Thermalgal’s Temperate Mumblings

For Cindy

For the third year in a row, we are doing the ornament exchange for Christmas (instead of exchanging gifts in our stitching group). Everyone is coming over today (except Catherine who has a cold and doesn’t want to get Henry sick). We draw names at our annual August retreat (long weekend in WVa to just sit, stitch, and eat junk food). This year I drew Cindy’s name. Cindy and her husband live about half of the year on their boat but she makes it to the yearly retreat. She is the only non-stitcher in the group (she is a knitter). So, I knit her an angel from Angels: A Knitter’s Dozen. Since Cindy is going to be calling in from Flordia and I didn’t finish her ornament in time to have it arrive before today, here is a picture for her (I’m going to try and mail it tomorrow or Wednesday). The little angel is knitting a gold version of her wing for a higher up angel.

And of course you all came here for a new Henry picture, right? Here he is with his Aunt Traci. She makes him look so big! He got weighed at the lactation appointment on Thursday and he was up to 7 pounds. He gained the 3 oz he lost after birth and then some.

Henry’s Birth Story

I’ll start the story just after the work holiday party. It went from 1pm to 4pm so I took the rest of the afternoon off. Since Babies R Us was just down the street, I went and got the matching ottoman for the glider with the next 15% off coupon. Then I headed home and promptly took a nap. Now that might not sound all that strange. But the one thing I haven’t had during this pregnancy is the fatigue that is usually associated with it. So, you can probably count on one hand the number of times I crashed after coming home from work.

The rest is going to have some TMI, so for those you don’t want to read the rest, don’t continue. Don’t say I didn’t warn you… Continue reading Henry’s Birth Story…

Henry Thomas

Born 12/12/07 at 4:46pm (EST). Weighs 6lb 13oz and is 20in long. More details to follow and more pictures here…

Changing Tables…

So, the dresser we have in the nursery (which came from my SIL) is from Ikea and has a flip down top for the changing table. The styling has changed a bit over the years. The current one has cubby holes instead of two small drawers like mine. But it won’t fit the standard 16″x32″ changing table pad, it is about 3″ too short. The only thing I could find that would fit it is the inflatable one that Ikea sells. I don’t think so… In the end, I bought a new changing table (and I’ll leave the folded up part of the dresser folded and use it as shelves) at a place I rather dislike shopping at (Wal-mart). I read the reviews on line for the table and the price was right and it looks nice. So, on the way home from work last night I stopped by. I found the table right away and was able to wrangle it into my cart. Luckily it was light because there was no one around to help me. I also found some cute Mutts pj bottoms (Mooch doing yoga - see picture below). And surprisingly enough, there were no lines! That is what I hate about Wal-mart (well, that and a bunch of other stuff that I won’t go into). I then had to wrangle the thing into my car (again not a big deal since it was really light). I put it all together last night and relocated some of the baskets from the closet to the shelves in the changing station.

And since I haven’t taken a picture in a while, here is one from this morning (38w4d). And notice we set up the bassinet, it was still folded up in the last picture two weeks ago.

I got my glider!

It was the very last one in the store, too.   The couple ahead of us wanted it in tan and ended up having to go to another location to get it.  So the green one was all ours.  Yay!  And we got to use our 15% off coupon.  I have another for this week, so we’ll either get the matching ottoman (if it is in stock) or the crib mattress (not a big hurry since we have the bassinet).  And I have yet another 15% off coupon for next week.

After we got the glider we stopped by Border’s so Scott could get a calender for next year.  And somehow we got 25% off that too (I didn’t realize that just scanning my Border’s card will get me the coupon, I thought we had to print it out).  Then we stopped by AC Moore and I got 30% off that entire purchase (something about Friends and Family, not sure since the casher just scanned something and poof I had 30% off).  In total we saved over $70 on Saturday with all the discounts.

Then Saturday night we went out to dinner before going to the Christmas concert.  We hit a Chinese place that a friend had recommended.  The food was good, but the service was horrible.  It took us half an hour to get our check and pay (and that was after we broke down and asked the bus-boy-lady who had to search down our waiter).  The concert was… strange.  It was the first time I had sat on the audience side of things.  I sat next to Catherine and Noah and probably chatted way too much.  But I agree with Catherine (who was in the clarinet section until Noah was born) that being on stage is 100 times more exciting than being in the audience.  At times it was almost painful and extremely boring.  But I will support my band and be in the audience for the next two concerts that I’m not playing (I’m not going back to practice until after I go back to work).

On Sunday we went to the tree farm and okay that probably wasn’t the wisest thing to do.  I mean I’m 38 weeks pregnant and I went tromping around the tree farm to find the perfect tree.  First thing I did when we got there was ask where the closest fir trees were.  We actually didn’t have to go that far to find “our” tree.  Then Scott chopped it down and haul it back.  All I had to do was walk around, point out trees and drink the free cup of hot cider.

We ended the night by finishing up the closet.  Okay, Scott did all the work while I “supervised” from the glider.  Then I stuffed the shelves to get the middle of the room clear.  The next phase of the closet project is to get shelves above the rods.  But we can wait a bit on that.