7 months!

31 March 2011

So as promised. Here we are at 30 weeks:

Right side 

And left side 

So yes, the waxing of the stomach. Getting closer to the end and so looking forward to it.

Not much that is picture worthy has gone on in the Rhodes cabin recently.

But of course there was Uncle Robert's visit a few weeks ago. He and three buddies were on a crazy west coast road trip for spring break and stopped in Santa Monica for a Wednesday eve.

They arrived and told me they were hungry.

I asked what they wanted to eat.

They said they weren't picky, but they wanted their stomachs and their pockets full...So we went to the grocery store, and the four strapping young men proceeded to make dinner for Jacob and me.


Look at all those big cuties in the little kitchen. We had some marvelous spaghetti that evening. I was very impressed. I was impressed by their cooking, their teamwork, their general lack of odor. I was also very impressed by how much body mass our kitchen table could handle.


The baby and I aren't sure what to make of Uncle Rob's stache, but we're definitely both crossing our fingers for those curls. Kirk's massive beard, Joey's ponytail, and Micah's recent buzz-cut all get A+'s. Jacob (as cute as he is!) doesn't get a grade because he went to Waldorf schools.

Here's another for good measure:


Apparently, Jacob is a much more entertaining photographer than I. Not even my "to dust returneth" forehead was enough to sober up the clan.

So that was a lovely evening.

Signing off. Hope all is well in your lives!

Feeding the BlogMonster

18 March 2011

Again. Just trying to keep the little blog breathing.
I sit in my office on this Friday afternoon waiting for Jacob to come pick me up. I meant to go home this afternoon and spend it productively grading reading journals and prepping for my class Monday. Instead, I got distracted talking to my friend and then it was so late I figured I would avoid the late afternoon bus and wait for Jacob to get off work.

Let's see...what to say:

I am officially beginning my third trimester! Huzzah!

I had a hellish first trimester. I lived on our couch with my head half-submerged in a barf bowl. Jacob would get home, and I would recount how many times I had thrown up that day and lament about how "bad at pregnancy" I was. I even played the pregnancy-card with a professor and asked for a paper extension. Those of you who know me know how sick I must have been to get to this oh-so-humbling point. As I sit in this office I remember how my first trimester was eased by how encouraging and supportive people at school were. My friends on campus were and continue to be super gracious. They've given me rides home and made promises to babysit and asked me all the questions that a pregnant woman likes to answer. My boss told me I could even bring the baby into my classes when I teach in the fall. He said: "It can just sleep in the corner and you can feel good knowing that it's safe and really focus on your teaching." I wasn't quite sure I followed his logic, but I still felt very supported.

The second trimester (well...post-nausea...which didn't pass until mid-month 4) was a breeze. I started exercising and drinking lots of veggie juice and just feeling generally on top of things. The kid started moving and gets squirmier every week.(Some appendage is lodging itself in my ribs currently.) I paraded my second trimester belly in DC, visiting college friends. Dear Glencora (whose birthday is tomorrow! Yay!) lamented that my face wasn't fatter. I think she was hoping I looked a little bit more like an infamous picture one of my friends took of me in Greece. I will replicate it here to show how not insecure I am about all the weight I'm gaining...
I made it nice and big for you.

There. Far left = Me. I don't really know how it happened. For the first time in my life I was selected to go up and be the display person on some little show. They put this traditional garb on over my normal clothes, and somehow I ended up looking like that. Among my clan I was affectionately referred to as Fatty McFatFat for the rest of the term. I can't blame them. Those cheeks are impressive.

I won't probably be able to ward off those cheeks for much longer...especially the closer I get to my due date...not to mention my comprehensive exams and paper writing and the corresponding stress induced eating. Fatty McFatFat will reign again.

In commemoration of Glencora's birthday (and the book she should've been reading last weekend in DC instead of playing with me) I would like everyone to reminisce with us about the under-the-sea costume party we went to while living in Italy. Our expatriot selves didn't have much by way of costumes but we made do:
Hail, Queequeg and the Fishing Net.

Happy Weekend! I promise to post another picture of my burgeoning belly soon, those posts seem to get the most reactions :)

Mom and Kate Go A-Cruising

07 March 2011

My mother and I got back from a seven day cruise yesterday morning. It was a lovely little trip down Baja California. Here are some very non-polished pics for your enjoyment.

A little Cabo. A picture mom snapped with her i-phone on our 10$ taxi ride/glass bottom boat tour.
It was stunningly beautiful. We saw some really cool fish, my mother, the aquatic biologist, named every single one of them. 
Let's see...some cruise highlights. 

1. There was the issue of my being (eleven days) too pregnant to sail, a problem we didn't discover (in typical Ramsay style) till the day before we left. So I spent the whole cruise lying about how pregnant I was for fear that it would somehow get back to the Cruise Police who would put me ashore and leave me and my pregnant belly in Mexico. I suppose I paid for my lies with all the wow-you're-big comments I had to endure because of them. Someone had the nerve to ask: "You sure there aren't two in there?"
Honestly.
Who asks that?

2. Melon sorbet in Puerta Vallarta. It was so delicious.

3. The food poisoning I got from the melon sorbet in Puerta Vallarta that had me throwing up for 24 hours. Dr. Mom was essential in this frustrated time. She happily assured me that the baby was blissfully ignorant of my hurling. And she made it so I didn't have to go to the infirmary and get subsequently referred to the Cruise Police.

4. Looking for some Mexican pottery to replenish my mother's collection and after we spent 45 minutes picking out our favorites, we finally asked about prices and the man in this not-even-center-of-tourist-town, everybody-practically-has-the-same-thing-anyway flea market quoted us 38$/bowl. He said he would give us a twenty percent discount, but we were pretty sure that wouldn't quite bring the merchandise into our 8$/bowl price range...We told the vendor what we'd be willing to pay. 
He blinked. 
We stood up and walked away.

5. The name of our taxi/glass bottom boat in Cabo: "Sex Machine 2."

6. The ladies we ate dinner with every night:

Two quilters: Shirley and Diane. They were both born and raised in Eugene, Oregon. Shirley (left) was planning on dying in Eugene until she bought a house which she later found out was technically in Springfield, Oregon. She sighs: "Now I'll probably die in Springfield." 

But if I am completely honest. The cruise looked mostly like this:
Yes. Reading reading reading for my comprehensive exams next month while my mother worked on her book.
It was a super grand time. And now I'm back to a crazy week of school before Jacob and I head to DC on Thursday. Six months pregnant and I'm taking a red eye. Probably not the best decision I've ever made. Any tips for the pregnant woman on the plane are super welcome!
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