Oh the Holidays

It's Sunday morning and I am sitting in O'Naturals cafe having almost completed my medium mocha and I have to say life is good. The weather outside is perfect, a chilly 40 degrees, clear skies and a bright Autumn sun. It looks like the temperature today in Boston will peak around 60 degrees which should allow for a nice relaxing afternoon walk outdoors. The only required task for the day is to pick up a crib from one of Jennifer's co-workers, but besides that the sky is the limit.

Yesterday we returned from our Thanksgiving visit to Riebe's in Connecticut. I had a really great time down there despite spending most of Thursday in front of my computer working. All the time I spent did pay off though and now I don't feel nearly as overwhelmed as I did on Monday morning. On Friday we went on the annual search for a Christmas tree and after an hour or so found this untapped part of the Christmas tree farm that had more than enough choices. Once there it only took another half hour to locate the official tree. I did take some videos and will hopefully put them together into a nicely packaged movie in the near future.

Once we made it back home we were on a mission to get rid of some of the clutter in the house and at the same time start thinking about the nursery and how it will be set up. First we removed Jennifer's desk from the back room and then moved a ton of storage bins into the front closet. Next we emptied out the media cabinet and put it into the basement. When all the dust settled we had removed two pieces of furniture from the living room and one from the back room. The next big thing to get rid of is the futon in the back room, luckily we found some mattress bags at Tag's which will help prevent the mattress and box spring from getting moldy in the basement. I will be posting a ton of stuff on craigslist in the near future, so check back here for lots of good deals.

The last thing I need to mention is about how excited I am about Three. It has been moving around so much lately and I with a little patience you can easily feel its little kicks through Jennifer's belly. The other morning we were lying in bed and Three kicked me in the head twice. It was really funny. Friday marked the beginning of Week 23, which puts us just over four months from the big delivery day. Time just keeps marching on at a crazy pace. As we get closer to April 1st I have been starting to read more about babies than about pregnancy, which led me to the concept of Baby Sign Language. Apparently, this was a big story over the past couple years, but I am only hearing about it now. What you can do is teach babies sign language starting around six months and it they should be able to learn a few signs which will allow them to communicate with you before they are able to talk. I still need to get a book on this, but I am really excited about this new technique.

Okay, Jennifer isn't feeling well and we need to get back home. Talk to y'all soon.
Keeg

Autumn Returns

After a warm spell in Boston temperatures seem to have returned to normal. Luckily before things cooled back down I was able to enjoy the warm weather. On Saturday morning, John and Steph picked me up in the morning and we drove down to the Blue Hills reservation south of the city. Here are some photos Hiking in the Blue Hills. Before Saturday I had only driven through on the way to a concert in Mansfield and only knew that there were some decent views of the city. We stopped in at the headquarters and grabbed a map before setting out. There were a ton of trails to choose from, but we ended up on the popular Skyline Trail. It was a nice place and a great change of pace. If you are ever in the area and want to get outside for some decent hiking you should check it out.

Yesterday, I woke up around seven and went over to Target in hopes of getting my hands on one of the new Nintendo Wii consoles. Unfortunately I was around fortieth in line and they only had 24 units available. So I went home empty handed, but hopefully in the next few weeks I will pick one up somewhere. Once I made it back home, Jennifer and I went to the store in preparation for the dinner we were having later in the day. We grabbed a turkey, and all of the other fixings and returned home to prepare. We cleaned up, set the table and were all ready within a few hours. The turkey was hard to judge and we ended up taking it out a couple times before finally letting it cool. We had a bit of an issue while I was carving the turkey. Jennifer came over next to me and we heard a dripping noise. Turns out I had put a hole in the baking pan and the turkey fat was leaking out of the hole, into the ridge around the cutting board and then onto the floor behind the stove. It was a real mess and threw a wrench in the gravy works. Fortunately after a little help from Ben, the gravy was saved. I ended up cooking it in a saucepan, but I think it turned out okay. We finally served the food, it might have been a bit cold, but nobody seemed to complain. The one cool thing about dinner was that we were able to use all but one of our place settings. The problem with that was all of the washing we had to do.

Everything else is going well. Three seems to be moving around more than ever, which I take as a good sign. Jennifer has been feeling really good, with the exception of the occasional pain here and there and a cough. We are now in the middle of Week 22. Only a couple more days and we head southward for the annual Riebe Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas tree hunt.

Have a good holiday,
Keeg

Another Busy Weekend

Let's see where do I begin. Well Friday was the official halfway point of the pregnancy, we are now into Week 21. The baby is moving around a lot these days and even kept Jennifer awake the other morning around 4:30. I don't know if this is a sign of things to come once it is born, but I hope not.

After work on Friday I joined the BoCaNO crew for an evning at the movies. We went to see the Borat movie and I have to say it was pretty freaking hilarious. I laughed quite a bit although not quite as much as I did at Jackass Number Two. It did have a very Jackass feel to it except all of the clips were strung together in a relatively week plot line, but it did give some context to the bits which helps the average non ADD moviegoer. The next stop was the Kinsale for a bite to eat. I ate my first real burger in over a month and damn was it good.

Saturday morning we stayed in bed a little too long I suppose, but it sure was nice not having to rush off to the gym at 7:15. Since the weather was nice we decided to do something outside and ended up in Sutton MA. You may be wondering what in the world is in Sutton. A few months ago I read about Purgatory Chasm State Park on boston.com and knew I had to go there. Well it took a few months, but I finally made it there. It is basically a giant chasm in the middle of nowhere. There are enormous rocks and really tall cliffs on either side. Its not very big only about a half mile long in all, but was really cool to see. I think Jennifer and I are definitely into geologically significant attractions. We spent a few hours wandering around the park and on some other trails next to the chasm before heading back towards home. On the way back we had some trouble finding a place to eat and settled on the Papa Gino's in the rest area, which didn't seem to be serving official Papa Gino's pizza, the crust seemed way to thick. Finally after eating up and fueling up we drove over to my coworker Matt's house. We hung out there for a couple hours. It was amazing to see how much his twins have grown up since we last saw them six months ago. They were kind enough to give us some baby things, which we added to our recent stockpile in the back room. It is all very exciting. Purgatory Chasm Photos

Yesterday we started the day off at O'Naturals, which still seems to be open despite the workers recently saying they would be closing. I ordered some tickets to to the Body Worlds 2 exhibit at the Museum of Science and after breakfast we drove over to the museum. We got there a bit early and went up to the baby exhibit in the exhibit halls because I had been telling Jennifer all about it for weeks. It was amazing to see how big Three was getting. We then watched the birthing video, which Jennifer had never seen before. I think the biggest surprise was how the baby's head pops out and then the doctor just grabs it and pulls the rest of the body right out. Crazy!!!! We wandered around a little bit and then went over to Body Worlds. Now this is an exhibit where they have plastinated (put human bodies in a gelatnous goo that hardens and preserves them) several people and put them on display. The show all sorts of different body shapes, sizes and poses. Some of the bodies are just muscle mass, while others are just bone and some are even an assortment with different parts missing or opened up for easy viewing. I thought it was pretty amazing. They also had a mother and baby room where you could see fetuses of different ages and we could see once again just how big Three has gotten over the last 20 weeks. If you haven't seen it yet be sure and catch it before it leaves at the end of the year.

The final task for the weekend was to start registering for baby stuff. Similarly to registering for a wedding we were once again plopped down in the middle of a store with a laser gun in our hands and no idea about where to start. At first we went over to strollers, but there are so many different kinds for so many different purposes. We quickly became frustrated with the stroller thing and moved on to bedding something we were more familiar with. After finally getting something scanned in we felt a little better, but still didn't know exactly what to register for. How many crib sheets do you need to buy? How many receiving blankets? Should we get a bassinet or a cradle? Which baby monitor is a good one to get? How many onesies do you need to buy? How the heck are we supposed to know that when I have barely ever been around babies that are less than six months old? I would really like to keep a list of the things we actually do use and provide to any people that are expecting and saying, you know what we really only used a couple receiving blankets and the stroller thing we mostly just use the Baby Bjorn and never really bother with a stroller. I guess we will learn very shortly what we need and don't need. In the meantime here is the link to the registry Three's Baby Registry at Babies'R'Us

Three

Apparently I never officially announced the big news, so now that I have a fully functioning keyboard, I will fill you all in on the details. As you may have seen from my previous entries, which included photos from a recent ultrasound, Jennifer is pregnant and the baby is due March 31st. Now I know you are all doing quick math in your head and wondering whether March 31st minus nine months is less than July 2nd. I can assure you the baby was conceived after the wedding, but at some point before we left for the honeymoon. We never thought it would happen on the first try, but I guess we are just lucky or I just have some damn good swimmers. The timing couldn't be more perfect because it will allow Jennifer to take the rest of the year off without taking more than a couple weeks without pay, so she will be lucky enough to stay with the baby for about five months before returning to work in September.

I have learned lots of things about pregnancy since we officially found out right after we returned from Newfoundland. One of the most interesting things is how much people who haven't had a kid don't really know the whole weeks thing. I was unaware of the complex system used for dates and stages of pregnancy. First of all the number of weeks pregnant is based not on conception, but the date of the last period. So by the time conception happens you are already at the end of Week 2 and by the time you get a successful pregnancy test you are already deep into Week 5. We are currently in Week 20, which ends on Thursday night and brings us to the halfway point.

The first half has been a crazy rollercoaster. It started off with a ton of excitement followed by nervousness about the health of the baby, somewhere around Week 10 you feel some relief as the chances of problems declines and you get to tell close friends. Immediately following this stage the morning sickness begins, which from what I can tell from my vantage point is not pleasant. Jennifer never actually threw up, but had a few close calls. It was always a balance between what to eat and when to eat it, every night there was a brief window where dinner was hard to decide on, but if not decided on by 7:30 things quickly went downhill. Finally at around Week 15 all of that craziness goes away and life essentially returns back to normal. The reality of the situation sinks in and you realize there is still quite a ways to go before the big day. Its a good chance to get back to being the couple you were before seeing the positive pregnancy test.

Over the last week or so we have moved into what appears to be the next phase, which is my favorite so far. It all started when Jennifer first felt Three moving around in her belly, which has only increased tenfold everyday. Just last week I was able to feel Three bump around while watching television. The ultrasound from Friday only strengthened the idea that another person is alive and getting bigger and bigger by the day. I can honestly say I don't think I have been this excited about anything before.

We have decided that we are going to be surprised by the gender of Three, because our parents have encouraged us. Of course there are some that want us to find out and think we are inconsiderate ;o) but its not everyday you get a surprise as huge as this one. I can't think of anything else at this point, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts and feelings from the last four months.

Keeg

A Big Day for Three

On Friday afternoon we went to Mount Auburn hospital for our first sonagram since back in early August. The baby has grown quite a bit from that teeny little circle we saw back then. Everything looked good according to the tech and the doctor, although it took a while to get the right hand to open to make sure it had formed correctly. Later in the day I was also able to feel Three move for the first time. Jennifer had been feeling some movement for about a week, but this was the first time anybody had felt it from the outside. I have to say it was pretty amazing.
Here are some of the photos from the ultrasound:

Profile of from the left side


Two little feet


A stubborn hand that didn't want to open

Low Turnout

We had a very low turnout for Trick or Treat last night. I think the total was about ten. Now I can understand my dad getting only that many because of where he lives, but we are in the middle of the most densely populated city in New England. Oh well I guess that just means more candy for Jennifer and I. Its not very good for my diet though, which seems to be going well. My weight as of yesterday was 174, only about ten or twelve more pounds to go.