Friday, August 29, 2008

100 days to go!

When I first found out I was pregnant, Heather gave me this little pregnancy countdown book. Instead of giving weekly or monthly updates, it gives a fun quirky fact or tidbit every day. I keep this book in the bathroom and every morning before I shower I turn the page. This morning my page said 100 days to go. Wow. 180 days down already. I started thinking about when this baby is born and what the world will be like for him. Here's a couple of interesting ideas:

1. He will never know George Bush as President. Bush will still be the sitting President when Baby Harvill is born, but he will be known as a lame duck at that point and we'll just be waiting for January 20 when the new President is sworn in.

2. The first President he will know will either be an black man with a white running mate or a white man with a female running mate. Historic. I remember when Geraldine Ferraro was selected as Walter Mondale's running mate. My mom and I met her in the airport in Florida and I remember her talking to my mom briefly about being a teacher. She gave me a pin. That was 1984 and I was seven. Remarkable what you remember.

3. When he is born, Michael Jackson and Madonna will both be 50 years old (Happy Birthday MJ, you crazy fool).

4. Our child will start kindergarten in 2014, drive a car in 2024, finish high school in 2027 and graduate from college with the class of 2031, give or take a year. I can't even fathom this.

5. He'll probably know how to work a computer before he can read or write and he'll do school presentations by using PowerPoint. I still remember slide shows and overhead projectors.

Feel free to add yours. I'll send a recap after our childbirthing class tomorrow (if we make it through without fainting).

Have a great holiday weekend.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Baby's room: Under Construction

We didn't want to start work on Rockstar's room until we knew what we were having. Now that we know there's a boy in there, we decided it was time to get to work. A couple of people asked me about painting and wainscotting so here's a little step-by-step tutorial on what we did.

Step one: empty room of all crap and lay out paper and tarps on the floor. Even if you think you are neat, you're messy.

Step two: have dogs (read: cheap labor) help you bring in necessary tools. Just kidding. I thought this picture was cute though. Shamus and Lucy wanted to be involved (Lucy succeeded by achieving a painted nose).


Step three: Paint. Repeat. Kelly, this is what Asparagus (the color, not the pee) looks like.


Step four: Cut and install wainscotting. Order several pizzas. This process is time consuming and requires a lot of patience. Install base molding and chair rail. Oh yeah, having a husband who is super handy and knows his way around a circular saw and nail gun helps too (three cheers for Joel!).
Step five: Caulk. Joel left me to handle caulking and while I did a good job, I also managed to caulk my hair, my leg, my face and every inanimate object in the room.We still have to paint the wainscotting and the doors white and hang the curtains (that's our Wednesday task). But here's what the semi-finished product looks like:







Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Hilton Head = HOT

We're back from our vacation and I must say it was very relaxing. Two days in Charleston and four days in Hilton Head does a body good.

Charleston is known as the friendliest city in the United States and I have to agree. The people there couldn't be nicer. I'm not sure if its a southern hospitality thing, an inability to be mean in such intense heat or continued guilt for their years of slavery, but the people there wave hello when you walk by, stop to offer directions when you look lost and take the time to chat in restaurants. In fact, when we were walking around the downtown area, we chatted with a local photographer who brought us to the oldest cemetery in the city. It was so beautiful and serene.


We took a carriage tour to give us the historical overview of the area and then we headed out to a local plantation. I consider myself quite the traveler, but the south is new territory for me and I'm thankful that we had a tour guide to give us the background. I never knew that there was confederate currency that was rendered meaningless following the Civil War (perhaps I was absent from history class that day). Here's a shot of us at the reflecting pool at the plantation:




Then it was off to Hilton Head. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the one thing we learned is Hilton Head in August is HOT. I mean, I'm a warm weather person, but this was just plain ridiculous. We arrived at our hotel at noon and our room wasn't ready so we decided to go to the beach. Joel called ahead and got us a cabana on the beach complete with our own waitress. It gave us some shelter from the sun and we spent the day going back and forth between the ocean and the shade. Here's the 22 week pregnant view from my perspective:


Hilton Head is a pretty family oriented town, so at night we wandered around the gated communities, listened to live music and took in the sights. Here's a good shot of us down by the marina:

Joel captured the new belly pic at 22 weeks (this time with clothes on):


Finally, we headed back to DC to pick up our pups who were having a great time with their dog-cousins (although I think they missed us a little bit). I love this picture of Lucy and just had to share. I think she was trying to lick me and the camera simultaneously: