Pregnancy Brain

Im 28 weeks pregnant and throughout this entire experience, I havent really felt the "brain fog" or "pregnancy brain" that most pregnant women talk about. Sure, Ive forgotten a few items at the grocery store or let a birthday slip my mind. Honestly though, those things happened before I got pregnant. I seriously have the worst memory. The worst, and it drives me crazy! I so wish I could be one of those people who remembers everything, but Im not, so out of necessity and, let's be honest, because I think it's fun, I am a list maker.

I have a grocery list, a daily to do list, a necessities list, a housework list, a reminder list and even a list for my lists. Sounds crazy, I know, but if I dont write things down, Im probably going to forget them. Of course I can remember the big stuff, the super important things all by myself, but for everything else, I need a list.

Since Im always forgetful, I thought I would breeze right through this pregnancy without suffering any effects from "pregnancy brain." That was until this week. It all started Sunday....

Pregnancy Brain Example #1:

We were playing Scattergories at my parents house. Has anyone played that? Super funny game. Anyway, the letter was "A" and the question was "Ways to get from here to there." I completely blanked out and could not think of a good answer. Finally, I came up with something just before the buzzer. When it was time to reveal the answers, my entire family had put "airplane." Unfortunately, that obvious answer never occurred to me and I put "animal". Seriously. Animal. I was thinking you could ride a horse, camel or even a freaking elephant to get from one place to another. Why had airplane never occurred to me?! What the heck did I fly over the Atlantic Ocean in? And for goodness sakes, my husband is a PILOT! Duh. Lot's of laughter and pink cheeks followed, but at least they let me count my answer.

Pregnancy Brain Example #2:

Again with the Scattergories. Maybe I shouldnt be playing this game while Im pregnant... Anyway, the letter was "T" and the question was "A crime or offense." I thought of burglary and stealing, but since those didnt start with "T", I went with this: "Taking something from someone else." When we revealed our answers my husband burst out laughing and said, "Do you mean theft?" Duh. Forehead slap. Of course I meant theft, though that word never came to my mind. Again, they let me count it. At this point, I think they all just felt sorry for me.

Pregnancy Brain Example #3:

J & I went shopping on Monday for some much needed clothes and shoes. My feet have grown just enough that I cant wear my tennis shoes anymore. As I was trying on various shoes, I would send J back for a different size/shoe. When I finally found the shoe that I loved, I had the right one on and went to put the left one on, but discovered that it wasnt in the box. I yelled to J that Id found the shoe I wanted, but was so disappointed to discover that it's mate wasnt in the box. He peeked around the aisle, laughing and said, "Honey, of course it's not in the box. You gave it to me to find a larger size before you even tried it on." He had the shoe's mate, the left one, in his hand. Oops. Id forgotten that. At least I found the shoes I wanted...

Pregnancy Brain Example #4:

This last one isnt about my silliness, but someone else's. I went to Hobby Lobby today to pick up a few things for Baby M's nursery. As I was checking out, the lady behind the counter asked how far along I was. I said, "28 weeks" and she said, "Oh, so four months then?" Holy crap lady. What kind of math did you learn? I corrected her and told her it was seven months. She then told me that she was three months pregnant. I understand that the weeks system of pregnancy can be confusing for non-pregnant people. Heck, it was confusing for me weeks after I found out I was pregnant. But for someone who is pregnant themselves, and twelve weeks at that, not know that 28 weeks is seven months pregnant, well... wow. That was a serious duh moment for that lady. It's good to know Im not the only one who has them.

Bernkastel-Kues

A couple of months ago, my family came to visit and we took a trip to 

a picturesque little village called Bernkastel-Kues. 

It's on the Mosel River and surrounded by 

vineyards. 

It's a beautiful part of Germany that we love visiting and it's only

about an hour from us. 

The castle ruins, high atop the village and the Mosel River

My mom and I at the castle

J & I

The Mosel River

It was sunny, but so cold!

The view from the castle tower. The inner courtyard is now a restaurant. 

Cinque Terre

On our babymoon, we took a day trip from Rapallo, Italy to Cinque Terre. 

Cinque Terre is a region in the Italian Riviera made up of five small towns. 

Several of our friends have been and raved about it. Before we went, it had been

built up by so many people. Even Rick Steves speaks highly of this region.

 This definitely raised our expectations.

In the end though, the region didnt live up to all the hype. 

Our first stop was Monterosso Al Mare, which is the first and largest of the five towns. 

It's supposed to the be most "touristy." It was our favorite of the two that we saw.

It is a small town with two pebble beaches, some restaurants and shops. 

Honestly, there wasnt much to it, but we loved it.

We rented a couple of beach chairs and hung out on the beach. 

This was exactly what we wanted to do. 

Relax.

Enjoy each other and the view.

I really wanted to go swimming, but the water was ice cold.

J braved it twice, but I dipped a toe in and deemed

it far too cold to enjoy.

We had a fantastic lunch and really enjoyed our time at the beach, but there 

wasnt anything super special about the town.

After lunch we hopped on the train to Vernazza, the next town in the region.

We were very impressed with the train system and how easy it was to navigate. 

Vernazza was beautiful, but very small. 

There were some shops, restaurants a small pebbly beach and some castle ruins. 

There wasnt much to see or do, but we had some great food and got some

fantastic souvenirs. Important souvenirs like wine, pesto and pasta. 

We would have stayed later, but the train workers were going on 

strike that night at 9pm, so we had to leave early. 

We had a great day and really liked the region, but it was definitely

not as fantastic as it was made out to be. We're so happy that 

we stayed in Rapallo and not Cinque Terre. 

It was a great experience, but now that's it's checked off our list, we'll 

probably not go back. 

Here are the photos from that day.

Enjoy! 

Our super cheep train tickets! 

Monterosso Al Mare

Love the beach!

We rented beach chairs and relaxed for a couple of hours.
It was Heaven! 

The water was beautiful, but freezing!

Enjoying lunch on the beach

Vernazza 

The rocky harbor 

Some crazy Aussies were cliff jumping

It's a really small town

Corniglia from afar

And the Winner is.........

So I've finally had a chance to sit down and randomly draw a winner for the Italian inspired giveaway! Ive been so busy since I arrived in the States last week that Ive hardly had a chance to read any blogs, much less comment or work on my won.

Thank you to everyone who entered!

We had 29 entries (not sure why it says max 100 when I put in 29) and the winner is.........

Number 27- Elizabeth from The Young Retiree!
She entered the most times so she had a great chance of winning.
Congrats Elizabeth!

Email me at kendra143j@yahoo.com with your mailing information.

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:27Powered by RANDOM.ORG

I Need Some Help....

This post is for all the mommies, mommies to be or anyone who has some first hand knowledge on this subject....

Cloth Diapering

Yep, Im considering it, but I havent a clue where to start. Ive looked online and the options are overwhelming. So any advice you can give related to this would be great! I dont usually ask for advice in a general setting because: a) people will give advice whether you want it or not, and b) while most people tend to offer advice to be helpful, some take the opportunity to get up on their high horse and look down on the rest of us. In this case, I know almost nothing about this subject, so the advice is welcome. =) 

My main questions right now are:

*How many do I need to get started?

*How much do they usually cost?

*What are the good brands/kinds?

*What does it take to clean them?

*Do I need diaper covers/what accessories to I need?

*Do they leak?

While these are the questions on my mind right now, any information that you can share will be helpful.

Also- if you've had a negative experience with cloth diapering, dont hesitate to share that either. I want to know both sides so I can get an accurate picture to make an informed decision. Right now Im thinking that we will try the cloth diapers while at home (if I can figure it out) and use disposables when we are traveling or outside of the house for long periods of time. That isnt set yet, since Im pretty clueless about cloth, but it sounds good right now. 

Thank you for your input! 

Rapallo & Portofino, Italy

After we left Lucerne, we headed down to the Italian Riviera. 

We stayed in Rapallo, which is the largest city in the Italian Riviera. 

We had originally wanted to go to and stay in Cinque Terre. 

We have heard so much about the region and everyone raves about it. 

Since we had to plan this trip literally at the last minute though, all of 

the hotels in all five of the towns in Cinque Terre were booked. So 

we used Google Maps and made our way up the coast until we found

a beach town with a vacancy. 

That turned out to be Rapallo and one of the best places we've stayed. 

Rapallo is a hidden, little known gem. We had never heard of it before

(and Im betting you havent either). 

It sits right on the Med, has a castle in the sea, a promenade, unique 

shopping and fantastic restaurants. The people were all very nice

and there is a sandy beach to lounge on. 

Another plus is that is was very affordable, especially compared to 

Switzerland.

We liked Rapallo so much that we will definitely go back one day

and we highly recommend it to anyone who is traveling in the region. 

Rapallo 

The harbor in Rapallo

The castle in the sea.
It was built in the 1500s to protect against
pirates!


We took a 30 minute boat ride from Rapallo to Portofino.
The boat stopped in Santa Margarita on the way. That town looked
gorgeous and we would definitely like to check it out one day.
The boat ride was fun, crowded and inexpensive.

On the boat, on our way to Portofino

Portofino is a very small coastal town in Italy.

It literally had one street and the promenade, a couple of churches, castle 

ruins and shops and restaurants. 

This was a very high class, almost snobbish town. The shops were all very 

high class and expensive. (Think Louis Vitton)

The restaurants were all expensive as well, but we did have the best lunch

here. They had the freshest, yummiest mussels that Ive ever eaten. 

We also had gelato here which was delicious of course.

When we got back to Switzerland the next day, we saw online that Leo 

Dicapprio and Blake Lively were in Portofino the same day we were! 

I so wish we would have seen them! 

We imagine that they were on one of the huge, expensive and gorgeous yachts

that were anchored there. 

Pulling into Portofino

The Portofino harbor

The water was a gorgeous color!

These are the crazy large and expensive yachts.
Hmm....which one was Leo on....
When we got back home, we googled the largest of these yachts to see
how much it would cost to rent one for a week.
Yes, we were dreaming.
Any guesses as to how much it cost?

250,000 EUROS/WEEK!!!!!
Seriously?
That's more than an entire house! 

We liked Portofino, but we probably wont ever go back. 

It was gorgeous, had great food and gelato, but then, so 

does most of Italy right?