Baby party pictures

38 week update

Well, I've had doctor's appointments every week now for a while and things are still looking good. The baby is pretty happy where he/she is for now, although head down and ready to launch. I'm visualizing this childbirth thing more as like a rocket launch. Our childbirth instructor claimed that visualizing her baby as a fish swimming out of her was helpful, and I'm upping the ante to rocket propulsion.

So, we are doing well here - Isaac and I have cooked a lot of meals that are now in the freezer. In fact, the freezer is so full that we are now starting to eat some of the stuff we made. Thai Curry, yum. It's awfully hot outside, but the air conditioning at work is a real blessing - I'm still going into work every day.

Last night I had a dream that I got on a plane to Minnesota without telling Isaac, and without thinking about the fact that I was really really pregnant. I just had to see Stacy. And in my dream it was so nice to see her, awkward hugs all around. Then I realized that the airline might not let me fly home because I was so pregnant and I started thinking of costumes to disguise my condition...and it would take something pretty drastic at this point.

I have lots of pictures to post both from the baby party my family had for me and the IM-based baby shower that Jen and Lynne had for me, which was so so nice. Thanks to them the baby will not be quite so grungy (baby tub and baby hamper) or snotty (healthcare kit with snot sucker) or ignorant of Grover (classic Sesame Street golden book as a precursor to when the child can read Harry Potter). I am so grateful to have such nice blogfriends, and they are on my mind awake or asleep apparently!

appointment 36 weeks

Today Isaac and I are going to my 36 week checkup at the ob. So we should be finding out soon whether the baby is pointed in the right direction to be born (very exciting) and talk about the birth day...our doctor is very much of the "don't worry about anything too much" school, which is quite comforting. Of course, she may not be our actual delivering ob, since there are 2 other doctors in her practice, and 2 other doctors who cover for them sometimes.

So, being in the ninth month is not too bad so far. Last night we saw Knocked Up, which was a lot of fun. This weekend we are starting a cooking project to stock up our freezer with some favorite freezable meals...Green Curry Chicken, Lasagna, and Khoresh Fesenjan. What do you know, they have Najmeh's recipe on Epicurious.com. We have two of her cookbooks, and they are both absolutely excellent. Probably used more than any other cookbook on the shelf. Anyway, if you go to a Persian restaurant that serves this khoresh, you should get it, so yummy, with walnuts and pomegranate paste and chicken in this stewy form. Oh, and chili. That's not really a favorite of mine, but it is highly freezable.

This past Saturday was really wonderful - my family made the trek up from Maryland, by bus and by car, and we had a really great party here in the apartment. They brought the food, and we ate a ton, and opened lots of presents. It's actually starting to look like a baby might be able to live in this place, and be clothed and diapered and everything. I'll have to post some pictures later after I get them off my camera...

Thanks Mom and Dad and Beth!

My family is coming up to New York this weekend for a "baby shower". It's not exactly a by-the-book shower, since it's in our apartment and it's not just for women, and it's also pretty much only my immediate family coming. That will fill our apartment quite nicely actually, it's not too big.

My mom and dad sent a bunch of stuff that I had picked out on amazon, including a carseat! And my sister sent the matching stroller. I had fun the other night putting it together, and adjusting the straps and clicking the pieces together and detaching them. Isaac is out of town at a conference, so I sent him a picture or two of the progress I've been making...





I think this is probably how the baby will be travelling home from the hospital, since we live only about 3 blocks away!

Party at Li-Ling's!

Ooops. More than a week has now passed since we went to that delightful birthday party at Li-Ling and I-Chen's place. Here are some pictures of the event, which I am only posting if you promise not to be horrified at how huge I look, and what kind of double chin action there is going on here. Do you promise? Okay...

With Isaac and Mai and Taka!


Hot, if blurry, ladies



Birthday girl and a coffee cocktail



Famous bartender Yuji working his magic



Me and a mock pina colada



The food at this party was so so so good - I'm afraid to post pictures of it because I won't be able to stop. By the way, I stole all these pictures from Tiffany because I didn't think to take any of my own...