[And I have a T-shirt that says so to prove it].

Yes. Like all pregnant women, I've also struck a recent passion for crafting. It's been in my blood since puberty, but now that I'm married and independent and growing a human being in my uterus, it's easier and much more convenient for me to finally start building my very own –wait for it– craft studio! I'm so excited! I designed the layout myself and my handy craftsman of a husband built the whole thing.

My preferences in the crafting area lean mainly towards the following: scrapbooking, journaling, painting, postcard/letter-writing, embroidery and, this just in: knitting. About a month ago, I finally got rid of my knitting phobia and asked my mom to teach me. I'm doing pretty good for my first project: baby's first hand-knitted blanket. It's actually quite relaxing, once you get the hang of it. Once I master this, I also intend to try real sewing, crocheting and the ever scary and beautiful art of quilting.

Baby's due around January 11th, so I'll be getting that long-desired maternity leave the first of december. Perfect season and weather for crafting, right? (Yes, we will bring in a couple of extra heaters this time so we don't freeze to death like last year). Besides, around that time, our house will be full of cute, adorable basset hound puppies! Janis [Joplin] is due by the end of november, so I'll be spending a lot of time at home, crafting, cooking, reading, drinking capuccinos, playing my beautiful instruments, hugging puppies and, of course, blogging all about it. Can't wait!

I could –and will– really use the time off to relax and do stuff for myself. Yes, a little selfish maybe, but hey, by next year I'll be using all my free time taking care of our adorable child, so no judging on how I use my time this last trimester.

It is true. I am no Martha Stewart (although I have a bunch of Martha Stewart crafting tools, books and her beautiful App on mi iPad). But, as well you know, I'm a kindergarten teacher after all. You can't do it for four years straight and not get super creative and crafty. You'd be amazed by what us teachers can do with so little recycled material at our disposal. We are educators as we are artists, 24/7.

Anyway, it's craft studio building day! It's actually almost done, few minor details to go. Promise to upload gloating picture of joy when it's finished.

P.S. Hubby just finished putting up lovely new white mailbox out front! Finally. Our postman will no longer throw my beautiful postcards, letters and bills through the gate for them to end up as dog chow or wander off on the street. Will obviously decorate it and write "La Casa de la Puerta Azul" on it. [Trans: The House with the Blue Door].

Oh, my God. I totally forgot I have a blog... again. (I always start my entries like this, don't I? Must stop doing it).

Sound of husband doing the dishes in the kitchen. The most adorable sound in the world. Also a background noise of little Janis howling in the backyard (my adorable 1-year old pregnant basset hound). Jimi (Hendrix), her own brother, knocked her up before puberty. Sheesh. The interesting part is that she's one-month pregnant and she's gonna be a mom before I am! I've been pregnant for six months! Gaaawd.

I'm kidding. It's been awf-- wonderful. Awfully wonderful. I haven't precisely enjoyed every second of it, no. I've had my bad days, my crankiness, scary hormones and mood swings, extreme fatigue, I've never hated house chores more than now and I really do not enjoy having to pee every 5 minutes. Still, it's the happiest time I've had in my entire life. Both baby and parents are as healthy as can be. We're at our 28th week and feeling those baby kicks every day now. Doesn't exactly help me sleep through the night, but still, adorable as hell. He even kicked Sergio on the face one time.

I've enjoyed sharing every part of it with Sergio. Every wonderful and scary thought, weird dream and funny idea I've had since I found out I was pregnant. I started writing a sort of pregnancy journal on a composition book. I wanted to buy one online and even looked for options at Barnes & Noble and I was close to buying The Belly Book, but I didn't want to fill out someone else's questions with my answers. I wanted a real journal about my first pregnancy experience. So I made one myself.

I'm filling it with all kinds of things: cravings, bodily functions, dreams, ultrasounds, pictures of my belly, vitamins I'm taking and how my husband and I have been living the experience of baby-proofing our lovely home.

Yup, still living at the same hobbit house with the blue door. I just love it here and I don't plan on moving anytime soon. Finally getting rid of all the boxes we stored in that extra room we had so we can get Behr's mint majesty and paint the baby room. Crib's already been delivered, baby blankets, car seat, stroller and many other baby stuff they make us buy. And there's much more of that still on the way. Promise to share baby room pic next time, when it's finished (if it ever is).

By the way, IT'S A BOY! Yes, I admit it, it's completely true: We both wanted our first-born to be a boy. Not because we don't want a girl, we want a princess just as much. We just wanted the first one to be our little hero who'll take care of his younger siblings, however many there may be in the future. We would love four kids. It's always been our number ever since we started dating. But, I guess we'll start off with the two and see where it goes from there.

Wow... It really amazes me how much this baby will be truly loved, spoiled, played with, adored. He's the first of a new generation, like I said, on both my parents' and in-laws' sides. He's still a-cookin' and already has got a lot of fans waiting to meet him, hungry uncles and aunts and starving grandparents. Needless to say, his parents are completely in love with every fiber of his being and his mom can't wait another minute to hold him.

Baby name can't be revealed just yet, but we've got some ideas... Since it's not yet carved on stone, please share possible awesome names for awesome baby boy below!

It seems to be that everytime I come back to write something on my blog, I'm either getting engaged, getting married or getting pregnant... Wait, what? Yes! I'm preggers! I have a bun in the oven! I'm expecting a baby! I'm gonna be a momma! Holy Christ almighty. Since I got that positive pee stick [insert goofy dance here], I've been happy as a hippo and scared shitless at the same time.

We actually said we were gonna wait a few years, but one night I woke my husband up and told him I didn't wanna wait anymore. He jumped on me and did his thang. We had so much fun in the whole baby-making process. Took us a few months to get it, which made it even more fun. Tried all kinds of different things, did a lot of excercise and healthy eating and even lost a few pounds. It was good for us!

Now, of course, I'm not excercising as much and I've been having all kinds of food cravings. But, hey, at least I'm not drinking anymore even though it seems that everytime I turn around everyone's cracking open a Bud Light behind my back. I don't even miss beer that much, I miss my wine. I miss my morning coffee. I know it's not really all that bad for you, but I'd rather not risk anything. I'm not even dying my hair, which means I'm something between a readhead and a brunette right now. I don't jog anymore. I'm not even enjoying my social ciggie I like to have once in a while. Completely altered lifestyle.

I've been reading What To Expect When You're Expecting, as all first-time mothers should. I'm only starting off my second trimester and already have had almost every symptom in the book. The most common one is neverending peeing and fatigue. Gawd. I can't even get myself outta bed to pee sometimes. Thank my lucky stars that teachers get a lot of vacation time. I'm sleeping and resting and napping like there is no tomorrow. Even in the toilet, I find myself snoozing.

Thankfully, I married my husband, the sweetest, most patient man you could ever meet. My baby hormones get crazy around him when I see him doing the dishes. My knight in shining armor! I totally, utterly and completely hate doing the dishes. I HATE IT. And he does that and many other things around the house without any complaint. He's been my angel these first three months and I love him for it. Let's just hope he doesn't crack one of these days with my mood swings.

Maybe we'll find out if it's a boy or a girl this week! We're already looking into baby names, ordering all kinds of baby stuff and cute useless crap on Amazon to spoil our little brat, painting the baby room, brainstorming on ideas for the play room... We are incredibly excited about this! As are our parents, for it's both my parents' and in-laws' first grandchild. He/she shall be spoiled indeed.

Of course we have absolutely no idea what to expect. And, no disrespect for this book, but nobody can really know what to expect until you're there, in the delivery room, holding your gushy purple baby in your hands for the first time. And even then, I fear both of us will be scared to do anything around him/her. Will we drop him on his head? Will we feed him too much that he'll explode? Will he/she stop crying when we try to soothe him? Infinite questions with inifinite possible answers, and I guess we just have to pick it up along the way and hope for the best.

One thing I'm sure of is that we're definetely gonna be an awesome family. 'Cause me and my hubby are an awesome team and our genetics are so awesome that I know we'll have an awesome baby to go along with all our awesomeness.

More on scary hormones later.

Honeymoons are but just once in our lives and everyone picks to go somewhere different, according to their personalities, the weather or their budget. Some pick an exotic beach, some go to theme parks, others would like to visit old villages, while the rest of them prefer golden cities like Prague.

Well, we kind of went with all of it in a single country: La France. I would travel across this beautiful country for 23 glorious days with my drop-dead gorgeous husband. Oh, yeah.

But before we got there, we started out a two-day journey through London, before we headed on to Paris. Naturally, we only did two things there: Wicked and Les Misérables. Both made me cry of sadness and full content. Now, I can officially say I've seen six musicals in my life. (And by six, I mean I only count them if they're either Broadway or West End).

Oh! Quite magically as well, apart from going to the London Eye, Big Ben and an aquarium (all this underneath the cruel, cold London rain), we found ourselves walking unintentionally in front of a Jamie Olliver's Diner! Had to stop everything and have the loveliest english meal there. (Note: After buying Jamie's entire encyclopedia, I actually cooked back home the same meatball pasta I had in London. It was superb!). And yes, the rest of the food we ate there was pure crap. Also, London hotels have shitty two-inch showers. Hated that.


Then, off to Paris! Got upgraded to a deluxe bedroom with a view of the Eiffel Tower (or at least the tip of it), because they got our reservation wrong. (Must remember to go back to Hotel Gavarni and stupid concierge with the amazing upgrades). We covered the entire area, not in a touristy way, but in a let's-find-the-métro-and-see-where-it-takes-us kind of way.

Ate at all kinds of french food at all kinds of cafés, visited museums we didn't even know existed, had a soireé in Dans Le Noir (pitch black restaurant with surprise menu and blind waiters), visited the Opera House, rented bikes and wheeled around the Champs Elysées, had picnics, went to Shakespeare & Co. Bookstore and bought a whole lot of pretty books to take home, went to Notre Dame Cathedral about a thousand times, went to the Louvre and had crêpes everywhere! (the best ones are from Café Orsay, behind the museum with the same name).

I even fulfilled my self-promise to get a Parisian haircut everytime I visit the city. Yay!

We also set out to find and actually found the cute little cafe Les Deux Moulins from one of my favorite films (Amélie) and had huge hearty breakfast there. I obviously took a photo with my Frida Canon (that's what I call my camera), of every meal we had in the entire trip. We basically ate the entire city and we're proud of it.


After that, it gets even better. We rented a pétit Hot Wheels car and drove all the way to La Dordogne, which if anyone knows anything about it, Périgord Noir is the way to go. We lived and died there. We stayed at this beautiful little village called St. Cyprien, surrounded by more beautiful villages, countrysides, castles, rivers, wine-tasting vineyards and sunflower fields.

We even canoed our way through a beautiful french river! Well, he rowed his ass off and I... documented and smiled.

Fell in love with a little restaurant/wine shop called "La Pétite Tonelle", where we had the best foie gras, fish soup, duck confit and goose salad any mexican could ever imagine. Also, wine tasting around a village made us find, taste and take back home a bottle of the best, local, sweet, white wine we ever had: Monbazillac. We were quite tempted on buying a million-euro hobbit house in a hilltop, but bought a few art posters instead.

Honeymoon does not end here. Took our crappy car all the way south and got to Marseille after a 6-hour drive. This is a city full of a young, sleepless vibe and people partying all night long. Obviously had gorgeous seafood and walked around and put our feet in the coldest Mediterranean beach water while drinking tasty mango frappés. We brought our swimsuits all the way to France for that. We also took a ride on a ferris wheel overlooking the sea and I confess we ate at McDonald's there. I know, the shame!


Took a train back to Paris and then a bus to Mont St. Michel for the day. Of course, bought a ton of cookbooks written in french to test myself in the kitchen and visited the old monastery/castle/museum at the top of the hill. I actually took a nap there. Ate famous omelette and hated it, but loved the pasta. Such incredible history and amazing views of the sea. I couldn't stop imagining I was walking through a French version of Minas Tirith the whole time. (Geek!).


Back in Paris, we had to go to Disneyland of course, mostly because weird husband had never gone before, not even in the U.S. It was piled up with people from all over the world (mainly japanese), and the weather couldn't be more perfect. Got on every ride we could and visited both parks. We had fish and chips and watched the firework show proyected on La Belle au Bois Dormant's castle and felt enchanted by it. We took home our only souvenir from there: Sheriff Woody, who now protects our home and our two adorable puppy basset hounds.


We finished off with a gorgeous dinner at the Eiffel Tower Restaurant with a view to the Trocadéro. I even packed a special polka-dot dress, high-heeled shoes and the pearls my hubby gave me the day before our wedding... just for this occasion. (I actually broke my heels running our asses there for being so late for our dinner reservation, as we were late for all flights, train stations, bus tours, car rentals, musical shows, canoe rides and taxi drives in the entire trip).

It was the best dinner I've had in my entire life. I'll never forget a single taste of that five-course, exquisite meal. I fell in love with my Sergio all over again during that dinner. We left our table and stayed on Eiffel's second floor for a few minutes wating for those sparkling lights at 10:55 pm (while illegally hiding and drinking a bottle of white wine).


Just before it was time to take the train back to the airport and back to reality, we spent an hour lying on the grass, wondering at the Eiffel Tower and saying farewell to our golden city and flying back to Mexico... first-class, of course.

À bientôt, everyone!