Guess who's on vacation again???

I swear these two take more vacations than George W. Maybe it just seems that way because by the time Super arrives, I won't have had more than a long weekend in over a year. Woe is me.

Looks like the Red Fish are biting down in Orange Beach, which makes Big Daddy and his gaggle of fishergals very excited!

I will continue to sit here and take the text message assault showing me all the fun I am missing and try to live vicariously through the Loyd/Hagemann clan. I will remind myself that I will have what is sure to be a VERY relaxing eight weeks off here in no time. Can you take a six week old on a plane?

I think we were set up

As we get closer and closer to Super's potential birthday, nerves are mounting over at casa de Erwin regarding what to expect when she arrives. Will we be good parents? What kind of baby will she be? Will we ever sleep again? Is the fun officially over? And it's funny, when you are pregnant with your first child, these are the themes that people keep bringing up. There are warnings of sleeplessness, fussy babies, the end of your social life, and the implication that "it's over". Of course, because no one wants to be viewed as a baby-hater, they will add "but it's the best thing in the world", some times seemingly as an afterthought.

My theory is that Chaney and Dan sensed this and arranged for our friend from college, Spencer, and his baby boy, Townes, to come to St. Louis to lunch with us yesterday. Immediately everyone was charmed by baby Townes, including my beloved nieces that waited on his crayon-clutched hands and his croc swaddled feet. Because Townes has impeccable taste in the ladies (and because Chloe moved a seat away to allow for Spencer to oversee the feeding), Townes took a special liking to Ms. Parker.

It was almost too cute to handle. He kept grabbing her hand and putting it around his shoulders and on his head...

He'd lean in her general direction for the smooch attempt...

He was apparently head over heels by the end of the meal and just grabbed her shirt and went for the kiss. Both were thrilled to mug for photos the entire time, which made me so very happy.

For the rest of the day, Rick and I kept talking about how cute Townes was and what a good baby he is. And for the rest of the day, I kept thinking about how much love and joy that baby brought to a table full of family and how my heart swelled to see my nieces play and care for him with such tenderness.

So it probably wasn't a set-up....but it did go a long way to remind us of how wonderful babies really are and what a blessing they bring to your life. Thanks Baby Townes!

The word of the day is "top strips"

So today is carpet day, and to say Rick and I are excited is a bit of an understatement. The carpet symbolizes the completion of the basement, which will lead to completion of the nursery, which means we are ready for baby. Sometimes carpet is not just carpet.

I was stationed to work from home to "oversee" the carpet guys. Why Rick trusted me to oversee any of this is beyond me...But after this most recent exchange, I think I might understand why he left me here. No one wants to upset a pregnant woman.

Noberto (this is not a typo, it is No-Berto) and his trusty sidekick who we will call "Cubs Hat" arrived to install the carpet and immediately Noberto was pointing out that there are two different types of concrete on the floor of the basement. This is apparently significant because he doesn't want to nail the "top strips" (this is what I thought he was saying, my man has a bit of an accent. I later learned he was saying "tack strips") into the "different" concrete because it might bust it up. I tell Noberto to do what he has to do to make this work. Seeing that I do not understand the gravity of the situatuion, he goes on to explain (with Cubs Hat interjecting when it is clear that there is a bit of a language barrier) that now he has to glue down the top strips and the glue must set for 24 hours, then they have to come back to install the carpet. Hold the m-er f-ing phone, Noberto. The Herrrweens (that's how he says it) have plans for this basement this weekend that do not involve a 24-48 hour carpet installation delay.

I point out that the guy that measured should have pointed this out and Noberto responded with "No shiz, girlfriend" (I paraphrase) and I must have started to look upset. Noberto, who is clearly not related to Manny with Totsy, actually is a problem solver and suggests they give it a go and see if the nails hold in the concrete because he "doesn't want to stress me out". He's even putting down a little bit of glue on his dime just in case.

Turns out, the concrete is not as crappy as it looks and all is well down in the basement (so far). I can hear them hammering away down there and I even hear some sweeping up happening. They must know how much I hate dust. Sometimes pregnancy does have its privileges...

9 Weeks-Holy Cow.

Nine weeks left. 63 days (had to double check my mental math with a calculator on that one). That is not a lot of time. Thankfully the basement will be "finished" tomorrow when the carpet is installed. Then Rick gets to move all that stuff back down into the basement and we get to finish up the nursery. Home stretch, people!

Not a lot of development in Super-world. She is now 16.5 inches long and around 3.5 pounds. She is now the size of FOUR NAVEL ORANGES! Strange. In looking at this here ruler, the 16.5 inches makes a lot of sense. I have recently felt movement on the sides of my body, just above my hip bone area and around my upper rib cage. I think this baby likes to stretch her long legs in the diagonal direction. Good thing I have a long torso to accomodate those limbs! From the looks of things, the last thing on Super's to-do list are continue to fatten up and put the final touches on those lungs of hers. Looks like she's in the home stretch too!

Space invaders

Ah, how to summarize the weekend? It would help if I could recall what we did. On Friday night there was a sandwich. I remember that. And then on Saturday there was painting....and more painting...and then a basketball game (chloe) and a soccer game (Parker). On Saturday night we went to Atomic Cowboy to celebrate Liza's birthday with a group of people. Because I have a limited shelf life of about 10 waking hours (less if physical activity is involved in those 10 hours), I had to bail on the festivities fairly early. I am probably the only person in the world that is excited about the "springing forward", because it means that my bed time becomes less-lame by one hour.



Sunday was a big day because it was couch delivery day!!! Ricker and I had busted out our best geometry skills to find a couch that would fit down in our basement, and it was the moment of truth. The Phillips Furniture guys show up, and immediately one is saying positive and uplifting things like "Oh no way" and "that will never happen" when glancing from the couch to the doorway. As someone who will navigate something quite large through a somewhat small space here in a few months, his negativity was not appreciated. To avoid being the pregnant woman screaming directions at the men holding the big heavy couch, I vacated the premises. To the front yard. Where I stood until I heard the welcome sound of a couch being thumped down the basement steps. I rushed back inside to see that they had made it down the steps, only to get hung up at the turn at the bottom (this part wasn't constructed when we were taking our measurements for the couch...oops). Ultimately, all the brilliant minds (I was back in the front yard) maneuvered the couch into the basement and my fears of having gone through all this trouble and expense only to be able to fit beanbag chairs down there went out the window!


To celebrate, we took Liza and David up on their offer for pizza night! Liza and David are quite the little chefs/bakers, and are the only humans I know to actually get a ridiculous amount of use out of a bread maker. Like, we are talking multiple times a week. Sometimes they even bring us stuff. It's a pretty sweet gig. I offer you this photo montage of the evening:

Proof that at one point, David's dog Chase (not to be confused with Liza's dog, Chance, named before the two got together) actually let me pet him at one point in the evening. Very exciting!

This was my pizza. My pizza wasn't wearing pants, so blogger censored the bottom half of the photo. Gotta keep it clean.

Amy enjoying her spicy pizza, which ultimately had to be accompanied by some milk to put out the fire.


Shisha making up some fixins.

David keeping a close eye on things. I fully admit that I require supervision in the kitchen.

Chance kept an eye on things too. Mainly Ricker's phone.

We'll end with an obscure pic of the belly adjacent to the stove. Apparently Rick felt the need to photograph this moment because it hasn't really happened during this pregnancy. Thanks to delish pizza, the belly will be a little closer the next time. Thanks Shish and David!

Celebrations and Fears

One of the stranger side effects of pregnancy is that I cannot seem to get a handle on dates. The days of the week always feel "wrong" and I seem to be constantly switching up dates for things. Case in point: I was convinced that my dear sister Liza's (Shisha) birthday was on Wednesday. Then I realized it was actually on Thursday, but I just couldn't snap back and felt like somehow I had missed it. Well, yesterday came and went and I posted in a rush due to work stuff and again missed her birthday.

Well, I didn't MISS it, but I missed the opportunity to post about it. We did go out for a family birthday celebration last night, which was delightful. All were in attendance, everyone left stuffed, and minimal tears were shed. I call that a success.

Happy Birthday Shisha!

While some might consider turning 32 terrifying, it's pretty low on my list of fears. What's numero UNO is earthquakes. I guess it is my geology background, because news of any sort of quake flips my insanity switch. When we had that minor quake here a few years back, I rushed to the store to assemble my disaster preparedness kit. I was running through the aisles like a maniac on Supermarket Sweep, convinced that I was going to miss the last pack of batteries or first aid kit. Well, for a city that freaks out at news of half an inch of pending snow, St. Louisans are surprisingly nonchalant regarding earthquakes. I believe Liza put it best when she said "You are totally that crazy person in all the movies that warns people of looming disaster while they are stocking up their bomb shelter...you know, the only one that survives."

The news of the earthquake in Japan and subsequent tsunamis solidifies the plans for at least part of the weekend. It's time to update ye ole disaster kit! And since I am in nesting mode, my kit shall be grander than all the other non-existent kits in the land. And for those of you looters that think you can glom on to our kit once the "big one" hits, be warned. Rick has a semi-automatic pellet gun, and he's not afraid to use it. Just ask the squirrels.

10 Weeks to go!

One phone app actually references the "home stretch"! Super is now around 16 inches long and weighs 3 pounds. In the saddest development so far, she can now generate tears. Not sure what she has to cry about in there, but let's hope she gets it all out of her system before she is born. She is now the size of a good old fashioned, run of the mill cabbage.

Smuggling cabbage

The phone tells me I should expect to gain about a pound a week from here on out. Good times! It also tells me that I might start to feel more emotional than normal in these next few weeks. MORE emotional? I wasn't even sure that was possible. This is not good news for Rick.