Saturday, September 22, 2007

Racing Towards The Finish Line

Just 3.5 weeks to go until Zipper's due date. We forgot to take a pregnancy pic of Emily until Thursday, and were in a hurry to go for some exercise when we remembered, hence the crazy pose for this weeks picture.



Compare to the first picture we took at the beginning of May when Emily was just starting to show.


Emily is generally feeling very good though increasingly tired. The baby is kicking up a storm and really working her way under Emily's rib cage which is sorta funny and very uncomfortable. Using conservative estimates of 0.5 lbs growth per week since her weight was measured 8/24/2007, we are guessing Zipper is about 7.5 pounds right now leading us to believe she's going to be a big fat baby. The doctor wouldn't say whether he thinks Emily will deliver early or late at this point, though we think she'll probably go on the early side. My rigorous analysis leads me to believe it will be October 7, between 4:30 and 5:00pm.

We've been a little slow with the final details of the nursery due to some bad shipping time estimates. Emily has spent the last few days, however, finishing shopping for clothes for the baby, a few things Emily needs for her hospital bag, and last minute touches with nursery decorating. By the end of this weekend we should be ready for the baby to show up whenever is most convenient for her.

Regarding names, we are still flailing, but at least we've narrowed down the universe of names actively under consideration to about 40. I spent a lot of time organizing the various combinations in a spreadsheet the other day, and though it was totally useless in helping actually choose a name, it made me feel good to confirm that I'm really awesome at making attractive spreadsheets, a critical skill for fatherhood.

Too Much of a Good Thing

Emily is the queen of bargain hunting. 95% of the time, that is a good thing and leads to great deals and money saved. From time to time things don't work out perfectly. Recently we used Smart Balance Certified Organic Buttery Spread and thought it was terrific. We loved it. The container looks like this.

Emily was shopping at Costco the other day and saw a great deal on Smart Balance Buttery Spread ($5 or something for a 5 lb container!) so she picked it up. The container looks like this.


What may not be obvious when you're comparing them side by side is that the deal was on the regular buttery spread which is marginal tasting at best, and has no other virtues that I'm aware of beyond the price. The real down side is that, being the cheapskates we are we definitely won't throw it away, so we've got to work our way through 5lbs, or 162 servings, of mediocre buttery spread.

The Cool Part

Sherri reminded me the other day that when I was growing up I had a security blanket, and that I extracted endless joy from rubbing the "cool part", aka the satin edging, across my nose and cheeks. Apparently I enjoyed it so much I actually chafed my face a bit. Point being, wow how technology has improved blankets! Check out the "cool part" on these things - some of them are nothing but cool parts!

Big Dorks and Failing Grades

Sweet Emily was exhausted yesterday but was able to push through and keep a dinner date we had with one of our favorite couples (names withheld to protect the innocent). Dinner was at Hawthorne Pizza where I'd only been for lunch and Emily had never been at all. Fantastic service and really good food too. Bottom line is that everyone at dinner was very bright and successful in multiple ways, but everyone also had an experience with one or more failing grades in college. It was so good to connect over failures (which I normally think are embarrasing), and to own up to being big dorks. To paraphrase our birthing doctor, it's taken 10 years and tons of therapy to get excited about that moniker.