George and Norma

Went out to dinner at Spago (Wolfgang Puck's restaurant) with Charles's parents while they were in town. Thomas was in his public persona. We were sitting next to the server station and Thomas sat in his stroller and flirted with the wait staff all through dinner. We walked around Ceasers Palace with Norma for a while until he got hungry and fussy. We went up to their room for me to feed him. Boy are the rooms there nice. It had a flat screen tv, a minibar, and an enormous, gorgeous bathroom.

The Heat is On

There's just something about hearing a weather forecast that ends with the line ". . . and cooling to 104 on Sunday."

Smiling at Swan

School's Out for the Summer

Right now, it is blissfully quiet here. Curtis took Thomas to go and submit the grades. After this, we are free, free, free until sometime near the end of August. We've already got plans to be out of Vegas (and its heat) for most of the summer and visit friends and family. This month, we need to go to L.A. and find a place to live. July will be a 4 week trip to Missouri and Baltimore. And in August, we're going to northern CA and Washington. It'll be lots of fun, though I keep hoping that gas prices will drop soon.

In other news, Thomas is happily settled in his crib. It's the same crib that I slept in as a baby. He took to it right away (mercifully). However, with all the years of education between the two of us, it still took us way too long to put the crib together. I think we made every possible mistake. We tried to put the springs in upsidedown, then figured out that the side was also upsidedown. We were also trying to do this in a narrow space in our hot bedroom. But after some choice words and a lot of sweat, it came together. He looks so tiny in the crib after nearly filling his bassinet.

Two Month Checkup

Thomas turned two months old on Friday and to celebrate, he got his next round of vaccinations. One liquid by mouth and three shots in the legs. He was an unhappy fellow Friday evening when he seemed sore and fussy. The drugs also made his diapers powerfully stinky for a couple of days afterwards.

The pediatrician said that he is thriving. Now Curtis and I don't know much about babies, but as we look around at others, Thomas seems, well, big. The doctor showed me the growth curves. Thomas is 90th percentile in weight, below average in length, with a slightly above average head circumference. At this stage, this is good and healthy, but after he's six months old and starts getting taller, then they'll evaluate whether he might be overweight.

He is now 22 1/2 inches long and weighs 13 lbs 10 oz. He has outgrown his newborn/justborn sized clothes and is wearing the 3M (M=month) size. He's getting pretty big for his bassinet and we will be putting the crib together this week. I hope it's not too difficult a transition into the crib.

Does he know how cute he is?

Curtis and I often wonder at what point Thomas will be smarter than Beckham (who is one of the world's dumber cats). Beckham seems to be self-aware. It knows what is part of its body and what isn't (though it does sometimes miss its tail and wash the footstool instead). Thomas does not seem to realize that his arms and legs belong to him. Or perhaps he does and just can't control them. How do you tell the difference? Does he know who the Baby in the Mirror is? Is he trying to look cute?

Movie Rental Review

We've had Netflix for several years. When Blockbuster came out with a competing service a few years ago, we did the free trial and were very disappointed. So we weren't expecting much when Blockbuster started its big media push for its Blockbuster Total Access. It's the same price as Netflix, and at least in Vegas, has the same turnaround time for movies. They've improved the user interface and now have a comparable selection to Netflix. The big plus is that you can return your movies to any Blockbuster store and get a store rental as well as another movies sent from you queue. This essentially doubles your movies, though the store rentals are subject to the same rental periods and late fees as usual. After the free month, we've suspended our Netflix account and gone with Blockbuster.

It's really brought home for me how much Netflix has revolutionized video rental. Going to a Blockbuster store is a huge disappointment after online rentals. Renting online gives you your choice of 10,000+ movies. You also get recommendations based on what you've like in the past. The movies are cross-referenced into several categories and you can search by actor, director, producer, etc. The store has only a couple hundred movies, mostly new releases. The movies are display alphabetically by title in only action, drama, horror, comedy, and family categories. There are tiny displays of anime, television, and foreign. It's terrible for browsing. We end up just renting "something" when we return our movies. It's really hard to find something you like unless you've selected it beforehand and it came out fairly recently. I now remember why we never rented movies before we got Netflix.

Life After Six Weeks

The baby books are right, six weeks is the magic number. Life has been much better this past week since Thomas reached that magic number. No, he's not sleeping through the night. But he has become somewhat predictable. He gets up at 5:30 every morning and will usually go to sleep after a feeding between 9 and 10pm. During the day, a good working a assumption is that he will want to eat every two hours (at the odd hours). I've been able to go to church and to the gym every day that I want to by feeding him before I leave and being gone less than two hours, in order to feed him when I get back.

He's also smiling more and cooing, which makes him much more pleasant to interact with. Now there seems to be some intelligence in his eyes, instead of a blank gaze. He's supposed to start being able to laugh soon, making him even more fun to play with.

Ok, so maybe I need to do some clutter control. . .

Baby's First Gym Membership

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day was fabulous. I scored free pancake breakfast after church then came home and took a nap while Curtis amused Thomas. In the afternoon, Curtis and Thomas stayed home and I went out and ran some errands. I had to stop myself from going to deal with the carseat and then it hit me; it was only the 2nd time in the last six weeks that I've been alone. Just having some time by myself was a great gift, but Curtis also got me a certificate for a spa treatment at Qua Baths and Spa at Caesars Palace. I can't wait to go.

Our gift for our Mom's is this picture of their grandson's smile. I'm also posting a bunch of photos from last weekend on the Flickr page.

Godparents

Thomas's godparents (unofficially until he gets baptized), Jonathan and willowlaughter spent the weekend with us. It was a little crazy because they decided Thursday night to fly to Vegas the next day after their kickball game was canceled. It was great seeing them. It'd been a long time since the four of us could just hang out. WL hit it right off with The Baby. I forget that other people my age can have experience with babies even if they don't have any. WL was a total pro. Even though it was their vacation, I felt like it was mine because she was always willing to hold and entertain The Baby. She and Jonathan had brought their camera of spiffiness and took a few (>112) pictures of The Bambino. Fortunately, they also took a few of each other.

One Month Old Today

Today, Thomas had his one month checkup. He's doing fine. Length: 21 inches, Weight: 10 lb 3 oz. We'd noticed that he'd gained weight, since now he has chubby cheeks and (as Curtis put it,) thighs like a sumo wrestler. Here's a picture of him showing how much he's grown and one of him and his doctor today. He's happy in this photo, because it's before he got a vaccine shot in the leg.

Male Bonding - boys, beer, and baseball

Cute/Not Cute

These two pictures were taken about two hours apart in the same position, with the same initial conditions. The results were very different. Thomas is so far a nightmare for an experimentalist.

My Daily Goals

1) Keep baby fed, reasonably content, and reasonably clean.
2) Get enough rest to not want to kill myself or others.
3) Keep self hydrated and fed (still eating for two after all)
4) Take a shower (very important for a woman who is thrown up on daily) and change out of pjs.
5) Get enough rest to actually feel rested.
6) Essential housework: supper, clean plate to put it on, clean underwear
7) Nonessential housework: everything else

Modest goals, but on a good day, I make it into #6. On a bad day, I'm lucky to get to #2. Yesterday, it took until 6pm to make it to #4.

First Bath

On Saturday, Thomas got his first tub bath. We put his little baby bath inside our giant Roman tub. I passed the baby and did drying and dressing, and Curtis did the actual bathing. All the books indicated that newborns do not like baths and that the baby would probably scream through the whole process. Thomas didn't seem to mind being bathed and didn't cry once. Even when Curtis splashed water in his face, he would just close his eyes. I'm not sure that he actually liked it, but he couldn't wait to do it again and got his second bath the very next day after an especially disgusting diaper.

Conversations I never thought I'd be a part of

In the event that anyone ever told me that I would have been involved in this conversation I would have thought that they were nuts. Nevertheless, here's a rough paraphrasing. (Names changed to protect the guilty)

Person A : That smells horrid.

Person B : Sorry.

Person A : Wait, it was you? Oh thank goodness, I thought Thomas needed changed again already.

You and Me and Baby Makes Three

Yesterday my mom started back to MO and today pjdf left us to continue his road trip into Utah. This means that for the first time in a month, we don't have any company over. It's strangely exhilerating, but also a little scary. There's no longer anyone to ask to "watch the baby a minute while I . . " shower/eat/clean up/hide. I got out the baby carrier so that I could make myself some Mac 'N Cheese without Thomas screaming. He seems to like the carrier, since he's asleep and drooling on my shirt.

Little Man's Big Day

Today was Thomas's Big Day. At his two week pediatrician visit, he got weighed (which he hates), blood drawn (which all babies hate), and circumcised ('nuff said). He survived it all. He cried and screamed a lot, but after coming home and being fed, he's now sleeping peacefully. The good news is that after weighing 7 lbs, 11 oz at birth, and dropping to 7 lbs even by day 4, he has regained his birthweight and then some. He weighed in today at 8 lbs 6 oz and gained an inch in length. It's very reassuring to see that all the time spent feeding him is being put to good use.

First Day of School

Curtis finally got the chance to show Thomas off around school. Monday afternoon, I brought the baby in and then watched the beginning of Curtis's baseball game. It was hysterical watching Curtis walk down the hall with the baby looking for one of his teacher friends. Behind him was a trail of girls going, "Oh, is that the baby? Wait, Mr. Pehl! I want to see the baby! Mr. Pehl?" The best line came from his friend Clouse. After talking to Curtis for a bit, Clouse glanced down, saw the baby, did a double take and exclaimed, "Holy crap! That's a PERSON!" I also ran into Tim and his daughter. They were the other couple at the joint school baby shower. She is a month and a half older than Thomas, but doesn't look that much bigger because she was born early. Gestationally, she's only two weeks older.

All Three of Us

The Shooter

Curtis and I went out on a date Sunday. We left the bambino with his grandma to use our free movie passes from Christmas. After splitting some orange chicken at Panda Express, we saw The Shooter. It was a better movie than we expected. If you like blow-em-up-shoot-em-ups, then this is a good one to see. Morgan Freeman and Mark Wahlburg (looking deliciously buff) both put in good performances. The plot was suspenseful and wasn't completely predictable. Writing was good with some fairly snappy dialogue. The best part, of course, was the really big guns (lots of sniper rifles) and really big explosions. Cars, houses, napalm, and two helicopters all made great, big fireballs over the two hours of the movie. 4 out of 5 stars.

Lots 'O Photos

We started a Flickr site with lots more baby pictures. I'm also adding it to the sidebar. We'll try to put all the photos there and only the best ones here.

Thomas Makes a Discovery

Happy Easter!

Thomas went to church for the first time. Unfortunately it was the Easter vigil Mass (2.5 hrs). He and I missed the entire middle hour while he: decided to feed for extra long and fuss if I tried to take him off, spit up on his cute outfit, made a very wet diaper, filled the extra diaper I had brought, and had a major case of the hiccups. Aside from that hour, (which he and I spent out in the car,) he was good as gold in church. The moment the last hymn was sung, he started crying. Of course, when we got home, he didn't want to go to sleep. He has redeemed himself though, by sleeping for 4 hours straight. I'm going to have to wake him up to feed him.

Last night, we celebrated the Lord's resurrection from the dead by eating our traditional meal of homemade, Chicago-style, deep-dish pizza with sausage and hard-boiled egg. (Actually, a real Italian-American tradition.) Super yummy! The pizza contains all the things that we (well, just Curtis this year) fasted from during Lent (meat, eggs, and dairy). We are meeting Curtis's parents at their hotel(/casino) for Easter brunch at 8am before they hit the road for Fresno. Then we'll dye the eggs that we didn't get around to doing before Easter.

Outings

On Tuesday, I had my first post-pregnancy outing. Curtis and I went to Sam's and to Trader Joe's while my mother watched the baby. I walked very slowly, but was definitely starting to improve. I did get too tired and had to leave TJ's to sit in the car. Later we went to vote in the city election.

On Wednesday, all four of us (including my mom and Thomas) stopped by the mall to visit the maternity and then Target. We got to try out our stroller, which is awesomely easy to use. Thomas also proved the adage that the car puts babies to sleep. Even though it was two short stops, it turned out to be way too much walking for me and my stitches hurt the rest of the day.

Last night, Thomas had his first restaurant experience. Curtis's parents are down for the weekend and treated us all to the Olive Garden. Thomas fell asleep in the car and slept in his carseat for the entire meal. He looked so adorable. I was so proud of him.

Oops, it's 3:30 am and I hear someone is hungry. More (including a link to more pics) later.

LATER UPDATE: I skipped Thursday, which was Thomas's first pediatrician visit. The dr. said that he is pretty perfect. The birthmark by his eye may or may not be permanent. (Thanks for narrowing that down, doc!) His weight had dropped to 7 lbs even, but that's normal and he should regain his birthweight by his 2-week appointment, now that the milk has come in. The two-week appointment is also when Thomas will get blood drawn for a round of tests and go under the knife for his "snip, snip" operation. Boy is he going to love that. My mom has agreed to stay until after that appointment, since Curtis will be at work and I will have one angry baby. Thomas hated the doctor's visit since he had to be stripped down to his diaper to be weighed and left that way until the doctor came to the room (15+ minutes.) Babies do NOT like to be exposed because they get cold easily. Fortunately, my mom is very warm and could hold and comfort Thomas while we waited.

Birth Announcement Photo

Thomas's Birthday Story

Everything I'd read and heard said that labor for first babies takes 14-16 hours. We figured that if labor started anytime after noonish on Saturday, the baby would be born on the 1st for Grandpa's incentive plan. All day Saturday, we sat around and waited, but nothing. By 10pm, we'd pretty much given up and needed to get to bed if we were going to make it to church in the morning. I couldn't sleep, though, since I'd barely moved all day. Looking on the internet for ways to jumpstart labor, I found lots of recommendations to walk and a couple that said to eat pineapple or spicy food. I had a bowl of pineapple and Curtis and I decided to go to the grocery store while my mom went to bed. It was 11pm. I waddled up and down every aisle of Food4Less until I felt like I could maybe sleep. We came home, put away groceries, and went to bed. It was almost midnight.

I woke up during the night (probably 1 or 1:30am) to use the restroom. I got up another two times feeling like my bladder was full. I realized that the crampy feeling was probably contractions. I hadn't looked at the clock, so wasn't sure how frequently they were coming. Given that it was "early labor" (which can last all day,) I tried to go back to sleep. I was up at 5am and heard my mom go into her bathroom. I went out and said hi and that I thought I was having contractions about a half hour apart so Sunday afternoon or evening, there'd be a baby. I went back to bed, but disturbed Curtis getting in. I told him what I had told Mom. Oddly, he was now wide awake, so we decided to have breakfast. Mom joined us for omelets and we talked about going to the 6:30 am Mass, since it was already 10 till 6.

About that time, I started feeling cold and achy. I crawled back into bed and Curtis started timing the contractions with his stopwatch. Each one lasted about a minute and they were about 14 minutes apart. Not going to church now. That lasted for about an hour, and then they started coming 10 minutes apart, then 7 minutes, then 3 minutes. I'd only been in "active labor" for two hours, but the contractions were intense enough that it was time to go to the hospital, 20 minutes away. The less said about that ride, the better. Curtis comments that there was lots of screaming. I think screaming is too strong of a word.

We arrived at the hospital at 8:25 am. The nurses are asking me a whole series of admitting questions, which I'm having a very hard time answering through the contractions. When they check my cervix, I'm already at 8 cm, well into "transition," the most painful phase of labor. The problem is that I'm having the urge to push, but it's too soon. Not pushing was a huge fight against myself. Mom and Curtis each had one of my hands and helped me breathe through the urge to push and shouted at me to stop pushing when needed. They were wonderful. After an hour, I was cleared to start pushing and the pain went way down.

I pushed for an hour and a half, but wasn't making good progress and my muscles were getting very tired. The doctor found that his head was crooked. He applied suction to turn the baby's head and help pull the baby out while I pushed. That was the worst pain ever. Fortunately, it only took two more contractions to get the baby out over my screams of "OWWWWW!" (I'm very creative.) While they cleaned up the baby, the doctor sewed up the small episiotomy cut he made. I looked down at him and asked, "Who are you?" Turns out that my doctor couldn't come because she was at her own baby shower. This doctor's middle name happens to be Warren and he has a son whose birthday is April 1st. Funny coincidences.

Thomas was born at 10:45 am, less than 5 hours after the first serious contractions. I never noticed when my water broke, though it was sometime before we arrived at the hospital. I didn't have any pain medication, because there just didn't seem to be enough laboring time left to justify it. Curtis and Mom stayed with me through the entire thing. After months of telling Curtis that he didn't have to be there and wasn't really invited, he was a huge help. He helped me breathe through the urge to push, got me ice chips and fed them to me when my throat was too dry to swallow, and when I pushed, he held my leg with one arm and shoved my head into position with the other arm. He was so good at getting me into the right position, that for some time I thought the bed was doing it automatically. After the baby was born, I looked at him. I saw tears running down his face and I knew they were for me and my pain. I love him.

Some More Pics

Thomas in his hospital crib, which I dubbed "the aquarium."

He has a birthmark by his eye.

Hi, Grandma!

Watching his first baseball game with his father.

At home in his bouncer.

Like Father, Like Son

On the left, Thomas weighing in at 7 lb 11 oz. On the right, Curtis weighing in at 7 lb 12 oz. It's amazing how much alike they look.

Thomas Warren Pehl

7 lbs, 11 oz. 20" long. 10:45 this morning.

End Game Realities

"No baby yet, (we would have told you if there was) but we're hoping for Sunday. Oh, I'm doing fine. . . Well, yeah, there is the achiness, indigestion, exhaustion, gas, incredible swelling, hunger, thirst, insomnia, and by the way, I have to go to the bathroom again. But other than feeling like death, I'm fine."

Another checkup

Today was my weekly (and hopefully final) checkup with my doctor. Everything looks good. I thought Mom was going to cry when she heard the baby's heartbeat. I'm now 90% effaced and dilated to 2.5, almost 3 centimeters. She booked me for an appointment next week, but even she thought that there's a good chance I won't need it. I'm still hoping for Sunday, but could be anytime.

The Dish Fairy

When I was a kid, my family would make jokes that maybe the dish fairy would come while we were gone and clean up the kitchen and wash all the dishes. Well, the dish fairy has come to my house. I make dinner and we all eat. Then I'm tired and need to rest and put up my elephantine feet. Before I go to bed, I look in the kitchen and amazingly enough, the leftovers are put away and the dishes are washed and dried. This morning, when I woke up, the papers on the living room floor had magically picked themselves up. Having Mom here is great. I've got my hospital bag packed and all the baby laundry done and put away. I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be, but I'm hoping the baby comes this weekend (unlimited cell phone minutes) preferably Sunday (to take advantage of Grandpa's (soon to be Great-Grandpa's) incentive plan for an April Fool's baby.)

Jokes

Yesterday I once again confirmed the easiest and greatest joke that you can ever tell. It starts with anyone asking, "So Curtis, is that baby here yet?"

Now here's the joke. I simply say,"No, but my mother-in-law will be staying with us starting tonight."

So far this has gotten a round of hysterical laughter from any group I tell it to. I'm thinking of starting a stand-up act.

Short Notes

* Went to Curtis's team's baseball game yesterday. They actually won and even got to invoke the mercy rule, so we got home early.
* My mom is on her way and should arrive here tonight. Yay, Mom!
* Today's checkup revealed no change from last week. Doctor estimates that the baby is 7 lbs or a little less (yay, no giant baby!)
* People who tell you to get lots of sleep to prepare for being up with the baby have forgotten what it's like to be 9 months pregnant. In addition to the pains, aches, bathroom trips, munchies, and inability to breathe when lying down, there's also hormone fluctuations that make you feel very awake at, say, 3am. I'm so tired of insomnia!
* Am very thrilled to answer the question, "So, when are you due?" with "Oh, next week."

Getting Ready for Baby

As my due date approaches, we've started to seriously get ready to have a baby live here. Mostly this involves doing A LOT of laundry. Beckham thinks it's helpful to test out the baby gear.

Why Vegas is Great

It's been in the 80's here all week. I've been wearing all my favorite pareaus. Reading about the snow storms on the East Coast is like reading about another world. I went to the baseball game this afternoon to watch the boy coach and many people were grumbling about the heat. Ahh, warm weather and sunshine. Life is good.

Happy Pi Day!

3/14, the ultimate nerd holiday. It's also Einstein's birthday.

Doctor Checkup

Everything continues ticking along. Now that I'm full term, I get to meet with my doctor weekly until delivery. Today, she checked my cervix. For those in the know, here's the stats: effacement = 70%, dilation = 1.5, station = -1, and baby is head-down. All of which means precisely nada when it comes to predicting when this baby will be born. I still haven't had any false labor, so I'm thinking that D-day is still a ways off.

Swollen Ankles

I have bigger ankles than the galoot :(

Sam & Matt's Wedding

We're back and still pregnant. (Whew!)

We had a great time in Colorado. The flight there was uneventful, except that I forgot how easily motion sick I get. Takeoff and landing were not much fun. We flew into the tiny, podunky airport in Loveland. At the rental car counter, we saw some interesting flyers for stuff down in Boulder. Since we weren't essential for the wedding preparations and dinner was going to be served for hours, we went. We visited a small winery (ok), toured the Celestial Seasonings factory, and sampled at a meadery (where they make honey wine.) The tea factory smelled fantastic and they had a prairie dog town out front. We drove up to the Estes Park, CO YMCA park where the wedding was going to be held at a huge 8 bedroom cabin. On the way we saw a small herd of deer and two elk. The park was in the mountains and there was still some snow on the ground. Most people stayed up late talking and hanging out, but I was done in by 10. It was lightly snowing when I got up at 5. I watched it for a while since it would probably be finished by the time most everyone woke up.

Saturday morning, Curtis went for a jog at 8000 ft, then we both went over to the pool. He swam some lazy laps and I did exercises. From the cabin windows, we saw a herd of elk and a some pheasants. In the afternoon, before the ceremony, we gathered up a couple of other people and went into town. We went to the Estes Park Brewery that advertised free samples. They had some pretty good beers. Then we persuaded everyone else that we needed to stop at Dick's Rock Museum. It was our kind of rock shop, with bins of interesting rocks priced per pound. We got back in time to change clothes for the ceremony. The light snow, instead of stopping, had gotten heavier and continued throughout the day, so the ceremony was moved inside. It was nice and Sam looked beautiful in her dress. The food for the reception was almost all homemade and good. Everyone kept eating and returning for seconds. I started to feel sick from all the food and took a nap. Conversation lasted late into the night.

Sunday morning was more eating, though Curtis went for a short jog (it was pretty icy) and ran through another small group of elk. Curtis and I decided to get an early start for the airport and see if we could find more fun things to do around Loveland. We stopped at another winery, drank the famous local cherry cider, and went on the tour of the local Anheuser-Busch brewery. We skipped out on the sampling part to make it to the airport on time. The flight back was fine except for the landing, which was my worst ever. I wanted to throw up and die. I don't ever want to do that again. After retrieving our car, we went to the Silverton's buffet for dinner and then home to sleep in our own bed and to pet that cat.

Monday, there was no school for "Founder's Day," so Curtis played Final Fantasy XII all day and I rested. It's so nice to have a recovery day after travel.

Good to Go

I'm now on weekly appointments with my doctor, a clear sign that the end is approaching. Today, I got the final OK to fly this weekend. All is still normal. My belly has been very sore the last few days, so I asked if my abdominal wall had separated (a fairly normal occurrence near the end of pregnancy). Sure enough, it had and ends of the split were exactly where I would have thought based on the tenderness and pain. It's "usually painless" and typically heals on its own after delivery. Other than that, it was the usual, boring appointment. I did get a complement from my doctor. She said my appointments were so easy, not just because I'm not high-risk, but because I wasn't a complainer. I think it's because my pregnancy guide often includes in its "self-treatment and prevention" sections comments like "it will return to normal after delivery" and "remember that you are nearly to the end." I translate these comments as "suck it up and deal with it," after all no one ever said pregnancy was easy. As of Monday, I'll be considered full-term and can expect to go into labor anytime in the following five weeks. (Gee, thanks for narrowing it down.) If I'm anything like Mom, baby is likely to be late.

Surprise Visitor

We had a surprise visitor last night. PJDF was on his way from Joshua Tree towards Boulder for Sam & Matt's wedding this weekend. He's on a rock-climbing tour of the US after finishing his M.S. at MIT (that other institute of technology). Here I haven't seen him in a couple of years, but when we said goodbye this morning, it was "see you this weekend!". Plus, after multiple requests, here's me after 36 weeks. Not the greatest outfit, but it had been cleaning day.

Surprise Baby Shower

The Women's Guild at church threw me a surprise baby shower at our meeting Thursday night. It was so sweet of them. There was balloons and presents and a cake. I got more clothing in various sizes and practical items like diapers and rash creams. I also got some cash and enough Target gift cards that I was able to buy the fancy high chair that I'd wanted.

Week in Review

So last Friday (Curtis's birthday), the Women's Guild had their first ever soup supper at the church. I had volunteered to coordinate the event since I was the only one in the group with experience running one. (The boy and I ran a soup supper for Queen of All Saints last year.) It was quite different from Concord. There we had close to 200 people attend. At this parish, I was told that 50 would be an amazing turnout (even though the parish is MUCH larger than QAS.) We ended up having 35 or so. I made all the soup, which is pretty easy for that number of people. I made Tuscan Tomato Soup, Moraccan Bean Soup, and Corn and Shrimp Chowder all from my favorite soup cookbook. I got lots of complements on the soups and the people who were there seemed happy. Curtis came after work and helped me season the soups (my salt taste has been off since I got pregnant) and carry heavy pots. We, of course, had leftovers, which we served with lunch at the women's retreat the next day. It was a big hit. The leftover rolls that had been donated were kind of stale after sitting out, so I made them into bread pudding that I took to the Guild meeting Thursday and Curtis took the rest to work today.

Over the weekend, we had long talks and ran spreadsheets and made inquiries and decided to accept the job offer in California. We had intended Vegas to be the place where we finally settled down and put down roots, but life takes you in different directions sometimes. We won't actually be moving until late in the summer.

First, we have to have this baby. I'm so excited that it's finally March. When people ask when I'm due, I can say "at the end of THIS month." I had another boring, routine appointment with my doctor today. She'd had a rough week; she'd had to tell four women that their pregnancies were not going well. She said she was glad that I was doing so well. I think she enjoys seeing a routine, normal, healthy pregnancy. I got my letter clearing me to fly to Sam & Matt's wedding next weekend and copies of all my records just in case I go into labor in Colorado. March 10th seemed plenty far from my due date, but now at 36 weeks, it seems kind of crazy. Otherwise, I'm still going to the gym most days (though I've been very tired this week) and trying to keep my poor, swollen feet up as much as possible. The swelling in my hands has given me a mild case of carpal tunnel and the giant gut gets in the way when I'm trying to sleep. Even an "easy pregnancy" has plenty of unfun things.

Big News & Happy Bday Curtis

Curtis got a job offer yesterday from a school in SoCal to teach physics and math! It was his birthday present a day early. We went to Paris last night for dinner to celebrate. (Only in Vegas can a trip to Paris be done in a single evening and no airfare required.) He's getting the details from them and has a meeting with his head of school to see if Meadows will fight to keep him. I doubt they will, though.

Since the old administration was lined up against the wall at Christmas, the mood of the school changed dramatically. Many teachers have left or plan to leave at the end of the year. There also seems to be an effort to get rid of anyone hired by the old administration. Of the 7 teachers that were at the new teacher picnic, 1 just moved up from the middle school, 2 have already left and 1 has already been replaced but was allowed to stay to the end of the year with his replacement. Curtis seemed to be next on the list.

The new principal had been asking around about the status of Curtis's masters (which ain't happening). The weird thing is that he did not ask Curtis, but instead asked his department chair and the debate coach, who is Curtis's friend from high school. When Curtis tried to talk to the principal, he said he needed copies of Curtis's transcript. Curtis printed out a copy of the Berkeley unofficial transcript and gave it to him. Later the principal said that he need an official copy (why?).

In the meantime, other teachers noticed that the school had posted an ad in the newspaper that listed several open positions. Two of the positions no one knew were vacant, including Curtis's! In an email sent to all the faculty, the principal said that one teacher had decided to leave, though it hadn't been publicly announced before the ad appeared and that there were "credentials issues" with Curtis that he felt could be worked out, but that the listing was necessary to "protect the school." Never did he actually communicate directly with Curtis. Curtis heard through the grapevine that the principal was showing around some resumes for Curtis's job.

The whole thing has been very bizarre. The story is that all teachers are supposed to have masters degrees. But Curtis's friend from high school has only a B.A. and there is an arts teacher that doesn't even have that. There are also at least 2 other core subject teachers that left a Ph.D. program without a masters like Curtis did, but somehow only Curtis is getting this treatment.

As his friends at school have announced that they were leaving for better jobs at other schools, Curtis tells them, "hey, do they need physics teachers?" Well, one of the guys said, "actually, they do" and told them about Curtis. They asked for a resume and flew him to SoCal last week for an interview. Beckham wanted to go too and was sleeping on Curtis's pillow in the suitcase when we went in to finish packing. We kept everything quiet, not wanting to rock the boat at school. We didn't expect to hear anything for another couple of weeks because they were interviewing other people. When they called last night, they said that they had moved up one interview and were willing to cancel the rest, if Curtis takes the job. Curtis says that it's a big relief to feel wanted after being somewhat of a pariah at school. He's tired of students asking if he's going to be there next year and having to reply that he has no idea. At least now we know that he's got a job SOMEWHERE next year.

Ash Wednesday

We went to the 6:30am Mass to get our ashes before Curtis had to be at school. Today it is required to abstain from meat and to fast. I'm exempted from the fasting requirement due to "medical condition" and good thing, too! There wasn't time for breakfast before church and within an hour after waking up, I was so hungry that I felt sick. Being pregnant during Lent is hard. I normally give up something for Lent, but I've already given up many things that I enjoy such as beer, stinky cheese, raw fish, and sleeping on my stomach. I finally decided to give up sweets, which is tough since ice cream has been my crutch the last few months. But by the end of Lent, I'll be carrying this baby in my arms instead of on my bladder. Curtis can have the traditional Italian Easter dish (deep dish pizza with sausage and hard-boiled egg). Me, I'm having tuna rolls, blue cheese, a big dish of ice cream, and a beer (of course waiting 2 hrs before breast-feeding). Oh, it'll be heavenly.

Happy Mardi Gras!

Today is Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday, or as it's known in England, Pancake Day! Traditionally, people did not eat butter or eggs during Lent which starts on Ash Wednesday, tomorrow. They would make pancakes as a way to use up their eggs and butter. In the spirit of the holiday, Curtis and I had pancakes for breakfast. I also saw that IHOP is giving away short stacks of pancakes today until 10pm nationwide. I may go over there for lunch. Nothing tastes better than free food.

Time Waster for Star Trek Fans

This just caused me to lose most of a morning (Thanks a lot Lemming). Wil Wheaton is posting summaries and reviews of random Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes. It's hard to believe it's been almost 20 years since that show premiered. I remember absolutely loving Wesley Crusher. My excuse is that I was only 8 years old at the time. There's only a few episodes up so far, but the writeup of each one is fairly lengthy. Don't click on the link unless you don't have anything important to do for the next few hours.

Checkup AOK, 6 weeks to go

So, the other pregnant woman at the school baby shower developed problems and went in for an emergency C-section yesterday. I keep telling my tummy not to get any ideas, since she was a few weeks ahead of me and each week makes a big difference developmentally.

Had another checkup with my doctor today. The assistant commented that I had gained quite a bit of weight since my last appt :( but that she didn't think I had been gaining enough weight so overall she was pleased :)

Part of the problem is that I'm retaining a lot of water. My dr commented on how swollen my feet are. I've noticed swelling of my hands and feet for the past week. But, she said it's not anything to worry about, just uncomfortable, since my "blood pressure is gorgeous". At least some part of me is still gorgeous.

Who Owes Who?

Went to childbirth education class at the hospital this weekend. I didn't want to go alone, so Curtis agreed to come. As the labor nurse was going over all the gory details, he leaned over and whispered "You so owe me". I pointed out to him that he just had to hear about this stuff, but that I was going to have to suffer through it. Yeah, he's definitely got the easy part.

Baby Shower

Curtis's school had a potluck baby shower today at lunch for us and another couple who both work at the school. She's due with a girl two weeks before me. The food was shockingly good. Lots of homemade things, which surprised me. They had taken up a collection and each couple got a Babies R Us giftcard and 4 smaller gifts including a supersoft blanket. Almost everyone had to rush off after lunch to go teach, so I got to make a few more rounds of the food ^_^

Las Vegas Women's Fair

On Saturday, I decided to go to the Las Vegas Women's Fair while Curtis was at baseball practice. These types of fairs usually focus on women's health and wellness as well as family and children's resources. I should have known that Vegas would do things differently. Some things were the same like the domestic violence shelter booth, the fertility center, and the special appearances by the stars of soap operas I've never heard of. On the other hand, there are not usually so many free alcohol samplings (I missed out) including a new type of vodka that was being served by pouring through this awesome ice sculpture. Sorry for the poor quality of these pictures, but I only had my phone with me.

The main entertainment was "American Storm (as seen on VH1!)". They were a male strip show. I'd never actually seen that type of show before. (I lead a sheltered life.) It surprised me that the guys started out wearing suits and ties. I would have thought they'd wear something more fantasy-based, but then again, men look good in suit and tie. At first 3 guys danced around and then took off their jackets (racy), ties, and then shirts. Surprising number of tattoos and (ick!) nipple piercings. Then a different guy came out and went down to his boxers. He would also jump down from the small stage and hugs women in the crowd and took up a victim, I mean volunteer, to terrorize. It was all rather silly.


They also had another, smaller stage set up for demonstrations. While I was there, the demo was Pole Dancing by a company called "Stripper 101." The woman explained that she offered lessons in pole dancing, lap dancing, and transitional moves including music and costume suggestions. Then she did a demo of the types of moves you could learn. I was impressed that she could hang upside-down on the pole, twirl around it, and slowly move down it all at the same time make it seem somehow attractive.

SuperBowl Highlights

The Party: Just the two of us and the cat chilling at home.

The Food: I made Buffalo Legs using drumsticks instead of wings. There was also tortilla strips and my own recipe of nacho cheese sauce as well as his and hers salsas and sour cream. He got beer, I got lemonade.

Favorite ad: Torn between "I'm your bank manager and this is a robbery" and the beard combover. You can see all the ads here.

Worst $2.6M ad: The moon office. I mean, why the heck was there zero-gravity? On the MOON?! Ooh, wait, there was also the icky medicine ad to help men pee.

Favorite moment: Screaming at the Bears quarterback for throwing to a man being covered by three opponents instead of continuing to run down the empty area of the field. Curtis loves me when I'm totally being a guy.

Least manly moment: Curtis's dad missed the first half of the game because he was attending a play. I mean ON SUPERBOWL SUNDAY! *We* persuaded the women in charge of religious ed to move class so we could teach and still watch the game.

Worst moment: The halftime show. BOR-RING! The artist formerly known as "The artist formerly known as Prince" and some random marching band.

Operation HH

I've never been accused of being the fitness-buff in this relationship. Ever since the day I got trapped in the kitchen with sciatica pain, I've been going to the gym 4+ days a week. The boy has had one very good excuse after another for not being a gym regular since Thanksgiving. He finally announced that he was over his cold and feeling better and looking forward to going back to the gym. Then followed a week where he didn't make it to the gym even a single morning.

So, in the style of nagging wives everywhere, I decided that he would be my next project (after having finally cleaned the apartment and beaten the final boss in the Spyro the Dragon game). This week marked the launch of Operation HH (Handsome Husband). I finally got him to sit down for a haircut (he had been pretty shaggy), started physically handing him a vitamin every morning, and setting my annoying cell phone alarm for 4am. It's hard to sleep through the annoying alarm, your wife talking to you, and the cat coming to purr at your head. This week he's been to the gym 3 times in the past 5 days plus baseball practices. I think of it as vicarious weight loss, since I'm forced to gain weight for the next 2 months.

And in other news...

our priest was arrested yesterday after a 6-day manhunt. (the article) The victim was the singer at the Mass we usually attended. We found out when it was on the front page of Saturday's paper. It's really the most bizarre thing ever. He's a really nice guy. Now that he's in custody, maybe we'll hear some explanation of why he suddenly flipped out.

The Power of Spandex

At 31 weeks, my swimsuit still fits thanks to the amazing power of spandex to stretch over the belly. In this picture, the baby has come back up from the dropped position.

Life Still Worth Living

So the last post came after a couple of really bad days. Things are significantly better now that I discovered that the gym has exercise classes in the pool every morning except Sunday. The classes are almost entirely senior citizens, which is lots of fun. Nothing makes you feel young and beautiful like hanging out with old folks. The instructor was talking about her great-grandchildren. One man was telling me how I could see what I had to look forward to: aches and pains. I told him that I had those already. At least mine will go away in another couple of months.

On Tuesday, the baby dropped. That means he turned head-down and settled down lower (unfortunately, directly onto my bladder). This gives him more room to stretch and positions him better for birth. The side effects are that I have to go to the bathroom every half hour or so and for some reason, having him so low makes me queasy. Also, my stomach doesn't stick out as far, so I can be mistaken for fat again. Some of the old folks said they couldn't tell I was pregnant. Since I've already gained 20 pounds and feel gi-normous, that made me very sad.

Went to the doctor's yesterday for my checkup, which pretty much just means that they check my weight and blood pressure, the baby's heartrate, and ask me if the baby's moving and how I'm doing. It doesn't seem worth the drive most of the time. Anyways, my doctor told me that she's 25 weeks pregnant with her 1st. Thank goodness she's due more than a month after I am. After all the trouble I had finding a doctor, I wouldn't want to have to switch again.

Already Tired of Third Trimester

I'm now at 30 weeks, 2 weeks into the third trimester. I'm already longing for second trimester. Then I had energy and was showing, but not overly inconvenienced. This week I developed sciatica (literally a pain in the butt). I got trapped in the kitchen when it became too painful to walk or even stand. Fortunately, Curtis was due home and could help me go lie down. Since walking seems to make the pain worse, I'm trying to go to more water fitness classes at the gym to get things to loosen up.

Yesterday, I got to go to the hospital to get a shot of Rogam in case the baby's blood type is different from mine. That was loads of fun as no one seemed to know where the shots were administered so I kept getting sent to different desks and of course there was a wait at each one. Hard to believe that I went to so much effort in order to be stabbed in butt with a needle and pay for the privilege.

In any case, between the pain in the rear, the normal pregnancy back pain, and the giant tummy, I'm having trouble getting comfortable enough to sleep. Plus I have a cold. Sigh, another 10 weeks of this.

Will Bleed for Comedy

We got back from Fresno the 27th and on the 28th, my family arrived from Missouri. (7 people in a 2 BD apartment) My mother was flipping through the Las Vegas Review-Journal and discovered the best deal ever. The local blood bank was offering a voucher for 2 free Penn & Teller tickets in exchange for donating blood, but only until New Year's. Tickets are normally $82.50 each.

So New Year's Eve morning found us all at the blood bank. Everyone signed up to donate except me (that whole pregnancy thing making it a really bad idea). Marla was rejected for low iron, but everyone else was accepted. Curtis is terrified of needles, but he braved it stoically. We saw the show on the 2nd. It was pretty awesome and it was one show that didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Kitty Roadtrips

Everyone is surprised that we take Beckham with us on roadtrips. Actually, the cat is quite understanding. We've found that it is MUCH better not use the carrier. The cat yowls for a while at the beginning of the trip but then becomes resigned to its fate. It will lie on my lap for hours and even purr. If the sun is shining on it, it gets too hot, though. Then it likes to lie on my coat.

Snow in Vegas

I at last have a chance to put up some posts from Christmas. As we were leaving for Fresno on Tuesday the 19th, it was snowing on the strip and in Henderson (the south end of town). We only got a little rain in the morning, but don't know about the afternoon. Leaving Las Vegas on I-15 was so gorgeous that we had to stop at some random exit and get the camera from the back of the car. Beckham wasn't too thrilled with the cold, wet stuff. The snow lasted into California, but by Baker grade there was no sign that it had snowed.