Our first family pictures :) :)
Amy came all the way over from Harrisburg yesterday to take some more belly shots. My favorite part was the little "family picture" time-- I can't wait to frame one or two or three of them :)-- it will be such a fun memory-- and someday Bruno will be able to see how much we enjoyed him -- even before we could see him. He's a beautiful baby -- don't ya think? I feel big-- but alas, I am growing a human inside of me, who is rumored to be about 18 inches long by now... I really don't feel huge like everyone keeps saying (well, until I see the pictures...) . I'm just thankful to not be experiencing a lot of swelling and discomfort (yet). My ankles and fingers remain water-free. I feel better than I did even a few weeks ago... more energy...less tired...less achy. go figure!
Monday, March 10, 2008
A place to lay his head...
Yesterday we got our crib and dresser/changing table -- I am so relieved, as this was getting to be a last minute thing (it takes 8-10 weeks to ship stuff like that if you order it online new). We got this set off of Craigslist for half of what it originally cost-- AND it was in Malvern-- which was so convenient to go see in person, and then to pick up. My dad and dave loaded up my dad's truck and brought them home. They're beautiful pieces, the exact color we wanted, and so much nicer quality than stuff I'd been looking at online
. The only thing is they're a little larger than I thought they'd be. We're going to have to do some maneuvering in our tiny little nursery. But still, he has a place to lay his cute little head! It's getting more and more real every day. :)
. The only thing is they're a little larger than I thought they'd be. We're going to have to do some maneuvering in our tiny little nursery. But still, he has a place to lay his cute little head! It's getting more and more real every day. :) (The picture of the crib is off of a baby furniture website, and the picture of the dresser is the one the seller put on Craigslist)
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Belated Blessings
Yesterday marked the birthdays of 2 of the most influential women in my life-- My mom and Lauren. There's really no way to describe the impact of two such giving, caring people without sounding totally trite. How do you put into words the countless hours of pouring love, wisdom, sympathy, direction, and fun into another's world? There really is no way. But the best part about people who do this kind of thing is that they don't do it for the accolades. They wouldn't hold it against me if I never said "thank you" or "wow, you're awesome!" But I think that everyone who lays down her life for another needs genuine encouragement that her investment has had an impact. And it's so easy to just take people like this for granted.
My mom has spent her life as a mother being wholly devoted. She has always made us feel loved, special and wanted. She knows how to make me laugh when I'm cranky, and always has. Every birthday I've had for the past 29 years, she's gone out of her way to make a beautiful cake, table, and display of presents! She was always baking cookies after school, and making sure we had sufficient time outdoors. She never let me have a barbie doll because she didn't want me to think that that's what a woman is supposed to look like. She modeled what it means to be yourself and be ok with not looking like other people (she never got her ears pierced or painted her nails). I remember sitting in a child development class in college where we were having a discussion on gender, and someone said that girls were more "high maintenance". I raised my hand and said, "not if you don't raise them to be high maintenance."
She gave me confidence, was always proud of me, encouraged me in my gifts... and even let me play the violin when I obviously wasn't excelling in the area of music. I didn't know it, but she made me practice in the basement with the door shut so as to drown out the squawking. She knows all those little things about me that other people don't. There are too many inside jokes to count. And she still tells me to call her when I'm driving home late at night, which really doesn't bother me-- it makes me feel loved. I always feel appreciated by her, as if I did something good for HER by being born. That's a gift not every girl has.
When Lauren entered my life the summer before 9th grade, I thought she was a little too much. Of what I'm not sure, but she seemed so interested in getting to know me, and I think it was hard to imagine that someone could be that genuinely interested in my likes, my dislikes, and my spirituality. I guess I thought it was something she was "hired" to do as a youth leader. But then she started remembering those little things (which really says a lot to a person's heart), showing up at my games, and just wanting to hang out. We seemed to connect in the way we thought, talked, and processed life. She modeled what it meant to listen empathetically, and was always offering to pray for me. Her prayers were (and still are) so full of genuineness. She led our small group, and helped to foster deeper relationships among my friends and me... which, in retrospect really helped keep my focus on God and girls... rather than feeling the need to find a boy to fill that "lonely void". To this day, she is a constant in my life, and I know I could tell her anything and she'd understand. The fact that she would consider me her friend and equal is a gift beyond comprehension.
So hats off to you, my excellent role models-- my women of strength and humility-- my heroes. You deserve so much more than this! I wish I could say it all -- but it would take 2 separate books!
Happy Birthdays-- I love that you share this important date in history.... and I celebrate you both more than words will allow!
My mom has spent her life as a mother being wholly devoted. She has always made us feel loved, special and wanted. She knows how to make me laugh when I'm cranky, and always has. Every birthday I've had for the past 29 years, she's gone out of her way to make a beautiful cake, table, and display of presents! She was always baking cookies after school, and making sure we had sufficient time outdoors. She never let me have a barbie doll because she didn't want me to think that that's what a woman is supposed to look like. She modeled what it means to be yourself and be ok with not looking like other people (she never got her ears pierced or painted her nails). I remember sitting in a child development class in college where we were having a discussion on gender, and someone said that girls were more "high maintenance". I raised my hand and said, "not if you don't raise them to be high maintenance."
She gave me confidence, was always proud of me, encouraged me in my gifts... and even let me play the violin when I obviously wasn't excelling in the area of music. I didn't know it, but she made me practice in the basement with the door shut so as to drown out the squawking. She knows all those little things about me that other people don't. There are too many inside jokes to count. And she still tells me to call her when I'm driving home late at night, which really doesn't bother me-- it makes me feel loved. I always feel appreciated by her, as if I did something good for HER by being born. That's a gift not every girl has.
When Lauren entered my life the summer before 9th grade, I thought she was a little too much. Of what I'm not sure, but she seemed so interested in getting to know me, and I think it was hard to imagine that someone could be that genuinely interested in my likes, my dislikes, and my spirituality. I guess I thought it was something she was "hired" to do as a youth leader. But then she started remembering those little things (which really says a lot to a person's heart), showing up at my games, and just wanting to hang out. We seemed to connect in the way we thought, talked, and processed life. She modeled what it meant to listen empathetically, and was always offering to pray for me. Her prayers were (and still are) so full of genuineness. She led our small group, and helped to foster deeper relationships among my friends and me... which, in retrospect really helped keep my focus on God and girls... rather than feeling the need to find a boy to fill that "lonely void". To this day, she is a constant in my life, and I know I could tell her anything and she'd understand. The fact that she would consider me her friend and equal is a gift beyond comprehension.
So hats off to you, my excellent role models-- my women of strength and humility-- my heroes. You deserve so much more than this! I wish I could say it all -- but it would take 2 separate books!
Happy Birthdays-- I love that you share this important date in history.... and I celebrate you both more than words will allow!
Friday, March 7, 2008
a trifle too big...
I made a chocolate peanut butter trifle to take to a dinner party tonight. 
I've been wanting to make it since Christmas when I bought the ingredients,
and haven't had the opportunity until now. The problem is there will only be 4 of us (well 5 if you count Bruno) to eat it. .... and it serves about 12! So if you'd like to take part in the leftovers, please let me know, and I'll email them to you :)
Here are some pictures of it-- it is so easy to make.... I just baked a devil's food cake with some peanut butter chips tossed in it, and layered pieces of it with cool whip, more pb chips, and choc./pb pudding mixture (1 3-oz box
choc. pudding, 1 3-oz box vanilla pudding, 3 c milk, 1 c cool whip, 3/4 c pb). There are a million variations you could come up with (last 4th of july i did one with vanilla pudding, pound cake, cool whip, & strawberries and blueberries). The original recipe idea comes from the Funk Family Cookbook, courtesy of Paula Schwabenland... and includes heath bar, kahlua soaked choc. cake, and choc. pudding made with part milk, part kahlua ... YUM.
Ideally, you wanna make it for a larger party than just 4.... it's a total crowd pleaser-- relatively easy...and fun to make!
Sometime I'd like to try making a chocolate-mint version, maybe next Christmas-- with crushed candy canes in the choc. pudding, or something.
I'm not posting the nutritional facts-- no one should ever know how many grams of ANYTHING they're consuming when it tastes soooo good. It would totally ruin it!
I've been wanting to make it since Christmas when I bought the ingredients,
and haven't had the opportunity until now. The problem is there will only be 4 of us (well 5 if you count Bruno) to eat it. .... and it serves about 12! So if you'd like to take part in the leftovers, please let me know, and I'll email them to you :)
Here are some pictures of it-- it is so easy to make.... I just baked a devil's food cake with some peanut butter chips tossed in it, and layered pieces of it with cool whip, more pb chips, and choc./pb pudding mixture (1 3-oz box
choc. pudding, 1 3-oz box vanilla pudding, 3 c milk, 1 c cool whip, 3/4 c pb). There are a million variations you could come up with (last 4th of july i did one with vanilla pudding, pound cake, cool whip, & strawberries and blueberries). The original recipe idea comes from the Funk Family Cookbook, courtesy of Paula Schwabenland... and includes heath bar, kahlua soaked choc. cake, and choc. pudding made with part milk, part kahlua ... YUM.Ideally, you wanna make it for a larger party than just 4.... it's a total crowd pleaser-- relatively easy...and fun to make!
Sometime I'd like to try making a chocolate-mint version, maybe next Christmas-- with crushed candy canes in the choc. pudding, or something.
I'm not posting the nutritional facts-- no one should ever know how many grams of ANYTHING they're consuming when it tastes soooo good. It would totally ruin it!
Thursday, March 6, 2008
the B word
Last night was our first class of 4 at Paoli Hospital, where we'll be hopefully delivering our baby boy in 2 months or so. It was a Breastfeeding Class, and I was a little nervous for my husband, who doesn't even like to mention the word breast, let alone watch videos of how to properly latch a baby onto one! I had this vision beforehand of the instructor being like, "Ok Ladies, everyone whip out your boobs...." and my poor modest husband jumping under the table. Fortunately it wasn't that bad. He did a great job for the most part, paying attention and reading the material handed out to us. We had to bring a baby doll with us (to practice different holding positions), and it was cute to watch dave interact with the doll, making it talk and move it's arms as if to hit me and stuff. He got a little uncomfortable with the video, which definitely was a lot of large breasts being shoved into babies' mouths, one after the other. Understandable for Mr. Pure-in-Heart. I think it helped that there were about 25 or 30 other people there, 1/2 of whom were husbands. . . who all had to sit through the same thing. He used some of the video time to formulate and write down on the back of a handout, arguments against evolution... some of the amazing stuff we were learning about how babies and moms are designed was inspiring him... and provided a good distraction from the giant nipples up on the screen.
The best part really was learning about all the cool ways God's made babies and His design for feeding them. Since they can only see about 6-12 inches away from their faces at birth, it helps that the nipple is like a dark bull's eye/target. They can aim for it, and then, they're about 6-12 inches from the mother's face for bonding-- how perfect a design! They're also born with this instinct to bond from skin-to-skin contact, and primarily learn by taste and smell-- how convenient when it comes to feeding from your own body! The other fascinating part (to me) was that Colostrum is actually said to taste similar to Amniotic Fluid, which is all the baby's been tasting/swallowing for months! So those first drops of breastmilk are not only an immune-boosting/antibody-forming/healthy dose of nutrients, but it's tasty too! Such a miracle-- and the benefits to both mother and baby are endless-- from lowering mother's (and even baby girl's) risk of breast and ovarian cancer to helping prevent illness and future allergies in baby, to losing pregnancy weight faster-- and far outweigh the potentially painful first couple of weeks of learning how to get the hang of it... What an amazing Creator we have! I marvel at the beauty and intricacy of His intentions...
PLEASE remind me of these wonderful things when i'm in agony a couple months from now!! I know millions of women have gotten through it, but I am sure it will be tempting to give up at some points... I've heard the horror stories :)
Tonight is our "Childbirth 101" class-- yikes! I can't believe this is all happening!
The best part really was learning about all the cool ways God's made babies and His design for feeding them. Since they can only see about 6-12 inches away from their faces at birth, it helps that the nipple is like a dark bull's eye/target. They can aim for it, and then, they're about 6-12 inches from the mother's face for bonding-- how perfect a design! They're also born with this instinct to bond from skin-to-skin contact, and primarily learn by taste and smell-- how convenient when it comes to feeding from your own body! The other fascinating part (to me) was that Colostrum is actually said to taste similar to Amniotic Fluid, which is all the baby's been tasting/swallowing for months! So those first drops of breastmilk are not only an immune-boosting/antibody-forming/healthy dose of nutrients, but it's tasty too! Such a miracle-- and the benefits to both mother and baby are endless-- from lowering mother's (and even baby girl's) risk of breast and ovarian cancer to helping prevent illness and future allergies in baby, to losing pregnancy weight faster-- and far outweigh the potentially painful first couple of weeks of learning how to get the hang of it... What an amazing Creator we have! I marvel at the beauty and intricacy of His intentions...
PLEASE remind me of these wonderful things when i'm in agony a couple months from now!! I know millions of women have gotten through it, but I am sure it will be tempting to give up at some points... I've heard the horror stories :)
Tonight is our "Childbirth 101" class-- yikes! I can't believe this is all happening!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Dropsies
They say you reach a point in pregnancy where you suddenly turn clumsy. I think i reached that point early on, and just continue to progress in it. It started months ago when I dropped a (plastic) half gallon of apple juice in the grocery store, and it managed to land on the edge of the LID, which cracked (didn't even pop off) and there was juice all over the aisle. Fortunately it was like 9pm, so there were only a couple of other people in the same aisle. The girl came and cleaned it up and was like, "don't worry about it... it happens all the time..."
I wondered if she meant, "pregnant women are always dropping and exploding juice bottles..." or "people tend to drop things when they're pregnant..." or if she was just being nice cuz they pay her to be nice to clumsy customers.
A couple of weeks ago I somehow managed to prepare a bowl of cereal, pour the milk on it, and THEN spill the entire thing (upside down on the kitchen floor). I had just woken up, so excited to eat!! it was early morning, and i just stood there dazed and confused, and stared at it--trying to comprehend how in the world it happened.... similarly to how I had stared at the carton of upside down/burst open blueberries a few weeks before that. Being the cheapskate that i am, i picked up every blueberry i could find (some were 10 feet away!) and washed them thoroughly so as not to waste the good money i dished out for fresh fruit in the middle of winter! not quite as easy with the bowl of cereal... OR the cup of yogurt that fell OUT OF THE BAG and exploded on the kitchen floor as i was trying to pack for my lunch yesterday, while i was hurrying out the door (something you probably shouldn't do anyway when you're 7 months pregnant).
And you may recall the shattered glass of water incident, bedside, when we were sick about a month ago... but i can blame that on sheer weakness of the flu, right???
Other than that I'm feeling rather stable these days-- except for the daily dropping of my cell phone-- c'mon, it's a slippery little thing!
I'm putting my hope in the fact that the clumsiness is a symptom (however strange and mysterious) of pregnancy, and not a permanent condition... that'd be bad to drop a newborn.
I wondered if she meant, "pregnant women are always dropping and exploding juice bottles..." or "people tend to drop things when they're pregnant..." or if she was just being nice cuz they pay her to be nice to clumsy customers.
A couple of weeks ago I somehow managed to prepare a bowl of cereal, pour the milk on it, and THEN spill the entire thing (upside down on the kitchen floor). I had just woken up, so excited to eat!! it was early morning, and i just stood there dazed and confused, and stared at it--trying to comprehend how in the world it happened.... similarly to how I had stared at the carton of upside down/burst open blueberries a few weeks before that. Being the cheapskate that i am, i picked up every blueberry i could find (some were 10 feet away!) and washed them thoroughly so as not to waste the good money i dished out for fresh fruit in the middle of winter! not quite as easy with the bowl of cereal... OR the cup of yogurt that fell OUT OF THE BAG and exploded on the kitchen floor as i was trying to pack for my lunch yesterday, while i was hurrying out the door (something you probably shouldn't do anyway when you're 7 months pregnant).
And you may recall the shattered glass of water incident, bedside, when we were sick about a month ago... but i can blame that on sheer weakness of the flu, right???
Other than that I'm feeling rather stable these days-- except for the daily dropping of my cell phone-- c'mon, it's a slippery little thing!
I'm putting my hope in the fact that the clumsiness is a symptom (however strange and mysterious) of pregnancy, and not a permanent condition... that'd be bad to drop a newborn.
Saturday, March 1, 2008
Merry Christmas, Honey
Last evening, Dave and I went to see Christopher O'Riley at the Kimmel Center in Philly... I gave him tickets for Christmas. This guy is a classical pianist who is known for taking the music of rock bands like Radiohead (one of Dave's all-time favorites) and transcribing them into classical pieces. Of course sitting there listening to him play, all I hear is beautiful classical piano. I can only imagine how fabulous it was for my musical genius husband, who not only hears every complex chord, note and whatnot, but recognizes every song as one of his cherished rock tunes. Not only that, but because
O'Riley is classically trained (since age 4), he tends to weave in the "sound" of different composers that have influenced him over the years, all of whom my husband knows and recognizes. None of whose names I'd ever even heard.
The most enjoyable part of the evening for me was bonding with Bruno, who seemed to enjoy the music just as much as he did at the U23D concert -- hmm... I'm sensing a pattern here. I better find some new hobbies if this kid is going to be as musically inclined as his father. They'll probably disappear for hours at a time, composing and stuff!
We got a pretty good night's sleep until 6:30 this morning, when the pscyho OCD cardinal started flying into every window in the house! It's now 9:30am and he's still going! I'm not kidding-- Every window. We'd start to drift back to sleep and BANG! right next to our bed. Not quite the Saturday morning relaxation you look forward to all week-- but hey, I guess we better get used to sleep disturbance :)
Mom finally comes home from Knee Rehab today-- While still in a lot of pain, I'm amazed at how much she's able to walk and bend the knee, even with the 6 inch incision! Maybe we'll go mooch off of their free dinner from friends.... :)
O'Riley is classically trained (since age 4), he tends to weave in the "sound" of different composers that have influenced him over the years, all of whom my husband knows and recognizes. None of whose names I'd ever even heard. The most enjoyable part of the evening for me was bonding with Bruno, who seemed to enjoy the music just as much as he did at the U23D concert -- hmm... I'm sensing a pattern here. I better find some new hobbies if this kid is going to be as musically inclined as his father. They'll probably disappear for hours at a time, composing and stuff!
We got a pretty good night's sleep until 6:30 this morning, when the pscyho OCD cardinal started flying into every window in the house! It's now 9:30am and he's still going! I'm not kidding-- Every window. We'd start to drift back to sleep and BANG! right next to our bed. Not quite the Saturday morning relaxation you look forward to all week-- but hey, I guess we better get used to sleep disturbance :)
Mom finally comes home from Knee Rehab today-- While still in a lot of pain, I'm amazed at how much she's able to walk and bend the knee, even with the 6 inch incision! Maybe we'll go mooch off of their free dinner from friends.... :)
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