You Look Kinda Cute, In that Polka Dot Bikini

A couple of weeks ago a group of ten of us hopped on a plane to celebrate our friend Heather finding her Buddy for life (the groom's name is Buddy).   Back in my wedding day, bachelorette parties were local and one night of debauchery.  We were lucky that our early 20's budgets allowed us to get a hotel room (and only because we had a friend who was able to get an employee discount). We were babies, look not a wrinkle in sight! 

 

Since then, many of us have gotten hitched and had slightly more elaborate bachelorette shenanigans-New Orleans, Chicago, and most recently, Miami. 

I love these trips.  Admittedly, I have an equal amount of fond memories from my 12 hour party than any two-three day trip we have taken but our weekend parties are more than just celebrating the bride to be.      It is a weekend away from every outside stress, husband, work or other obligations to just enjoy and toast to the friendships we have developed over the years. 

Knowing all along that I was going to be 31 weeks pregnant during this trip, I wasn't super excited for the crazy night out.  For a few months prior to the trip, I tried to figure out what a nearly eight month pregnant woman wore to "da club."  I imagined the scene from Knocked Up, "You old, she pregnant-can't have a bunch of old pregnant bitches running around" and I would be responsible for us not getting into whatever club we ended up at.

In the end, I wore a plain black dress that will continue to make the rounds with different accessories for each other remaining weddings and bachelorette parties I have to attend through the rest of the pregnancy.  Luckily, one of the girls on our trip was also related to someone who worked concierge in Miami so they were able to get us on the list and avoid that scene.  Even more fortunate, because of that relationship-when pregnancy brain hit me hard and I brought my work ID instead of my license, I was still permitted in as long as I promised not to drink.  No problem Mr. Bouncer, especially with your $30 drinks.   My favorite part of the wild and crazy night though was the official passing down of the bachelorette sash.  If you look back to the original picture on this post, you will see that the sash above and below are the same.  This sash has been passed between each bride with the last bride writing a message of encouragement to the next inside.  I am really impressed we have managed to keep it within the group over the years and love our own version of traveling pants.

The next day we spent the entire day on the beach, just enjoying the day.  Another thing I obsessed about was what type of bathing suit to wear-I never wear a bikini in real life but with my belly all of my tankinis only covered half my belly making me feel strangely more self conscious so I just sucked it up and let it all hang out.

We finally accepted it was time to go inside when the sun was setting and spent a low key evening in our condo cooking dinner and playing Cards Against Humanity.  We all started to crash pretty early and hit the sack so we could get up the next morning and head back home to Dallas.  

 Now that nearly everyone has had their own turn with the sash, I realize that our bachelorette weekends are coming to an end.  It is my hope that we won't rely on having a reason to take these trips though-getting away with my girls is crucial to my well being.  And coming home to my family is always a sweet reunion, and this time I came home to the biggest surprise of all-Boyfriend cleaned our ENTIRE house while I was gone, and if that isn't reason to leave town more often, then I don't know what is!

Yesterday was my week day off, and based off the last couple of weeks I wanted it to be a happy day.  Originally my plan was to have Boyfriend take Baby to daycare so I could sleep in and spend the day cleaning.  I know that sounds like the opposite of a happy day, but for me, having the entire day to clean my house while I don't have a little tornado behind me destroying everything I have already done (or distracting me with requests to cuddle) sounds amazing. 

My plan was foiled though when on Monday, Baby decided to play sick at daycare so she could skip it the next day to spend it with me.  Her provider sent me a text Monday afternoon stating she was running a low fever so Nana of the year picked her up.  When I came home Monday evening, she was already in bed so I am sure she wasn't feeling well but by Tuesday morning there was no signs of sickness.  Luckily for me, spending a day with my daughter is also a happy day.

For once, she actually woke up before me and asked to watch a show on my phone so I happily obliged so I could get a little more sleep while cuddling my sweet girl.  When we woke up we took a shower and headed to my doctor's appointment.  On the way there, she asked for a donut (which a strange request as we don't really eat a lot of them in our house) so we stopped by Hypnotic Donuts.

Boyfriend and I have been before and just like last time, we were there when there were slim pickings.  Baby selected a simple pink frosted donut with sprinkles and I got some sort of chocolate/peanut butter/banana thing.  Baby was enthralled with her choice. Of course she ate all the sprinkles first and then the rest of it, but she was so happy with her sprinkles.

After my doctor's appointment we stopped at Whole Foods, not the typical store we shop at but it was near by and I wanted to get Boyfriend a surprise-his favorite cake as a, "hey you are pretty awesome" treat.  While we were in there, I also saw Sumo fruit.  It is something like a cross between a mandarin and a regular orange.  I just think it looks like a boob, but Boyfriend and I have been trying to find some everywhere since it has a very short season so I picked three up.  The price of three of these boobs are sumo in price, it was $9 for just three!

Once we got home, it was my favorite part of the day-nap time!  We were lying in bed and baby wasn't just quite ready to fall asleep so she just sat there and talked herself to sleep pretty much.  At one point, I told her, "Baby I'm tired let's nap" and she told me she wasn't ready yet.  She continued to talk for a little bit longer and then gave me a big hug, and said "Ok Mommy, I'm ready to sleep now" and put her head down and fell asleep within moments.

Boyfriend came home not too long after our nap and we enjoyed dinner together and catching up on the Bachelor to which he lost his cool when Tierra stated that she can't control her eyebrow and that no one will take her sparkle away.  This morning he even was sending me twitter accounts from Tierra's eyebrow and sparkle so it definitely made an impression.

Overall, it was exactly the kind of day off I needed.  And I suppose since this happened after midnight-it can't count as happening on my day off, but Boyfriend declared Baby potty trained so of course I woke up covered in pee.  I wasn't able to fall back asleep for three more hours which was a major bummer.  On the plus side, now that I am mostly through Wednesday only two more work days until the weekend and our couples getaway!