just 5 weeks left!!!

Jaime was in town from Seattle for Thanksgiving so the girls came over to see my big Avery bump. Apparently whatever huge alien movements she was making were hilarous and terrifying to Elizabeth, Miya and Jaime!!

6 weeks old and 6 weeks to go....

Sadie came to visit this weekend (Avery's BFF and future UofM roommate).














Scott and I had a lot to learn from experts Drew and Gil - so they spilled as much as possible during their visit of what we need to expect. Sadie was exactly 6 weeks old yesterday and we were exactly 6 weeks until our due date. Can't wait for the girls to meet!

Back to School

This weekend was pretty laid back. Saturday, we spent several hours going through Cheryl's closet and drawers, making piles of stuff to give to charity or store in NJ, thereby freeing up a few more cubic feet for all the incoming baby stuff. We actually made some pretty good progress.

Today we went to six hours of baby classes at a hospital here in Brooklyn. We had an infant childcare class in the morning and a breastfeeding class in the afternoon. We did learn several useful things. For example, Cheryl and I both got to try out some advanced baby handling techniques (along with some deranged facial expressions):



Half of the class time was spent watching terrifying videotapes from the 80's featuring extreme close-ups of doodie diapers, babies spitting up, rotting umbilical cords, circumcision scabs, manually expressed lactation, meconium, and (to borrow from Animal House) more than two dozen other individual acts of childcare so profoundly disgusting that decorum prohibits listing them here.

Aside from that, everything has been wonderful these last few days. Avery is now the size of a pineapple, and we are really excited to meet her in seven weeks! And of course we're both looking forward to a fun Thanksgiving later this week at Elissa & Jon's house. We'll post more during the long holiday weekend.

Lorie & Lisa visit

My mom and Lisa came to town this weekend and we all had a great time together. We were supposed to see Spring Awakening, but weren't able to because the Broadway stagehands went on strike just a few hours before our show, but we still had plenty of other highlights. Just to name a few, we...

Had an amazing brunch at Norma's. The food was so pretty that mom broke out the camera.










The potato pancakes that we all shared for an appetizer were incredible!

We then spent the afternoon at the MOMA. They had an exhibition of Seurat's drawings, and some great sculptures by Martin Puryear. This is one that we all really liked...



















We also spent a long time checking out the paintings on the 5th floor. Mom and I both really liked this one, Dynamism of a Soccer Player by Umberto Boccioni.


















And as the sun set, we finished off our day there in the sculpture garden. Here's mom next to a big something or other.














But the best part of the weekend was when we were just hanging out together at home. On Saturday night we brought in dinner, and also bought a ton of treats from the cookie place down the street. We ended up with eight different types of cupcakes and whoopie pies, all of which we shared.















It was an amazing dessert! (You may notice the sudoku on the coffee table... This was actually Killer Sudoku, a new version mom taught us all how to play. I struggled mightily with some purportedly easy ones, but they were fun to work on together.)

On Sunday, I helped Lisa set up her new Project Runway Fantasy League.


(Email her if you want to join!)

Ultimately, however, Avery was the true star of the weekend. Mom and Lisa got to enjoy some of her powerful kicks, and we all spent a lot of time just talking about her and looking forward to meeting her. It was a ton of fun.

















All in all, it was great to see them, and great to see how excited they are to meet Avery. We feel the same way.

Next weekend, Cheryl and I are taking an introductory childcare class and a breastfeeding class at a hospital here in Brooklyn. Should be fun. Hope everyone has a great week!

31 & 31

This weekend, Cheryl turned 31 (years) and Avery reached 31 (weeks). Cheryl and I had a really nice weekend together to celebrate her birthday. Saturday night, we went to the Brooklyn Museum, which is free & full of fun events the first Saturday of each month. We heard some live music, watched some short films, and looked at all sorts of art. Below are some images from the Contemporary Caribbean Art exhibition, which is where we spent most of our time.







After the museum, we had a late dinner at a Turkish spot in the neighborhood. It ended up being a nice evening from start to finish. Today, we saw Michael Clayton, which we both enjoyed very much, then had a great BD dinner at Po, followed by some great caramel gelato and a cupcake (with candles in them) from our favorite local bakery.

My mom and Lisa will be in town at the end of this week, so we're both looking forward to that. Cheryl and I keep telling each other that we have to get serious about baby prep soon, so their visit may be our last hurrah for awhile. Which reminds me... please vote in our new poll!