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!

Carrot-time

Gratitude list: Running belt. Halloween candy. Cold sleeping weather.




Baby S is a carrot this week. And growing eye brows! Babycentered showed, actually you just have to see, hopefully this doesn't freak out any unsuspecting readers but look at this image...

There is a PERSON in there! In my belly. Isn't that amazing? I realize I continue to come to the table shocked and flabergasted about this but you can't deny this process is a miracle. And part science project. Anyway, I digress.

I still don't know the sex but I can tell you there is no way he is facing the direction shown here. He is tap, tap, tapping me all the time so his little feet have to be pointed out rather than towards my back as shown here.

I've also been thinking a lot about the ultrasound machine and how awesome it would be to own one. We talked about it during the appointment. And someone reminded me later that Tom Cruise bought one when Katie was pregant, and everyone said he was crazy.

I promise you if money were no object (I have no idea how much one of these would cost but it has to be a lot), I would absolutely buy one. In a heartbeat.

My three best friends are pregnant. Imagine the fun we'd have with one of these in the living room! Everyone could come over, take turns dialing in. I bet we could even figure out how to introduce the kids prebirth.

Anyway, how is that for a randy rant? I don't suppose anyone has an ultrasound machine they want to loan me for the next couple months?

Nite, nite from the carrot.

Hum, ok I still can't figure out how to get the baby pics up. They are saved as PDFs, DW resaved as jpegs but I still can't figure out how to get them on. They aren't showing up as jpegs when I try to attach. AGH! Hubby will resave tomorrow so you can see the cuteness soon.

This week was a big pile of garbage which means I still haven't written about how awesome the ultrasound was. Coming this weekend, promise.

Instead of bitching about all the things that were SO annoying about this week, I'm going to share a few great things that did make their way in - more than three things I'm grateful for:

- Ultrasound was truly best 30 minutes of TV I've ever seen. More on this but can't be said enough.
- Baby S is wiggling and dancing all the time now and every time I feel him, I smile (for some reason I feel like I have a secret no one knows about - though at this point the belly is no secret).
- I found $80 on the sidewalk Thurs while walking the dog - how sweet is that?!?!
- I love other moms. I have a whole post on this coming soon but moms rock and I can't get enough of their tips and advice. Keep 'em coming!!
- We had a great event tonight for BK, thanks to my kickass team who pulled it all together with very little help from me.
- We have two renters lined up to look at Winona tomorrow. Fingers crossed!
- I'm diving into Twitter ("cityretreat" there too but I'm going to have to watch for a bit before I dive in, not totally sure how it works just yet).
- Bellydance maternity store is having a sale tomorrow, I'm buying.
- My airplane did not snap in half and fall from the sky as I was positive would happen on Thursday night.
- Hubby agreed to Bugaboo suddenly after initial resistance.
- Went to great muscle pump class this am and my instructor is preggo too so she is going to take a few prenatal classes and bring back the moves for us.

I'm off to bed. Making the list of positives has nearly washed away the week. Hopefully tomorrow I'll wake up liking everyone around me :)

Happy weekend!