She's Funny, Dad's Running and Bloomington Here We Come

Well...at least for the last few days anyways. Monday and Tuesday of this week she was really really inactive. Enough so that I called the doctors office to ask them what a reasonable amount of movement at this stage would be. Turns out I'm golden and she's doing fine.

From Wednesday evening on however she's been a little motor in there. On Wednesday night Jason got out of the bathroom and I asked him to press on the left side of my stomach and then on the right side of my stomach and I asked if they felt different. He said, Holy hell the right side is way harder than the left. So he pushed a little harder and Lucy pushed back. Then he started feeling around and thinks he could feel a foot or something. Something was kind of pointy and rounded off. So that was kind of crazy. Then last night my stomach looked like an ocean of waves. I still think she's calmer than a lot of babies, but that's ok with me! I mean if it's true that behavior in utero translates to behavior after birth. But she's funny to watch and I'm getting more and more excited to see her! Actually..because my blood pressure has been on the high side we have to get some extra ultra sounds meaning that we get one this coming up Wednesday, so we'll get to see her then! I can't wait to see how she's changed in 8 weeks!

Today we are at 12 weeks to go. 12. weeks. to. go. Wow. that's crazy. I need a list. Because there is a lot to do before the big day. And really it could be a little as 8 weeks. Right. Need to make a list. I'll start it with, "Throw your shit away so there is room for the baby's stuff".

My Dad and Sue have finally gotten their apartment drama settled and found a great place just south of Belmont on Sheridan. They are about exactly one mile from our apartment. AND apparently their building has a pool on the roof deck. Look out Summer 2010.

As I have mentioned my dad is going to run the Chicago marathon in 2010. Right now he is dealing with a cramp popping up in his right calf about one mile into his run. I suggested he ice and rest it until next week. Everything else feels good so I know how frustrating that can be. He looked great running last Sunday though. He's a smooth runner and doesn't look like he's straining too bad. If you want to follow his Chicago running trials and tribulations and also I'm guessing grandchild updates in the near future please check out and subscribe to his blog at: http://runmarathonmaybe.blogspot.com. He loves tips, advice and comments so go say hi!

This weekend we are going to Bloomington, IN for a belated anniversary trip. On Sunday night we are going to have dinner with one of our favorite people on the planet, our old advisor. I haven't seen him for...well shit, a year? When I defended I guess. Wow. Yeah, so that should be a great visit. Hopefully the rainy forecast is wrong and we can just enjoy the town and walk around and read and relax and just enjoy the only small town that we like :). Maybe we'll go bowling in the union, where Mrs. LeahCStraightBall can actually beat JasonRFortWayneCityBowlingChampion because apparently they don't wax the lanes right...or they wax them too good...or whatever. And I'm kidding I'll never come close to beating Jason at bowling..except the one time he bowled a 94, but we like to pretend that didn't happen.

So that's all from Chicago. Thinking of a new project that could combine photography and me needing to know how to develop a Rails site from scratch as this front end only stuff has gone on too long. We'll see how that turns out and more details to follow.

Good. Long. Weekend.

Jason and I took off early Friday morning for a long weekend trip to Manistee, MI where we hung out with our good friends Jake and LaurA!

Jake's Dad is a sculptor (you can see his work here at http://lesliescruggs.com) and does really amazing things. Outside their cottage they have a deck, called the Artdeck and his sculptures are set out on display. And not just on the deck, but he has things hanging from all the trees surrounding the deck and placed in the woods around the house. It was really really amazing and beautiful. You can catch pictures of the artdeck via that link.

Although it rained most of the weekend we had a great time. The area is beautiful and it was nice to be away from the city for a few days. After we got there on Friday Jake and LaurA! took us to the beach and we walked and chatted and I took this picture of our hosts:

Remember when I said that I have to get better at people and low light photography? No? Well I did. So this is me practicing taking pictures of people. Not bad...or at least getting better all the time. Like with anything practice makes perfect.

We got back to Chicago at about 1:45 and enjoyed a beautiful Day in Chicago. We went for a run which didn't go so well. Did 2ish miles instead of 3...and did some walking in there. Spent the rest of the night relaxing, reading, working on photography and of course a Law and Order was thrown in there for good measure.

This week should be pretty great. One evening we are meeting up with my old friend for dinner. Well she's not old but we met when we were in preschool. Yeah...that means I've known her for about 27 years. Holy hell. yeah. That's right 27 years....cause I turn a big fat 30 in exactly one month from today. Also going to the Software Craftsmanship North America conference on Wednesday which should be a great time. Tomorrow morning I am getting a crown put on my tooth. That won't be fun, but hoping to bypass needing to get a root canal and pulling the tooth by doing some preventative care. Why does preventative care mean big bucks. I guess it does mean that but it probably also means less big bucks that if you wait it out.

This weekend we have a wedding AND I know now this is the really exciting thing A CLOTH DIAPERING CLASS! I know. I know it's so exciting that you just lept off of your chair in happiness. Well exciting for us anyways. Our friend Lydia has already given us lots of information about said cloth diapering but we are trying to get as much information as possible because it's all new to us.

So yeah, that's the recap of the weekend and the plan for the week. And it looks like this build might just about be done so time to look at some tickets for today.

How Did That Happen?

So I've kept up running throughout this pregnancy but you have probably noticed my posting about said running has gone down. That's because most of the running has really been "running". My usual course of action is to walk to the lakefront path and then run two miles and walk home. But the running part has been filed with leg pain, back aches and this fun pregnancy thing called ligament stretching (or something like that). So it hasn't been fun and more just pisses me off that actually being able to enjoy the time on the path.

On Sunday my Dad, Jason and I all laced up our shoes for a run together. We did the same thing that we usually do, but at the one mile turn around I realized I hadn't stopped to walk yet, nothing hurt, I wasn't laboring for breathing and so I said let's go out for another 1/2 mile and make this a 3 mile run. So we did and I continued to feel good. Still no pain, breathing was good. At the end of the run I realized that I could even pass a group of runners and that always feels good and so I did.

I'm pretty sure we were running about 11 min/mile (I haven't been starting my watch because my runs have been so worthless) and felt really solid. We are also working on gearing my Dad up for some training. His goal is to run the Indy Mini 1/2 marathon in May (so that we have to train through the winter) and then of course the Chicago Marathon in the fall. He's at a perfect place to start training and so we (and by we I mean I) just have to get him a training plan so he can get into a nice rhythm.

The rest of the weekend was great. I'm working on knitting a little sweater thing for Lucy which is making some progress. This picture is from Saturday night and I did a bunch more yesterday:

(Lucy is trying it on....she likes it I think). The bottom part of the sweater and the arms will be in a simple lace pattern and will continue in that purple color.

I'm hoping that I'm done with the body of it by the end of the weekend. Then I can go to Loopy Yarns on Monday when they have a sweater workshop to help me with the arms. After that I will have even more questions about the edging and this little tie thing that I have to make...plus these pom-pom things that have to go on the end of said ties. The good thing is that baby clothes are tiny and so none of it should take that long. Just so so so many questions! It's a great way to learn about sweater construction though because again, they clothes are teeny and so I can learn all the parts of a sweater in a short amount of time. This is a kimono style sweater so it should be nice for a baby.

This is short week because Jason and I are driving up to Michigan on Friday to hang out with Jake, Laura and Jake's Dad on the Artdeck. We are going to leave very very early on Friday morning and take our time driving up there. Hoping to find some small highways for part of the drive anyways.

Oh when I woke up this morning Lucy woke up too. It was funny. Hopefully she keeps that same behavior out of the womb. Up when Mom's up. A good rule I think!