Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Nesting

Well folks, no news yet. I haven't really had that proverbial rush of energy before the birth, but I have definitely been nesting. Here's some proof...

I re-organized the freezer and thought I'd shoot a pic of all of the meals we've frozen over the last several months. Lots of soup and bean dishes, pesto from all the basil we had last summer, leftover cake from the shower and even an apple pie from the holidays. My motto: you can freeze anything!


Yesterday I made a cake from scratch to celebrate Gracie's due date. Chocolate buttercream icing... mmmm.


And here are a few shots of the nursery!

We painted the letters on the canvas ourselves. Given that neither of us is much of an artist, we were pretty happy with the results.


Jason is a big fan of the decals... he did the designs on the door and the fan all by himself!


Monday, February 8, 2010

One day more . . .

. . . until the due date. Which itself is just a statistical thing. But still. Makes you excited. But then you just hurry up and wait. In the meantime, plenty of other events in the world are making us excited too -- like the Super Bowl. The MVP is the QB that used to throw deep post patterns to me as a junior & senior in high school (and laser slant routes that I dropped half the time because they came in with such velocity; yet the NFL scout magicians say he has a weak arm). And guys who couldn't pump Drew Brees's gas today made fun of him in high school for being slow, having a "roach on his face," and being a brown noser. Ha! Losers. I'm already game-planning how to make his son Grace's husband in 20-odd years. Man crush!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Magical Thinking


The season premiere of Lost is on right now, and Jason is trying to catch me up on five years of plane crashes, time travel and smoke monsters. It's really weird. I don't get it (plus the acting is really bad). But I am having an easier time than usual believing the fantastical elements. That's because I've been doing some magical thinking of my own lately. I think the end of pregnancy just does that to you.

Joan Didion wrote a really sad but excellent book a few years ago called "The Year of Magical Thinking." It was about the sudden death of her husband and how her brain played all of these crazy tricks on her after he was gone.

Although it is a different and more joyful life event, I think that the process of having a child affects your brain in a similar way. I find myself in such a strange fog lately. While my rational brain knows that a baby is about to enter our lives, I can't quite believe that it is really happening. My belly is gigantic and it feels like there is a little alien kickboxing in there most of the time, but it still doesn't feel exactly real. I guess it probably won't until there is a baby laying on my chest.

Of course, maybe this is just nature's way of preparing you for having a baby. If you knew too much, you probably wouldn't really want to go through with it. I read something to Jason recently that advised the partner that the laboring woman should have no expectation of rationality. I kind of liked that. For a normally pretty rational gal, I'm ready to lose my grip on reality, head to the land of magical thinking, and have this baby.

(By the way, my prediction is this Saturday, February 6th)

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Kelly is 38 weeks

Tuesday (Jan. 26th) was 38 out of 40 weeks. The doc thinks she won't go past the due date of Feb. 9th, so it could be any day now! I think it will be Feb. 1st and Kelly is going with Feb. 5th. Any predictions of your own? Comment away!

Shower time

As we approach the arrival of baby Grace, friends, co-workers and family have been showering us with generosity (pun intended). We'd take a picture of her goods-in-waiting but we don't have a panoramic setting on the camera. It's been great and a tad overwhelming. Both Jason and Kelly had showers at their respective offices. Here's a shot of the rad cake we got at Jason work:


And then gifts (too many!) followed as with Kelly's shower at work.


These were lovely but decidedly more subdued affairs than the shower we threw at casa de Westlake. That power shower was a little raucous and threw in many ideas we brazenly stole from other friends. Including the Swiss import of beer sippy cup races. We went tourney style with multiple one-on-one matchups at a time to determine the ultimate champ. Some people (like your "friends" at a fraternity) will mock you for "nursing that bottle." Here, that skill was rewarded.


After a random seeding for the bracket, we played single elmination sippy until we reached the final four.


Jason reached the final four only because a far better sippy contestant had a blow out and was DQ'd for spillage. And in the semis, he was embarrassed by the eventual champ.


His technique was ridiculously good. Look at the domination!


Anyway, any good beer-swilling sippy shower needs to have BBQ, so we picked up 15 pounds of mixed goodness from Rudy's and chowed too.


Good times were had by all




So, to all our well-wishers, we raise a glass (sippy or otherwise). The last few weeks of celebration have been grand. Now we just want her out!

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Our Last DINK XMAS

Here's a storyboard of our last Christmas as non parents. Jason had almost 2 weeks off straight and Kelly had about a week and a half so there was a lot of time off but not a lot of travel unlike pretty much every Christmas break before in our history. We hunkered, nested, prepared and shopped like yuppie parents should.

We kicked things off by not kicking at all...instead Jason's legs moved very cautiously and stiffly around a roller rink for the first time in probably 20 years. Who's this nervous guy?




Anyway, then we sat at home and watched all these great holiday cards come in. What a stash!


And finally the festivities hit with Christmas Eve homemade noodle preparation, tree decoration fun and one (just one dammit!) present to open.

(Jasper looking for scraps)

(ornaments are ready for the new arrival)

Then on Christmas day we gobbled up the noodles and turkey and green beans and salad and stuffing and ... Well, Kelly just had it all:


Look how stuffed she was!

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

I'm a Doctor not a Movie Critic!

Lest anyone thinks we fancy ourselves lofty critics of high art, I'm going to post my favorite '90s movies and be done with it. Even though I want to go into the '80s and rank "Say Anything" #1 and "Ferris" #2, I will stop. This is a family blog not Siskel & Ebert. But before we get away from the topic, here are my favorite '90s flicks. A lot are certainly emotional picks and not necessarily what would be deemed "critically acclaimed." But it was our coming-of-age decade so it's hard not to see these movies now as I did as a teenager. And when you're young these movies teach such great life lessons -- like when you're in a pinch and need to sneak out, you can always tear someone's face off and use it as your own. I used that trick so many times to sneak out of the house!

  1. Dazed and Confused
  2. Pulp Fiction
  3. Hoop Dreams
  4. Good Will Hunting
  5. American Beauty
  6. Silence of the Lambs
  7. The Shawshank Redemption
  8. Get Shorty
  9. Chasing Amy
  10. Office Space
  11. Philadelphia
  12. The Truman Show
  13. The Matrix