Whirlwind Weekend

Wow-wee, what a weekend! I went to Indianapolis this past weekend for the express reasons of a) walking in the Race for the Cure with my cousin Robin and b) visiting family one last time without baby in tow. I accomplished both, for certain. And much, much more. It was busy, folks. But, so fun and wonderful. Here is a recap.

I arrived late Thursday night, so activities began in earnest on Friday. I had a late breakfast with Dad and Torchy and Kylie then headed for Mom's house. From there, we did some serious shopping, both for baby and for maternity clothes - I found a great collection of lightweight, short-sleeved maternity tops that are appropriate for work. I was having a hard time finding these in Big D. It was fabulous. I think I'm set now to fashionably cover this new-found big ol' belly that is maybe not so big yet but growing every day!

Veda and Mom at dinner.

Then, we were scheduled to take Veda out to dinner since her 9th (9th!!! how is that possible???) birthday is this coming weekend, and we were both going to miss her party. We had a lovely dinner with Veda and set out to drop her back off with her mother.

Terri and me at the shower.

That is where things did not go as I expected. I walked in the door and found out I was part of a surprise baby shower - for me - hosted by my sister-in-law Terri - attended by just about every female relative I have in the greater Indianapolis area! Can you believe that?I was TOTALLY surprised and humbled and amazed.

The cake - it was a "Ducky" theme.


The game.


The huge pile of presents.


The favors.

It was a wonderful, wonderful event. Terri had a cute cake, cute favors, a game, decorations...everything! And everyone showered us with the most generous, thoughtful gifts for our baby. Handmade things. "Little man" things. Very, very useful things that I have no idea how to use but will need. And gift cards and cash. I couldn't believe the generosity. I couldn't believe the fabulous surprise!

Everyone, minus Susie, who was taking the photo.

After lots of visiting, eating cake and opening presents, we set off for Mom's house to hit the bed before getting up bright and early the next morning for the Race for the Cure.

Our parking spot - with a view of the capitol building!

The alarm went off at 5:45am so we got up and got ready. We found a pretty good parking place, only a few blocks from the walk.

Robin, waving...trust me. It's her!

Then we headed to the survivor parade and made it there a few minutes before Robin's group walked by! I saw her, starting saying hello, got so excited and took that fabulous photo of her abdomen. Ha. Oh well!

A pink pooch.


Steve and Terri on race day.


Me and Mom.


Robin and Dad.


Robin and her Aunt Soni.


My oldest niece Amber and her mama, Sherri.


Gabe, Robin's oldest son, and Robin.


Robin's husband Mike and their younger son Caleb.



Uncle Kenny and Aunt Sally, Robin's parents.


The part of the team that did the family mile.


There were thousands in front of us...


...and thousands behind us. Over 40,000 to be exact.
In front and behind, that is.

There were 67 registered members of Robin's team, the Cleavage Keepers. Over 50 of them were seen on race day. And in total we raised over $3000 for breast cancer research. What an amazing show of support for her as she continues to win the battle against this horrible disease! When we finished the family one mile, mom and I headed to another stop.

I'll start there tomorrow...see you then!

Updates are Apparently Necessary

I received an email from the Cheese Fry the other day indicating I am falling behind on my duties on this here blog. I mean, he didn't really come out and SAY that. This is what he said (he's a fan of no capital letters except for emphasis. Very e.e. cummings, no?):

how are you? i do read the ATE UP AMATEUR blog - what does that title mean? - but it's not enough information on where things stand now.

By "where things stand now" he means the baby business. So, I thought you might all like to get an update on where things stand. now. on that topic.

Incidentally, if you're also wondering what that title means, you can read this.

Following are the questions Mr. Cheese Fry felt I needed to answer, and their answers, of course:

how are you feeling?

Pretty good now, thanks. Finally, after about week 20 (I'm working on week 24 now) the ugly nausea monster left and I feel pretty good most days.

how's little S?

He's fine, too. A little over a pound now, and a little big already. Yikes.

any weird cravings?

Not really - I mean, I've only really been eating normally for about two weeks. I am just glad to be able to eat more things. As of my last appt I had only gained 2 pounds overall, which I'm glad of, since I was doing so good on the weight loss before the baby news - I want the weight gain number to be as small a number as possible. But, I feel much fatter now. So who knows. Next appointment (and mandatory glucose test for gestational diabetes) is on the 21st.

(postscript - seemingly overnight, my regular pants have stopped fitting and I'm having to embrace the maternity clothes. While I was sort of dreading this, I do have to admit they are VERY comfortable. But, I really don't LOOK pregnant. Maybe just a little fat(ter). No cute baby bump on me. Actually, my belly button seems to go in too far...not a cute pregnant person.)

And, to prove it, here are two photos.

Front view. Can't tell a thing.

And, if I did a side view without pulling the shirt taut, you'd have the same outcome. But, because I seem to like to embarrass myself, and you know, for posterity, we took one with the shirt pulled taut over the baby boy bump. You will also be able to see the belly button thing. It doesn't go all the way across - just in the center - near my apparently well indented belly button. Funny thing is I can feel baby boy kicking around above, below, beneath that button, so it doesn't seem to bother him at all.

Side view. Little bump-itis.

Yep. That's it. Just fat looking - not really pregnant-looking. I have it on good authority that one day - sometime soon, even - this will change. I'll keep you posted. For now, back to the Cheese Fry's interrogation...

how long are you going to take off work for? (this question sent in to us by mrs. cheese fry)

12 weeks - 4 weeks unpaid. We're saving our pennies now.

any shower plans?

Yes, indeed. I have several wonderful, beautiful, thoughtful friends who are throwing showers for me here in Dallas. It's a blessing to have such good friends and I'm truly humbled by their graciousness. They will be in late spring/early summer. You know, when I hopefully actually LOOK pregnant.

any nursery plans?

Since we are not moving, we're using the guest bedroom with the dark brown walls and converting it to the baby's room. Keeping the walls. We are borrowing a crib from a wonderful co-worker, and using the existing desk as a changing table. I hate "baby" stuff, but did find some geometric bedding that is orange/brown/light blue that looks "little boy" that I can live with. So all we're going to buy is maybe a rug and a recliner/rocker. That's it. So I'd say the theme is "unbaby". Nothing has moved yet because I previously felt so crappy. This month, hope to register and to get the closets cleaned out/purged. Then maybe next month we'll get the room set up. Before I'm too fat and too hot to care.

(postscript: we did register, thanks to my good friend Errika, who's "In Your Kitchen" segments, photographed in late January, might make it up on the blog before her daughter makes it to college. She made it easy and even fun. God bless good friends. And no purging has begun because of the vacation and busy weekends. This weekend, a trip to Indy. I still hope late April/early May is filled with purging. Of the non-body type.)

have you felt little S kick and move? (i'm bad with math - what month are we on now, five or six?)

You do know his name is NOT going to be little S, right? Yes, he has been kicking me since about 16 weeks. He is VERY active on some days - so much that I'd like him to nap so my insides can take a breather. I've felt him kick on the outside too. That was pretty cool - felt like we were communicating - you know, like two prisoners on opposite sides of the same wall. And, big news, last night S even felt him kick! It was very, very cool. We're in month five now, closing in on month six. Goodness.

Therein ends the Cheese Fry interrogation. I hope you find the information also interesting, and that perhaps I have now done my duty to update you more fully on the baby business. And, if there is a burning question I failed to address, feel free to write me about it and I'll be happy to oblige. But, seriously, surely this is not rocket science and you've heard enough.

In other baby news, sister-in-law Kim, due in May, is now officially off of mandatory bed rest. So that little girl could come anytime. As of the last check, she still had no name. And, sister-in-law Brooke, due in September, found out she is also having a girl! So our baby bundle will have lots of girl cousins to mother him! And thankfully, here in Dallas, older cousin Andrew to show him the important stuff. Not to mention, a bevy of older Indiana cousins to teach him good, wholesome, solid Midwestern values. He's going to be a lucky boy!

I'm off to Indiana and all those wonderful and important Midwestern values tonight for the rest of the weekend to walk in the Race for the Cure with my cousin Robin. And to visit with lots of other relatives and friends. It'll be great. And, maybe, I'll chronicle it here next week. See you soon.

Savannah on My Mind

S and I set out for our last great hurrah - the last vacation "B.B." - before baby - the week before last. Yes, that's right. I'm still behind. I'm starting to believe it might be something that goes with the rest of my life. Ahem.

Anyhoo - good news is I am finally feeling more "normal" - that is, less nauseous all the time, and this started about three days before we left town. That was great news for the enjoyment of the time away for me and for S, God bless him.

Why did we go to Savannah? Well, because we had never been there before. And it wasn't too far, the weather would more than likely be nice (it was), we could see some new things but not be somewhere we'd have to run to see everything, and we'd have some down time to swim/sit by the pool/do nothing. It was all that. It was a perfect place for us for this time away.

And, of course, I took photos!!! So, without further ado, here are a few photos from the trip:

The azaleas were apparently late to bloom this year, but a few had already sprung.


One of the main drags down to the fountain at Forsyth Park


I like this one.
You don't have to.


S at the fountain.
Isn't he cute?

Incidentally, the earth's axis did not shift. And he was standing straight as an arrow. It was the photographer who couldn't seem to line everything up without a tilt. And that says a lot, now, doesn't it. God bless.

The memorial to the Confederate dead is in Forsyth Park.
Or perhaps I should say "A" memorial to the confederate dead.
There were many, of course.


The live oaks are truly majestic.


The azaleas were not the only pretty flowers.


We walked through every last blessed square in town.
They were all unique and beautiful.
Some more than others, of course.


Some were like this, with monuments in the middle.


Some had plaques about famous Savannians, like this one about the composer of "Jingle Bells."


Some had cool things - even historical things - like sundials.


This wasn't in a square.
But I liked it.


Back to the squares - that's John Wesley - the father of Methodism.
Did you know he lived and preached in Savannah when he came to America?
Now you do.


Of course this was an important sign to photograph.


Some squares were just big open spaces like this one.


Some housed beautiful blooming dogwood trees.


This was one of our favorites - Orleans Square
Very picturesque, no?


There was also a fascinating colonial cemetery.


The cathedral was amazing, too - deserves another post, maybe.


But in case I don't get around to that, of course, I love this photo too.
You don't have to.


There were many historical theaters in Savannah.
This one premiered Gone With the Wind!


And the City Market was a nice area, with many shops and restaurants.
We had some darn good pizza here. And ice cream. And other things.


Just for kicks and grins, here's S in City Market.


Oh, and one more - here's S with Johnny Mercer!

You know - Moon River Johnny Mercer? Right, that guy. A famous American lyricist, songwriter and singer. Yeah, S - he didn't know who he was or that he wrote Moon River or anything else for that matter. So, for penance, we took this photo. Aren't they cute together?

So, there you go - a quick photographic journey of some of our time there. We went out of town too - to the coast - to see other interesting things. I'll try to cover those another day.

As for what we're up to now - we're doing fine. We're collecting baby things at an alarming rate - all wonderful gifts and "giveaways" from friends and family. We registered without killing ourselves, thanks to the help of our good friend Errika. We've learned babies apparently need a lot of stuff. And we're getting more and more used to the fact that another little being will be sharing our home in a few months. I have plans to purge the house of every last non-useful thing in preparation for finding a place for all this baby gear. That's my goal in the coming weeks. We'll see how it goes!

Hope to get around to seeing more of you here on the blog too - thanks for stopping by - see you soon.

Family Matters

In the past month or so, we've had three events on the in-law side of the family here in town. Once upon a time, they would have all received their own post, full of all sorts of insightful detail and lots of photos. But, in this new world I live in, the goal is to try to catch up and move on! So, here we go.

First, Andrew had a first birthday.

Remember this little guy?


Turns out a year passes in the blink of an eye.


He wasn't quite walking at his party, but he is now.


He received lots of nice presents.


Of course, older cousin Alexandra was there to show him how it's done.


His whole family was there to cheer him on.


And of course, eat cake...

The very next weekend, we got together for Alexandra's 2nd birthday. Andrew and Alexandra have birthdays one year and three days apart.

Here she was, brand new...


...and at her first birthday party...


...and now she's 2!

Forgive the quality of the photos from Alexandra's party. Another thing I would have certainly blogged about in the previous life I once led was the fact that my camera - my beloved camera - went down for the count. I had to mail it off to the Canon Service Center in Virginia so it could be fixed. I was without it for over a week. Now it is back and we're fat and happy. Emphasis on the fat or the happy. Your choice. So, for this party, I had the purse camera, in low light. Grainy.

Of course, there was cake and singing.

Funny little story - when they told Alexandra to blow out the candle, she starting blowing air through her nose...at this point, of course, the rest of us eying the cake were really glad her parents arranged for cupcakes. ;-)

Of course, Andrew was there for Alexandra's festivities, too.


The big fun, though, was this bounce house.


Where even the big kids (yes, that's S) got in on the action.

Finally, more recently - just last weekend in fact - look at me being timely - some of Kim's friends threw a little shower for her soon-to-be second daughter. Something else that certainly would have been reported before now - Kim is on bed rest for another three weeks (six total) because this baby started having ideas about entering this world at 29 weeks. So, she spent a week in the hospital and now some time at home. Once she hits 35 weeks, they will let her resume "normal activity" and if she goes into labor, so be it. She's a bit fit to be tied at this turn of events, but making it. Brooke, Mark, my in-laws, Kim's family are all taking turns staying with big A during the days so Kim can stay on the couch. And we go visit for comic relief when we can!

So, this shower was her only venture out of the house for days. And she really enjoyed.

Kim's sister made this adorable diaper cake.


Of course, Alexandra was a big help when it came to opening presents.


And since it's my blog, I'll show you what I gave her - a GIRL MOM shirt.


Alexandra was very interested in the toys that were exactly like the ones she had.

All in all, she received some nice gifts and a fun time was had by those in attendance. Heck, we even had cake. Might as well make it a family event triumvirate, right? Cake at all three occasions. Because you can never have too much cake.

That's it for today. Hope to see you again soon - I have actually downloaded other recent photos to share with you! Best wishes for the rest of your week.

It's a Baby!

Here I am with another post for March - albeit another baby post. I do promise one day I will post about something else. I promise this blog will not turn into a baby black hole. It's just, well, a big part of my thoughts right now, so here it is for you.

S and I went for the "big" 18 week sonogram yesterday. We had to go to a perinatal specialist for a level II sonogram because of my "advanced maternal age". This would be the first time S got to see a sonogram, and of course we were going to try to find out the sex of the baby. We didn't really care if it was a boy or a girl, but we really did want to find out which one it is.

Before we left home, I started out the day by throwing up my entire breakfast. I don't normally throw up. I do still feel nauseous, or sea sick, pretty much all the time, but I don't generally throw up. And, I ate the same thing I eat every morning, at generally the same time. So, maybe I was just a little nervous about it all. I don't know. I hope that's what it was...hope this isn't a trending activity!

So we set out yesterday morning for the hospital and finally arrived at the specialist's office. We filled out a ton of forms and were shown to one of several sonogram rooms. The sonographer came in shortly thereafter and looked all over the baby - she checked the baby's heart - all four chambers - brain, kidneys, intestines, the length of bones, size of skull, etc. After each check, she would say, "perfect". And, she reported the baby weighed about 11 ounces right now.

Funny thing is, this lady does sonograms all day long, and she was SO EXCITED to show us our baby - she was oohing and aahing like it was the first baby sonogram she'd ever seen. Except, of course, that she could actually read the images on the screen like nobody's business. Clearly, this woman loves her job!

Then, at the end of her portion of the appointment, she asked us if we wanted to know if it was a boy or a girl. We said yes. Then she put this image up on the screen:



It's a BOY!!! She said he had been showing us the whole time that he was a boy...like we would have known...and it was clear as day that he was indeed a "he". No question. We were excited to know, and excited to start thinking about our baby being a son. It was especially fun for me to see S react to seeing the baby move on the screen and be part of the appointment. And, seriously, doesn't that arrow just crack you up? I will file this away as good high school date blackmail material. I mean, what decent mother wouldn't?

Then, the doctor came in. He explained he would look for some stuff that might show signs of Down's Syndrome and would look closer at the heart and kidneys and some other things. He said a sonogram cannot verifiably detect Down's, but everything looked, again "perfect". We saw the blood flowing in and out of the baby's heart. It was all pretty amazing.

And then the doctor said this - and I quote - "You're way too healthy to be in my office." I have to tell you that was probably the nicest thing he could have said - after all the talk about "advanced maternal age" it was nice to be "way too healthy". Very nice. I'm way too healthy, and so is our little boy. In their words, he's "perfect".

I couldn't have said it better myself.

See you soon.

Woefully Neglected

Woefully neglected - that is what this blog could be called these days. I had one - ONE - post in February. And now here we are at March and I'm getting at least one post in! There are some positive developments that would lead me to believe I might get more posts up in March:

- my class has ended - all but the final grading. Amen to that.
- I am a tad bit less tired than I was previously.
- I have gads of things I wish to tell you, if only I could find the time and energy!

But, there are a few things that lend themselves to the blogging remaining slow at best:

- I am still nauseous. Yuck.
- I still don't have the energy I once had. Yuck.
- Any energy I do find after work goes to doing what must be done - laundry, groceries, etc.

So, I make no promises for the month that lies ahead. Blogging notwithstanding, we did have a full February. I had the class, which I did enjoy, even with all the work. Dallas encountered record snowfall. I took photos of that which are still on the camera. We dined with friends. We had two birthday parties for the in-town niece and nephew. Took photos of that too...still on the camera. And went to a bridal shower. My friend Errika's "in your kitchen" recipes still reside on. the. camera. This is all to say - I have things to tell you, should I find the gumption to do it!

I had a heartbeat check for this thing sapping all my energy and making me nauseous last week. It's doing just fine and dandy, thank you very much. Good someone is feeling up to kicking around. And, we have the big 18 week sonogram in 10 short days, where we'll go from an "it" to a "he" or a "she" and that will be exciting. Plus, more "photos" of the inner workings of my uterus will certainly be made available.

And S has really done some good work on the house. He really has. Things have been getting done. I hate to say it, but I don't think we're going to get finished enough to sell the thing (not that I wouldn't gladly get on that bandwagon should work continue at breakneck speed) but it will be nice to have a finished place for baby's arrival. Nice to be able to know we're all settled in - finally - and we have not a thing to do but general homeowner maintenance. What a concept!

We had a wonderful SPRING-like weekend here in Dallas. Boy, was that nice! We're ready for spring, although I think she's still flirting with us at this point. Things are humming along at work. Staying busy there, too, of course. So, you know, life is good. I just haven't gotten all of that written down in exact detail here. So forgive me for that, and for this woefully neglected excuse for a blog.

Hope to see you soon. Happy March!