Ode to Halloweens Past...and Way Past

Katie and Court's first Halloween! (2003)

In our second year of law school...

we were obviously too busy drinking beer and carving pumpkins....I mean studying, of course...to prepare costumes.

Molly crashing Katie and Lauren's nursery school Halloween party in 1983.

Lucky for her, she was pretty cute (aka -hadn't started talking yet) so I let it slide.

Katie (7) and Molly (4)

Who loves being a drunk, homeless clown for Halloween?

Molly does!!

(Notice the black painting in the background - I think Molly was expressing

her feelings about her costume.)

HAPPY HALLOWEEN TO ALL!

Surprise in Seattle!

Court and I were in Seattle Tuesday night. He thought we were in town for appointments and errands, but little did he know we were in town for a surprise baby shower in Court's honor!
I must say that inviting guys to a baby shower quickly changes the dynamics! Things are said and done that would never happen in a room full of women! Although the dynamics were a bit different with the guys, the baby shower definitely had a woman's touch!

From decorations...

to baby shower games....

to of course, presents...

(What new father doesn't need a book about raising adolescent girls?!)

the night was a HUGE success!

Court was TOTALLY surprised! In fact, I could have sworn that I saw a little tear in the corner of his eye - he was so touched!



Speaking of tears, no crying for me at the party, but there were definitely some tears shed last night as I reviewed the pictures of the event! Everyone looked so great (and skinny)


and then there was me....

...an unsightly view of my thighs, not to mention I look like a linebacker. UGH

Court and I are so lucky to have such great friends who would go to such lengths to make Court feel so special. He is the most generous person I know and it was a happy moment for me to see him with all of our friends one last time before he becomes a father. Thank you to all who planned and attended Court's Surprise Baby Shower! We had a great time!

Cast Your Vote!

Not for a presidential candidate (that post is coming - don't you worry) but for when you think Grace will make her big debut! I can't imagine who could've already voted for a Thanksgiving weekend delivery!!

Road Trip

The "gang" and I went to Boise this weekend to visit my parents one last time before my doctor cuts me off from traveling out of the Yakima Valley vicinity next week.

Who is the "gang" you ask? Well, Court, of course...our two dogs, Lindey and Lucky, and our parrot, Kiwi. Molly, my sister, joined the party and brought Chance, her Goldendoodle, and Mia, her Himalayan Persian.

Yes, we were all in one car and yes, it was a bit of a tight squeeze!

Molly shared the backseat with all three dogs. Normally, the animals would be in the trunk but Court and I hit Babies "R" Us (and hit it hard I might add) for all those last minute baby purchases. (Last minute might be a bit of a stretch. We have a month and half until the due date. Most people would refer to this as "plenty of time.")

32 Weeks and All is Well

We had our 32 weeks appointment yesterday and besides another few pounds of weight gain (UGH UGH), all is well! Hard to believe that this will all come to an end (or to a new beginning - however you want to look at it) in eight weeks. With all the holidays around the corner, you know these eight weeks are going to FLY by. Perhaps that is why I have been having a lot of strange dreams.

Two nights ago, I dreamed that Grace was born with 8 toes on her left foot. They were spread all around her foot - like the arms of an octopus. I told Court about this dream and his response was "Well, at least she would have good balance!"

Last night, I dreamt that the baby was born via C-section. Nothing crazy, right? C-sections happen everyday. Well, this particular c-section was not performed on me. It was performed on some "blob" that contained my baby. It was a frisky, uncooperative blob at that! Court and I had to hold the blob down so the doctor could slice it open and remove the baby.

I don't know much about interpreting dreams, but I would say that these dreams are chalking up to a bit of subconscious anxiety about the whole delivery process. I say subconscious because my mantra all along has been the following:

If a female, early American woman could ride a horse all day long, pull over, give birth to a baby under a tree and then hop back on the horse and keep going, I can DEFINITELY make this happen with LOTS of drugs, a sterile hospital and a doctor...right?!

Now we are REALLY ready!!

In anticipation of our favorite October holiday,

we tried on our costumes today! Lucky is a pumpkin...

and Lindey is a spider!

Neither one was very happy about the dress rehearsal. I am not sure if I feel more sorry for them here, dressed up, or when Lucky was wearing his cone.

Tough call.

Hopefully, Grace will be more of a willing participant when it comes to Halloween costumes.

Drum Roll Please.....

The bathroom is finally done! Before you see the end results, here are a few of the "before" pictures.

Out with the old...

...in with the new! The dogs like the heated floors!
The shower - our pride and joy!

Court and I will definitely be the epitome of clean with this set up!

Bright Light at the End of the Tunnel?

I have expressed my concern to anyone who will listen about how I DO NOT want Grace to be born on Christmas or circa Christmas. A lot of you have been extremely supportive and told me to look at the bright side of being a Christmas baby.

• A Christmas baby will never have to work on their birthday.
• They will always be with their family on Christmas. (This could be a good thing or a bad thing, right?)
• They will get double the amount of presents. (I know you guys are just trying to be positive but there is no reason to lie!)

Even with all your uplifting comments, I am still convinced that there isn't a worse day of the year to be born than December 25th.

My anxiety over this potential birthday has kept me up many a night. Finally, I decided to address it with my doctor. I mean if Jennifer Lopez and Angelina Jolie can schedule an appointment for their babies to enter the world, why can't I?

I didn't know how to approach the doctor about this subject. Being a physician, he is obviously conservative and being a physician in YAKIMA, WASHINGTON, he is more than likely wicked conservative. So inducing labor probably doesn't fall too high on his priority list. But because it fell so high on mine, I figured it was worth a verbal lashing or two about putting the concern of the baby before it's birthday...yadda yadda.

So at our last appointment I broached the subject with my doctor by asking him if he had any tricks up his sleeve (preferably Superman strength inducing drugs) for making the baby come before Christmas?

He lectured me a bit on wanting things to be as natural as possible - MINUS the epidural of course - but that he would not let the pregnancy go more than a week past my due date. Hallelujah!!! Reiterating my hatred for December 25th birthdays, he even went as far to say that we might be able to fudge the due date a bit to get things moving a bit sooner! Are those angels I hear singing??

Thrilled about the good news, I was all a twitter on the ride home after the appointment.

Katie: Aren't you so happy that Grace won't be born on Christmas?

Court: I guess. I still don't get what the big deal is about being born on Christmas. Birthdays aren't a big deal. It is just a day.

Katie (thinking to herself): What the ****?!??!?!?!

Katie (out loud): Birthdays are a big deal for little girls. Birthday parties. Cupcakes at school (although I hear they - meaning the "fun police" who ruin just about everything these days (i.e. no drinking while pregnant) - have banned cupcakes at school too). Slumber parties...

Court (with a knowing smile): ...Presents.

Katie: You are going to be a great father!

***************************************************************************

Another bit of (related) good news....I met a woman this past weekend whose due date with her first child was December 13. Her baby ended up coming early and was born on NOVEMBER 30th!!!! WOOOO HOOOOO!!!! Granted, her child was born over 40 years ago so technology wasn't what it is today, but stranger things have happened than a baby being born 13 days early, right?! Maybe there is light at the end of this nine month long tunnel!!

Although....

MY birthday is December 2 so we don't want her coming too early. Crap!! This parenthood thing definitely stirs up lots of extremely important things to worry about!

Bring on the cake!

I can continue gorging on cake and sweets for the next 9 weeks! wooo hoooo!! I got my gestational diabetes test results back and all is well! Bring on Halloween!!

The one thing the doctor is concerned about is my iron level - or lack there of. Apparently, I am showing signs of anemia. To counteract this, I have been instructed to start taking a prenatal vitamin (they pulled me off of it early on believing it was contributing to my five month stint of morning sickness) and an Iron supplement. Our next appointment is next week - it will mark the beginning of month eight! We are getting close people!

Not sure if you caught how I dropped the countdown in the first sentence (if you didn't - you will now!) but I have 9 weeks left! That is less than a law school semester! I survived six of those, so this ought to be a breeze in comparison, right? Labor can't be as bad as two weeks of final exams.

Boo's Ready for Halloween?

This is my favorite time of year. There is a crispness in the air, the leaves are changing and harvest is coming to a close...not to mention it is the beginning of the holiday season! The holiday season for me begins on October 1st, when I can start decorating my house for Halloween, (I LOVE Halloween) and ends after Easter. (I haven't gotten into decorating for 4th of July probably because Court is always in harvest.) Anyway, I particularly love the season between Halloween and Christmas. Perhaps it is the weather I love, perhaps it is the food or perhaps it is the fact that all of my important dates fall in between Halloween and Christmas - my anniversary, my birthday and now Grace's birthday!

Needless to say I have begun the preparations for Halloween. Here are some picture of my handy work thus far.

My dream is to someday have a huge Halloween party in our barn - complete with apple bobbing, a haunted house and one of those games where you reach your hand in and think you are feeling eyeballs but it is really grapes. Someday!