time flies when you're having fun

It's about time for another update!  This summer has been crazy busy with lots of fun things, leaving this mama crazy exhausted.  When Seth's naptime comes, I have every intention of doing something creative, clean something, blog, or respond to emails.  Most of the time I nap.  Finally, I'm getting to it. 

1) To start: I am almost 36 weeks pregnant with Baby O2.  She has been a lively one I tell you!  Everything is right on track in regards to measurements, heartbeat and all the weird pregnancy symptoms I'm having.  My body is just not holding up as nicely as the first time though, in my opinion. To my midwife, everything is still normal (she says that every subsequent pregnancy after the first is usually harder but delivery is easier ... typically).  We shall see!  My September 21 due date is almost exactly one month away.  So excited to meet our little girl!

2) We went on vacation with my parents and brother, Max, in July and had a blast!  We stayed at a condo in Angel's Camp (small mountain town in the Sierra's) for one entire week.  Jack couldn't join us until later in the week, exactly when my family had to leave to attend my uncle's memorial in Colorado, but it was nice for Seth and I to get out of the house for an entire week.  Seth is still talking about the "condo" and memories we had from our time there.  Pictures from our time:

Grandma and Papa bought Seth his first golf club set.  It was a hit.

We went hiking (twice) in Big Trees National Forest.  Seth LOVED it.

Seth fully enjoyed living at the condo for a week.  It is now his home-away-from-homes.  And yes, we had to bring his top 4 favorite stuffed animals with us.  

When Jack came, we went and took old time photos as a family in an old mining town called Columbia.  Seth had a blast!  He kept calling it "fun," hence why he got to do his own second photo shoot:

He was POOPED the whole week we were up there, taking great naps and sleeping full nights (I thought the excitement of being somewhere brand new might throw him off a bit, but not at all!).  It's always so precious to catch a glimpse of him sleeping!

He is a growing boy.  Grandma bought this swim floatie for him ... and it was definitely a little too small!  Every single day we were there we went swimming in the huge pool at the condo (it was mid-90's to low 100's the whole week).  This kid loves the water ... jumping in on his own into someone's arms, splashing, etc.  Such fun!

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Some updates on Seth and his interests include:

1) His constant chitter-chatter.  He can say any word you ask him to, and is putting 3 and 4 word sentences together on his own.  It's a lot of fun.

2) His new favorite thing to do is to sit on the couch and read books.  A few of his favorites are Click, Clack, Moo, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, Goodnight Moon, and Piggies.

3) Seth now prays before every meal.  If there's nothing that blesses a mama's heart more, I don't know what it is.

4) Other favorite activities include cooking, Hot Wheels cars, playing on his tool bench (and really playing with anything mechanical or a contraption of any sort), drawing, and doing crafts (this makes me happy!)

Thanks, Trader Joe's!

"Teacher" Seth

We recently got a new faucet in the kitchen.  Seth is obsessed with it.  The next day after it was installed, he asked me to open the cabinet so he could look at the pipes.  Then he decided it was a good time to play with the iPad too.

It's amazing to watch Seth grow and mature.  All of the things that he used to need help doing, he can do on his own.  So fun!

the nursery

Here it is ... the much awaited blog post of Baby O2's bedroom!  It's about 98% complete, but I just couldn't wait any longer to share it.  I had so much fun dreaming, scouring Pinterest for ideas, and finding deals.  I'm sure a lot of people think I either am way too excited to be having a girl or have too much time on my hands to have started so soon and (almost) finished her room two months before she comes, but great rooms take time ... trust me, I've changed my mind a million bajillion times on what and how I wanted to do things in here.  And they take money.  As impatient as I am to complete a project, I have learned it is so much better to do things a little at a time, doing a little more with each paycheck, instead of racking up any credit card debt.  With that being said, I'm really happy by all the deals I found and will share them with you too ... I'm no crazy coupon-er, but I don't know anyone who doesn't like a good deal.  

Her crib.  I'm in love.  I originally saw the idea to paint an old crib on Pinterest and LOVED  it, so Jack spray-painted my littlest brother's crib that my parents still had sitting in their garage. *Side note: This was our first ever stray-painting project and Jack has vowed never to do it again (even though I've since had him do one more project).  I hugely underestimated how many cans it would take ... I started with buying 2 and had to go back multiple times, finishing with 8.  Ugh.  Though it was still cheap to do so, it was more frustrating than anything.  Poor Jack was out there a few weekends in a row working on it. I thought spraying it would be better since it has so many spindles, but we should have primed it first (covering dark wood).   

Reusing old family crib: $0

Rustoleum spray paint: $4/can

It bothers me that the room looks so barren from the doorway, but that's where the extra 2% of unfinished room comes in.  I'm still looking around for a bookcase, and would like to leave space for the kids to just play. Eventually I imagine a little table and chairs going in there for tea time and possibly a play kitchen ... but that will be in a few years.  I did find a fabulous Victorian-esq frame at IKEA in their as-is section (it was missing the back of the frame), that will be hanging above the baby's crib.  It will have her name on it, and since we'd like to keep her name a surprise until she's born, the frame won't be hung until then either.  Her white curtains I love as well.  They're sheers, but have a tiny little pin-stripe in them with polka-dots every few inches.  Hard to tell from the photo, but they add a nice texture.  There was so much color going on between the wall color, the crib and the bedding that the room needed something soothing.  I wanted to add in gold/burnished brass as a metal in the room and did so through accessories and the curtain rods.  I don't know why, but I am in love with her curtain rods.  So silly.

Behr wall paint: $30/gallon (paint and primer in one ... a must)

IKEA frame for above crib (not pictured): $7

IKEA curtains: $15/2 panels

JoAnns curtain rods: $11 & $16 (sale plus coupons ... I saved 60% on these!)

Her bedding.  This is what inspired it all.  And this was the splurge.  I think it's okay to have one splurge per room, as long as it's a statement piece or jumping-off point.  I loved all the flowers and all of the colors.  It's feminine without being sickly girly.  I love rooms that are so monochromatic or have soft shades, but I am also drastically attracted to color (hence my first car being a lime green VW Beetle).  So when I saw this bedding ... dainty and lively at the same time ... I just had to get it.  It gave me the wall color and the crib color.  Love love love.

Land of Nod bedding: ~$200

Another look at the lovely curtains and a (dark) peek at the botanical prints I got from Etsy.  More to chat about below.

I was toying with the idea of buying an actual changing table, but decided to save some money and repurpose an old dresser that Jack has had for years.  After painting it white, I changed the knobs and it looks like a brand new piece of furniture.  I love mixing materials, so when I saw the hot pink lucite butterfly knobs, I knew I wanted to pair them with something more mature, hence the burnished brass pulls (I'm still needing to get a couple extra screws to install the missing pull).  I love the look together.  I'm debating on whether or not to purchase an additional changing table mattress, or just take Seth's out of his room.  Though he's showing signs of progress in his potty training, he's not there yet. Hmmm.  Regardless, the changing pad will go on top of the dresser.  I got a simple bookcase in the corner to store diapers, wipes and other diapering items since the table top is so small.  Love the pink baskets to bring not only practicality, but also the color pink to the other side of the room.  Also a laundry basket in a fun print.

Reusing old dresser as changing table: $0

Target butterfly knobs: $15/4 pack

Knobs.com burnished brass pulls: $3/each

Target pink storage baskets: $5 and $7 

Home Goods laundry basket: $14

One of my surprise favorites in the room has to be these prints.  I got the yellow botanical prints from Etsy, the polka dot "mat" (which is really scrapbook paper) from Michael's, and the frame from IKEA (which came with the white mat).  By buying a larger frame than needed for your artwork or photo, you can add in another layer with paper, acting as a mat, and make the whole piece bigger.  One things I hate to see is when wall art is too small for the wall it's hung on.  I don't know why, but it gets me to the core!  I'd rather see an empty wall than one with something too small for it.

Etsy botanical prints: $30/4 different images

IKEA frame: $10/each

This wall was one of my first creations for the room.  I got the idea from Pinterest and it's so simple!  Taking scrap fabric or quilting squares and put into embroidery hoops.  It's that easy!  And since it's so cheap, you can do lots of them of all different shapes and sizes.  I originally wanted these to be hanging above the baby's bed, but when I put the bedding on I realized it was WAY too much color, so I moved them over the a large blank wall to bring the color to the other side of the room.  Love it.

JoAnns fabric quilting fabric: $10

JoAnns embroidery hoops: ~$1/each

Some of the little touches that I love ... a simple golden box that my Grandma gave me the last time I went to visit her.  I absolutely love older pieces.  So much character, and something you could't find now if you wanted to.  I think I'll be putting the baby's hair bows in here.

Family heirloom box: $0

Fun accessories for the room.  No real purpose but cuteness.  (I was thinking of you, Abby!)

Home Goods pink owl: $8

The only think missing from the room is a floor lamp that we got off of Craigslist for $25.  It's a new lamp, but made to look old and a little Victorian.  It was a dark mocha color with a glass shade, but it's in the process of being spray-painted white and I'm looking for a regular shade for it (Where do I get one???  Anyone know?).  I haven't decided yet if I want to do something fun on the shade.  I probably will.  And there will be another post about that.


So now we wait for our bundle to come.  9 more weeks until my due date.  I cannot believe how fast it has gone. 

making room for baby

I'll eventually get to the title for this post, but first, a few of the latest happenings around the Osorno household:


1)  Seth has been developing so much over the past few weeks and months.  His language is growing by the day and his fine motor skills are great!  He loves putting his star, circle, square, triangle, hexagon and crescent-shaped blocks into their specifically-shaped holes (and can say each of their names), yelling out the color of almost anything, and can find matching items.  He has a memory like no other, too.  I'm amazed.


2)  Seth had his first running-through-the-sprinklers experience two days ago.  He was fascinated at the water shooting up through the ground and got soaking wet in the process of his investigation.

3)  Last week while Uncle Max was visiting us, we went to the San Jose Children's Museum.  It was the first time we had ever been and it was so much fun!  Seth loved the water area (designated for kids his age) and the art class.  He still is talking about "Water! Painting! Max!"

Every 10 seconds while painting, Seth would put down his paintbrush and go wash his hands.  Haha.

4)  Great Aunt Julie sent Seth a Strider bike!  It's a pedal-free bike that he can sit on and use his feet to scoot along.  He loved helping me put it together.  And it's his favorite color: greeeen!

5)  See that nasty old carpet in the picture above?  Well it's no more!  We finally got new carpeting put in our house.  It was quite the ordeal getting all the furniture out and having only 10 sq. ft. of living space for the day with a 20-month-old, but we are so happy at the end result.

Seth taking a nap on our bed while the carpeting was being replaced in his room.  Initially I was a little worried he wouldn't sleep there since he associates any bed but his bed with jumping and playing around, but he went right to sleep and I got to hear him snore for a few hours.  :)

New carpet in the baby's room!

6)  Speaking of the baby's room, as you can tell from the above picture, we have painted it!  We moved Seth into the front bedroom, and painted over the ugly green-yellow paint that was in there (I swear most of the time I'm much better at choosing paint colors, but that "green" turned out to be like a neon yellow in most lighting.  It had to go.)  We chose a light blue/periwinkle.  We love it.  Once the baby's room is all put together, trust me, I'll have an entire post about it!  All I'll say is I'm having so much fun putting it together!

So not only are we getting her room ready, but Seth has been showing some signs he's also getting ready for his baby sister.  While reassembling our house after the new carpet, I was bringing the bouncer to the baby's room when Seth saw it and was asking me about it.  I described to him how the baby sits inside.  Then he had me put it down, went and grabbed his stuffed animals and plopped them down one at a time inside and said they were going "nigh nigh".  Haha!  It was so cute!  He was really taking care of them!

Also see the new carpet.  Kind of boring, but clean and soft for a new baby!

 7) Speaking of our baby, I went in on Wednesday for a check-up and things are looking great!  I'm 25 weeks along ... 15 weeks and counting ... and feeling great for the most part.  I still have a bit of acid indigestion/heartburn, but otherwise am fine.  She is moving SO much.  Perhaps even more than Seth!  And boy oh boy is she strong!  Praise the Lord!  


Even though I don't think we're having a baby shower, I have had a few people ask me if we are registered anywhere.  I created a baby registry at Target (click here to view: Sylvia & Jack's Baby Registry), for those interested.  We mainly need clothing, diapers and breastfeeding supplies. 

Here's the ultrasound picture of her at 17 weeks.  She's much bigger than this now ... around 13 inches long and about 1 1/2 lbs!

i couldn't agree more

Women of God can never be like women of the world.
The world has enough women who are tough; we need women who are tender.
There are enough women who are coarse; we need women who are kind.
There are enough women who are rude; we need women who are refined.
We have enough women of fame and fortune; we need women of faith.
We have enough greed; we need more goodness.
We have enough vanity; we need more virtue.
We have enough popularity; we need more purity.
Margaret Dyreng Nadauld


Oh, Lord, I couldn't agree more.  Help me to be a woman of God.

the zoo + a myriad of other things

On Friday Seth experienced the zoo for the first time.  He loved it!  My friend, Lainie, and I took our boys to the San Francisco Zoo for the day.  He wanted so badly to just explore!  And honestly, he could have cared less about the animals like the giraffes, tigers and penguins.  He loved walking through the tunnels, climbing the bridges and walking along the curbs.  Haha!  BUT he did love the family farm/petting zoo section.  They had pigs, llamas, chickens and alpacas to look at and goats and ducks roaming around that you could pet (or in Seth's case: chase).

Seth and Jonas in their Jeep (which they ended up spending very little time in because they wanted to get out and explore on their own).  Oh and now every time I ask Seth to "Smile!", he squints his eyes, as seen above.  Haha!

At the family farm, "feeding" the ducks with the gravel he was picking up off the ground

Looking at the alpaca

Brushing the goat

Chasing the ducks

A rare moment: actually looking at the animals!  Prairie Dogs in this case.

The boys were pooped out after the zoo (and so were us Mommas!).  They fell fast asleep on the way home from the zoo.  It was a wonderful time and I'd love to go again with Jack too.

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In other news, I caught a rare glimpse of Seth sleeping this past week.  I normally never see Seth sleeping in his bed because he puts himself to sleep and I'd be crazy if I wanted to go in there to check on him.  But when he decided to take a three hour nap, I decided I should probably make sure he was still alive.  He was just totally conked out!  Look how big my baby is!

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Over the past year since Seth has been mobile, Jack and I have "lost" certain items.  Most of the time they usually turn up ... like my hairbrush in the kitchen cabinet, or Jack's USB device in the couch cushions ... but there were two items that we just could not find: one of my hand mixer wisks and the lid to our blender.  Yesterday while Jack was cleaning up a bit, he decided to take out the remaining few garbage bags we had out of their large box and guess what he found?

Yep.

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As the weather is heating up (yesterday was in the mid-80's!), we were trying to find something cool (literally) and fun for Seth to do.  This is what we came up with: plastic melamine bowls filled with water and colored ice cubes.  Seth loved it.  We spend the majority of the day out there, and of course it all ended with a huge water fight between the three of us. :)

seth's first easter egg hunt(s)

This past Easter was such a wonderful time with both families.  We spent Saturday with my family, where Seth had his first Easter egg hunt!, and Sunday with Jack's family, where Seth had yet another egg hunt.  Here are a few pictures from the hunt in my parent's backyard:

I'm so horrible about taking pictures when I want to.  I wish I had gotten pictures of our family on Easter.  I didn't even think about it.  I wish I had gotten pictures from the egg hunt with Seth and his cousins.  I didn't.  Ugh.  So these three are all I have, but as you can tell, Seth caught on to the idea very quickly.  In fact we had to empty out his basket because my brothers decided to hide 36 eggs.  After one egg popped open and he tasted the jelly beans inside it (he's never had candy up until this point), he started going to all the eggs and forgot about putting them in his basket and just opened them to get the candy inside!  Haha.  It was pretty funny.  

On Sunday we met up at Jack's brother's house where they had a bounce house inflated in the backyard for Seth and his cousins (he loved it!), and they had another egg hunt.  Seth remembered the candy from the day before, so after seeing the first egg, he just sat down, opened it up and started eating the sweets inside.  Hahaha ... it took a lot of coercion from Jack and I to get him up an collecting the eggs instead of eating them.  

By the time we left, he was pooped out from all the egg-citement (haha I'm a nerd, I know), but obviously had a blast!

uncle max came to visit

This week is spring break for my younger brother, Max, so he decided to come stay with us for a few days!  We had a great time together ... Monopoly (he got demolished by me), hiking, coloring with chalk in the backyard ... all those fun uncle things.  Here are a few photos from our hike:

We hiked about a mile and a half (Seth walked a huge amount of it!) to a little tiny farm with some animals.  On the way we came across a huge stump that we had been to before.  Seth just had to stop and investigate!  Then on the way back from the farm we decided to get back up into the stump and eat our packed lunch there!  It was a wonderful afternoon.

the pet store

Following the advice of a friend for rainy days, Seth and I visited the pet store today.

We saw fish (his favorite), lizards, chinchillas, guinea pigs, hampsters, birds, and dogs of all shapes and sizes.  It was a great idea.  Seth loved every second of it.

saved by the bell

99 episodes of Saved by the Bell have been added to Netflix!  

Just ask my mother how obsessed I used to be with this show.  Oh my gosh.  Every afternoon I knew the time and channel and I watched it religiously.  And the College Years.  And the Hawaiian movie they made.  And Zack and Kelly's wedding movie.  I'm betting there isn't a single episode I haven't seen.  When we got book orders in elementary school, I would always get the Saved by the Bell books ... and I was convinced that Zack Morris personally knew how much I loved him and his show because I always bought his books.  I was also convinced that he was going to show up at my school to meet me because I was his biggest fan (I was in the 4th grade ... don't judge).  


Needless to say, I'm excited to watch all 99 episodes again.

17-month seth and 13 weeks baby o2

I thought it would be fun to give another Seth update.  His fascinations are changing constantly!


1.  Seth loves ketchup.  He wants ketchup on everything.  Everything.  He is so much like his father!  Here he is hamming it up for the camera with his potatoes and eggs.

 2.  He also L-O-V-E-S cooking with me.  The second I even open the fridge or pull out food, he's running for a dining room table chair, pushing it up to the counter and asking for the pepper (I guess he thinks pepper goes on everything).  Here he is again with the ketchup too.  :)

3.  We were teased the past few weeks with gorgeous weather ... like 70s and above type weather ... so I got all excited and got Seth his first helmet so we could all go bike riding.  I'm pretty sure the day after I bought it, it started raining and hasn't really stopped.  But we're excited for the day when we can go!

4.  Seth has also decided he is a professional climber now.  We have found him climbing up onto almost everything.  This kid has learned from many falls that he still needs to be careful ... luckily for us he isn't a reckless climber.

5.  Other random Seth facts include: beginning to use the word "no" ... or more like how he actually says it, "no, no" with a head shake.

6.  He loves two books more than the rest right now: Piggies and Brown Bear, Brown Bear What Do You See?  We seriously read them over and over and over and over and over ... yes, that repetitive toddler "Again!" is in full swing.

7.  We were given a DVD of kids singing Sunday School songs (probably from the '90s) and Seth is seriously addicted to it!  Jack and I constantly have those songs stuck in our heads now.  Haha ... a good thing because they're great, simple, Godly songs ... but oh my gosh I can't even remember what it's like to not have the same song playing over and over again in my head!

8.  Seth has a fascination with poop.  While at the park one day, I told Seth to not touch some doggy poop he was so curious about.  I told him it was doggy poo-poo and now any tiny spot he sees on the ground, he's convinced is poop and will yell out, "Poo-Poo! Poo-Poo!" We've even semi-started potty training with him (he went pee twice and poop once in his own potty!), and we're constantly talking about poop with that.  Goodness!

9.  He also is obsessed with sweeping and mopping the floors.  I'm not going to complain!

10.  Any time he gets hurt, he feels the need to explain exactly what happened and how he got hurt.  Of course I can't understand any of it, but it's really cute to see him point and act out what happened.

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Now onto Baby O2!  

We went in yesterday for our 13-week appointment (officially in the second trimester!).  We were able to hear the baby's heart beat and find out everything is completely fine and healthy.  I've already gained 5 lbs ... a little ridiculous, but whatever.  We'll go in again in 4 weeks for the next check-up and for our anatomy ultrasound and gender reveal!  YES, we are going to find out the sex of the baby this time!

Our little person is now about 3 inches long and weighs almost an ounce.  S/he even has fingerprints!