August 17, 2007

Racing The Bean


I've been racing. My opponent weighs in at 6.5 - 7 lbs and is only about 18 inches long, but we're neck and neck. Each week for the past three, I've been painting like a mad woman, trying to get material into the gallery and online before the bean gets here and places things on hold.

I'm proud to say that I now have my own online store on etsy.com (It's called We & The Bean!) with actual art for sale. It's pretty exciting, though we'll see if people want my silly cows, sheep and dogs. You never know.

August 16, 2007

Baby-dar


This photo is funny to me for two reasons. First of all, it illustrates the recent fun-ness of how I always seem to have a breezy gap between my pants and the bottom of my shirt (sexy).


Secondly, look at Max. Staring at the bean. He has been freaking out this week. Constantly barking, sulking, moping, giving me the cold shoulder, cuddling with Jason in excess as if just to spite me. And on Sunday, for the first time since we first found out we had a bean on the way, he peed on the floor upstairs. In addition, he also dug out a bar of Burt's Bees Buttermilk Baby Bee soap from the changing table up there and ate it and 3/4 of its box, leaving the other 1/4 as evidence on our bed, just to make a statement. His items-o-destruction have always been so intentional... (my passport two weeks before I was due to leave the country, my bra before a date, a whole packet of birth control pills, three of Jason's books when he first moved in, 5 remote controls back when I actually watched T.V. on a regular basis, etc.) What are we going to do with this big baby when the one on the way arrives? Man, I really hope he loves her to pieces.

August 14, 2007

Whoa There!


Okay. Yesterday was our first internal exam. I'm pretty sure our doc stuck her whole hand, arm and shoulder up to the clavicle up there. THAT was unexpected to say the least. But the news: I am 50% effaced and she felt either two inches or two centimeters of the baby's head. I was too preoccupied with unclasping my hands from the table rails to hear the exact unit of measure with much accuracy. Regardless, she's on her way...

August 10, 2007

Bad Blogger

I know, it's been a while since the last post. We're just in waiting mode and sometimes it feels like there's not a lot to say other than that. 37 (or is it 38 now?) weeks and counting. We had an awesome baby brunch with friends and family here at the house a few weeks ago. It was more like a party than a baby shower, with Jason's waffles, fritatas and mimosas and incredible live jazz courtesy of Gene's Jazz Hot. A breezy, shady, happy morning. And of course, my mom sent everyone home with a plant for their garden or home, with this little diddy inserted into the soil that says it all.

These weeks have been some of the most content that I can remember, despite the obvious discomforts of having a giant baby riding in the front seat of my body. Summer has been very good to us.

July 10, 2007

Swell-ness

Okay, now that the bean is so big, people, total strangers, are being exceptionally kind.

This morning, in lovely downtown Lakewood, I was wandering back to what I thought was our black VW. But in Lakewood there are many VWs and we all like to travel in packs and park near each other, so mid-crossing-the-street I figured out that the one ahead was someone else's car and ours was actually parked behind me on the curb. A man likely in his 50s came up to me as I waddled back to the sidewalk and asked me, "Are you okay?" I replied yes and gave a brief explanation about the whole car confusion thing. He smiled and said, "Well, you have a good excuse (gesturing to the bean). I just noticed you were pregnant there and just wanted to make sure you didn't need any help or anything". I thanked him and as he walked away he turned and ended with, "I wish you and your baby a very safe birth and hope he or she will go on to do great things." Well. How often do you hear that from a total stranger? All I can say is Lakewood has always offered us exceptional neighbors, and a warm sense of community, but being preggo with the bean here has opened up a whole new world of swell-ness. It makes me excited that she'll live amongst all these good people (and of course incur the added bonus of a multitude of those fine, compact German automobiles).

July 04, 2007

Magic Ice Cream


What has:

0g Total Fat
0g Saturated Fat
0g Trans Fat
0mg Cholesterol

Tastes like delicious goodness AND gives you

12% of your daily Fiber and
10% of your daily Protein?

Mmmmm... Magic Ice Cream
Jason and I are in love (with this product) (oh, okay...and each other).

This stuff is a pregnant lady's dream. I even checked the ingredients to see what weird chemicals I was feeding the bean and there weren't really any terribly bad ones.

Thank you Breyers. You rock.

July 03, 2007

Bigger-ness


31 weeks.
the bean is huge.
how much bigger can she get?

June 14, 2007

Girl Power

My whole life has been filled with boys. Two brothers, my neighborhood playmates growing up, most of my friends as a young adult. My dog, my husband, etc. Synopsis: I like boys.

So when, as part of my graduate program, I was told that my teaching apprenticeship would be at an all girls school, I was a little wary.

That apprenticeship turned into a lead teaching position and I quickly discovered that I actually loved spending my days with girls. For Pete's sake, I'm a girl!

The first year I taught, two of my students made a t-shirt for me at the end of the year. I wear it to bed all the time. So, I looked down this morning to see all their little faces on my big belly and thought, "Hey now, that's blog-worthy." Here's why: I've loved spending my days each year with these girls so much, that my heart has broken each June when I have to say goodbye. Their stories, their crafty, articulate hands, their laughter, their interests and the way they share them, celebrate them, celebrate themselves. It's magical, and it's different than with boys. Last week, I wept when I said goodbye to this year's girls, realizing that it may be the last time I spend my days with girls, for a while. But then it occurred to me, that special magic... we're about to have some of that - all of our own. In our home. In our lives every day. And I get to enjoy her, for the rest of my life. How absolutely fabulous.

Big-ness

Our neighbor kindly said hello yesterday as he walked his dog past our house. He then said, "Boy, you only have a few weeks left, huh!?"

"Well, I don't know, at least 8, maybe 10 or 12," I replied. His eyes went directly to the bean and then back to me, filled with disbelief. I'm guessing our bean is destined to either be a very large baby or a very tall, all folded up baby. Sigh. It's belly eruptus, belly erectus, belly interjectus, belly elephantitus, belly protrusionitus, belly catapultus, belly holymolus...

May 28, 2007

Jumping Bean


So, the bean's been moving so much lately, we decided to film the fun. Available in two formats...

.mov format for Quicktime









.wmv for Windows Media

May 26, 2007

2 Lucky Girls

I just have to say, what girl could be more lucky to have this guy loving her?

Good thing there's enough there for both me and the bean or she'd have a fight on her hands upon arrival. (Big giant bruce lee hands don't scare me baby!)

(Really he's just thinking about his tasty beer.)

(I'm jealous.)

(I miss beer.)

Green. With Leaves.

It's been quiet the past few weeks. I guess things seem to go more slowly when you're waiting for someone to arrive. 15 weeks and counting. Right this moment, that feels like a really long time. Wonder what she'll look like. Green. With leaves maybe.

We went to see the doctor again Thursday. She's growing (the bean, not the doctor) and is very active (see Giant Bean Hands). She's about 13 1/2 inches tall, and weighs about a pound and a half. All is well and healthy. Lately, every once in a while, a 2 second video of the whole birth thing flashes inside my mind and I know my face is wrought with disbelief that I'll do okay welcoming the bean into the world. For now, I just continue to cram those thoughts back to the farthest corner of my mind and focus guessing what body part just shark-swam past by my belly button.

As we wait, babies are appearing in record numbers amongst our group of friends. With each arrival Jason and I share a sigh of relief, happy that everyone is okay, excited to see how life will change for them, for us. I imagine we'll have no shortage of sound advice and small people to play with in the coming years. Suddenly I'm glad we stayed in Lakewood for a whole new set of reasons.

May 02, 2007

Giant Bean Hands

Okay. We have a very, very active child. The bean's been kicking, hitting, etc. me for awhile now. Jason's even been able to feel a tap, tap once or twice from the outside. Then over the weekend the bean stopped moving around. I even kind of missed her pokes and poked her to see if I could get a response. Alas, all was quiet. Well, she must have been growing giant Bruce Lee bean hands and feet those few days because yesterday she started kicking again and now it's BIG! Like whoa, did you feel/see that? BIG. Like ew, was that a head or a butt just then? BIG. Like ow, enough, you're going to make a bruise. It's fun though. It makes me wonder even more so who we have coming along to join us in life. Do you think Bruce could work as a girl's name?

April 26, 2007

20 weeks

Well, another baby appointment, another belly shot. The bean's about 10 inches tall now. All is well. She's moving all over the place too. Kicking, kicking, kicking. Jason says she's not kicking, she's drumming. Regardless, she doesn't seem to care much for the doctor's visits. In fact, each time the midwife tried to listen to her heartbeat, she wiggled away. In the elevator, on the way out, Jason and I were mocking the bean using the voice and extended leg/foot motions of Stuart from MadTV.
"Noooo. Doooooon't."

April 15, 2007

The Smarter, Stronger Sex


Well, we saw the bean for the first time yesterday morning. At 19 weeks she (that's right, she) no longer looks anything like a bean. Instead, she's about 6 inches of growing baby.
The most important part is she's healthy. All the parts are there and in the right place and she's moving around like crazy. It was especially cool to see her move on the screen while feeling her kick and hit me in disgust while the ultrasound tech tried to get her to show us her bum to determine the sex. Bottom line: she rocks.

March 29, 2007

New digs

Well, I've had two weeks of spring break - but neither of us has been relaxing. The family helped us rip up all the carpeting upstairs and for days now, I've been going up and down two flights of stairs at least 900 times a day to cut flooring or trim or fetch the pencil I left in the basement next to the saw. We're both exausted, but check it out - now the alcove of our bedroom looks like a baby could move in without getting misplaced in a heap of laundry, dog hair or dirt. It was the last of the carpet in the house and I'm really glad now that it's gone.



So tonight, after a big IKEA furniture assembly session, we identified our favorite nursery item:
this excellent LED bird mobile thingy Jason found at the marvelous IKEA. As we stood next to the crib in blue illuminated quiet, he said "I wish I was small again. I want to climb right in there and go to sleep."

Hopefully the bean feels the same way.

March 18, 2007

Once Upon A Time-ah

Okay, I think this is pretty funny and it's baby related. Sort of.

Way back in the day, when Jason still lived in Burlington, VT, his band knew other bands and one of those bands was Bag Of Panties. We have a few of their CDs. They're quite clever. Anyways on their CD, Tomorrow Shall Be My Dancing Day, is fabulous track 6, titled Catastrophe. I'd like to think it's about the conception of George W. but, alas, the song predates awareness of that catastrophe.

Here's the first line, repeatedly sung throughout our house over the past few months:

And here's the entire song if you have the time and bandwidth:

If you're using Firefox, you need to do this to hear the Panties:
1. Open Quicktime Player
2. Go to "Edit -> Preferences -> Quicktime Preferences"
3. Go to the Browser tab and click the MIME Settings button.
4. Enable MP3 files.
5. Click OK and refresh We & The Bean

Every Baby Needs A Rat



So the thing about babies, they take a while to get here. In the meantime, we're entertaining ourselves in some pretty infantile ways. We drove to the Pittsburg IKEA yesterday to buy a crib setup. We ended up getting way more than just the crib, all for someone who's still breathing in their own pee. Jason's #1 favorite purchase was a rat. Apparently every baby needs a rat. Or at least ours does. I've named it Templeton so as not to get too creeped out. Memories/visions of my college pal's pet rat Ava, dragging anything and everything to her treasure pile under the bed pop into my head whenever I look at it. I stop myself before Ava adds our baby to the pile.

Whatever... Jason loves it and I love Jason, so our baby, has a rat.

March 09, 2007

Expansion


Today I buttoned my pants...and by the time I got to work I wanted to rip them into a sad, sad pile. Thus, I have immediately converted to using a rubber band to fasten my pants together. By the end of the day I decided that that's really what rubber bands are made for. As the day passes, the bean makes more gas, the belly gets bigger and the band... just expands. It's one of those modern miracles. So stretchy.

March 03, 2007

WAPAM!

I woke up yesterday morning for work and - wapam! - the Bean grew like crazy overnight. In this 14th week I can still wear my normal pants but Jason's belt rather than mine is now a necessary though somewhat sad fashion adjustment.

Jason really wanted monthly belly shots for the blog during the second and third trimesters. He must have sensed that I'm a little sensitive about my new alien protrusion (my body has suddenly become over-stuffed sausage casing) as he eagerly volunteered his own belly for all to see. It's so furry! You know you want to pet it - but no, no, you can't. It's mine all mine.