Leesburg Animal Park

Again this year, we took Natalie last Sunday to the Leesburg Animal Park and Pumpkinville for some fall fun. They have animals for the kids to feed/pet, a hay ride, mazes, inflatable jumpers, slides, and all kinds of other stuff for the kids to do. Natalie was feeling kind of crummy (she picked up a cold on friday), so she didn't have as much fun with some things as I would've liked, but I think she enjoyed it overall!

My sister and her boyfriend Mack came to visit for the weekend, so they headed over there with us before driving back to Richmond. Here they are with Natalie at the entrance to Pumpkinville.

Natalie had fun feeding some of the animals, but we didn't get any pictures of that. She then wanted to play on the playset, so we did. She liked climbing (as you can see below), and going on the slide.

In fact, she REALLY likes going on slides. We all took turns taking her on the big slides.

Unfortunately, I was unaware that the end of the slide I went on was muddy. That resulted in this:

We did go on the hayride, which started out really well, but didn't end as well. Natalie was fine until we reached the point where they have a couple of people jump out of a barn-like structure to scare everyone. I jumped, even knowing it was coming, and I think my getting spooked made her cry more than anything else. The picture below is after that happened, when she wanted Evan to hold her.

She sat on a tractor, which we also used to get a nice photo of Carrie and I.

And I think this is my favorite picture of the day. Carrie took her into a hay-bale maze, and she loved being chased and chasing Carrie. This picture just captures her perfectly.

After we got home, Natalie wanted to go outside again. So, we went on a walk around the neighborhood.

Feeding time!

Natalie has lately gotten much better at feeding herself. She does really well with a fork now, but we're still working on not spilling things off of spoons. Here's me helping Natalie practice feeding herself (and me) with some cereal (which is probably her favorite food).

Pregnancy: 16 weeks

I had my latest appointment with the midwives this morning. Everything looks good! Baby's heartrate was excellent (160 beats/minute), and just about all of my bloodwork came back normal. The only exception is that my hemoglobin levels were on the very low side of normal, so they want me to eat more foods with iron to get the levels up. Unfortunately, I don't like red meat, so I'll have to ingest more eggs instead! Otherwise, I've lost 2 more pounds, which isn't that big of a deal, but I do need to start gaining soon. This happened with Natalie too; I didn't really start gaining until closer to 20 weeks, so I'm expecting that I'll go up by my next appointment. The pizza and milkshake I had tonight should help with that. :)

I've also had a few Braxton-Hicks contractions, which just means that I can feel my uterus tightening up periodically (mostly at night when I'm relaxing), but there's no pain and it really doesn't mean anything (unless there starts to be pain). I hadn't had any with Natalie, so I wasn't sure that's what I was feeling, but when I asked the midwife she said yep! Definitely. I thought it might be a little early for them, but apparently not. I should also be able to feel the baby start moving at any time.
My next ultrasound will be in 3 weeks, and at that one we can find out the sex of the baby!

Chicago

As Evan said in his last post, I was in Chicago for the annual Society for Neuroscience conference from Oct 17-21. The conference itself was good - I believe the final attendance was 30,250. It's huge. People come from all over the world for this thing. I presented my poster on Monday afternoon (along with hundreds of other people; we're all lined up in rows in a giant room in the convention center), and it went very well. Met some new people, saw some old colleagues, and enjoyed the science.

I had never been to Chicago before, and was very much looking forward to it. Turned out to be a great city! The weather was lovely, which made sightseeing very easy. I took quite a few pics, and have put a few up here for you all to see.

First up is the largest, shiniest McDonald's we'd ever seen. The pink inside was because they were doing an event for Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

Here's Soldier Field, where the Bears play. I passed it every day on the way to the convention center.

On our second day in Chicago we walked through Millenium Park. We saw this ampitheater designed by Frank Gehry.

Officially called the CloudGate, this statue is mostly known as the "Bean". The reflection you see is perfect, and was beautiful that day.

And this last modern sculpture near the bean. I like the photo on the right, looking up from the inside.

There are a lot of cool apartment and office buildings in Chicago. These two round ones are apartments on top, and parking garages in the bottom section. The second one just looked really wavy from the ground.

The left one below is the Chicago Tribune building, while on the right is the Wrigley Building.

On Sunday afternoon I went out to the Navy Pier by myself to get a good look at Lake Michigan. The pier itself was really cool, with amusement parks, yummy food, and lots of things to look at. This is just the entrance below.

A shot of Lake Michigan (this is one of my favorites).

And looking back at the Chicago skyline.

On Monday night, we went up to the 96th floor of the Hancock Tower. There's a bar there with full-length windows to see the whole city. First, Lake Michigan at sunset:

Chicago at sunset (our hotel is down there towards the left)

The part of the city north of the tower as lights start coming on.

Great-Grandma

I'm lucky to have one grandparent left, my mom's mother, Genevieve. This past weekend, while Abbe was in Chicago for her Neuroscience conference (what a dork!), my mom, dad and grandmother came to visit. I was able to get a nice video of my grandmother - whose husband (my grandfather Frank) was born in 1899 - and my daughter, who was born 108 years after my grandfather.



My grandmother is 96, and an amazing lady.

I love that my grandmother gets to spend time with her great-granddaughter, and I love having this video.

Natalie's first chore!

Natalie has started doing her first "chore": feeding Calla! Although to her it's not a chore; she really enjoys it!

Natalie's first pictures

No, not ones that she's in (obviously!), but ones that she took! I showed her how to use my camera tonight, and these are the photos that resulted. She was sitting on my lap on the couch, facing Evan. This was the very first shot ever taken by Natalie! Enjoy the clarity, as it's the clearest image she took.

And here are two others. She actually took about a dozen photos, once she figured out which button to push, but I only kept the ones that I thought looked kind of cool. The first is part of my pants and the rug on our floor. The second is (obviously) Evan.

So, is she a budding photographer or what? :)

Washington Zoo

On Oct 4 we headed to the Washington Zoo. If you can get there, it's a really great zoo, and it's free! I think the highlights for Natalie were the bird house (she LOVES birds), the pandas, and the lions. For the last two, she saw them and said "want to pet it!" We explained to her that wasn't really possible.

I didn't take too many pictures, but here are a couple of good ones.
The first is us in the bird house, after looking at a bunch of ducks.

Here I am pointing out the lions to Natalie. She wanted to pet them, and have them go swimming in the water.

The lions were really cool. They were really active, which you don't see much. The two started growling and playing with each other right after we got there! The growling was so low you could feel it before you even heard it. Natalie loved watching them!

Concert

Last night, Evan and I went to see one of my favorite singers: Brandi Carlile. She's outstanding; I love her music. And after seeing her live, I am going to try and see her again as often as she's coming near where I live. She puts on a GREAT show. An amazing mix of faster rock songs, done similarly to how they're done on her albums, plus some acapella versions, acoustic versions, and she's great at involving the crowd.

And, I think I found a new singer! The opening act was a singer named Katie Herzig, whose name I had heard but music I didn't know. Evan and I really enjoyed her. I'm going to check out her music on iTunes to see if I like the studio versions, but I think I'm going to. Just great folky rock stuff.

We had never been to the 9:30 club, where the concert took place. We got great spots on the balcony, very close to the stage, with a really good view. Here are two pics Evan took with his camera phone.
The first is Brandi performing:

And this is during the encore, when Katie came back out with her band, and they all did a song together. It was really good (note the two cellos!).

Pictures from Central Park Zoo

On Monday (Sept 28) during our trip to NYC we (Evan, myself, and our friend Natasha) took our kids (Natalie and Natasha's kids Paul and Juliet) to the children's zoo in Central Park. We got there by subway, which is above ground in Queens where Natasha lives. So, Natalie got to look out of the window at everything going past! Every time we'd stop at a station, she would say "Again!", and I had to explain that we'd keep going once the doors closed.

There are these giant fake lily pads that go across a stream for the kids to walk on. Paul was able to navigate by himself, but Natalie needed help. I was able to get this adorable picture of Paul helping her! I also have pics of Evan and I helping her across; the link to those is below.

Here's Natalie feeding a sheep! She was really great about letting me put food pellets in her hand and holding still for the animals to eat. She kept saying "he licking!" I was very impressed at how unafraid she was.

Here's Natalie climbing on the giant "spiderweb" they have, made out of rope, for the kids to climb on. She had a little bit of trouble with it, but figured out how to not fall through the cracks after a while.

We then took the kids over to a new playground further into Central Park. Of course, Natalie's favorite thing to do was go on the swings! Evan and I pushed her for quite a while.

We then went over to a different part of the playground where Paul was playing. Natalie had fun walking in circles on this border around a tire swing.

And also had fun on the tire swing itself! She was able to hold on while we pushed her around, and she had a great time. She first went on with two other little kids we didn't know, and then when they were done, went on with Paul.

And finally, here we are on the subway home. This first one is Natasha with little Juliet and Paul, and myself with Natalie. Notice that the little ones aren't as excited as they were on the trip out! Definitely pooped.

These are just a small sampling of the photos that I took while in the park. Similarly, I have a bunch more photos from our time at the farm in NJ (as I posted about last week). So, I've put them all up on a Picasa album here. There's even a short video of Natalie and Paul on the tire swing (I think it's item #54 in the album).

My birthday!

Today (Oct 3) is my birthday! I had such a wonderful day. I had lots of family call to wish me a happy birthday all day, which was wonderful since I couldn't see them in person. All week some packages and envelopes had shown up, and I exhibited greater will power than normal and didn't open any until today! I received gift cards and checks (always appreciated!) from family, and a few things off of my Amazon.com wishlist from friends. So sweet! Natalie got me pajamas from Target that I wanted, and Evan got me a new iPod transmitter for my car, and a light to help me cross stitch. Both practical, but definitely appreciated.

As I said, I went to the kid's sale this morning, and while I was gone Evan made me a birthday cake! So sweet. I haven't had homemade cake on my birthday in a while. Unfortunately, we had such a huge dinner that we haven't eaten any yet! I'm thinking it may be necessary to cut it for breakfast. :)

While relaxing during Natalie's nap, my friend Kathy decided to drop by and surprise me! She was in our area already, and she brought me a lovely bunch of fall flowers for my birthday in a really pretty metal pitcher. So sweet! And it was nice to see her a bit... and then we'll see her at the zoo again tomorrow!

Later, we headed to the mall so I could spend the birthday money I received. As I said yesterday, I desperately needed new pants, and I found some! I got three pairs of maternity pants that fit now, and have a great fold-over belly panel, so they'll fit when I need the support later on too. And one may even work when I'm no longer pregnant! I also got two pairs of lounge pants (one of which could be worn to work if I want), which are always useful.

We then went to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Man, they give you a ton of food there! I took a lot of mine home - dinner tomorrow too! And of course I can't go there without getting cheesecake. I chose the Chocolate Mousse cheesecake - outstanding. Evan and I shared (amazingly, I couldn't get Natalie to eat any!), and still couldn't finish it. So we have some of that left over too.

All in all, a good birthday. I am sad that we weren't able to make it to Utica, NY this weekend for a friend's wedding, but the idea of all of that traveling (on top of last weekend) was just exhausting for me. I was thinking about all of my friends there today - I hope you're all having fun together!

No Binky, Days 3 & 4

Just a quick note:
Yesterday (friday) was Day 3 of no binky. Went better than Thursday; Natalie didn't scream incessantly, just had a couple of fussy moments. I think that we were able to distract pretty well last night: we went to the grocery store, then gave her a bath when we got home (both things she happens to like). She fussed a bit when she first went down, but slept through the night without screaming. It was a good night.

Today (saturday, Day 4), was good! We kept busy pretty much all day. Evan had Natalie help him bake my birthday cake this morning (lemon with buttercream icing!) while I ran out with some girl friends to a children's consignment sale. I got Natalie some new outfits and toys; a couple of the outfits will be birthday/Christmas gifts, as will the toys. Great deals! We played at the house after, and she went down for a nap with just a little bit of crying. After nap time, we went to the mall for me to spend my birthday money (more on the birthday details in a later post), and then the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. She was really good, and barely asked for the binky at all today. She went to bed really well, although we just heard some banging from upstairs and realized that she's not asleep (even though it's been about 25 minutes), but has instead been laying in her crib kicking the wall. But she's not crying, and is safe, so it's ok by me! I think we've definitely almost kicked the addiction!

Weighing in on pants

I feel like there's a weird thing with talking about losing weight. If you're trying to lose a lot of weight ("I lost 40 pounds!"), then everyone is super excited for you. But if you just want to lose a little weight, say 5-10 pounds, and you talk about it, people aren't nearly as excited - it's almost like they think you're bragging. But I'm excited and proud of myself right now, so I'm going to talk about it! Hey, it's my blog.

Since last year, I've lost a little over 10 pounds. I actually weigh less now than I have since Evan and I got married. Just before getting pregnant this summer, I was fitting back into pants that I hadn't worn in YEARS, that hadn't even fit very well before I had Natalie. Obviously that will be gained back over the next few months (plus at least another 10-15, if same as with Natalie), but it's for a good reason, and I have hope that I'll get back down to this weight again within a couple of years of this kid.

So now I'm in this weird position of having very few pants that I'm able to wear. Some of my "normal" pants don't fit anymore because of the baby bump, so they're out. I have one pair of larger, lower-waisted "normal" jeans, and they still fit so I can wear them. I also have three pairs of maternity jeans that fit (although a little weirdly), so I can wear them. However, ALL of my other everyday pants (jeans and casual trousers) are too big!

They were bought since having Natalie, when I was a size 12. They all fit perfectly at both waist and hips. Now, they're at least one size too big, and without the baby bump might even be 2 sizes too big! So, I might finally be back down to the size 8 I want to be! I can't tell for sure because of baby bump, but it seems likely. Amazingly, the fact that the pants are falling off of my hips means that my hips have not stayed as wide as they were after having Natalie, which shocks me - I thought that was permanent.

And irritatingly, my three non-jeans pairs of maternity pants have the big belly bands, so need a larger belly to keep them up. I'm not there yet. So, not even my maternity pants fit yet. That leaves me with about 3-4 pairs of pants that really fit, which gets very boring. I don't want to spend a bunch of money, but have received many a coupon from stores "for my birthday", so I think I will be heading to the mall this weekend! There have to be pants out there to fit this in between size...

No Binky: Day 2

So, I may have spoken a bit too soon on how great Natalie was doing with binky removal. Day 2 (Thurs) was not as much fun. She came home from daycare in a GREAT mood, and we had fun playing. Got a little fussy before dinner, but not too bad. She really did NOT want to eat dinner, but I'm not always hungry either, so no biggie.

Evan had to leave for a meeting, so Natalie and I had the rest of the evening together. She was fine for a while (I got her to eat a little bit more with me), but after that (around 6:40p or so), the crying started. For no real reason that I could discern. Just screaming. Nothing made her happy (except being partially or mostly naked - she did NOT want clothes on last night, which was pretty funny). I was finally able to change her diaper and get pajamas on her, but it was a huge fight. I was barely able to brush her teeth she was screaming and pulling away so hard. Occasionally she would ask for the binky, but that didn't seem to be what made her upset - I couldn't figure out what it was.

By about 7:20, I'd had enough, and decided it was time for Natalie to go to bed. While we were reading a book, and talking about it, she was totally fine, and also when I was walking with her before bed. She even wanted to go to bed (practically dove into her crib). She cried for about 5-10 min after I closed her door, but was asleep after that.

She then woke up at about midnight just screaming. Evan eventually went in and walked with her for a bit, and she was fine the rest of the night.

It seems to us that we're having the most fussing for want of binky when she's awake, not trying to sleep. I probably should've guessed that, but I didn't. Today is Day 3, and they say 3-5 days is average to get over the need, so hopefully we'll be there soon, and tonight will go a bit better.

Saturday at the farm and party

On Saturday in NJ, we first took Natalie to Alstead Farm, which is right up the road from Evan's parents' house. We took her there back in May, and thought with the fall stuff (pumpkins, hay rides, etc) it would be fun again. Natalie had a great time!

She played in the pumpkins:                      Fed some goats:

Pointed out the tunnel (which she refused to go in!):

Played with me in a corn hut:

And played on the tractor:

Even Calla got in on the fun, LOVING the rabbit pen (yes, they're sniffing each other):

We then went back to the house and got ready for the surprise party. As I said, it was great. So much family came to celebrate. Unfortunately, I was enjoying everything so much I got very few pictures. Here's my only real good one, which luckily is of the three of us: