The Baby Welcome Committee

Today is 30 weeks, 5 days... but who's counting? Our house is rapidly beginning to fill up with baby stuff- thanks in part to my sister (for all her fabulous hand-me-down goods) and in part to my New York (and Jersey) friends. Tommy and I had our first baby shower last weekend, hosted by the lovely Kate Navin (otherwise known as Katie or Sputnick) in her Jersey home. It was a long drive, but it was great to catch up good friends! The little guys pictured above were hand-crocheted gifts from Katie herself- who knew she was so talented? We received many other fabulous things at the shower, including a "revolutionary" car seat (which I hear is necessary if you want to take your baby revolutionary home from the hospital), organic baby swaddlers (which my friend Carrie lovingly called "baby straight jackets"), a thermometer (that is equipped with a "fever light bar" and attachments for taking temperatures from every body part imaginable), and a groovy baby wrap carrier (so that I can "wear" my baby like all the movie stars do these days...) This is not an exhaustive list by any means-- so as you can see, Baby Costello is well on his/her way to becoming a well cared for, entertained and fashionable baby!

At the shower, my belly even got the seal of approval from Doctor Hobbs herself. She said my belly was the most perfect belly she's ever seen. Now Kumari has seen a lot of pregnant bellies in her line of work- so this seems like high praise... but she might be just a tad biased :) At any rate, my belly is now a proper pregnant belly- in fact, it's hard to believe that I have 2 months of growth left- how can I possibly stretch any more?? The wee babe's movements are getting stronger- it's down right surprising sometimes. I mean, how can I focus on teaching English stress/intonation patterns when my belly is visibly moving from side to side? It's all very strange, but all very wonderful at the same time.

So... we anxiously await baby's arrival as our house fills with stuff and I frantically try to make space for it all. Next month's activities include: more baby showers, childbirth classes and interviews with pediatricians. Stay tuned!

Snow Days...

Here we are the day of the storm (Saturday), and we're now gearing up for snow day #3. Surely this is a record for the universities in Pittsburgh-- they usually don't close for anything. Heck, Carnegie Mellon doesn't even close for MLK day-- it's a "day on", not a day off. Anyway, as you can see from the photo, the city doesn't have much of a plan for this much snow. Tommy thought that their plan was to simply let the cars pack the snow down, but then a plow finally went down our street (well, one lane of it) yesterday. The roads are still the mess, and with more snow on the way, the city has strongly urged the universities to close for yet another day.

The current report is that it's raining, so I'm hoping that it switches back to snow so that we don't wake up to a very wet mess tomorrow... I know that the snow has shut down the city and all-- but who doesn't love a snow day (or 3) now and then? Over the past few days, we've enjoyed visiting with our neighbors, pushing cars out of slick spots, battling for milk in the grocery store, wandering around the snowy streets of our neighborhood and snuggling up with a blanket and book at home. It's been a blast. Sometimes mother nature gives you just what you've been needing.

The Expanding Belly

28 weeks preggo. We've officially entered the home stretch- hello 3rd trimester!