Week 28 Begins

This morning marked the beginning of the 28th week of the pregnancy. Here is a link for Week 28. There are only twelve or so weeks to go and the wheels are now in motion to start work on the nursery. We will be out looking for furniture this weekend and will also be getting permission from our landlord to paint the room and remove the old vinyl flooring. Christmas was great and thankfully most of the presents were for Three, so I didn't have much stuff to put away once we got home. Some of the highlights include: a new BumbleRide Rocket stroller, the bedding set we registered for at Babies'R'Us, a new camcorder for filming every moment, an old cradle that has been in my family for over a century and assorted other goods.

Okay I have to get back to work. In other news I downloaded some new games to the Wii, Mario 64, Sonic the Hedgehog and the original Zelda. I am more than halfway through Mario 64 after only three days, perhaps it is time to slow down.

Later,
Keeg

One More Week To Go

Here I sit in my living room with only one week before Christmas. The most recent weekend was quite busy, but very efficient and enjoyable. On Friday night, I went out with some State Street people for Marisa's last day. Yep its true she is leaving State Street and going back to New York. It was fun to see some old faces and to hear things haven't changed at all there. I also learned that the cube wall of fame is still there with the name plates of past employees.

On Saturday we went to see one of Jennifer's old dance students perform in the Nutcracker. It was a great show and flew right by. Afterwards we decided to battle the mall scene and after forty five minutes had finished 95% of our Christmas shopping. It's amazing sometimes just how fast we are able to make decisions together. We made it back from the mall and immediately hopped back in the car for a little Wii party over at Cara and Jeff's house. They were excited to try it out and I was excited to play on a giant flat panel television. It was a lot of fun, the Wii is the best.

Yesterday I pretty much stayed on the couch most of the day trying to catch up on the hours of shows I had accumulated over the past couple weeks. I know I should probably ration them out since most shows are now on hiatus until mid-January, but I just couldn't wait. In the afternoon I had made a big dent in my TiVo stockpile and decided it might be a good idea to get out of the house. We grabbed some wrapping paper and then did some major grocery shopping. You may or not know that Jennifer and I tend to keep the cupboards relatively bare, mostly because the store is a short walk away and because we never know when we will be eating at home. However, we basically ran out of nearly everything, which resulted in some major difficulties for my pregnant wife. So I decided that we were going to go crazy at the store. So $143 later and we have a bunch of food. Hopefully it will last and not too much will go to waste.

The last task of the weekend was to make some Christmas cookies. We originally planned on making a gingerbread house, but realized we just didn't have the time for it, so instead we made some sugar cookies. They turned out really well and might even be able to compete with my mom's classic cookies. Here are some photos: Christmas Cookie Making

We have another doctor's appointment today and should get a chance to hear the heartbeat. All very excited. Oh yeah and that may also be followed by a trip to visit Megan, who went into labor this morning. Only about 105 more days until Jennifer follows suit. Oh man it won't be long now.

Keeg

Busy Busy Busy

Sorry I have been so bad about updating, but I think it is mostly due to a shitty keyboard on our home computer. The space bar and o key doesn't really work well, which is super frustrating. I have been searching far and wide for a good deal on a new MacBook, our budget will only cover the lower model, which has a small, 60 Gigabyte hard drive and it doesn't have a DVD-RW drive. The next model up would work a lot better, but it is a little out of our budget. Now the reason I want an Apple is because a) it looks cool 2) it handles media (movies, photos and music) d) I really think its a better product. Hopefully after the new year I will be able to find a good deal on eBay. This is among two other electronics I would like to have in place before Three arrives. The other two things are a camcorder and a new digital camera. A few weeks ago I did all of the research on camcorders and decided to go with a MiniDV format. While it is a bit more difficult and time consuming to get it on a computer, the quality is much higher than DVD or hard drive based systems. Besides the media at least versus the DVD is a lot cheaper. I am not quite sure about what brand of digital camera to get, but I think I am focusing on getting one with a bigger lens. Only 109 days to figure it all out.

Besides that I have been playing the Wii alot lately and have even had some people over for a little demo. I am thinking of starting a business where I bring a projection tv and the Wii to people's house for a Wii party. I have also moved on beyond Wii Sports and returned to the land of Hyrule to help Link save Princess Zelda. The new game is a bit time consuming, but not so complicated that I can't figure out most of the tasks in a reasonable amount of time. I only seem to have time to work on it over the weekends though, hopefully I won't forget over the course of the week.

Last weekend we picked up our Christmas tree, which measures in at around five feet. I actually prefer the shorter trees, not only because they are cheaper but because seven foot trees are just unnecessary. The tree seems to be holding up well and has acclimated to our house. It has been using up a ton of water, which has kept me very busy, but we have decided it is a good thing. The only other thing of note was our recent attendance at Cara and Jeff's annual Christmas party. The Yankee Swap was less lame than last year, but only a teensy bit due to the fact that there was only one swap, which involved me losing the U2 singles CD.

Oh yeah, I haven't written much about the pregnancy, but I have been very excited about it. Jennifer is really starting to show now and today she went to hug me and thought my gym bag had slid in between us, when in reality it was just her big pregnant belly getting in the way. It was a really cool moment. I have started a countdown on our chalkboard, only 109 days to go. Over the past weekend I was able to hear the heartbeat for the first time, which was really cool, Three doesn't really appreciate it much and shows its disapproval by kicking me in the head. Bottom line is that the whole miracle of life people talk about truly is a miracle and one of the most amazing things I have ever witnessed.

That's it for now, I need to get ready for BowlCaNO.

Wii

I only have a moment, but I can report that I was able to pick up a Wii on Sunday morning. I had to stand in line for three hours, but got number 25 out of 43. So far the system has been great. Jennifer and I played tennis, bowling and golf yesterday after I came home with a new controller.

In other news the Three is nearing the middle of Week 24. This week the final touches are being made on the lungs. Once the lungs are done, the only new developments left are on the brain. The baby has been moving around a lot and is around 8 or 9 inches long. Jennifer says it has been rotating around, and she can feel the entire length of it adjusting its position. I was also able to hear the heartbeat the other day, which was super cool.

This morning I was at the gym and a woman passed out and nailed her head on an elliptical machine. I only heard the thud and saw tons of people running over to help her. She finally got up after a lot of poking and prodding. Crazy!! btw I weighed myself this morning and I dropped below 170 for the first time, 169.5. Nice!!!!

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