29 weeks and 4 days

Almost at week 30, scary!

We went for our hospital tour today and got to see where baby will be entering the world. Tripp is totally more comfortable now that he's seen the labor and delivery room and met some of the staff. I however am not so thrilled. I want to do a water birth and the hospital is having lots of work done and was supposed to have three birthing tubs in place by now. Well they don't have any! They have one portable tub and it's available on a first come, first served basis. So, if someone happens to be using it when I go into labor, I'm out of luck. Unless they get one or two more in place by the end of January. Otherwise the new maternity wing at the hospital is great.

Here's the belly as of today. Baby should weigh about 2 1/2 pounds now! I have two and a half months till the big day and baby makes his/her debut. Can't wait!




Well...sort of...I can probably wait for the whole delivery thing. If baby could just be shipped to our apartment then I'd be REALLY excited about baby's arrival.

Baby party!

Okay, I say that posting about an event one week from when it happened isn't bad at all (unless of course you're a journalist, then you're out of a job). So last Saturday we had our first "shower" but I prefer to call it a baby party.


We decided to throw a little party to celebrate the coming baby and get everyone together for one last time before the baby gets here. It was fantastic! For me, anyway. All of the Longman crew, plus the Brooklyn crew made their way from the city all the way to the Jersey 'burbs in Montclair. I know it's pretty lame to have to go to Port Authority on a Saturday and take a bus to Jersey, so Tripp and I were really thrilled that everyone came! It meant a lot to me and I'm planning to repay the favor once baby gets here. He or she will be gracing these folks with his/her presence at some parties/showers/BBQs for sure.


There was yummy food to be had, though definitely more pumpkin than is ever really necessary. In the end though, I think all the pumpkin was a good thing since it's chock full of vitamin A and that's good for everyone! So here are some of the recipes we used:

Turkey Pumpkin Chili
1 cup chopped onion
2 cloves minced garlic
1 lb. ground turkey
1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 1/2 tbsps chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

(Optional)
1 cup chopped bell peppers
Shredded cheddar Cheese
Sour cream

Combine all ingredients in a slow cooker. Cook on low for 6-8 hours or high for 4-6 hours.


Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp milk
1 tbspn vanilla extract
1 cup chocolate chips

1. Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil, and egg. In a separate bowl stir together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in to dry ingredients. Add flour mixture to pumpkin mixture and mix well.

2. Add vanilla and chocolate chips.

3. Drop by the spoonful on greased cookie sheets and bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until light brown and firm.



































At the end of the night, the last of us still standing played Scrabble to the death. And then there was some daddy and baby bonding.

Time to get learned real quick

Tripp, my wonderful, media savvy husband found this website that is absolutely fantastic. It's called Glassbooth Election 2008. It's designed to tell you what candidates you most closely align with based on your views and opinions on certain political hot topics.

It takes about five minutes, you respond to a few questions about political issues and how you feel about them, the site then compares all of your responses to those of all the candidates running, and I mean all the candidates, not just Clinton, Obama, and Giuliani. The site will list the three candidates your views most closely align with and then gives you a brief description of the candidates. It even explains how your view points differ from the candidates you align with! It does all the research for you! The greatest thing since chocolate and cappuccinos. Really.

For fun Tripp answered the questions a second time but chose the most conservative, redneck, right wing answers he could and got his top three candidates, Mitt Romney being one of them. I thought that guy was Mormon, not evil? Take the quiz see who you line up with, get yourself edumacated, and post a comment with your top 3 candidates! I won't hold it against you if Mitt Romney is one of them.

Babies and Free Rice

Update - I am a bad, bad blogger. No updates for all this time! It's not that I don't have things to say, those of you who know me in the real world know that I'm full of opinions and have no qualms spouting them at unwilling listeners.

It's just, I get busy, and lazy.

So here's a baby update: I had my latest appointment on Monday, gained 3 more pounds, for a total of 14lbs. so far. Not too bad. Belly is measuring right on target and baby's heart sounds good. Baby happens to be laying across my tummy from left to right and when he or she kicks it now feels like the baby is pretty much in my back. I would very much like for baby to rotate and stop kicking me in the ribs, but I, for once, don't get to be the boss. A rare situation indeed. Also, I didn't quite fail my glucose test, but I didn't pass with flying colors either. Any score over 130 means you fail the test, and I got a 130 exactly. Soooo, I'm supposed to avoid simple sugars, no white bread, white rice, or fruit juice. I have a feeling I may have scored so high because of my new found love of grapefruit juice.

On to other news, my friend T-Funk sent me the link to the FreeRice website which I had never heard of but absolutely love! I'm now officially an addict. I'm a vocabulary learning machine, and my addiction happens to send rice to impoverished nations. It's better than my caffeine habit, that just sends money to a bunch of Starbucks CEOs. And they are so not starving. Go forth and improve your vocabulary and help alleviate hunger!