Fabricio Nunez, PhD

I don't have any pictures, but Fabricio officially defended his dissertation yesterday, and submitted all his documentation (including his 220+ page dissertation) today! Of course, it wouldn't have been a complete journey without yet another snafu requiring him to make an unexpected trip to the U of M this morning (as if he didn't need to go to work....) but everything is fixed and his degree will be conferred in October. Yeah for him! It's been a long, often tiring road, but we're both really happy it's done. Maybe now he can sleep in - getting up at 4am for the past few years has worn him out!

Catching up on pictures

OK, so my excuse for not posting much is that we've been really busy with the new house - fixing things (AC, water softener, doors) painting (Camila's room is now a light pink, the baby's room is next) and misc housework/yardwork. Oh, I think I can also use the excuse that our internet is much slower here, so it takes FOREVER to upload just one picture. So this time I'm trying smaller pictures in the hope that it takes less time!

Camila LOVES chocolate -- although it usually ends up all over her face and hands as she tries to lick every last piece she can. Here she is after a special breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes.

Our little girl is quite the "helper". Her favorite phrase is probably "I do it". Here she is after insisting she help Fabricio put back a switch cover. Cute, but not exactly helpful.... :)

Now this could be helpful one day! ;) Here she is, thinking she's mopping the floor. She does love to clean, but we're not sure where she gets that from. She loves to go around with a washcloth or paper towel and any bottle (or her sippy cup with water) making spraying sounds, pretending she's cleaning the table, floor, chairs, etc.

Here's me at 26 weeks And another at 27 weeks. Notice the hair. Not as fun and curly as it was when I was pregnant with Camila. My standard hair "style"? Pulled back with a clip for work, ponytail on the weekend.

More fun with water, and 22 weeks

One of the things we needed with the new house is a water sprinkler for the back yard. Fabricio figured he could kill two birds with one stone on this one. A sprinkler + water toy for Camila. She loved this thing! It gives off a fine mist of water, and is just tall enough for her to be able to run underneath it. The neighbors might think it looks funny, but Camila had a blast. And better yet, it does a good job of watering the lawn! ;)

Camila also discovered where I'm putting my baking pans. In the townhouse they were much harder for her to get to. Here you can see the drawer and the mess we get to clean up each day. I'm hard pressed to tell her "no" on this game since I'm just glad she has more space to play in our new house!

And finally, a picture of me at 22 weeks (I'm now 24 weeks.) We've been so busy these past few months that we've been bad about taking pictures and such! Although you can't tell since I don't have any earlier pictures, but I basically popped around 20 weeks. Up until then people at work were still giving me "the look", but weren't brave enough to say anything. There's no hiding it now! ;)

New House - The Joys and Frustrations

So we've been completely out of commission this past month, but some of you might not know the reason why is because we moved into a new house. When we found out we were pregnant with Baby Girl #2 (yes, we just found out we're having another girl!) we really wanted to look into moving into a bigger house. So, after lots of looking, we bought a rambler in Maple Grove and just moved in at the end of June. It's a 4 bedroom/3ba, with 3 bedrooms on one level (my main concern.) It has more space than we need for now, but we'll hopefully be able to grow into it as the kids get older.

We weren't sure up until June 13 if we were going to close on the new house, as we decided to rent our townhouse rather than sell it in this housing market, and we didn't have renters until June 13. As you can imagine, it was pretty stressful. So, after we had a signed lease, we had just under 2 weeks to pack everything up to prep for our move. Below are some pictures of Camila enjoying herself in the new place.

Camila has been having a lot of fun running around the new house. Since it's a rambler (and more sq ft than our townhouse) she can run and run to her heart's content. Here she is playing with the railing that separates the kitchen from the tv room.

Just a misc picture of her playing on the couch. One of the reasons we wanted to move is to have a yard for Camila (and the new baby) to play in. Camila had a blast playing with the garden hose. As you can see, she is soaking wet. She couldn't get enough of it!

We've had quite a few unexpected, unpleasant surprises after we moved into the new house. First, the garage door broke after just 1 1/2 weeks. Then this weekend Fabricio and my dad got up on the roof to clean the gutters, and noticed that they are about to fall off. The gutters are attached with insufficiently sized screws, and only at random spacing (some are 6 feet apart!) It seems that the previous owner wasn't good about doing things completely. Most things in this house seem to be "half done" or "just good enough". Also, we're dealing with a very strong musty smell in the basement, so we bought a humidifier to tackle that. We're actually considering buying another one, since it's still pretty musty downstairs (and parts of upstairs too.) In addition to that, we have to get the fireplace cleaned and will have the ducts cleaned as well, as the previous owners smoked and we want to make sure that there is no leftover smell. Fortunately Fabricio got a teaching position at Mpls Tech College for 2 nights a week, so the extra income will help cover these unexpected home repair/maintenance costs!

I've been remiss...

In posting our news. So I'll let Camila share with everyone.

We're due with Baby Nunez #2 on Nov 14. I'm currently 17 1/2 weeks! All appts have checked out great, and we've gotten a few sneak peeks at the baby. :)

I just have to say that this pregnancy has been completely different than it was with Camila. I had horrible nausea - all day sickness until about 14 weeks (I never threw up with Camila.) Now it's severe heartburn, so bad I've thrown up a few times. Yuck. My OB recommended I start taking Zantac, so hopefully that helps. Sometimes it feels like I have a beach ball stuck in my throat. It's given me a new appreciation for what Camila went through as a baby -- heartburn sucks, I can't imagine what acid reflux feels like!