Early!

All the people I know that are expecting babies around this time have been having them early. One little girl arrived 3 days early, another little boy 13 days early, and a friend due in May already knows she will be induced 2 weeks early. It has just hit me like a ton of bricks that this kiddo could show up anytime now!

So do I feel ready? Well although our nursery is all set and we've taken our pre-natal classes, I can still list a few things that I want/need to do:

• pack our bags for the hospital
• launder the baby's linens & clothes
• vacuum the nursery
  
• sterilize bottles
• make space in our kitchen cupboard for the bottle sterilizer, bottles, drying rack, etc.
  
• find "homes" for the bouncer seat & infant swing (why is baby stuff so huge?!?)
• attend a child & infant CPR course (I have been having a really hard time finding these classes)
• sew a tag blanket with the leftover material I have from my nursery basket liner project
  
• have dinner at Red Lobster - I am a sucker for those Cheddar Bay biscuits!
• watch Alice in Wonderland in 3D
• attend my 3 remaining pre-natal yoga classes
  

And beyond this list - does anyone ever really feel fully and completely prepared to become a parent for the first time?

Tick-tock, the countdown is on!

B. Smith

I'm sure everyone has received a phone call where the caller had the correct number, but was asking for someone else, but never have I experienced such a case of mistaken identity!

Our phone number, at some point used to belong to someone else named B. Smith. No problem - I understand that numbers get recycled over time. We figured this out pretty quickly when we were getting calls for B. Smith from various organizations, typically asking for donations.

Now for the longest time I have just been giving my phone number to have the cashier at Petco look up our rewards card number because I was generally too lazy to dig out the rewards tag on my keychain. But it wasn't until I looked at my receipt the other day that I noticed that it said B. Smith! So, B. Smith not only had our phone number at one point, but also had a pet that she purchased items for at Petco, and was a member of their rewards club. All this time when I have just been giving my phone number, my rewards purchases were being credited to her account!

Back when I was ordering takeout sushi, the restaurant I frequent tracks your order by phone number. Again, when I picked up my order the receipt showed my phone number and also read B. Smith! So not only does B. Smith have a pet (like we do) but she also orders takeout from my favorite sushi place (like I do).

Then just last week, we ordered some takeout Chinese food (we are trying to collect and sample several takeout/delivery options in the area for when the baby arrives), again our receipt read B. Smith!!

So far we have learned that B. Smith supported a variety of charities, shopped at Macy's (with a Macy's credit card), had a pet, and likes to order takeout sushi and Chinese food upon occasion. Where will she turn up next?

Open to the Opposite

Someone had told me that when you are pregnant you're not supposed to eat eggs with soft yolks. I don't eat a ton of eggs anyways, but when I do I tend to enjoy them with runny yolks - over easy or soft boiled for the most part.

Christopher prefers his eggs scrambled, so I took this as an opportunity to learn how to perfect the art of scrambling an egg. What I discovered in my research is that I had been doing everything exactly wrong.

When scrambling eggs in the past, I used to break them and mix them up in a bowl with a little bit of milk before putting them in the hot pan. Then I tossed them around for a minute or so and dumped them on the plate.

The scrambled egg recipe I found that I liked the most was from Gordon Ramsay: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU_B3QNu_Ks

Following his recipe, you don't break the eggs until AFTER they are in the pan, and you cook them slowly over LOW heat, adding the cream at the end. Who knew?!?

Since uncovering this secret to the perfect scrambled egg I have to say that I have enjoyed them much more than I have in the past. And Christopher gave the recipe a thumbs up too. So if you make scrambled eggs the way I used to, try doing the opposite and see what you think!

Playing Fair

This is probably pretty odd, but I often think about how some times and numbers are used far less than others.

For example, it is social convention to have events or meetings start on the hour or half hour. TV shows, sporting events - even movies tend to start on the 5's at the very least. This being the case, there are so many times of the day that are underutilized. When was the last time you asked someone to meet you for coffee at 8:03pm? Or that you scheduled a conference call for 47 minutes? (And yes, my Outlook calendar does allow this!)

In an attempt to "share the love" amongst the underutilized times of the day I try to use unusual times whenever I can. I don't do it with work because I don't want people to think that I'm a weirdo, but I'll do things like set my alarm clock for 7:27am.

I also wonder about things like: one day will the zero button on the microwave will wear out, if I keep cooking things for 1:00, 2:00, or 3:00 minutes? It's always a crapshoot when I need to select how long to nuke things for, so I'll just pick oddball times like 1:23 minutes, or 99 seconds in hopes of "preserving" the longevity of the zero button and letting some other numbers get some glory.

Baby Prep - Online Shopping

Dearest Baby,

I don't know anything about being a parent and having not met you it's hard for me to judge what you are going to like/want/need since everybody and every baby is different.

Over the past months I have talked to/read the blogs of new moms and done hours of online research and review reading. I hope my careful selection of only the most highly rated items on Amazon, Babies R Us, and various other websites for you makes me somewhat of a good parent!

Love,
Your mommy-to-be

Crying Wolf

The other night I awoke to a painful leg cramp in my right calf. Pre-pregnancy I had only experienced this once before - maybe sometime back in 2002? Yes, it was that memorable :)

I have read that leg cramps are common amongst those in their third trimester. So far I have experienced two and am not looking forward to any more.

Every time I have had a leg cramp (even pre-pregnancy) it has been at night while I'm sleeping - is that weird? It totally catches me off guard. The twitching of my calf muscle sort of rouses me from my slumber and then before I am fully aware of what is going on - the muscle seizes up.

The first time I had one a few weeks ago I woke up screeching in pain. Poor Christopher - he woke up right away and thought I was going into labor! At least this time I had the good sense to say "LEG CRAMP!" so he didn't freak out quite so much.

A labor of love...

Don't worry, this isn't a gruesome birth/delivery story. Not yet anyways...


I recently finished working on this hand-sewn mobile for the nursery. In total it probably took me 30-35 hrs, but I am happy with how it turned out. It was nice to have something to work on while Christopher watched football on Sundays (and Mondays, some Thursdays, a couple Saturdays, and one Friday too - tee hee!). The idea & pattern came from here.

Balancing it took some patience, but I figure that's just a taste of what's in store for me as a mother-to-be. Definitely a labor of love :)

Nothing like pregnancy hormones to bring out the inner-crafter in you!

So that's how you train a dog...

My dog Tyson knows some commands and some words. I'll be the first to admit, I could probably teach him a whole bunch more, but I have just grown complacent and enjoy spending time with him.

Here are the words he knows (some better than others):

• sit
• down/lie down
  
• stand
• stay
• come
  
• off
• OK!
  
• out (as in drop whatever is in your mouth - obviously more effective with some items than others)
• ah ah (kind of like no)
  
• walk
• bang! (as in "bang your dead" and he flops over and plays dead)
  
• bed (as in "go to your bed")
  
• ball
• Bango (the cat's name)
• cat
  
• Nancy
• Christopher
• cookie
• treat
• whoops!

Yes that's right - he knows the word "whoops". I was definitely the one responsible for teaching him this word.

Whenever I am cooking or eating in the kitchen and drop something or make a mistake, I just blurt out "whoops!". The first time it happened if Tyson was in the kitchen he probably came running over and I let him eat/lick up whatever had hit the floor. If he wasn't in the room at the time I probably called him to come over to enjoy the fruits of my clumsiness.

And now, whenever I happen to say "whoops!" he comes running, often with this cute look on his face as if to say "what did you do, where is my snack" :) Sometimes the "whoops" isn't as good as others. It's not particularly interesting when I knock my recipe book to the ground, but it can get pretty good and those are probably the times that give him all the positive reinforcement that he needs to remember the word. See - dog training is easy!

Earning his keep

Our dog Tyson has a thing for paper and tissues. I'm not sure what it is, but he loves to raid the wastepaper basket when we're forgetful enough to leave the bathroom door open. I can't even count the number of used Kleenexes he has eaten in his lifespan!

This being the case, Tyson is very active on walks after a fair bit of snow has melted away, uncovering various paper-litter type treasures. As we walk down the street he and I both keep a keen eye out for any potential targets - he tries to make a dive for them and my job is to pre-empt him either verbally by giving the command "off" or my tugging on his leash. When I fail and he has gotten ahold of his bounty, *sometimes* I can get him to spit it out by saying "out", but if it's particularly good, it's basically a lost cause at this point and I just tell him that he's a "bad dog".

The other evening we were out for our evening walk, which just happened to be after a major thaw. As usual Tyson was snuffling the ground for interesting treats and I saw that he was fiddling around with what looked like a piece of paper. I said "out" and he dropped it (mustn't have been particularly tasty). I stepped closer to inspect what he had been intrigued with and it was a $20 bill! One good thing about Tyson is that he is half golden retriever, so he is very gentle with his mouth. The bill was in perfect condition (save for being a completely soaked, so we pocketed it and brought it home to dry out).

Good doggy!

Does Newman deliver our mail?

Christopher has this theory about our mail delivery person. He thinks they take 1 day a week off - usually Wednesdays.

On any standard mail-delivery day we typically get something delivered to our mailbox. It's true that most pieces of mail we receive are junk mail, but it's still mail nonetheless. However we have been noticing that sometimes a day will go by where I don't see the mail delivery truck at all from my office window, the dog doesn't bark at the mailman making a delivery to our house or either of the houses next to us, and we don't receive any mail.

And then the next day we notice a few extra pieces of mail in our box, as if 2 days worth of mail is now being delivered at once. Of course this is just speculation on our part, but it is suspicious. I guess I could ask our neighbors if they also did not receive any mail on the same day.

I don't know why we care so much, it's not like we ever receive anything all that important via mail. I guess we are just fascinated that someone could be so bold as to skip out on an entire day's work. And if our mail delivery person is playing hooky, I hope they are at least doing something fun!

I just realized...

that at this stage in my pregnancy, 26 weeks along, that I weigh the same as I did by the time I finished my MBA.

Wow. Can you say "emotional eater"?

It was definitely a stressful year and with all the assignments/tests/readings the excuses for not exercising were plentiful. I know that I have the bad habit of soothing myself with "treats" and boy did I need them that year!

Anyways, after I graduated the weight just came right off so I was lucky. I don't even think I even had to consciously try - I just fell back into my old eating and exercise habits and things returned to normal. I think most of it was gone by the end of the summer. Let's hope that losing this baby weight goes the same way!

Getting Rid of Stuff + Free Stuff + Helping Others

It doesn't take much to make me happy during these cold and dreary January days. The highlight of my day was a trip to Pollo Tropical to exchange Christopher's clunky old pre-paid cell phone for two free sandwiches as part of their Helping Handhelds Campaign.

The combination of three things I love:

• getting rid of old stuff that we don't use anymore - and I don't mean tossing it into a landfill
• getting free stuff - especially free 'stuff' that can be consumed and doesn't end up as stuff that I will eventually have the burden of getting rid of at some future date
• helping others :)

Christmas Comes Early!

During their last visit back in October, Christopher's parents generously gave us our Christmas present early - a brand new snowblower! Last year Christopher was out of commission for about a week after injuring his back shoveling snow. He even slept on the living room floor one night! This year, being pregnant I wouldn't be able to help out so the snowblower really was a great gift.

This morning it was like Christmas at our house :)

We are still recovering from our jet lag, so both Christopher and I were wide awake and out of bed at 5:45am this morning - not normal for us at all! And this morning we were greeted by a healthy snowfall which had accumulated over the early hours.

Like a kid on Christmas morning Christopher was eagerly awaiting a decent hour before he could open his gift - in this case fire up the brand-new snowblower. He sat by the window and anxiously awaited signs of the first neighbor outside with their snowblower and then quickly dressed to join in the fun!

Movie Selection Methodology

The other night Christopher and I were at Blockbuster trying to pick out a Blu-ray to watch that evening. We had already gone out for dinner, but hadn't yet walked the dog. It was probably around 9 - 9:30pm when we were standing in front of the shelves of movies trying to decide which one to bring home with us.

We both happened to be in a particularly indecisive mood which is rare for us, and we were getting a little tired (so sad I know - we're getting old!). So we decided on a very objective method for selecting our movie for the evening - the runtime.

We quickly scoured the back covers of all the boxes:

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - 166 min, forget that!
• Watchmen - 163 min, not much better, does anyone make movies under 2.5 hrs these days?!?
  
• Milk - 129 min, getting there...
• Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist - 90 min, we have a winner!!!

I'm sure we'll revert to this system again in a pinch - it actually worked out quite well for us this evening. Not only did it help us pick out a movie quickly, but I was able to stay awake for the whole thing so I didn't have to waste the next morning watching the ending I so often miss :)

Gloucester Wedding

This past weekend Christopher and I went to a beautiful outdoor wedding in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Since Hurricane Bill was scheduled to pass through the area, we were worried about the fate of their ceremony. As luck would have it, the main portion of the storm passed while out at sea and never came inland, so the ceremony was able to proceed outside as planned and the guests treated the some amazing white caps and crashing waves.

Brooklyn Wildlife

While out for dinner in Park Slope last night we came across some cute wildlife in the city:

So cute!

Dunder Mifflin & Architectural Salvage

This past weekend we made a trip to Scranton, PA. The main objective of our adventure was to pick up an old 5-panel door from an architectural salvage warehouse. But a close second was to check out the home of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

Architectural salvage... basically this is a fancy way of saying building supply junkyard. It was our first time. We were completely & utterly overwhelmed by:

1. the volume of *stuff* they had
2. the way that everything was sort of organized, yet still seemed like a mess
3. the variety interesting things in the inventory - there were from a HUGE marble mantle-type thing at least 15ft tall and must have weighed a TON, to a real boar's head

Scranton... as avid watchers of The Office I have to admit that the town is pretty much exactly how they portray it in the show. To me the town had the feeling of a modern day ghost town. In the 1900s Scranton was a booming iron ore and coal mining town, but that is long gone and without an industry to replace it.

You can't really blame them for trying to take advantage of The Office popularity. We saw signs for a $35 "The Office" walking tour which takes you to locations referenced in the show. While wandering around the downtown we walked to the Radisson Lackawana Station Hotel. This is the location where Dwight gave his Salesman of the Year speech. While that episode was really funny, the hotel was, well - just a hotel.

Needles

Over the past 3 weeks I have been receiving physical therapy for tendinitis that developed in my right wrist. I'm not sure what brought it on, but it either had to do with my new workstation in my home office, or mowing the lawn. Christopher is usually responsible for cutting the grass, but since we had been spending our weekends away from home for the past month and a half, I have been filling in.

Today at my session my doctor suggested we try a round of acupuncture in addition to the electrode and ultrasound treatments I was receiving. We only did 3 points and the first two I didn't even feel as she put them in. The 3rd one felt like a tiny pin prick, but when the needles came out there wasn't any blood or anything.

Evening Dog Walk

One thing about working from my home office is that it makes me really want to get out of the house at the end of the day. Not leaving the house to commute to an office, if I haven't gone outside all day I feel rather cagey by the evening. Sometime I have time around lunchtime to take Tyson for a errand-walk to the center of town, to do some banking, drop off/pick up a book from the library, etc.

But other days when I'm too busy to get away during the workday after I'm finished working I need to leave the house to just de-compress and relax. That way, when I come back home I can enjoy my evening. Today was one of those days, so after work I grabbed Tyson's leash and we headed over to the Reservoir #6 just around the corner from our house. There is a 3.7 mile trail around the perimeter of the reservoir and it was so beautiful and serene, the perfect way to finish my day.

Here are some pics from our walk that I snapped with my Blackberry:

These ducks hopped into the water and swam off as soon as we got close to them. They had no intention of being Tyson's dinner! He was watched them intently as they paddled away.

Blog-Block

I've been shamefully neglecting my blog for the past 4 months. Not that I post very often, but after I skip a few weeks of updates then it just seems to become an insurmountable task to go back and update it with all the things that have happened since my last update. But this means it gets more and more out of date.

So I've decided to just skip ahead to today and post about current events, and hopefully this will motivate me to fill in the gaps. My apologies to my faithful readers (all 3 of them - lol) for my hiatus. Be sure to check out my older posts to find out what we've been up to since April :)