Lots and Lots of Snow 2014

On Monday it snowed 7-8 inches here (officially Snow Storm "Maximus"). And it snowed again last night about 4"(Snow Storm "Nika"). Kevin's university canceled classes on Monday and today- when he doesn't teach anyway. Ha.

It's been snowing a lot here this winter, and we've had a lot of below freezing days. But at least James enjoys the snow this year and has been able to go out with Kevin and play, sled, shovel, and build in it a bunch of times.

James with the snowman he built in our front yard

Hugging the snowman

Actually Kevin built the snowman. James isn't that advanced yet.

Okay, enough fun, James. Back to work!

Neutral Milk Hotel Concert 2014

We were so excited to get tickets to Neutral Milk Hotel's reunion tour. Even though they broke up in 1999, I didn't really know about them until Kevin put "In the Aeroplane Over the Sea" on an old-school mixed tape (CD) he made me in 2006. (Aww.)

Anyway, we had a double-date with Nick and Emily. We started with dinner at Deniz, a Fort Greene Turkish restaurant. I was super excited when the waiter took one look at me and offered to make me a mocktail. After we met up with Briggs at Frank's Cocktail Lounge and head over to the concert all together.

Kevin and me at Deniz restuarant

Emily and Nick at Deniz

This was my first time at BAM, even though I've been wanting to go forever. The Opera House was gorgeous, and the concert was great. Actual quote from Kevin last night talking about band member Julian Koster: "He has three saws to play." He played that saw like magic. And Scott Spillane was awesome. Good times!

BAM

Me, Kevin, Briggs, Emily, and Nick

BAM Cafe

• Jeff Mangum concert, December 2011
• Our last real concert: Bon Iver, December 2012
• Last time we were in Fort Greene, October 2011

Grandma Visits- January 2014

Grandma visited this weekend! I made dinner Thursday night, and she made a much yummier roast beef for us Friday night. A lot of wine was consumed. Saturday she babysat for us while we went out.

Bathtime with grandma on Thursday night

Reading to James about the horrors of rabies on Saturday

Grandma was still here Sunday morning when we started working on the new shared nursery for James and his sister. We hit some road bumps so it' been taking much longer than I would have anticipated, but it's starting to look really cute. I'll post more about this soon.

Pregnancy Advice: After You Get Pregnant

My last pregnancy advice post was about what I suggest you do before you get pregnant. So it follows that I should discuss what I advise you do when you discover that you're pregnant.

1) Keep taking prenatal vitamins, or start immediately. The folic acid in prenatal vitamins helps prevent neural tube defects in the first trimester.

2) Make an appointment with your OB. (If you don't have one research a good one.) Most OB's won't see you until about 8 weeks because they honestly can't tell you much before then. Record the date of your LMP so they can determine your due date.

3) I don't think you should tell everyone that you're pregnant immediately. Obviously it's your personal choice to make and you can tell anyone you want, especially if you're close to that person. But be aware, approximately a fourth of pregnancies do not work out and you probably don't want to explain to everyone if yours is one of those. Even if you are blessed with a healthy pregnancy, a lot of people will feel really uncomfortable with your early announcement, either because they are worried for you or because they experienced a miscarriage themselves.

4) Don't immediately run out and buy a ton of stuff. Largely for the same reason as above, but also, towards the end of your pregnancy some loved one may want to shower you with gifts.

5) Related to the above, ask a friend who has a young child for help making a baby registry. (I might do a post on what baby stuff to get if I don't run out of time.)

6) Sign up for babycenter.com or thebump.com. Skip "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and the like. If you want to buy a "pregnancy book" I recommend "Your Baby's First Year" by American Academy of Pediatrics. Unlike the authors of some other books, these people are doctors. There's a solidly long pregnancy section in the front, followed by an infinitely more useful section on what to do when the baby is actually here. It's like two books in one.

7) Please take belly pictures. I know a lot of moms who didn't because they were unhappy with how they looked at the time, but you might not always feel this way in retrospect. So if you don't like how you look right now, take the pictures and put them somewhere safe without sharing them. Later in your life if you still hate them you can burn or delete them. But most likely you will like the photos later- or your child will.

8) Don't get too attached to your "birth plan." It may not happen that way at all.

9) Don't eat too much junk food, especially if it has preservatives. The baby does not "need" that, and you'll find most of the weight you gain in the first and second trimester goes to your bum and not to the baby. That's weight you'll still have on your bum after you have the baby.

10) Prioritize sleep as much as you can. (This is hard, especially if you already have another child.)

11) Be easy on yourself. You just can't do everything you used to do. (This is very hard.)

12) Morning sickness can sometimes be avoided by not letting yourself get too hungry or stressed. Other times it can't be avoided at all.

13) Tums can be really helpful for acid reflux, but beware they can cause iron deficiency. (Learned this the hard way.) Iron deficiency can be really serious because you may lose a lot of blood when you have the baby, and really low iron could result in difficulty breathing and might even result in you losing consciousness.

14) Research any medication (prescription or over-the-counter) people suggest. You should understand the benefits and risks before you take anything (including prescription prenatal vitamins that often contain "extras"). Here's a link I found explains the issue really well: http://blogs.plos.org/publichealth/2014/03/03/tylenol-safe-pregnancy-trick-question/

15) Now might be a good time to write a will, determine who will care for your child if something happens to you and your spouse, and even write an advance health care directive.  I'm impressed if you're motivated though, it took us almost 3 years after James was born to do our will.

That's all I can think of, but comment if you have any questions and I'll try to offer what I can.

Recent James Quotes 2013-14

I can't believe James will be 3 years old in just 3 months! (And we'll have another amazing little person to love then too!) James's speech has been getting more sophisticated and it constantly cracks us up. Some of it is that he can repeat entire sentences we say now, but a lot of it is his own personal stylings on how he views the world or the world of pretend.

J: (Brings over stuffed pug.) "Fudgie loves you. He's a good pet. Read him a book."
-11/19/13

J: "It's beautiful!"
K: "What's beautiful? Mama?"
J: "Nooo."
-12/13/13

Coloring in some bills

1/2/14: I asked Kevin to put butt cream on James after his bath, and after Kevin put it on him I heard James thank him.
Kevin laughed and said, "Wow, that was the most appreciative butt cream application ever!"
Then James said, "You're the best!"

1/18/14: Gets on his bike and says, "Bye, Gonna go talk to Sarah at her house. Bye. See you later, alligator."

 

Biking away

J: (Throwing out a diaper) "Good night, diaper. I love you. See you in the morning."
-1/18/14

J: (After I helped him build a train track.) "Where the train going? Around and around! Woah! You're the best, mama!" Gives me a big hug.
- 1/19/14

 

Playing trains with a very pregnant Mama

In other news, he started refusing naps about a week or two ago. We had to adjust his bedtime up this week to adjust for how grouchy he got late at night. So now he sleeps from 7:45 p.m.to almost 7:15 a.m. and it's AMAZING. He did pass out while watching the Patriots play this weekend, so it's not a perfect system, but we're going to stop fighting him and let him nap when wants to.

Aw, one of his last regular naps in our bed.

He's also super obsessed with the songs "I'm a Little Teapot," "Humpty Dumpty," and "The Wheels on the Bus." He's been pretending random objects are teapots so his Great Aunt Mary sent him a tea set in primary colors. Hey boys drink tea too.

Thanking Mary for the teapot on Facetime

Casey and Pete Visit 2014

We've had back-to-back visitors for a few weeks, ad the last two weekend we had Kevin's friends Casey and Pete visit. This meant a lot of partying for Kevin. Which taught him that he's too old to go out two consecutive nights in a row. This is something I learned a long time ago.

But both guys got to spend a lot of quality time with me and James too.

 

Casey trying to potty train James

 

Pete showing James photos of his daughter Lenny on his phone, 

and sending her funny face pics of James

Thanks for visiting, guys!

Kevin's Article in The Airship 2014

Who Owns Walt Whitman?

Everything in New York is named after Walt Whitman, and Kevin tried to figure out why:

http://www.airingnews.com/articles/442983/who-owns-walt-whitman/

Things My Wife Complains About #27: Buying Her Gourmet Cupcakes

My wife complained the other day that nobody brings her cupcakes. She said this not in the tone of "nobody brings me flowers" but in the tone of "nobody brings me oxygen." You are encouraged to imagine my pregnant wife on a respirator of cupcakes, complaining.

I told her to find a place that sells the cupcakes she wanted, and the next day I went to that place. The cupcake she selected was 975 calories and cost $4.50. I used to buy pitchers of beer for less than that in graduate school. Probably, some of you are old enough to have purchased homes for that price.

The cupcake was a complaint-fest from the beginning: It was too big, too sugary, too cake-y (?). Then, when she attempted to consume the cupcake, a series of unfortunate events occurred wherein she was wearing most of the cupcake, and milk was everywhere. This, obviously, was my fault.

I didn't leap to her rescue fast enough. I focused on cleaning the couch, not helping her, and I hadn't even bothered to wipe chocolate off the milk cup. What, she asked earnestly, had I been doing? I had been reassessing the place of the cupcake in my life. It was a soul-searching moment.

Possible solutions!

1) Replace cupcakes with literally any other food item
2) Admit that I forced her to spill the cupcake and, in fact, secretly relished the experience
3) Question a pregnant woman's cravings (hard)

 

Crumb's Thin Mint Cupcake

New Years Resolutions 2014

Well, we're half-way through January already, so maybe it's time I got my resolutions in order. This is a lot of stuff but I'm hoping I'll be aided by the insanity of pregnancy "nesting."

Must: 

• Complete our wills, powers of attorney,  living wills, and healthcare powers of attorney.
• Double check our Life Insurance now that we will have 2 kids.
• Back up entire computer (and try to get Kevin to do the same).
• Finish James's baby book
• Take a picture every day of Itty Bitty's first year (because I did it for James)
• Go for a walk 5-6 times a week after I'm recovered from Itty Bitty's birth until it gets too cold in Fall/Winter 
• Finish dental work (ugh)

Would like to:

• Read more (quality) books! My full reading to-do list for 2014 is on my books blog.
• Cook more quality dinners. I actually started working on this in December, I'll write more about it soon.
• Baptism- for both kids?
• Learn Italian! Well, learn a little conversational stuff.

Bonus goals:

• Learn to bake? Ah, scared of this one. 

 

Crazy picture of me from New Years Day- Cheers! 

6 Months Pregnant 2014

21 Weeks, December 12-18
Kevin wrapped up the fall semester this week and we started on a long break together. Nana visited and babysat for us when we went out to celebrate Sarah and Lukas's joint birthday, and James W visited us for a week. Poor James had to go back to the dentist.

We had a lot of fun celebrating Christmastime at home with James.  I had many cravings.

Baby progress: Baby is the size of a banana or carrot. Baby's digestive system is starting to work.
She kicks when James cries or when I sing lullabies to him.
Symptoms: Acid reflux!!! Baby kicks feel like ELECTROCUTION.
Cravings: Apple cinnamon cheerios, milk, rice pudding, mint, cinnamon, (ice cream, cookies). Apples, mango juice, strawberry everything. At one point, almost all I ate for 24-hours was apple cinnamon cheerios.
Anti-cravings: Coffee (I want it but it burns me with evil acid reflux)
My Weight Gain: 11 (last time 13-16?)
Compare to week 21 with James or maybe with week 22?

22 Weeks, December 19-25
Andrew came here for a brief visit before we all drove to the Cape together. We celebrated Christmas Eve and Christmas Kevin's family.

Baby progress: The baby is the size of a papaya. (Yum.) She's supposed to be settling into sleep cycles, and I can kind of tell. She usually kicks around at night when I'm sitting on the couch with Kevin, and when I go to sleep. In the morning she doesn't "wake up" until 8:30 am, usually after I've been up for a while.
Symptoms: ACID REFLUX. Made it tough to sleep some nights.
Cravings: Christmas goodies, chocolate, chai tea, everything.
Anti-cravings: Not really.
My Weight Gain: 13 (last time up 16-18, but don't forget I started heavier this time)
Compare to week 22 with James

The 3.5 Clous at the Cape on Christmas.

23 Weeks, December 26- January 1
We were still on the Cape at the beginning of this week relaxing with family. Casey and Jaime came up to visit and have drinks with us. We had a good drive back home, and we celebrated New Years Day with Lukas and Sarah.

Baby progress: The baby is the size of a mango or papaya. Her face is fully formed. She's getting used to a lot of the sounds she hears coming from outside the womb.
Symptoms: ACID REFLUX
Cravings: Nuts
Anti-cravings: None.
My Weight Gain: 15 pounds, but still 3 pounds heavier than last time
Compare to week 23 with James-- Holy cow, I looked much smaller last time. Uh-oh.

 

Jaime visiting- I'm 23 weeks pregnant

Six Months!, 24 Weeks, January 2-8
Nana came over to exchange presents for  "Little Christmas" before we took the tree down. Kevin started the winter semester on the coldest day of our lives.

Lots of cute presents!

Baby progress:  Baby is the size of an ear of corn. She's gaining weight, and her lungs are developing. Her brain is growing quickly now. She kicks when James, Kevin, or I sing, and sometimes when we listen to music.
Symptoms: Acid reflux but it's not as bad. I'm starting to have trouble sleeping already. I was hoping that would wait for the third trimester.
Cravings: Fruits of all kinds, Mango juice, pineapples, mandarins and other citrus fruits that give me acid reflux and BURN. Chocolate and chocolate ice cream which do not give acid reflux and seem to dampen it.
Anti-cravings: None? Everything sounds pretty delicious.
My Weight Gain: 16 pounds, but still 3 pounds heavier than last time
Compare to week 24 with James

Thing I Miss: This is the first week I miss anything which is lucky. To this point I haven't really missed alcohol. This week I thought several glasses of red wine would be sublime. I miss lying on my belly-- particularly while working at home-- to give my back a break. I miss not having to suspiciously weigh the likelihood that otherwise benevolent foods will burn like tequila shots. That's how I ate pieces of pineapple this week, like one evil tequila shot after another. But these are small sacrifices.

Today, I'm 25 weeks, and I'm just 15 weeks (or less) from meeting my daughter!