Moving and Other Joys

On Saturday we moved. I say "we," but this is probably a serious abuse of the 1st person plural as I did very little moving indeed. Jacob and John and three friends (Melanie, Ruth, and Wendy) trekked up and down the 46 steps from the street to our front door carrying bag after box after washing machine many-a-time. I did however...sweep...and buy burritos for the real movers. 

Things in the new place are still very much in disarray.

Exhibit A: Living Room

Exhibit B: Bedroom with hole in wall

Exhibit C: Porch 

So...yes the little abode needs some love, and we're slowly tackling all the house-to-home projects. The closets need a little help before we can get anything in them...as does the bedroom. So currently we are sleeping on the floor of the living room. It's a lovely space and I give you this tantalizing little set of photos only so I can WOW you later.

Jacob is coming home now. I can hear his footsteps down the walk. The whole front of the living room is windows, and through the glass I'm admiring his familiar profile against the darkening sky. 

Last night I had another baby shower with my grad school buddies. It was a lovely little gathering with darling tea sandwiches and delicious shortcake and strawberry limeade with fresh pureed strawberries which I got to drink most of myself since everyone else was champagne-ing it.

In honor of our lit. degree we played children's literature pictionary. My team won. It was a close game, however, and I think we technically went into double overtime. We capped the night off by decorating 0-3 month onesies with fabric markers. I'm such a sucker for this type of activity...

EVERYONE won this game:

Wendy won the bio-math prize:

Front - boyfriend Moses will be so proud

and topped off her equations with a little quotableness:

Back

Ruth won the foreign language/humor-Kate-even-though-you-hate-drawing prize, 

and the judges were quite impressed with her creativity, and agreed that the highpoint of the creation was certainly the palm tree.

Lauren won the No-Surprise-It's-Perfect prize:

My iphone really did no justice to this number, (the sailboat is not at all blurry in the real thing)

Melanie won the Jacob's-favorite prize:

Front

Back

 Really...too clever, Melanie, and I think this might qualify as our baby's first costume?

So hurrah for all the winners!!

I went to a prenatal appointment today and everything is going well. My midwife informed me that the baby is dropping/has dropped which is to be expected in a first pregnancy and means that I will be having the baby soon. I thought this was a rather funny bit of professional wisdom. If there's anything obvious to everyone who looks at me it is this: I will be having a baby soon. I am 38 weeks tomorrow, and I suppose that means sometime in the next month. 

I will sign off with a memory of one of the first presents Jacob ever gave me after we started dating. It was a copy of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. Somehow I made it to my 22nd birthday never having read it. But he read it out loud to me and marked the page that talks about the little flower. Here's a bit of it.

"But my rose, all on her own, is more important than you altogether, since she's the one I've watered. Since she's the one I put under glass. Since she's the one I sheltered behind a screen. Since she's the one for whom I killed the caterpillars (except for two or three for butterflies). Since she's the one I listened to when she complained, or when she boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing at all. Since she's my rose." 

It makes me think about our old house; it also makes me think about our new little place that Jacob is busy nailing and drilling on right now. It makes me think about marriage. It makes me think about our little baby which is bumbling around inside of me right now past its bedtime. And so it became the inspiration for the onesie that I got to color: