Christmas in NY & NJ 2010

We tried to make the best of the beginning of the week. It's supposed to be really important to have good dental hygiene while pregnant so I went for a cleaning and check on Tuesday. As far as the dentist could tell without an x-ray, no cavities. I think I like the no x-ray system best. We also had a romantic joint eye doctor appointment on Wednesday- Kevin got new glasses but my prescription remains unchanged since 2004. Sadly the style of my glasses is out.

But anyway, we took advantage of my dentist being in the city to go out on Tuesday. We got soup dumplings after my appointment, walked through Central Park, and then went to the American Museum of Natural History.  We were particularly excited about the dinosaur exhibit after watching about four hours of dinosaur documentary with Brady last weekend.  It's a little sad that so many dinosaurs that we learned about when we were little have been "revised" and renamed. For example, the brontosaurus doesn't exist, and now it's the apatosaurus.  Thankfully, tyrannosaurus rex and stegosaurus still exist. But the real stars of the dinosaur world are now the diplodocus, closely related barosaurus, and the somewhat T-rex-looking but not related, Allosaurus. It was fun discussing how old Baby Clou would have to be before we could bring him back here.  We're guessing it won't be for a few years.

23 weeks + 2 days belly shot in Central Park

The Barosaurus at the entrance of the museum

Self-portrait with an old-school triceratops

Kevin was also pretty psyched to see the gigantic whale in the Oceans Exhibit, though ironically it took us a lot of effort and time to find it.  It took even longer to make cheesy videos on their email machines, but I insisted on it.

Kevin and his Moby Dick, if Moby were a 94-foot blue whale

Videos best with sound


You can hear me complaining that it makes no sense that we're sharing a wetsuit

Afterward, we went for dinner at a Peruvian-Chinese restaurant, and then to Rockefeller for pictures with the tree and the Radio City Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes.  Apparently, mom and dad brought me when I was five or six and I critiqued Santa's credibility.  I don't remember it, but this has always been one of their favorite stories.

The Rockefeller Tree, four years after our first picture here

Then we went on a visiting-family spree, starting with my grandmother Daisy, then Christmas Eve and the day before it with my mother, visiting Chrissy's family who truly understands what we're going through.  Finally, we hauled out to the Cape for Christmas dinner with Kevin's family.  They showered us with love and presents for us and for the baby. Despite our best efforts though, Christmas without my dad has been extremely sad.

Soon-to-be Great Grandma (bisaubuela) Daisy is 80 years old

Gwen, Matthew, Chrissy, and Owen

23 Weeks
Milestones: Baby is kicking all the way up on the top of my belly now.  Kevin has developed sympathetic pregnancy symptoms (also known as the common cold) complete with fatigue, sore throat, stuffy nose, difficulty sleeping, and increased appetite. Today he almost said "I shouldn't kiss you because I'm pregnant," when he meant to say "because I'm sick."
What I miss the most: Sleeping comfortably. Being allowed to lose weight.
Craving: MILK, DAIRY, ICE CREAM, CHOCOLATE, I want to bathe in it, also yogurt, egg nog, fruit bars, sugar sugar sugar.  I am trying to restrain myself... and failing.
Anti-craving: Food without sugar or salt.
Symptoms: Acid reflux, stuffy nose,  left knee still hurts. The floor is far away and uncomfortable to reach.
Baby-size: Mango!
Weight gain: 19.5 plus? Weighing myself on Christmas wasn't going to happen