I feel as though this week went by really fast, which is kinda odd since it wasn’t a shortened week like last week.  (Well, except for Seth, who got yesterday off for Rosh Hashanah.)  Next week should fly by, too, since I’m taking off Thursday and Friday and driving back up to Corning.  Sheils is flying in and we’re going to paint the town red for a couple of days (which won’t be that hard since it’s a very small town), and then we’re driving up to Buffalo where we will pick up our respective other-halves from the airport so the 4 of us can go to the Baylor/Buffalo game on Saturday.  We may also make a quick trek to Niagara Falls since Seth has never been there.   I understand my dad is planning our Saturday around all the indigenous food offerings of Buffalo–  so apparently, I’m not only my mother’s clone but also a chip off the paternal block because I LOVE to plan my days around food!!  :-)   Anyway, we’re thankful for the timing of Yom Kippur this year so Seth had this weekend off to go to his first BU football game in at least 6 years.

 We got a call last week that the crib and dresser are in so I think we’ll be heading over to pick those up on Sunday afternoon.  We don’t quite have a space for them yet, but we’ll figure it out.   Big Daddy Kenton (that’s actually NOT Seth, although we should start thinking up fun names for him as a father) is coming to visit the weekend after next and we’ve assigned him to crib-assembly duties.  (Don’t worry, dear father-in-law– we’ll manage to do some fun things, too!  I know you want to eat a big bowl of Indian curry and chase it with some sushi!)

Not really much else going on.  Seth’s game tomorrow morning should be interesting because it’s the first situation in all his years of coaching where we know the head coach of the other team.  He’s engaged to a woman who coaches track with Seth.  We were all together at an event Saturday night and I was trying to get them to talk some trash about the game, but they’re both mild-mannered men.  Boring.  I do hope we win, though!!!

Hope everyone has a delightful day!

An Emily fact:  I have never at any point during my 28 years had a television in my bedroom.  Even during the year I lived in a dorm as a college freshman– my roommate and I were the ONLY ones in the whole dorm who didn’t have a TV, I bet.  (We also were the only roommate pair that had no cars among us.  It was a difficult year.)  With the carpet installation, however, we had to move a bunch of stuff up from the downstairs and the guest room TV and DVD player ended up in our room for a temporary stay.

Another Emily fact:  I am obsessive about watching TV shows that I Netflix.  Last night, we ate dinner (and pondered briefly eating it in bed since we often watch TV while eating and the main TV hadn’t been hooked back up yet), and then I proceeded to lie in the bed and watch:  FOUR episodes of The Office (3 of which were super-sized) along with 2 episodes of Big Love.  Since I wanted to send back the discs today, I started my morning with the 3rd episode of Big Love.  So in a span of 13 hours, I think I spent 8 of it sleeping and 5 of it watching TV shows on DVD.  Probably not a great habit.  We’ll be taking the TV back to the guest room tonight!

Final Emily fact that has nothing to do with anything:  I don’t do matches.  I think one time Seth made me light one and it was horrible.  Never again.

So yesterday, we got all new carpet downstairs.  For those of you who have been to our little box, er, house, you know that it’s two rectangles on top of each other.  We redid the upstairs carpet as soon as we closed on the house because it was not only a disgusting dark brown color but also in bad, bad shape.   We (and our bank account) were relieved that the carpet throughout the downstairs, a pale Berber, seemed to be relatively new and looked fine.  So we left it.

As we prepare for Baboo’s arrival, however, it has struck me that I’d just feel better all around knowing that there was clean and fresh carpet downstairs.  Even though his nursery will be upstairs, we do most of our “living” downstairs and I imagine that’s where he might eventually start crawling around.  I realize he won’t be moving around much for awhile, but when he does get to the point, I’d rather not think about what might be hanging out in the mystery carpet!

I know carpet is becoming more and more “not cool” as people switch to hardwoods, but I’ve always been into the coziness of it.  (Plus, I don’t think our house is architecturally interesting enough for hardwoods, anyway!)  I knew I wanted something more casual downstairs than our nice carpet upstairs, but also wanted something that was not going to be a pain to clean.  I had quite a learning experience when I returned to the carpet store for the first time in 3.5 years and found out prices had increased something like 35% because of the petroleum connection.  I went ahead and picked out a longer, almost shag-like, carpet (much like yours, Linds!) which I assumed was being referred to as a frisee (can’t figure out how to do an accent aigu, so just imagine it), but is apparently actually spelled frieze.  In either case, Seth’s comment was, “it’s even cozier than before!”  And yes, “cozy” might be a euphemism for “small” but to us, it’s perfect.

I’m leading a training today and tomorrow for some of my colleagues near Arundel Mills (about 15 min away for anyone not local).  It’s really kinda fun to be able to come home and get in my own bed after a long day of work rather than being in another city staying in a hotel.  It’s a fabulous ”audience” of 5 women, 2 of whom are Marylanders and the other 3 who have traveled from different parts of the Northeast.  We ended up going to Timbuktu last night for crabcakes, so thanks to Tom and Co. for telling me about that place.  (Isn’t that the one that’s owned by the same people as G&M, where I know you like to take people, Jen and Chad?)

So I got home late last night and went to get the mail with my bag and my leftover portion of crab cake when I could’ve sworn I felt something drop onto my foot.   I walked a bit farther and, sure enough, I felt something again.  Since I’m worst-case scenario Emily, my first thought was that I was bleeding.  Even in the dark, though, I didn’t seem to see anything red on my foot.  So then I figured maybe my crab cake was dripping–but that didn’t make much sense since there was nothing liquid to it.  Then I realized what was happening.  My water bottle had spilled in my bag–my computer bag–and was now dripping off the bag.  Argh!!  Thankfully most of the water was in a different compartment from where the actual machine was, but it definitely got wet and definitely was not working last night.  I got out the hair dryer per Christy’s suggestion and then let it dry out overnight sans battery per Eric’s suggestion, and now am waiting a bit longer before I see if it’s going to work.  I’m still holding out hope. 

The weird thing is that yesterday was the first day really ever that I kept getting foot cramps, and it was mentioned to me that perhaps I was dehydrated.  Since I was standing up and talking most of the day, I was not drinking anywhere near as much water as I would if I had been home working.  So basically, I am getting punished for working out of the home office and being too busy to drink all the water in my bottle.  That’s it– I’m never working again.

Off to get ready for…..work.  Sigh. 

I can’t believe Owen is already 2 months old.

First the numbers: O weighs 12 pounds, 4 ounces which is the 75^th %ile for his age. He gained 2 pounds in a month, which is kind of amazing, since he added a fifth of his body weight. His head, despite looking pretty darn big, is 75^th%ile. He’s still tall (90^th%ile), at 24 inches long. He got 4 shots and one oral vaccine today. He liked the oral vaccine ok, but the shots displeased him. Of course, he also seems to dislike having his hips checked, which made him cry just as loudly as the shots did. This afternoon, he’s been recovering from his visit to the pediatrician by sleeping and eating, then sleeping some more. Fortunately he seems to like the grape-flavored infant Tylenol. Overall, his head control is improving, he wiggles around like he wants to roll from stomach to back, coos and smiles like a champ.

In the last month, Owen has had a few firsts:

First road trip – we went to
North Carolina last weekend for a great visit with Ann, Travis’s aunt. Cousin Eric accompanied us. Owen didn’t mind the car ride and enjoyed the company there.

First visit to an art installation – Also in
North Carolina, where we visited a beautiful park with large sculptures in it. One favorite was the tower made of newspapers.

First visit to the mall – Now I know why there are always people with strollers at the mall. It’s a nice place to walk around with your kiddo. There’s food, places to sit, and if you have to leave a store b/c fussiness, you’re still inside.

First Fine Dining - Travis fed O a bottle sitting next to the piano at Nordstrom. Owen liked the music a lot.

First getting caught in the rain – after the mall, when a tree blocked the road to our house.

First visit to church – Owen likes the music, but doesn’t like the clapping after the choir sings. He also likes the readings and the sermon. By ‘likes’, I mean ‘sleeps through’.

First gagging himself with his fist - Yes, my little dude has discovered how to get his right hand in his mouth, which he drools and slimes all over. Yesterday I think he poked some of his fingers a little too deep.

First pair of cowboy boots – from Target, He’s getting ready to outgrow his boots with his big baby feet.

The weather in Corning this past weekend really got me excited for my favorite season.  Why do I love the fall so much?  One word:  CRISPNESS!!   Crisp weather, crisp apples, maybe some apple crisp…it’s all so darn exciting!  

While Labor Day might kick off the autumnal season in many ways, it seems like it’s the advent of Sherwood football that really gets it going here.  Football season means Saturday mornings in the bleachers, a string of paternal visits, hot chocolate, me not being able to find the ball on the field.  I’m a bit saddened by the fact that I doubt Baboo will allow me to fit into my Sherwood hoodie, however.  I pondered aloud to Seth whether he thought they might have some maternity togs made for school spirit, and he pointed out that maternity wear probably isn’t the market a high school wants to be part of.  Sigh.  Maybe I can design something for myself online!

And in totally non-related news, if you’re reading this because you’re bored and are looking for some entertainment, check out http://babystrology.com/games/index.html.   I found this on another blog (yes, Laura, I read your sister-in-law’s blog every now and then!), and it’s kinda fun.  It’s like those games in the Orbitz pop-up ads.  I sent it to Christy and she racked up over 8000 pts on her first try.  I’ve barely cracked 5000, but then again, I never was good at sports.

I’ve just returned from a wonderful trip to Corning for my 10-year high school (incredibly laid-back) reunion.  The weather was amazing–although it felt very much like late fall Saturday night when it got down to something like 45 degrees!–and everybody who returned to town for the event seemed to enjoy themselves.  I came home to dig through some old pics so I could provide a mini-restrospective of some key players in my weekend entertainment!

 Ah, the 1997 East High Senior Prom.  Cait, Julie, Anne, and I pose in our shimmery pastel best.  Fast forward 10 years and you have:

Here’s one more look at another crew, this time from rival West High.  Swimming was a District team so the two schools bonded together each fall to field (er, pool?) a swim team.  My two best WHS swimming buddies, Carrie and Heather, are posed here with “The Adwoman”, our middle school swim coach.  Minor disclaimer that this pic is circa 1998 and not 1997 but just go with it!   

 Since East and West combined forces for this reunion weekend, we were all in town and able to stop by and visit with our fave ex-coach this weekend:

 I have always said that my favorite kind of movie is a Coming-of-Age story (preferably with swelling orchestral music at the same time as a voice-over by the adult version of the main character after a retrospective montage–makes me cry every time!)  While I know it can be disconcerting for many to have the years pass by, I am so excited to be able to chart these milestones in my life and look forward to the next reunion.   But as my fellow organizers (Carrie and Julie) and I said repeatedly this weekend– it’ll be someone else’s turn to plan that one!!