Class #1

Last night was our first baby class: "Labor and Birth Preparation". It meets for 2 hours, once a week, for five weeks.

For reasons not entirely known to me, I had a severe case of the giggles that revealed itself a couple times during class. Maybe it's because my emotions are, in general, running high. Maybe it was because of the awkwardness of 13 other couples sitting around the room in a u-shape, with no one talking. But mostly I think it was because it was a completely inappropriate venue for giggling, therefore I just wanted to laugh more. I remember once in college, Jane and I went to the library to study, and ended up laughing so hard we had to leave. And the only thing funny was that we were supposed to be in quiet, library-mode. Nothing funny actually happened to make us start or keep laughing...just the laughing itself.

So last night, after I stifle one of my first for-no-reason giggling fits before the class has even started, Bret leans over and says to me "I took a shower in my clothes after my run". And I'm off giggling all over again. Even now, I can't stop laughing thinking about it. He was so deadpan, and it was such a strange thing to say, and it took me completely by surprise. So when I could finally control myself, I whispered to him "you did what??" and he whispered back that it just seemed like a more efficient way to clean his running clothes and get another day out of them before throwing them in the wash.

My husband is so fabulously strange sometimes....he totally catches me off guard and completely makes me laugh - and I find myself smitten with him all over again, like when we were first dating and discovering things about each other and being delighted with the joy that this new person was bringing into our lives. How I love my kooky man!

One for the Fans

Alright, totally self serving post title, but wouldn't it be nice if we all had a few fans? (not the stalker kind, just the really cool kind)

Before I post the required belly shot, look at this one first...this is from the Echo Falls golf club (where we got married) on Tuesday night, our 2nd wedding anniversary. Last year I had the snazzy idea that we should take a few pictures there on every anniversary. Bret is none-too-thrilled with my idea but begrudgingly plays along. My question is - how is just the two of us taking long arm shots for 5 minutes worse and more of a spectacle than him in a tux and me in a wedding dress with 20 family members milling about for 45 minutes in front of the falls??

And now that you've been lulled into a serene state of mind with the soothing falls that were the backdrop for that photo, I'll spring this one on you: The location is a really cool tunnel at the golf club with ivy over the entrance. The bad part is, no sunglasses are needed. Seriously - who stole my eyes and replaced them with the kind accessorized by crow's feet?? I've noticed this increasingly in pictures over the past few years. I really think someone is stealing my eyes in the middle of the night and giving me ever older ones. Darn eye-gnomes. And worse, Bret does not have this affliction (or least he doesn't have it as bad as me)! I guess the good part is that I'd rather look at him in our pictures than at me!

And now, for the belly shot:

Ummmm, pose much, Cheryl? Ha! You can't really see much of the belly - but the setting is sure pretty!

Laws of the Universe

Which law of the universe states that batteries on smoke detectors must fail in the wee small hours of the morning? At 4:40 AM last Sunday morning, I was awoken by the intermittent beeping of the smoke detector, signaling that the battery was low. This same thing happened to me in my old apartment: middle of the night smoke detector failure. As if they think that if they were to tell me a new battery was needed in the middle of the day, the appropriate amount of urgency would not be conveyed, so they have to get my attention in the middle of the night.

Does anyone remember that episode of Friends where Phoebe's smoke detector beeps at her, so she takes it down and takes the battery out, and it still beeps, unpowered? Creepy. Bret informed me that there's some sort of small internal battery that will keep it beeping for a couple minutes even when the battery is removed. Even though there's a logical answer, it's still creepy.

I thought about waking Bret to take care of the beeping smoke detector last Sunday (because me, groggy tired, pregnant and standing on a stool in the hallway struggling to get the smoke detector unhooked is just a recipe for disaster) but he was sound asleep and it seemed mean to wake him. Also, I feel like there might be much more pressing reasons for waking him once the baby is here ("um, babe? I have to feed the baby but he blew out his diaper all over his crib...can you take care of that while I feed him?") so I don't want to start tapping into Bret's pre-dawn good will reserves quite yet.

Instead, I turned on the other fan in the bedroom, put a pillow over my head, and concentrated on ignoring the beep. Good thing there wasn't actually a fire or I might've slept through it!

Too cute to not post!

Last Thursday & Friday Bret and I headed up to Friday Harbor to celebrate his youngest sister Sara's graduation. Here are a couple pictures that are just too cute to not post: This is Sara and my mother-in-law, Mary (soon to be "Meemo", which is what Bret & his siblings all called their Grandmother when they were growing up). This picture is so adorable I can hardly stand it! Seriously, how cute are these two?? And, talking about what we called our Grandmothers got me thinking that maybe I'll have our kid(s) call my mom "Myrtle". What do you think of that, mom? Judging from how annoyed you'd get when I was in high school and would call you Mary instead of Mom, I'm guessing you're protesting aloud at your computer as you read this. But if a cute little toddler calls you Myrtle, can you really object? Mwah-ha-ha-ha!

Below is a picture of Sara & her boyfriend Jared (also an adorable picture!)

I will admit that I completely did the older sister thing and told Sara that I thought Jared was a keeper.

One of the interesting side effects I've noticed about being married is feeling older-sister-y toward three additional people who I've only known for 4 years, and who are grown adults! It's like it just automatically happened, which seems so odd when previously the requirement for being an older sister was actual shared blood and performing the role for the younger siblings' life span to date. And actually, when I describe it like that, maybe it's been presumptious of me to add three more notches to my older sister belt. I can't help it though - Bret's their older brother so my perspective is an extension of his.

The last afternoon we were up in Friday Harbor we sat outside on the deck and enjoyed the sun, breeze, and conversation. And then I got home and noticed I was sort of pink. And then a bit later I noticed I was really getting rather red. And then finally by bedtime, I was more of a blazing hot tamale color. And tonight I started peeling. Darn that breeze for being a distraction while the sun did its dirty work!

And the baby is a...

Boy! Bret thought it was a boy all along...I told him we're taking his betting skills to the track. He also thinks we're having the baby 2 weeks early. If he's right about that too, I may insist upon a winter trip to Vegas.

Here's a 21-week ultrasound picture:

Now we just have to figure out some of the small, pesky details, like what we're going to name him!