A couple months ago Sam started a new job that keeps him away from Graham and I longer than we’d all like. So, the G-man and I have had to learn to create activities for ourselves in the afternoons to distract us from the fact that daddy isn’t here (because we ALL know HE is the fun parent!). One of those activities has been further exploring MUSIC (Yes, I am pushing Graham to be a musician, I don’t care! Sports = Injury! Yeck!). Now, this is one area in which I KNOW we are doing a great job of raising Graham. He love love loves music and is the (very) proud (and possessive) owner of several instruments, most of which he’s stolen from his dad. I am especially proud of the fact that of all the little plastic musical instruments on his play table he loves the banjo(!!!) the most. It’s the only musical sound on that table he’ll dance to. When he plays it he looks immediately to Sam and I, waiting for us to start bopping our heads, and as soon as he sees us he goes to town bending his little knees and bobbing up and down! Ahh – He loves bluegrass! He is truly a child after my own heart.
Tonight, trying to pass the time, I introduced Graham to the harmonica. I think that kid almost lost his shit! He was cracking up and kept thrusting the harmonica at me so I would blow in it. He almost cracked my tooth with his enthusiasm! He tried to get a few notes out himself, but isn’t quite there – We definitely now have a new activity to work on! Yay!
Turns out, my bluegrass baby and I are just fine without daddy around (although we still miss the heck out of him!).
Back in the dark ages of Graham’s life, otherwise known as the first few weeks, I feared that I would never again see the light of day, much less get to enjoy one of my favorite past times, live music. As I panicked over my crying baby, I assumed those days were dead to the world. Who knew that a mere ten weeks later we’d be found hanging with all our friends at a music festival in Austin! Turns out that becoming a parent isn’t the end of fun after all. :) We were a little nervous about testing our luck with this venture out into the world, but Graham has been such a calm little man lately that we figured we’d take the chance.. Man did it pay off! He was awesome all day long – Not a peep and he even took a nap in the middle of all the mayhem! Sam and I really enjoyed ourselves and were so glad that we had Graham there with us. He got to experience what I’m sure will be his first of many concerts with us! Who knew parenting could be such a blast – What a great Mother’s Day treat for me! Chalk it up to a sure victory for Team Gonzo.
Baby Central - AKA, Our camp - We had several passerbys stop and Ooh and Aah!
Passed out cold from all the excitement.
Graham hanging out with the boys.
SO happy to have him with us!
Sam and I paid a small fortune to attend a baby birthing class on Saturday and unfortunately it didn’t really turn out all that well. Not only were we the only couple that did not bring the required materials (a pillow and blanket? who knew?), we also decided to sneak out during the lunch break and skip out on the afternoon session. I think this means we failed the pre-test for parenthood. Let’s hope the real deal goes a little smoother and that we don’t grow as bored with our real baby as we did watching videos of other people’s babies. Although we didn’t get the full day’s worth of material, we were present for the much anticipated birthing video (and poster sized pictures!). Needless to say, I think I am much more anxious about labor now than I was beforehand. I think truly in this case, ignorance is bliss, and now I have been ruined by my knowledge! The visuals, they are not pretty. Eek.
Speaking of visuals, here is the glorious, six weeks to go, belly shot:
34 weeks and counting!
Can you believe that I have only SIX weeks left until this little sucker is supposed to pop out? I am starting to really feel third trimester pregnant as my back and hips are starting to bug me if I’m up for too long. Other than that though, the pregnancy is still going swimmingly.. After those initial four months of nausea and nasty hormone swings, things have really been relatively easy. Now I just can’t wait to get the little guy here and get rid of all this extra weight I’m carrying around! Sam and I were just fathoming last night how crazy it seems to us that there will actually be another little person living in our house from now on, rather than just the two of us that we’ve grown accustomed to. I think that there is something that is kind of sad and scary about losing that coupledom that we love so much, but at the same time I know that what we will be gaining will only make things that much more sweeter. It’s just so hard to wrap my mind around the idea of having another thing in my life to love so much. I can’t wait to see what it’s like in reality.
In the meantime, while waiting for the eminent arrival, we’ve been occupying ourselves with putting together the nursery. Sam has been the awesome handyman that has done ALL of the painting, putting togethering, etc. that has been required. Things are really coming together! I can’t wait for the final product to be totally ready. Here are a few pictures of what we have so far:
New crib!
Rocking chair from when I was a baby.
Ho Ho Ho!
Sam and I celebrated our last childless Christmas together last night.. It was fun to think and talk about how we imagine every Christmas from now on will be so different. I think it’ll be a blast to throw a little kid into the mix! I know that next year the baby will probably not know what’s going on, but it’ll still be fun to have someone special to buy for (and to dress up! Sorry Lucy). What I really can’t wait for, though, are the days of surprised and happy little faces playing with their loot on Christmas morning! We’re already thinking of all the holiday traditions that we want to start as a family.. I guess we’ve really just been turned into a couple of old saps by this baby!
Speaking of baby, I got to hear his heartbeat at my checkup yesterday.. I can’t believe that he is weighing in at around 3 1/2 pounds already! And his length is probably close to 18 inches. That is just ridiculous to me! No wonder I’m getting all night jabs under the ribs.. He’s really gotten big in there! His movements are supposed to slowly be decreasing as he gets bigger and his living quarters become more cramped, but so far it feels like he’s throwing all night parties in there. Sleeping has become interesting to say the least. Hopefully he does not plan on maintaining this sleeping schedule outside the womb! To illustrate my point about his growth, here is a visual of my child’s enormity:
HOW are you supposed to sleep with this thing??
In closing, I’d like to show you how wonderful my husband is:
My precious
I think the neighbors heard my squeals when I opened this gift. Seems that somebody is shooting for more cakes and cookies in his future!
We’re heading to my parents today and then back at Sam’s parents on Christmas day.. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!
Wow! Officially thirty weeks now.. I can’t believe it. I can remember Karen being thirty weeks and thinking, “Oh my God she only has ten more weeks!” and telling Sam that I would officially be freaking out at that point. Well, so far I haven’t had any major freak-outs, but this whole baby thing is definitely starting to feel more and more real! My belly is getting big enough that I am even starting to do that stereotypical pregnant lady stance with the hands on the hips and the back arched. Confession: I kind of always thought pregnant ladies were just trying to show off their bellies with this pose. Ha! Turns out they’re just trying to keep the weight of their bellies from toppling them forward at inopportune times. My, all the secrets I’m learning!
In more Oh my god we’re really having a baby! news the stroller that I ordered last week online arrived today. It’s taken about the entire duration of my pregnancy for me to decide on this freaking stroller so we were excited to finally check it out in person! It’s pretty ridiculous how many millions of choices there are on every baby-related product out there – It is absolutely overwhelming. So, with the stroller I finally just picked a well known brand, middle of the road, safety tested, not to baby-y looking one and crossed my fingers that it’d work out. After some assembly tonight, Sam did a little road testing and as I watched with baited breath, he happily decided to give it his official two thumbs up. Here’s Sam giving the new stroller a spin:
You may notice that Sam’s beer and koozie fit just right into the cup holder. I think this was his number one criteria and I am so happy to see that his requirements were met. :) I think tomorrow night we’re gonna test out wheeling around Lucy! What fun!
For your viewing pleasure, here are some other snapshots I took last week of the most recent developments in our nursery, which is coming along slowly but surely. Sam worked very hard to cover up the trees and birdhouses and fences that were previously occupying these walls, and I think he did a lovely job. The pictures, of course, don’t really do the colors justice, so that means we’ll just have to have a nursery viewing party when we’re totally done!
We painted three light brown walls and one big blue wall.
Umm.. avert your eyes from the mess. An artist was at work here.
Lucy sizing up Babar.
… And that’s about as far as we’ve gotten. Quite a lot left to do, but we still have TEN WHOLE WEEKS. That time won’t fly by or anything, right?
Somebody get this man a newborn! Isn’t he a natural? *Swoon*
No, our baby has not yet arrived… BUT, Autumn Leigh Wallace has. Karen and Jeremy’s sweet baby arrived this weekend! We visited them in the hospital on Sunday and took turns pretending that little Autumn was our own.. She is SO sweet and so beautiful and Karen looked just great. We are just so excited for her and Jeremy and their growing family.
When I saw Karen at the hospital, I had about a million pent up questions dying to burst forward.. I am strangely curious to learn all the gorey details of her labor. Thankfully I had enough tact to not barrage her right away, while she lay in the hospital bed, but I’m hoping that she’ll find some time to indulge me before February 24th rolls around! I am not sure if a detailed first hand account will ease my nervousness about labor, or exacerbate it, but my curiosity must be satisfied!
In other, less exciting news, we decided it was time to get into the holiday spirit around here, so we trekked out to Lampasas on Sunday in search of a mysterious tree farm that we had only vaguely heard about once last December. Turns out we were in for a wild goose chase, but after much searching, we finally found the place we were looking for. Needless to say, it was probably the most decrepit Christmas tree farm I have ever seen and we brought home from it the Charlie Browniest of all trees.. But we dressed it up and it now looks pretty good.. So good my belly decided to pose with it for a Christmas photo:
29 Weeks
Santa also arrived this weekend with the first of the baby’s Christmas presents:
“Hey, where are mine?”
We all had a really great weekend – Hope you all did too! Soon to come are some pics of our nursery and how it’s coming along.. Sam finished painting the walls last night and they look awesome! I’m getting really excited about it all coming together. I feel like the countdown has now really begun.
Lucecapades! Welcome to our world.. 