Now and Then

A year ago, almost to the day, that we said goodbye..



.. and a year later we are together again!



Our boys sure have changed in the last year! I am so excited to have our friends Janet and Dion here and to spend a few days with them. Monday they came and helped celebrate Chris' birthday with us eating meat and hanging out at Lake Calhoun. Tomorrow.. the Fair!!

 
(Chris can't wait to have a baby in overalls again)

Coming Up

As I am sure you are aware, it is now August. This month brings our one year anniversary of leaving Brooklyn and moving back to Minneapolis. I can't believe it's been a year. The anniversary sure comes with mixed feelings. I miss New York and our friends there, but I have also loved being close to our friends and family again here. It's crazy to think how much has changed in one year and looking at Charles and how much he has grown really puts it into perspective.


last day in Brooklyn


last week

To be honest though, I have not been looking forward to our moving-date anniversary. However, there are a lot of things that are coming up this month, (and next month!) that I am very excited about.

Yesterday some of our Brooklyn friends arrived in Minnesota and we will be seeing them soon. They will be here for a few weeks and are staying for the Fair- which is of course another thing to be excited about in August! (I have already made my preliminary list of Fair foods to eat.. have you??) I think it's really cool that a little piece of Brooklyn will be here over our one year anniversary.

What else is coming up that is exciting? Well, my husband turns 30 this month! woohoo! The beginning of September will bring another NY friend to MN for a little reunion with some more of our fellow former 5209 residents who now live in Iowa. And, of course, next month our family will grow from three to four!!

Mystery on Lynn Ave

This happened last week.

When Chris came home from work he showed me something he had noticed that morning when he was ironing his shirt for work. THIS is what I saw..



SomeTHING had crawled into the iron and had gotten stuck, and presumably died.
Gross.



We think it was a centipede.

Chris said that that morning when he had noticed it he had poured some water in there and the legs had twitched but when we looked together that afternoon it didn't move at all. We couldn't get it out either. It looked as though our iron would forever have those nasty legs.. and body, stuck in it's water chamber.. or so we thought.

The next day when I looked at the iron.. it was gone.

39=Lace

I love the idea of giving a traditional gift for an anniversary. For example, first anniversary is paper, second is cotton, third is leather...and so on. There is a 'traditional' list as well as a 'modern' list. The modern list has something for every year while the traditional goes to year fifteen and then is only every five years.
Well, today is my parent's 39th anniversary and the modern list says the gift is lace. Lucky me, because next year is Ruby and last year was beryl. What would I have done with beryl??





We joined them for a nice dinner last night to celebrate their anniversary. It was nice to go out as couples, thanks Mom and Dad, Happy Anniversary!

Things that were good this week

 * getting together with the Hildens. (We see them almost every weekend so when we go three weeks without getting together it makes our worlds a little off kilter. Fear not, all is right with the world again. Whew)

* the start, and almost finish, of a long overdue sewing project. (pictures to come)

* an evening cooling off with friends at a pool/splash pad

* a kitchen table. finally!

* a letter from my NY bestie.

* Michaels, Target, and Starbucks with my mum.

* two visits to a friends house with kiddie pool. (it's been HOT)

* new library books

* The People's Roast. Iced. YUM



I thought I would leave you with a baby bump picture. I am approaching 31 weeks now but this photo is from week 29.

MN Zoo

To celebrate a little break in the heat we headed to the MN Zoo on Sunday with Nana and Papa.
To be honest, it was still pretty hot out, but we enjoyed ourselves!

 

I wanted to jump in the pool with this bear and cool off too but I also didn't want to get eaten, so I decided against it.

As always, Charles loved the fish and other under water creatures.

He likes the movie Happy Feet so seeing the penguins was really fun. These two were following his hand up and down.

And the most exciting part of the trip? The dolphin show! He loved watching them swim and jump and splash the water. If you live in the area make sure to take a trip to the zoo and see the dolphins this summer because they are moving the dolphins out of our zoo in the fall.

Baby on the brain

I am getting so excited to meet our baby. Today I am 29 weeks pregnant. Only 11 more weeks till my due date, and although I am not expecting to go early like I did with Charles, the thought is still in the back of my mind, so really it could be less. or more. ha! Either way, the excitement is brewing.

This is from our 20 week ultrasound. It so fun to imagine what this little boy will look like.




One thing I noticed right away was a resemblance between this ultrasound picture and the one we have of Charles at 20 weeks.
 
Baby boy on the left and Charles on the right

Do you notice their upper lips? How they both stick out over their lower lip? Charles' upper lip still does that and I think it's one of the cutest things ever. See?


What a darling little profile!

So will Baby Boy have that same cute upper lip? I guess we'll just have to wait and see!