June Baby Showers Bring July Babies

Last Sunday we had our baby shower. We had hoped it would be outside in my parents' backyard, but the weather just wasn't having it. Fortunately, ice cream sundaes taste just as good inside on a crappy day as they do outside on a gorgeous day!

My mom and sister put together a really nice lunch with all sorts of baby food--not the gross kind babies eat. Baby back ribs and baby burgers (otherwise known as sliders). Little cupcakes and ice cream sundaes. mmmm.

And it was nice to see all our family. Some of my favorite relatives from New York came up for the shower and all Seth's family came. Now we have almost everything we need for the baby! Bring it on!

The one thing we don't have is pictures from the shower. I left my camera at home, so although I know I posed for many pictures, including some real doozies with squinty eyes or double chins or food in my teeth, I don't have any of them. If anyone has pictures, please send them to me or Seth!

And thanks to everyone who helped throw the shower and everyone who came!

Quick Quiz!

How well do you know Scooter's parents?

One of us has a 42 inch waist. The other has a 34 inch waist. Can you guess which is which?

A.

B.
Hint: My belly will take over the world and destroy you!!

Cloth Diapering

So we've decided to try cloth diapering--it's better for the environment, some people say it's better for the baby, and it's definitely cheaper. Last week we went to this place in Somerville called the Diaper Lab where they talk to you for an hour about all the different kinds of diapers in the universe and about your own competence (taking into account lack of sleep and new-parent brain).

Unless you've looked into cloth diapering lately, you'd be amazed how many choices there are. Different materials, different styles, different number of steps. We decided on just plain old pre-folds (meaning a square piece of fabric that you fold around your baby and fasten in place). You don't use pins anymore. Instead you use a strange three-headed comb-looking thing that secures the diaper easily. Then you have a cover that velcros on. We're lucky enough to have the washer and dryer right in our apartment, so that will help a lot.

The woman we talked to was really nice, with a little baby of her own, and was clearly more interested in helping us find a system that would work for us than in making a profit. We bought diapers and clips and covers and we're ready to go!

We feel totally prepared to cloth diaper our baby. Please don't disillusion us. Also, a friend of mine got us a couple packages of disposable swaddler diapers for the newborn baby, so we won't have to figure out the cloth diapers right away. Though as you can see, we've already started practicing on Custard Bear and think we'll get the hang of it, no problem.

Half-Life-iversary

Last week we celebrated our 15th anniversary (5th wedding anniversary), which means we've been a couple for half our lives. Here are some pictures:

Here's a real old one. This was taken at Goose Rocks in Maine a week after we started dating, late May 1994:

And this is us on the day we got married at city hall on our 10th anniversary, a week before our big wedding in May 2004:
We had dinner with our families at the Wayside Inn and spent the night. We've gone back every year to celebrate our anniversary. Since this was our 5th wedding anniversary, we invited our
families to come have dinner again. Here's us now, celebrating our anniversary last week:

As soon as the baby comes, I plan to go back to being as thin and young as I was in those earlier pictures. That shouldn't be a problem, should it?