Registry

Monday night Mattie got off work early so we ventured down to Babies R Us and Target to register for baby gifts for the little T-Rex. We were more than a little overwhelmed by all that there is to buy for a baby. Picking out a few outfits was fun, as was the couple of toys and books that we registered for. Other things were a little more difficult. We are not completely satisfied with a lot of the travel systems (stroller/car seat combos) out there. We were also unsure of how many burp cloths, bottles, pacifiers and such that you need as well. I know babies puke a lot, but how much is a good place to start?!?!? We did not register for furniture for the baby yet (we might throw it on there later) because we are hoping to find something we like on craigs list. Basically, any experienced mommy's who want to scan through our registry and give suggestions please do. We would love some extra advice and input!!!

Daddy's birthday

Me and my birthday boy

This past week we celebrated Mattie's 28th birthday. I woke up and made Mattie a bacon waffle and a chocolate chip waffle which he was immensely happy about. That night I made a pork tenderloin with veggies and rice, and most importantly a dark chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and chocolate chips between the layers. We were definitely on a sugar high after that. What is most important and touching is that with the extra sugar in my system, the baby was moving around enough and strong enough that Mattie was able to feel two or three good kicks/movements. He was a little surprised and did not believe it at first. He thought I was making those movements and I assured him otherwise. When he said that he was feeling the baby move when I knew the baby was moving I got a little emotional and teared up. It was so nice to share that with him on his birthday!!! Of course I am a little jealous because it is a reminder that soon this precious little package that has, for the most part, been all mine will soon be ready to share with the world. Just a little bit of mommy jealousy coming out!!! All in all, I don't mind because as much as I love this little baby being all mine I am looking forward to meeting him or her!

Learning the Rules

Today I learned rule #497 about living with a pregnant woman:

Don't take the chocolate away until she says OK. -Matt

Traveling with baby

This baby, even though he or she does not realize it, is a traveling fool! The week before last I participated in the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous Alfred Lerner Fellowship at Columbia University in New York City. It sounds very prestigious and truly is. I was one of 34 teachers selected from around the world to participate in this five day fellowship. I met some wonderful people and acquired more information about the Holocaust (which I only have two class periods to teach) and really adjusted my thought on how I want to teach the Holocaust next year. Several of our speakers, when giving information, helped guide us to certain conclusions that I think I would like to try with my little Sophomores. This past year I let the students determine the direction of what we were going to talk about in relation to the Holocaust (I felt that confident in my knowledge) and it worked really well. So next year (especially if I can squeeze in an extra day or so) I think I would like to add the challenging part too! A group of girls (and a few guys) on the trip and I decided that as long as we were living in a dorm (I had forgotten about dorm mattresses and sharing bathrooms suite style) we might as well live up the dorm life. We stayed up late several nights talking, laughing, and gorging on snacks. It was a good time had by all, except maybe the people in the room next to our "hangout" who had to hear us all night...

In addition to all of the scholarly things, I did revisit a few places that I had been before and a few new places while in the city. New things I accomplished: flying all by myself (thank goodness I am a good packer and know the airports fairly well), got into a car accident in NYC (not my fault obviously and we were all fine), rode the subway by myself twice (again, good thing I had ridden public transit before), travelled as a very pregnant woman (I was only a little pregnant in Europe), saw a Comedy show (yay for high school friend Katie Larsen and her comedy group the Harvard Sailing Team), and explored the Upper West Side of NYC (there are some really great food places up there!). Three major old things: visiting ground zero, going to Lombardi's, and walking around Times Square.

This is standing at Ground Zero

I had visited Ground Zero when we went with Matt's family in 2003 and it was, for me, a bit of a surreal experience. The day we were there it was a bit foggy and you could hear a fire truck off in the distance responding to a call. I immediately felt the weight of what had occurred less than two years before. This time it was a bit harder to get back into that mind set. New York and New Yorkers have started to move on... This is a good thing in some ways, but it is hard to see such literal emptiness in the skyline (as shown in the picture above), to see the construction still occurring, and feel like it matters less and less. I was glad for a chance to revisit and think I will revisit on any subsequent trips.

Times Square

I honestly think that the baby bulge (it is so much more than a bump...maybe I should call it baby basketball) gets larger throughout the day. On our last night we all had a very nice dinner just off of the Theater district so a few of us walked around Times Square to buy overpriced trinkets and take stereotypical pictures. One thing we found amusing that I don't remember being there before was the people in lawn chairs. As you can see in the bottom corner of the picture there are people sitting in Times Square. Apparently this is something that enough people wanted to do that NYC tourism people have invested in chairs to place out for people to enjoy. While a little strange, I could see Mattie and I buying a slice of pizza, a pretzel, or some popcorn and watching and making fun of people as they passed by!

Random beauty and patriotism

This picture was just off one of the streets. It was pretty and patriotic (two of my favorite things) so I snapped a few. I will have to look at the larger prints to see if I want to enlarge any of them.

On a baby note, the baby is getting to be much more active and is kicking with more strength and consistency. I am enjoying the little bumps and love feeling that this baby is alive and growing inside of me! It is beginning to get very difficult to sleep and even worse is getting out of bed to use the restroom 4 times a night (which is at least double what I usually do for all of you who know my frequent urination tendencies).

Summer time means fruit galore!

Just a quick post to write about the glories of summer time fruit! We love this time of year when HEB and Kroger vie over customers with ridiculous weekly specials on otherwise expensive fruit. We find ourselves perusing the grocery store ads to see who has Strawberries for less than $1 or cherries for a cheap amount per pound. The plethora of fresh fruit means that Mattie and I tend to stay away from traditional dessert and opt for fresh fruit with a bit of sugar, cut up over our favorite light ice cream (Dreyers Slow Churned Vanilla Bean...you cannot tell it is lower in fat...I swear), or as a topping to angel food cake. It is a dessert or snack that you can feel really good about. We rather enjoy sweet strawberries that can be eaten as we cut them up in preparation for a dessert later in the day. We also like blackberries and raspberries that merely need to be washed and popped in your mouth for that burst of flavor. When we can get some good peaches or nectarines I will break out the ice cream maker for a nectarine/peach and raspberry sorbet. Lastly, we like to add cut up berries and granola to yogurt for a snack or breakfast (my favorite combo is a blackberry, cinnamon granola, apple turnover yogurt concoction). The picture was a fruit salad that Matt commissioned after he bought kiwi, strawberries, nectarines, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, it was a delicious and light end to a wonderful meal.

Echo...Echo...Echo...

Our lives have been a bit topsy turvy for the past few weeks getting everything together for the floors. Matt worked so hard to prep the floors. I really enjoyed the little bit of help I was able to give, but felt extremely limited by my inability to lift much (and thus I was unable to help move furniture) and the fact that I am getting tired more and more easily. I did rip up a good portion of the two layers of laminate flooring in the kitchen which was satisfying to get rid of poor remodeling on previous owners part. We moved all of the furniture from the downstairs to the garage, storage shed, or upstairs. Here are some pictures.

The Concrete Slab

Who says that a garage is for cars?

Our temporary loft upstairs, we have been reminded why we like our bedroom without a t.v.

The concrete company came after Matt finished up all of the demolition (along with Jessie's help). They finished cleaning the slab, polished the concrete down, and got to work staining. We picked the color "Spice" for our base color and that is shown here below.

I was freaked out when I saw this color...it looked way more Terra Cotta than we wanted.

The finished product has made us very happy. They add darker tones and a wax that brings out all of the natural imperfections of the concrete (which is exactly what we wanted).

The kitchen turned out awesome (now we need to re-do the counter tops).

The Concrete guy was worried we wouldn't like the pebbles...it is actually our favorite part!

So far we love the concrete, it was kept the house a lot cooler and while we have not resettled downstairs we are enjoying our choice. For the stairs and upstairs we have a shipment of hard wood planks from Vietnam that are on a boat headed to us via one of Matt's customers so you will hear more about that later!

Recent baby pictures

Here are the most recent ultrasound pictures (from the appointment last week). The baby was still giving us a front view, but he or she definitely looks less like an alien than before. It was difficult to get a good picture because not only was the baby being very still, but he or she was all folded up like a little clam. T-Rex is apparently very flexible right now! Mattie refuses to put this picture on his desk in hopes of getting a better one when we go in a few weeks. We do have video of the baby that we watch a few times a week and share with people in person!

On other news, I have more to post about the remodel and T-Rex's and I's recent trip to NYC later!