Birthday Boy

I feel a bit guilty that this blog is coming 4 days late. Ooops!

This year has gone by much, much too quickly. It's hard to imagine to me that a year a go today I was sitting at home with my 4 day old baby boy. And right now he's walking around the living room attemtping to beat up my exercise ball! How did he get so big so fast??

We had a nice little party for him Tuesday evening. My inlaws and Nathan's grandparents came over and we enjoyed presents and cake. I don't have many pictures because I spent the time filming on the video camera or helping him open his gifts, but hopefully Nathan's step-grandpa will share the pictures with me he took. The gifts Gabe got were wonderful of course and he's in love with all of them.

Gabe didn't really enjoy the cake, but I'm not surprised. I enjoyed watching him hesitantly test it out anyway! Nathan finally thought it would be fun to shove Gabe's hands into the cake and see how he'd react. He wasn't super pleased and it resulted in him needing an immediate bath!

Gabe only a few minutes after he was born:


My big boy on his birthday:


Motherhood is quite different than I thought it would be. I knew of course that I would love my child. But I never understood what the depth of my love for him would be. It's been a wild ride this year, and I'm looking forward to doing it all over again!

Nook!

Today I had quite a surprise when my husband came home from work. He had to drive out to Tigard today for work, and he told me when he was driving home that he'd gotten me a gift. Now when I thought gift, I was thinking flowers or perhaps a box of my favorite Tim Tams or some random baby item. Instead I about fell over when he handed me a Nook.

I was, at a time, totally against e-readers. I heard of the kindle and was just not impressed. To me, I felt books should always be read on paper. I didn't like this new idea of turning a book into something similar to an ipod or a small laptop. I also was under the assumption that it would be similar to reading a book on a laptop - something I have done and do not enjoy. After awhile it really starts to hurt my eyes.

Once I had Gabe though, I started to really see the advantages of an e-reader. I honestly haven't read much since he's been born. I'm too busy and by the time I get a moment to myself, I'm usually falling into bed out of exhaustion. It was simply not practical to hold Gabe while holding a book at the same time. So my books have been collecting dust on my shelves. And admittedly, some of my borrowed books are gathering dust too (really must return them...). I started thinking recently how much easier it would be to have an e-reader that I could just carry around the house with me. Something I could hold in one hand while also holding a child. Not to mention I'm running out of room to store books. I still wasn't totally sold, but was thinking of it. Then whem mammagriffith got one and I saw it I was definitely in love with it. I like the digital ink screen the absolute best. No eye strain! I have all ready started to pour into one of the free classics provided with the nook - Little Women.

I'm still in awe that Nathan even thought to get me the nook. He knew I wanted one, but I didn't imagine us purchasing it anytime soon. It was very sweet of him. He told me I deserved something nice for myself. Yes, I almost started tearing up.

Night at the opera

Nathan and I had a wonderful night away on Friday. When we first got out to Portland we stopped in at Men's Warehouse to get Nathan a jacket to go with his pants. He looked pretty handsome if I do say so myself:



When we got to the hotel we both got all dressed up, unfortuantely my camera would not fit in my little purse so we couldn't get a full-sized picture of the two of us. I got a few pictures before we left. I very much like this picture of myself. I felt very fancy and pretty.





When we got to Morton's we were ushered to a big huge booth all to ourselves, despite the place being packed (yay anniversary reservations!) and were greated by this on our menus:



I had been planning on getting a lobster tail, but thought to myself...why not try a whole lobster? I've never done that before. Honestly - big mistake! I clearly had no concept of how big a full sized lobster is (they did tell me it was a 3.5 pounder, I should have figured it out, but something just didn't compute!). When they brought out my meal my jaw nearly dropped to the floor in shock. The plate was HUGE. So here I am, this very large pregnant woman, with a humongous plate of food in front of me...I think I might have looked like a glutton. But then I decided to get over it and dig in. I only got through the tail portion before I was full. Yup, should have stuck to the tail.

We attempted a picture of the ginormous lobster with Nathan's cell phone. It didn't turn out great, but you can get an idea of how large it was:



Morton's apparently takes a complimentary picture for special events and so they took a very wonderful picture of Nathan and I, put it in a black cardboard frame, and it was signed by all the wait staff. I then proceeded to lose this great picture in the taxi. Yeah, I was having an awesome brain night.

After our meal (which was seriously delicious, we topped off our entrees with a wonderful warm brownie filled with hot fudge and served with ice cream) we were whisked off by taxi to the opera.

I had always assumed, and have been told by mommagriffith who has season tickets to the opera, that most everyone dresses up to attend the opera. Nice dresses, suits etc. I'm not sure if it was just the show we went to see or what, but Nathan and I were quite surprised when half the audience was in khakis and jeans. We were truly the best dressed there. Only one other woman was wearing a nice dress. I admit, I didn't feel out of place at all. Instead, I felt that everyone else was out of place. ;-) I just can't picture attending an opera in jeans.

The opera itself was fine, but not anything to shout about. The first two introductory acts (which I can't recall the names of) were sung in Italian I believe. I found them to be a bit confusing, despite the subtitles, though when I read the plot later they did make a bit more sense. They were not very engaging however, nothing about them really drew me in. The main show was even less appealing and while I don't have much to compare it to, I don't think I like operas sung in English. The title of the show was Trouble in Tahiti and it was about a 1950s couple going through rough times in their marriage, both of whom look for love and satisifaction in other places, while their son sits and home in front of the television and fantisizes of an idealistic 1950s dream family - happy homemaker, a loving husband and doting father who has a successful career, all of this packaged in a lovely white house in the suburbs of America. It is an iteresting subject matter, but I felt the opera itself fell flat.

That doesn't mean I didn't enjoy myself, though! We had a lot of fun dressing up and feeling fancy for a night. We caught a taxi back to the hotel (this is where I lost our picture from Morton's) and we both completely passed out upon arrival.

Gabe did great at Grandma and Grandpas. He didn't sleep well, but I'm not surpised. He just has too much fun playing when he goes to my inlaws place. He hardly noticed when we came to pick him up the next morning, I don't think he even realized we were gone. This gives me a lot of relief honestly, because I was concerned how he would do staying there overnight when Elena is born. Now I know he'll be just fine.

So that was our fun evening out! I can't believe I've been married 3 years all ready. It feels like the time has just flown by. It's been an amazing 3 years, that's for sure.

Enjoying the sun

Today was a BEAUTIFUL day here on the coast. Not often we get to say that. This afternoon I visited my neighbor and Gabe and I enjoyed sitting in the sun on her porch while she gardened and her kiddos ran around playing.

It was so warm, it felt delicious.

When Nathan got home, we decided to go for a walk, and to take Gabe without his stroller. He LOVED it. He rode in Grandpa's wagon for awhile, ran around holding Nathan's fingers (he could not get enough of that) and kept reaching out to all the trees along the way. Grandma and Grandpa of course brought him to every tree within reach so that he could touch them and try to figure them out. Every time they pulled him away it was to a chorus of whines and him reaching out, wanting to go back. The only real fussing came when the sun was starting to set and it came time to put his coat on. When we reached our road we tried to let him 'walk' the last half of it, but he was so facinted by the rocks he kept letting go of Nathan's fingers and sitting down to play with them. Such a fun time.

I made a decision...

...and it's not any of the 3 that I posted! I found this one and think I prefer it, mostly because I don't have to buy a new bra to wear it. Of the other 3 I posted, only the last one would have worked with a regular bra - the 2nd one looked like it would until I got a look at the back, it was scooped and low.

So I believe I'll be ordering this one:



Now if only I could find my measuring tape...I have no idea what size I am...

Opera dress

Today my husband informed me that, for our anniversary, he is taking me to the opera! I was quite surprised. It would have been funner if he woudln't have told me, but he had to tell me...I need to find an appropriate dress in time!

After some online searching, I have found a few that are possibilities. My favorite is the first one, but I can't wear a regular bra with it and since going braless is NOT an option I either need to find a decently fitting strapless bra in time or pick a different dress.

Opinions greatly appreciated. :-)

The Bad Blogger

Once upon a time there was a blogger who could never remember to update her blog. Weeks and sometimes months would go by without a single written word from her.

Mostly her reasoning seems to stem from an inability to write anything interesting. Her life, you see, is just an average sort of life and there isn't a lot of material to pull from. She is fairly certain that updates on her baby's latest milestones and the latest pregnancy news would eventually bore her readers to tears.

So she's made a new resolve to try and remember to update more often and to try to find more interesting topics to write about. Will she succeed in her quest? Or will her blog continue to head down the path of total internet literary darkness?

Only time shall tell.