Wordless Wednesday

Turkey and Football...Such a boy!

Wordless Wednesday

In honor of Thanksgiving, I present to you the cold turkey method of swaddle weaning. So far, its been 6 minutes.

Success.

Wordless Wednesday

Ignore the picture quality/shiny heads...I was trying to document that Tyler helped me cook dinner today. He loves riding around in the wrap about as much as I love having him ride along!

Sleeping & the Misadventures of Mom and Dad

Tyler's newest trick isn't so exciting and cool. Tyler's newest trick involves waking up multiple times a night which he hasn't done since way back around 8 weeks old! Boo Tyler, let's get this figured out quickly little buddy.

It appears that every day of Tyler's life so far has prepared him for this...almost 4 months old...and really really starting to "get" the world around him. Yesterday and today I noticed him intently looking at his hand as it waved above his face- like really looking, even giving his whole arm a good once-over. He almost appears to be saying- ok I see that thing (my hand) and then I see this other thing that appears to connect that thing (the hand) to something else (my body)- and then thinking about this concept over and over.

But back to the waking up for a minute. Since he does actually "get" the world around him now, he also "gets" that mom comes when he cries in the night because she's so used to "newborns need to eat every 3 hours so they gain an adequate amount of weight and thrive." So yes, it seems, he's already smart enough to wake up, say HEY lets see just how fast I can get that crazy mom of mine in here, and GO! It dawned on me yesterday that this 4 month old son of mine is getting really smart AND has a stomach big enough to go much longer than the 3ish hour intervals he's started testing the last few days.

And so, last night, we pulled the parental riot act. It consisted of "listen cute little Tyler, Mom and Dad have some (a tiny little bit at least) say in what happens in this household!"
An extra layer of clothes(maybe he was cold?)
A Dad special swaddle (just a little tighter than Mom's efforts because maybe his arms were waking him up?)
And a 30 minute extension on bedtime (maybe 7:30 was just a little too early?)

The results??? Only one middle-of-the-night wake up, YES Tyler! Tyler didn't appreciate the 10 minutes of us waiting around to see if he'd calm himself down. He also didn't appreciate the appearance of the green monster (pacifier) after said 10 minutes. He did appreciate being fed, it had been 7 hours so much more reasonable than the 2-3 he'd been testing us with over the last few days.

So it appears we are getting back on track. But as I remember learning early on in Tyler's life- saying anything along those lines is totally a joke because by tonight he'll already have learned how to throw a new curve ball. You never know though, when the new curve ball will be awesome...like this morning when I set him down "drowsy but awake" (a very technical term in baby sleep science) for his morning nap and within 10 minutes he was asleep with only a minor protest not a major meltdown. He's also still asleep...a whole hour later...without even a peep. And yes, he's breathing. I've checked, multiple times.

Life Happens

Can't believe it's been so long since I posted but life happens fast these days. Tyler is getting closer to 4 months than 3 already...and he is practicing new skills everyday. The latest trick is holding his own bottle which he did with Kevin over the weekend while I coached. The bottle feeding is Kevin's department, as I have yet to feed him with one, so I don't know all the logistics but anyway- it seems impressive. 

Tyler is also smiling all the time, making new sounds and blowing lots of bubbles. He started sucking his thumb but I'm not sure he's figured out that he can soothe himself with it...because he knows how but not necessarily when. He continues to be mostly unimpressed with the green monster (pacifier). He sleeps like a charm- most of the time- giving us a longer stretch at the beginning of the night usually waking up around 4-5am but then going back down until 7-8ish. All these sleep hours can be attributed to the swaddle, he is a swaddle baby through and through and I'm not so sure we should ever, ever wean him from it! 

As far as parenthood goes, the learning curve has been steep and from what we've heard, won't change much with Tyler since everything new he does is new to us. We are getting used to our new normal and almost have one whole busy fall soccer season under our belt. Looking forward to the winter months when training slows down a little and we will have a few extra nights and weekend days to spend as a family.

As always, no blog post is worth it without a few pics of the star of the Hockemeyer show. 

Here he is in his mom's prized consignment sale find...a brand new Columbia fleece jacket for $6!! (Because these are totally necessary for tiny babies and because, as Kevin will tell you, most women like shoes- I like jackets!) 

And one of those Tyler smiles...

11 weeks old

Wordless Wednesday

Guess what day it is...

Guess what day it is?  (For more from the funniest commercial of all time- here's the link)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWBhP0EQ1lA

But back to the point, it's Wednesday! So let Wordless Wednesday commence...NOW. (Actually, it is impossible for me not to include captions...so pretend like it's "wordless")

Tyler was a pretty happy baby boy waking up on Monday morning after sleeping for 9 hours straight! Yes, you heard that right! Mom, however, woke up in a mad panic when realizing that the clock read 5:30am and Tyler hadn't woken up for his routine 4:30am feeding. (In case you were worried, he was still breathing). Dad joined the party at about 6am when he awoke and asked if I'd nursed Tyler yet...to which I answered no. To which Kevin asked, is he still breathing? (He went to check and, alas, he was). Mom and Dad both woke up again at 6:45am totally incredulous that this crazy boy WAS in fact still breathing and sleeping. So it's true what they say about sleeping through the night...Mom and Dad haven't seen that since the 2nd trimester!

And for a little humor to end this post, here is Tyler snoozing on Mom about 1 hour before heading to the pediatrician for the 2 month appointment. Tyler knew those shots were coming from a mile away and he appears to be expressing his opinion (however silently it may be)!! The nurse warned us that we would hear a cry from him that we haven't heard before...we could do without hearing that one ever again but destiny awaits him at the 4 month appointment too, boo. 

Wordless Wednesday (one day late)

Tyler's newly acquired skills...

Purposely getting hand (specifically the right one) to his mouth, although hasn't figured out the thumb yet

Holding his head up off the pillow for long enough to look around and have his picture taken! 

Tyler's Adventures

Tyler made his first trip to Illinois this past weekend so that I could coach my boys team in some regional league games. He spent the majority of the car ride there crying, we were beginning to think we'd never go anywhere ever again! Luckily he changed his tune for the car ride home and spent the majority sleeping peacefully. He had fun exploring his grandma and grandpa's house for the first time as well as meeting more family members.

Tyler is getting excited for his first Iowa-Iowa State gameday experience tomorrow. He'll be wearing Hawkeye colors (because he doesn't fit into his Cyclone shirt anymore!) but I like to say he has Cyclone blood from those first 9 months =) Kevin and I have promised to be nice to each other all day!

I got a great surprise this week when my college roommate Flores made an appearance from Hartford, CT. Kevin and some other friends were conspiring to surprise Kristina and I, we had fun hanging out this week and Tyler and Jace got to meet their new best friend and have lots of photos taken of their smiles.

Tyler also got to meet Kevin's co-workers this week, they had a "Meet Baby Tyler" party on Wednesday so we went to Kevin's office so they could all see just how cute he is in real life! He was his usual wide awake self (had just finished feeding him before leaving the house) so he was a big hit. By the time we were ready to leave, he had fallen fast asleep in the conference room we were in.

Sunday marks Tyler's 2 month birthday! His newest trick is holding his head up, he's getting so much stronger and can look around for longer and longer each day without needing help holding it steady. Definitely an accomplishment for a little boy with a 95th percentile head size!

Here's a picture of the little guy this morning (right before he spit up all over this outfit and I had to completely change it)

Wordless Wednesday- One Day Late!

Growing!

Check out this photographic evidence that our little man is growing like a weed. 

Tyler on July 19th, our first trip to the pediatrician's office after getting home from the hospital. Look at those skinny legs!!!

Tyler on Tuesday (Sept. 3) on his way to his first day of day care! 

Ok those pictures sure make me want to hit the pause button on him for a little and let him stay our little newborn for awhile longer. This week Tyler and I and Kevin had some new adventures as I went back to work and Tyler headed off to his 2-day/week home away from home. We are lucky that Tyler gets to spend his days with our good friends mom at her in-home daycare set up. I was able to convince myself that Tyler was "going to play with Cooper" instead of "going to daycare" which sure made for a smoother (aka no tears) departure! Of course, my going back to work also meant Kevin was in for the new adventure of picking Tyler up after work for the first time, navigating Tyler and a bottle and some boy time while I coached until late last night. I'd say all in all, the 3 of us passed the day with flying colors...I really enjoyed being back at the fields and Tyler continued his preference for smiling at his dad all night. 

The extra day off that Kevin got over the Labor Day weekend was great, we spent lots of time hanging around home over the 3 days but now that Tyler has really started interacting- looking, eye contact and especially smiling- just sitting near him and talking to him to see his reactions is fun. Kevin and Tyler watched their first Hawkeye football game together, something I know Kevin has been looking forward to for a long time.  

Here's Tyler looking so intently at his dad! 

Last week, Tyler got to meet his Auntie Kristen too. She arrived on Tuesday and stayed until Sunday (after a slight flight cancellation mishap!). Although we were experiencing an extreme heat wave which meant we couldn't take his stroller for a spin outside, Tyler and Kristen got to have some quality bonding time. Kristen even got the hang of changing Tyler's diapers, he only took the liberty of trying to get her wet once! We set up Sunday night Facetime dates, the next generation's version of Sunday family dinners for long-distance family members, so that Tyler gets his fair share of Auntie Kristen's love. 

Wordless Wednesday

Baby Pictures

Tyler's a few days over a month old now. Let's get out the baby pictures...

Kevin

 Deb

Tyler

Likes and Dislikes

Tyler likes:
-Music
-Getting brand new clean diapers dirty as quickly as possible
-Ceiling fans
-Early morning or more accurately middle of the night rocking with Dad
-Bath time...since the first one, he hated that one
-Having many, many, many (too many?) pictures taken of him
-Gaining weight
-Rocking and bouncing

Tyler dislikes:
-Standing still and sitting still and laying still and...
-Red lights or stop signs
-Waiting to eat
-Tummy time with Mom...tummy time with Dad, on the other hand, is a blast
-Swinging

3 weeks old!

We realized last night that in the blink of an eye we went from counting down the weeks left until the due date to counting up the weeks of Tyler's life! And so today marks his third week of hanging out on the outside. And what a crazy 3 weeks it's been.

Last week at Tyler's 2 week doctor appointment we found out that he had grown ...back to his birth weight AND beyond.  So much so that the doctor weighed him 3 times on multiple scales since he couldn't believe Tyler was tipping those scales at 8 lbs 6 oz. His " excessive" weight gain made for a challenging week last week as we second guessed everything we had been doing when it came to nursing.  Tyler was a little hungry for a few days while these rookies wondered where the calm and content guy we had known for 2 weeks vanished into the night and left behind a wailing-at-the-top-of-his-lungs look alike! Tyler became a whole lot happier when we settled back into the good system we had going early on....and so it proves the doctor was right when he said dont change what you're doing. We head back next Monday for another weight check.

In other exciting news, I am rapidly approaching my 29th birthday and Kevin and I are also getting close to being married for 1 whole (glorious) year. With these milestones to look forward to this week, along with Tyler and mom getting a little more used to being home alone during the day, we seem to be starting to fire this little family on all cylinders.

And over the last 3 weeks, every time Kevin or I dared to say out loud that we made a few steps forward in progress, Tyler catches wind and throws his next curve. On to the next one, then!

And because no good blog should be without pictures of the little man...here he is in all his blaze and glory enjoying his weekend.

And his Sunday afternoon nap...

Wouldn't you just love to know what's going on inside of his head?

Happy Birth Day Tyler!

Tyler James was born Monday July 15th at 2:41pm, weighing in at 7 lbs and 1 oz and measuring 19 3/4 inches long.

Tyler decided early Sunday morning (about 5:30am to be exact) that he was ready to roll and the contractions were coming about every 30 minutes. We went about our Sunday, even stopping at a baby store to pick up an outfit to bring the baby (gender yet to be determined so we bought 2) home from the hospital in.

Fast forward to about 12:30am Monday when we left home to head to the hospital based on the contractions coming every few minutes and getting a lot harder to ignore! We were kind of excited, kind of anxious and kind of worried that they'd send us home saying this wasn't actually real labor.

From the arrival at the hospital at 1am to Tyler's arrival at 2:41pm, there was a whole lot of action but I'll spare you the details. I can say there was pretty much every possible emotion- from smiles to tears and back again but when Kevin took one of Tyler's first pictures and he appeared to be smiling the cares of the last 24 hours were gone in a second.

Tyler gives us his first "smile"

We've now been home with Tyler for 4 days and he's going on 1 week old tomorrow. Bringing him home from the hospital was again, exciting and nerve-wracking all in one. The first night went like we hear most first nights do...none of us slept a whole lot! Since then we've already settled into a little routine having Tyler around, our life pretty much operates in 3 hours increments right now since that's about how often he wants to eat. We've already run into challenges, we've already googled at 3:00am to get some answers, we've already seen the pediatrician who assured us Tyler was doing great 5 days post-birth even though we (or I at least) thought about 100 different things might be wrong. Who knew it is basically impossible for a newborn to have too many dirty diapers! 

Kevin and I have already been discussing the changes we've seen in him in the last 6 days...he's not even 1 week old yet and we are pretty sure he's growing up right before our eyes. So far, we are just loving being Tyler's mom and dad. 

First family picture a few minutes after Tyler's arrival!

Gerken Baby Pool

The Gerken family's baby pool is underway- here it is in picture form, if you click on the picture it will open it bigger so maybe you can read it.

Baby H has already gotten the best of a few of you...

39 Weeks

July 10th and we are 7 days away from the due date (which makes us 39 weeks along for the math majors in the crowd)!

We saw the doctor today and the baby and I have been making steady progress towards a birth day. The baby is getting lower and lower- which makes it a little easier to breath and a little harder to be far from a bathroom- and I'm getting close to 2cm dilated which the doctor seemed to be happy about especially since I am a first-timer. She said a lot of first time moms don't make any progress until they show up to the hospital so I guess we've got that going for us.

2 weeks ago I mentioned we'd have an ultrasound at our next appointment which we had...and found out that waaaaay back then (week 37) little Baby H was tipping the scales at 7 pounds and 5 ounces. My first question to the doctor after hearing the weight was "exactly how much more weight will the baby gain if we are still 3 weeks away from due date?!" She said usually around 1/2 pound per week at this time...so it seems as if "little" Baby H might not be so little anymore.

All this talk about baby's weigh-ins and it got my mom curious enough to check back in the official record of my birth day to find out how much I weighed- 9 pounds and 1 ounce. I had heard from Kevin's mom that he clocked in at 5 pounds and some change (although he was 2 weeks early) so it appears this little guy or girl might me getting the birth day weight trait from me!

Speaking of, if I stop to think about it, there is a whole long list of traits that I hope Baby H gets from dad- they include Kevin's calm, unwavering, happy and content way of life- but there is one trait I am REALLY hoping Baby H takes from me and NOT dad...and that is...head size! Kevin has a hard time fitting into most XL sized baseball hats to give you some idea.

Anyway, last minute preparations are underway, the Hockemeyer house is pretty much ready for baby action and we are just waiting around for whenever Baby H is heading our way! According to the doctor today, we won't be waiting any more than 2 weeks (at the most) as she doesn't intend to let me go much past 41 weeks without an induction plan. So we'll just be waiting to see how comfortable Baby H is...

Family Pic at  39 weeks

And the standard side view

36 (or 37) weeks!

On Wednesday we entered in the 36th week hanging around with this baby. Our weekly doctor appointments have started so every Friday we get the latest updates on baby and I and life in general. So just like every other appointment, we hear the baby's heartbeat first then the cloth measuring tape comes out to check my measurements. This week proved to be a little eventful in that the doctor noted in my chart S > D (code for Size greater than Dates)!
This could mean a lot- as in, Im a whole week farther ahead than we thought!!- or not much- as in, pregnancy isnt an exact science so growing/measurements arent always spot on (boo!). Regardless, and coinciding with the fact that wayyyyy back at our last ultrasound in February the baby was measuring a full week ahead then, the doctor ordered us to have an ultrasound at our next appointment instead of waiting.  Whooohoooo!

35 weeks

Here we are at 35 weeks! Saw the doctor this morning and all is going well, just have a few more weeks to wait.

Soccer season is winding down as our preparation for Baby Hockemeyer's arrival increases-this weekend's plans include getting car seat bases installed in our cars,  cleaning out the baby's room closet and maybe even packing a hospital bag!

Can't believe we are already talking about our trip to the hospital. We have been going to a prenatal class at the hospital and this week learned all about diapers, swaddling and giving a bath by practicing on a doll. Soon enough we wont be practicing anymore!

32 weeks!

Well the baby has been hanging around for 32 weeks now, doesnt seem possible that it has been that long (or that we only have 8 more weeks until the due date)!

We are making some steady "getting ready" progress including the arrival of the crib and dresser and washing all of the baby's clothes and bedding. By the end of this weekend,  we might have a nursery room picture to post thanks to a timely thunderstorm induced day off from coaching!

Here is a picture of the baby and I...and one of Kevin and I enjoying a somewhat rainy night at the Iowa Cubs game.

75%

I am not a mathematical wizard but my husband happens to really like numbers, and he told me this morning that we are 75% finished with this thing called pregnancy. He was mumbling something about 30/40=3/4=.75=75% when I reminded him it was Wednesday, the first day of our new week. Anyway, yes we are 30 weeks along today which seems SO MUCH FARTHER than last week's 29. And here we are at 30 weeks...

Most notably since I posted the last time, Baby Hockemeyer has brand new wheels...we got a car seat and stroller on Sunday! As has been typical with the other baby things we've gotten, the stuff came out of the box  the minute we got it in the house and Kevin got the stroller assembled without too many glitches. Now it's sitting in the middle of our living room, eventually we'll have to figure out a long-term parking spot.

We continued our "nesting" this past Saturday which involved cleaning out the basement storage room and re-organizing it to fit all of our current guest room furniture. I lasted for most of the morning but once the afternoon rolled around, the couch looked too comfortable to pass up. Kevin powered through and even fixed the vacuum I didn't know was broken!

Up next on our list is prenatal class which starts on Sunday. I've heard a good portion of a few of the sessions of the prenatal class are focused on the dad learning massage and other relaxation techniques to help the mom during labor. This sounds like exactly what I signed up for!

Nesting and Diapers

Wow time flies (when you're having fun) and before you know it, you're reminded that today marks 29 weeks that the baby has been "hanging around" and 78 days left before the baby's prescribed birth date and all too many days or weeks since the last blog post.

The lack of blog posts do not indicate the lack of things to say, quite possibly the exact opposite...that there is so much happening I haven't had a chance to write down what's been happening!

Looking back a couple weeks ago, to 27 weeks and our last doctor appointment, the most exciting thing that happened was I passed the glucose blood test! Actually, the baby "passed" the test too by moving so much the doctor couldn't get a consistent heartbeat reading after trying for at least 5 minutes. The doctor actually said this definitely isn't a bad thing if the baby won't sit still for long enough to hear it, the baby must've been enjoying the sugar rush!

In the weeks following that doctor appointment, I've joked that Kevin has been nesting. He has been busy around the house and so far we have a new kitchen sink and faucet, new bedroom ceiling fans and a new garage storage shelving system that he built! Up next is the transformation of the current guest room into a room for Baby H. which mostly requires getting all the furniture out so that we can move in all the baby's new things.

The only "nesting" I can report is that I made the first diaper purchase last night- I had a coupon and it seemed like now was as good a time as any. It was the first box of diapers I've bought that I intend to keep (and use) as opposed to gifting to a friend's new baby which I've done several times. Let the fun begin!

In the last few weeks, I have contemplated buying stock in Tums. Heartburn appears to be the defining third trimester "fun".  Other than that, and a loss of agile movement (and breath) while coaching I've been feeling pretty great. Kevin's been feeling pretty great too, in case anyone is wondering.

Soccer and other news

Baby H and I made it through our first long soccer tournament this past weekend with flying colors. I am sure that this was only the first of many, so it's great to know that this baby is a suitable soccer field companion (at least on the inside).
I've also learned a few new tricks as soccer season has gotten off to a rolling start including keeping a pocketful of almonds during training nights when I'm on the field for 3 hours straight and perfecting the different arts of picking up items off the ground which is not nearly as easy as it used to be! The fun part is that 2 of the other soccer club staff members are also pregnant (we are all due within 1 month of each other) so last night we spent a few minutes in the middle of our training session actually comparing notes on how we bend down to get cones off the ground and laughing about the best techniques.
I have also decided that if someone wanted to get rich quick, they should patent maternity sports clothes and sell it to Nike or another company. I'm talking like actual sports clothes such as rain gear, winter parka, soccer shorts, etc not just the nice maternity yoga pants or tank tops which don't cut it when it's 40 degrees and raining like last night. Instead, we just have to keep raiding the men's staff gear boxes and getting bigger and bigger sizes, I'm almost up to a men's large now which of course I am swimming in except in the baby bump area. But then again, fashion never has been my number one priority!

In other notable news, the daily pregnancy journal book had an exciting milestone to report today...we are down to double digits...99 days until our due date!

Baby shoes!

Baby H got his or her first package in the mail today and a pretty great gift it was...baby Toms! And while it might take a few months to grow into them, they are the best first pair of shoes I could ever think of. I first heard about Toms a handful of years ago and have since had a few pairs-including the pair I wore on our wedding day. The Toms tagline is "one for one" and the premise is that for every pair you buy, they give a new pair to a child in need somewhere around the world. So I pretty much love them and the baby ones...wow theyre awesome!

On another note, we are in week 24 now and the pregnancy journal book we have that gives a daily update on baby, mom and pregnancy facts in general told us this would be a BIG week. As in 6 ounces of growth for the baby. Which in turn, apears to also amount to a BIG week for me as seemingly overnight I randomly bump into things like the table when standing up and the counter when in the kitchen. And today, when I realized that it was not ok for me to attend Good Friday church without a shirt on...I was bailed out by a borrowed maternity tank top that I had stored away because "I don't need it!" Or maybe I didn't (in past tense) but now I do.

Thank you

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is 'thank you', it will be enough.


And so, it seems, 4 weeks post-surgery a 'thank you' prayer is in order. On one of my first few outings out of the house during the recovery, Kevin and I went to church on Sunday and heard our pastor give a sermon about why it is important to step outside of the fenced in circle of "regular" human behavior- thoughts, actions, and emotions. He suggested that this step would lead you to your "spiritual" world that sometimes elicits a different response and doesn't always intersect with the world's expectations.

Which got me thinking.

And realizing that in the lead up to the surgery, those moments of asking why- why us, why now- or those moments of pure pouting- life isn't fair!- are the examples of the world's ways. How could I challenge myself to step outside of that comfort? I realized I could say 'thank you.'

Thank you for this baby, who's first ultrasound revealed the cyst that needed to be removed that would otherwise have gone undetected for who knows how long, as it's size indicated it'd already been there for quite some time.

Thank you for the doctor who presented us with our options-surgery or not, leading us to our first big decision-making moment as parents. Parents who will undoubtedly make many, many more BIG decisions in our future as Mom and Dad.

Thank you for the surgery day and the days surrounding it. We learned our first valuable parenting lesson- no matter how hard we pray, how much we hope and wish and want and worry- there are somethings in our child's life that aren't in our hands. This is ok. Actually, this is probably for the best! We learned that our job is to set up the best possible situation that we are capable of, then let go of it and leave the rest to the experts- the teachers, the coaches, the surgeons- and God, who will keep our child in the palm of His hand when we can not. This is a lesson we started learning at 19 weeks instead of 19 years. Nonetheless, it's a lesson we are grateful for.

And on a lighter note, thank you for each little baby roll or kick that comes at 2 or 5am, what a great way to help prepare us for the sleepless nights that lie ahead with a newborn. A newborn we only have to wait 17 more weeks to meet!

Muscles

We LOVE this ultrasound image from today (almost 23 weeks)! There are a bunch of other pictures, of course, but catching the baby "flexing" is pretty priceless. I think it's the baby's way of saying "Don't worry about me,  I'm THIS strong!" or more accurately, "Stop worrying. I'm stronger than you think I am!"

Another good doctor's appointment/ultrasound is in the books. We'll go back in 4 weeks and if my math is correct bordering on the third trimester by that time. Can't believe how fast the time is flying...but luckily, for the baby's sake, Kevin and I picked out a crib this weekend so at least there will be a place to sleep.

Pi Day

We decided to start a new tradition today, after all it IS pi day (3.14 for the mathematically challenged).

Winding down the day with cherry pie and vanilla ice cream, and the Hawkeye basketball game. As is probably well known by now, we are a house-divided. I have come up with Rule Number 1 of watching Iowa games...always wear an Iowa State tshirt closer to your heart! I am also fond of reminding Kevin that the baby has Cyclone blood (literally) and a 9-month head start!

Not A Cooking Blog

Hello World. And no, I am not here to start a blog about cooking.

In case you didn't know, stir fry is sometimes called happy family on chinese restaurant menus because all the ingredients go together into one pan like one big happy family (to create something great- I added this part!). So actually, this blog is about our family- our marriage, our pregnancy, our baby once July rolls around- and our life's adventures.

I've realized over the last few weeks that I have a lot of things to share about these topics and a blog seemed to be the best way to get all the info to our family and friends. It took me all those weeks to come up with a name to start the blog so the entries are back-logged in my brain for now. Thankfully, the TV show Chopped, one of the few that Kevin and I agree on, and the baby conspired together to provide the perfect storm of a sleepless night filled with wandering thoughts and the tidbit about stir fry=happy family. And that's how this blog was born.

You'll have to wait until July to find out how the baby is born but in the mean time, I'll start from the most recent excitement and work my way around all the rest.

On Monday March 11, Kevin and I celebrated 7 months of marital bliss. The baby joined the party too by giving dad's hand a nice solid kick for the first time! I have been feeling baby movements and kicks since early February and have been trying for almost that long to coordinate Kevin's hand and the baby's movements so he could feel it too. In this unsuccessful process, the only thing I learned is that the baby is a big tease and has a mind of it's own! Anyway, happy 7 month anniversary to mom and dad from baby H.