Saturday, August 25, 2007

Now We Know

Which elf he is...


Achoo from Jane Yang and Vimeo.

Taken August 23 at 6 PM

Is my baby a muppet?



muppets from Jane Yang and Vimeo.

Updates Food and Gideon-wise

Gideon update:
As of yesterday he was 1790 grams, which is almost 4 lb!! When he was born 10 days ago he was 1635 grams. What a difference!
He took 10 cc's of milk yesterday by bottle! He gets 35 cc's per feed!
He was awake when I fed him and changed his diaper. He looks really really confused all the time. I mean seriously, his brows are in a constant state of furrowment. What the hell is he so confused about? Like he looked at the window and the look on his face was blank amazement. I know that he can't even see to where the window is, just the bright lights (because of his newborn nearsightedness), but his eyes just read, "what the hell is THAT!??"
I think he's now officially out of the incubator, because they pushed it against the wall. He's only in the open air crib and bundled up in several thin receiving blankets and a onesie and hat. He reminds me of that character from the Radiohead "Paranoid Android" video.

Foodwise we have been eating out pretty constantly. Froggy Bottom Pub by GW has really good burgers and fries. Aroma is my new favorite place for Indian. I first discovered it when Lesley had them cater Susan's goodbye party, and have been dreaming about it since. It was just as good! We also ate at Meiwah, which was decent. My parents have also been great about bringing us dinner at the hospital--curry one night, steak and mushrooms another night. Always a lot of seaweed soup. We also have been trying to get lunches from trader joe's, which I love.

Also, just got turned onto goodreads.com by Sarah and now update it more. Maybe I will actually read more books this year. (yes, I know baby owners are shaking their heads in disdain. How many times have I heard a variation of 'kiss your life goodbye' in the past 8 months? I refuse to kowtow! I refuse!!) My "currently reading shelf" includes Anne of Green Gables, part of which I was reading aloud to Gideon and began crying at the poignancy of the passage in which Anne describes the wonder of the world, and "Julie and Julia" which I thought for some reason I would hate but actually have decided that I love (thanks Lesley for the tip). I read that out loud to Gideon and have no qualms about using the f word, but at some point I know he will figure out what that word means and then will never be able to say it out loud again, so I better get my kicks in now I figure. Every other word in Julie and Julia is the f word.

Sunday, August 19, 2007

At home!



I got home yesterday after getting a ride with Angela (thanks!!!) and it feel soo nice. Even though anxiety prompted me to go to Buy Buy Baby and spend lots of money on things we "need" I still was able to relax so much more. When I first heard of the store Buy Buy Baby from Paul (Melissa has heard this joke already), I thought he meant "Bye Bye Baby" because he bought his crib mattress there. Like a sleepytime store for babies. But actually it's "Buy Buy Baby" like, give me your money.

Awake



Awake from Jane Yang and Vimeo.

taken 8/18/07

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Arrive Gideon



This guy really wanted out. I tried not to prescribe personalities onto babies, but what can I say? At Friday, my water starts to leak out. On Monday, there is a flood of water followed by EXTREMELY painful contractions. On Tuesday at midnight, they decided to have the C-section. I remember thinking, I have to go to the bathroom in case they won't let me later. I come out of the bathroom and they're all waiting around to tell me, you're going to have a C section NOW!

Then I received blessed blessed spinal column numbness, and I was floating around on cloud 9. I was pretty tired because it was so late, and I remember closing my eyes and seeing an orange tangerine quilt and imagining myself flying around it. It was so calming. They put a big drape in front of me so all I saw the whole time was a big blue cloth. No wonder I wanted to go to sleep! I could feel the pulling as they got him out, and Chris pretty much (somewhat reluctantly) got to see that part. He described it as them pulling him out one limb at a time, with the head finally popping out at the end (after three big tugs!) He cried right away. His APGAR scores were 9, and he could breathe by himself. So I have to say, maybe he was just tired of being so squished in there? In either case, he's here, he's beautiful and we are completely entranced.

Monday, August 13, 2007

Even Though I'm on Bedrest I'm Lucky I Got To

Celebrate my birthday at Sonoma. This is one of the best dinners I've ever had! We started with the chicken pate, which is my favorite, and they kept sending out the bread, which there's never enough of. Then for my entree I had this amazing crab fettucine, which was the perfect pasta dish. We finished with the cheese plate, and even though I didn't love all the cheeses, it was a good adventure for my oft too complacent taste buds.

Enjoy the Baby Shower. Angela threw us a wonderful afternoon BBQ baby shower and so many of our friends were able to come. It made the room quite warm, actually. There was tons of good food there, and I think everyone had a terrific time. We got so many wonderful presents, and lots of babies came!

Final Meal: Hollywood East. I am so glad we did not stay in for grilled cheese and tomato soup. At Hollywood East I got to enjoy Mongolian Beef and Sizzling chicken casserole for the last time for months, possibly. They really upped their game and everything was delicious. Sometimes it's hit or miss there, depending on who's in the kitchen and the level of ingredients, but that was the night to be there! I left stuffed and satisfied and leaking amniotic fluid.


Fix up most of the baby's things. I am so glad I freaked out and washed so many of his clothes and started packing for the hospital and bought so many things I knew he would need. Now I am not half as nervous because when he comes home many things are already taken care of! Whew.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Baby Shower!

Baby shower this weekend had sooo many wonderful elements to it!

Including:
Friends and family gathered together having fun and hanging out
Amazing baby gifts that baby will soon be enjoying
Much enjoyment of the Wii
So many baby visitors and one special toddler visitor!
FOOD glorious FOOOOD

Kai's famous Curry Chicken
Curried chicken salad
Angela's awesome burgers
Linden's tomato salad
Courtney's famous Orzo with feta
Gourmet cheesecake
Hot spinach and artichoke dip
Mini Crabcakes
Sherbert punch
Farm Fresh corn on the cob

I mean really, the choices were endless. The parade of food was gloriously topped off with... a humongous cupcake!



Thank you to everyone who came and I hope you had as fabulous a time as we did!

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Lately...

In eating news, the Birthday BBQ (Happy Birthday Mike!) was not a BBQ at all but a full blown house party with drinking and such. Which I could not partake in.

I did contribute my fabulous hot spinach and artichoke dip, which I will be recreating for the baby shower this Saturday. Angela made this amazing crab dip, which had I not eaten previously, would have sat on my lap and devoured. We ate at Adega, which is a wine bar and cafe in Silver Spring. I had this delicious Turkey Reuben, which had cranberry jelly in it. I am usually averse to this type of Thanksgiving fare, but it got good reviews. Frankly, I'm never getting a different sandwich there. They also have these yummy sweet potato fries and eggplant fries. Once baby is born, I'm going to strap him to his sling, grab a bottle of wine and some of those fries and wile away the happy hour. Does that seem irresponsible to you? Perhaps you'd like to carry around a water balloon full of baby INSIDE your body.

I must have forced Chris to starve on Sunday as I have absolutely no recollection of what we ate, or even, what we did. That must have been the day we were prodded by aliens.

On Monday Jeff took us out to dinner to Red Lobster for my birthday. The one near our house is not to be recommended, and perhaps Red Lobster in general should not be recommended, but the food is so good. I got a big helping of crab legs but on the very last claw my hand was cruelly sliced open in the last defensive move of this crustaceans worthy career. The sweet claw meat made it all worth it.

The last few days have been Super Suppers experiments. The dry rubbed flank steak was cooked on the stove as we were precipitously low on charcoal. It was tasty but not wow. I made a simple salad of mushrooms and celery and dressed it with a basic vinaigrette, as well as some box risotto.

Yesterday we had Sausage empanadas, and though they stuck together while defrosting, and one was more "free form" than most empanadas, the flavor was fantastic! Almost too strong, I would say. I am glad we have some more of these in the freezer.

Now here's a treat for our regular viewers. In a few weeks a child will born unto us, and that child will have some very eager grandparents and friends who will require some constant surveillance of said child. In awareness of concurring events, I have done some research into "video posting" and this blog is about to get a lot more fancy. Behold, a media event of such magnitude that despite my befuddlement of such terms as "embed," I bring you.. The Brainy Bees. Expect no further videos until child is produced or wedding occurs (not mine, good grief, I have SOME standards).




Brainy Bees from Jane Yang and Vimeo.