Our Babymoon

All of my pregnancy magazines have advertisements for "babymoons." (One last trip as a couple before you have a baby and your life changes forever). Most of the advertisements are for warm places with sunny beaches or romantic places in Europe, so a few months ago, Brian and I decided to take advantage of my Thanksgiving break and go to that most exotic of locales... Calgary, Alberta.

Why Calgary? Well, actually we stayed a few nights in Canmore, a town near Banff, which is a little more exciting and beautiful. There are a couple things that drew us to this destination. First, airfare during Thanksgiving is unreal, so we knew we would be driving. Second, we wanted to go somewhere new, and we could use our Trendwest membership to get a place in Canmore for very little. (It cost more to kennel our dogs for a night than for our room!) Finally, Brian's brother Kevin, his wife Melanie, and their 7 month old baby Jamie live in Calgary and we don't get to see them very often.

The drive is about 10 1/2 hours if you drive non-stop and conditions are favorable. Unfortunately with a 6+ month pregnant woman and two dogs you can't drive non-stop. Fortunately, the drive is beautiful. There was snow all around us, but the roads were bare and the sky was blue. The air was crisp and absolutely FREEZING! (Note the temperature on the dashboard in the middle of the day.)
At one rest stop Otis got to experience snow for the first time! Trudy needed to wear the coat Alli got her because she is so skinny and doesn't have much fur. While in Canmore we mostly vegged out in our room. But we did make one venture into town each day to walk around the shops and get something to eat.
Then on to Calgary to spend a few days with Kevin, Melanie, and Jamie. Melanie and I spent a lot of time talking about new motherhood. She passed on her maternity clothes, (My wardrobe at least doubled!) as well as some clothes and things that Jamie has outgrown. We saw some of Calgary; I drove around with Melanie one afternoon and Brian went to some art shows. We played a great new version of the game of Settlers of Catan and again just relaxed.

Our dogs got to stay with us at their house. Jamie gave them a crash course in how to act around babies! She poked them, pinched their noses, pulled their tails, took their bones away while they were chewing them and even tried to pull herself to standing using Trudy (and her fur!). They were so great! She also exposed them to lots of new smells and sounds. Our only trouble was making sure they didn't lick her to death every time they walked by. Jamie and the dogs even joined forces to become an irresistible wake up crew.

Our only sad part of our trip was that while we were gone Brian's grandpa passed away. We knew it might be soon and made a point to visit him before we left, but it was still difficult. The family decided to wait to have the service until after we got home, and Melanie decided to caravan back with us so she could be there too. Kevin flew in later in the week because of work.

Overall, it was great to get away with Brian. We had fun just laughing, dreaming about the next stage of our marriage, spending time with family we don't see often, and doing nothing. I came back really refreshed, in spite of spending an entire day in the car.

Cool Tip #2 - Iron

So people always say that eating while you are pregnant is so easy because you can eat anything. That hasn't been true for me. I find it so difficult, mostly because I still struggle to eat meat which makes it hard to get enough protein for baby. Then after my last blood test, my doctor said I need to be eating more iron.

Brian has become the "iron and protein nazi," which I appreciate how supportive he is, but it is still frustrating. The forced burritos at bedtime when I realized that I hadn't eaten much protein was humorous/annoying but also very sweet.

Tonight, after completing my last blog, I asked Brian if he wanted to share a grapefruit with me. I can always eat fruit. He said, "Shouldn't you eat some spinach? You haven't had much iron today." I told him that I really didn't want any spinach and he suggested that I eat both. Not feeling that hungry I decided to search for iron rich foods on google, secretly hoping something yummier like grapefruit would be on the list.

Healthcastle.com came up first on the list. On their homepage it listed Spinach as an Iron Absorption Inhibitor and grapefruit as an Iron Absorption Enhancer. There was also a link entitled "Is Spinach a good source of iron?" Feeling a little cheeky, and emboldened by my new knowledge of the limitations of spinach and the power of grapefruit, I clicked on the link thinking that I was going to prove Brian wrong and be able to just eat my grapefruit.

Unfortunately, in the section labeled "So should you or should you not eat Spinach?" it said spinach will be a good source of iron if you eat it with an Iron Absorption Enhancer...like grapefruit. So as I am typing up our story to share with you my newly found knowledge, I am eating a spinach salad with grapefruit slices. And Brian is gloating.

Phew!

The last six weeks have been abnormally busy! Add being pregnant on top of all of the extras at work and travelling and voila! not much blogging gets done, let alone other necessities like cleaning house and buying groceries. Those days I was home involved a lot of scrambling to eat and doing just enough to get by around the house before falling into bed. Being my first full weekend home for a while, I first breathed a big sigh of relief and then got to work, hardly leaving the house for three days! But we are now entering the work week with a mostly clean house, a garage that we can park our car in (yes Friends, the Rush's car is in their garage) and baked goods for breakfast. Stay tuned for the highlights of the last few weeks.

"Otis! You're not stupid!" - Brian

Sometimes, we have to trick our dog Trudy into eating. One nearly fail-safe method is to play catch with a few pieces of kibble. After about three she will begin eating out of her bowl. I'm not sure if she gets the idea that she should eat or if the taste of a few pieces whets her appetite. Either way it gets the job done.

Every time I throw food for Trudy Otis comes and sits expectantly, so I throw food to him too. Usually the kibble hits him somewhere in the face and he scrambles for the rebound. However, yesterday morning after the usual "Otis, ready ... catch" he actually opened his mouth in an attempt to catch on his turn. Excited I praised his effort as he scrambled for the missed food.

After Trudy's turn, I decided to try Otis again, hoping to reinforce his attempt, but not expecting much. This time Otis caught it! I was overjoyed and gave him lots of praise! Brian overheard the commotion from the stairs, confirmed what he was hearing was true and wished he could have seen it. Then he too praised Otis with some pats and said with delighted surprise, "Otis! You're not stupid!"

This morning Trudy required another round of kibble toss. And as Otis waited for his turn he had the same kind of crazed look Trudy gets while fetching at the dog park, quivering with excitment. I paused a little too long after saying ready and he sprang up directly in front of me. Hilarious! He missed that one, but was able to catch the next. A light bulb must have gone on. So our boy may be slow, but he's not stupid.

Bingos!

As many of you may know, Brian and I enjoy playing games. We don't play as much as we used to, but we try to play something while we are eating dinner together. The game of choice lately has been Scrabble.

Scrabble is great because it can be paused at any time. Or one player can take their turn while the other is not there. Lately, our schedules have not matched much, so it may take us a few days to finish a game. It is always fun to come home and see what word Brian has added.

We allow each other unlimited access to the Scrabble dictionary, under the pretense that we are "learning," though most of the words I look up I don't remember. Brian is good about asking what the word means; usually I am just excited that I got a high score. We probably will be those parents that do make their kids learn the meaning. But for now, I'm just trying to keep up with Brian.

Usually our games are pretty close, right around 300 points. Earlier this week Brian had a great game and nearly broke 400. So, of course, he wanted to start a new game the next night with the mission to break 400.

The game started normally, but then on his third turn he got a bingo (using all of your tiles and earning a 50 point bonus) on a triple word score. On the subsequent two turns, he got two more bingos. By the seventh turn he was already over 300 points! All in all, he got 4 bingos and 4 triple word scores. He didn't even have all of the good letters. I still had a pretty good game ending with 274 points. Brian, however, finished this epic game with a score of 526! The picture above is a photograph of the now famous game.

Bring on the Scrabble championships...

Tip: If you can't get a high score, keep the letters on your tray that spell the word Starline, and find a place to get rid of anything else.

Name List

Shannon and I have been talking about potential baby names for years, narrowing down to a short list of first and middle names we both love, so when baby pops out naming her should be no harder than a multiple choice question. I like our long incubation period, because a name is kind of like a tattoo--do you really want a mermaid on your butt cheek when you're 83?

Maybe.

But we're not discussing tattoo's here. Or my butt cheek, left or right.

Anyways, Shannon and I keep telling ourselves we're not settling on a single name before the birth because we know several people that have had to change their mind when they saw their baby. My brother just did it last spring and Shannon, bless her little bisyllabic self, was supposed to be a Jessica. Despite our best efforts though, one name is leading the nominations.

It's perfect. It sounds beautiful but shortens well. It's not too common and not too weird. It looks pretty on paper and feels good to write. It's versatile. It has a suitable manifestation for whatever life pursuit little *BEEP* pursues. Etc. Etc.

And we're not going to tell you, or anyone, what it is. It's too easy to criticize a name before it's a person. And we'd rather not spend the next four months defending, persuading, or second guessing.

But--to appease you ravenous vultures--I present you with a shortlist...

...of names we will NOT be naming our child:

1) Brianrietta - although a personal favorite, this one didn't pass Shannon's rigorous screening process.

2) Kwanesha - NB. that does NOT exclude its variant: Qwanesha.

3) Hairb - even though a new surname may be in her future, there were a few tangles to work out with this one.

4) ???

Feel free to make your own suggestions in the comments. The list is short but it's not closed.

I Felt Her!

The other night Shannon told me to put my hand on her belly. Man, we have a strong little lady in there. There was no question of whether or not I felt it. It was definite. I just hope it's not one of these! ----->

It's a GIRL!

Kinda creepy...but she's smiling or maybe just practicing swallowing.

Here is a foot. I am starting to feel this cute like thing often now.

Isn't she cute? :) Maybe praying or sucking her thumb?

The ultrasound went well. Both of us look really healthy.
She almost ruined our party by hiding behind my belly button. It was like a censor ball.
But in the end we got her to move.

Gender Release Party

I think we've contacted everyone we know in Bellingham. But in case someone will be in Bellingham tonight that we are not aware of or in case anyone feels like making a trip to Bellingham this weekend or for all of you that like a good laugh on a Friday, the following is our invitation for the Sex Party we are throwing tonight.



P.S. If you have any funny stories related to this invitation, please post them under comments. We will be adding ours soon.

P.P.S. The creativity in the invitation is all Brian's! But we need to credit my sister Allison for the original idea.

P.P.P.S. For those of you that will not be about to make the party, I will be posting pictures from our ultrasound and the offical blog announcement tomorrow.

Surprise!

My sister has been knitting since she was really little. In high school, I worked at an espresso bar. Next door there was a yarn shop. Allison, my sister, would come to work with me and knit with the elderly ladies that ran the shop. As she has grow older she has kept the habit and made it a tradition to make a baby blanket for friends and family.

A few weeks ago, I started teasing her about the blanket she would be making for us (has she started, what color will it be, etc.). Smiling, she responded "How do you know that I'm making you a blanket?"

A week ago Sunday, my dad's sisters threw us our first baby shower since my Aunt Tami and Grandma were here from Georgia and Florida. We had brunch, then opened presents and played one shower game in the lobby of a hotel on the Seattle waterfront.

We opened Alli's present first, and were very surprised! Inside was the cutest, softest baby sweater and felted shoes you have ever seen! I've attached a picture but if you ever come over you need to feel it!

My mom pretended it was her baby grandchild and cuddled for quite some time.



My family blessed us with so many cute baby clothes, soft blankets, and stuffed animals. Grandma continued her tradition of buying the first high chair for each family.We are really excited about all of its features.


Almost everything was in neutral colors since we don't know whether the baby is a boy or a girl yet. All the yellows, tans, and greens mean that we won't have a closet full of blue or pink.


We moved everything in to the nursery this week. It is fun and seems strange at the same time to have all of this baby stuff in our house.