at only 11 weeks pregnant, pregnancy has already changed me in some significant ways:

1) My hair. I have decided to take advantage of  the fact that hair tends to grow faster during pregnancy, and not cut it the whole pregnancy (well, I did when I first found out…but not again) in hopes of finally having longish hair. This, of course, only makes sense if I keep my hair helthy. So while I do plan to keep up just enough high-lights to not hate myself (a few foils every 3 months or so) I am no longer blow-drying or ironing my hair daily..only for rare special events. Instead I scrunch it up with some curling gel and leave it to dry naturally. Some days, it works. Some days it doesn’t. By the time I realize it is a bad day, I am already out the door…so I am just living with it.

2) My nails. All those months I did not get pregnant I kept up my bio-gel nails faithfully, telling myself they were a little gift to myself for not getting pregnant. Now, they are gone. I grew them out gracefully for a while, filing down the line and keeping them polished and not too long, but last week they started falling off, so I knawed off what was left of them. My nails are now short, bumpy and the polish peels off easily. Luckily, pregnancy also tends to make nails grow longer and stronger, so they should be looking pretty soon. BTW, I don’t think bio-gel is a problem in pregnancy…it is just that it seems an easy way to start budgetting, and like bad luck to keep them up after I spent months considering them a “not pregnant yet” thing to do.

3) Ice-cream and pop. 2 things I never ever used to have unless they were served to me at a party or someone’s house. Not that I disliked them…but I they just seemed too indulgant to have on a regular basis. I am now living on mint chocolate chip ice-cream and diet cream soda.

4) Exercise. I always planned to keep it up while pregnant, but just like last time, have not. I am walking a lot, but have found myself mostly too easily tired to do anything more exerting. As well, I had a little issue last week. After going to my first belly-dancing class in weeks, and exerting myself (I would say a class is similar exertion to a low-impact aerobics class) for the first time in weeks , I started bleeding. I had an ultrasound the next days and there was no indicaiton of a problem or blood in the uterus, so we don’t know what caused it and are thankful it has not come back. I know the exercise my be unrelated..but it left me fearful to do so again. I will deal with the weight gain after the baby comes. Actually, I found it very easy after the girl (and I gained a lot). Between nursing and being a very social person who was always walking the malls and going for walks with other new moms I met, the weight melted off. What happened when I returned to work is another story though…

5) The belly. I am not sure where it come from. The baby is still the size of a kumquat and quite low…yet I have looked like this for a couple weeks already. Not only does my belly stick out…it is hard. Not as hard as it will get…but harder than just pudge. And no, it isn’t twins. Good thing too…I was wondering how I would ever manage to hide twins from everyone I know the whole pregnancy and delivery so no one would know and try to stop me when when I gave one up for adoption!

6) The girl. I don’t know if she got more annying, or I got more irritable…but she does not stop talking, and I just want her to stop. I feel a rush of love when she is asleep though!

Last night we had dinner out (sans the girl) with several couples, and then a small get-together with the adults and kids at a friend’s house. I was by far the most over dressed, but that is nothing new for me.

I tried out some dramatic smokey blue eyes:

 To go with a striped sweater dress and boots:

  and I enjoyed one of my favorite drinks:

As for New Year’s Resolutions, this year I am going to make them much more broad than I have in previous years, since tight ones never seem to be attainable anyways! I wish I had last year’s to go over, but they were on my now dead and gone first blog! Oh well, I do remember doing a tummy-roll was a goal of mine, and I’ve done that (who wants a video??). For 2008 I will:

1. Be more focused on my family.

2. Make healthy lifestyle choices.

3. Make positive changes with regards to my career.

4. Be kinder to the world and encourage others to do so as well. Starting here, with my blogger pal C.K..

Happy News Years Everyone!!!

It’s soon. Very soon. Like 2 and 1/2 weeks away. Here is my wish list (click on images for details):

and, if somebody really wanted to show me some love, this would do it:

1. We were suppose to perform tomorrow night. Now we aren’t. That is a good thing, as we will in 8 weeks and it’ll be so much better then. But I was psyched for it, so I am disappointed.

2. I have been on spark-people for over a month now, keeping to my fat and calorie limits. I have also been exercising a lot more, and harder. But I am not losing weight. I am losing inches, but not many.

3. I am borrowing a costume from my instructor (it was her mom’s I think. She is tiny). The top, amazingly, fits me fine and is super cute. I could not get into the bottoms, and had to pin the belt onto my own pants. The other women in my class are all very thin. I feel so fat and ugly and disgusting next to them. I know I am much more fit and in better shape than I was a couple years ago and that I am in good shape for naturally chubby me right now…but I am still nowhere near thin and I don’t know how to get there. I don’t know how to watch what I eat even more carefully or fit in even more exercise without feeling miserable and getting obsessed. 

*This post was brought to you by P.M.S.

*I think I will have a costume made for me. Even though it will cost money, I am sure I will look much better and feel much better about myself in a costume that fits me.

Today I went to a new place to get my nails filled: 

*She cut 2 of my cuticles. They bled.

*She babbled to her co-workers the whole time I was there. I HATE this.

*She grabbed my breast while I was drying, and said they were nice and big and asked if they were real.

*Then she asked me to come back to her always.

Not so much.

P.S. I’ll post a picture of my (bloody) nails after my Belly Dancing class…with a little luck (if my teacher remembers) I’ll also have my costumes to show you!

UPDATE: I only have the top of my costume…but here are my nails. The blood does not really show anymore, but you can see a cut:

If I look like an idiot lie…K???

Click Here

So, we had our belly-dancing performance tonight…and it was great! Even though it was just a small event (we performed for some of the other classes at the studio, and whatever friends and family we invited…I had the girl and the husband there) it was still exciting…and I nailed the routine.

The teacher has asked me to join the next level…and even though it is 2 hours a week and more money than I really would like to spend, I thinkI am gonna do it. It is weird, at first I did not like her or the class much at all…but now I love it and her (she is a doll). Learning choreography, after months of learning moves on their own, has gotten to be so much more satisfying.  I can really see what progress I am making , plus it makes practicing at home much easier. I still struggle with the free dance, but am getting better at following that too. Once I started feeling better with the teacher and asking specific questions about moves she was adding to the routine before I felt I got them, she was very helpful and really worked to explain them well and help me feel confident. I am so glad I stuck with this class!!

Pics from before and during the performance…they are not very clear, sorry:

So last night, we had a much needed date night. The girl stayed with my parents, and the man and I went out for Chinese food (which I had for lunch too, oops!), and then hit a local Persian Night Club with our friends/neighbours to see a belly-dancing performance. The nightclub was lovely, though we were the only non-Persians in there and did not order dinner (just drinks and appetizers, though the food did look and smell wonderful), so we were not beloved by the staff. The Belly-dancer, Ibtissam, was fabulous. She looked beautiful, was a wonderful dancer, did several songs, and got the audience involved. I have never seen a live performance before and was not sure what to expect, but I loved it. Lucky for me, Ibtissam is a friend of the couple we went with, so I got to talk to her after the show. Turns out she has classes in my town, so who knows? I just may be changing teachers again! Not sure yet…I hadn’t even decided yet if I am gonna return to teacher #1 (Abhir at the Community Center) or stick with teacher #2 (Mathilda at L’ambiance) who I am getting used to now, and this third option has arisen. Oh well…It is nice to have options and I’ll figure it out. I suppose…

Here is a video of the lovely Ibdissam:

As for me, I wore this to dinner…and then changed to a black and white dress before the club at the last minute, but had no time to take a picture.

And for your final viewing pleasure, a picture of the girl last Wednesday on *Yellow Day* at camp, because she is so damn cute! Adorable dress courtesy of my parents.