Yep, been way too long since the Dad-to-be gave his opinion, and I think its about time I give a little perspective on this past weekend.
Kelsey did it. She gave me the best golden birthday a husband could ever ask for. We took off for my parent's cabin as previously mentioned and had a really great time. We went to the local bar on Friday night, and headed to bed after some cards. The boys woke up early Saturday for golf, and while it started out cloudy, by the time we got back to the cabin the sun was shining and the boat and the ladies were ready. We cruised around on the boat, soaking up the sun, and going for a few relaxing swims in the creek. Everyone noticed how easier it was to swim with life jackets and also, how you could have your favorite beverage while swimming. It was heaven. After lounging we had to see just what the boat could do. I made Brian pull me wakeboarding and after a few average runs I fell and said enough of the work, time for some more relaxation. We had some wonderful steaks on the grill and enjoyed a nice cabin night with a thunderstorm and more cards / lounging around. All-in-all it was a great cabin weekend.
On Sunday after cleaning up we headed down to Chicago for the Cubs game on Monday night. We stayed in a hotel in downtown Chicago and I got to enjoy a nice night in my favorite city. We wandered around the city Monday morning and I got to grab a few souvenirs for the upcoming Cubs game that night. We headed to the game early to scope out a good parking spot. After finding the perfect one only 3 blocks away from the stadium (and with really cheap rates) we headed to a local bar for a quick bite to eat and a ceremonial PBR for me. Once finished we headed into the stadium to get to our seats. Up until this point Kelsey had not told me where we were sitting, as that was my birthday surprise. Low and behold we found our section and I sat in the best sport-seats I have ever been in. I have never been closer to a live, major league sporting event with the exception of a T-wolves game in Jr. High. I sat eighth row at the T-wolves and here at the Cubbies game I was eighth row behind the Cub's dugout. The night was excellent. The only letdown was that the Cubs lost in the ninth inning. Otherwise it was great. The Cubs even honored Ron Santo (a close friend of my Grandpa from back in the day) before the game by retiring his number! I couldn't believe my luck and I completely enjoyed the game. Kelsey says I was two wrist shaking convulsions away from being six years old again (i.e. when Trevor gets REALLLY excited he shakes his wrists). Kelsey says the look on my face the entire game was pure juvenile excitement. I'm sure it was, because I finally got to do something that I have wanted to do since i was a little kid. My first baseball card was Mark Grace from the Cubs and I have never stopped enjoying Cubs games.
So its now Tuesday, and work is calling tomorrow. I'm hesitant to go, knowing that I have another great weekend ahead of us. I am still not completely decompressed from all the excitement but I'm pretty sure when I get to Hopkins and walk into the office tomorrow I'll be back to reality.
On the baby front, Kelsey and I have registered at a few places and one of the places is Babies R' Us. With work, I have been designated as the Toys R Us project manager, and with that comes a few Babies R Us sites. I have been in my fair share of Babies R Us sites, and while in there for work, I always happen to notice a few things that I've registered for. Its nice to be surrounded by that stuff at home and at work because it gets me thinking about what kind of things I need to do to get ready to be a Dad. This being my golden birthday, it was very special. But i can't wait to celebrate the rest of my birthdays with my little dude and his little dude and dudette siblings.
Until then, I'll enjoy this week, and more cabin weekends that the summer is sure to bring. Until then, i'll try to check in to blog a little more often as I know things will continue to fill my mind and I will find the need to share them.
Golden Day Dad.
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Monday, June 21, 2010
Update on baby swan and our current happenings
Well here's it's been more than 2 weeks since I last posted and I said I was going to try and post more often...maybe next time! I have however posted way more than Kevin...if I waited for him to post I might only be posting every other month or so. Not a whole lot has changed since my last post. I'm feeling baby swan move more than ever now. He still prefers to be most active early in the morning or in the middle of the night, but he is getting more and more active during the day too. Kevin still hasn't really felt him move, I'm starting to think it's just not Kevin's thing. I guess maybe it's neater for me since I can feel him move constantly and I can watch my stomach move around from the outside. This might be my favorite thing...watching my belly contort into all different shapes and move from side to side without me doing a thing! I'm often laying on the couch half watching TV and more watching my belly move. I'm sure all this movement will get more and more uncomfortable and the awesomeness of it will wear off a little, but for now I'm enjoying watching and feeling our baby boy throw dance parties in my tummy! My next appointment is Friday and I get to do my glucose tolerance test...I'm really hoping I pass so I don't have to do the repeat 3 hour test. We shall see what happens.
In other news I'm sad to say the my Grandma Beulah passed away a week ago. I knew that it was probably coming soon since she had been on hospice since March and she really wanted to go and meet her husband and oldest son. Despite knowing it was coming, it has still been pretty hard. I am comforted by the fact that I know she was more than ready and she didn't fear death at all. I had the chance to go visit her in March at the hospital and talk to her about the baby and spend some time catching up and visiting and I'm so grateful for those few hours in the hospital that day. Despite the not so happy reason to get together, it was great to spend some time with my aunts, uncles and cousins from all over. I even got to enjoy a Twins game with a few cousins on a very hot day! We all joked and laughed about how that is exactly how Grandma would've wanted it, all of us hanging out together and leaving her alone! She is deeply missed and I feel comforted in the fact that she has joined my grandpa and uncle looking down on us from the moon.
I also got a chance to have dinner with some of my college roommates, Megs and Aleks. It had been months since we all got together and definitely long overdue. It's funny how the best friendships you let slip and fade away when life gets crazy and brings us to different places, with these girls though no matter how long it's been we pick up right where we left off and are closer than ever when we leave. I'm also lucky enough to be going through pregnancy at the same time as Aleks. We are due about 10 days apart so it was fun to get together and compare belly sizes, symptoms and things we are going through. Dinner with the three of us together was so much fun and we all vowed that we will get together at least monthly, I really hope it does happen, I miss my best friends.
This weekend we are off to the Trauscht cabin to celebrate Kevin's birthday. Kevin is excited to go wake boarding, tubing, and maybe have an adult beverage or two. We will be joined by Brian, Rich and my sister Katie and her boyfriend Chris. While the guys are looking forward to golfing and all but me drinking, I'm really looking forward to spending time with my sister and trying to make Kevin's golden birthday weekend the best it can be. From the cabin Kevin and I will be heading to Chicago to catch a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. Watching a game at Wrigley is something on Kevin's bucket list and there seemed to be no better time than his golden birthday to cross this off the list! I went to a game at Wrigley a few years ago, so I've already been, but I'm looking forward to going with my hubby and watching him be giddy like a little boy. A fun little weekend and getaway before we become a family of 3! I'll make sure to update on the weekend when we get back!
In other news I'm sad to say the my Grandma Beulah passed away a week ago. I knew that it was probably coming soon since she had been on hospice since March and she really wanted to go and meet her husband and oldest son. Despite knowing it was coming, it has still been pretty hard. I am comforted by the fact that I know she was more than ready and she didn't fear death at all. I had the chance to go visit her in March at the hospital and talk to her about the baby and spend some time catching up and visiting and I'm so grateful for those few hours in the hospital that day. Despite the not so happy reason to get together, it was great to spend some time with my aunts, uncles and cousins from all over. I even got to enjoy a Twins game with a few cousins on a very hot day! We all joked and laughed about how that is exactly how Grandma would've wanted it, all of us hanging out together and leaving her alone! She is deeply missed and I feel comforted in the fact that she has joined my grandpa and uncle looking down on us from the moon.
I also got a chance to have dinner with some of my college roommates, Megs and Aleks. It had been months since we all got together and definitely long overdue. It's funny how the best friendships you let slip and fade away when life gets crazy and brings us to different places, with these girls though no matter how long it's been we pick up right where we left off and are closer than ever when we leave. I'm also lucky enough to be going through pregnancy at the same time as Aleks. We are due about 10 days apart so it was fun to get together and compare belly sizes, symptoms and things we are going through. Dinner with the three of us together was so much fun and we all vowed that we will get together at least monthly, I really hope it does happen, I miss my best friends.
This weekend we are off to the Trauscht cabin to celebrate Kevin's birthday. Kevin is excited to go wake boarding, tubing, and maybe have an adult beverage or two. We will be joined by Brian, Rich and my sister Katie and her boyfriend Chris. While the guys are looking forward to golfing and all but me drinking, I'm really looking forward to spending time with my sister and trying to make Kevin's golden birthday weekend the best it can be. From the cabin Kevin and I will be heading to Chicago to catch a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. Watching a game at Wrigley is something on Kevin's bucket list and there seemed to be no better time than his golden birthday to cross this off the list! I went to a game at Wrigley a few years ago, so I've already been, but I'm looking forward to going with my hubby and watching him be giddy like a little boy. A fun little weekend and getaway before we become a family of 3! I'll make sure to update on the weekend when we get back!
Sunday, June 6, 2010
We've got a mover!
Quite a bit has happened over the past week or so. While I've been feeling baby swan move for a couple of weeks now, this week I've really been able to feel him moving around and can even see it from the outside sometimes. Kevin has yet to really feel him move, I think mainly because baby swan likes to move a lot in the mornings and getting Kevin to wake up enough to really be alert in the morning is nearly impossible. It also never fails that as soon as I put my hand on my stomach, he gets shy and stops. Soon enough I'm sure Kevin will finally feel his little boy move, then maybe it'll really be more real for Kevin too.
Also in big news this week...we got his crib and dresser! We've put both together and are now on the lookout for a rocking chair or glider of some sort. After assembling the dresser and seeing just how little our nursery is, we are also thinking there might need to be some modifications to the room to really make it nice and comfortable for our baby swan. It's fun to see the nursery start to come together and imagine what life will be like in a little more than 4 months when we have a baby to put in it! It's a long ways from completion, but definitely fun to see what it will be in the future. I think Kona enjoys all the new smells and things it in as well.
The most exciting news of the week is that I'm almost positive we've decided on a name. I never thought we would have come to a consensus this quickly, maybe because I can't make a decision on anything to save my life. However I'm not sure why I doubted that we'd be able to do this with having the worlds most logical focused husband. How we came to this name still makes me laugh and in awe that I'm really okay with the process that came to be our first born child's name. Typical of my anal retentive and slightly obsessive, perfectionistic tendencies; I went out and bought the baby name book with the most baby names I could possibly find. I then proceeded to read through all the boys names from A-Z, not ONCE but TWICE! I then compiled a list of roughly 35 names that really caught my attention and stuck out to me. Knowing that 35 names would be way too many for Kevin I narrowed that list down to my favorite 10. Kevin had told me that we would both come up with a list of 10 names and two weeks later come up with another list of 10 names, so I figured I was set for at least 3 weeks. Come to the night we are really going to discuss names for the first time since we found out I was pregnant and we were expecting a little boy. Kevin quickly leafs through the name book picking 10 names in about 10 minutes and says he's set. I'm sitting in the couch in disbelief that something as significant as naming your child can be compiled in 10 short minutes. I had already spent hours coming up with my list! So we compare our top 10 and slowly whittle them down to a list of 4 or so (Kevin will have to give exact details as I can't remember anymore!). We independently rank the list and both wind up with the same number one. Kevin says that's it, that's a great name for our son. I took more convincing but over the course of the week have grown pretty fond of the name. We already had decided on a middle name, so as of now, we have a name for our son. We both decided that nothing is set in stone and if something else we feel we like better comes up then we'll revisit the idea, but we have a name that we both really like. Kevin's already calling him by his name in conversations between the two of us. As for the rest of the world finding out his top secret name...you'll have to wait until he makes his appearance in October! And for now we'll continue to refer to him as baby swan.
Since this blog is all about our experiences, thoughts and persepctives of both of us, I'm sure Kevin will have something entirely different to say about the nursery set up and the naming process. I however cannot wait to tell our little boy all about how his name came to be, and just how Kevin like it really was--always pushing me to make a quick decision, not worry about it being perfect and not judging how it came to be. And even though the process made me really uncomfortable and rushed feeling, I think we came up with a wonderful name for our son. Let's just hope he agrees!
Also in big news this week...we got his crib and dresser! We've put both together and are now on the lookout for a rocking chair or glider of some sort. After assembling the dresser and seeing just how little our nursery is, we are also thinking there might need to be some modifications to the room to really make it nice and comfortable for our baby swan. It's fun to see the nursery start to come together and imagine what life will be like in a little more than 4 months when we have a baby to put in it! It's a long ways from completion, but definitely fun to see what it will be in the future. I think Kona enjoys all the new smells and things it in as well.
The most exciting news of the week is that I'm almost positive we've decided on a name. I never thought we would have come to a consensus this quickly, maybe because I can't make a decision on anything to save my life. However I'm not sure why I doubted that we'd be able to do this with having the worlds most logical focused husband. How we came to this name still makes me laugh and in awe that I'm really okay with the process that came to be our first born child's name. Typical of my anal retentive and slightly obsessive, perfectionistic tendencies; I went out and bought the baby name book with the most baby names I could possibly find. I then proceeded to read through all the boys names from A-Z, not ONCE but TWICE! I then compiled a list of roughly 35 names that really caught my attention and stuck out to me. Knowing that 35 names would be way too many for Kevin I narrowed that list down to my favorite 10. Kevin had told me that we would both come up with a list of 10 names and two weeks later come up with another list of 10 names, so I figured I was set for at least 3 weeks. Come to the night we are really going to discuss names for the first time since we found out I was pregnant and we were expecting a little boy. Kevin quickly leafs through the name book picking 10 names in about 10 minutes and says he's set. I'm sitting in the couch in disbelief that something as significant as naming your child can be compiled in 10 short minutes. I had already spent hours coming up with my list! So we compare our top 10 and slowly whittle them down to a list of 4 or so (Kevin will have to give exact details as I can't remember anymore!). We independently rank the list and both wind up with the same number one. Kevin says that's it, that's a great name for our son. I took more convincing but over the course of the week have grown pretty fond of the name. We already had decided on a middle name, so as of now, we have a name for our son. We both decided that nothing is set in stone and if something else we feel we like better comes up then we'll revisit the idea, but we have a name that we both really like. Kevin's already calling him by his name in conversations between the two of us. As for the rest of the world finding out his top secret name...you'll have to wait until he makes his appearance in October! And for now we'll continue to refer to him as baby swan.
Since this blog is all about our experiences, thoughts and persepctives of both of us, I'm sure Kevin will have something entirely different to say about the nursery set up and the naming process. I however cannot wait to tell our little boy all about how his name came to be, and just how Kevin like it really was--always pushing me to make a quick decision, not worry about it being perfect and not judging how it came to be. And even though the process made me really uncomfortable and rushed feeling, I think we came up with a wonderful name for our son. Let's just hope he agrees!
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