Short and Sweet

Quick post!  I'd love to get another "belly bump" pic on but that will have to wait until next time.  Brian is up north on a boundary waters canoe trip with his dad until Sunday.  Which means......girl party at home!  Hazie and I have been livin' it up!  Eating tortellini and ice cream in bed while watching Pillars of the Earth and romantic comedies.  Not cleaning.  Wasting time watching live Bonnie Rait and Eva Cassidy performances on youtube and craigslisting maternity clothes and baby cribs.  Yes, this is my life.  And I love it!

Tomorrow is 16 weeks exactly.  Let it stand that I have officially purchased my first pair of actual maternity pants and a bellaband.  I'm wearing the pants today (black cotton) and man are these comfy.  I think I'll get another pair.  I'm already starting to get a slight belly.  It's really rather awkward for me standing around people I know aren't zeroed into my personal life.  Like if you didn't know I was prego you'd just think I was a little sloppy (wearing essentially pj bottoms) and that I was bellying up to the ice cream bar without hesitation (which I may or may not be doing anyway).  But once you found out you'd say "ah yes, I could have guessed that.  I see now."  That actually happened today to me.  I was helping Jen clean for her move and her neighbor had that "sudden recognition" after hearing Jen say I was expecting.  I really wanted to just wear some kind of mommy T last Thursday for my band's gig in downtown Excelsior where I'm sitting on stage thinking "I know this outfit looks a little tight.  It's not my fault!"
 

New York, New York!!

This is my official one blog from Brian and my trip to New York.  It's Monday 7/19 and we have officially survived one of the hottest weekends of sightseeing in my life!  We arrived here last Wednesday night to visit Brian's sister and boyfriend, Kate and Tom, who live on the upper east side (and now I actually know what that means!).  It's been a truly fun trip and I feel like I've gotten a healthy dose of New York life - metro transit, lots of food, most major sights, a live TV broadcast, an off-broadway show, and lots of walking!

Thursday was spent with Kate navigating the Subway and downtown.  She showed us the FIT campus where she is almost finished with her master's degree in fashion design.  The campus is pretty large and situated about 8 blocks from times square.  We walked all over downtown, times square, and union station.  We spent most of the afternoon waiting for our reserve tickets to see the Jimmy Falon Late Night Show live.  Special guests were Jennifer Love Hewitt, John Henson from Wipe Out, and Million Dollar Quartet (a broadway snipit).   The studio was surprisingly small.  I'd love to show you pictures but the 2 I tried to sneak in were immediately caught and deleted....tough security!

Friday we walked over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and spent the morning there.  On the way home we walked through Central Park a bit, very cool.  Especially fun for me was seeing all the dogs.  New Yorkers have the funniest dogs and you can't get down a city avenue without seeing a few.  We took the subway in the evening down to a really great pizza place, Gruppos.  In fact, food was one of my favorite parts of New York (surprise surprise).  We tried everything from vendor Chicken and Rice to an Indian buffet to South African "Bunny Chow" to Japanese stir fry (no sushi for me) to Magnolia's coconut cake.  Every street is full of awesome little restaurants, bakeries, and deli's.  The choices are endless.

Saturday was fairly laid back with a morning stroll through the upper east side for window shopping.  There are some of the coolest little shops that specialize in all sorts of different styles and trends.  I tend to steer toward the home decor and shoe shops since there are some really wonderful decorating ideas.  Most of them are ridiciously expensive.  That afternoon Kate and Tom's friend Paul from Boston stopped by on his way through and we went down to Little Italy and China Town.  Brian's favorite part was when we were trying to barter for a coach purse and the guy was so insulted by Brian's $20 offer that he grabbed the purse out of his hand and threw it back in the pile.  Needless to say I never did get a purse on this trip - but I did find some great scarves.

Sunday started with a church service at St. Patrick's cathedral and it was packed!  That afternoon we saw "Perfect Crime" off broadway, a fairly interesting theatrical production but very small scale.  We really should have sprung for a flashy show.  Next trip.....

Monday we were out the door by 7:30am to catch the first ferry out to Liberty and Ellis Islands.  That was a great trip.  I was surprised how close the islands are to Manhatten, it was a great view even with a little fog.  Wall Street is in that area so we walked through that part of town ending at Ground Zero which is highly under construction for the new memorial.

I'm now sitting at the airport waiting for a delayed flight.  There must be lots of delays around here because this tiny terminal is PACKED and there is less than no air flow.  Very comfortable....

That's all for now!  Thanks New York and Kate and Tom!!

New Bump Watch!

Second post, I'm on a roll!  I thought it would be a good idea to start posting a "Bump Watch" to see a slow motion explosion of the area between my neck and thighs.  I'm 13 weeks so it's not a very big bump (although definitely much bigger than it was at the start of this thing!).  Notice the pug - bottom LH corner

Today is Saturday.  My step sister Carolyn got married last night to now-husband Drew.  It was a gorgeous wedding at the U of St. Thomas Chapel followed by a swank reception at the Town and Country Club in St. Paul.  I think my favorite moments would include Drew giving Carolyn a piggyback ride into the reception hall, Drew's best friend giving the most hillarious speech, seeing my stepmom Mary cut it loose on the dancefloor, and the gravy that came with the chicken (sooooo good!).

I'd like to also mark this event as a significant moment in prego life as it is the first time I couldn't wear the dress I wanted to.  This is my one "fancy" wedding dress that's served me well over the last 5 years, and when I put it on my belly extended farther south than the "belly hiding" gathering accross the waistline.  It really looked completely unflattering.  I think I'm moving into this term of belly growth that's somewhere in between normal and cute-pregnant.  It's basically just a "hey, you look like you eat lot's of cookies."  Yes, I do, but that's not the primary reason for my appearance here.  I was talking with my friend Jackie this afternoon who said "when I hit that point, I just made sure I mentioned to everyone I talked to that I was pregnant just so they wouldn't think I was just a little fat."  Good idea....

Attending a close family wedding also made me reflect on my own.  I was just looking at pics (let me show you) from my own wedding last Sept. and thinking "Here I am, not even 10 months later, and I feel like I'm in a completely different mental place in my life spectrum."  Example #1 - In this point of the summer last year I was super focused on my appearance in pre-wedding prep (running regularly, dying my hair the perfect shade, trying to get tan, dressing in my cutest clothes).  Here's my fav pic of  my brother Andy and I during the wedding.

Fast forward to this summer, where I've been reading baby books, having lengthy conversations with my husband on how to raise children, living in the same 3 outfits for the past 2 weeks, running minimally, and haven't spent a dime on clothing (although the maternity section, I feel it a comin').  Funny how quickly one can assimilate a whole new set of priorities and new daily thought patterns.  Somehow this whole process seems completely more important.

ACT III

I'm beginning this blog with the third Act of my life.  Childhood - Adulthood - Parenthood.  Although I already feel like I've had a toddler and "only child" for about 2 years now in Hazel (pic below), this is a whole new ball game.  Something tells me I can't leave a baby at home for 8 hours while I'm at work and harness it to a cage for travel.  Yes, I think those maternal insticts are kickin' in!

So am I finally on the blogwagon?  Will I actually keep it up?  Well, this much is true - I have good intentions.  (And what's that they say about the road to hell being paved with?) 

If you remember from previous Acts, first there was Emily.  Then there was Emily and Brian skipping through our early 20's all rainbows and butterflies.  Then there was the wedding in Sept. of 2009.  Fast forward six months and BAM......baby on the way!  Of course we are both very, VERY excited.  So is Hazel, she just doesn't know it yet.  With the sudden, and rather sooner than anticipated, shift we're looking at eachother and thinking "ok, this was a little too easy.  and how did we go seven years without......"  

For documentation's sake let me outline the course of pre and post pregnancy events up to this point.  The "this point" being 12 weeks.   May 5th, positive test.  May 6th, two more positive tests (ok, I thought the first one was broken...it was the first one I've ever taken!  no way could it already be reading positive!  how accurate are these things anyway???)  Monday May 24th, my 8-week exam (and how thorough!).  Thursday June 3rd, first ultrasound to get an exact due date.  I could also hear a heartbeat which was soooooo cool!  Monday June 28th, 12 week exam (although it was really 11 weeks, we found that out after we had scheduled the appointment.)

Due Date:  January 13, 2011.  First Ultrasound:  June 3rd, 8 weeks 0 days.  Crown-Rump is the head and bottom.  You can't really see much yet because at this point the baby is about 2.5 cm long.