OH Turkey Tour: #4

Saving the best for last, our final OH Turkey Tour stop was in Lima to visit Grandma S. We missed her dearly at Thanksgiving this year (she opted to stay in home due to a few recent dizzy spells), and sadly don't get to Lima as often as we should.

We dropped off sis and her pup in T-town before heading south to join the in-laws for lunch with gram. It was wonderful to see her. She is as cheerful as always, keeping up a fast-paced lifestyle with activities, exercise, shopping excursions and tons of friends.

She basically runs the place, friends with all the staff, fellow residents and volunteers. In fact, she was responsible for bringing a library to the facility when she arrived. She has read more books in the last five years than I will read in my life. Amazing.

We had a great visit with her, it was wonderful to see her. I've included a great pic here of grandma and hubby.

And so concludes our OH Turkey Tour.

It will be nice to get home, sleep in our own bed, and stop gorging ourselves at every meal. I can't wait to work out tonight. I feel HUGE and blame it all on those damn delicious French Silk pies that followed me everywhere this weekend...

Happy Turkey Day to all and to all a good night!

OH Turkey Tour: #3

PIZZA PARTY!! (yes, more eating)

In what now appears to be a tradition, MIL hosted the whole blended fam at her house Friday night for a pizza party. This night really makes Thanksgiving for me b/c it is more relaxed than Turkey Day itself, and everyone is together under one roof. My p's and sis come in from the west side, hubby's fam comes in from all around the east side. It's a nice opportunity for the extended family to catch up over cocktails and good eats.

And YES, I realize how lucky we are. In fact, we're MOST thankful at this time of the year that our families are in the same city, like each other and we like them :) It is truly brilliant. And that is why we celebrate like this!

Mom and sis came over early so we could do some shopping on Black Friday. Crazy but it really wasn't crowded. And being preggers cuts down on interesting items so I saved a lot of money.

Over dinner baby S performed with lots of kicks and bumps - most active for the nuns. I learned Mary Ellen is a dulla, very interesting. More to come on this and whether we'll actually have one in the room for delivery (or even use Mary Ellen herself). I'm definitely intrigued.

Sis has never experienced French Silk pie before tonight. Check out her response after trying a piece above (to be added when we aren't in the dead zone known as IN).

Another great night!

OH Turkey Tour: Update #2

Still riding what must be a turkey-high (or could it be a sugar fix from all that pie?), we're returning west in great spirits after our OH turkey tour.

I'm surprised how much we packed in - we hit Chip's for Thanksgiving #2 Thursday night. Spacing out our two feasts by just about two hours. Somehow though, we fought threw it and ate again. I even managed to find room for two pieces of French Silk pie, more on this later...

Overall Thanksgiving was awesome. We squeezed in a ton of visiting, caught up with everyone and managed to get through it all without being exhausted. Well, I'm not exhausted. Do you think could be the lack of alcohol? I typically consume pretty heavily between the two turkey-days and obviously refrained this year. And today I feel pretty damn good. I'm sure it is just a coincidence.

Stella was SMOTHERED with attention this weekend, but her undesputed #1 fan is Emily, seen in picture here (loading from car taking forever, will add when we get home).

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Stealing a page from my colleague and fellow T-towner Danielle, I'm blogging live from Thanksgiving. I've got nothing on her preparations for the day (check out what she is doing here), but we've been busy none the less.

Thanksgiving for us means a massive traveling tour of OH over the course of several days. We arrived at our first destination last night, rolling into Toledo about 9pm. Plenty of time to cram in a huge meal and a few drinks out at the bar (never fear, I had soda water).

We were up early this morning for our (now traditional) Smoke the Turkey 5K run. Sis gathered a bunch of friends to kick off the day of eating with a healthy start. Even Stella joined in the fun.

And then in the car for our next visit - one hour away to Sandusky for Thanksgiving with my side of the crew. Apparently baby S likes turkey, news to me since I'm not a big fan of the bird. Lots of eating, more than necessary in fact. Pie too.

And now we're back in the car making our way to our next tour stop - Chagrin Falls, 1.5 hrs away, for another Thanksgiving. Hubby's side of the lot. For a second turkey extravaganza!!

Lots to be grateful for today.

How are you celebrating??

Ugh - I think I'm getting sick. Do you think it was as a result of getting my flu shot on Friday? Does that happen?

I really have no time for sickness, especially with the wild holiday weekend coming up. And of course I can't take any medicine while preggers, thoough I'm not really a medicine taker.

I skipped my pilates class tonight so I can go to bed early and hopefully wake up healthier. Nite, nite.

Misc post of odd updates for tonight -

Super fun day with the girls. We went out to burbs to see KJ since she is somewhat housebound with new baby Gage. He is too cute and slept the whole time we were over. I walked away feeling a little more confident about the whole thing. He is only two weeks old and everything seemed managable. We girls are like the three little bears with Bid due in Feb, me in March and Carrie in May.

Our main mission today, outside of catching up, was testing cupcakes. Bid's shower is in two weeks and we need to select a bakery, so we brought cupcakes from various places and ate ourselves sick. Thank goodness my glucose test was yesterday.

KJ gave me a SICK amount of clothes. Seriously, I was embassed when my neighbor caught me unloading it all into the house for fear he'd think I'd actually purchased this many items. I could open a boutique with the haul I took in and it is all really cute. No surprise with my clothes horse BF but super time to reap these benefits. I need to treat her to dinner.

I checked out a good holiday bazaar and picked up a couple cute ideas for work people, always a tough one. Overall the shopping experience was a total cluster. I was running about 30 minutes late, not allowing enough time to get to brunch, so I tried to buzz through. There were way too many people, in too small of a space and not enough time to digest everything. I considered the work idea a major victory.

We visited a new church in the hood for 5pm mass, which was a MAJOR accomplishment. We've completely fallen off the religious wagon since Father Don left Chicago and need to get back on board. This place wasn't exactly love-at-first-sight, but has potential. We'll head back next week and see if we don't feel a bit more at home. Please pray for us :)

AND lastly, a new Middle Eastern restaurant opened around the corner from my house and I ordered carry out tonight. Chickpea. I'd intended to save it for lunch tomorrow but have already snacked on several items. It is AWESOME. And hubby likes it which makes it a grand slam. I've been stuffing myself full of falafel everytime I go to Toledo to visit my sis b/c I can't get anything worthwhile in Chicago. This place ROCKS and the owner's mom cooks everything. She helped me create my order, made great suggestions and seems geniune. I want her to succeed. And be open longer hours. I'll be back often. I can't wait to try everything else tomorrow.

Cheers to a great Saturday!

So we're out to dinner Tuesday night - our favorite Cuban place (Cafe LaGuardia) - and arrive much too late for a school night. It is nearly 9pm and the place is PACKED. There is a live Cuban band and a wait for a table. While slightly surprising for a Tuesday night, not totally unheard of. This place isn't afraid to pack 'em in and is so busyon the weekends, that pre-baby, we'd end up having far too many margs while waiting at the bar for our table to even remember that we ate dinner...but now I'm just teasing myself with memories.

The band is dangerously close to bringing down the house. There are two birthday parties, an 80+ year old man dancing with a waitress, and the music was really good.

So good in fact, that baby S got a little spirited too. I've said for awhile that it's been a dance marathon down below. Baby is always doing a jig - or so I thought. Nope, that was all just warm up for the show last night.

He was seriously busting a move!

And I couldn't stop laughing. The band would go on break, things would quiet down. Singers get back on their mics, baby S gets his groove on. A week or two ago the weekly update said babes would be able to hear outside noise and appreciate music. I guess we know we're on to something here. He is a rock star in training.

Or he simply hates Cuban food.

This week baby S is an ear of corn (again with my favorite foods!) at 24 weeks. He is over a foot long and gained 4 ounces since last week (when he was a mango and I neglected to provide faithful readers an update).

He is long and lean but filling out. His lungs are growing, air sacs branching. Lots of brain development this week too so big protein consumption time (I'm eating everything in sight these days so I'm sure I'm covering off on this important category without much thought).

His skin is still translucent but that is changing quickly too.

I'm thrilled to officially be at the six month mark b/c I feel like my belly is suddenly gigantic and six months sounds much further along than 5+. And I've started collecting pictures of me in my skinnier days and look at them so I don't forget what I used to look like.

When did I get so vain? I'm surprising myself. This belly is doing weird things to me. Clothes don't look good. Getting ready takes twice as long and the extra effort doesn't make any difference. Thank goodness the little thumper is kicking around and making me smile. I've lost that sexy "glow!"

(photo by racheliscoconut&lime, Flickr)

Wow, suddenly I'm so far behind. How did that happen??

Beginning with the most interesting, we had our first shower this weekend in Cleveland and it was awesome!

A dozen thoughts on this - baby showers are SO MUCH better than wedding showers. The stuff is cuter, the focus isn't on me, and all the items seem genuinely necessary. A mandolin is lovely for slicing and dicing, but a car seat? We can't leave the hospital without that! And everyone was SO generous. The whole thing really blew me away.

My SILs hosted at my MIL's house - everyone loves it there, it is big for entertaining and full of all kinds of amazing antiques and collectibles so all the guests enjoyed poking around and checking it all out. We had a great crowd of people, nice mix of family and friends. And Molly (SIL) made the most amazing diaper cake you've ever seen.

I had never even heard of a diaper cake before but this thing was the best of the best based on fellow guest response. Molly is a Martha Stewart protege so not totally surprising, but a site to be seen none the less. I'll include pictures once I get organized.

Hubby and the dads were darling, serving cocktails, lunch, and clearing dishes.

And the presents! We received our stroller (two in fact), Baby Bjorn, car seat, pack and play, every bathing essential from tub to toys to frog to put toys into in the tub, clothes and more clothes, blankets and stuffed animals! I'm still processing everything.

Thanks to all who made it happen - we (baby S, me and even hubby) had a great time and thank you all for your generosity!

Moms Rule

While my exposure to the "moms club" has been extremely brief so far, and obviously I'm not even technically invited in yet, I've been overwhelmed by what I've seen so far. The eagerness to share information, to help one another out, to make things easier on ourselves. It is really amazing.

I'm not even a big advise-seeker traditionally. I kind of like to do things my own way, perhaps that is the Taurus in me? :)

But this whole anticipated motherhood thing is exactly the opposite. I find myself engaging in conversations with strangers to gather information (there is a gal at my gym who looks fantastic, I haven't actually spoken with her yet but I'm dying to know how far along she is and how I can look like her at 8 months - she is not likely eating double cheese pizza for dinner like me, but still).

I'm talking to people I barely know about their experiences. With breast feeding. In detail. And I can't get enough. Even better, new moms seem almost desperate to share their information with other moms.

Strollers, car seats, bouncers, pack n' plays, cribs, OBs, breast feeding, health care, work/life balance (sadly a fairy tale but more on that later). And I've only scratched the surface. Imagine when this puppy pops out - hopefully that easily - and there is sleeping, and not sleeping, swaddling and crawling, socialization and feeding.

And trillions of moms who've gone before me. Totally amazing.

This is absolutely the coolest part of being a women I've experienced to date. The whole "sisterhood" thing makes sense for the first time and I'm left pondering the irony of all those years we spend being catty and competitive with each other earlier in life.

Thanks to all the moms who've shared priceless advice already. I look forward to talking to all of you in more detail soon. Keep it coming!

In the meantime, what is the best advice you gave or received to/as a new mom? Tell me please!

I promise to return the favor a hundred times over for those who come after me.

Spaghetti squash - now we're talking. At 22 weeks - baby S's lips, eyelids and eyebrows are more distinct. He totals nearly one pound and his teeth buds are growing under his gums.

The bump is growing too, no more hiding it. Earlier this week a waiter congratulated me and asked me when I was due. I found myself offended. Is it that obvious? Not really his fault I guess...but it really took me by surprise.

A couple other noticable changes - sitting on a three hour flight without getting up to both go to the bathroom and stretch is no longer possible. And it is getting colder which means I need to dust off the coats KJ gave me...

Speaking of which she had a baby boy on Thursday, must get out there this afternoon to meet the little cutie.

We lost a very special lady this week - a wife, mother, grandmother and sister - Grandma Chapman to me. She was the life of every party and had a smile on her face every time I saw her. She shared her love of Vegas with me (we all went together a few years back) and her love of wine. At 86, she lived a long, happy life but her absence will be felt deeply.

We all traveled in for the services Thursday and Friday. Everything was very nice. The one positive note, as is frequently the case I guess, it brought together many family members I enjoy dearly but rarely see. It was nice to gather together, catch up and share our favorite stories about her.

Grandma, we miss you already, though I know you're happier where you are today. Love you.

Pre-natal yoga, part I

I may have mentioned I negotiated approval to run 14 miles a week from my previous doctor.

The beauty of switching doctors midway through pregnancy is that you can pick and choose how you apply input. Every doctor is different, some more relaxed than others. I think 14 miles is the best I'm going to get so no need to push it and ask the new doc.

In spite of the allocation of miles, I still need to find a couple other workout options. For one, I burn through my miles by Thursday. I have a good muscle pump class on Fridays, but have started looking for prenatal classes. Inevitably I'm not going to be able to run forever and yoga is supposed to be so great, especially for those expecting.

Unfortunately, prenatal classes aren't really easy to come by - I guess odds aren't working in my favor that there is a large population of people interested in yoga and pregnant at the same time. I searched all the area studios and didn't find much. A couple mid-day classes during the week, a Tuesday night session I haven't been able to make yet. In other words, not much.

So I was delighted to stumble upon a studio right down the street one day on the way to the grocery that was set to begin classes Sat/Sun this weekend. Perfect!

I checked out the scene on Saturday and am left feeling like I need to keep searching. To start, I was the only person in the class. I was outnumbered by the instructors, who staffed up not knowing how many people to expect. This meant great personal attention. It was also a bit awkward.

Admittedly I'm also still trying to wrap my arms around the yoga concept. I don't sit still very well so laying down and focusing on my breathing for 10 minutes (twice in one class) is a challenge. Although I do think I had kind of a 'breakthrough' in that I figured out to some degree what this actually means. More on that another day.

I really like Bikram yoga, but likely because it is so hot and you're sweating almost immediately upon entering so it feels like you're actually doing something. That type of heat isn't allowed during pregnancy, regardless of which doc you ask. This class left me wondering after 1:45 minutes if I'd have been better off staying in bed.

So the next question is whether this odd session of laying, breathing and a couple poses, is in fact what prenatal yoga is all about or if there are different interpretations. I have since found a few more local options, including a prenatal pilates class that I'll try once I'm back from Miami.

Until then, I'll be lacing up. See you on the pavement.

Indian Summer Day (in November). Mani/Pedis. One extra hour.

Isn't it amazing the power of an extra hour? It seems like the gift that keeps on giving today.

I allowed myself the sweet luxury of sleeping in (gotta take advantage of this now from what I hear), and didn't roll out of bed until 9:30. After making some coffee, straightening downstairs, eating my cereal, it was still only 9am with the time change. Awesome!

And even now, with a full day of errands behind me, I'm shocked to see it is just after 6pm.

Would life be easier if we simply received an extra hour here and there? Is it that all we need? Maybe there is a way to schedule more of these 'fall back' days throughout the year.

What did you do with your extra hour?