still awaiting the stork

Okay, this isn't going to be very long, but we know it has been far too long since we have added anything new.

We still don't have a baby, but we are beginning to grow ever more impatient. These pictures are a demonstration of one of my favorite tricks: in the top pic, not pregnant! In the bottom pic, very pregnant!

These were actually taken 1 or 2 weeks ago, so if you can believe it, I'm actually bigger than that now.

We are pretty much finished making out final preparations as we move into the home stretch. Our crib arrived yesterday and is set up, and the nursery is pretty much complete (we will include a picture in our next blog, promise!)

Grandma Morse (wow, that's weird! I'm talking about my mom, for those of you that are as confused as I am...) is coming at the end of October to lend a hand with the new arrival and spend some bonding time with her (and of course with me and Jason).

From the number of people that have asked recently, I realize that we may have forgotten to include the answer to one very important question on this blog: it's a girl!! (unless our doctor is just messing with us, which I really hope isn't the case, otherwise we're going to need a good quantity of blue dye for all of the pink outfits and accessories we've managed to acquire...)

August Showers

Much to my surprise (well, there were several attempts to ruin it, but luckily for all I am generally totally clueless...) several friends got together and threw a baby shower for me the day after Jason's parents and niece arrived for their visit. Here I am on the way to the party (I was under the impression we were on our way to the grocery store to get BBQ supplies):

Several days later we were off on our last pre-baby adventure with J's family, first to Rome and then to Barcelona. There was way more to see than we ever could have crammed into seven days, but that didn't stop us from trying to see everything anyway.

Here we are nearing the top of the cupola on St. Peter's Basilica (271 steps down, only 322 to go!) On the way up we encountered several middle-age women that had had enough and were attempting to make their way (against traffic) back down the narrow winding staircase. When they saw that I was pregnant, they chimed in with "Oh, bless your heart!" and "She really shouldn't be up here." I was tempted to tell them that if an 8-months pregnant lady could make it to the top, then they certainly had no excuse, but I held my tongue!

Some of you may recognize this lovely lady--while in Barcelona we had the chance to see my old friend from high school, Elisenda!! She's currently working on her PhD in international law, and was married last September. It was so wonderful to see her after so many years (has it really been a decade?!) We had a great time catching up and she showed us some really cool spots in Barcelona (such as this cafe on a mountain overlooking the whole city--very nice!)

Here's a parting shot of Jason with his mom from on top of the cupola at St. Peter's.

The latest

Hi everybody (Dr. Nick voice), hope you all are doing well! Things here are moving right along as you can clearly see from the photos! Sadie is onto the third trimester and we are getting ready for the final leg of this short journey. The research I have done into pregnancy says: in the third trimester a woman can expect to see her appetite grow but Sadie has seemingly been satiated. I was shocked today when for breakfast all Sadie ate was a four-egg omelet with jalapenos, bacon, cheese and mushroom, a small (large) pancake, French toast, two bowls of fruit a croissant and a whole grain sesame roll ;) This may sound like a large meal but when you consider the fact that making a baby expends over 200 calories an hour a meal like this is merely a snack. Mom, Buzz and Rebecca will be here next month and we are getting excited for that! Paris/Rome/Barcelona should be a great time. I am excited to go back to Paris and equally excited to discover Rome and Barcelona. We will be sure to get some good pictures! Love to all of you and take care. Enjoy the latest set of photos : Sadie looking gorgeous (as usual), Jersey sleeping (as usual) and Ziggy looking rather regal (as usual)

Okay, so after a long, long, loooooooong absence, we are back on the radar. It's been a couple of months since we've had the opportunity to post here, so I'll reward your patience with lots of photos. First, here's the most recent belly shot:

We're just shy of 23 weeks (for those of you "normal" people that still count time in months, that's about 5 and 1/2 months), and the big news from our last visit is: we found out we're having a little girl! Not that a boy would be any less exciting, but it's nice to know which it is; we both like being able to call it "she," "her" etc. instead of the generic (not to mention slightly distasteful) "it."

I went to Japan in late May to visit my brother Tristan and his wife Shizuka, and (most notably) their new little tyke Enzo! He turned two months old while I was visiting and is possibly the cuuuuutest baby I have ever seen! Here's a picture so you don't have to take my word for it:

You can follow their adventures into parenthood here. For those of you that are into that whole instant gratification thing, they are much more punctual about updating their blog than yours truly. Here's the three of them on a little walk around the neighborhood:

The more observant among you may have noticed that I no longer have long blond locks cascading down the length of my back... I finally grew enough hair to send to a wonderful organization called Locks of Love; any of you out there, who, like me once, have more hair than you know what to do with, now you know what to do with it :)

Well, with all things being equal, and a picture being equal to a thousand words, here's several thousand words for you to ponder:

These are from a little walk we took on the farmlands near our house the other day. The weather has been rainy and miserable for the last month, but it's never enough to keep us indoors during the summer months!

First Portrait

As you can see, I am starting to get a little bulge that looks more like a burgeoning baby than that I just ate too much ice cream. I still just feel more chubby than anything, though.

After several weeks of coming home from work only to put in several more hours of work on the travel book I've been writing for Heidelberg, I finally finished! To celebrate Jason and I left early the next morning for an impromptu drive to Gay Paree. Such fun! We did it up right, escargots and tours of both Marie Antoinette's lavish digs and the cold, dank cell where she spent the last two months of her life before being publicly beheaded (ouch!). And I finally got back to the Louvre, which lives up to it's reputation as one of the finest art museums on the planet.

After we returned, we had our first appointment with the Obstetrician, and guess who we got to see for the first time:

I know, s/he is not much to look at yet, but just wait--this baby is genetically blessed... Seriously, though, I'll be psyched if it gets Jason's curls (or my mom's, or Jason's mom's or somebody's! I need someone else to live through vicariously...) Looks like s/he's inherited Jason's ability to just relax and take it easy.

Don't get excited, this one isn't ours... We still have about 6 more months to go (six looooong months without caffeine, I might add :)

This is Enzo, my brand new nephew born to my brother Tristan and his wife Shizuka on April 2. He's sooooo cute!! I'm going to visit at the end of May, and I just can't wait to meet the little guy!

Thanks so much to everyone that sent their well-wishes and congratulations. I'm sorry not to have been able to respond to most of you individually--I was nursing a nasty cold last week (only my second week at my new job!) and have been playing catch-up ever since. I am feeling much better now, and although I finally started to feel a little nauseous now and then, that seems to have passed (whew!)

We'll post our first ultrasound pics as soon as we get them, probably sometime in the next two weeks. There's a small chance we'll find out whether it's a boy or a girl then, but that probably won't happen for a while yet.

Don't feel anything yet...

I really don't feel pregnant yet, and even though I don't really want morning sickness, I think it would help to convince me that it's real. I feel a little more tired than usual, but that's about it. Not enough to really stop me from doing anything I normally do. And anyway, I think the fatigue might just be a side-affect from giving up caffeine.

Here's Jason and my dad in Telluride, clearly having a miserable time. I didn't get to go, but they were sure to update me at least every third or fourth day with an email and a photo showing just how beautiful and powdery their vacation was!

We've been brainstorming names, and already have a little list going. We both really like Hudson for a boy (also we like it because he grew up at the mouth of the Hudson and I went to college in the Hudson Valley). We are trying to think of a nickname for it, so we can stop calling it "it" - Jason likes 'gote (short for zygote, obviously) but I am partial to pupa (you know, where a caterpillar develops into a butterfly).

My tummy is still exactly the same and I haven't gained an ounce, but 7 weeks isn't really very far along, after all. I read that it's about the size of a raspberry now.