Baby Shower Wrap-Up

I stole all of these pictures from Stephanie's blog. I would have just linked her blog and saved myself a whole lot of effort, but she's a jerk and keeps it private. Which means that 90% of our family members never read it because they can't figure out how to log in.

Anyway, Megan came over the day of the shower to keep Norah entertained, and man was she good. I felt like I owed her money at the end of the day because she was such a good babysitter. Norah still asks every day when Megan will be there. They played, watched a movie (The Little Mermaid-oh the horror!), played some more, and ate 3 lunches. Megan needs to move here. Whatever she tells Norah to do, Norah does it. I think Norah ate more that morning and early afternoon than she has in 3 months.

The shower was at Bubby's house and she was in charge of the decorations. I don't have any great pictures (ahem), but there were lovely flowers, and cute die-cut decorations hanging from the chandeliers.

The guest(s) of honor in all their glory.

Kristin and I were in charge of the food and drinks. There was a lovely non-alcoholic punch (that would have been even more delicious with vodka) and white wine spritzers. The spritzers were actually Bubby's idea and we figured just a way for her to be cheap (it's just wine diluted with carbonated water). But we added a raspberry at the bottom of the glass for color and they were the hit of the party.

There were several cheese platters (not pictured, the cheddar with fancy crackers).

Chicken salad and mint cucumber tea sandwiches.

Spinach and tortellini pasta salad (thanks Aileen for the recipe-it was the biggest hit!)

Tomato and basil bruschetta.

Not pictured was spinach and artichoke dip with crudites and a giant, fancy fruit salad.

Stephanie was in charge of the desserts. I got diabetes just looking at them. She has always been a good baker, but holy schmoly she outdid herself. The bottom plate was jam filled macaroons, the second plate was mint frosted brownies (these were my favorite and I had probably 17-it was a rich chocolate brownie, with a mint frosting, and then a top layer of melted chocolate), the third plate was vanilla cupcakes, and the top plate was a cake especially for Amy.

Everything made from scratch and TO DIE FOR. I just got diabetes again thinking about it!

See those ducks? Yeah, those would be white chocolate molded ducks that Steph made. I was so full after dessert that I couldn't eat another bite, so I stole a duck and set it aside for later. The next thing I knew, Norah was eating my duck! I couldn't believe it. Good thing she's cute, because I REALLY wanted one of those ducks.

In case you are wondering, Toolie is not going to be the baby's actual name, it is just his in utero nickname. I would explain the origin of that nickname, but it is beyond inappropriate and this is a family blog people (Mare-I will tell you later, I promise).

Steph also made the favors, which were chocolates in a cute little package.

The gang.

Toolie is already a linebacker.

Norah's outfit looks a little inappropriate here, but it was really just a cute sundress.

We didn't play any stupid games, but just let everyone chat and mingle and then watch Amy open her gifts. Her friends (and in-laws) are beyond awesome and she got quite the stash of amazing and thoughtful gifts. Megan and Norah made her a special card.

In the weeks leading up to the shower I had Amy's friends send me a picture of themselves with her, as well as a letter to the baby about who his mom is. I compiled all of the photos and messages and had it printed in a bound book (Blurb.com rules my world, by the way). It turned out even better than expected and, as I knew she would, Amy loved it.

The guests also filled out cards with words of advice for the soon-to-be mom and Steph and Bubby made her this book to hold the cards as well as the 9 billion pictures that were taken of the party. My favorite words of advice included: "Pump and dump is your friend." Truer words have never been spoken.

The whole thing reminded me a lot of Norah's second birthday party-it was just a big pile of love. It doesn't get much better than that.

Funkhouser Update: Week 18

I have gotten multiple complaints that I don't share enough about what's going on with Funkhouser or that I don't seem to be very excited about our impending arrival. I think anyone who has had a subsequent pregnancy can relate-it's just very different. Don't get me wrong, it is still awesome, but I am relatively obsessed with Norah and I am already feeling some anxiety about all the time that I am not going to get to spend with her (and talking about her) once Funkhouser gets here. Plus, I am just now getting over feeling like crap every single minute of every single day. Don't worry, I am sure in due time I will be just as obsessed with Funkhouser as I am with Norah.

Here's the Cliff Notes version of what's going on (just for you, Sarah Ellen):

1. Funkhouser's heart looks great so far, and

2. Funkhouser is definitely a girl

With Norah, pregnancy was very normal and run of the mill until 33 weeks when the sh*t hit the fan. This time it has been anything but normal. I am with a high risk medical practice, so I have two OB's, an OB specialist at Stanford, a Cardiologist, a Rheumatologist, and a Dermatologist, all who know exactly what's going on. It's very comforting, but also makes for a lot of doctor's visits. On the weeks I don't have ultrasounds there are regular appointments, consultations, or visits to the lab for blood work.

At 16 weeks I started having fetal echo cardiograms and will have one every two weeks for the next 14 weeks or so, and then every week as the Cardiologist sees fit. It is basically just a detailed ultrasound that lasts about an hour. It's pretty intense and makes me think that science is the coolest thing ever. They are looking for two things, 1) the formation of the heart (chambers, vessels, valves, etc.), and 2) the electrical current that the heart creates. The way they do the latter is to see how the blood flows not only in the heart itself, but in the brain (if there is a problem with impulse there can be too much or too little blood in the brain). On the echo, the blood shows up as either red or blue so it's definitely a multi-colored experience. They take very precise measurements of the heart and the bones tend to cast weird shadows, so with the exception of the skull, the bones show up as being very bright white. You can very clearly see her spine, arms, hands, legs, and feet. Basically, Funkhouser looks like a teradactyl. A cute one, but a teradactyl nonetheless.

I had my second echo today and not only does the anatomy of the heart look great, but the electrical impulse appears to be perfect. The Cardiologist likes me and my inappropriate dinosaur jokes, so at both echos she took a peek and confirmed Funkhouser's lady parts. Our actual anatomy ultrasound (where you are supposed to find out the gender) is next week, so we'll see how good she really is.

The echos are done at the heart center at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital (ie, Stanford). Which means the waiting room is not full of pregnant ladies, but rather sick kids. Sometimes really sick kids. I feel so helpless sitting there-I want to take them to Disneyland and buy their parents unlimited cocktails. It's a hearty dose of perspective and makes me so grateful for the two (yikes, did I just say two??) healthy kids that I have.

Parenthood, even under the best of circumstances, isn't always easy, but I will "TELL ME A STORY 'BOUT NEMO AND DIVER' 900,000 times a day. And I will do it with a great big smile on my face.

Whirlwind

Norah and I took a whirlwind trip to Texas last weekend for something fabulous-Aunt Amy's baby shower. We left late Thursday afternoon and got to the airport in plenty of time to find out that our plane was delayed an hour and a half. Thank goodness for Nemo.

It was a great weekend, full of love and celebration, but somehow I didn't manage to take a single picture of the festivities (someone else did and hopefully will send me copies-hint, hint). Bubby and the sisters hosted the shower and we had a ton of fun doing the planning, decorating, and food prep. Norah hung out with her favorite person in the entire world-Megan. These two are thick as thieves. Norah loves, loves, loves Trevor too, but Megan is her idol.

Norah can't wait to meet her new cousin and I can't wait to get my hands on him as well. We love you Aunt Amy and can't imagine a better reason to celebrate.

New Favorite Picture

This is my new all time favorite picture of Norah, courtesy of Pam. Girl loves her some spaghetti.

Halloween PJ's

Norah got new Halloween PJ's from Bubby. Here she is modeling them and making her 'scary' face.

G'Bye Norah's Mom!

Norah has been killing me lately with what comes out of her mouth. I could listen to her talk all day, and lately that's all she's been doing. She talks to me non-stop about what her toys are doing and wants to know who everyone's mom is. This morning she wore a Cookie Monster t-shirt I picked up recently at my local mom's club clothing sale and when I gave her a hug and kiss goodbye I said, 'Bye, bye, Cookie Monster.' She picked up with two fingers the part of her shirt that has Cookie's mouth and said in a funny, high pitched voice, 'G'Bye Norah's Mom!' Hilarious.

When I got to work I had this from BVZ:

Shoes were coming off, no doubt about it, until, that is, I told her she only got to hear a story about piggy and piggy's mom going to the park if the shoes stayed on. Worked like a charm. Buzz Lightyear rode in the seat next to her, in his seatbelt, even though he screamed and wanted to ride with Norah. Norah put her foot down and said no, Buzz, you have to sit in your own seat.

She rules.

Halloween Planning

Norah finally decided what she wants to be for Halloween....

She better not change her mind because I just ordered the above costume. She has also decided that I am going to be the diver from Nemo. And BVZ? He has to be a chicken.

It's Hard Work

Being a Niners fan when they suck so bad.

Soccer Star

Saturday was Norah's first day of Daddy and Me soccer. It was in the middle of another insane heat wave. (Listen, I can take a few weeks of 90+ degree weather when it is in the SUMMER. The issue I have is when it is fall and 65 degrees one day and then 90 the next. That's just no good for anyone). Anyway, the class is done through our local Parks and Rec department and takes place at the elementary school about a mile and a half away. Here are BVZ and Norah ready to go. They both look a little ghostly due to their long sleeve white shirts and 12 layers of sunscreen.

I went this one time just to check it out and take pictures. From here on out I plan to spend soccer class time either napping or watching HBO. The class was cute and Norah seemed to have a good time, but I had a couple of issues with it. Mainly, there were TOO MANY KIDS. Like, 20 or so two year olds. That's too many kids. I am hoping that because they are two things will inevitably come up and not everyone will be at every class.

This is the coach. I can't remember her name. Which is especially odd because she referred to herself in the third person the entire time. For the first 15 minutes I kept looking around for the coach she seemed to be referring to.

They learned to 'stomp' on the ball and then ran around touching different colored flags.




Then they kicked the ball from one flag to the next. Norah ruled this exercise.

Finally they got a chance to shoot goals. She had to wait so long for her turn that she got a little disinterested, but still rallied at the end.


It should be a good experience for both Norah and dad. Let's just hope it is much cooler next week and lots of kids call in sick.

After a good nap for everyone we went to a fabulous afternoon/evening bbq at K-Dog Studios. It was so good and so much fun that no one took a single picture. That's the definition of a good time.

Meeting George

These are a couple of months old, but I never got around to posting... Curious George came to our local Pottery Barn Kids and of course we took Norah to meet him. It was a little underwhelming. George was a 5 foot tall woman who was obviously dying from heat stroke inside that costume. Norah would not go up to George until BVZ picked her up and then she was cool with him. Ava? Not so much.

Big Talk

Norah has an amazing vocabulary and command of language, but she gets shy sometimes around people and so not everyone is privy to the hilarity that comes out of her mouth. Lately, she has taken to telling me stories, usually about her day. She told me this the other night at dinner (in one run-on sentence):

"I pooped in my bed. My bed is in Megan's room. Pamma got me and gave me hug and kiss. Then took me downstairs to see Ruby. And fix my poop. And Pamma gave me a snack."

Pam said it was remarkably accurate.

Today we met up with Caleb and Lucas at the park and as we were leaving, Caleb and Norah gave each other a monster bear hug. Which ended with them toppling over and Norah whacking the back of her head against the ground (she's totally fine). Three hours later after her nap, as I was scrubbing the park dirt from under her finger nails, she told me:

"I go to the park and Caleb hugs me and then I falled. And cried, cried, cried. And Aileen picked me up and gave me hug. Aileen so nice. Aileen loves me soooo much. Then I got you and you hug me too. And we sit in the car and I cry, cry, cry. I love Aileen. Aileen gave me cookie."

Again, a remarkably accurate representation of our morning!

Making Up For Lost Time

When Norah slept in her crib I never let her having anything in there with her. No pillows, no blankets, no animals, no nothing. Nothing freaks me out more than SIDS, so the poor kid never even got a bumper. Now that she's a legitimate kid she gets to have whatever she wants. This is the menagerie she chose for tonight:

Big Elmo, armadillo, Buzz Lightyear, Pretend Nemo (ie, the clownfish from the Academy of Arts and Sciences that looks like Elmo)...

...owl, turtle, ladybug nightlight, George, and white tiger.

Not pictured (because they were in her reading chair): Bear, Baby, Baby Jo Jo.

Maybe this is why she sleeps 12 hours a night now?

Monday Night Football

Last night the 49'ers played Monday Night Football and BVZ and Norah couldn't have been more thrilled. Although, to be fair, the highlight for Norah was getting to eat dinner in front of the tv. She kept asking which one was her team and BVZ would tell her 'the red ones' and so she would ask which one was his team and he would tell her 'the red ones too.' She wanted the red team all to herself and tried to force him to cheer for the Saints (he wouldn't). She kept asking the names of all the players, but called everyone Frank (as in Gore).

BVZ does really love me and he doesn't watch the games live-rather he DVR's them and starts each one about a half hour in so that we can fast forward the commercial breaks and time outs. We also can take breaks during the game if need be to take particular fans to the park.

Norah now refuses to sit in the 'baby swing.' Shocking.

Dr. Norie

Norah is not like most kids in that she LOVES going to the doctor (I guess my $8,000 worth of co-pays in her first year were worth something). She bumps her knee, has a stomach ache, or is just in a bad mood and she wants to go to the doctor. So, it seemed only natural to get her a play doctor's kit. To say she loves it would be a bit of an understatement.

Hate

This morning we were reading books and on like the seventh one, Norah said, 'mom, please stop. I HATE this book.' I about died. First, who the heck HATES 'Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel'?? Have you no soul? Second, where in the world did she learn the word hate and what it means? I say a lot of questionable stuff, but I never say I hate anything.

They are sponges, I tell ya!

IKEA

Today (a Sunday), BVZ was in the office before 9:00 am. He's still there (at 4:00 pm). I told Norah we could either go to the zoo or IKEA and she choose IKEA. I desperately needed to get frames for the professional pictures we had done over a YEAR ago and Norah is always happy to help. We played in the kids section for a while and Norah was stoked to go on the little baby slide. While she was climbing up the ladder, some giant girl (who seriously had to be at least 5 years old) started making her way up the ladder as well, and pushed right past Norah.

I said, 'sweetheart, wait a minute, this little girl was on here first' and she totally ignored me, so I said, 'please wait your turn.' She bullied her way up to the top (mind you this is a LITTLE kids slide and Norah is taller than the entire thing). Then the little brat proceeded to sit on the top of the slide and kick her legs, refusing to slide down. I said, 'why don't you slide down so the other kids can take their turn' and she said 'NO' and laughed. Shockingly, her parents were no where to be found. Norah was confused and starting to get pissed so I said, 'it's okay Norie, we'll wait for her to go down because some little kids have NO IDEA how to take turns.'

As soon as I said that her mom showed up and told her to slide down because 'the store is full of bitchy people today.' I was so dumbfounded I couldn't even respond! WTF is wrong with people??

In other news, as we were about to walk downstairs Norah saw the cafeteria area and point blank asked me if we could have chicken nuggets. Now, my worst nightmare (okay, not really, but you get the hyperbole) is having the kid who will only eat chicken nuggets, but Norah is back to having 3 blueberries and some carpet fuzz for her entire daily caloric intake (she's finally getting those 2 year molars, and man, they're a bitch), so I made a game time decision and we shared a plate of chicken strips-which she inhaled.

We probably would have had the same thing at the zoo.

Haircut and a Train Ride

Norah's hair has been completely out of control lately and impossible to brush without major tears, so we figured she was way overdue for her first haircut. Suzy gave me a recommendation for a stylist at a kid's only salon that had a good reputation for cutting curly hair, so we booked an appointment earlier this week.

Norah's world is completely different now that she is forward facing in her car seat (as of about 2 weeks ago), and I am loving all of the stuff that she points out and wants to talk about. Her number one thing right now is the Caltrain, which has a station right at an intersection we go through multiple times a day. She's been begging for a train ride, and since the salon is only a few blocks from the Burlingame station, I figured we'd kill two birds with one stone.

I am a big fan of Caltrain and commuted from the peninsula to SF on it for years before Norah was born. I loved being able to read or work or just chillax for a bit and not have to deal with traffic. The biggest drawback is that the SF station is about a mile and a half from my office so I would either have to walk for 25 minutes or so or take a bus or MUNI. Once Norah was in the picture that just made my commute too long, so I drive instead (I worry about my carbon footprint, but I figure having a Prius helps-even just a little).

Anyway, Norah was SO excited about the train and from the moment she woke up until we walked out the door she repeated, 'let's GO guys, the train is going to leave!'




As soon as she could see the train coming...



She thought it was fabulous. She waved to cars, counted diggers, and told me she could see our house about 35 times (she couldn't).










We got coffee and a snack in Burlingame and played at a park before it was time for the big haircut. Norah tends to get kind of shy and clingy in new situations, so I really had no idea how she would react. This place has a brilliant set up and there is a flat screen tv at each cutting station with kids' movies playing. Needless to say Norah was mesmerized and sat quietly and patiently through the entire cut.





She was so cute. We didn't have the stylist take off much--just cut off the dead and straggly ends and even things up. We also had her cut the front so that it wouldn't constantly be in Norah's eyes. We went to the park right afterward and Norah was happy to show off her new do.

We also went to lunch and got Norah some new Stride Rites (she desperately needed a pair of tennis shoes and since she is starting soccer next weekend (!), I figured it would be good to get them today and let her break them in this week. She wears a 7.5! I couldn't believe it. She has the feet of a big kid.

She wore her new shoes on the way home and told us, 'thanks mom and dad for the adventure.' No problem, my sweets.