i dun fell off... my bike

riding my bike in the fresh powder we got last night wouldn't have been a big deal had I decided to ride my knobby-tired mountain bike. instead, i went with my skinny and smooth-tired Surly. All was well on the bike path until after crossing a street, I ramped up to the bike path and proceeded to slide into the wooden bollard like I was stealing third base. It was actually a pretty graceful slide into the horizontal position, cushioned by a pillow of unadulterated snow. I ended up fish-tailing for the continuation of the ride. I've never been so glad to finally be at work.

Anyway, I'm not super pumped about the ride home this evening. Other than that, I was really warm on my ride in which is always a positive thing.

i dun fell off

computer crashed over a week ago at home. lots of holiday traveling has kept me away from the office, so no computer access for me. it's helped curb my ebay habit at the very least. it's also helped me realize i don't need to check email and blogs so frequently--let's see if i can get any work done today and tomorrow...

i had a great vacation, hanging out with family, eating lots of food, especially sweets and beer... movies: The Hangover (classic), Role Models (super great), 500 Days of Summer (meh), and soon, PaperHeart (?).

2010 is rollin up fast--no resolutions, just hopes for a healthy wife and baby. Maybe less computer. Finish the basement before Baby Girl arrives.... awesome garden that produces all summer long. Less sleep. A tattoo. And no Ebay. Did I just say that? No Ebay. Wowie. Less Ebay, meaning not checking it everyday.  Hey, it's not 2010 yet. I still have some time to amend my resolutions...  Oh, and at least 800 miles on my bike.

Future

What C is afraid of:

What I am afraid of:

It's not that either of us want the other thing, but both scenarios have come up in conversation between us. C made a good point that we will be our child's role models and will try to set her (them?) on the path we think is right from the start... I may have fallen a little farther from the tree, but I turned out to be more than alright, I think. Anyway, I thought this would make a pretty funny juxtaposition. Yeah, that's the Lunachicks on the top. Ha

Baby bumps

Baby girl has been punching and kicking and otherwise ramming C from the inside like crazy lately. After a post-dinner bite of some Godiva dark chocolate almond bark--which may not have anything to do with this--baby girl was just flailing around. It was fun to feel and even watch.

Sometimes Alden--our dog--wants to lay across C's lap and I hope someday soon he'll feel those little bumps too and notice...

We've been driving ourselves nuts trying to think of names...

play: push bike

this is a long way off, but looks like a lot of fun for a kid to have: "designed to teach kids from the ages of 2 to 5 to ride a bike without ever using training wheels." (seen at roll-online.com)

Fat beats, great presents

Text message from C this morning, after her doctor appointment: "Heartaeat 150 but our baby is fat!"

Translation: "The baby's heartbeat is 150 bpm; according to the measurements from our last ultra-sound, the baby appears to be larger (and heavier) than expected! Yikes!"

The good news is the doctor said C's belly... and uterus?... appear to be the right size and in the right place, respectively...

More good news, we keep getting amazing presents from people and the feeling is just so awesome. Pictures to come!

Quote: Bike/ city planning

In Copenhagen they make cycling easier for people through city planning, but here we prefer to make cycling easier by quite literally trying to take the effort out of cycling. However, it doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that crappy streets are still crappy streets regardless of how much electrical assistance you have, and even someone who can't spell "nonplussed" surely realizes that getting hit by an SUV will suck... Bike Snob NYC

Belly bumps, names

The baby is starting to kick more and we've even been able to see quick, little bumps through C's belly. Pretty crazy. This morning I was spooning C and had my hand on her belly. Every time I felt a kick, I'd give a couple weak squeezes. C said I was tickling the baby. Pretty funny and pretty awesome too.

Not much is new. Just trying to comb through every possible girl name. Looking for inspiration on TV, in magazines, in movies, in baby name books... I'd like to say we have a short list of favorite names, but even that handful of names is a long way away from commitment. I'll start worrying about not having a name when she's born and we get stuck calling her "Babe."

get connected

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Mommy's little monster

After visiting the "doctor" (ultrasound technician)--who was great, by the way--C and I celebrated with lunch and a milkshake at Arby's, then a mini shopping spree at Once Upon A Child. Basically a thrift store for babies. Having combed through the "girls" section, we poked around in what the "boys" get and C pulled out this hidden treasure. A Misfits onesie for 12-18 month-olds. See that price? $1.50. No joke. I was so pumped. In fact, when we first found out we were pregnant, I envisioned our kid in a Misfits shirt.

proof

everything is good in the hood

secrets, secrets

did i tell you yet?

due date: April 11

Updates: belly, food, doctor

I'm bummed I haven't been updating much. Time is flying almost as fast as C's belly is growing. She looks great, like, absolutely beautiful. Unfortunately she doesn't see it that way. It doesn't help that her boobs are apparently still growing. And she doesn't feel awesome all the time--sleeping is more often than not pretty uncomfortable on her spine and hips--but just yesterday she was saying she feels so much better than she did in the first trimester. Her "taste" has not only returned to normal, she is actually craving healthy foods. Last night was the second time she made these really awesome meatballs in kale and pasta. Freaking amazing. And she's craving kale! This particular meal might be my favorite meal she's ever cooked and it's out of her "Feed Your Belly" pregnancy book. She's been working out more, especially at the gym. It's good because it compels me to go too and I need to exercise just as much as she does.

Anyway, things are going swimmingly. They baby gets roudy at least once almost every night, kicking like a riotous mosher in the pit. Monday is our big, important ultrasound where we will hopefully learn the sex of our little buddy. Unfortunately it is across the city, unlike our doctor who is about a mile away, and, as far as I understand, this technician won't even be able to tell us anything substantial about the baby's health/condition--we'll have to wait until we see our doctor next, the following week.

I can't believe Christmas is almost here. I really need to start getting some stuff done in the basement... Crap.

Thanksgiving 09

Thanksgiving break was great. Lots of family--actually entire families coming together and eating a lot of food. What was most special was coming home with a couple inherited items: a couple of wool Pendleton shirts from my dad that were given as gifts to him by my paternal grandmother and a Bible that has all of my maternal grandfather's notes and highlighted passages in it. The story behind the Bible is my grandpa had one Bible and wrote in it and used different colored highlighters to mark passages. Since there was only one original, my aunt bought Bibles of the same version and replicated all of the highlights in the same colors and all of the notes in the margins so the children and grandchildren could each have a copy. Also, my aunt scanned a bunch of pages that had extensive writing and at least one loose page that is a list of blessings for Thanksgiving from years ago. One line reads "My Home and Family that keeps me loving and looking for the Truth, the Good, and the Beautiful".