Showered with Love, Cleveland Style

Last month, our friends in Cleveland hosted a co-ed baby shower to welcome Baby T and celebrate his pending arrival.  It was a fun night full of good friends, great food and lots of laughs.  We played a couple of funny games – guessing the circumference of my growing belly and drinking beer, or water in my case, out of bottles.  The second game was MUCH harder than it sounds for those of you who haven’t recently been bottle-fed. :)

We also had a couple special guests of honor – our good friend Andrea, who moved back to Switzerland last year, surprised us with an appearance.  We were touched beyond words to have her join us!  Also my mom was in town to help us with some last minute items so she was able to share in the fun also, which was great.   

Thank you again to the wonderful hosts for a fun night!

The gals!

Measuring the bump...

The winner - a pediatrician, is that an unfair advantage?

Cheers to Baby T!

Chug-a-lug

Story time - Go the F* to Sleep, a hilarious book

Because everyone needs a sippy cup....

Love,

K & J

Crazy Cat Lady

It wasn’t long ago that I was a self-professed ‘dog person’. When Jeff and I met five and a half years ago, the fact that he had two cats wasn’t exactly a selling point, in my mind anyway. Still, after a brief courting period (btwn the cats and I), I grew to love Boots and Precious. So when dear Precious went on to catnip-filled pastures and Boots seemed lonely, the logical answer seemed to add to our litter.

So, one year ago today, we adopted our fury baby, Aloysius, from the Animal Protective League. I can say with 100% certainty that Aloysius (or Alo as we call him) has stolen my heart and turned me into that Crazy Cat Lady. I like to think that Alo’s a dog trapped in a cat’s body but really he’s just a cool cat and we love him to bits.

How does all this tie back to Baby T’s pending arrival? Well, goodness, if we can fall so in love with a cat, I can only imagine how smitten we will be with our little guy! The countdown is officially on now that we are in December. Currently T – 28 days!!

First Day Home - So fun and playful!

A little ornery...

He's flexible too!

All grown up!

Babymoon

Ever since Jeff and I decided we were ready to start a family, we (okay, me) have been in frantic ‘let’s trot across the globe before the baby comes mode’. While I’m optimistic that Baby T will be very mobile and love to travel just as much as we do, I wanted to make sure we got ‘our fill’ just in case the little man took a while to warm to the idea.

 In the past 14 months, we have been to London, Belgium, Vermont, Florida, Fiji, Vegas, NYC, home to VA, home to DE…like I said, I went a bit nuts! Well, this past weekend, we traveled an hour and half south of Cleveland to a little B&B on Atwood Lake. It was our last getaway as a twosome and likely our last B&B stay for a while. We had a great time, just us, but found ourselves talking about the little one quite a bit.

We feel so fortunate to have had all of these wonderful experiences before Baby T arrives and look forward to showing him the world. The best is yet to come, I’m sure of it! :)



Whispering Pines B&B, Dellroy, Ohio



Atwood Lake

Little town of Zoar, late 1800's German settlement

Zoar

Oldest house in Zoar

Bluebird Farm





Hike

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,

K & J

Showered with Love, Part Deux

A few weeks ago, we traveled back east for our good friends Ulana and Anthony's beautiful wedding and a shower for Baby T with the DE family. It was a whirlwind but wonderful weekend! Once again, we were reminded of how lucky we are to be surrounded by such great friends and family. Baby T is going to have an awesome welcome committee! 

At the shower, everyone decorated a bib for the little man, which turned out so cute that we had to share a couple. Also, we are doing a loose whale theme for his room (hence the whale blanket/cookies/cake pics below).

Thank you all again for helping us to prepare for the pending arrival of Baby T!





Beautiful baby blanket made by the very talented Aunt Anna



One of the adorable bibs

Lehigh ladies, Aunties Cara and Karen

Great Aunt Donna, also my God mother

Grandad and Daddy

Yummy whale cookies



No hiding anymore...Grammy can't wait to meet him!



How appropriate for a Dec baby in Cleveland?!? :D

Proud mama and papa

Cousin Sara and Aunties Anna, Erin and Goldie

GREAT Grandparents

Delicious cake designed to coordinate with Baby T's room

8 months down, 8 weeks to go!

This week we went for our follow-up ultrasound.  We're happy to report that the little guy is just perfect!  He's almost 4lbs, which is spot on for where he should be.  He's in the 52nd percentile for weight and all his measurements (cranium, femur, etc) looked great. 

They also confirmed again that in fact, it's a boy!  Apparently, he's a little exhibitionist and once again left nothing to the imagination.  We also got a few more glimpses into his sweet face.  I will admit that at our 18 week ultrasound, he kinda looked more alien than cute baby (as his mother I'm allowed to say that :D) but this time around our hearts melted at seeing his little face and chubby cheeks.  I think he looks like he has Jeff's nose and Jeff thinks he has my 'pointy chin', which he more lovingly clarified later as my heart-shaped face. :)

We're getting very excited to meet the little guy in person!  

Confirmed - it's a boy!

Hidden face.  Note 'pointy chin'  :)

Looks like it's getting to be a tight squeeze in there!

Sweet little face ~31 wks

Love...



Love,

K & J



Showered with Love, Part 1

Pre-baby blog, we traveled to Virginia for a visit with Baby T's paternal grandparents in August. We had a great time as always visiting with family and friends and enjoying the Chesapeake Bay. We also had our first shower for Baby T. It was a great day filled with good food and lots of well wishes and gifts to get us ready for his arrival. We are truly blessed to have such amazing people in our lives!  Thank you all again!

The amazing spread!



In training with the adorable Eric White



One of many super cute outfits

Lovely ladies

More lovely ladies

Apparently this is my 'Oh so cute' face...  :D

The boy will be well dressed!

What a great shower - thank you, thank you!

The fabulous hosts - Baby T's VA grandparents

A surprise visit from Auntie Erin!  Grammy and Grandad from DE

Love,

K & J



Ha-He-Ho, Ha-He-Ho

These were the sounds coming from our Childbirth Class this past weekend.  Lots of time was spent on breathing techniques or comfort measures, as they like to call them.  We'll see how 'comforting' they end up being!  Overall, the class was helpful in reaffirming some basics that were introduced in the books we are reading.  My only complaint would be that there wasn't much time spent on the 'baby basics' portion of the class.  I was SO hoping for a plastic baby to swaddle.  :)  As a friend at work relayed to me, most of what they teach you is pretty common sense or in his words,  'don't put your kid in the oven'. 

We also had our 29 week check up this week.  Everything went well.  Baby T's heartbeat was in the 140s.  He's not only kicking these days but is also doing what feels like somersaults.  He definitely has a preference for the right side of my body and seems to spend most of his day hanging out just under my ribs.  We are scheduled to have another ultrasound on November 1st.  My Dr. didn't seemed concerned at all (basically I think she's just appeasing me) but since I haven't gained a whole lot of weight, we're going to do another ultrasound just to be extra sure that he's growing well.  I love this idea bc we get another view into what the little guy looks like and more photos to share!

For this week's viewing pleasure, I've attached some more ultrasound pics.  I'm working to upload a file that we recorded of the first time we heard his heartbeat (yes, we're that cheesy and excited!)  but I'm having technical difficulties (read: operator error, I'm sure). 


Profile ~ 19 wks

 

It's a boy!  He wasn't shy about showing us...  :)

Kicking back ~ 19 wks

Waving hi! ~19wks

Love,

K & J