Springtime

Last week, it felt like spring might never come to Reno, so it was a good time for us to take a trip to Arizona. The timing was also nice because Gabels wanted to throw us a shower, and Chris was going to be there for work already. We left Thursday night during a snowstorm, and arrived to temperatures in the mid-70s. It was great! Grammie and Grandpa came down from Illinois for the weekend, too, and it was great to see them. While Chris worked on Friday Alison and I got pedicures and then all of us spent Friday afternoon walking around the Tempe Arts Festival before Chris joined us out for dinner.

Saturday was the shower. It is overwhelming (in a good way, of course!) how much Baby Gabel is already loved by so many people. We are so blessed!

It was so nice to be able to spend time with Chris' parents, sister and grandparents during our trip.

So many of our friends made it for the shower, and stayed late into the evening hanging out and visiting. We wish we could see everyone more often, and we're glad we were able to spend some time with everyone, and finally meet Kaitlin (Marc & Kristin's daughter) and Ben (Kelli & Kyle's son).
It seems that ever since I've been pregnant, so many people I know are also pregnant, but it's kind of a bummer that only one of my expecting friends lives in Reno. Kat and Jeffrey, who we met working at the paper in Yuma but are currently living in Phoenix, are also expecting a girl and are due five weeks before we are. It was great talking pregnancy and babies with Kat!

On Sunday, Alison and I headed to Camelback Ranch to catch the last Dodger spring training game of the season before the team headed off to L.A. I think the baby is going to be a baseball fan, because as soon as we sat down she was just kicking and kicking!

It was really a great trip. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I'm saving up all my PTO for when the baby arrives. Chris stayed a little longer to work, and gets home in the morning. Luckily, it's been mostly sunny with temperatures in the 60s since I got home, and 70s expected at the end of the week. Let's hope winter is over!

St. Patrick's Day

I'm sure it comes as a surprise to no-one that I love celebrations and holidays of all kinds. St. Patrick's Day was always a fun day for us growing up, wearing green, my mom always made corned beef and cabbage for dinner, we'd watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People, and we would get treats (cards, stickers, See's Irish Potatoes) in the mail from my dad. I celebrate St. Patrick's Day in one way or another every year, and just because I couldn't have green beer this year, I wasn't going to let that stop me.

First, Chris, Na and I met at Coney Island for lunch because everyone said they had the best corned beef and cabbage. It was yummy.

Then after work we met up with a bunch of friends at a bar/restaurant that was having a St. Paddy's Day celebration. G drinks were consumed - green beer, Guiness, and ginger ale (the last one for the pregnant lady) - and I enjoyed the company and a Guiness beef stew for dinner.

John & Julie

Me & Julie

Erin, Zmoe and TJ

When I checked the mail on Friday, I was surprised with an Irish Potato from my Dad - what a treat!

Did you celebrate on Thursday?

Scoop's Visitor

A couple weekends ago my friend Carlie from school (who lives down the street) and her boyfriend Chris were headed for vacation and their roommate was also gone during part of their trip, so their dog Amara came to stay with us for a few days.

You would think (if you were judging only on size) that Scoop and Amara would be the best of friends. But Amara isn't super excited about playing with other dogs and Scoop is overexcited about playing with other dogs. So, at first, they got on each other's nerves.

Despite Scoop's pillows being quite oversized, they wouldn't lay down next to each other, and Scoop would get jealous if I tried to pet Amara or let her sit on my lap. (She's never acted like that with other dogs).
But finally, after a couple days, they started playing together and actually seemed like maybe they were having fun.
They chased each other up and down the stairs and all around the house and fought over toys, and even played dress up ;-)

And, eventually, they even got close enough to share the same pillow.

- - -

In other news ...

-Next month, I'll be doing the March of Dimes March for Babies

-Through the end of March, I'll donate 25 percent of the proceeds from my Etsy shop to the Red Cross for Japan relief efforts

-Chris felt the baby move this week for the first time! And, we received our first baby gift in the mail! Such excitement!

21 weeks

So, this week I am 21 weeks along, a little more than halfway. The photo at right was taken last week and after it was taken my tummy seemed to grow overnight! Now that we know we're having a girl, it's been fun to try to imagine what she will be like. What will her interests be? Will she bake and watch musicals with me, will she watch football and shoot hoops with Chris? Will she take up hobbies neither of us ever did? Will her eyes be blue or green or brown? Will her hair be dark like mine, or lighter like when Chris was little? Will it be curly, like her Aunty Mena's, or straight like her Aunty Alison's, or somewhere in between like her momma's? We read that by this week she has eyebrows, and the one thing we're fairly certain of is that those will really be quite the eyebrows! This week, according to the experts, she is about the length of a carrot, and has been able to hear what we say for the past couple weeks. (This makes me wonder if I should stop listening to music with swear words?) Although the movements are soft right now, I can feel her moving much more the last couple of days, which has been really amazing. We have been working on turning the craft room into the baby's room, and discussing names (Scoop has heard them all, but we're confident she'll keep them secret). Also, since we announced thepregnancy some people have asked us what the first baby thing was we went out and bought, so for those who wanted to know, over the weekend we got her a cute little outfit (left) that's now hanging in her closet. (And for those still curious about cravings, on the way home from making said purchase I had a serious lemonade craving, made Chris stop to buy lemons, made a pitcher as soon as we got home and drank it all in less than 24 hours.)

I realize this has been a long and rambling (and perhaps boring to those of you who aren't me) update, but baby is top of mind these days. It is all very exciting and sometimes a little frightening as we prepare to meet this little one, knowing how very dependent she will be on us. But mostly it's exciting, and we're so grateful for all the love and support of our family and friends.

It's a ... Gabel!

Before our big ultrasound this week, we tested out a few theories and old wives tales online to see how accurate they are in predicting gender.

• A couple of ancient Chinese gender calculators both predicted a girl.
• One theory says that craving sweets indicate a girl while salty or sour cravings indicate a boy. I mostly have been wanting plain things, like bread and pasta and cheese. So we'll call this one a wash.
• Another one said ancient Mayans believed if the mother's age at conception and year of conception were both odd or both even years, it's a girl, and if one was even and one odd it's a boy. In this case, we would be having a boy.
• Girls supposedly steal their mother's beauty, so if you're breaking out (yep!), it's a girl.
• Tie a ring to a string and hang it over your belly. If it goes back and forth it's a boy, if it goes in a circle it's a girl. The first two attempts the ring didn't move. The second two times it seemed like maybe it was going in a circle. Girl.
• If you're sick during the first trimester (yep!) this is also supposed to indicate a girl.

Chris from the beginning thought we were having a girl. I thought girl at first, then boy for a while, then back to girl. I had dreams about a boy and a girl, Chris had a dream about a boy. Either way, of course, we would be thrilled. Most important is having a healthy baby, and everything looked good on the ultrasound so we are very thankful.

And it appears most of these theories were right, for us anyway.

We're having a Girl!