And A Baby Makes Three!!

That's right, we're expecting!! Baby Barry is due at the end of February! We are so freaking excited, I've been dying to share the news with all of you!!

Could you tell? I feel like I can always guess when other bloggers are pregnant. I've been trying to throw you off the scent since we found out in June by posting pictures of me with Jeff's drinks, but I'm juuuuuuust starting to show so I can't really keep it a secret any more ;)

To answer some of your questions...

- The baby's due date is February 23rd, which yes, is two days before my birthday! Based on my interneting I think my due date is a little early though, so I'm guessing this baby won't show up until March. That makes me currently 16 weeks along!

- We don't know yet if we're having a girl or a boy, but we plan to find out at the 20 week ultrasound. It's coming up fast! We're thinking we'll ask the technician to write it down for us so that we can find out later together.

- I felt fine for most of the first trimester with the exception of getting tired really early, but started dealing with a lot of nausea and food aversions around week 11. I actually completely stopped eating meat for a few weeks there, I couldn't even look at it! But I'm mostly back to normal now and feeling good with the exception of motion sickness, which has gotten amazingly bad both in cars and on public transit. I've consequently been spending a lot of time in our neighborhood lately ;)

- I actually haven't gained any weight yet, but I was up a few pounds from all of our trips at the beginning of the summer so I'm attributing the lack of weight gain to that. My belly has definitely started to get bigger over the last week or two though - the bump is real!

- I haven't really had cravings, but I have been eating a lot more carbs - partially due to the nausea and couple weeks of vegetarian life!

- I was suspicious that I might be pregnant during one of my trips to San Francisco, and ended up making Jeff stop to buy a test on our drive into Napa on our anniversary trip. So all of those pictures of wine were Jeff's glasses!

After I stopped crying haha - do we look excited or what??

Like half an hour after we found out - cheers-ing Jeff with a big old glass of Sprite! 

Anyway, like I said we are so freaking excited!! For now I'm thinking this little space on the internets will stay the same (although probably with less frequent posts) but I'll probably start introducing some maternity / baby content in as we go along. Let me know what kinds of stuff you want to see!

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I See Your Fall Colors

Dress (super similar here) - Gap / Jacket - J.Crew Factory / Sandals (similar here - these are the comfiest sandals I own and have lasted for years!!) - Michael Kors / Bag (similar) - Coach Factory / Necklace (similar here and here) - Madewell 

It's happening. 

I've decided. It's fall. 

Now I know the calendar doesn't quite agree yet, but with temps dipping into the low 60s in Chicago over the weekend, I'm calling it. Put away your summer colors and bring on the earth tones and plaids! 

Of course, I paired my favorite comfy earth tone dress with a pink purse, which might contradict what I said above, but you know, I'm going with it. 

In case you're wondering how to dress for fall when it doesn't quite feel like fall, just pick a fall color or pattern in a nice light fabric. This dress is easy breezy and light enough for the warmest fall day, but still fits into that fall feeling. Win win win.

So tell me, are you on the fall train yet, or are you holding off a few more weeks? 

Dress (super similar here) - Gap / Jacket - J.Crew Factory / Sandals (similar here - these are the comfiest sandals I own and have lasted for years!!) - Michael Kors / Bag (similar) - Coach Factory / Necklace (similar here and here) - Madewell 

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This Weekend...

This weekend I...

...had ZERO plans on Friday morning - isn't that the best kind? After lazing around a little on Friday after work, Jeff and I decided to wander over to Caro Mio for a little pasta! We hadn't been since we had my big 30th birthday party there and I had almost forgotten just how good their agnolotti is. Almost.
...finally went for a pedicure to get some fall color on my toes - you know, something that would look better with my favorite fall sandals ;) I was going to hold off on fall a little longer, but then Chicago decided to bring on temperatures in the 60s so I thought I'd go for it. Bye sundresses!
...Convinced Jeff to dress up a little with me for a dinner date on Saturday night (well, after asking me repeatedly what that meant he ended up wearing a button down and jeans, so basically his "regular clothes" haha). We went to Pasteur for a little Vietnamese (we can't get enough since our trip to Asia!) and while the service was incredibly slow the food was amazing - loved the bo luc lac! I wished we had been there on a night with better weather because their patio space out back looked so cute too.
...Met up with my friend Chris who was in town for breakfast at Summer House - if you haven't been it's the cutest place! Chris and I go way back, we actually sat at the same table in kindergarten!! Breakfast was delish, and we capped it off buy buying too many cookies on our way out. I spent the rest of Sunday basically in a sugar coma haha.

You also might have seen on Instagram stories, but I got a new niece this weekend!! My brother Pat and his wife Claire who live in South Korea welcomed their little girl Penelope June early on Friday morning! I've obviously only seen her on my phone so far but she's just darling. It's kind of weird having a new baby so far away that I won't get to meet for a long time - hey Pat and Claire, move back to the states already!

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Friday Finds

one / two / three / four / five

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Recent Reads

I keep going through phases where I'm reading a ton of new and then I go a few weeks where I have no new library books and work my way through a Harry Potter or The Devil Wears Prada for the eight hundredth time. And yes, those are really my two repeat reads as I only have a couple books on my Kindle I've actually purchased haha ;) This summer I managed to get a ton of new books in, here are a few of my favorites:

Love and Other Words
This could be considered more of an easy beach read - it jumps between the story of childhood best friends who fall in love in high school, and the present day when they meet again as adults. While it has all the hallmarks of a fun, easy summer read, the emotions and the characters definitely go deeper than that. It had me completely sobbing at one point, but was a beautiful story that I couldn't put down.

The Female Persuasion 
I've loved Meg Wolitzer's other novels, and this one was no different. It follows Greer as she goes off to college and make sense of her life, and ends up meeting her feminist idol who gives Greer her first big break. She slowly grows and finds her ambition and true calling in the world, while dealing with her long term boyfriend whose life is falling apart. It's a fun fluffy novel that also deals with real social issues - definitely a must read!

Educated
This and The Female Persuasion have been the most talked about books I've seen this year, and really it did not disappoint. This is a memoir following a girl as she grows up in an extremely sheltered fundamentalist Mormon household. As she grows from a kid idolizing her family and barely receiving a homeschool education to a young woman striving to go to college, it's incredibly interesting to see her world view change. The story includes a lot of violence, partially through neglect and partially through abuse, and honestly had me incredibly nervous for the majority of the story. It's a glimpse into another world that exists in modern day America and was completely fascinating, it was by no means an easy read but I flew through the book.

The Zookeeper's Wife
I was interested in reading this after seeing the preview for the movie, and I have to tell you, I did not realize the book was non-fiction. Like through a good chunk of the book I thought it was fiction, and I was totally floored to find out the characters and the things they did were real. This follows the story of the family that took care of the Warsaw zoo and continued to live there through the Nazi occupation. The zoo ended up functioning as a hiding place for hundreds of people hiding from the Nazis, with a few incredible stories of saving individuals and close calls. Since this is non-fiction there are some history lessons sprinkled throughout that you might find dry but I found them fascinating, especially the parts about Nazi zookeepers breeding animals during the war to try to recreate extinct species and basically succeeding. If you're into history and love World War II stories, then this is the book for you.

Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
Much like Educated, I found this book completely fascinating as a look into another culture. The book is non-fiction and was written based on interviews with six North Korean defectors, including those who planned for years to try to escape, people who left out of necessity, and even one mother who was a true believer in the doctrine of North Korea but was tricked into leaving. It was truly heartbreaking, especially during the famine years, but such an interesting look into a culture that's so isolated and controlled.

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Thermal + Shorts

Tee - Socialite / Shorts - J.Crew Factory / Flats (similar here) - BP / Bag - Sole Society / Watch - Wristology / Necklace - Stella & Dot

This short sleeved thermal top is one of those things I saw on Instagram a few times and had to have - I love the buttons and the little tie front, plus it's so fun that it's a thermal but short sleeved, so I can wear it now and feel ready for fall even when it's still 80 degrees outside. Wearing this top with white shorts and pink accessories definitely isn't the most "fall" way to do it, but it looks equally as cute with jeans and booties. We're working our way into this fall thing haha. On September 1st I actually tried to wear a blanket scarf for a hot second before deciding it's still too soon. Maybe in another week or two I'll be ready!

Just a note on this shirt, I am wearing the large which is the biggest size available. I wish it were a little more oversized like I've seen on other people, but I decided it's cute at this size too. But, amazingly, the buttons are functional and they don't gape at all on me, which is basically a miracle. I don't know what kind of witchcraft is at play here, but I'm willing to go with it. If you're looking to snag it, move fast. The only color left is yellow, and when I bought it two weeks ago there were a bunch of other colors available. Here's hoping they do a restock!

I wore this over the weekend, and I swear when I got dressed it was sunny out with just a small chance of rain. Yeah, we walked out of the house half an hour later, and between leaving the building and walking to our car a block away it downpoured. Like the kind of rain where having an umbrella doesn't help. Probably would have picked different shoes if I knew I was going to get soaked!! We were driving down to the Gold Coast to visit Jeff's new baby sister Isabella again and I had grand plans of getting pictures on the cute streets down there, but the rain had other plans. Instead, we literally almost got stuck on Lake Shore Drive because all of the underpasses had flooded, and found that a couple of windows had leaked when we managed to get home. Yay. So, instead of cute pictures on well manicured, beautiful streets, we ducked out onto the balcony during the twenty minutes between storms and quickly snapped these. Jeff was shirtless and shoeless if that helps with your mental image.

Tee - Socialite / Shorts - J.Crew Factory / Flats (similar here) - BP / Bag - Sole Society / Watch - Wristology / Necklace - Stella & Dot

Linking up with Style Me Wednesday.

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This Weekend...

This weekend I...

...Went out on a little dinner date with Jeff to Octavio, a new to us spot for Mexican. Jeff got the fajitas and they were incredible. I usually find restaurant fajitas just okay, but these were freaking amazing - definitely going back just for those!! Plus the space was fun and had a giant skylight - perfect for when you want to pretend you're outside but don't actually want to sit in the 90% humidity!
...Did a little bit of holiday weekend shopping, I'm most excited about getting this jacket at 40% off, but I also did end up snagging this pullover that I definitely do not need and this dress to layer with cardigans and scarves when the weather cools down. I think mauve is my current favorite color, it's so pretty for fall! Oh and I also ordered this tortoiseshell phone case (so freaking adorable!!) but it definitely was not on sale haha ;)
...Drove up to my parents' for a big family barbecue. The weather wasn't quite cooperating so we stayed inside (a theme for the weekend) but it was fun to see both of my grandmas and hold my baby nephew Clark (who, by the way, is gigantic! Jeff was joking that he'll be going out for linebacker next week.)
...Had our fantasy football party and draft for the couple's league Jeff and I are in. We always have the winner of the league pick an activity to do (the most amusing year was when Jeff won and selected a group outing to Medieval Times hahaha - the girl selling wine was baffled by how many bottles we bought ;). This year the guys won so we ended up at Topgolf. I was kind of down on the activity (I literally hadn't been to a driving range since 2009!) but it ended up being a lot of fun, and then very amusing to draft in the Topgolf conference room afterwards hahaha.
...Went to see Jeff's baby sister Isabella again, she's such a little sweetheart!!

Here's hoping you had a good one!

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