A Clean Baby, Part II

The neurobiology department threw me a baby shower today!  I managed to get a few photos of the event.  

I'm certainly very lucky to have such amazing coworkers and friends that give a crap about my kid having enough stuff to crap and vomit on!

(Maybe I'm a little obsessed with the amount of crap and vomit I'm going to be dealing with.)

Thanks to everyone who came out and helped/brought presents/set up etc. Our little family continues to be very blessed :)

I *might* have had two huge slices of cake.  

Feeling somewhat guilty, but man it was totally worth

and extra bit of exercise later :)

Food and decor :)

Loly made the punch.  And then had to store it in a common fridge.

She added a passive aggressive note just in case anyone had any funny ideas.

Crafty Joy did the decor.

Hostesses!  These two are hilarious.

Me with my loot-in gift-opening mode!

Edilicious came by too-her new darker hair is seksi!

A clean baby, part I

My first baby shower was last weekend, hosted by my family in south Mississippi.  We had a great time, and got lots of good stuff for our little Emerald to enjoy/crap and vomit on.

I have been waiting patiently on pictures, since someone came to take photos for us, and finally there are a very few proofs for me to share with you!  More to come of us with our family members and whatnot, but this is a good start.

I'm in "gift-opening mode" which is a good thing because my job is hosting a shower today, and my friends are hosting one tomorrow.  Em and I are lucky girls indeed!

Rikki made the diaper cake-so cute!

I'm dressed like it's a bachelorette party.  But I especially liked the tiara!

Em's first piggy bank.

So, Bambi looks a little weird from this angle.

But I swear to you this was an adorable cake and SO delicious!

This is me destroying things.

Me and the babydaddy.  

This is the only shower he had to attend-

but it was co-ed with drinking.  

So he was alright.

 Not the most thrilled about his "boutonnière".

I was sure my sister would stab me to get back at me 

for all those years of torture.

Have a great weekend everyone!

In case that whole "marriage" thing doesn't work out:

For roughly 35.00, you can purchase your very own wedding ring coffin. Its available from Amazon.com and other fine retailers.

It comes with an engraved plaque:  "Bury the past and move on to a new tomorrow."

People heal in different ways I suppose.

"Maybe she needs some advice."

Evidently I need advice.  Or at the very least I need observation.  From everyone, whether I know them or not.  At this point I have to say that the vast majority of people have been very nice with their smiles and their compliments.  So I try to remember that.

But there is a building services lady that works in my building (she's gotta be pushing 300 pounds), who is always in the lobby when I come into work.  EVERY DAY she asks me when my baby is due, that I am really getting huge, etc.  And now I go in the back door and take the freight elevator.  Which smells like rodents. 

But really the people I can't stomach are the ones in the gym.  I swear I get judged every dang time I go in there! The undergrads (especially) stare at me, which is uncomfortable enough.  Then I get advice.  I do understand that they mean well.  But still!

"Maybe you shouldn't work your core right now" 

(This advice usually prompts a long lesson from me about core muscles, especially obliques, and what they do.)

"You are going to shake your baby around and give it brain damage" (OH DEAR GOD ANYTHING BUT THAT)

"Aren't you only supposed to be swimming?" (Because the baby is floating, I should too.)

"This is not the place for someone who doesn't have good balance"  (As a yoga instructor, I would be willing to bet my balance is better than theirs.)

I can only imagine what it would be if I were still running.

As a side note, I was attacked by two terrible dogs while walking Bells last night. She got nipped at but wasn't hurt.  I lost an earring and my shirt was ripped!  It was terrifying and I was pinned on a stranger's porch before running home with my dog in my arms.  And the owner was just like "Oh, gosh I am so tired and I just got home and these dogs got out." 

Did you notice how that sentence didn't include an "I'm sorry pregnant lady with tiny pooch that my dogs are assholes." Because I definitely noticed. Hrmph.  

I'm no expert but...

I'm pretty sure this isn't the correct installation of a car seat:

We did get it right-eventually. It's actually super easy because the seat just clicks onto the base and there's an extra base installed in my car so we don't have to install the seat each time.

Yay babyholder.

75%!

i'm 3/4 done baking this baby!

the internet machine tells me that she is between 15 and 17 inches long now (really?), and weighs between 2.5 and 4 pounds.

things are going great, my only real complaint being that i haven't taken a decent breath in many many weeks. anxiously awaiting swelling hands and feet-we shall see. i'm too much of a realist to hope to escape that little gem, lol.

10 weeks (give or take) til b-day!

More Vacation, Please.

Rob and I had a great time at the beach!  We went to Santa Rosa Beach, which is sandwiched in between Destin and Panama City.  No douchebags to be found!  We stayed at a B&B that actually didn't serve breakfast anymore.  (Bed and Beach?) Upside?  It was cheaper, and it featured a full kitchen and two grills where we could cook our own meals!  Yeah, we take old people vacations.  It was really nice though, to just walk down and make breakfast (okay, coffee) and to have a place to make sandwiches for our days at the beach and whatnot.  We grilled out a lot, and went out to eat only once. It was delish, but Rob and I make some pretty good food ourselves.  Plus, we had a balcony with an ocean view, so we loved eating our meals out there!

We spent tons of time at the beach, and Rob tried to fish, but it didn't go that well.  Either way, it was really relaxing, and only a 4:30 hour drive away from Birmingham.  Shorter drives are key when you have to ride with a pregnant lady.  We might go back next year with our baby girl! Because I imagine shorter drives are even more key when you have to ride with a baby.

Photos!

Our balcony at night.  

Yummy grilled porkchops and pasta salad for dinner the first night.

Easy boardwalk access to the beach, complete with ocean sounds-ahhh.

We tried to go on a hike.  But didn't get much further than this.

Turns out it's hot in August unless you're at the beach.

Go figure.

Cheesy sunset photo-I swear I didn't lift this from a picture frame!

Our little corner of wonderfulness, view from the boardwalk.

Rob blew up this raft.

So for our long day at the beach, we actually drove down the road,

where we didn't have to carry our stuff as far.  The state park

beach was nicer and less crowded, anyway.

Our villa by the sea-yeah, we're high maintenance.

Rob's 5 minutes of fishing.

 Beach day, hurray!

So when the wind started to blow and it threatened to rain,

we lowered our villa into a "storm shelter".

Luckily it only sprinkled, the wind let up after a while,

and the sun came back out :)

I guess it's always good to be home, but one more day wouldn't have hurt!

People doing stupid shit

If I had the time, I would make a local, Birmingham edition of "The Soup" to cover all the crazy local stuff that goes on around here.

It would include clips from the local "Today Alabama" show that I sometimes catch while I get ready for work.  It would also include clips from the weather forecast...ahem, excuse me "futurecast", especially the one from a few years ago where Stephanie Walker was standing in the rain at Vulcan and proclaiming that the "weather" was coming from "over there".  Thanks, Steph.

It would be genius.

Anyway, here is today's stoopid news article.  It's sad in a way I suppose.

http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2011/08/woman_burned_while_torching_es.html

Basically it says a wife was mad at her soon to be ex, went into his travel trailer WITH HER 3 YEAR OLD, poured gas on everything, and set in on fire WHILE THEY WERE STILL INSIDE. Needless to say she was burned severely.  The only reason this is funny and not tragic is because the child was unharmed.

Special thanks to the city of Morris, Alabama for the afternoon entertainment.

I'm headed to the beach tomorrow!  Woot!

A moment with the Mans Family.

So last week Rob and I went to the annual UAB MERIT retreat, a program in which we are both postdocs.    

As an aside, I'm not sure why they called it a "retreat", given that I had to present two posters, give a short talk on professionalism with undergrad students in the lab, and give a large presentation on a Molecular Biology Methods class that I designed to teach next spring.  

Anyway, the following pictures were taken at the retreat, and I find them hilarious because they illustrate mine and Rob's relationship perfectly.

They also illustrate that, at almost 30 years old, I am STILL incapable of taking a decent picture.  And that I have terrible posture sometimes. Gosh love the guy that took the candids for our wedding.

I tell Rob about how I'm SURE THE SAMPLES WERE SWITCHED.

Notice my energetic looking eyebrows.

I tell him the results probably aren't correct on my undergrad's poster.

He listens patiently, but...

I talk.  About things I think are important.

Or I talk and I think I am funny.

No matter the case, Rob's face depicts his feelings.

This conference was held in a supposedly nice conference center, but man they failed at good lighting.  We look like zombies!

Also, this past weekend Rob's Aunt Beth and three cousins dropped in for a brief visit. We made them dinner (lasagna, salad, bread, and cake!)  His cousins are approximately 17 feet tall, which I will be able to better illustrate when Beth sends the photo she took of all of us together.  

This weekend we are going for massages!  He has a groupon and I have a gift certificate!  And then next week we are going to the beach!  (I am now the proud owner of a pregnant lady swimsuit, and it's not completely horrid looking, but don't get your hopes up about seeing this bathing beauty on the intergoogle.)

Happy Thursday :)