Geek in Heels - Page 67

Nov 8, 2011 • In Aerin, Baby, Claire, Motherhood, Personal

Life with Aerin: One Week In

Things have certainly gotten a bit easier on the homefront since my last update. Aerin has finally started to sleep in 2-hour stretches and my sore nipples are starting to toughen up some. Our new life — whilst typically difficult of ones with new babies — is admittedly easier than we had expected, so J has decided to go back to work a full 2 weeks early so that he could save up vacation days for the holidays and possible emergencies.

We took Aerin in for her first pediatrician’s appointment yesterday, and the doctor declared her as healthy as can be. The only possible note of concern is that Aerin has a very slight tongue tie. But the doctor told us that just as long as she is breastfeeding without any problems, we do not need to be worried about it at the moment. He warned us that she may run into some speech problems later in life, but that we can deal with it then rather than perform the minor yet unnecessary surgery on a newborn.

She had lost some weight when we were discharged from the hospital — down to 6.6 lbs from her birth weight of 6.11 lbs — but had gained more than a full pound in just 4 days! We can only credit this to her voracious appetite. I had no idea just exactly how much she was eating until a couple of days ago, when we began to feed her some pumped breastmilk — she can down more than 3 oz in one sitting!

I think our biggest struggle at the moment is her day-night reversal, which we had experienced with Claire as well. We’re trying our best to keep daytime bright and noisy and interactive, and nighttime dark and quiet with minimal interaction, but I think that only time will help at the end.

But because she is still only sleeping 1-2 hours at a time, and craves more interaction in the middle of the night, I still remain utterly exhausted and am eternally grateful that J’s parents arrive every morning to help with both babies. Luckily, I am pumping enough breastmilk for them to feed Aerin throughout the day, and so far there seems to be no sign of nipple confusion.

I still remain a bit envious of mothers whose newborns are mellow little things who want to sleep all the time…because neither of our children have fit this mold. (Aerin already has quite a pair of lungs on her — you won’t believe the amount of noise that such a tiny baby can make!) But for now, I am thankful for their health and well-being…and hey, Aerin’s only been with us for a week so things can certainly change, right? 😉

Claire seems to be handling the adjustment pretty well. For the first few days, we had to avoid letting her see me hold Aerin, because she would get overly upset and jealous, but she is getting better now. She’s even tried sharing her toys with Aerin, and imitating her when she cries.

But the cutest yet has to be when we’re burping Aerin, because Claire will grab her giraffe and try to “burp” the giraffe too!

Guest Post: New vs. Newer

The following post comes from Karen of Modern Organic Living. Karen and her husband are currently expecting their first child, and I must say that she is sporting one of the cutest belly bumps I’ve seen in quite some time!

Here, she ponders a dilemma that plagues geeks and gadget-lovers on a constant basis: what if something better comes out soon? Take a look at her camera choices below, feel free to give your input, and be sure to check out her blog for some major eye candy!

Hi Lovelies, I am so excited to be guest blogging today for Geek in Heels. I’ve been following Jenny since her days on Weddingbee, and now I find myself following in her foot steps — I am expecting my first little girl in December!!

Babies need a lot of stuff — but we all kinda know that. What I didn’t expect is that my Husband — the self proclaimed Major-Geek in our family — would be so freakin excited about all the baby gadgets. He’s been researching baby gear since day one- which from my prospective, as a Minor-Geek, is pretty awesome that he’s dived right into the baby gear realm.

Yet so far — we haven’t even bought any of the ‘super cool baby geek gear.’ Why?

In case something better comes along.

As a minor-geek, this mantra has me a bit frazzled. For instance, we’ve decided to upgrade our point and shot camera and enter the High Tech Camera World!! Whoooo. Scary.

Not a surprise, my Husband has been researching cameras to death. Originally, I wanted a Nikon dSLR (because that’s what my mom has).

But major-geek Husband has persuaded me that a Micro 4/3s camera would actually be best for me/us- aka it is easier to use and smaller.

Yet, each time I ask him which camera — he changes his mind. Until last week, he was kinda sort of set on the either the Olympus PEN E-PL2 or E-P2 or 3:

Or the Panasonic Lumix DMC-G3:

Yet, recently he read that Nikon would be releasing a similar camera, the J1 on October 22nd:

I understand that this is a major purchase and something we will have for years. But at some point, this Baby Girl is going to come into this world, and I’d love to take her picture.

So here’s my question to you — do you wait until the next new thing is released before you make your purchases?

Or do you go with the highly reviewed items that have been out for a few months?

This is a HUGE debate in our house.

About the Author:

I am a faux designer and diy-er Living in the City by the Bay with my husband, our two animals — Huck and Ferris — and a baby on the way. I am addicted to all things design, reading, sugar and spice. You might have seen me on Weddingbee as Mrs. Peep Toe. Now I just blog for kicks and giggles over at Modern Organic Living.

Guest Post: Parenthood Got You Down? Maybe It’s Time to be More Positive.

Our next post comes courtesy of Sara of Stinkerpants Designs. Sara’s daughter Charlie is just a couple of months older than Claire, so we’ve been through many milestones and first-time-mother experiences together. And although Sara and I don’t always see eye-to-eye on parenting issues, her personal blog is one of my favorite mommy blogs to read, because she never writes in a condescending, “my way is better than yours” way and really helps me open my eyes to alternative methods. I hope you enjoy this post — I sure did!

I recently caught an article about parenthood on NPR that confused me. A lot of people have been talking about it, so if this is old news to you I apologize in advance.

The article talks about parenthood, and about how no one ever tells you how hard it is.

Um…what?

Maybe I’m living in some sort of weird alternate universe where everyone is really negative, but I feel like the ONLY thing parents ever talk about is how hard it is. Complaints about lack of sleep, no freedom and public tantrums very nearly scared me out of having kids. Parents seem to have funtalking about the bad stuff, and tend to leave out the good almost entirely. When I think about the other mothers I know, the LAST thing I think is, “I wish you were a little more honest about how hard it is.” I am lucky — most of my girlfriends strike a wonderful balance between talking about the challenges and the positives. But they definitely don’t pretend like their lives are easy. Who exactly is NPR talking to?

I personally think they’re talking about a different generation — my mother’s generation. From what my mom tells me, her generation never admitted that it was hard. They never talked about post-partum depression, about the days when you want to stab yourself in the eyeball with a plastic spoon just to avoid pureeing more carrots, or how your kid hasn’t eaten a well-balanced diet in ages because s/he throws all vegetables on the floor. Instead, they focused on the positives, sometimes exaggerating their child’s intelligence in a non-stop competition for the best and brightest baby. As if it matters AT ALL whether your kid rolled over two weeks before your friend’s.

Our generation, by contrast, is brutally honest — sometimes bordering on dramatic — about how hard parenthood is. Yes, it’s hard, but it’s not so hideously awful that we need to whine about it all the time. Before I got pregnant, I thought parenthood might be horrible. Like, ALL THE TIME, 24/7, relentless horrors. I’m not going to lie – sometimes, when C is needy & won’t let me put her down, or I have to take her to the doctor, it is ABSOLUTELY a house of horrors carnival ride that feels like it will never end. But not all the time. For the most part, it’s absolutely wonderful. Like, rainbows shooting out of my rear end kind of wonderful. And I KNOW that I’m not the only mother who is this happy. And Y is just as happy as I am. So why is everyone talking about the bad stuff?

Honestly, I’m getting a little sick of hearing about how horribly hard it is for everyone. We all have bad days, bad weeks, bad months. We all need to vent — it’s healthy, and it’s necessary. But at what point does it cross the line between venting and nonstop bitching? If you’re finding yourself “down” on parenthood (or life in general) for an extended period of time, maybe the problem isn’t parenthood, it’s a negative outlook on life. There has to be some happy medium between pretending to be perfect and complaining all the time.

I may be alone here, but I find that I have to work hard to meet positive, happy people — parents or not. I try hard to surround myself with people who have a glass half full outlook on life. I mean, really — does anyone need more negativity? On a daily basis, I feel like I encounter more unhappy people than happy people. From the road raging a-holes who don’t want to let you change lanes to the downright MEAN woman who lives down the hall, I definitely don’t feel like people are hiding their misery. Maybe it’s a sign of the times — economic unrest, high jobless rate, etc…but either way, there’s just too much negativity to deal with as it is.

But back to honesty about the trials of parenthood — I’d love to hear your thoughts about the NPR article. My opinion? Either our generation is honest to a fault, or we’re just big fat babies who don’t know how to put our noses to the grindstone and WORK. Are we spoiled into thinking everything should be easy, and cry the second it gets hard? Tell me what you think. Maybe my neighborhood is an anomaly. 😉

About the Author:

Hi all! My name is Sara, and I’m a first time mama with a just-a-teeny-bit-over-one-year-old. I spend my time taking care of my kiddo, running an illustration business called Stinkerpants, and writing about my life on my personal blog. This post might be a little controversial (I know Jenny and I have differing opinions on the subject!), but I love to hear other people’s perspectives, so if you’ve got something to say, say it! 🙂

Guest Post: When the One You Love Loves Legos

The following guest post comes from Amy of Parker Haus Roles, who has compiled a fantastic Lego Gift Guide (!!!), complete with pictures and links.

J and I can’t WAIT until our kids are old enough to start enjoying Legos. We’ve been eyeing the gargantuan Star Wars sets for quite some time now, waiting for an “excuse” to get them (and you know we’ll be using the girls as excuses once they start appreciating Lego!).

Be sure to check out Amy’s blog, because her adorable family of four (her, her husband, and their two cats) is constantly redefining the term “young, urban, and hip!”

I am married to a Lego Lover*. Where I have blogs and knitting he has Legos. I didn’t understand it at first. Growing up the only Legos I played with were the basic red, blue, yellow, and green bricks. Until we started dating I was completely unaware at the vast array of Lego sets. Imagine my delight when he showed me the Star Wars sets. I “might” even have a Princess Leia minifig on my keychain.

* A Lego Lover denotes a much more casual Lego hobbyist than the Adult Fans Of Lego (AFOL).

Living with a Lego Lover has been interesting:

The dining room table sometimes gets hijacked as a Lego assembly area
I frequently get dragged down the toy aisle to see if there are any new Lego Star Wars sets
We each have separate hobby bank accounts in which we set aside money monthly. His is titled “Legos” and mine “Yarn” — it keeps us from casting a judgmental eye on each other’s hobby spending.
At any time we might have a couple assembled sets around the house. Thankfully I’ve been able to work some of the pieces into our décor before they get disassembled and packed up.

The space shuttle was assembled this July in commemoration of the last shuttle launch. *sniff* The Space
Needle is a permanent décor item in our house. It was displayed on the cake table at our wedding.

I’m not alone; my friend’s husband also appreciates a good Lego set. He assisted my husband in building the space shuttle pictured above. It was a man-date if you will — a Lego man-date. Come to find out, our husbands aren’t alone. According to CBS, the Lego group estimates adult Lego fans to be about 40,000 strong.

As the wife of a Lego Lover, I keep my eyes peeled for unique and special gifts. My Pinterest LEGO board is full of ideas; it’s a Lego Lover gift-guide of sorts. I know that Jenny has a soft spot in her heart for Legos and wanted to share a sampling of these gift ideas with her readers.

Parker Haus’s Lego Gift Guide

1. Lego Architecture Series: Robie House $199.99 Lego.com
2. Lego Bento Box $34.50 Jbox
3. Lego Volkswagen T1 Camper Van $119.99 Lego.com in a word: AMAZING!
4. Brick Calendar $14.99 Lego.com
5. Lego Architecture Series: Space Needle $19.99 Lego.com
6. 8GB Stormtrooper Minifig USB 2.0 Drive $79.95 123smile when you plug him in he glows!
7. Lego Start Wars Series: Millennium Falcon with Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Obi-Wan, and Vader minifigs $139.99 Lego.com or if you really love your Lego Lover splurge on the Limited Edition Ultimate Collectors edition for $1899.99
8. 3 Piece Toy Organizer Cubes $13.81 Amazon.com perfect for when a set is in work and you need to dining room table for dinner

People are so creative in what they can make out of a Lego brick. Etsy has a trove of Lego lovin’ goodness, especially accessories.

9. 1 x 2 Interlocking Silver Lego rings $110.00 rubygirl these take “wonder twin power activate” to a whole new level.
10. Lego Belt Buckle $25.00 BuckleUp
11. Punk Rock Minifig cufflinks $18.00 DaRosa
12. Lego stud earrings $5.95 bitsandbadges
13. Silver pendant made from Lego casting $85.00 DesignedbyKristen
14. 2X2 Brick Money Clip $62.00 rubygirl
15. C3-PO and R2-D2 mini-fig cufflinks $21.95 bitsandbadges
16. 2×2 brick cufflinks $5.95 bitsandbadges My husband and our groomsmen rocked these at our wedding.

Legos are working their way into the holiday itself in our house.

17. Build your own Lego Heart Book for Valentine’s Day, complete with a spot for a wallet-sized photo $9.52 Amazon.com
18. I want to meet the chicken that lays the Lego eggs for this Easter basket $14.97 Amazon.com
19. At Halloween we set our 3-D Jack-o-Lanterns via Gizmodo
20. I’m thinking of inviting this Turkey to Thanksgiving dinner $9.93 Amazon.com
21. Last year I made my husband’s Christmas by pulling together all the pieces to make the Lego Death Star Ornament designed by Chris McVeigh

While my husband hasn’t lit the fire of Lego building in me yet, I do have a lot of fun feeding his Lego love brick by brick.

About the Author:

Amy is also known as Mrs. Pretzel on Weddingbee. She’s currently navigating newlywed life at Parker Haus Roles where she blogs a mash-up of home renovation, cooking, knitting, and life in the Seattle ‘burbs. She is a self-proclaimed beer geek, Zelda addict, and Star Wars purest. When nobody is looking she talks like a Muppet and dances like a maniac- much to her husband’s delight.

Life with Aerin: Day Four

As a testament to how uncomfortable I was in the weeks leading up to the birth of my second child, I felt as light as a feather and wanted to do cartwheels down the maternity ward just hours after delivery.

Even day two, when I felt my worst, was far better than my last month of pregnancy.

This is not to say that I’m feeling wonderful at the moment. I am still bleeding profusely, I have Shrek feet, and it hurts to get up and down and walk around. But this recovery seems to be a lot easier than the one I experienced with Claire.

Aerin, on the other hand…

Now, don’t get me wrong. She is perfectly healthy and we can’t help but be amazed whenever we stare at her little face and body. But if these first few days are any indication of things to come, we are in for one hell of a ride.

After my breastfeeding experience with Claire, I had been hoping and praying that Aerin would be a good nurser. Well, I should have been careful what I wished for, because not only is Aerin an excellent nurser (she latched on right away and has a very strong suck…I can’t remember Claire ever sucking this hard), she wants to nurse ALL THE TIME.

Like, every hour since she was born.

It’s not that I’m not producing enough breastmilk either — my milk came in on day 3 from our marathon nursing sessions.

Aerin is just a very hungry baby. Even the night nurse at our hospital got annoyed, because I overheard her telling another nurse as they switched shifts, “And this baby literally wants to eat every hour on the hour!”

I know that breastfeeding is not supposed to hurt if done correctly. But having a baby suck on your nipples for up to 45 minutes at a time, only to start again after a short 15 minute break, is leaving my nipples raw and sore, and this mommy simply worn out…I am patiently waiting for the day when my body will get adjusted to this new regimen.

Aerin also seems to be a poor sleeper. From the moment of birth, the longest stretch of sleep she has gotten is 30 minutes. And she will not sleep by herself either — she has to be held in order to sleep.

Additionally, my little girl is still at the point where she is most comforted by the smell and sounds of her mother. As such, no one else can calm her down — only I can.

Needless to say, I am exhausted. 🙁 I can only pray that things will get better soon.

I hope this post doesn’t come off as whiny; it is intended to give you an update on our new life. And an explanation as to why I may be MIA for the next days/weeks/months.

Guest Post: I’m a Mac. No, a P.C. Neither? Both?

The following post comes from Nodakademic, a blogger-wife-student-professional (yeah, I don’t know how she does it all either) who resides in the chilly state of North Dakota. I really enjoy her blog and I think that we can be friends in real life if we didn’t live so far apart. Isn’t it funny how blogging can help form relationships with people you would otherwise have no clue of their existence?

In this guest post, Nodakademic writes about the great geek debate: P.C. or Mac?

I, personally, am a Mac girl but I agree with her that the quality of Apple has gone downhill in the past few years. (And I probably would have switched to P.C. or Linux if I don’t have all this expensive Mac software!) Another interesting fact: the picture of her from the launch of Mac OS X Panther? The launch of Panther was the first geek-related launch party I attended, and the first tech product I ever stood in line for!

I hope you enjoy this post, because I know I did! And I hope that you’ll leave a comment below weighing in on the Mac vs. P.C. debate!

I was a techie kid in the sense that only mid-90s kids can be techie. Armed with my Angelfire and Geocities homepages and my ICQ account, I was pretty sure I knew everything there was to know about computers. I got in to the field a wee bit too late to make millions in the boom (and then lose those millions in the crash), but I was a teenager at probably the only time when teens really did know much more about computers than anyone else.

When I turned 15 I got a job at a repair desk working on IBM and Dell laptops for a local college. I replaced screens, hard drives, motherboards. I saw the aftermath when someone’s toddler jammed half a sack of skittles in to their floppy disk drive (sticky), when someone spilled coke and tried to dry their keyboard with a hairdryer (sticky, melty), and when someone ran over their laptop with their car (sticky, shardy). And OF COURSE I knew that Windows ruled. Macs were just those dumb computers I had to use in my junior high keyboarding class.

When I went to college I got a Gateway laptop. It was problematic and glitchy, but that was clearly Gateway’s fault, not Windows 2000’s! I majored in computer science. I failed at it because apparently, I do *not* actually know everything there is to know about computers. Apparently people who want to know that stuff actually listen in class. And let’s face it: most of them didn’t grow up in rural northern Minnesota surrounded by sugar beet fields, as long as we’re talking odds. (I did finally graduate by the way, with a minor in computer & information tech and a major in *groan* political science.)

At the end of my sophomore year, while flopping around trying to decide on a major, I applied for and got a job at the campus bookstore. I was stationed in the electronics store (any UO folks out there ever shopped at the Digital Duck?) and I was hired because I knew about Windows computers. They needed someone who could enthusiastically sell one, because apparently most of the other employees there were Apple fan-boys. (Literally ‘boys.’ I was the only girl there for a while.)

Me in 2003; I believe this was the night OS 10.3: Panther was released.

Long story short, it turns out Apple computers had changed a little since the grey-screened little candy-colored monsters my high school kept locked in the smelly lab. They were… nice. Sleek. Sharp. Quick. They had software, and that software worked well. They worked with printers and mice and keyboards and drawing tablets (but I had heard Macs don’t work with ‘anything’?!).

And the iPod. Oh, the iPod. How freaking cool was THAT? I was working for the store at the very time that iPods caught steam. Those iPods were over an inch thick, weighed half a pound and could hold 5 GB of music, but that was so small and that was so much space.

I guess having a Windows person on staff didn’t work out for the store: I was a convert. Within 6 months I owned a Powerbook and an iPod. Windows sucked. Windows was slow and sluggish and just generally shitty. Windows was dead to me. I became pretty addicted to having the latest-and-greatest products, which means I also became quite good at eBay.

I have lost track of how many Apple computers and iPods I owned in the 7 years since I bought my first, but it’s over a dozen laptops, 2 desktops, and probably more than 20 iPods. I kept and used each item for 4-6 months before selling it online and buying a new one in the store. I rarely lost more than $50 on an upgrade, though we did not receive an employee discount. (Told you: I was good at eBay.)

For about 5 years now — since I finished my master’s degree and started a real job — I’ve been using a PC at work. It was fine, but I still had my precious Mac at home. With no time to be constantly buying and selling, and without the tax-free benefit of living in Oregon, I settled in to a nice, loaded MacBook Pro. Then my workplace offered to get me a laptop to use for work, and said I could choose Mac or Windows — score! I chose a Macbook, but whomever ordered it misunderstood my request and ordered a loaded MacBook Pro. Uh, I’ll take it! After a few months of having *two* Macbook Pros in my home (wow) and mainly using the work-owned one (since it was a few years newer than mine), it occurred to me I ought to sell my old one and use the money for something useful. So I did.

And for nearly 2 years, this techie, gadget-loving Mac fan-girl did not personally own a computer. At work, I used my desktop PC. At home, I used my work-owned Macbook Pro. Finally though, it started to weigh on me that I was using work property for personal use. It’s not like I was using it to make money or anything, but it still didn’t seem totally kosher to me. Time to get my own computer again. The problem, though, is that I lost my faith in Apple along the way. I still love my iPod, but I barely use it since my commute is about 5 minutes and I no longer go to a gym. I don’t have an iPhone — iPhones were not available in my region of the country until a few months ago (no AT&T coverage) and they’re still only 3G-capable (Verizon). I don’t have an iPad either because I’ve yet to find a reason.

And honestly, the last few Mac laptops I’ve dealt with have been disappointing. My work-owned Macbook Pro is pretty good, but my parents have owned 2 Intel-based Macbooks and they were both crap. And the service sucked too — when these machines broke down under warranty, my parents were told to bring it to their closest ‘Genius Bar,’ which for them was over 4 hours from their home. My dad bought a Sony Vaio instead. Hah. (My own closest ‘Genius Bar’ location is 300 miles from my home, by the way.) What ever happened to that great mail-in service Apple used to provide?

Again, to make a long story a little shorter, Apple has disappointed me as of late. Additionally, my husband is a very techie guy and isn’t tied to Mac or Windows or Linux or any OS in particular. He’s tied to whatever is efficient and works best for the tasks, and at the best price. I can’t even list all the types of operating systems running now in our home. (Oh, and it also is worth noting that my Mac software products were pretty out of date, so I was not tied to a particular type of computer due to owning a lot of expensive software.)

With that in mind, when I had all but decided on a 27″ iMac, he found me the Lenovo IdeaCentre B520 All-In-One. (That means it’s like the iMac — all of the ‘guts’ are built in to the screen.)

I call it ‘Lenny.’ Here’s how the comparison (versus the iMac I liked) broke down:

Lenovo is a 23″ monitor; iMac is either 21.5″ or 27″
Lenovo comes with Intel i7 3.4 GHz cpu; iMac 27″ has the same i7 3.4 GHz cpu
Lenovo: Windows 7; iMac: OS X
Either are (or can be selected) to 8 GB of memory
Either come (or can be selected) with 2TB hard drives
Either come with wireless keyboard/mouse, built-in speakers, and built-in webcams
Lenovo is a touch screen.

Prices:

Lenovo: ~$1,300 (sale from 1800, plus Mr. N found an additional 10% off coupon on top of the sale)
iMac 27″: ~$2,600 (but with larger screen/resolution)

Hell yes. Powerful, loaded, relatively inexpensive. I knew from experiences at work that I did like the Windows 7 interface, and Lenovo is my favorite Windows-computer brand too. Sold!

It’s been about 2 months, and I love Lenny. It can do anything. It’s fast and awesome. That 27″ monitor might have been nice, but honestly, 23″ is huge! Especially if you’ve been staring at a 15.4″ laptop screen for years and years. I might get an iPad in the future for portability, but I haven’t decided yet. Right now, I just love having Lenny set up in my office. It is perfect for my dissertation writing, photo editing, and pretty much everything else.

So now I’m a P.C. But I could still be a Mac. I guess I’m O-S-bidextrous. Which way do you swing?

About the Author:

Hi! I’m Nodakademic. (That isn’t my real name though; that’d be a way weird name.) I’m a late-20s academic nut from the always-windy and often-cold state of North Dakota. I blog about my life at Nodakademic.com. I’m also Mrs. Mary Jane on Weddingbee; that’s how I came to know Jenny, though I actually read her blog long before I even knew what Weddingbee was.

Guest Post: Guilty Pleasures

Amanda hails from one of my favorite home decor & renovation blogs, Love & Renovations. (I swear they’re going to be the next Young House Love!) I was extremely excited when she agreed to write a guest post…and was very pleasantly surprised to discover that she is a closet video game geek!

Here, she writes about three of her favorite video games, the last of which I have never heard of and am quite tempted to play myself after reading her glowing review! Enjoy!

When Jenny first said she was looking for guest bloggers while she was out having her baby (!!), I immediately jumped at the chance. I’m completely addicted to Geek in Heels and love reading, so I was honored to have the chance to write a post for her blog.

Of course, once I got over the excitement, I quickly realized that I write a blog about home decor and renovations — not exactly Geek in Heels material! I spent some time looking through some of Jenny’s past posts and while I was noticing all of her references to old-school video games, inspiration struck.

You see, I’m a total geek when it comes to video games. It’s not something many people know about me, as I don’t play them often. But, when I am hit with the mood to play, it hits me hard. I have some serious love for some seriously geeky games, and I never really get a chance to parade my geek love around on my own blog. However, my video game love is a pretty big part of me, so I’m excited to get to share it — and hopefully find some people who share the same video game addictions that I do!

All three of these game addictions started when I was in elementary school, and they never quite went away. First up? My absolute favorite game ever created:

(source)

Oh, Link. Didn’t every little girl grow up with a major crush on him? Just me?

I love this game more than I can say, and I’ve honestly lost count of how many times I have played it. Ocarina of Time is one of those games that just never gets old, and is completely addicting no matter how much you grow up. My favorite part is still the moment when you steal Epona from Lon Lon Ranch, and the boss at the end of the Water Temple will always make me shriek when he pulls me underwater as I am trying to beat him.

This was the first Zelda game I ever played, and it sparked an addiction that will never end — I have played every Zelda game that has come out in the years since Ocarina of Time, and I’m anxiously awaiting the release of the new Zelda game this November.

This next game is one that I’ve played on and off for as long as I can remember, and is a game that I (embarrassingly) still buy every expansion pack for as it comes out.

(source)

I know very few people in my generation who were not addicted to The Sims at one point or another. Who doesn’t remember killing off their sims by trapping them in the pool, or spending half your day trying to make enough friends in order to get that promotion you’ve been working so hard for? My favorite part of The Sims was always building houses — I could spend half a day building and furnishing a house for my sims, which probably explains my unending love for renovating and decorating my own home now.

I have vivid memories of my cousin and I playing hours upon hours of the original Sims game at my grandparents’ house when we were kids. I’ve kept up with this game over the years and still have the most current one — and I still play it more than I would like to admit! Of course, now that I have a 10 year old niece who loves the game as much as I do, I have slightly more of an excuse when she comes over to play it with me. 😉

And last, but absolutely not least, is a game that’s not nearly as well-known as the last two, but is just as amazing.

(source)

I don’t remember exactly how or when I got hooked on this game, but I recently re-discovered it on Amazon and eagerly snatched it up. It took several days for my husband and I to figure out a way to play it on our computers, since the software is so outdated that our computers weren’t even sure what to do with it. Luckily, my brother-in-law owns his own computer repair company and had an ancient laptop sitting around that he let me borrow.

I must have played it more than I realized as a kid, because even though it had been at least 10 years since I had played the game, I could still quote along with most of the characters you talk to throughout the game, and could navigate my way around the ship with my eyes closed if I needed to.

Titanic is one of the most complex games I’ve ever played, and also one of the hardest. You’re plopped down in the ship on the night of its sinking, with a mission to recover a priceless book. You can wander around the (extremely detailed) ship and speak to many different people, and the game has several different outcomes depending on how well you do on your mission. It’s one of the most well-created games I’ve ever seen, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is as geeky when it comes to these old games as I am.

I have to admit, I feel a bit silly sometimes when I have to admit to my friends that I still play the same video games I played when I was 12, but I’ve learned to embrace my geek-dom. Of course, it helps that my husband is a complete enabler and is more than happy to spend an afternoon on the couch with me navigating the town of Hyrule or the decks of the Titanic.

Do you still play any of the games you played growing up? Are there any games that you miss?

About the Author:

I’m Amanda, a newlywed and brand new homeowner from Austin, Texas. I love to renovate old furniture, update my home, and blog about it all along the way. I (and sometimes my husband, Corey) blog over at Love & Renovations about our homeownership adventures, and all of the little tweaks we’re making to our home.

Claire Meets Aerin

She was not very amused. If anything, she seemed a bit scared and intimidated.

And when she saw me holding her little sister for the first time, she started to cry. 🙁 Her grandfather had to take her away and distract her with some ballons so that she wouldn’t throw a fit right there in the hospital room.

Ever since I got pregnant with Aerin, people have been telling me that our two girls will grow up to be the best of friends. I can only hope and pray that they are right.

Introducing Aerin Isabel…

Aerin Isabel was born 11/1/11 at 9:20am, weighing 6 lbs 11 oz and measuring 19.5″ long.

Delivery was remarkably easy and complication-free (she was out in three pushes!); the baby very healthy and alert. I feel incredibly blessed that both Claire and Aerin made their entries into this world so smoothly.

My first thought upon seeing Aerin for the first time was that she looked EXACTLY like Claire when she was born — they even have the same dimple on the left corner of their mouths! But now, a few hours after delivery — with her features becoming more defined and less flattened — she is beginning to resemble her dad.

The pictures above were taken just moments after birth. I will try to update with newer photos, but blogging is admittedly difficult on a cell phone. As was the case last year when Claire was born, guest posts will start to go up shortly, and I will do my best to pop in as much as possible in-between bonding with Aerin and getting used to being the mother of two little girls.

Thank you all so much for your continued support and prayers!

7 Centimeters

I continued to have mild contractions for the rest of yesterday, and tried my best to go to sleep despite the discomfort. At around 3am, the contractions started to become quite painful and I began to time them using a contractions app I had downloaded for my phone.

About 45 minutes later, I finally woke up J and we called his parents to come watch Claire so that we could head to the hospital. I was a bit scared that we would be sent back home, because that is what happened last year when I went into labor with Claire — my contractions were not yet regular and I was not dilated enough to be admitted.

But this was the real deal, as my contractions were coming every 3-4 minutes and I was 4cm dilated! I was admitted to labor & delivery at 4:30am this morning.

It is true what they say about subsequent labors tending to progress faster than the first — within just an hour, I was 6cm dilated and in A LOT of pain.

Luckily, the candy man (aka the anestheseologist) soon arrived and I was administered an epidural. The on-call doctor from my OB practice broke my water, and I am currently writing this on my phone, 7cm dilated and awaiting further progress.

I’m having a baby today!!!

Life with Aerin: One Week In

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