Monthly Archives: May 2006

One Week (Or So) To Go!

3 Replies

So here we are… one week to go until Becky’s calculated due date, May 21. I know that we had told many people that our due date was May 18, but for the life of me I can’t remember how we came up with that date. May 21 is the date that we and the doctors calculated based on Becky’s last menstrual cycle, and it was confirmed when we had our prenatal ultrasound. It’s also the date that Beverly Hospital has us tentatively registered for admittance. Of course, there is no way to know for sure that our baby will be born on the due date, but we can be reasonably certain that it will be plus or minus a week from that date. Based on Becky’s current symptoms, and based on her doctor’s opinion after her exam last week, I tend to think that the baby will be born *past* the due date. It is pretty common for first-time mothers to go past their due dates. According to What to Expect When You’re Expecting, however:

Studies show that about 70 percent of apparent postterm pregnancies aren’t postterm at all. They are only believed to be late because of a miscalculation of the time of conception, usually thanks to irregular ovulation or a woman’s uncertainty about the exact date of her last menstrual period.

Becky and I kept pretty close tabs on such information while we were planning to have a baby, thanks to another great book, Taking Charge of Your Fertility. So we can say that the information we used for our calculations is about as accurate as we could get. That’s not to say that Becky won’t go past her due date, just that if she does, it’s most likely going to be true postterm pregnancy and not a miscalculated due date.

Becky has another prenatal exam on Tuesday, so we’ll get some more up-to-date info. With any luck, there should be a new Wood in our house within the next couple of weeks!

Happy Mother’s Day!

Leave a reply

Happy Mother’s Day to the two moms and one soon to be mom in my life: Ellie, Dianne, and Becky!

This morning I was paged for work and had to run in to the office at 6 a.m., but on the way back, I picked up some of Becky’s favorite stuff from [Dunkin Donuts](http://www.dunkindonuts.com/) and brought it home as a first Mother’s Day gift for her. 🙂

Becky’s parents and brother came over to our apartment for a Mother’s Day lunch. We hung out, talked about a lot of baby stuff, and had some delicious food, including steak, corn on the cob, garlic fries from [Trader Joe’s](http://www.traderjoes.com/), and brownies. Yum! Ken bravely did the grilling outside in the rain, as seen below:

ppp|Grilling!|ppp

Here’s the mom-to-be and her mom!

ppp|Moms!|ppp

There are also a few more photos from [the day](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/mothers_day/).

Although I couldn’t spend Mother’s Day with my own mom, I did give her a call, and I also passed the phone around so that she could chat with the other moms in the room. 🙂 All in all it was a very good day!

Blackberry

3 Replies

I started a pretty ambitious knitting project last fall. It was intended to be a Christmas gift for my sister-in-law, Kirsten. Unfortunately, my first trimester nausea was worse while knitting, so I didn’t quite finish it in time. So what does a good crafter do? Make it a birthday present instead!

I recently got pictures from Kirsten of her modeling it. I’m glad it fit so well. It’s hard to measure a gal that lives several states away!

ppp|Kirsten

Kirsten

|ppp

The pattern is Blackberry from the great knitting website: knitty.com. (That first link has a great shot of the sleeve detail)

Stuff in, Stuff out

4 Replies

Over the past several months, we’ve done a lot of purging of various unneeded items from our apartment. At the same time, we’ve acquired a pretty good amount of stuff, and I think we’ve probably maintained equilibrium. Here’s a record of things that we have gotten rid of either by selling on [Craigslist](http://boston.craigslist.org/) or giving away on [Freecycle](http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FreecycleNorthShore/), along with things we have acquired.

Continue reading →

A Splurge

2 Replies

Have you ever been shopping with me? If so you’ll know first hand that I am not an impulse shopper. I will pick up a shirt and carry it with me for 25 minutes only to put it back as I leave the store. Buying a pack of gum often requires a pro/con list. I just hate to part with my hard earned/hard saved money.

So it should be no surprise to anyone that it took me three visits to Stride Rite to convince me to purchase these:

ppp|Turtle Shoes

Turtle Shoes

|ppp

I fell in love with them as soon as I saw them. So turtley! So cute! So different from any other baby shoes I’d ever seen! But I put off buying them. Of course I did.

A couple of weeks ago I stopped back in and looked at them again. I wasn’t intending to buy them, so when I flipped them over and saw that they were on sale I barely noticed. But later that weekend I was kicking myself for not getting them. Mall stores are notorious for putting things on sale and then discontinuing them, never to been seen again. I was afraid that these cute shoes would disappear!

Today I bit the bullet and went and bought them. I can’t get the thought of BabyWood’s little turtle feet off my mind! There are a couple other pics here; scroll down.

Gas, two years later

Leave a reply

Just about two years ago, I [lamented](http://prwdot.org/2004/05/19/gastronomical/) the fact that gas was $2.02 per gallon. Now the cheapest gas I can find is $2.95 per gallon. Luckily, I’m still spending about the same amount on gasoline, since I now drive a more [fuel-efficient car](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/etcetera/2001_toyota_corolla/).

Boston the Photogenic

3 Replies

As I [mentioned](http://prwdot.org/2006/05/06/sahm/), today was Becky’s last day of work. Hooray! I drove her in to the city, then took off on my own for a day of photographing Boston.

I ended up with [one hundred and forty-four keepers](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/) for the day. You can look at [all of them](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/) if you want to, but I’ll highlight some of my favorites below.

* [Closed-gate view of the State House](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080847.JPG.html)
* [Sleeping on a bench in the Common](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080852.JPG.html)
* [Lemonade cart worker in the break room](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080853.JPG.html)
* [Plethora of Port-a-Potties](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080866.JPG.html)
* [Sidewalk Sam](http://www.sidewalksam.com/about_swsstory.htm) [supervises the painting of a shark at an entrance to the Common](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080872.JPG.html)
* [A nap on the grass](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080881.JPG.html)
* [Many beautifully colored flora](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080901.JPG.html)
* [Can you take a photo of us?](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080903.JPG.html)
* [Hail to the flag](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080917.JPG.html)
* [The proposed location for the Back Bay Apple Store](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080922.JPG.html), currently facing [objections](http://www.ifoapplestore.com/2006/03/09/apple-outlines-boston-store-plans-to-commissioners/) from the Back Bay Architectural Association. Right across from the Prudential Center, it would be an excellent location.
* If that one doesn’t pan out, [there are rumors](http://www.ifoapplestore.com/2006/04/30/iconic-space-available-in-boston/) that Apple could take over the space being vacated by the Virgin Megastore, which I [also photographed today](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080941.JPG.html).
* I walked across the Mass Ave bridge, against the flow of [walkers from the Walk For Hunger](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080946.JPG.html).
* The skyscrapers of the Back Bay were looking [particularly photogenic](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080952.JPG.html) from across the Charles River.
* I love [this photo of a sailboat and the John Hancock building](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080960.JPG.html).
* More [sailbots up on the dock](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080966.JPG.html).
* [A pair of differing dories](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080973.JPG.html).
* [Memorial Drive sweeps around the bend, with the Back Bay in the distance](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080982.JPG.html).
* The new Charles/MGH T stop is starting to [take shape](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080992.JPG.html).
* [Samuel Adams](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1090008.JPG.html) – patriot, statesman, governor… [brewer](http://www.samueladams.com/)?. Do you prefer him with the [brick red background](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1090009.JPG.html), or the [sky blue background](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1090011.JPG.html)?

And the day wouldn’t be complete without a shot of [Becky at the reception desk at her last day of work](http://prwdot.org/gallery2/v/events/2006/boston_may_7/P1080999.JPG.html).

I hope you enjoy looking at these photos as much as I enjoyed taking them!

SAHM

3 Replies

Tomorrow is Becky’s last official day of work at the [Otis House](http://www.historicnewengland.org/visit/homes/otis.htm), which also makes it her last day of work outside of the home, at least for the forseeable future. Our plan is for Becky to stay home and be the mom she wants to be, and for me to continue working at [CBD](http://www.christianbook.com/) and be the best dad I can be. We’re both very excited about this, because it’s something we’ve been planning for a while, and it’s what Becky has wanted to do for the longest time. We both know there will be challenges, but I know that we will overcome them, with the help of God, each other, our family and friends. Thanks to everyone out there who has been in touch with us in the past few months. We are looking forward to sharing our joy with you!

Sunny Inside Saturday

1 Reply

It’s a sunny, warm Saturday, so we’re spending it outside, right? Not today.

Today, we spent some time organizing and decluttering in the apartment. Since our ‘office’ has been converted to a nursery, there is a lot of stuff that has made its way out into our living room, and some other stuff that still needs to be taken out of the nursery. There is also a lot of extra junk in our apartment in general, and we’ve been in the process of getting rid of it for the past few months. Today we got rid of some extra books by donating them to the library. I cleaned out the drawers in my computer desk. I also fixed the drawer underneath our crib so that it slides in and out nicely, and Becky put away some more baby gear in said drawer.

One glaring issue with the furniture that we moved into our living room was that the “Manager’s Chair” I used for my computer desk was much too bulky for the tight walkway the computer desk is now located in. So today we went to [IKEA](http://www.ikea.com/) and bought a [STEFANO](http://www.ikea.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?topcategoryId=15600&catalogId=10103&storeId=12&productId=48222&langId=-1&parentCats=15600*15877*15879) swivel chair. It’s much less cushy than the big leather manager’s chair, but it is still quite comfortable, and most importantly it can easily slide under the desk to allow easy access past the desk:

ppp|With the big chair

With the big chair

|ppp

ppp|With the little chair

With the little chair

|ppp

Much nicer, eh? It was even worse when I was actually sitting in the big chair… Becky could barely get past! By the way, here’s what my computer desk layout looks like now:

ppp|Computer Desk Layout|ppp

It’s a bit crowded, but still very usable, and, most importantly, ergonomically correct.