Kumquat is a comin'...

Earlier this week I woke up with not-so-fun cramping at 6 in the morning. I remained in bed for awhile and then migrated downstairs to the couch. I remained there for awhile and then migrated outside. I started to the right and then made a left and then another left and clearly had no where to go so I weighed my options.... I didn't possibly want to run into some one I knew who might be heading to work as I looked like a mess in a half-baked outfit and walking funny. So I followed side streets and walked toward the bagel place by union station. Unfortunately I hadn't calculated that I also didn't want to see young, springy high school White House interns either and they seemed to gravitate to the bagel place. It's probably not that fun to see them anyways the older I get, let alone when I am on the cramp war path.

The pain lasted for a couple of hours and then I was back to feeling perfectly fine. But in those two hours I had plenty of thoughts about kumquat's health, whether I was really ready to be a parent or to go through labor, etc...all of which culminated in the absolute horrific realization that there was no turning back nor was there some alternate route. So I burst into tears. Even though I thought I was getting prepared by washing baby clothes and stocking up on diapers I hadn't been focused on the real preparation - the mental preparation.

At the doctor's appointment I was told that I was 1 cm dilated and that little kumquat was getting ready to come out - probably early. We were hoping to keep him baking for awhile - not like House II would get done in three more weeks....but at least we would be three weeks closer to being done!

In House II the fireplace got torn down and is getting reconstructed a little to the right and Carlos has spent numerous hours with Nomer, the kitchen cabinet guy at Lowes. Nomer has a pretty cool software package that enables him to design and visualize cabinetry. Although the designing is free the cabinets sure are expensive!

This weekend was aunt Mary's birthday so my mom and Mary were here to celebrate. Of course celebrating also meant putting them to work so my mom reconfigured our front "yard." Yard is a little bit of a misnomer as it is only about 5 ft x 5 ft! We did allow them a little bit of fun as we went out to dinner and then got to watch DC United play Galaxy this afternoon. DC United trounced Beckham and his LA galaxy 4-1. For the millions that Beckham gets paid he sure is lazy! He was jogging around the field and despite a few nice passes didn't seem to do much.

Here are some belly and game pix

The countdown starts....

Whether we believe that July 19th is going to come or not we seem to be slowly marching towards d-day with the help of others. Last weekend we had a baby brunch in New York and ended up with more loot than I know what to do with...onesies, a car seat, diapers, books, nursing pads, swaddling blankets and a cradle! Who would have thought that such a small being (hopefully 6 lbs!) needs so much! We had more decorated onesies and Soogy made one which I'm including a picture of...clearly she is impacted by baby Wallis' primary activity....POO!!


We're so lucky to have people who know what this whole thing is about....I can't imagine filtering all the information out there by ourselves and I know that I haven't even done as much reading as I should have by this point. Luckily the world of baby products hasn't found our mailing address yet as I hear that they bombard you with junk mail and maybe a diaper here and there.

With more stuff and more reading and more labor horror stories comes more anxiety! It continues to shock me that 6.5 billion people happened this way!!!!

On the house front Carlos continues to think that we are moving in soon. I'm a little more skeptical...The rooftop deck is almost done and the electrical and plumbing crews are hard at work now. Carlos had a lawyer respond to our neighbor's most recent aggressive tactic. It is an amusing letter and he assures us that her lawyer is more expensive so we are happy to engage in a protracted discussion :) She believes that we need to pay her legal fees as well as the highest estimate possible for (unnecessary) chimney repair. Instead of walking out her door, turning right and walking 3 steps to talk to us about her concerns she hired a lawyer to write us a letter about it and now wants us to pay for her lawyer's lengthy process of writing us a letter. weird world we leave in that lawyers are the first means of communication for neighbors! Our lawyer's letter reminded her lawyer that we reserve the right to pursue legal action for her harassing activity including comments that she prefer that we not live there - anyone else (presumably anyone with a less hispanic last name...) was welcome and she wouldn't cause problems as long as we agreed not to live there!!

Baking a Baby and Torching a Roof in 100 degree DC heat

In 100 degree heat Carlos decided to play roofer and use the a blowtorch to melt black rubber on the roof. The roofer was busy on Saturday and Carlos was eager to finish the rooftop deck so he borrowed the torch from the roofer. Not the best idea in record heat....I joined in to hammer a few nails and was drenched with sweat within 5 minutes. Carlos managed to burn rubber for awhile before heat stroke was about to set in. But the deck is looking good and worth the sacrifice! Here is a picture of the salvaged doors from argentina that Carlos brought back from scranton - the picture doesn't show much but they look great!

Today we had our first birthing class which mainly served to scare both of us. It was an all day labor and delivery class which included a tour of the hospital, birthing videos, relaxation techniques and lunch in the hospital cafeteria. I must be in super-emotional mode because those 1970s birthing videos made me tear up -- mostly out of fear. I liked the relaxation techniques and they work like a charm...when you aren't in labor :)

Last weekend we went to a wedding in miami and it was soooo nice to be on the beach and in the warm water. Water is such a blessing for the third trimester...