Dinner with friends - now with gourd pix!

Zoe's had a great run of company in the past few days.

First, on Friday, Nana and Pepere came up to spend the day. Zoe and Nana took a break for the rain by making a trip to the Shoreline Children's Indoor Playground. Seems that Zoe knows how to have a good time on fun turf.

Later, Nana and Pepere joined us for dinner, but not before Zoe had everyone join her on her 'matt' (mattress).



Saturday night, we were joined by pals, Gordon, Danika and Zoe for a yummy feast of egg parm, fall veggies and Danika's scrumptious pear tart w/ homemade ginger ice cream. The girls, having not seen each other in about 4 months, had a great time tearing it up during the great gourd relay of 2008. Kudos to Dave and Gordon for playing ground receivers ;) (explanatory pix, now available here. Thanks Gordon and Danika!)

Lucy's quite the little girl, so it's nice that she and Zoe connected so well. I guess meeting in utero and meeting up regularly for (sleep) walking at Green Lake makes for strong bonds :)


mmmm....grapes


let me find it - my favorite passage is somewhere on the next page


kitty confidential


Nuh-night dahling, it was wonderful

Happy (belated) Halloween!

I love fall and the colorful gourds it brings. I limited myself to a total of six this year (I think I topped out at 10, once).

Who can resist their lovely round orangeness??

Zoe can't ;)

Our pumpkin admiring the pumpkins on our doorstep

6 month bump update

I now feel officially pregnant.

* I have "popped";
* I am wearing maternity clothing almost exclusively (save those much-loved stretchy items that never dropped out of my wardrobe after my last pregnancy);
* and I feel big. (I found myself gazing at pix of myself from last year...when I was enjoying breast-feeding-induced sveltness)

But, some surprising benefits have come to my notice lately, tempering any disgruntled feelings I could admit to having: my skin's been GREAT - crazy-great, actually - and my hair is really curly and full. And all my hair has nearly halted growing altogether! Thank goodness! I can't really reach my legs, anyways ;)

I go in for my first OB appointment next Thursday (I'll let you know if the date for the C gets scheduled then, as promised), so no new news on the health front, but I think I'm still symptom-free with regards to HELLP. Yay for that.

So, for now, I'm just getting reacquainted with the waddling and moving around like a snail. Getting up off the floor (amazing how much time you spend on the floor with a toddler around) and getting THINGS up off the floor (I am SO clumsy!!) are becoming an ever-increasing challenge.

I say "oh well" because another nice thing I've noticed this time around: time is FLYING BY!

Obligatory bump pic:


Question: does anyone have a cute nickname for a second child still in utero? "#2" just seems, well, crass. And I certainly don't want to be caught saying "that one" about either of my kids right now (hey, first McCain slam here, and it's almost over. I've been VERY good) - suggestions are welcome ;)