A Word from the Cat

Huck's Log 12/25/10

I do not like this new thing.


I liked how it used to be.

I would sometimes have to meow for food in the morning, and sometimes they were slow to respond, but in general I was completely doted upon. They would hold me, and pet me, and meow and purr right back at me. When I'd meow at the door they'd let me in or out, depending on which side of the door I was on. Outside, I could go explore, chase moths, kill mice, stalk the neighbor lady who is scared of me... Inside, I could climb up on Mom's huge round belly and fall half-asleep there, purring in her ear.

Some of that stuff still happens, I guess. But ever since this new little thing arrived, it doesn't feel the same.


I've taken to napping in the bottom of the closet.

The new thing sleeps in their bed, where I used to.

Mom doesn't have a belly for me to lie on anymore, and what lap she does have is usually occupied by the new thing.


They try to call me over, and pet and cuddle me, but I am showing them that they can't have their cake and eat it too. When they click and call me over, I usually just look at them disdainfully and continue walking. Only once in awhile do I go over, and then I only allow just the shortest of caresses.

This morning, I jumped up on the bed on one side of Mom as she was typing on the computer. The new thing was on her other side. It was sleeping, I guess. From what I can tell, it only has two states of being: asleep and noisy. It's almost as big as I am, but doesn't move in any logical way. It makes sounds I don't understand. And it only has fur on the top of its head. It has no teeth or claws. It would make a poor hunter, but I'm still not going to go near it. It must be very strong in some secret way, to have this strange power over my parents.


I'm going to go eat the roof off the gingerbread house.

Being a dad is just like being a kid...

Being a dad is just like being a kid. No, for real! I mean, look. So, for one, as a dad, you get to talk a LOT about poop! (Just like being a kid.) Being a dad, you're allowed to ask lots of questions again and everyone will either answer them, or at least give you patient, patronizing answers. Being a dad, everything looks new again (suddenly a house is no longer a house, it is a maze of sharp corners; fabrics are no longer just fabrics, but they are tools for a) wrapping, b) wiping, or c) padding; the sun is no longer just the sun, but it is a benevolent downpour of nourishing vitamins and warmth; the tiny, old, senile lady across the street is no longer just the tiny, old, senile lady across the street, but a short, smoochy-faced, grandmother sort of figure who pads around the neighbordhood in adorable red slippers; boobs are no longer just boobs...well, alright, they're still boobs, but boy do they get BIG and find themselves hanging out in public a whole lot more). Being a dad, it's like you're everyone's center of the universe again (time to ask for gifts!). Being a dad, it's common to find yourself sneaking clandestine, forbidden snacks or bites from other people's plates. Being a dad, it is encouraged to speak in a combination of gibberish, babble, and silly voices. Being a dad, it is 150% permissible to give ridiculous names to mundane, ordinary, and drab objects and events (like poopy poopsters, sucky, smushy face, etc.). Being a dad, all problems can be answered with one simple word: food. Being a dad, you find yourself sneaking out of bed in the middle of the night and into bed in the middle of the day. Being a dad, sometimes you get poop or pee ALL over you, your clothes, the changing table, other people's clothes, the floor...and a little tiny wet wipe becomes your best friend. Being a dad, nothing else in the whole entire world matters except the immediate sphere of the world around you. Being a dad, you cry a lot AND smile a lot. Being a dad, well...being a dad is pretty cool.

Aeli Abra Craven-Pasternak!

Dear world,

Carrie and I would like to introduce you to Aeli (pronounced A-lee) Abra (pronounced like the Spanish word for open) Craven-Pasternak.



Our little male munchkin was finally born at 1:32 this morning (December 18) after a really grueling day and a half of labor. He's 7 pounds, 2 ounces and currently 3 meals and 2 poops into life.

Aeli and Mom are both happy and healthy (and hungry and sleepy) and we're comfortably holed up here in our cozy home with the amazing help of Grandma Kelly and Grandpa Mike (Carrie's parents, who have been doing a phenomenal job taking care of all of us).

His first few photos are attached. Last night was pretty special. It went a little bit like this:

Thu 9:30 PM: Momma Bear, Grandma, Grandpa, & I went for an evening time walk when Momma Bear felt her first few contractions that felt different.

Fri 1:30 AM: Momma Bear identifies a pattern and we call the Midwife to tell her that early labor has begun.

Fri AM and early PM: Momma Bear, Poppa Bear, Grandma, and Grandpa try to ride out the first 14 hours of contractions quietly and calmly. Grandpa and Poppa Bear set up the tub.

Fri 3:30 PM: Midwives arrive, contractions are picking up.

Fri 5:30 PM - Sat 12:30 AM: Transition stage of labor. INTENSE. In the text books this is cited as "the most intense but the shortest part of labor for most women. Usually lasts from 30 - 90 minutes." Poor Momma Bear rode out the crazy intense contractions throughout the house, forever earning the distinguished title "Best Ever Improvisational Coping Strategies" in the category of laboring mothers.

Sat 12:30 AM: The pushing starts. Aeli takes a full hour to push out, but finally...

Sat 1:32 AM: Aeli Abra Craven-Pasternak emerges into the world and into his Momma Bear's arms. (This was really special.)

Sat 3:30 AM: Aeli "latches on" for his first meal. Momma Bear and Baby Bear find themselves expeditiously asleep. (Call it roughly at 3:50).

Sat 5:45 AM: Grandma, Grandpa, and the Midwives are still up and about, cleaning the house and checking on Baby and Momma Bear when Aeli wakes up with his first wet diapper! (Welcome to the world of using your urinary tract). With a quick change of the diaper, baby's all ready for bed again.

Sat 8:30 AM: Momma Bear and Poppa Bear wake up quietly for our first quiet moment with a quiet house and a sleepy baby and some beautiful morning light. (This was amazing.)

Sat 11:30 AM: Aeli wakes up, ready for his 2nd meal ever, after which, Poppa Bear is carrying him around when the first ominous poop bubbles squirt out. Baby's first poop! Good job little guy. Bowels functioning...check!

The rest of today has been pretty relaxing in bed. Momma and Aeli have barely left the bed and are happily chest-to-chest right now. Grandma Kelly and Grandpa Mike have been all stars, cleaning, house-repairing, cooking, and parent coaching all day. Poppa bear has no clue what he's done with today. Except for cry. A lot. And smile. (A lot).

Life is good. Scratch good. Life is amazing. And Aeli and his momma are beautiful!

Thanks to everyone for your constant love and family. This boy is blessed!
-- stefin & carrie

39.5

Now every pain, every Braxton-Hicks contraction, every ligament-stretch has me thinking:
Is this it? Is this it?
If you google "39 and a half weeks pregnant" you get links to about a million message boards of women asking versions of the same question. Like a little kid on their way to a big ski trip or something: "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?"

I'm trying to finish grading a mountain of essays that I had hoped to have done by Friday, but a combination of exhaustion and regular old life has foiled that plan. I still have a significant set of things to finish up for my long-term sub (who starts Monday), and I will be receiving another stack of essays Friday- thanks to the district-mandated Interval Tests. (I'm going to start scoring them, then pass them onto my sub, who happens to be a friend who starred in the burlesque show with S and me.)

Speaking of that, try that change on for size! Last year at this time, I was performing in a burlesque show. December 12th was our closing night.
Now, I am sitting at home with this evil-looking cat (who, by the way, has taken to napping on the changing table and in the crib.)

What a difference a year makes, eh? I bet next year I'll be saying the same thing!

Baby has the hiccups now. Lower now than a few days ago, and more to the right. It's getting ready! So are we. Trying to stock up on StefinandCarrie alone time, since we know that soon will become sparse. It is hard with both of us working so full time, but it is obviously extremely important. We skipped birthing class tonight in favor of resting in our cozy home... doing some grading and stretching and cuddling it up a bit before I crash early and Stefin forces himself to keep working after I've fallen asleep.

It's basically like Entourage.

Psych! (Sike?)

This is how it looked outside this morning. I'd like to remind you that it's December. We bought two pints of local strawberries. Strawberries! Are growing! In December!
These cabbages were bigger than my belly. I am not exaggerating.
Homemade hot-chocolate. To force it to feel like the holidays.

Baby teased us on Thursday, when a pattern of small contractions and strong kicking-and-stretching continued all day at school. Stefin got wide-eyed and I a bit teary when I told him "I don't know, maybe..." while swooping him from his classroom. Called Emmy, our midwife, with whom we already had an appointment, but by the time we met at 5, contractions had stopped and there wasn't any notable amount of dilation. Like Emmy said, there's no reason we should be trying to get this baby out early; it's not excessively large, and there are no other concerns, so really we should just be relaxing while it continues to cook and layer up with useful body fat that will help keep it warm here on the outside. Still, I can't say I wasn't disappointed.

We have a golden present underneath our little Christmas tree (in a pot, adorned with Home-Depot-installed glitter), and Stefin was exasperated by the waiting. "Really? We have to look at that for 25 days before we can open it?" How about nine months of anticipation? (I guess we didn't officially know for almost 2, but still... seven months is a lot of waiting.)

It's very strange, "humbling," is the word Stefin has been using lately, to be at this point. We know it's going to come, but we don't know exactly when. There's going to be this second that labor is going to start, and then that day is going to be exhausting and intense. And then we are going to be parents. Forever.

The due-date is one week from tomorrow. The average first pregnancy lasts 41.5 weeks though, and both S and I were 2 weeks late. Although I would be delighted by a punctual baby, I'm going to do my best not to put all my cards on the 12th. I also would love if Baby decided to come while my mom was here... but it would be great if it could come right at the beginning of her visit. The more particulars I think about, however, the more sure I am that I'm jinxing it and the only thing that is certain is that it won't be like I expect.

(I've had a couple of uterine pains while writing this post, but since they've started happening so often in the past weeks, and since Thursday's false alarm, I have no confidence in assigning any meaning to them.)

This part is like circling up in the plane that time, round and round and round again, knowing that it will be fun, and it is kind of crazy, but it's too late now: you are going to jump out of it.

((((((((anticipation))))))))))

Gratitude

Our fantastic Thanksgiving family! Colleen, Dewey, Greg, Irina and Sarah ("The Swiss"), and Eli.

The still life of our kitchen counter the day before T-give. (Huck likes to eat the leaves of the small rose bush Stefin's parents sent us, so we put it on the porch for the purpose of puke-avoidance.)

Baby's first Thanksgiving... sort of... in utero- thank goodness, I wouldn't have been able to manage LABOR with all this turkey-induced drowsiness). I have been feeling more Braxon-Hicks contractions lately, which are uncomfortable surprises, but good in that they're like warm-up exercises for my womb.

(Remember when I was thin?)

This recipe worked wonderfully for our first-ever turkey, and the leftovers have yielded some bombtastic turkey soup.

Oh, and this is how warm it was on Thanksgiving day. We had the AC on. Yesterday it dipped down into Washingtonian 50s with that sort of general gray dampness so omnipresent in the PacNW. Today was chilly too, but gorgeous. Don't worry, it's supposed to be 75 again by Tuesday. What a wild place.

Other things I'm grateful for:
-Only a few more weeks of pregnancy! It hasn't been awful by any means, but I am ready to be able to get out of bed like a normal human again (even if it is going to be far more often than I want to, at obscene hours of the night...), be rid of heartburn, and, you know... be able to put my socks on in a position other than fat-football-coach-sitting-on-the-bench. Plus, I'm just incredibly excited to meet this baby! Every time I sleep, I dream of it.
-An incredibly supportive baby-daddy who is so patient with my mood-swings, cravings, and complaints... Who spent parts of today attending cloth-diapering-class, prepping the birthing tub (read: kiddie pool with colorful fish on the inflatable and see-through sides), and discussing the most logical logistics for poopy situations.
-A visit from good friend and cohort Dewey Morgan.
-The good weather today when we were locked out of our car for a few hours.
-Our wonderful families and the fact that so many fantastic people are in our lives.

Dear Baby,

(Front view)


(Side)

I am glad that you are so wiggly and healthy, but your elbow jabs are getting quite uncomfortable in my side. Dad and I like watching you squirm and wiggle and make my belly into all sorts of funny, lopsided shapes. We're going to like looking at you outside of my belly, too, I'm sure.

I'm so excited that you're coming soon! I will kiss your little elbows and poke you in your sides (softly, I promise)! I am a bit nervous- in a logical way- about my uterus shrinking from watermelon to pear-sized in such a short amount of time, but meeting you will certainly be worth it.

Do me a favor and keep cooking until after Thanksgiving, if you can. There are still a few things I'd love to get in order before the big day. Of course, since you're officially "full term" now (and our baby and the obvious apple of our eyes), you're welcome anytime.

Love,
Mom

Dear Dad,

First of all, don't try to play it like you're the stereotypical non-sentimental male. You know I can hear, right? And you are a mush ball to mom a lot of the time. Don't you feel me kick and punch when you say "schnuggly baby face" right onto my back? That's not my face, Abba! It's my back!

So, since you asked about the goings-on... it has been getting kind of cramped in here. Can't you ask mom to stretch out a little more? It's kind of boring all balled up... sometimes I entertain myself by pretending her bladder is a punching bag. Other things I do for fun are: hiccup, roll and twist, and snack via the cord attached to my middle.

Hey- I've got some news for you both! Since it is getting awfully crowded in here, I've decided I'm going to come hang out there with you guys. I've gone ahead and "engaged" or "dropped" down into the pelvis, and I'm working on effacing Mama's cervix. It was all warbly of course, but at the doc's this morning I heard the lady doc's voice say she had a "good feeling" about Mom's you-know-what. All the better for me to squeeze out of!

Don't worry though, I'm not going to spoil the surprise. I still haven't decided just when I'll make my grand entrance. But whenever it is, it will be here before you know it. I hope you're ready to hold me. Right now Mom holds me all the time and I really like it. I'm excited to see what you all have out there in the "outerwombal" world.

See you soon!

Love,
Baby

The real word...for those curious

Yes. Hello babymeister. It's your papashmueler. We now share two things: half of our chromosomes and our quadrasylabic nicknames. Cool.

You have really taken some serious steps to round out your personality lately. Nice work. I won't say I'm proud or anything, I mean, that's just not fatherly to do, but hey, here's the proverbial smack on the butt.

You've taken to wiggling through meals, viewings, and social encounters. Mom treats you a little bit like a Halloween trick, showing you off to friends who ooh! and ahhh! and grasp their knees in petrified terror at your tremors; the grandparents treat you like the mystical vessel that Professor Dumbledore keeps his memories swirling in; our friends treat you like a party favor, bestowing oddly miniature items upon us in your theoretical name; and strangers...well strangers just know.

There is an odd inverse correlation between how well you actually know the baby, and how much you absolutely know about the baby. Let me say more: those confidants actually emotionally or familially close to your little fetus self only ask questions and act uncertain about every little detail (including, at times, what species you will be, what gender you will be, and if you ever actually will BE); on the other hand, those strangers who know absolutely nothing about us or you (including your species, gender, and cumulative existential certainty) seem to be endowed with the uncanny eye of the oracle--they seem confident in predicting...no, prophesizing every detail down to your neonatal dietary whims.

Well, that's the correspondence from the extrawombal word. Please dispatch a full record of interwombal goings on.

Love, papaoala

Just One More Month?!?

Huck says, "When the baby comes, it can sleep in this nice bassinet I've found."

Aunt Katie came to visit- well, she came to talk mortgages (is that seriously how you spell that word?) with other folks in the biz- but we got to hang out for an evening and have delicious treats and drinks at Three Muses on Frenchman.
Our garden (all in containers started on the roof/porch at the old place) is thriving... and even a little confused. It has been so warm here, the tomatoes have got it into their nucleuses that this is a good time to flower and fruit! There are three or four little green tomatoes insisting on hanging heavily from their plant's branches. It's November! Equally crazy is the fact that Stefin picked up local strawberries from the farmer's market yesterday. Don't strawberries usually mean it's spring? Life is popping up everywhere. And one little life is scheduled to pop into ours less than one month from today.

Hopefully it won't actually be less than one month... I'm crossing my fingers it will happen right around the 15th, when my mom gets here. Not too long afterward though, in my ideal world, because I am getting quite tired of elements of this pregnancy stuff. For example, having to push myself and roll out of bed instead of just sitting up like a normal person who has usable abs.

Baby is wiggling lots. It's fun to feel the pointy parts that jab out: elbows, knees, and heels. I can't wait to see those parts wiggling around outside of my ever-stretching belly. We got a pool (with blow-up sides) in the mail the other day (the better to labor and maybe have a water-birth in), and are acquiring the last few physical things we need to be ready for the big day. This morning, to prepare for the mental/physical part, Stefin and I practiced flexing all the muscles in our bodies for 90 seconds and then resting for 30 (the approximate pattern of contractions during the "transition" phase of labor)... I was tuckered after 3 cycles. I guess the "good thing" is that I won't be in charge of the contractions when the time's really there... all I'll be able to do is ride them out and relax as much as possible in between them.

Whoa!

Yet Another Post About My Stomach

So the weirdest thing about this big belly is how my abs have stretched... if you press-press-press going up the middle of my belly, once you get a couple of inches above my belly button, suddenly you're not pressing on abs anymore- it's like pushing on a soft warm water balloon. It freaks me out, to tell you the truth. Sometimes I imagine it popping like said water balloon and oozing guts all over the place. It just seems so weird, that that layer that's usually there- armor in between my skin and my vital organs- has opened up. I feel very protective of it and find myself resting my hands there a lot.

(Baby has the hiccups now. That's one of my favorite parts. ::Bloop:bloop:bloop:bloop:: Just a nice soft rhythm in the lower corner of my tummy. A "Hey Mom! I'm a real -hic-cup- thing! See you soon!" Yesterday s/he was doing bicycle kicks.)

Here's a picture of what some people thought was weird, but I am pretty proud of. Us as Bacon&Egg. (The old lady who helped me pick out fabric at the store thought this was the wackiest idea she'd ever heard. It was adorable.) I have some thoughts about how to make a better bacon next time, but I was surprised how many people knew what Stefin was, even when I wasn't right beside him for context.

I've been feeling a little throat-and-lung ill today and yesterday, but fortunately I have tomorrow off for election day. That means I can sleep in and then have a restful day of grading in addition to doing my democratic duties.

Eggsellent.

Nice Things

Big belly. (Which is now even bigger.) Even though it gets in the way a lot, and sometimes I wish Stefin could really know what it feels like to bend down to put your leg into the hole of a pantleg with a basketball right above your pelvis, it's nice because I know it means a little creature who didn't exist before is living and cuddling and squirming in there, and will soon be joining us in our lives out here.
The comfy glider rocker from Aunt Jeanne.
Cloth diapers from Tommy and Miriam. (Cleverly demonstrated on a lamb.)

Knowing that I only have five more weeks of actual teaching before I go on leave. (Whoa!)

Thank you everybody for your continued well-wishes and love.

Lopsiding.

Sometimes Lil' B likes to scoot over to one side of my belly and stick its butt out.

Almost 31...

This is how it is to look down at my feet these days.

We met with our midwife Emmy yesterday- and Baby's head is down! It's already plotting its great escape. (Although it's still pretty high- chilling in alternating positions of being stretched out like it deliberately is trying to wedge its pointy parts in between my ribs and curling up like the seed of a mango.) Still kicking lots, and sometimes I feel hiccups from right above where my tummy meets my leg. Can you believe that? Hiccups!

I can't believe we're less than ten weeks away from having this little creature in our lives- forever! I am more excited than nervous, but I am a little of that too. Mostly I am sleepy, but more productive and less overwhelmed than last week with school. I think a treat for myself this weekend will be finding some good dresses of the dress-over-leggings variety so I feel like I have something besides work clothes and big old t-shirts that are fit to leave the house in.

More immediately: ice cream and a nap!

Week 29: The Real Deal

In the interest of "keeping it real," here are a few of the surprisingly intense parts about the third trimester of pregnancy:

1. The Return of the Nausea.

The other day while making dinner, I had abandon my sautee-ing duties and sit down for a bit. Suddenly every smell of our dinner was appaling, and my apetite, which had been outrageous just moments prior, had essentially evaporated. But the websites say not eating only makes nausea worse, so I bucked up and ate some of our homemade pizza with lackluster enthusiasm, feeling like a bummer of a dinner companion for my patient partner in crime.

2. Hyperactive Hormones!

Everything makes me cry. Walking out of our front door on Friday, I found our sidewalk covered in chalk art, wishing me happy birthday. There were drawings of pregnant flowers, nutria, even a pregnant pause. Cue: tears.

Call from the doctor: "Gluclose levels good, but you need more iron." ---> Tears.

Stefin's home an hour later than he said he'd be ----> Tears.

I find out he was late because he was getting supplies and making me a card as part of the surprise party he was throwing for me ----> Tears.

Students flash mob the cafeteria doors after somebody throws milk. They refuse to turn around and clean up their mess; cafeteria lady lectures me about getting in front of running middle-schoolers while pregnant ---> Tears.

Emotional moment on LOST? ---> Duh, tears.

I promise I'm okay. It's just: Every. Little. Thing. I'm starting to understand what my mom said about when she was pregnant: about feeling like she'd been invaded by an alien.

Fortunately, Baby keeps kicking and wiggling in ways that always make me smile. And I've figured out how to stretch up and to the left to get its foot out from the place it likes to get lodged between my ribs.

AND I have an amazing fiance who does everything he possibly can to make me feel better.

There are many more good things that deserve thanking (family, The Universe, Huck the cat, Josh, Colleen et.al,) but I'm feeling a bit naseous again, so you'll have to excuse my brevity.

Look What Followed Us Home!

Last Thursday on a walk back from the store on Esplanade (which we frequent most often for overripe bananas and ice cream), this little creature followed us home.

After 3 consecutive nights of him meowing at our porch, we finally let him (or her, we can't really tell), inside.

It did this on its own.

We're calling him "Huck" for Huckleberry Finn.

I'm trying to not get too attached in case we start seeing posters in search of a missing cat, but this is difficult. He climbs into your lap as soon as you sit down, and when he does that kneady thing with his paws its like he's holding your hand. And of course he's still young, so that means all that fun kitty stuff like diving head first into my computer bag on the couch because it looks like a good vantage point for espionage.

He is cracking us up and filling our house with even more love and squishy sentiments.

Oh, and Baby is going to be here in two and a half months.

!!!

Inventing

Tonight I was thinking how great it would be if my sink had a little half-moon carved out of it so I didn't have to lean my neck and upper back over it like a dinosaur as I do the dishes.

Other pregnancy friendly ideas:

-Make siestas the norm all over the world.

-While pregnant, you get an abbreviated work day to account for time needed for doctors' appointments, doing yoga to fight an achey back, trying to wiggle around to find the position where Baby's foot is not heartily lodged between your two lowest ribs, and meditating on the idea of being a parent.

-Special goggles to reduce sightings of sexy skinny women doing things you used to be able to do before gaining a small mountain in your midsection. Goggles would also make the swelling of your legs and feet go down.

-A delivery service that will act as a middle man and go all over town, including places that do not deliver (e.g. Whole Foods, on the other side of the traffic-y, pot-holed city), to indulge your cravings.

-An on-call person just down the hall that will cover for you at a moment's notice for frequent trips to the piddly diddly.

-Cute, comfortable work shoes that expand as much as your feet- then shrink back as your extremities do.

Maybe I'm on the wrong career path.

26 weeks

Awwww.... see how cute?

Life inside of that dark and oversized lima bean must certainly be exciting. The now-two-pound avocado is kicking and twirling up a storm. Sometimes I swear it thinks it's a cat and all of a sudden does a stretch that leads one side of my stomach to bulge out hard and tight and the other one to depress and sit empty as a coconut. (There's this great scene in the movie l'iceberg where somebody is doing all these sort of Cirque-du-Soleil poses under a sheet- I often feel like the baby is reenacting that scene.)

Everything is going well belly-wise. Doc wants me to gain weight a smidge faster, so this morning I switched out my usual juice and opted for some whole milk (it's supposed to be great for helping you produce good milk when the time comes). I was a bit grossed out though- Stefin's a big fan of this non-homogenized kind, which is great in theory but it's occasional chunks of cream are the same brand of surprise as thinking you're biting into a chocolate chip and then recognizing the dry chewiness of a raisin.

Some important folks came to visit over the weekend, and it was wonderful to spend time with all of them. It was especially cool hanging out with also-pregnant Auntie Erica and her husband and two-year old Asa. (Small world moment: Andrew (Asa's pop) works with my mother's cousin Patrick in Normal, Illinois. Whoa.) Copious amounts of delicious food and innumerable hugs were the obvious themes of the weekend.

Oh! I learned today that during this week the little one starts opening its eyes! I bet it's murky and juicy in there. But apparently it will respond to bright lights now. It definitely responds to noises. Stefin and my dad were putting together this armoire on Sunday and baby was kicking up a storm with all the hammering.

There's backaches and headaches and heartburn and of course the relentless needing to pee, but my life is lovely and I'm loving it. Getting to feel a little life inside me, dining with friends and family, solidifying more plans for winter visits, coming home every night to the house I share with the man I love... I am a very lucky girl.

Summer in a Picture Strip

I apologize for such a long breath in between blog entries. It's just been crazy busy around here.

Here are some of the things we've been up to:Growing my belly.

Going to Washington.

And San Diego...

Being surprised with a trip to Telum, Mexico (read more about it here).

Attending Mason and Melissa's wedding in California... (dressing up like 1920s scoundrels and sheriffs from the Wild West)...

Moving into our new house:

And starting school again.

So it's been good- GREAT- but obviously, quite busy and just a touch chaotic. Right now I am two minutes past the one hour break I decided to allow myself from 1-2 this afternoon. School work and recovering from a traveler's tummy are my serious focuses of the day (Don't worry, I went to the doc- no parasites and baby's fine. Just a regiment of bland meals and lots of fluids. My favorite right now is a milkshake with almond milk, bananas, vanilla ice cream, and cinnamon.).In July we had our intensive ultra sound. The results? Already cute! It was so amazing to see the little creature wiggle around, like it was trying to crawl into a more cozy part of my uterus. I was especially awed by its perfect feet. It has all its parts! They're just exceptionally miniature. (And this was over a month ago now, so they're significantly less bite-sized now.)
The face is on the left- you see a profile, and the hand in front. Neener neener! I'm glad it's silly already.

It was great to see friends and family this summer, and we get to see some again in just a few weeks! Life is good, even if digestion is leaving something to be desired.