Entropy Lives Here

As you have probably already heard, Eva Joyce Pytel joined us on her due date, Jan 22. We have yet to see if her timeliness will be a personality trait, or if she just wanted to have a cool birthday (1/22/11). She was 8lbs 0.4 oz, and perfect right from the start.

Noah and I were busy in the kitchen yesterday, making challah for the new year.


Noah was really into needing the dough this time around, pushing it back and forth on the counter. He also learned how to say "challah," and said it over and over again as he worked.


He also knows how to say "poke," so he obviously had to use that one a lot as well.


In other exciting new years week news, we learned that we are going to have a little girl. Name suggestions are currently being accepted.


And based on the enthusiastic kicks I felt during shofar-blowing at temple this morning, I am thinking a possible brass player.

(those are her feet. Very cute, right? Easy to say at 20 weeks. Let's talk again at 35 weeks when those kicks are taking my breath away)

Dear Noah,

Keep up the practicing with the doll stroller.


I'm glad you like your new baby doll. You can help him find his pacifier


You can practice telling the baby funny stories


And make sure the baby knows who Mommy and Daddy are


I'm glad you like your baby doll, though we might need to practice being a bit more gentle when you want to drop the baby in order to play with something else.


It's good that you like it because shortly after your birthday, you are going to be a big brother.


Exciting news, huh. :)

Dear Noah: Happy Birthday.

I remember a year ago when you were born. We were so ready and so totally unprepared. The labor was long and hard and I couldn't really talk about it for days. When you were three months old I told Chad I was getting an epidural next time. And somehow by now it has faded enough that I got all offended yesterday when my dad reminded me how shaken up I was by it.

What I do remember clearly is when you were finally born and placed on my chest, shaking, crying, and so ferociously alive. You were immediately trying to figure out how to eat, how to see, how to hold on, what the hell just happened to you. I remember after a while the nurse took you aside to check you out and clean you off and I could hear your tiny little cries. I felt happy and relieved and tired but most distinctly I felt amazed. That you were here, you were real, you were ours.


You could breastfeed right away. This was amazing to me. I analytically understood that millions of years of evolution had set us up for this task: you for eating and me for feeding. That I am biologically designed to be a mother. But I was just amazed that it worked. For me. For my baby. I was amazed at what my body could do.

The nurses left us alone for a while so we could just rest and be together. Our new family unit. Daddy and I sang "Happy Birthday" to you.

Daddy and the nurses took you to the nursery to check you out some more, and when you came back you were sleeping and swaddled. A perfect little baby worm, warm and quiet. And breathing. And twitching. A real little person. Alive.


Noah, over this past year you have never ceased to amaze me. As you have learned to use your body - to look around, to lift your head, to lift yourself up and finally crawl. To take those first tenuous steps, collapsing into our arms. To become strong and coordinated enough that you don't need us to walk around, to pull the toys you want out of your toybox, to help you drink out of your sippy cup. From the very beginning you were interested in everything, intently studying your surroundings and us. Now you know so much. You can call out to the kitties and know where we should look for them when they are hiding. It has been amazing to watch you learn to manipulate your world. I remember when you were a few weeks old, all of a sudden you were able to bat at a toy. Yesterday you used a spoon to eat applesauce by yourself.

I am amazed by how defenseless and unskilled we are when we come into this world. I am amazed by how much you can do now, a short 12 months later. When I look at you it is obvious that you are a one-year-old. Instead of a tiny baby, you are a toddling, chattering, giggling child. I cherish that we were able to watch you undergo this transformation, but it is hard for me to believe that we went though that much - that you learned and grew that much - in such a short time. I am so proud of you.

I love the child that you are now. I love how ferociously alive you remain, with your energy and quick sorrows and intense joys. I love getting your huge smile (the one where your entire face squishes up and we can see all of your little teeth) just for walking into the room, or for stopping what I am doing to smile at you. I love that I am having trouble finishing this post because you keep walking, grinning and clapping, over to talk to me so I will pick you up (and maybe let you play with the keyboard). I was so proud to sing Happy Birthday to you yesterday with our extended family. I am so proud to have brought you to this family.


I love you so much, Noah. You are everything we hoped for and so many things we never imagined we would have. Happy birthday, my sweet boy.

Love, Mommy.

P.S. Dear family: birthday photos will follow in another post.

We did a bunch of work on the nursery today. We hung up a new mirror and some pictures...


Washed all of the baby clothes, organized all of the baby stuff into the shelves, installed the changing mattress...


Set up a new lamp to make a nice corner for reading and nursing...


And washed all the linens and blankets and set the crib up ready to go. For now, the baby's friends will keep it warm.

38 weeks and counting... current highlights include oh my goodness I am so thirsty and perhaps I could have another slice of pizza and by the way it's time for my nap but man it's so uncomfortable to lie down...

Grow baby grow!

Also, you can really see how the baby has dropped since last post. Neat huh?

Also, did I mention I have to pee again?

Still growing... 36 weeks! Go baby go!

Yes, we're still here, still doing well, and there are even signs of progress. Please pay no attention to the lack of posting. Periods of feeling good but being insanely busy have alternated with periods of needing to lie on the couch for an entire day, which has significantly cut into my blogging time.

In other news, we put together the crib! Look how great it looks!!


Complete with mascot mobile. Cute, huh?


In other news, Chad re-arranged the kitchen a few weeks ago to make space for our sexy new dishwasher...


And we decided to dress the baby up for Halloween.


Overall, a good month since last posting. :)

I had some great friends help me paint our baby's room this weekend. I love the way it looks now - all warm and fuzzy.


In fact, I think that Winnie the Pooh might live here.


I think the color scheme also does a decent job of tying the things we have in the room together so far. I think the bookshelf and the lights look nice, and the sheet set (in the bag on the corner) looks like it belongs as well. Coming soon, luxuries like curtains! And a place for the baby to sleep!

In other news, it is frigging freezing here. It frosted last night, and will definitely frost again tonight. Due to the plunging temperatures, we decided to pick the last of our tomatoes. Figured there might be just a few stragglers on the vine.


Huh.

Seems that the last of our tomatoes is considerably more tomatoes than we had anticipated. Apparently our tomato plants love October as much as I do.

A few months ago, I got about halfway through the lawn and was so exhausted I had to quit. Chad has done most of the mowing since then, but we've been so busy lately that it's gotten a little bit out of hand. Our lawn was bad enough that we've been talking about buying a powered lawnmower in order to tackle it. I tried to capture the mid-calf grass photographically, but I'm not sure it came though:


It was beautiful beautiful beautiful this weekend, so I figured I could get my exercise for today pushing the thing around our backyard. Yes, this entire post is about how I was able to mow our lawn by myself. After getting up early to paint the trim. And after mowing I had enough energy to do yoga, finish up the baby's room, and cook a real dinner. After a full day yesterday (doing engineering with 6th graders, painting, staying late at friends' for dinner). This may not sound all that astounding but please bear in mind that the first five months I was pregnant I had to spend the entire weekend laying on the couch. Max liked it, I found it clashed with my personality.

So now I'm officially 3rd trimester (when did THAT happen!?) and feel like myself. Woot. Bring it on, 3rd trimester!

P.S. If the posting suddenly stops for a long time, you can go ahead and assume that the 3rd trimester has, in fact, brought it on, and I am laying on the couch.

P.P.S. You have to wait for pictures of the baby's room. Chad gets to come home from Boston and see it first. :)

6 months and growing...


Though I don't think the cats are particularly impressed. I did have two strangers comment on my being pregnant this week - this was the first time that someone who doesn't already know me has said anything.

This stage is fun. The baby is moving a lot - I get kicked whenever I sit still. But he's not strong enough to actually hurt me (I hear this will change soon). I feel much less nauseous and exhausted than the first few months, but I also don't feel super bloated and heavy yet. So I'm trying to get plenty of sleep and exercise and appreciate it while it lasts. :)

Actually, that's not true. It's exactly as fun as a glass panel full of monkeys, because that is what they are. We bought some lights for the baby's room today. Aren't they cute?


*** disclaimer *** Please note we do not intend to have a monkey theme. We just liked the lights. ****

Also note the cute little boxes in the shelves... we got those today too. Just imagine a changing table where the cat bed is and we're getting closer...

We also hung up this cute mirror:


I like the mirror idea because the room is so small, and I figured this one was fun.

At this point, you may be wondering "gee, does any of this new stuff match the crib set you bought?" The answer is no, not really.

Perhaps we are lacking in a real design vision. Sigh...

But at least when you flip a light switch the room gets lighter now.

Just before taking this picture, my darling husband complemented me on my outfit with the following:

"You are looking very bumpy today."

Aw, shucks.


In other news, it seems we suck at blogging. You may have noticed the complete lack of posting. It seems I promise to blog more, then weeks and weeks and weeks go by with no posting. So let's be honest, it's not going to get better until we have better material. Expected in t - 16 weeks.

Well, this may come as a surprised to you if you haven't heard the news yet, as we've neglected to post it here, but Rachel is pregnant! On Thursday we had an ultrasound and found out that it's going to be a boy!


Here's a nice picture showing the current state of Rachel plus baby. Stay tuned for continuing coverage of Bumpwatch 2008.