sBros: Rain City to Windy City

NYC 10th Anniversary Trip: PART 2

2013-10-12T17:15:00.001-04:00

[For the beginning of our anniversary trip to NYC, start here with Part 1]

Sunday October 6

Overcast, misting rain in the first half of the day. Low 70s.

What We Did:

West Village walking

The Meadow Shop, West Village (read about on a blog; they sell flowers, chocolates, finishing salts; purchased several chocolate bars

Meatpacking District walking

High Line walking (former elevated train tracks turned into green space for walking)

Chelsea Market (interesting shops, especially enjoyable as an escape from wet weather)

Greenwich Village walking (saw the “Friends” apartment exterior at the corner of Bedford and Grove Streets)

Washington Square Park (good people-watching)

Soho walking

Canal Street over to Chinatown walking

Little Italy, Nolita, and Noho walking

East Village walking

Union Square

Flatiron Building exterior

Eataly (Mario Battali’s giant Italian gourmet market filled with groceries, produce, multiple dining options)

What We Ate:

Joseph Leonard at Waverly Place and Grove Street, West Village Met Seth’s high school friend Jessica for brunch. Jessica and I both had the egg croissant sandwich with a side of sriracha-drizzled roasted brussel sprouts. The sandwich was fine but basic and a bit bland; sprouts were delish with a kick. Seth had the brioche French toast with pears and almonds, which was very thick with an eggy, custardy, moist center. Seth and I had lattes and each tried a sip of Jessica’s very peppery, too-spicy Bloody Mary.

Blue Bottle Coffee on the High Line Free samples, courtesy of the Amazon Kindle Paper display nearby; Jessica’s favorite coffee in the area

Chelsea Market Baskets, inside Chelsea Market Nunu’s salted caramel chocolates, delicious

Dominique Ansel Bakery on Spring Street, Soho Recommended to us by Danae and various online sources. They sell out of their famous cronuts (croissant + donut) early in the morning, but there will still a long line. We got a DKA (Dominique’s Kouign Amann, a croissant-like pastry with a caramelized crust; our favorite), a Magic Souffle (Grand Marnier chocolate soufflé inside an orange blossom brioche; decent but not amazing), and a Cannele de Bordeaux (a small baked treat with a custardy interior and a caramelized crust) recommended by a bakery worker; good but mild and unremarkable.

Joe’s Shanghai on Pell Street, Chinatown Recommended by a chef from church, Yelp, and Lonely Planet guidebook. Small, dumpy interior, communal tables. Everyone says to order the xiao long bao crab and pork soup dumplings (good but not a favorite for either of us), as well as the scallion pancakes (crispy, delicious).

Birreria, rooftop restaurant above Mario Batali’s Eataly, 5^th Ave at 23^rd St. Recommended by many sources. We weren’t hungry enough for the famous pork shoulder, so we split a glass of Flor Prosseco NV wine, a cheese platter with Ricotta Fresca, Parmigiano, and Asiago Fresco (our favorite), served with hazelnut honey and complimentary bread with oil and vinegar; excellent.

Eataly We headed downstairs to split a scoop of Sweet Milk (very mild) and a scoop of Salted Caramel gelato, which were good but not amazing (it seems Italy spoiled us for gelato).

Monday, October 7

Cloudy turning to on-and-off sprinkles, then rain + wind and a tornado warning, 71 degree high

What We Did:

Today Show plaza at Rockefeller (Miley Cyrus in concert on the Plaza stage, interviewed by Matt Lauer); inside Rockefeller, saw Jenna Bush Hager waiting for an elevator.

NBC Studio Tour: Brian William’s Nightly News Studio, SNL studio from the balcony level, Football Night stage temporarily housed in one part of the SNL studio due to Tonight Show (for Jimmy Fallon) construction. No photography allowed.

Upper West Side walking

Zabar’s gourmet Kosher market browsing

Upper East Side walking

Metropolitan Museum of Art exterior

Grand Central Station (largely to avoid the windy rain and tornado warning outside)

Greenpoint, North Brooklyn, walking (in the rain)

LaGuardia Airport (hung out for four hours, waiting for our weather-delayed flight to take off at midnight)

What We Ate:

Zabar’s Café, Broadway and 80^th, Upper West Side Recommended by several sources. We shared a plain bagel with cream cheese; it was big, fresh, chewy, and good.

88 Gourmet Deli, 88^th Street Upper West Side Shared a Boar’s Head turkey sub sandwich; for $5, it was a large, fresh, tasty sandwich that hit the spot.

William Greenberg Desserts on Madison and 82^nd Recommended by Lonely Planet and several online sources. Split a mini black-and-white cookie, voted best in city. The cookie was soft, pillow, and delicious.

Coffee Bean & Tea Drip coffee; got the job done.

Junior’s at Grand Central Station Shared a slice of original cheesecake (considered by some to be the quintessential NYC cheesecake). It was definitely delicious: super creamy and tasty.

Vamos al Tequilla, Franklin St, Greenpoint, Northern Brooklyn We were headed toward recommended Paulie Gee’s Pizza, but it was closed. Dark and rain drove us into this nearby Mexican restaurant where I had a very fresh tasting Mexican pizza (which would have benefitted from some sour cream or taco sauce, but was still good) and Seth had a steak quesadilla with yummy cheese but weirdly spiced steak.

It was a great adventure. We jammed in more than most people would and while it wasn’t relaxing, it was fun and we left feeling like we really saw a lot of NYC. I’ll end with a few random pictures.

New York City 10th Anniversary Trip: PART 1

2013-10-10T15:15:00.001-04:00

To celebrate our first decade of marriage, Seth and I decide to take a trip to NYC. Neither of us had ever really spent time there and it was something we’d been hoping to do for a few years. My parents graciously agreed to come watch our children while we went on a 4 day/4 night adventure together. It’s been several years since our last big travel adventure (Europe trip in 2008), so we were a little rusty but we quickly got into the swing of things and had a great, busy, exhausting, fun time together. I wanted to record everything because I’m well aware of how short my short-term memory lasts. So this is a record of what we did, what we saw, and, as importantly, what we ate. Our eating philosophy was “more less is more,” meaning we wanted to try smaller amounts of more things (especially quintessential NY things like a bagel, cheesecake, a hotdog, Brooklyn pizza, etc.), so we snacked our way through the city rather than sitting down to full meals and then tried to walk off all those delicious calories.

Thursday October 3

How we got there:

Booked a package through Priceline

Spirit Airlines from O’Hare to LaGuardia

Scheduled departure: 5:57 p.m. CST

Actual departure: 7:15 p.m. CST

Impressions: First (and hopefully last) time to fly Spirit. Didn’t know that they charge for each carry-on bag larger than a purse; luckily we found out at ticketing ($50 per bag!) instead of at the gate ($100 per bag!). So much for being a cheap flight. Very unimpressed with the chaos and lack of communication at the gate, as well as multiple unnecessary gate changes.

Cab from LaGuardia to Parkside Bed and Breakfast at 199 Ocean Ave., east side of Prospect Park, southern Brooklyn. Second floor bedroom, private bath, shared kitchen area (stocked with breakfast food) in an a three-story limestone row house. In spite of the 20+ minute subway commute into Manhattan, we really enjoyed staying in Brooklyn, having a quiet, private “home,” being able to make our own breakfast, and getting to see inside a gorgeous old limestone.

Friday Oct 4

Sunny, a bit hazy, 82-degree high

What We Did:

Midtown walking

Today Show outdoor stage area

Rockefeller Plaza

St. Patrick’s Cathedral (under fairly major construction)

Grand Central Station (beautiful and impressive)

Chrysler Building lobby

NY Public Library (beautiful Rose Main Reading Room)

Bryant Park (charming, small, leafy)

Top of the Rock (long lines due to elevator shortage; views were worth it, not crowded at the top)

Central Park: zoo exterior, the Mall (tree-lined and lovely), Sheep Meadow from a distance, Bethesda fountain, Loeb Boathouse, Strawberry Fields, the Lake, the Ramble, a bit of the Shakespeare Garden, Delacorte theater, and Belvedere castle. Planned to do Northern Central Park on Monday but weather didn’t allow.

MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), Midtown North (free Friday evenings, huge but fast line; Seth saw Paul McCartney walk by; thousands of people inside; outdoor sculpture garden, 4^th and 5^th floor galleries; Van Gogh, Monet, Picasso, Warhol, Matisse, Pollock, Rothko, etc.)

Koreatown walking

Empire State lobby

Times Square (requisite neon lights, digital screens, and crush of human traffic)

What We Ate:

El Margon at W 46^th St & 6^th Ave A small, busy, low-frills Cuban lunch counter where we split the “legendary, obscenely good” cubano sandwich (pressed panino with roast pork, salami, cheese, pickles, mojo, and mayo, $7.50; quote from the NYC Lonely Planet guide). Good but definitely not amazing; more like “G-rated good.”

Wafle and Dinges food cart, SW corner of Central Park Recommended by cousin Danae. We ordered the Throw Down waffle, so-named for winning Bobby Flay’s Throw-Down Challenge: a completely delicious waffle covered with even more delicious spekuloos (a creamy Dutch gingerbread cookie spread) and whipped cream and a second waffle with spekuloos ice cream (yes!) and drizzled chocolate magic shell over the top. Definitely at the top of the list for most delicious thing we ate in NYC.

Woori Jip on W 32^nd Street near Broadway, Koreatown Highly recommended (on Yelp.com) Korean buffet; as fans of Korean food, we were very underwhelmed by the pricey, mediocre-at-best cafeteria style food.

Serendipity 3 on E 60^th near 3^rd Ave, Upper East Side We had to wait a bit before we were seated at the table in front of a fireplace on the second floor that our waiter informed us was the table John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale sat at in the movie Serendipity. We shared a giant peanut butter frozen hot chocolate (yum!) and a slice of rich, dense blackout cake. Really, really good.

Saturday October 5

High 70s, sunny, pleasant

What We Did:

Attempted Prospect Park Botanical Gardens, Brooklyn (a special function negated normally-free Saturday morning admission)

Eastern side of Prospect Park walking

Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn (enjoyed large outdoor green market)

Brooklyn TKTS booth (bought discounted tickets to Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark)

Waterfront area, DUMBO (Down Under Brooklyn Bridge) walking

Brooklyn Heights area along Willow Street walking

Brooklyn Promenade walking

Regret: Planned to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge, but hopped on a downtown train without thinking. Intended to make it back on Monday but weather didn’t allow.

9/11 Memorial Visitor Center (lots of waiting in lines; area still under some construction): North and South Reflecting Absence pools (beautiful and moving), the Survivor Tree (an eight-foot stump pulled from the wreckage at Ground Zero, nursed back to health in a park, uprooted in 2010 severe storm, now rooting in memorial park), Memorial Museum (not completed, but peeked in glass walls to see two steel tridents, part of the original North Tower façade).

Financial District walking

Trinity Church

New York Stock Exchange exterior

Charging Bull bronze statue at Bowling Green park

Staten Island Ferry (free; nice but hazy views of the Statue of Liberty (closed due to current government shut down)

Broadway show: Spider-Man Turn Off the Dark at Foxwoods Theater on 42^nd St. As fans of U2’s Bono and the Edge (who wrote the music and lyrics) we’ve enjoyed hearing about the show’s debacles. The only discounted tickets still available were front row, center; we decided it was an only-in-NYC experience we wanted to have. We had to crane our necks to look right up at the stage, where the actors stood RIGHT in front of us with their shoes at our eye-level. The show was a lot of fun and very entertaining, even though it was cheesy and comic book-ish; several scenes seemed more like college theater, not Broadway. But the high wire flying stunts were very impressive, and when Spiderman first flew in, he stopped only inches from my face, grabbing the stage right in front of me to stop himself; he then threw out large ribbon spirals of “web” that landed all over Seth and most of us in the front row. Actors often stood right above us, meaning we were spat on more than we’d anticipated, especially during a Peter Parker solo when he sang the spit-laced word “believe” over and over onto our faces. We thought the Green Goblin actor was excellent, but Mary Jane was just okay. It certainly wasn’t serious theatre, but it was definitely a spectacle and incredibly entertaining, especially from front and center.

What We Ate:

Juliana’s Pizza, Old Fulton St., DUMBO Juliana’s Pizza is next door to Grimaldi, which wouldn’t open open for another half hour and already had a long line. While many people recommend Grimaldi, locals told us to try Juliana’s which was recently opened by Patsy Grimaldi, the man who created Grimaldi’s but sold it to retire. He came out of retirement to open Juliana’s. We ordered a small margherita pizza, which was delicious. The sauce tasted very fresh and we wouldn’t have minded more of the mozzarella cheese. Our pizza was accidentally delayed a long time, so the waitress offered complimentary dessert; we chose the Brookie Bridge, two brownie cookies with a scoop of super creamy vanilla ice cream made by local Brooklyn Ice Cream company.

Shake Shack at Murray Street near the West Side Highway Long wait for the delicious but small cheeseburger and fries that we split, recommended by several sources. We were going to order another hamburger or a shake but because of the long wait and the time, we headed uptown instead. We forgot to take a picture of our meal.

Sabrett push-cart hotdog near Times/Herald Square Seth bought a $3 hotdog; got the job done.

Crumbs Bake Shop on 42^nd St., Theatre District We had a cinnamon-sugar “Crumbnut” (their version of the “cronut,” which is a cross between a croissant and doughnut created by Dominique Ansel Bakery) and a Bavarian-crème-filled Crumbnut. The Bavarian-crème was much better and lighter; the cinnamon-sugar had a more cake-like texture and tasted stale.

Tune in soon for Part 2.

4th of July

2013-07-08T22:03:00.001-04:00

Wait, do we still have a blog? Huh.

I think we’re still a year or three away from attending a late-night fireworks show (these guys are barely even interested in sparklers), but we did have fun with the slip-n-slide and dining al fresco (there were never two children more excited about corn on the cob).

Merry Christmas!

2012-12-26T00:47:00.001-05:00

From our family to yours, we wish you a very merry Christmas, filled with the light and hope and wonder that can only be found in Jesus.

House Paint

2012-12-19T00:22:00.001-05:00

The first time we saw our house, we developed a major crush on it ... in spite of the paint job. While it could have been worse, the teal and magenta trim wasn't our first choice, and all of the paint was starting to peel. We knew a new paint job would go a long way in improving the curb appeal, but it was a job that got pushed lower down the list as we were busy with little babies and interior house projects. When we finally got around to having it painted this summer, we decided to also open up the enclosed porch at the same time. We still have work to do on the front porch (because it turned out to be in worse shape than we'd hoped), but nonetheless, we're so much happier with what we see when we pull in the driveway now.

Before

After

Back of the house

Wait ... we have a blog?

2012-12-09T00:30:00.001-05:00

Oops. I'm going to try to get back into the habit of posting occasionally. And the busy holiday season is probably a great time to start.

Just a glimpse of our cuties:

Elliot on Thanksgiving Day turkey watch

Alliegirl

Happy 1st Birthday, Elliot!

2012-07-15T21:37:00.001-04:00

This first year of our boy’s life has been the strange mix of fast and slow that seems to be the hallmark of raising young children. I’ve heard it described as “long days, short years,” and that does seem to be the case. It’s amazing that it’s already been a whole year, but also amazing that it was only a year ago that I went to the hospital and met my sweet little son for the first time.

From the very beginning, he was sweet, mellow, easy, and happy. He has continued to be all those things, although since he gained mobility, he’s less mellow than he used to be. Now he has places to go and things to grab!

He’s absolutely a delight, a blessing, a sweetheart, and a gracious gift from God.

We sure love you, boy-o!

No Thanks Part 2

2012-05-22T22:49:00.001-04:00

Do other people’s babies do this??

Allie on the left in 2010. Elliot on the right on 2012.

Blue Eyes

2012-03-18T23:09:00.001-04:00

Our Valentines (a little late)

2012-03-05T11:52:00.001-05:00

6 Months

2012-01-16T22:19:00.001-05:00

Someday, I’m actually going to get back to posting things on this blog. But, for now, I give you this completely adorable boy who (astonishingly, where does time go?!) is 6 months old as of yesterday. He continues to be about as cute and pleasant and happy as a boy can possibly be. Recent hobbies: rolling over a lot more often, grabbing of toes, grabbing of everything & anything anywhere near his hands, batting and knocking things out of unsuspecting parents’ hands, wiggling at every opportunity.

Thankful

2011-11-26T23:14:00.001-05:00

We are blessed in so many ways. At the top of the list this year, we’re so thankful to have this little guy around:

And we’re very thankful to have this big girl who is no longer wearing diapers! This picture is from our first day of intensive potty training:

Splish Splash

2011-10-24T17:04:00.001-04:00

Elliot and I have started to do some of the infant massage and baby yoga exercises I learned with Allie. He is generally very happy to be noticed; he loves to make eye contact, smile a lot, and coo and gurgle and “talk.” These exercises (Splish Splash and One Hand, Two Hand) seem especially fun for him. In this video, he’s a little tired and not quite as expressive as he is sometimes, but it gives a glimpse of our happy little guy. Hard to believe he’s three months old already!

ElliotSplishSplash- from sbr0s on Vimeo.

Fall Update

2011-10-07T21:54:00.001-04:00

One of the greatest things about life right now are all the sweet smiles and coos we’re getting from Elliot. He gets very excited when he makes eye contact and just smiles and smiles away. It’s extremely cute and sweet and impossible for me to capture on camera. I try to slyly have the camera or video camera nearby while I smile and coo at him, but he isn’t fooled. He just stares at the camera and refuses to smile. Exhibit A: Camera Face (pictured at right).

I’ve managed to capture a few semi-smiling photos, but none do justice to the open-mouth excited grins that are his specialty.

We had a great visit from Seth’s parents last week. It was a really special time for Allie and Elliot to soak up the quality time with her grandparents from Washington State. We loved having them here!

After some unseasonably cold, rainy, dreary days, we are soaking up the unseasonably warm sunshine this week and enjoying the outdoors while we still can. Is this a cute little girl or what?

Sharing

2011-10-07T21:21:00.001-04:00

I completely love this picture. It’s a good snapshot of how sharing has impacted Elliot’s life.

First, let’s deal with the obvious faux pas here. Yes, my boy is wearing a bib that says “Grandpa’s Little Girl.” Sorry, son. That’s what you get as a second born who spits up ALL.THE.TIME. and goes through many, many bibs and clothing changes in a day, just trying to keep relatively dry. I assure you (and him) that I put on blue and boy-themed bibs when we are out and about. But around the house, he occasionally finds himself wearing girly bibs or being wrapped up in pretty pink blankets. Ahh, well.

This picture was taken shortly after we returned home from Bible study. Allie decided to share her ponies. Allie has been doing a great job of being a big sister. She is about 1/3 interested in him, which involves kisses, hugs, trying to hold him, and sharing toys with him. The other 2/3 of the time, she ignores him. She’s often very generous in sharing with him, if only for a few minutes. She’ll run to fetch toys she’s particularly interested in (these ponies for example) and toss them onto him, announcing loudly, “Sharing!” Then she takes them back when the need arises.

While Elliot has started to smile at Allie occasionally, he is more likely to watch her with large eyes full of amazement and just a touch of fear, as seen here. She is a magical creature in his world, and I’m sure the fascination will just grow.

Side note about the ponies: Allie is really interested in putting things into families. She likes to classify kids and adults on the playground (girl and mommy), ponies (mommy, daddy, and two babies), stuffed animals, and even food items (the biggest grape is the daddy, next up is mommy, little ones are babies of course). It’s pretty cute, and Mommy (in a state of post-partum body angst) is pretty relieved to not be the biggest one in the bunch.

Bounty

2011-09-07T05:26:00.001-04:00

When we planted a garden back in May, I had high hopes for a summer of produce. But, wow, have my expectations been exceeded by leaps and bounds!

Before:

After:

On any given day, this is what you’ll find in the kitchen, despite numerous batches of tomato soup and zucchini breads/cakes/stir fries/pizzas:

And since I don’t go picking every day, we end up with these guys (nearly as wide as the sink):

It’s a nice problem to have, but I will scale back the planting a bit next year. Allie is a great harvest helper, although the tomatoes do tend to be squeezed and tossed with gusto into the collection bag.

In other news, after having my mom stay with us for a wonderfully long time, with visits from my dad and brother, Aaron, we are now cruising right along as a family of four (plus kitty).

I’m generally pretty tired, but we’ve actually started to have some longer sleep stretches at night (two nights of 6 hours in a row made me want to throw a party!), so we have many blessings to count. This is one sweet, easy little boy!

Hey, Big Guy, Indeed

2011-08-19T09:20:00.001-04:00

I think I’ve mentioned several times that Elliot is growing well, but now I have some stats to prove it. He’s grown a whopping 3 lbs and 3 inches in just 1 month! For comparison, I’ve put his measurements with Allie’s:

Allison Elliot

	Birth	1 Month	Birth	1 Month
Weight	8 lbs 7 oz	9 lbs 6 oz	7 lbs 9 oz	10 lbs 8.5 oz
Length	20.25 in	22 in	19 in	22 in

So, he was born a pound less and weighs a pound more than she did at this point. This is a testament to what a good eater he is AND how God has answered SO MANY prayers about breast feeding and milk supply! I am so incredibly grateful! It’s still sad that he spits up so much, but it’s obviously not hindering his growth.

And, speaking of growth: there is no way to say strongly enough how GIANT a two-year-old becomes when you acquire a newborn. Perspective gets all whacky.

One Month Old

2011-08-16T22:29:00.001-04:00

Yesterday marked the end of our first month as a family of four. It’s hard to believe Elliot has been here a month. Then again, “newborn time” is weird. I’ve heard it described as “long days and fast weeks,” which I think is pretty accurate. Having your day broken down into 2 and 3 hour segments sure can make 24 hours go slowly, but all the sudden, you find yourself with a much bigger boy than you had at the beginning!

Elliot is still a mellow, pleasant, easy little guy. He is still eating and sleeping well, and we are very blessed. Allie occasionally gets very excited to “hold it” (her words), but as soon as he starts to cry (or even after a few pleasant minutes), she abruptly shoves him away. She is very quick to point out when his eyes are open, maybe because it’s been a rare occurrence until recently as he’s becoming more alert. Allie has heard Nana say, “Hey, big guy!” and she copies it by saying, “Hey, buh-guy!” which can sound an awful lot like, “Hey, bad guy,” or “Hey, buckeye.” Cute stuff either way!

Alive & Well

2011-08-06T20:07:00.001-04:00

You wouldn’t know it from blog updates, but we are, in fact, alive and doing pretty well as we pass week 3 of our new life as a family of four. And, actually, we’re kind of a family of seven right now as we are (very, very, very) blessed to have both of my parents with us (helping out immeasurably!) and, of course, Kitter.

Elliot continues to be a sweet and relatively mellow little guy. He’s doing quite a good job of eating and sleeping, although he seems to have a need to do some screaming between about 9 – 11 p.m. He’s a great baby!

I’ve had many people ask how nursing is going, since it was such an ordeal for me when Allie was born. So far, it’s going much better than it did that first time. I am very grateful that it’s generally “working,” especially as Elliot continues to gain weight quickly (he’s already 9+ pounds), but it’s not easy and I struggle with quite a bit of pain. We’re still giving it our best shot, though. Elliot has started spitting up quite a lot, so I strongly suspect we have another acid reflux situation on our hands. At least he seems to be a “happy spitter,” where Allie was a very miserable and angry spitter.

We came home from the hospital just in time to celebrate Allison’s second birthday. We enjoyed baking a cake together, although she wasn’t very interested in eating it. We are suddenly overwhelmed by just how big she is; her vocabulary continues to grow by leaps and bounds. The adjustment has been pretty easy for her so far because she has so much fun playing with Nana and Bapa right now. She still enjoys giving Elliot sweet kisses and pats on the head.

I feel like the c-section recovery has been easier for me this time compared to the first, and I’m getting around pretty well. It’s still sad to not be able to pick Allie up yet, but that will come soon. Right now, I’m focusing on trying to get enough sleep (funny how 2 hours + 2 hours + 3 hours doesn’t equal 7 hours in a row!) and feeding Elliot. I have no idea how I’ll manage taking care of two kids all by myself, but I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. Many, many others have successful raised a lot more than two kids at once, so here’s hoping I’ll figure it out.

Baby Boy Day!

2011-07-15T09:38:00.001-04:00

We are at the hospital, waiting around for someone to tell us what’s next. It is very hard to believe we’re here to become parents to a son! We will be posting updates and pictures at the blog below, so head over there if you want more info:

http://bouncingbabyblog.posterous.com/

Baby-Getting Eve

2011-07-14T23:06:00.001-04:00

Wow, it’s so amazing that tomorrow is the day our son will be born! I had a doctor appointment this morning which revealed that, despite nightly contractions for a few weeks, this boy is still quite high (he hasn’t dropped down in my pelvis) and I have basically no dilation. So the doctor said she would be very surprised if I went into labor before the c-section that is scheduled for tomorrow, his due date.

When I first considered trying for a Vaginal Birth After Caesarean (VBAC), I felt uncertain. There are certainly pros and cons and risks for both forms of delivery. So my most consistent prayer was that God would bring our son in the best way and at the best time and, if possible, that he would make it clear what way that was. I was nervous of trying a VBAC, being in labor for hours and hours, and then ending up with a c-section anyway. So even though I am disappointed that I can’t try the VBAC and have that experience (and much shorter recovery!), I am grateful that God seems to have so clearly given us an answer.

We head to the hospital at 8 a.m. for a c-section scheduled for 10:30. The scheduling nurse said the morning has a busy schedule, so not to be too surprised if things run a little late. She estimated that we might be up in our regular room (and thus in contact with the outside world) in the neighborhood of 2 p.m., so we may not be able to send official word of arrival until then.

We are very excited to meet our little boy tomorrow. I remember how surreal it felt to go in for Allison’s birth, and it really feels like that again. At least we have some idea of what to expect this time, but it does feel new all over again. I covet your prayers for a safe delivery, a good recovery with no infections or complications, and a special blessing on my attempt to nurse again, as that turned out to be the most stressful and painful part of Allison’s early life. We are thankful for whatever God has for us. He has blessed us so much.

More tomorrow!

Waiting on our Boy

2011-07-11T23:18:00.001-04:00

Any day now, we are going to welcome our son out of my midsection and into our home! My due date is July 15, Friday. I have been hoping to have a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Caesarean), but for that to happen, I need to go into labor on my own before Friday. Since I had a c-section with Allison (she was breech, so I had a scheduled a c-section and never went into labor), they will not let me go past my due date. So this little boy only has a few more days to come out on his own before we go in after him with a c-section on Friday afternoon.

So far, I’ve had contractions every night for quite awhile, but they never amount to anything. So we continue to wait and pray that God will bring our son at the right time in the right way. I’m frankly scared of either option (VBAC or repeat c-section), so I’m glad I can just trust it to God’s hands.

I am looking forward to meeting our little guy – what a strange thing to not even know this little person who will be such a huge part of my life for the rest of my life!

Babymoon

2011-06-29T13:21:00.001-04:00

At the end of April/beginning of May, Seth and I took ourselves on a “babymoon,” which is basically an excuse that pregnant people use to go on vacation before taking the next step up in life responsibilities. A long, unusually cold start to spring gave me the irresistible urge to flee to warmer climates, so that’s just what we did. My wonderful parents came up to spend a few days with Allie at our house while we headed to Naples, FL, for some serious sun and relaxation.

It was a really wonderful vacation. Seth had a good time, too, but for me, it was totally fantastic. While I absolutely love and would not trade my full-time job as a stay-at-home mommy to my beautiful little girl, there are times when I just long to be “off duty” for awhile. I fantasize of things like sleeping in, reading for extended periods of time, having a leisurely meal in a restaurant without trying to entertain and feed a little person who just wants out of the high chair, and just not being responsible for all the daily needs of someone else. So taking a few days “off” was really, really nice. Especially since those days off were in the gorgeous, sunny, lush setting of Naples.

Even though our hotel was on the budget end of the spectrum, it was a great little place that we really enjoyed. We swam in the pool, went to the nearby beach, watched sunsets from the Naples Pier, did some window shopping, ate lots of delicious food, went on walks, admired the beautiful landscaping in the area (including banyan trees, pictured at the right, which we both thought were very cool), watched DVDs from the hotel’s free library, and generally had a very relaxing time.

Meanwhile, Allie barely had time to miss us as she enjoyed quality time with Nana and Bapa. There were lots of walks to the park, several trips to the petting zoo, many games and books and other good fun. Thanks again to my parents for letting us get away!

May Flowers

2011-06-26T23:50:00.001-04:00

Okay, this is a seriously overdue post. There are a lot of fun things that have happened in recent months that I haven’t taken time to blog about. And the fact that I’m going to have a baby in 3 weeks or less (!!) probably means I won’t get to all of them. But I’m going to take a few minutes to post a few pictures of my sweetie girl that were taken in May.

One of my favorite things about spring in the town where we live is the park behind the library that is filled FILLED with tulips and lilacs that bloom in fragrant splendor. It’s truly gorgeous there for a few weeks each year, and I love taking Allie there to walk around and take pictures. Except that at this stage of life, it’s mostly about running and darting and moving fast, so it was hard to capture magical photo moments where she wasn’t just a blur.

Dizzy

2011-06-16T22:07:00.001-04:00

Allie:Dizzy from sbr0s on Vimeo.