weekend fun (and Fogo de Chao take#2)

ben's parents were here for the weekend! what a reunion :)

we spent some time walking on the lake shore, the moms went shopping at the baby store, dads took the El downtown and toured the Garmin and Apple stores, and we even had time to go to the Field museum on Sunday.

but with all these adventures, i think the highlight of the weekend was dinner at Fogo de Chao. mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. all the perfectly-prepared meat you can possibly eat, and an amazing salad bar.
i wish i had room for more food :)

Gary got his new camera, so i'll trust the Koesterim to upload some pics to the family blog!

still pregnant

i called a couple of friends today to ask an innocent question, and realized that i really SHOULD start any conversation/phone call with the words "i'm still pregnant". at this stage, everybody expects my next phone call to be about the good news.

39 weeks, the Sharonim are here!

(all pics here)

we picked the Sharonim at the airport yesterday, and i'm proud to say that there wasn't much crying involved :) my parents seem to have survived the flight pretty well, and my mom even seemed optimistic about being able to find her way back to Israel on her own (in a month or so...).
we spent the evening talking and opening presents (mountains of cute baby clothes! i feel bad for the kids in Israel, it seems like there are no clothes left in the stores anymore after my mom)

we made all sorts of plans, all of which with the disclaimer, e.g., "tomorrow we can go to the art institute -- if we don't go to the hospital"... see how it goes! we do have reservations for Fogo de Chao for saturday night, with the Koesters. i hope the baby cooperates (but if she decides that she's done, that's ok too!!!)

we just came back from the Ethiopian Diamond, where we had a really good dinner. i can't see their website because i don't use internet explorer, so can't point at the exact items on the menu, but all that we ordered was excellent: we had sauteed lamb, shrimp in lemon sauce, chicken (in some yellow sauce... don't remember what it was called), and vegetarian sides - spinach, string beans, potatoes, and spicy lentils. mmmm. no room for dessert (but - we have fresh Dalia's brownies at home!!!! woohoo!)
my poor jetlagged mom almost fell asleep while eating. hope she remembers the restaurant in the morning and doesn't think it was all a dream...

crafting

the girls (and peter!) had a fabulous morning last saturday. the weather was great outside, but we opted for an indoors late brunch (waffles, strawberries, omelet and other goodies) and a couple of hours of crafting. this may be one of the last times where there are more moms than kids!!

Peter tried on Ben's glasses (yes ben, that's why you have tiny finger prints all over them :P), and helped Nicole with her crafting. i think he also decided in favor of Bamba. Kari made a lot of progress on her crafting too (but wouldn't let me take pictures).

i wonder

what gray scrooge will be like when his new boss joins the family. he must know that he's gonna be demoted pretty soon. he's trying to get as much cuddle time as possible these days... at least when he's wearing in his caddly-scrooge personality.

spring!

i love spring. i love eating our lunch on the bench outside. i love the flower-beds and trees that come back to life. daffodils, and those tiny blue flowers on 57th st. the tulips are almost blooming. the flowers on lakeshore drive look happier every day. little buds on the trees. yayy!
and it's going to be even nicer in a week or two!

38 weeks

my belly feels like Ron's yellow balloon, from the story about 5 balloons.

to those of you who don't know the story (shame on you!), it's about 5 balloons that Ruthi's mom gives Ruthi and her friends. almost all the balloons end up popping in a big bang, each ending its puffed up life in a different way (one fell on a thorny bush, another was scratched by a cat, one was hugged too strongly...).
Ron asked his dad to blow his yellow balloon, so that it would be as big as his (dad's) head, as big as the sun. so the dad blew and blew and blew, and suddenly... BOOM, TRACH, the balloon popped.

so that's what my belly feels like, one second before the popping, but it sure seems like the lil' person who's doing all the puffing and blowing still has a way to go!


and speaking of balloons popping, this is a cool slow-motion movie of a balloon popping.


to all pictures

survey

so the books say that i'm supposed to start having "Braxton Hicks" contractions every once in a while (or not feel them at all, which would also be normal). and then when it's time, i should be feeling "real" contractions.

the question is, what are they supposed to feel like?

we're ready!

...well, not READY ready, but we sort of have everything we need, at least for the first few days.
we have whatever we need for carrying, bathing, changing, sleeping and nursing you little baby, so you can come whenever you feel like it :)

i'm sure ben will have to drive to target or walgreens to get some last minute things. but my mind is more at ease knowing that we have the essentials. all that's left to do is to install the car seat and put a couple things in the hospital bag.

37 weeks

i think my belly is entering the exponential stage. i swear i wasn't this big yesterday!

(to all pictures)