dan's birthday & some baby stuff

Moving on to week 39, we reach Dan's birthday. It was actually on Tuesday of that week, but we celebrated it ahead of time, on Sunday evening. Dan and Carmen set up pizza crusts that they had made ahead of time, as well as several choices for toppings so people could make their own combinations. (Steve contributed a few more topping choices too.) Rob came up from Palo Alto, and Dan and Carmen's friends—Melanie and Ryan—brought their son Miles, who was born the same day as Elsa. After the pizza party, Elsa and Miles were left with babysitters in their respective homes, and we met back up for bowling at Mission Bowling Club. I was 35 weeks pregnant at the time, so bowling was a little awkward, but it was actually pretty do-able. It just felt like I didn't have very much power with which to send the ball down the lanes, probably because I was carrying several extra pounds and a belly the size of the bowling ball itself.

267/366 mission bowling club

Monday's picture was from the window of the toy store in Noe Valley, which I passed on the way to and from Whole Foods. I was getting in my walk for the day while also restocking my supply of crackers to go with my now-usual bedtime hummus snack.

268/366 little red

Tuesday was Dan's actual birthday, as I mentioned before, and Steve and I joined Dan and Carmen for a low-key dinner of takeout sushi downstairs. I took a picture of the mannequin heads that Carmen had festively set up on the table. They were going to be used in her Halloween display for Eye-Q, which is why she had them.

269/366 partying with the girls

My last ultrasound was on Wednesday afternoon. Because of the gestational diabetes, they wanted to check the baby's size once more. This time, they estimated him to be at about 65th percentile, which sounded much more reasonable than the 97th percentile that they had guessed four weeks before. Who knows how accurate either of those figures are, but the doctor seemed satisfied this time that they wouldn't need any more scans. I also got my money's worth better with my souvenir photo CD on this one, since the sonographer was able to get some decent 3D pictures of the baby's face. Nothing from the previous ultrasound had been worth posting, so it was nice to have a few usable shots from this one.

The other project that afternoon was washing the pack and play sheets so I could put them on the mattress. I had been meaning to take a picture of the pack and play for a while, so this was a good time for it. We plan to use this as the baby's bed in our room for the first month or two of nights before moving him to his crib full time.

270/366 baby's first bed

Next, I took a photo of our newly arrived throw pillow for Thursday's picture. I got this custom made by a seller on Etsy for the glider in the nursery, since it needed a bit of color and some lumbar support. 

271/366 throw pillow

Friday's shot was also of newly arrived baby stuff, namely the baby book and blanket that it had taken me so long to decide on. I'm not entirely sure the blanket is all I wanted, especially since the "sage" reverse side is somewhat more saturated and less earthy than I would have liked. However, it matches the rug in the nursery, and it's grown on me. The off-white side shown here will probably make a good background for newborn pictures too.

I was more pleased with the baby book in person. When searching, I had hoped to find one that was woodland-themed to match the nursery, but it seems that the baby book makers haven't quite caught up with that trend yet. Most of the animal themes seem to be either jungle or circus. There was a baby book with memory box that was designed by the same person/company as our bamboo mobile, but that one seemed to be more about the artwork (kind of a general animal theme) than the content. I wasn't in love enough with the artwork to forgive the skimpy prompts, so I compromised on theme and got the more circusy book below. It's pretty adorable, and it has more of the details I wanted.

272/366 book & blankie

The last shot of the week—Saturday's—came after yet another trip to Whole Foods. Steve and I found these tiny pears, the size of figs, and bought a couple. Since I didn't really have other ideas for pictures, they came in quite handy.

273/366 pair of pears