We went to the doctor yesterday afternoon. It seems our little girl knows her head from her ass! This is a great thing! Her head is down & has assumed the position in my pelvis. This explains all the pressure and feelings like my pelvis is about to be split into 2. Walking is an adventure in and of itself these days! But I'm so happy it is because that means that everything is going according to plan!! Apparently the thing that is stretching up into my rib cage is her butt. Sorry baby girl, seems Daddy needs to aim a little lower when he talks & sings to you! She LOVES when Daddy talks to her! If she's resting, she usually perks up & starts stretching; if she's active, his singing usually calms her down... lets hope this stays true at 2 a.m. after she's born!

Can I just take a moment to tell everyone how wonderful my husband is??? He has been just AMAZING, well, always, but ESPECIALLY these last 9 months! For the last 2 weeks at work he has been working solo- the day before his assistant director was due to come back from vacation, he phoned to say that his father in law had passed away in Chicago and he would be out the rest of the week and also the following. Our hearts go out to him & his family and as Ross says, he'd rather go crazy at work than have to deal with what Anil is going through. On top of having his assistant out, Ross' only 2 other full time employees were scheduled to be in training all week. This has meant that Ross has been doing all the admin & all of the grunt work on the floor. He has literally been doing the work of 3-4 people! Keep in mind that Ross normally works 10-12 hour days and some weekend hours when all of his employees are in, so you can do the math! He still somehow managed to make it to our doctor appointment. The baby & I took him to Bev-Mo afterwards & let him pick out 4 bottles of wine (they're having their 5 cent sale!!!)

On top of his craziness at work, he has been coming home & taking such ridiculously good care of me & the baby. He has been cooking dinner & doing the dishes. His weekends have been filled with picking up baby furniture and ticking off things on a massive "to-do" list. Last weekend he even scrubbed the kitchen & shower from top to bottom and he has managed to help arrange for our fence to be repaired! All the while watching me lapse into a baby induced coma around 8 p.m. every night. He even leaves me voice mails in the morning telling me that I'm doing a great job incubating and thanking me for going through it all for our baby girl.

He never asks for anything in return & merely tells me that he is just doing his job & it's his honor to do it... I'm writing this early & letting him sleep in. I think when he wakes up I will DEMAND that he go on a nice relaxing bike ride! I love this man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nursery update

Almost all of the furniture is here, the crib gets here in two weeks. We also got the play yard/bassinet so at least she has somewhere to sleep when she gets here. Here are some pics.

This will be her first bed, and then her Kiddy cage... It's 'portable'. This is getting real!

The dresser/changing table. Our unborn daughter already has the nicest piece of furniture in the house!

Nesting instinct in full bloom. Ali has washed, folded and put away all of Ayla's beautiful new clothes... Uhhh, she's only going to be 0-6 months for 6 months, right?!? Ok I'm sure that with all of the natural bodily excretions we will find that we use it all. Plus, it's so damn cute!!!

The happy, yum-yum food-time glider, a must have!

Cindy knitted this adorable combo. Please note the heirloom hanger. The hanger was Cindy's when she was a tot!

Ok, update complete, four weeks to go... give or take!!! Love to all!

I've got wood!

FENCE that is...
Well the fence has been replaced. As some may know we had some serious wind storms this winter and the fence between our next door neighbors and us was basically destroyed. OK, so it took us awhile to deal with the insurance company, but they very quickly and efficiently cut us a check and we've got a brand new fence... Two very strong uhhh... 'women in comfortable shoes' (as Robin Williams put it) built us a beautiful and sturdy fence. They used steel posts sunk into cement, pretty sweet! Considering there had been wooden posts simply pounded into the ground, it is a major improvement.

In progress while the cement cured...

And here it is...

Detail of the posts, which you can't really see.

So I am psyched! There is another little area that needs some attention, but basically we are good to go... Ok, the man blog is done...more baby info to follow.

Easter Egg-stravaganza

Pics from our day... an unconventional celebration sprinkled with a little tradition... enjoy!

The boy with no childhood memories of dying eggs... we subject him to this every year!

Um, yep... I'm HUGE!

So huge in fact that I can balance a glass of port on my shelf... for the record, I was not actually drinking the port myself! My family likes to torture me with new and humiliating experiments!
Testing out the old school Gameboys... I've decided to take Tetris into the labor room with me to distract me in between contractions. With any luck I will be seeing shapes fall into place with my eyes closed! Mom's Nintendo DS may also come in handy... I knocked her out of 1st- 8th place in Mah Jong in one evening! Don't even pretend that it doesn't devastate you, mamacita!

Hoping you all had a very happy Easter as well!

Nursery Progress...

Papa G doing some edging...

The proud future daddy...

Her closet... Grandpa Bud painted her dresser and nightstand. The closet will soon have white sheer curtains with red satin ladybugs on them!

Awaiting her crib! It should be here by the weekend (fingers crossed)!

March Showers... Bring April Babies

Kim & Bob threw us an amazing baby shower last Saturday. We had such a blast! The food was great and there was even a "pink bar" complete with daiquiris and cosmopolitans... well, at least they looked good from afar!!!!! We even got to subject the men folk to shower games. We played match the type of candy to the birthing term, draw what the baby will look like on a plate (with the plate on your head), and my personal favorite, who can drink beer out of a baby bottle the fastest (for men only). I was so proud because the Gimpel men represented! Ross and Papa G came in 1st and 2nd!!! Who knew they were so good at sucking! Everyone also brought a favorite children's book for the baby. I LOVED hearing why people chose the book they chose. Many of them have inscriptions so we can share the stories of the stories with our daughter.

My poor mom; in the almost 18 years Kim & I have been friends, I don't think we've let her get one decent picture of us!

Ross' Diaper Daddy vest- YES! It is a diaper "bag"... and apparently a wine cozy as well!

Grandma G's gorgeous handiwork.

Teryn was nice enough to give us some practice with baby girls!

The infamous beer drinking competition...

The Gimpel men comparing what's left in their baby bottles...

Moses (aka Papa G) posing with the fruits of Kim's baking labor...

Thank you to everyone who could make it! It was WONDERFUL! Our baby girl is so lucky to have so many people who already love her & can't wait to meet her! And thank you to Kim and Bob for throwing us such a fun shower! We love you guys!

Weekend Adventure

We decided to get away this weekend for some quality time before the baby comes... in fact we should take every opportunity that we can get! We didn't want to spend a lot of time in the car and my stamina just isn't what it used to be, so we opted to stay close to home & stay at a little Inn in Nevada City... cute little town, private cabin, & us... seemed like a PERFECT idea!

Well, the cabin they put us in smelled like someone had been smoking in it... for 30 years! No problem! Ross went to the front desk & they were more than happy to upgrade us to a 2 story chalet complete with gas fireplace, kitchenette & private deck overlooking the creek. GREAT! We drove over to the chalet & lo and behold, it had the same smoke smell... at this point we concurred that the facility was just old & all the rooms probably had that smell from back in the day... as we learned while house hunting, there's just no way to get that smell out no matter how much paint & remodeling you do!

So, we decided to buck up & deal... while Ross went to retrieve our bags from the cabin I had a little look around... the coffee mug with half a cup of old coffee out on the deck was a bit unnerving, the gas fireplace not working was a bit disappointing, BUT the rancid shrimp cocktail in the fridge was a whole lot of UNACCEPTABLE! The point of the whole weekend was not to endure and persevere but to relax and enjoy. I apologize for the lack of pictures.. apparently the woman who used to have the memory of an elephant now only resembles an elephant & left the camera at home... you will just have to use your imagination!

Ross very politely explained to the front desk that we would not be staying and they were more than happy to not charge us. We decided to return to our old stomping ground of Tahoe City & got a room at Sunnyside Lodge (where we had our 1st date). We had a lovely dinner overlooking the lake & enjoyed the view of the lake all bundled up on our balcony. In the morning we hit the continental breakfast, walked around town, and then went over to our friend Scott's house.

All in all it turned out to be a fabulous weekend! What was so wonderful was knowing that the next time we go back there we will be with our daughter; showing her our favorite spots, telling her stories about our courtship and passing along our love of the Sierras.

We are now refreshed and looking forward to finally getting the nursery finished! Mama & Papa G come into town Thursday. We have our shower on Saturday! We are so excited! Kim has worked so hard getting everything planned & prepared! My work is also throwing me a shower the first week of April & the parents of my students are throwing me a shower one afternoon as well. It's getting so close to the time when we finally get to meet Kicky and we are just thrilled & anxious & stressed & excited all at once! It won't be long now!!!!!!!!!