Another Monday

After a cool, rainy, and rather bleak but enjoyable weekend, I am again at my computer. The main reason is to share my newest addition to the steadily growing collection of baby items. (Yes, babies require their own toys, books, blankets, towels, soaps, clothes, itty bitty wash cloths, traveling equipment, and of course, lots of new furniture.) But first a note about the fun weekend...

One of the most fullfilling things I did this past week was to coach my little sisters in dance in preparation for their first feis. Now it was long and tedious, but upon hearing that sister-who-dances-like-a-scarecrow-on-a-pole won 3rd and 5th place, I was quite elated! Who would have thought it?

Splitting a bottle of champagne and watching Brideshead was another highlight of the weekend--one that is hard to beat. Of course there was also much fun to be had visiting with cousins on both sides all day Sunday. Non-stop fun, at least from my perspective. Poor Love was at home with a crying baby for half of the day but then got to smoke and drink in the evening with the other cousins.

The most exciting thing, though, was the chance spotting, on my drive home from seeing some cousins, of a closing down yard sale where a beautiful wooden high chair sat, waiting for me. I had to stop by and ask the price. The lovely highchair was not large and cumbersome but rather slim and short, made of wood with a plastic tray. The whole thing was quite dirty and rather gross, but nothing that a good cleaning couldn't fix. For $10 it was a steal.  Home it was brought and cleaned it was and now it sits in our kitchen clean and ready for use. Now I am all set for teething baby to begin eating real foods. (I bought an adorable babyfood cookbook which has be overly excited to be mashing and smashing veggies and fruits into puddles of dark oozing stickiness for my little baby.)

Here is Baby in his new and very clean piece of furniture, happy to have a place to sit at the table.

Thank you.

My love and I are just finishing our thank you notes!! HOOORAY! Of course this means that I am getting a little insane...ok more than a little. This blog post then is a rant. And please, when you readers get married, take note of my distress.

Dear gift giver # 185,

You are closer to the end but still not gift giver # 300 therefore I shall write this as quickly as possible so as to be done with all 300 of you. Thank you for the junk! It is great! 185 other people have already given us junk. That's great. We like it. Thanks again. You are awesome and a great friend. (I have NO IDEA who you are. Are you a relative? I dearly hope not.)
love,
stressed moi

***

Dear ____,

Thanks for the ____. Everyone else gave us ____ too. we like ____.
love,
moi


While I do this my dear husband is teasing me and reading "mistakes" on all my notes. Fail.

This is Bobby's version of how to write thank you notes. (He kindly stopped by and helped relive our stress for a few minutes.)

Dear Joe,

Thanks for the Franklin and the plates. You should have given us 2 franklins instead of the plates because we know what we like better than you.
Thanks,
moi

I hope you enjoyed. :D
This blog post brought to you by mojitos, cake, and a lack of sleep. (Thanks baby!)

Introducing Baby

Baby was born 10 days late, but despite his tardiness his mother and father love him as much as ever!

Sleeping Baby

Baby does a lot of sleeping

Baby and Papa

Grr Mom, stop taking so many pictures!

Photo Shoot

At Mom's instigation last Sunday, we had a photo shoot. (Miss T took the pictures so obligingly and they turned out very nicely!) The weather was delightful and the cherry trees were out in full bloom. The green foliage is also coming in rather beautifully.

Photo sample from Sunday...

Still Waiting.

As sad as I was that Pi day came and went, I guess I should be grateful for baby's tardiness. Since he has not yet come I have been sleeping (a ton) but also doing super fun things.

For St. Patrick's day we went to CUA to watch the rugby game vs C-dom. Aside from having no idea about the game it was really fun to watch! I thought I had pictures but I do not at the moment so those will also have to wait. My sister made delicious green cupcakes which were all gobbled up by the end of the game. Sweetheart and I got some nice (and greatly desired) sun. I also learned a million things about Rugby, and my brother scored a try! (None of the family was there to see it though as we were very very late. DC traffic.)

Today we spent time socializing at Church and then Sweetheart made Kaiserschmarrn for lunch! I baked Irish Soda bread and some delicious chewy granola bars. Later we went to visit my family and then to the cousins for dinner and good times. Aside from missing a cute baby to "coo" over, it was a very very fun day.

I suppose we'll wait to see what is in store for tomorrow. Hopefully Baby will come and I won't need to make last-minute plans, but if he doesn't perhaps I will plant some flowers and continue to catch up on thank you notes.

Now I am just waiting for Baby to come. And waiting. And waiting. He is due tomorrow and I hope he comes then. Until then I suppose I will enjoy all the perks of having a watermelon belly and waddling like a duck. :)

1 week to go!

For the first "real" post on this blog, I thought I would make it more of a sneak peak to what I hope will be many more posts with fun pictures and stories. This "sneak peak" idea is also because I have given up looking for the camera cord so the rest of my super exciting photos are all stuck in my camera with no way of getting off. 

These photos are somewhat in chronological order spanning all of 1 month and two radically different climates. Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Break, Key Largo
Baby 5 1/2 Months

With Mozart in the Hofburg Gardens
Baby hiding behind the warm coat

Christmas in Vienna
Baby 6 1/2 Months

Walking home after midnight Mass
Swing Coats are very nice for hiding little babies

Fun at the Prater!

Delicious food at the Rathaus Christmas Market

More posts to come, I promise! Once I find my camera cord, I will begin to upload pictures.