christmas cracker

No time for all the updates about doctor visits and birthing classes. We just wanted to put the absolute most recent photo up for now. All is well. The little Cracker is growing and doing lots of kicking. He did settle down a little bit while I read "Twas The Night Before Christmas" to him on Christmas Eve (thanks Mom!).

Happy Holidays everyone!!

-G

happy thanks-bowling!

"Wow, look how much she's growing! I'd swear she's carrying a bowling ball!" Oh, I just kill myself sometimes.

So, it has been a month since the last good belly picture was taken. In that time, we have been having a lot of new experiences. We have started going to baby classes (breastfeeding, un-medicated childbirth, etc.), getting the nursery ready, and even found ourselves browsing around Baby Gap. We have also tried to make sure some things stay quite normal.

For several years, we have had a semi-annual tradition of going bowling after dinner on Thanksgiving Day, and we wanted to make sure we stuck to it this year. Of course, we checked with our doctor(s) first, who gave us an enthusiastic thumbs-up (as long as the ball wasn't too heavy). We invited a few friends we knew would be around after the holiday dinner and met at Elitch Lanes, an vintage alley in our old neighborhood. After three games, we were all a little sore, demoralized, and full of fried bowling alley snacks. All-in-all, a great outing. We just can't wait to bring the little Graham Cracker in a few years so we can have a valid excuse to use that nifty kids ramp to push the ball down so it goes straight every time.

-G

santa fe getaway

This is waaay overdue, but I wanted to quickly document the fact that we did, in fact take our requisite "babymoon" back in October. Somehow we've never been to Santa Fe, and we didn't want to break the bank, so we spent a long weekend down New Mexico way. Stayed in a cute B&B casita with a kitchenette (that got absolutely no use), did a lot of walking, eating, art-browsing, and plain old vegging. The definitive highlight of this brief trip, though, was our visit to Ten Thousand Waves -- a Japanese-style bathhouse (or onsen) tucked neatly into the sagebrushed foothills above town. We splurged on a full half-day package: a private outdoor soak in the woods; 1-hour, full-body massage; Yasuragi head and neck treatment; and an amazing, exfoliating salt glow! Afterward, we wandered around the gorgeous grounds in our kimonos...drunk on endorphins and utterly, thoroughly relaxed. Wrapped it all up with a picnic and a hike in the Santa Fe National Forest. Great, except for the fact that I no longer have any lung capacity or altitude tolerance and had to stop every 10 minutes to catch my breath (note Gavin patiently waiting on the trail ahead of me). All in all, it was a lovely little getaway. Here's hoping that the next one happens sometime before the kid hits high school!

-rhr %:-)

24 weeks in the oven

We took this picture on our little trip to Santa Fe a couple weeks ago. Now we are just waiting for the next significant growth spurt!

-G

pizza freaks

Just quickly...Gavin has been bugging me to post a little bit of cracker-trivia. Until about two weeks ago, I wasn't positive that I'd felt any definitive movement in the belly region...I'd sensed some odd fluttery stuff, sure, but so much is moving and changing all of the time in my newly-commandeered body...let's just say it's hard to know what's what! But, it is now a documented fact: on Thursday, October 2nd, I snagged a leftover piece of Proto's pizza (very yummy) from the fridge. Maybe 10 minutes after I'd scarfed it down...you guessed it...an unmistakable thump-thump. Asking for seconds, perhaps? No doubt about it: this little guy seems to like the pizza pie, just like his mom and dad...ummm, especially his dad. For those who aren't privy to Gavin's primary culinary obsession, check out Zealots of Za. Hopefully the kiddo will continue to appreciate this glorious foodstuff (the solid version, that is) well into adulthood!

-rhr %:-)

it's a...goofball!

Yes, it's true. We went for our 21.5 week ultrasound last Wednesday and are now ready to share the official "flavor" of our baby-in-waiting...let's just say it ain't no Cracker Jill! How do we know for sure? Well, as you can see from the these (slightly squished) sonogram images, the evidence is quite clear. Once the ultrasound tech had located telltale signs of testosterone, she used her handy arrow cursor to point out the somewhat obvious peninsula shape that kept finding its way into the shot. Here we have a good, clear image that could be equated to the angle one might see if the fetus had plopped himself on top of a copy machine for a nice "shot from below."

Poor little guy isn't even out of the womb and we already have some embarrassing photos ready to show during his teenage years. If you squint a bit at the other two images, you can see him: 1. sucking on his thumb (in profile); and 2. facing the camera (starting to look a bit like his dad here). Gavin even provided some helpful tracings to aid with visualization. Needless to say, despite (or maybe because of) all the giggling, we are very excited to meet this little guy...only 4 months left to go!

-rhr %:-)

mountain midwifery

We actually haven't quite decided just where we want to be when the Cracker enters this world. Tonight we are going to an orientation at the Mountain Midwifery Center which is our only real non-hospital option. Although we know one friend had an amazing experience here, we REALLY didn't start thinking about it seriously until we watched the movie "The Business of Being Born," a documentary about the American trend towards drugged-up and potentially unnecessary c-section births, versus natural, in-home births.

I found a little video peek of the Center online. Kinda cheesy and not much info...

happy birthday grandpa!

We have been holding out on telling my Dad till his birthday, when we would see him while on vacation over Labor Day weekend (15.5 weeks for those keeping track). We took he and Nancy out to lunch in a cafe in Savannah, GA and presented him with his birthday card. As we handed it to him, we said something like "we got you something little, and we're pretty sure you don't have one already." Inside, we wrote "Happy Birthday Grandpa-to-be!" and included a printout of a couple of the ultrasounds (I know, cheeeeezy). Robin and I were both relieved there was no heart attack, and also relieved that he and Nancy were very surprised and quite happy, as you can see in these pics.


Sadly, we have no photographic evidence of the reactions of other family members, but all were wonderfully memorable and unique to each of them. We will probably retell those announcements here as well very soon.

just as she should be...

barefoot, pregnant, and baking me a cake!


OK, before you get all up in arms, it was HER idea to both do the baking and have me take the picture. Let's hope that sense of humor sticks with her for the duration.

i see an ink blob. no wait...a butterfly.

Our first visit to the doctor was at around 10 weeks. At that point Robin had some tests done (results all good), we asked a lot of questions and then we got to hear the heartbeat. The doctor also confirmed our self-calculated due date to be on or near February 16th.




At 12 weeks (late July), we headed in for the first ultrasound, and our minds were blown away pretty quickly. It took no time for the technician to find the wiggling alien. She told us we can see the head, arms, fingers, legs, the umbilical cord in the pictures above, but I wasn't sure if I could trust her ;-) We also learned that Robin can make the Cracker (as in Graham Cracker) dance any time she laughed (which was often). Robin also had a few more tests (even more thumbs-up) to rule out the various things they test for when a mother is over 35.

At week 13 or 14, we figured we were safely in the second trimester and is was ok to let people know, and put up this blog.

let the insanity begin

This is what we saw the morning of June 14th, a day before we headed out to Portland for a week-long vacation to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary. That’s right, Portland...home to a thousand delicious craft beers. Well, at least there were a few tourist spots to enjoy and some delicious food. Were we excited? Yes. Were we scared? More like terrified, but, it was planned so we eased into it nicely. It helped that our first day in the "City of Roses" ended with a trip to the maternity section Powell's City of Books.