Pumpkin Carving

So I finally get around to adding a post (not totally voluntary however).  We were preparing for our camping trip this weekend, but since we will be away for the frightful night, we had to get our Jack o'lantern ready and put it out by the front door; (have to make sure none of the neighborhood's scary creatures make it into the house while we are away).  The dogs don't seem to pay any attention to it (and they like the cut-outs either).  We baked and salted the seeds, and I saved most of the insides for either a pie or soup tomorrow night.

Philly

We had a bit of time before boarding the flight to walk around Philadelphia. Here's a picture of me along the Delaware River. Matt took the picture without warning so just pretend that I'm smiling.Matt with Irish immigrants.

Reading and B & O

Next we were on our way from Philly to Reading (pronounced "redding"). On the way we saw 2 rail lines: B & O and Reading - just like Monopoly! It was time for business...and the whole purpose of our trip. Monday we woke up early to go to a steel foundry in Pottstown, PA to talk about some pads that they are making that help install umbilicals of the floor of the Gulf of Mexico.

Uncle Jerry in Germantown

It was great to meet Uncle Jerry! He lives in a seminary which is beautiful! We drove around and received a personal tour from Father Jerry about Germantown and his life that has woven in and out of this seminary. His place has a great view of the town...I noticed the top of a castle-like structure peaking over the tree tops from his window. Did I mention earlier that the leaves were changing? Driving from city to city was wonderful because we could just stare out at all the gorgeous fall trees. They were spectacular next to the water - the reflections were magnificent! Back at the seminary, the staff and food were great! We visited, toured then ate dinner and visited some more.

The Magi...or is it?

On our way back to Philly, we stopped to see Matt's sailboat. I had heard that it was called the Magi, but really it's a no name boat (you'll see in the pictures). It was surprisingly clean and looked ready to go! I could just imagine taking the dogs (with their life jackets on) and our family out on the boat. It has a bathroom and plenty of storage room and sleeping room. Dare I say that it's more comfortable and appealing than staying in the half demolished house? We'll see...

The Dolan Family

After coffee we drove South or West toward Annapolis to see The Dolan Family. Matt met Dave over 10 years ago and was with Dave when he met his wife, Barbara. They have a beautiful house and 2 boys, Patrick and Quinn. We ate dinner with them (yummy eggplant parm) and spent the night at their house. It was a wonderful visit. My favorite was playing with playdoh while drinking tea on Sunday morning while Matt and Dave went to the marina to see about a boat.

Constantino

Constantino is a friend of Matt's that lives in Fells Point. He checks in on Matt's house every once in a while. He's a traveling, busy guy with his own business. He's Italian and speaks 5 different languages. He helped tell us about the meanings of names. For instance, Bellatrix literally means warhead. Hmmm... Matt and I still like the name. It's one of the 57 navigational stars and means female warrior according to the constellation map. "Cos" as Matt calls him, suggested some boy names too. Vladmir was the top of the list, especially since it has 3 syllables.

We enjoyed a couple of hours out of the rain at the coffee shop. Cos is a good guy and I can't wait to hang out with him more when we vacation in Baltimore.

Fells Point

Matt and I visited Fells Point, Maryland (Baltimore) and I got to see his house for the first time! Well, let me talk about the neighborhood first... It's a walking around kind of place, little restaurants and coffee shops all around. No franchises at all! (well, maybe Subway, but that's ok) You can walk to the water from his house too!

Now for the house... It looks totally normal from the outside (but I forgot to take a picture of it). Once you're inside you quickly realize that it's a shell of at house and needs a bunch of work. My plan is that when we confirm that our baby is happy and healthy, that we take advantage of parent leave at work and live in Baltimore for part of April or May. The kitchen, bath and dining room are intact and livable. We can spend some money on the house then to start getting it all back together.

Here's the bedroom with 3 pretty windows and a fireplace. Remember that this house was built at the turn of the century.

Here's the other bedroom in the back with an attached full-size bathroom (which will eventually be renovated into a walk-in closet and the bathroom will be moved between the bedrooms).
A spiral stair case! (with sail boat masts in the way)
The front door and family room with fireplace (and a sailboat!).
The dining room...or the functioning bedroom of the house.
The dining room, kitchen and bathroom can be closed off from the rest of the house so workers can work and we can live.
The kitchen! It all works!

The patio which is need of some cleaning up and a privacy umbrella.
The fully functional bathroom!
Johns Hopkins is within walking distance and beginning to expand so this house will become a great rental property someday in the future. Until then I want to use it as a vacation home. It's such a fun neighborhood to hang around in. We'd have the best time walking around and being neighborly!

baby-P in action!

Here's baby Paulonis in action! Now you can scan to see if you think he/she is a boy or girl. Apparently Dr. Papasakelariou knows!

accomplished!

Matt and I have completed lots around the house! In fact, that's how we spent the entire weekend. Painting-done. Wiring-done. Reorganizing-done. Cleaning-done. It's so nice to be done (with almost everything). Now we can plan to get away!

Baby Paulonis

Here's our first picture of our baby! Isn't it the cutest thing?! It was a lot of fun to get our ultrasound. Matt was better at seeing things than I was; he picked out it's nose all on his own! Seeing it move around, especially it's lips was really amazing. I liked seeing it's spine the most. Now that there's just a single, little, blurry picture, it's not as cool, but that's ok. We really were just getting a head count...and yep, there's just one head.

Just FYI: BPD means biparietal diameter (head), HC means head circumference, AC means abdominal circumference and FL means femur length. ...And I found out that my blood type is A+. Matt is O-.

The due date changed to February 18th (Happy Birthday Kimberly!!!!) but our C-section will probably be scheduled on February 11th...or maybe the 9th to appease Matt.

I added a poll to the side so you can guess the sex. Matt thinks it's a boy since it has a long femur bone. I think it's a girl because I really want a girl.

oh the fun we have when Matt's away

Dutcher is looking back to see that she's still a pumpkin!! A very cute pumpkin! She was even comfortable enough to sit.

You see, since Matt's away, Dutcher and I get along very well. She's so sweet; no whining, no barking and even snuggly. I gave her a pizza crust beforehand and then put the pumpkin costume on. She didn't mind at all. Now...if Matt were here, she would have whaled and cried as if we were removing her tail. Obviously, it's all a show, just for him.

She wouldn't look at me.

Here you can see how well her green collar goes with the ensemble!

Just the cutest, little pumpkin that I've ever seen! (P.S. See the orange piece of plastic on the floor? It's Dutcher's favorite toy that got shredded by Penny...not maliciously, just over-zealous. Duchess still likes to chew on the parts so we leave them around for her.)

Just wait a couple of weeks. The pictures will get better. We'll put Penny in her moose costume and Duchess again in her pumpkin costume and take pictures of them together!

IT moves

I forgot to tell... I felt a funny feeling from inside...almost like a 'toot' but from the front of your belly. Matt felt it too - he held his hand on my belly and pressed for awhile and IT pressed back! Personally, it feels like an alien inside. Since we haven't had an ultrasound, it's hard to imagine how big it is (books say it's 10 inches) or how it's situated...or if it really is normal-looking. Sometimes it keeps tapping which feels like a rolling feeling through my belly. Then it feels like I'm a jelly-fish with cilia and tentacles churning inside and around.

Friday we get our ultrasound to see what IT really looks like.

a cold

Yuck, yuck! I have a cold. I think it started with allergies...and then turned into much more. Resting and replenishing fluids are recommended, so that's what I'm doing. I tried out Tavist and Tylenol to relieve congestion and a headache, but they didn't work (but they're 'safe' to take during pregnancy). Matt left for Mobile, Alabama, but should be home in a couple of days.

a mess

The last couple of weeks have been a mess around the house. I've been so patient and Matt has been working hard, but it seems that every project takes more and more steps before it can be completed. Here's what we're working on:

• lowering the front yard (for proper water drainage), adding edging to keep dirt in one place and gravel in another, deweeding and replanting pots
• wiring the cable/internet/tv cables so that the tv can be wall mounted about a bookshelf in the family room. Matt's an expert at this and has drilled the holes, run the wires, repaired the sheet rock, spackled, sanded and is now repainting. Next is to actually hang the wall mount and attach the tv
• reupholstering the rocking chair cushions
• rearranging, swapping out and reorganizing the kitchen to accommodate all Matt's kitchen supplies with what was already there. He's got a lot of good items and some fun stuff too, like a hand coffee grinder.
• building a shelf for the cable box in the storage closet under the stairs, then all the storage boxes can go back into that space and we can stop walking around them
• replenishing the refrigerator of all the food, especially condiments that were spoiled during the power outage
• painting the baby's room
• hanging shelves in the baby's room
• building a diaper changing station on top of a dresser
• replace a battery to make the alarm system work again
  

Anyone who wants to help with any of this is WELCOME! We're making good progress but I'm ready for it to be done sooner!