Christmas dresses, etc.

Eden Rose

Whoever voted for after December 12 - reveal yourself. You are in big trouble, but also the winner. Eden was born December 14 at 10:42 pm. She weighed 7 lbs 1 oz and was 19 inches long. Here are some pictures from the occasion.

Glamorous!

We though the baby would come yesterday since I started having contractions. Tim even came home from work, but alas, it was a false alarm. Oh well, that just meant the stars were aligned so that London could walk down the catwalk at the Nordstrom fashion show this morning!

Book Recommendations?

I just finished a great book by Jodi Picoult, Plain Truth, a month early for my book group discussion. Now I'm still not sleeping so well and need something captivating...any suggestions? I'm done with the childbirth review and just need something escapist!

New Photos!

Here's what we've been up to the past few weeks... Thanksgiving Day was fabulous. London and I cheered for Tim while he played football in the church turkey bowl, then we had a relaxing dinner with my Dad and cousin, Maret. Maret was kind enough to host us and make the dinner (minus the rolls, which I made, and the pies, which I bought). We watched the Cougars defeat the Utes in a nail-biting game thanks to London's enthusiastic cheering! The girl has learned--last week while shopping in Costco, London looked at the big screen TV's showing a football game. She raised her arms and said with a smile "Go Cookies!" (That's how she says "Go Cougars!) Finally, yesterday we attended the holiday festival in downtown Redwood City with friends, the Bohns, and cousin Maret. They trucked in some snow from somewhere, and London liked it about as much as she liked the ocean in Hawaii--not at all! We were just too late to get a free photo with Santa, because, as his publicist informed us, "We need to get Santa ready for the parade." The people watching at such events is priceless. It's just so great to see people take the opportunity to sport their Santa hats, Rudolph antlers, and Christmas sweaters for the occasion! We watched the parade and as a side show, London and Samuel played by the fountain and kissed. Then we watched the fireworks spectacular! Fun times!

It's Autumn Time!

Some people complain that living in the Bay Area, you don't get to appreciate the changing seasons. Bah humbug to them! I think we have fantastic seasons--especially the fall. Today my strollerobics teacher invited us to walk in her neighborhood rather than the park so that we could appreciate the changing leaves. Afterward we had cider and donuts (a true autumn treat)!


Stopping to do some jazzercise moves in the leaves...

London watching the show

Me and London with her souvenir Elephant maple leaf

The lovely spread of post-walking treats!

Partners

I must apologize, dear reader, for it has been a fortnight since I last penned an entry. Anyway, I haven't had much to say except complain about being 8 months pregnant, so I haven't posted. But at last I have something to say. At my book group meeting last week, everyone there was pregnant except one, so naturally we started talking about labor, delivery, and other womanly topics. This happens just about every time we meet because someone is always pregnant or nursing.

Well, we started sharing stories about the childbirth education classes we've taken. I was reminded how during our class the instructor never failed to refer to the guys as "partners" and how bothered Tim was by this. I'm 99% sure all of the men there were actually husbands and fathers to the mother/fetus, so was it really necessary to reduce them from "father" or "husband" to "partner" just to spare some fornicator's feelings? A partner is someone you get paired up with in the PE social dance unit or share a lab table with in chemistry class or say "howdy" to while you're riding horses. We're talking about FATHERS--men who are not only man enough to stick around when their woman gets pregnant, but to attend the fluffy classes too!

So last night I attended a mandatory parent education meeting for London's preschool co-op. In previous meetings, the same lousy term "partner" was used, so I was expecting more of the same. The difference was this time the subject was actually improving satisfaction in your marriage. Even when it was assumed everyone there was married and obviously has children, we were still referred to as "partners." Explain that one.