up there previously (you can still see it peeking out in the corner of the first pic). Next up: I'm going to start painting the accent wall in the dining room! I have enjoyed the AstroTurf Green it's been for the past 6 months or so (I believe the proper name according to Benjamin Moore was Peppermint Leaf, but trust me when I say it's true name is AstroTurf!) but it's time for a change, because it absolutely looks dreadful with the earthy eucalyptus we've got going on in the kitchen now. We're painting our accent deep, dark, asphalt gray. I'm going to get started on that right now!

Feeling Generous?

If you are interested in getting us a present, we are registered at MyRegistry.com! Please feel free to help furnish our modern nursery or fill our child's bookshelves with our favorite read aloud books. We are still working on our wish list, so please check in regularly...if you care.

To find our registry click on the link above and search my first name. I'm the only Mikhaila on the site, so it should give you only one option: ours. Click on the link "Go to Registry." On the next page you will need to enter a visitor's password. The password is "mikbaby." After you enter the password you should be able to view our registry. I like to change the Gifts Per Page setting in the top right corner to "All" so I don't have to go back and forth between pages, but can see everything on the same page.

I am concerned that packages shipped to our house might arrive when no one is home and be abandoned by the deliverer on the street outside our house. To avoid this situation, please ship all gifts to:
Mikhaila Woodall
1731 N. Marcey St., Suite 518
Chicago, IL 60614

Photo of Bugaboo Bee stroller from modernnursery.com

Oeuf Sparrow Line in Grey

We registered for this furniture. I love the grey color and the fact that it is an eco-friendly company that makes it, but I'm not sure how it will work in our lemongrass room. Nothing is finalized with our decor theme. I think the grey furniture might look cute in a lavender room?

photo from modernnursery.com

Lemongrass Nursery

This is my inspiration for our nursery decor. I love the paint color (benjamin moore, chameleon, eggshell, but I think of it as a sunny lemongrass). I like how the color itself isn't girly, but it works nicely with the hot pink accents. Our nursery doesn't get a lot of sunlight, so I wanted to choose a lively color to brighten up the space. I like the giant stuffed animals too. I have to admit I always wanted giant stuffed animals when I was little....I guess I still do.

Photo by Laura Resen
Domino Magazine February 2007 p103

What’s in a Name?

Now that we know it’s a girl (!!) we need to hunker down and settle on a name. We are indecisive about this. We have some unusual top picks. Comments? Criticisms (be nice)? Suggestions? We would love to hear what you think! But just to be clear the popular vote may not affect our decision in the end.

Abernathy
Inspired by Rosario Dawson’s character in Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof” (see above) and the right hand man of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Mr. Ralph Abernathy. While listening to NPR on MLK day I heard an archived interview with Mr. Abernathy which I found very moving. Throughout the interview I kept thinking to myself “why does Abernathy sound like a cute name for a girl to me?” but it wasn’t until later that I realized I was recognizing the name from “Death Proof.”

Wilhelmina
Inspired by Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.” I love the nicknames this name lends itself so easily to! I like Willa and Mina, and while Wilhelmina Woodall is a mouthful for a little kid, it rolls off the tongue with surprising grace.

Sloane
Inspired by Ferris Bueller’s girlfriend. I can’t tell if it’s cute for a baby/kid. I think it’s a great teenager/grownup name though. I am not sure how well it might inspire nicknames...Slo?

Mikhaila at Home

Hi there.

I am starting a blog today. But just for a little while. I actually have a very busy day ahead of me. I am planning to go to a yoga class this morning from 10-11:30am. Mark and I are also in the midst of completely making-over our house and our list of projects is never ending. Today we are painting. What we have left to paint: The master bedroom (including the inside of my closet, which is most assuredly NOT happening today), the nursery, the kitchen, the accent wall in the dining room, the rest of the house. Oh it’s exciting! We are actually starting to put a dent in it...I swear.

Our main project, however, is creating the nursery so that, when she’s born in March, our little girl will have someplace to stay with us. This is a very high priority! But it is not a simple task. Oh no! The room which shall eventually (hopefully sooner than later) become her room is currently our Media Room and Mark’s dressing room. That is, he uses the closet in that room so that the closet in our room is solely mine. Therefore, before we can move his things into our bedroom to make way for Baby’s things we need to make enough room for his things in a closet that can hardly contain my things! It is a thing overload we’ve got going on in our home. To further complicate the issue, Mark and I are equally sentimental and possessive of our items, so we have a hard time simply throwing out or giving away clothes that we no longer wear to make a little extra room. Yeah, I know, we’re just going to have to get over that. There has been a truckload of Ikea, a rearrangement of the layout of the master bedroom, and an installation of cable to aid us thus far and we are pleased with the progress we have made. But there is still much to do. I’ll spare you the details for now....