sugar and spice

With all the craziness of moving, working, the holidays, parties, Christmas shopping, and so on, I don't think we have really wrapped our mind around the idea that our baby girl is going to be here in a month and a half. While I am ready to say goodbye to my new friend acid reflux, and momentarily losing my breath everytime I put on or take my shoes off, I still can't believe how fast the time is going. A month and a half ago seems like yesterday, so really I think we are going to blink and wonder how it's possible that we now have a screaming human on our hands.But just because the time is flying and we have packed schedules doesn't mean we aren't getting ready for her arrival. Between an overabundance of baby showers (seriously, this girl is spoiled), and our own excitement to research and pick out the very best baby products, her room and her 'stuff' is gradually starting to come together.
Last night Joshua and Jakob built the crib, and by next week we will have her changing table. Her room has been used as a storage area since we moved in, and the huge bookshelf that is currently housing overflow decorations and a flatscreen TV needs to go somewhere else. The rapidly filling closet needs to be organized, her clothes need to be washed, and we are missing a few significant odds and ends - the most important being that she currently has no place to sleep in our room when we come home. (But don't worry, this January baby's super swanky stroller is all assembled and ready to go...nowhere, if the weather is anywhere near as cold as it is now when she arrives).

I also have to confess that I am overwhelmed by all the pink that having a little girl apparently brings. Not that we haven't bought into it ourselves, with her tulip crib bedding, but I think this child owns approximately four things that don't fall somewhere on the rose-to-fuschia spectrum. Joshua and I were both pretty convinced this baby was going to be a boy, so I just keep thinking how hilarious it will be if the little karate kid we keep calling she turns out to actually be a he. I think its unlikely after two very convincing ultrasounds but of course, everyone knows someone who knows someone who had a teeny weinie surprise at the birth.

I happen to think Joshua looks great in the one pink dress shirt that he owns, but I am pretty sure I'd feel funny bringing home a boy and sticking him straight into this crib. Only (a very short amount of) time left until we meet our baby daughter - who is hopefully just as sweet and girly and happy to wear pink as everyone else is to gift it to her in any way possible!

tis the season...

...for lots of photos...

Our halls are decked, our stockings are hung, our tree is trimmed, and our home is overflowing with both holiday decor and Christmas spirit.

As I may have exclaimed the other day, our new camera takes pictures that can seem more beautiful than real life.

Yes, that's Pam in a bedazzled sombrero. That tiny hat came from a box that was left in the basement of our friends' apartment and was filled to the brim with decorations for a fiesta-themed Christmas party. The box also included a full Santa suit, a Ken doll in a tux who has now traveled the world with us and our friends and so many other random treasures. I think Pam looks particularly smashing, and also rather devious.

Helo also had a chance to try on the sombrero, and he wasn't so much of a fan. He prefers to watch holiday decorating from the relative safety of his blurry corner of the couch.

He is, however, very intrigued by the new camera and the satisfying click each time we take a picture. Luckily, since he now spends a lot of time trying to rub his nose on the lens, he's also incredibly photogenic.

And just in case you were wondering what the holidays look like from my point of view...here's our baby girl at 32 weeks saying Merry Christmas!

Holiday Spirit

I absolutely love making our house look beautiful for the holidays. Some of my favorite memories from being a kid are the nights we spent decking the halls, the walls, the tree, and everything else possible for Christmas. My dad would haul our well-worn cardboard boxes full of ornaments, lights, and garlands out of the basement, and every year I felt the same thrill of rediscovering my 'favorite' Christmas decorations.

Joshua and I have amassed our own cardboard boxes and plastic tubs full of holiday decor, and it's all I can do to wait until after Thanksgiving to start stringing up lights and hanging up stockings. I've cheated once or twice when we were going out of town for Thanksgiving - just for the joy of coming back to a Christmasy home.

But my mom is coming into town this weekend, and we have never decorated for Christmas together here in Chicago. So we are waiting (patience isn't my thing, exactly) until Friday night to transform the condo into a winter wonderland.

It's making me crazy. Today I went downstairs into the storage room to just stare at "Christmas Corner", as Joshua calls our ever-growing collection. I tried to decide if I could just put out one snowman, or find one pine candle to light. At one point the holiday welcome mat I threw in the cart during our recent trip to Home Depot (again!) was actually in my hands.

I didn't do it. I'm more excited about having my mom here for all of it. And Joshua, of course. And Cari. And the zoo - the cats are relatively indifferent to the sudden glitzy changes in their world, but I think Helo is really going to be crazy over the tree and the lights and the ornaments. It's sweet and terrifying all at the same time.

Another terrifying - but really thrilling - twist to this years' holiday decorating is that our new camera should be delivered on Friday afternoon, just in time to document exactly what happens when a dog is confronted with a live tree in the comfort of his own living room. I'm taking bets on how quickly he pees on it.

Joshua and I took advantage of the Black Friday sales (from the comfort of our couch; I'm not much of a 4am crowd trampler) to find a great deal on a Canon Rebel T2i. I have less than no idea what I'll be doing with such a sophisticated camera, but I can't wait to start taking lovely, dreamy SLR photos. Even if it does takes me a month to learn anything other than the automatic settings, I'm just thrilled about how rarely I'm going to have to use the flash now!

Lately I've been feeling a little sore and a lot sluggish so the excitement of the holidays has been a wonderful distraction from that. As soon as this house is fully bedecked and bedazzled, I'm sure I will feel even better. It may be taking all the willpower I have not to start looping garlands down the stairwell right this minute, but I know I will appreciate the experience of getting ready for the holidays so much more with the people I love.

Pictures...shiny, beautiful PICTURES...to come!

Grateful

Thanksgiving has passed but before it's too far behind us I really wanted to take some time to mention what Joshua and I are so thankful for this year...

- The gift of each other. We are so blessed to have celebrated FIVE years of marriage this past May. I'm thankful every day that we met when we were so young and that we've been able to grow up together without growing apart. At our (granola crunch style) childbirth classes this past weekend, we were asked to share the story of how we met and fell in love. This was an unexpected detour in between graphic homebirth videos, and we were surprised by how much fun it was to talk about our wild little teenage romance. We've come so far from those first crazy months of long-distance phone calls, cross country plane trips, 2000 mile roadtrips and lugging our physical and emotional baggage all across America. Our life now might not seem as spontaneous and passionate as it did when we were 19 and 20 and writing (bad) poetry and running off to Chicago together, but it is so much richer and deeper and more fulfilling than I could have ever expected back then. Every day that we have together is a gift and I never want to lose sight of that!

-The gift of our baby. Joshua and I weren't one of those couples who have a few extra drinks, tumble home and fastforward a few weeks to a totally shocking positive pregnancy test. A baby was prayed for and planned for (and cried over, let's be serious) before this baby became a reality. It's hard to put into words how grateful we are that after that struggle, I've had an incredibly uneventful and healthy pregnancy and we are only 9 weeks away from welcoming our daughter into the world. I wake up every day thankful for her jabs and rolls and karate kicks, all of which take my breath away. Sometimes because a swift punch to the ribs hurts like hell, but always because it means she is real, and we are incredibly grateful for the intense experience and privilege of becoming parents.

-The gift of our jobs. We both love what we do. Not every day is a great day at the office or the hospital, and sometimes when things at work are stressful we forget to be thankful for our careers. (Last night when my patient's ostomy bag came off twice and she was screaming bloody murder, and my other patient decided to start hollering at that moment for a bottle, I would not say that I was particularly happy about my choice of poop-covered workplace). But when we step back and look at the people we work with, the experiences we get to have, and the fact that we do totally different things that are perfectly fitted to our personalities, we know we are blessed. We have job security, we have benefits, we have so many opportunities to be challenged by our work and make a difference in the lives of people around us.

-The gift of our families. We both have intact, supportive, loving and slightly crazy families who have been there for us every step of our lives. We're thankful for that every day, and especially at the holidays. This fall my cousin Cari moved from Massachusetts to live with us in Chicago (she sweetly shares her room here with our emotionally disturbed cat Hala, who would like to say that for Thanksgiving she is grateful we got her an extra human). Cari is hilarious and incredibly thoughtful and helpful and even sobbed at my last midwife's appointment when she heard the baby's heartbeat. Which of course made me cry because I can't overexaggerate how happy I am to have someone from my side of the family here after the six years I've spent 1000 miles away from everyone I grew up with. It's been one of the best seasons of my life so far.

The gift of our friends. We have great friendships that we've built over our almost six years in Chicago. Some of our friends here are actually my elementary school friends from Massachusetts that have migrated here over the years (yes I take lots of credit for this). Some of our friends are Joshua's college friends from the year when he lived in Colorado. Some of our friends are our college friends from here in the city. Some are our work friends, some have slipped in through roommates and friends and family of other friends, and all I can say is that they are all wonderful and our lives are so much better for knowing them. Joshua looked around the room at our baby shower last weekend and said to me, "I really really love everyone here." And we do.

-The gift of our home. We can say for certain that after almost a month of living in our condo (pictures are COMING SOON, I promise!) that this is exactly where we are supposed to be. It's both cozy and spacious, easy to keep clean, perfect for us and our animals and getting closer to being ready for baby girl. We have already made lots of wonderful memories here and I know there will be so many many more.

There are a hundred more things I could say (I'm thankful for my zoo! Joshua made me dinner tonight and just did the dishes! My fancy dream stroller is being delivered this week! I don't have any stretch marks yet! My mom is coming into town this weekend and I'm finally going to decorate for Christmas!) but I think the most important thing is to continue living our everyday lives thankful for all that we have been given. I know there will be years where things are much more difficult and don't fall into place as beautifully as they have in 2010. There will be times when we struggle in our marriage and struggle as parents and and as friends and just in general don't wake up as excited about life as we do these days.

So that's what this list is for - to look at on the crappy days when the baby is screaming and the cat throws up on the rug and the dog is chewing happily away on Joshua's favorite hat and the fridge is empty and I have the flu. We have been blessed with so much, and we are so thankful for it.

Home Sweet Home

In the eternity since I last posted, we have gone from this chaotic mess:

...to this calm new home:



Sorry for the pictures, our camera is currently MIA after the move, and my phone will have to do. I think the lack of towering boxes at least gets the point across! We are so thankful that the packing and moving experience is over with and thanks to so much help from our AMAZING friends and family we have been able to quickly settle in. Actually Joshua has attacked the experience of home ownership with a passion that is (while not totally surprising) very overwhelming. I woke up yesterday afternoon after work to find that he had spent the weekend completely organizing our two (TWO!!) storage rooms, the linen closet and the office area downstairs. He had also patched up a hole in the brick living room wall, fixed a bunch of things related to the heater and humidifier that sort of made glaze over when he tried to explain them, and he had scrubbed down the kitchen.

Before we moved, I made a big deal about getting ready for the baby, keeping things clean, and the biological drive to nest (I was whining a little ok), but I'll be honest - Joshua's intensity to make and keep this place nice has so far exceeded my own. And I can't even describe how great it was to wake up after 3 nights of work, including a 13 hour daylight savings shift, and find out how much he had done.

Then last night we went to Babies R Us to attempt fixing up our registry and it was at that point, surrounded by brightly colored plastic baby crap, that we both sort of felt like we needed a drink and we had worked way too hard over the weekend. He got to hang out on the couch with some whiskey, I "enjoyed" my lemon water and started a Countdown to Wine calendar, which ends promptly on my due date with this baby getting an eviction notice.

Watch, I am going to be so overdue. Anyways more pictures of the new place, more baby updates, and more blogging coming very soon!

Soon-ish.

Our apartment is such a mess right now.

We've started to pack and the boxes have started to pile up in the dining room. We decided to put everything in the dining room in order to keep the rest of the house less cluttered, but it has had the unfortunate side effect of creating thrilling little obstacle courses, hiding spots, and ledges for the cats and the dog to really let loose with their predatory instincts. Our boxes have created a war zone of leaping, screeching, growling 'domestic' animals.

So that's fun.

We have only 16 days left until we move, and everyday I am more and more excited to get everything into the condo and kiss this tiny-closeted, narrow-bedroomed apartment goodbye. We have wonderful memories here, it has been a great space for us and our growing family, but I'm ready to have all my clothes in one room. And to start setting up the nursery. And just get settled before our world is totally rocked with the arrival of our daughter.

The move has made me realize that over the past 5+ years of apartment living, I have never really become a very organized person domestically. I have a hard time keeping the laundry baskets empty, the shoes put away, the mail filed, the clutter decluttered. I do not have any sort of cleaning schedule, or plan, and I regularly buy more cleaning products only to discover I've got triples of Windex or whatever. The pet hair can get the best of me, and I'll be the first to admit that if you want to hang out, I'm going to leave my dishes in the sink and run out to do something more fun. Which when we are talking about dishes, would be absolutely anything. But...

BUT. The thought of bringing a baby into the chaos that can be our home is really overwhelming to me. We aren't dirty (let's be clear, although we aren't winning any awards with that pet hair I mentioned), but we can both be lazy when it comes to keeping our home organized and efficient. That's fine for two adults, but less so for a sweet baby who needs a clean room, lots of extra (clean!) crib sheets, blankets, bibs, clothes, diapers, and so on. I know that old habits are hard to break, but I'm hoping the vast amount of storage space, the closets in every bedroom (imagine!), the in-unit laundry, and the overwhelming responsibility of MOTHERHOOD will motivate me to take better care of everything I am so lucky to have.

In the meantime, my dog just plowed my cat into the wall and then skidded his way from the dining room into the living room and slammed into the coffee table. My other cat just leapt onto my stomach in an attempt to show the baby how she really feels about her, and I can literally hear our downstairs neighbors grumbling about how loud we are.

These next 16 days cannot go by fast enough!

It's Feeling Real! And It's Feeling Hot.

I was reading through posts on one of my old blogs (that died a slow and totally unnoticed death), and I came across this little gem that I wrote:

"And in 2009 I have decided I'm going to enjoy this limbo time, between being old enough to have a real job and real paycheck (and real vacations) and between having serious responsibilities like kids and a mortgage and GRANITE, damnit. I'm going to enjoy that we could buy a condo, or we can do something totally different and adventurous."

Ha! 2010 has shown up with a mortgage, a pregnancy, and even a bonus dog that I clearly I hadn't planned on last year. I don't think we did anything that was 'totally different and adventurous', but we traveled quite a bit, spent our hard-earned money in ways that homeowners and parents probably should not, and I'm sure generally behaved in a manner unbecoming to both homeowners and especially parents. Several incidents along the coast of Mexico and in international waters come to mind. I would have to say that looking back on 2009 and the first half of this year, I think we did a good job enjoying the DINK lifestyle. And my liver is probably at least a little thankful for nine months of peace, quiet and the total absence of tequila.

Apparently in 2009 I was also very concerned with the responsibility of owning GRANITE, but we actually lucked out with granite countertops later that year when we moved to the apartment where we currently live. I guess wrote that blog post before that deep need was met? Joshua has actually told me that the countertops at our new place are not thick enough. Apparently there are standards. So 2011 may even bring us new ones - I mean, since I was so concerned about it in the past, let's definitely keep the maintenance and improvement of GRANITE as a serious responsibility.

We now have an official closing date, although I know they are subject to change, and a moving date. We should be in the new place by November 1st, and I'm hoping that by then this ridiculous heat wave will be over, but it won't have started snowing yet (this seems like a lot to ask from the Chicago weather). I am so excited and nervous to have a place of our own! Excited because we can actually make it exactly the way we want it, and nervous because we can screw it up only at our own expense. Also nervous because I realized we are moving in 5 weeks at the most, and I am literally busy with work, an out of town wedding, and various other can't-miss-them activities on 26 of the 35 days that I have left to organize, sublet, and pack this place up. We have never really done anything in a calm and methodical manner in our whole lives, so I shouldn't be surprised, but...yikes.

In fun pregnancy news, I now have a definite bump at 21 and a half weeks. It's nice because now I feel like I can move on from the self-esteem loss that comes with looking like I eat a dozen doughnuts after every meal. And every meal is pasta in cream sauce. With a side of...butter. Basically what I'm saying is, I'm thankful to look like I'm growing a child and not a warning ad for a Paula Deen cookbook. Baby girl is kicking away and I can't wait for Joshua to really be able to feel her moving as well. So far, her 21 week self cannot yet pummel through the abdominal fat I so thoughtfully acquired pre-pregnancy. For her protection, of course.

Anyways, both the condo and the growing baby are all feeling very real these days! And when Joshua brings home a carload of boxes, the packing will also feel very real. Apparently all the things I decided would be so fun to postpone in 2009 have now collided in 2010, so thank God I am now familiar with the care and upkeep of GRANITE, or this whole process would probably just knock me out cold.

More updates to come...

Yes, I will be posting here...

To all the doubters, re: Kirsten, my lovely wife, I hope this post makes it abundantly clear that I will be posting here.

The latest? We just got word that one more key step in our home-buying process has been completed and we can now move swiftly toward closing. So, I guess that's it for now--I just wanted to come in with some good stuff right away.

Hello, Internet. You missed me, right?

Well! This is the first post of my third blog. The first two fizzled out due to a total lack of riveting content, so I have done my best to make our lives more interesting over the past few years in order to have something to whine about on the internet.

Just kidding!

Hopefully, I will actually use this blog to keep our friends and family updated on our lives. We have decided to go all out this year in terms of making the leap to incredibly responsible adulthood, and I thought our loved ones might be interested in laughing at us supporting us as we experience the brand new challenges of homeownership and parenthood in the next few months.

We have a fairly busy schedule planned for now until the end of January, which includes but is not limited to: packing up our entire apartment and moving into our new condo when I'm six months pregnant, unpacking into a new place, the entire whirlwind of the winter holidays, and then birthing an actual human. I think it all sounds overwhelming, but they tell me that last one is a doozy.

After that, we don't plan on acquiring any new animals, homes, or children for quite a while.

We both plan to post on this blog (I will be as interested as anyone else to see if Joshua follows through on that), and we definitely plan on being very honest about all the challenges and joys we experience during this crazy period of transition. So do we advise moving 2 cats, a dog, 3,127 lbs of books and furniture a few weeks before Thanksgiving and 3 months before your first baby is due? We agree, it sounds like a terrible idea. Check this site soon for details.

It's good to be back, Internet!