Baby 101

Obviously, our little one will not come with an owner's manual when he or she joins our family in about three months. So Brian & I are doing the next best thing: Going to parenting classes to learn as much as we can to prepare ourselves for our little bundle of joy.

We actually started things off in the fall by attending Wesley Medical Center's Off to a Good Start class about how to have a healthy pregnancy. Recently, we also attended their Grandparent-to-be class with Brian's parents, who will become grandparents for the first time with the birth of our little one. The nurse who led the class talked mostly about how things have changed since our parents' generation had babies. It also was a reminder about some of the things Brian & I will need to be thinking of soon, including developing our birth plan, childproofing our home and figuring out how to prepare our pets for the new member of the family.

We're enrolled in several more classes in coming weeks, but the most useful class we've taken thus far was the CPR for Infants and Children class at Wesley. Brian & I were one of five young expecting couples who met for three hours with a nurse and certified CPR instructor, who taught us the proper way to administer CPR on infants, children and adults.

We used these Actar 911 mannequins. Each student had a little "baby" on which to practice CPR, including the chest compressions and breathing.


Brian must have sensed that the mere thought that I might need this skill on our baby was making my head spin. When the group broke for a mid-course break, Brian picked up our dummies and said in a robotic voice, "I am Space Baby." I was laughing so hard that this photo came out blurry. What a sweet hubby I have.

Recent reads

Brian, in part respecting my months-long priority of eating as much natural food as possible during my pregnancy, picked out the book "Raising Baby Green: The Earth-Friendly Guide to Pregnancy, Childbirth and Baby Care" by Alan Greene, M.D. for me.

It's full of useful tips, some of them far too lofty and expensive for me to even consider. But there are many other simple, inexpensive things I've learned already from this book. One of my favorite tips related to decaf coffee, the only kind I'm drinking nowadays (and sparingly at that).

The authors encourage the reader to consider looking for a decaf that bears the "Swiss Water Process" logo, indicating that the coffee was decaffeinated using a certified organic chemical-free process. Starbucks and Sam's are among places that sell such varieties. Sold!

For the first time in months, I put aside all baby-related books and made time for my book club's flavor of the month. Unfortunately, when it came time for the group's gathering, I had a prior commitment and couldn't attend. (It was one of those weeknight evenings when I wanted to be in three places at once.)

"Big Stone Gap" by Adriana Trigiani was a quick, addictive, fun read. I enjoyed the themes of keeping the faith and being careful not to get in your own way of the happiness that's within your grasp. But pausing on the welcome mat of motherhood, I relished the maternal relationships in the novel.

"A baby gives you the strength to do just about anything."

Amen.

Snow day!

Thursday night and Friday brought a few inches of big, full, beautiful snowflakes. Brian, of course, didn't miss the opportunity to play with the pups in the snow.

Cat pan

Brian & I were none too happy when Meow Meow made herself cozy in our clean 9x13 pan recently. It is pretty remarkable how well she fits in there, don't you think? (Don't worry, we did wash it again after this photo shoot.)

I couldn't choose just one cutline for this photo, so here are several. Pick your fave:

• What a dish.
  
• This kitty is half-baked.
• Is that what she calls greasing the pan?

Pet pics

Some recent caught-on-camera moments of our crazy pets:

I think they think they own the place ... (Can you spot Meowsers?)

I love how Meow Meow's whiskers look in the morning sun.

Super Sweet 16, take two

On Sunday, Brian & I hosted his grandmother, parents, brother and my dad for a cake-and-ice cream celebration for his birthday. (Of course, we had Brian's favorite chocolate cherry cake.)

Molly also came over to play with Dakota & Lilly in the backyard during the party. (They had their eyes on Brian's cake ... beggars!)


It was a good weekend to honor another year in the life of my sweet hubby. I have a hunch that his next trip around the sun will be his best yet.

Super Sweet 16

On Jan. 16, Brian celebrated his 32nd birthday.

He started the day with his annual golf tournament with the guys. I'm very proud of my husband: Inspired by a sad scene we witnessed of men waiting in the cold to check into a drop-in shelter downtown, Brian asked all of the tourney participants to bring a pack of socks to donate. Because of Brian's request, he will donate 76 pairs of men's tube socks to a socks-for-the-homeless drive at our church.

While he was goofing around on the greens, Nicole & I went to an aerial photo exhibit at the Wichita Art Museum. It was fascinating and relaxing -- perfect for a sunny Saturday afternoon.

That evening, we met up with friends in Old Town. We dined at Old Chicago and chilled at Oeno (where I discovered they have a very tasty virgin Mojito -- who knew?).


I realized in the midst of our meal that Brian's age is double the number 16. So we deemed the party his Super Sweet 16. (Stay tuned for his Super Duper Sweet 16, coming in 2026.)

Some photos from the evening:

Me & the birthday boy

Brian & Eric

Ann & Jeremey

Tony & Nicole

Brian, me, Sarah & Jeff

Nursery news

Brian has been doing lots of fantastic work in our guest-room-turned-nursery. It's been amazing watching the space take shape:

Step 1: Painting the walls

After painting a coat of "Toasted Pecan", Brian & I agreed the color was, well, too yellow. So we opted for "Like Butter" for our baby's room.






The pets supervised:




Step 2: Getting ready for the watercolor paintings

Brian is going to paint three watercolor paintings for the main wall in the nursery. To offset those, he painted and framed two large rectangles and a smaller square painted with "Swiss Chocolate" and "Champagne Tickle".




Step 3: Hanging the window treatments

Brian's brother Eric was visiting last weekend for Brian's 32nd birthday, so the boys worked together on this project. (I cooked sausage egg casserole for brunch ... recipe to follow in a subsequent post, per Mom's request.)




I'm especially excited for Thursday, when our baby furniture is schedule to be delivered. I've already made the point that Baby B. will have a better bedroom set than Mommy & Daddy. But that is not a bad thing at all. Hopefully our priorities stay just that way for many, many years.

New year for quilting

Mom & I went to Prairie Quilt Guild last week for the January meeting and found lots of inspiration for a new year of quilting:

Requesting prayers for a great grandma

Brian's beautiful grandma Eleanor is in the hospital for the second night tonight, and I would like to ask all of my Life is Golden friends to keep her in your prayers. She was taken there by ambulance yesterday and has been undergoing tests. She remains in good spirits, and we're planning a visit to make sure she knows we're all thinking about her and cheering for her. She is a strong woman physically and spiritually, and I'm sure she will get through this ordeal with the grace she always seems to possess.

Here is a picture of her from Brian's birthday celebration Sunday at our home. (Watch for more birthday photos to come soon!)


Here are a few recent photos of her from Christmas Day:

Brian & Grandma

Eric & Grandma

"Too Cool for Drool"

In the past week, I've transformed a pile of unwanted T-shirts into burp cloths for Baby B. using a pattern in the book "Generation T: Beyond Fashion: 120 New Ways to Transform a T-shirt" by Megan Nicolay. (You may remember that I blogged about using it to make various tops, a wine bag, scarf and other items with it last summer.)

It's been a fun and rewarding project for many reasons. For starters, it's cathartic, likely because it fulfills some of my current nesting tendencies. Unreal to imagine the greater purpose the homemade burp cloths will serve in four short months!

Made from 100 percent cotton T-shirts, the final items are super-soft, economical, environmentally friendly and cute. Each burp cloth has three layers of T-shirt material, partially to make them more absorbent.


They also hold special meaning for me. The seven I've made so far feature tees with interesting pasts, included ones:

• from a recent Gridiron, an annual satirical journalism variety show the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists puts on to raise money for college scholarships.
  

• celebrating KU's 2008 Orange Bowl win.

• from the mini triathlon Brian did in 2008 at the Central Branch YMCA.

• my Dad brought me back from the Hard Rock Cafe in New York. I've worn it during mission trips, including one for Hurricane Katrina relief work, and while painting the ceilings and walls of our house when Brian & I bought it nearly seven years ago.

• from Planet Hollywood in San Antonio. My family went there for a week-long summer vacation the summer of 1997 before I moved to Lawrence to start my freshman year at KU.

• from a 1996 high school journalism camp at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. I couldn't even begin to guess how many miles I've ran while wearing that thing.

• a T-shirt from Brian's dad, who used to work at Cessna.

I'll likely soon be raiding T-shirt drawers (belonging both to Brian and me) to see if there are any other castoffs destined for glorious Mission Burp Cloth.


A cute aside: Lilly took a nap on some of the T-shirts while I worked nearby. I promise I didn't pose this adorable photo.

Rock Chalk ice block

On Wednesday, I took a comp day (I worked on New Year's Day) and joined Brian & his parents in a day trip to Lawrence to see KU take on Cornell.

The day was quite a nail-biter because of the frigid frozen weather and the shouldn't-have-been-that-close game. We won, but it was so close with one minute left on the clock that the crowd skipped the revered Rock Chalk chant. That was weird. But the close score (and rather impressive three-point shooting by Cornell) made the game a fun one to watch in person. Another perk: Brian felt the baby kick for the second time while we were in Allen Fieldhouse. For KU grads expecting baby No. 1, that's a pretty awesome experience!

Brian was the navigator and did a great job calming my pregnant nerves and keeping things light and fun.


Scary weather aside, we were rewarded with impressive sights both outside ...


... and in.


Original KU center basketball court floor.

I had fun exploring The Booth Family Hall of Athletics, a sports museum adjacent to the Fieldhouse. I loved the exhibits on the history of the KU mascot and sports journalism, especially since I worked as a sports correspondent for three collegiate years and had my own seat on the Fieldhouse's press row.

Eric joined us for the game, and it was fun to cheer with him.