• Slideshow Widget

    Archive for May 2010

    End of the school year

    Monday, May 31, 2010

    School for Benjamin officially ends June 11th, but things are wrapping up with some fun events for the whole family. Last Thursday Mike and I tore ourselves away from work during one of the most beautiful days I have seen in the long time to accompany Benjamin and his classmates on a picnic at the school. The school has an amazing outdoor environment that is acres by acres large that is full of places for the kids to run around and play. He is so lucky to go to school in this kind of environment versus the concrete parking lot that I had at my schools.
    Benjamin's class picnic at school

    Benjamin's class picnic at school
    Next week we have an all school picnic to attend at a park near our house. I think this time I'll remember to bring a blanket for us to sit on! :-)

    Nursery Inspirations

    Wednesday, May 26, 2010

    People have begun to ask what our plans for the baby's nursery are, so I thought I'd share some of my inspirations and ideas here. First of all, we are planning a space that the little lady can grow into as she ages. Painting Benjamin's nursery a bright yellow and adding in nursery rhyme sayings and a big mural of Humpty Dumpty didn't carry him much beyond 2 years old when he moved into his new big boy twin bed, so I didn't want to make that mistake twice. We're going with a neutral creamy yellow for the walls with no plans for a mural at this time.

    Here are a few photos that can give you an idea of where I am going with the wall color (first photo) and the overall feel of the space:




    The look I am going for is one that is not overly feminine, but is also light and airy with the fabrics and brightness of the room. Whenever I try to describe what I want to Mike, he looks at me like I am insane, so hopefully that makes sense to you.

    I put together an inspiration board for the things that I am looking to include in the room. This includes the fabric I purchased for the crib bedding. The floral fabric is going to be the crib skirt and the aqua accent color is the color of the sheets. We purchased and assembled the nursery rocking chair already, but we are still waiting on a replacement slipcover (in the color shown here) since the zipper broke when we were trying to get it on the chair. I already picked up the lamp here at IKEA this weekend and am on a mission to find the mirror. I'd like to get the circular one here, but since I have yet to be able to find one exactly like this one anywhere, I may just end up going with one that is rectangular.


    I am still undecided on the curtains. Benjamin was (and still is!) and awesome awesome sleeper and I am afraid that it was partly because of how dark we kept his nursery. We have a light blocking pull down (ugly!) shade on the window now, which I plan to keep. We also have some pretty dark curtains as well, which keep the light out nicely. However, since my idea for the room is to keep it light and airy during times when the baby is awake, dark curtains wouldn't really achieve that goal. I like the look of sheers, but not the functionality - hence my indecisiveness.

    Two major things that are missing from this board are the wall hanging I bought many months ago and a painting we have in our house from our time in England that we plan to use. Both of these things tie in the "theme" of the room. I hesitate to call it a "theme" because the entire room doesn't revolve around it, but since there are more than a couple of items that do, I guess that is what it can be called. I'll have to snap some photos of the painting and wall hanging, but you can get an idea of what they might involve by looking at one of the prints in the inspiration board above.

    I think that's about it for my ideas. I plan to track our progress of getting both of the children's rooms ready on here, so stay tuned. We are hard at work trying to clean out Benjamin's new room, which is no easy task!

    Baby Girl Sighting #2

    Thursday, May 20, 2010

    Baby Girl 21 weeks - right hand
    It is almost like she's waving to us! We've added new photos to our flickr account.



    Happy Belated Blogiversary!

    Tuesday, May 11, 2010

    I totally had planned on writing something special for our 5 year anniversary of starting this blog (5/5/05), but with all of the excitement going on around here, I forgot. Whoops!

    Five years ago I was 32 weeks pregnant with Benjamin and we posted some ultrasound photos we had done on May 5th as our first blog posting. Crazy. Here I am, five years later and 20 weeks pregnant with our second child.

    With Benjamin's birth we held the "Great Labor Debate" where friends and family guessed what day he would be born. We plan on doing that again and will begin to take bids here on the blog and by email after our next ultrasound on May 19th. Feel free to leave a comment or email us if you are just dying to share your prediction before then. Some stats to help you make your guess: my due date is September 25th, I was six days late with Benjamin and usually second children come earlier than first children.

    Mother's Day weekend was a delight. We tapped into some grandparent babysitting Friday night so Mike and I could celebrate our anniversary sans five year old. Thank you to Mike's parents. Saturday was spent bopping around St. Paul with Jennifer and Andy. We visited the farmer's market, Penzy's spices, and the Golden Fig, had lunch at Midtown Global Market and enjoyed dessert at Izzy's Ice Cream. It was great to spend a day with no plans, just doing whatever anyone wanted to do at any moment.

    Sunday morning Mike made cinnamon rolls and even picked up some fresh watermelon for me (my latest major craving). We spent most of the morning outside doing some much needed yard work. After lunch all three of us went to see a movie I've been looking forward to for a long time, Babies. It is a documentary that follows 4 babies from birth to about 18 months in San Francisco, Tokyo, Namibia and Mongolia. It was very cute and we all enjoyed it. Here is the very adorable preview:


    After the movie we capped off my special day and the lovely weekend with dinner at our favorite restaurant. It was wonderful!

    Eight years ago...

    Tuesday, May 04, 2010

    These two crazy kids got hitched...

    What makes a runner?

    Saturday, May 01, 2010

    Here is an article I wrote for our local running club newsletter that I decided to share with everyone.

    My son Benjamin is no stranger to running. He's been at nearly every marathon I've run. He watched me qualify for Boston, cheered for me on the hills of Newton, and has attended more running events than he can count. My running friends are his running friends, and they are good friends to have. It's through our influence and passion for running that inspired him to race.

    Nearly 6 months ago he ran his first race. It was a 1K around Lake Harriet in the dead of winter. People say should start them young, and that's exactly what my wife and I intended to do. I ran with him in many layers chatting the entire way. He asked if we were going to just run a "short one". I told him yes and we proceeded to run the entire race without stopping. It was then I knew he had "the bug".

    I was once told by a wise runner when my son was born that my running will only get better with a child, especially when your child runs with you.

    Today my son did better than run with me, he ran without me. He suited up in his track suit, pinned his number on, laced his shoes, and stood perched at the starting line with his hand on his watch. When they yelled go, he didn't turn around, he didn't look for daddy or mommy, he was off like a shot looking to run his first ever 1 mile race. He told me that he did have to walk for three steps but otherwise ran the entire race without stopping. At the end of his race claimed his medal as thousand before him have down, he bowed his head while someone placed it around his neck in victory.



    Today my son became a runner.