Another photo and a video

Not much to do around here but sleep and take photos of Blake :)

Blake and I

Blake waking up this morning

Home birthed at last!

Here is Blake in all his glory!

The before picture, 5am this morning:

6 lbs. 7 oz. and 20 inches long.

Introductions

It has been less than 24 hours and I am once again eating another salami sandwich. I tuck myself into bed at night and dream of the next time I get to have one. Anyways, as I sit in front of the computer enjoying my bliss, I realized I haven't introduced anyone to our Licensed Midwife. Here is her website address where you can read all about her. Her prenatal care has gone above and beyond what I expected.

http://www.rosannadavis.com/

Life is good.

Almost Full Term

I am almost in the middle of my 36th week of pregnancy which means I will be "full term" on Monday. I have decided a great day for Blake to come into this world would be on April 22nd, Earth Day. He has the ultimate say I guess.

Andrew staged a mini photo shoot the other night so we could take some belly photos. I made Andrew call me "model" the whole time even though my rounder figure wouldn't cut it on any runway at this point (or before for that matter)!

New York in memories now

I would have been so happy to come home to all this rain in California, but now I wish it was snow. Geesh, I am never totally satisfied. Andrew finally uploaded all of the pictures from NY so I am adding some to the blog.

It was absolutely wonderful to take the train upstate to visit our friends Carolyn, Dave, and their adorable daughter Elaine. Elaine is the spitting image of Carolyn and I am sure she inherited Dave's great qualities too, but she reminds me so much of Carolyn at this point.

The farm/school was a ghost town and we didn't end up seeing anyone we knew. It was still great to have found my way back to the school. I have such fond memories and now they are even fonder. I am counting down the days until I get back to NY. I hope it doesn't take eight more years.

Andrew just taught me how to create a gallery so here is the link to all the photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/hurstdog/NewYorkAlbum?authkey=A3_gB36N1wk

Swollen Ankles

I still love New York, but my ankles are getting a bit tired of walking around everywhere. I think Blake may be looking forward to some down time when we get back. Tonight marks the end of my five day whirlwind through Manhattan and the neighboring boroughs. I am looking forward to visiting my friends up in Cold Spring (an hour north of Manhattan by train) for a day on their farm. We will meet up with some friends and eat lunch before heading back to Green Chimneys School where I was an intern back in 2000. My body is begging for a break from the busy city and what better place to visit than an organic farm!

Here is what I have done since I last posted:

Wednesday
1. Bought an umbrella at the Duane Reade
2. Took the subway into Queens and walked ten minutes in the pouring rain to the Queens Museum of Art. It was great to learn all about the World Fair.
3. Went back to Manhattan (it had stopped raining thank goodness) and visited a famous children's consignment shop. It wasn't as great as the reviews.
4. Met up with Andrew and ate yummy Japanese food in the East Village, of course stopped by a pub for some beers, and then hit the Dunkin Donuts on the way home for some glazed Munchkins.

Thursday
1. Met up with Skyla's sister Cammie in the Upper West Side.
2. She took me all around and showed me where to get the best bagel (it was superb). We then hunted around for the best chocolates and other delicious goodies. She is a good thrift store guide also.
3. Parted ways with Cammie and headed down to the Union Square area to check out the neighborhood/thrift stores. By the way, I pick out a few thrift stores as my starting points and then wander around the neighborhoods. Less fattening than hitting all the Dunkin Donut shops.
4. Andrew and I got ready for our Valentine's Day cruise on the Hudson.
5 Had a blast on the V-Day cruise
6. After eating a fabulous meal and a chocolate cake dessert, we stopped into a Papaya King and ate a corn dog. We don't know what possessed us to do that, but it was very yummy.

Friday
1. Almost didn't make it out of bed, for my legs and unborn child screamed out for a day of rest.
2. Hopped on the subway to check out Brooklyn
3. Wandered around the Carroll/Smith street area of Brooklyn
4. Ate the best lunch ever at a little French restaurant
5. Lost track of time so I missed my appointment to tour the Apollo Theater in Harlem
6. Rode the subway back to Manhattan to visit Harlem. I went into the lobby of the Apollo Theater, but I am a bit sad I didn't get to tour it. Harlem is great and I wish I could have spent more time there.
7. Met up with Andrew for dinner at another brewery/restaurant. This time I had fun with it and made us eat buffalo. I guess they are working with the American Heart Association and are running some February campaign where buffalo is a healthier alternative to beef. I got the buffalo mini burgers and Andrew got the big buffalo burger. They were yummy and tasted just like beef. Blake liked it too.
8. We went to MOMA, but it was 7:50pm and it closed at 8pm so we just wandered around the gift shop before calling it a night.

Here are the pics:

THE CRUISE

THE VIEW FROM THE TERRACE ON THE TOP OF OUR BUILDING

BEER & BUFFALO

Please excuse any grammatical errors since I am writing this at 12:49am and am delusional from walking for five days straight.

Day 2

Day two is almost over (whimper, whimper) and I have fallen even more in love with NY since it snowed all day long. It has been eight years since I have seen this kind of snow, but I was working outside on the farm so it wasn't as fun to be in. Andrew and I are both surprised at how much we are enjoying the cool weather.

Today, I slept in (walking all day takes a toll on a pregnant woman) before heading out into the snow to a few hot spots I had picked out that would send me uptown, downtown, and all around. I saw: some thrift stores (who knew prices at the Goodwill start at $7.99 here), West Elm (even better in person than the catalog), a yarn shop in the Fifth Avenue Plaza, and stopped in at Crumbs for a famous and delicious cupcake. When Andrew got off work we went to B&H photo and video and enjoyed walking amongst the isles and isles of electronic equipment. After that, Andrew wanted to stand in the snow for an hour taking pictures of Central Park. I lasted half way through the hour, but ended up wandering around Borders bookstore to avoid completely freezing. It really doesn't feel that cold, but my toes started getting wet.

Now for the pictures.

THE AIRPORT WHEN WE ARRIVED (snowing)

HOW EXCITED I WAS TO SEE SNOW

THE WEATHER WHEN ANDREW AND I SET OUT THIS EVENING

ANDREW ON THE SUBWAY

FUELING UP AT A PUB BEFORE HEADING BACK OUT IN THE SNOW

ON THE EDGE OF CENTRAL PARK

MOM AND DAD TO BE

NO WATER JUST SNOW

WHERE DOGS GO TO GET OUT BEFORE BEDTIME