Current State of Affairs

So, other than random references to things in the course of talking about the Atlanta trip, and all of the letters to the baby that I've posted so far, I haven't really had much of a chance to give you a firm update on things in general. 

As of Saturday I officially hit 18 weeks.  The big ultrasound is next Wednesday and I'm already nervous about it.  I'm sure I'll have a nice lengthy blog post about that in the coming week.  Last time around the gender thing didn't really phase me.  I was totally OK not knowing, and there really wasn't much of a temptation to find out even when we were sitting in the middle of the ultrasound.  But this time around?  Holy cow, I really want to know.  I don't know what the major difference is this time, but I am dying of curiosity.  I suppose it could be a lot of factors.  I think it'll help me bond with the baby earlier.  I think it'll be easier to talk to Jacob in real terms.  We already have so much baby stuff, so I really want to know how much different stuff we'll need this time around.  We have a room that will potentially need some redecoration depending on the gender.  But, perhaps the biggest, is that I just want to have a firmer concept of what type of mom I'm going to be from here on out.  I mean, I've done the boy thing and I'm cool with that.  But there's a difference between a mom to boys and a mom to a boy and a girl (and a mom to all girls, for that matter).  There's just a different mindset and a different set of future tasks ahead if this baby is a girl.  I told Craig the other day that I might need some time if this is a boy to mourn the girl things I'll never get to do.  My emotions have nothing to do with this baby, specifically, but rather the idea of what being a mom to a girl would be like.  I will love this baby like crazy no matter what it is, but when you grow up a girl and do things with your mom, I think it's only natural to imagine doing that same stuff with your daughter someday...even if it is some horrible rite of passage like buying a prom dress (sorry, Mom...that was a tough one).  And to not be able to do that stuff...well...it'll just take some time to get past it, which is sort of why I wanted to find out now, rather than try to sort through those emotions in the midst of the craziest emotional time possible, right after childbirth.  I didn't want to be disappointed during what should be an amazing time.  I want to get any possible sadness out of the way now before it impacts anyone else.  And conversely, if it is a girl, I will need time to adjust to that reality, to prepare for a world of girliness I might not be too well-versed in since I was never super-girly.  Having a girl scares me to death on some levels, but part of me feels like I'll always wonder if I don't have one.  Anyway, more on that later, I'm sure.

I really need to get going on taking pictures of my belly.  I tried once a few weeks back with the self-timer on my camera, but it didn't really work so I either have to find another way to rig it up, or I need to just have Craig do it and try to do it on some sort of schedule.  There's actually something to see now, so I need to get on it ASAP.  Just in the last few days I've felt like I've expanded.  For a while it just seemed like I wasn't sucking in and had put on a few pounds, but I can't really suck it in now anyway and it's getting to feel a little more solid.  I still look fat in most of my normal fitted clothes, but I think within the next couple weeks those clothes won't fit anyway and I'll be stuck in maternity clothes (which, ironically, make me look bigger!).  However, it could almost be mistaken for a real bump in something really tight.  I actually think it looks better bare than in clothes.  Without clothes I can see that I still look like I have some definition on the sides of the bump, and it's just this very defined bump sticking out from there.  My chest is also quite a bit bigger this time (which I don't really remember from last time), so that's making things interesting as well.  Let's just say I can sort of see the beauty in the feminine pregnant figure right now, but the reality of dressing it is a little more complicated.  In general right now my belly just feels heavier.  I don't know how else to describe it.

As a whole I'm definitely feeling much better.  It took two solid months to drop the constant blah feeling, which was considerably longer than last time.  Just when I'd think it was laying off, I'd have another day where it was really miserable.  But over the last two or three weeks I've been feeling a lot better.  I'm still tired, but the constant funk isn't dragging me down like it was.  I can't say I feel particularly motivated to do things around the house, but periodically my nesting instinct pops up and can be pretty powerful.  I think part of it is a mental thing, knowing that if I jump into a project, there just may not be enough energy to get me through it.  For example, I have a really out-of-control flower bed in our front yard that could really use some taming.  There's a lovely mum in there and a couple of other plants of value (sort of), but the rest just seems to be whatever wildflower or weed happened to take root.  Every year it's been a little different, and this year (probably because I was too tired and busy to do much about it), it was worse than ever.  Now most of what's there is dying off, and I need to get out there and do some weed pulling (and possibly plant-killing).  It needs to be tamed for the winter, at least, but I know doing it is going to be exhausting (and possibly beyond my physical abilities at the moment--I tried to pull a weed a month or so ago and felt like I pulled a muscle in my abdomen), so it's hard to convince myself to go out there and give it a shot.  But at least I'm not feeling as horribly as I was.  I can't imagine being pukey that whole time, so thank goodness that wasn't an issue.  I don't know how people do it.  What I had was bad enough.

I'm finally starting to feel the baby move, which has been a long time in coming.  It's still just these weird tickly feelings in my pelvis, mostly, but it's nice to know the baby's there.  Particularly this morning, actually.  I had a doctor's appointment first thing, and I definitely felt a little movement at some point prior.  However, once the physician's assistant starting probing around to find the heartbeart, she couldn't find anything.  It took a good minute of searching, and then she finally went a little lower and found it.  During that minute I was a little nervous, but knowing I'd just felt the baby move earlier I didn't have the complete sense of panic I otherwise might have.  The movements still aren't obvious and I can't feel them from the outside, but progress is nice.  This will be much more fun when I can share the movements with Craig and Jacob, and watching my belly move while sitting at my desk is quality entertainment!

Jacob is still doing okay with the concept, I think.  He talks about his brother or sister once in a while, mostly about protecting his toys, moving into his big boy room, or about when they'll be ready to play.  Just recently he said something about teaching them how to talk, which I thought was cute...though given some of the things that come out of his mouth these days, I'm not sure how I feel about that.  My belly has taken a couple very minor shots in his recent fits of anger, but he gets a stern talking-to about it and luckily nothing's been serious.  I don't know if he even realizes what he's doing when he does that.  My guess is that it has nothing to do with the baby and more to do with being a convenient, eye-level target.  But so far he seems to be adjusting to the idea, and I'm sure he'll get much more into it when we know what it is.  He seems to be defaulting to a girl when he talks, but we shall see.  Initial name choices were Superman and Wonder Woman, but we'll see what he comes up with when we finally know which way we need to go.

I still haven't really started my pre-baby to do list in earnest, but I really need to.  I know that with the holidays coming up (Halloween right on through, particularly considering our Florida trip a month from today), time is going to fly.  It was crazy enough getting ready for a baby last time, let alone now with another child to keep us occupied and lots of holidays in the middle of it all.  Should be a wild ride...

Trip to Atlanta - The Epilogue

We've been back from Atlanta for almost a week now.  In fact, a week ago right now we were sitting on the plane waiting to take off.  Tonight, Jacob was in bed on time and we had a lovely weekend closer to home.  The trip was awesome and we had some fantastic experiences.  Looking back at the pictures, we saw so much in our whirlwind weekend.  I'm glad we did it.

However, the experience also reminded me how important it is to have structure.  By the end of the weekend, Jacob was an absolute mess.  He was having meltdowns and tantrums all over the place.  We tried our best to ensure he was well-rested.  Yes, we had late nights, but he did sleep well at night, didn't wake up crazy early, and did take tiny little naps here and there.  You'd think all of that should have added up to something decent, but apparently just being out of his element was enough of a challenge.  By the end of the weekend we were pretty much at our wits' end and the mere sight of our house couldn't come soon enough. 

I discovered the weekend before the trip that all of the crazy weekends and running around we'd done over the previous couple months had gotten Jacob out of his groove.  He used to be a pretty great weekend napper, but not having to do it on schedule here at home for weeks had an impact.  Obviously he's getting older and some kids his age dropped their naps ages ago.  He still takes one at daycare, which probably helps, but part of me dreads the day he gives it up for good on weekends.  He's been taking considerably longer to go down lately, and the naps haven't been particularly long (today's two-hour nap was a rarity).  He seems to behave better in general when he's on a schedule and engaged in activities.  Even with that, we've also had some serious issues with bedtime lately, but that's another post for another day.

Anyway...Jacob's issues aside, it was a great trip and it was nice to get away as a family of three for what is probably one of the last times.  Obviously traveling will get far more complicated by next spring, and it was nice to have a crazy trip schedule-wise while we still could.  We had experiences that I'm sure Jacob will be talking about for years to come.  And for Craig, the ability to see his favorite player prior to his retirement (don't get us started on the blown call from Friday's playoff game--ugh) was pretty darn priceless.

As for me...traveling pregnant was, well...interesting.  I was having total freakouts for a couple nights prior to the trip because I couldn't find anything to wear.  My body was at a terribly awkward phase, complicated by changing back to summer clothes for three days.  My maternity clothes were still too big, but my normal clothes were either too small or looked terrible with my belly.  I don't mind looking pregnant, but looking like I'd put on 10 pounds and didn't care about how I was dressed really bothered me.  In the last week or so I've really noticed that the "looking like I don't care" thing is really the problem.  This week I wore a couple outfits where I just looked heavier.  My belly stuck out a bit, but ultimately I realized I didn't look much different than someone who really does carry weight like that.  The difference between those outfits and the ones I rejected for the trip is that the clothes I wore this week laid nicely, so even if I looked a little bigger, I still looked like I cared about how I dressed.  But so many of my clothes don't flatter this in-between phase at all, and that was incredibly frustrating.  Eventually I came up with a few acceptable outfits, and even ended up switching things around while I was down there so a few pieces went unused.  I don't really look that pregnant in the handful of pictures I made it into, and that was sort of a theme for the weekend--almost existing like I wasn't pregnant.  I was well aware of it, of course, but I was mostly dressing like I wasn't.  I was trying to push through any tiredness, and was just trying to focus on the fun and unique experiences we were having.  We had plenty of distractions, so I didn't have to think about it much.  I did have the world's most obnoxious rash on my legs while we were there--it started the previous week and finally let up earlier this week--and that was making me crazy enough to not think about the pregnancy itself.  The rash is a side effect, I think, as I had a lesser outbreak of it early in the pregnancy, but you can be sure I'll be asking my doctor about it at my appointment tomorrow to make sure it's not a symptom of a greater problem.  The fact that it went away is probably a good sign, though, that it's just a hormonal thing as opposed to a hardcore pregnancy skin condition that's only fixed by having the baby. 

The hardest part of the whole thing was probably being a little more helpless than usual.  The lifting restrictions on pregnant women really suck.  Seriously.  I had to rely on Craig to lift my suitcase and do the majority of the packing and unpacking.  I had a hard time dragging the luggage I did have through the airport, and even battled some minor discomfort after our journeys through the airport.  I couldn't lift up Jacob to see animals at the zoo, and I needed Craig to lift him up into that Coke chair for our lovely little family picture.  There were moments where I had to sit more than I would have liked, just because I could feel the exhaustion.  On the other hand, I was paranoid about sitting on the plane for too long, since pregnant women are more likely to have blood clot issues and things like that while traveling.  My legs tend to bother me on planes anyway, and this made me that much more nervous.  The trip to Florida is weighing heavily on my mind, but that flight will be long enough that my "wander the plane" time won't be as limited as it was this time.  We ended up with turbulence around the time I had wanted to get up on both flights, and right when it ended the seatbelt sign went right back on for our descent.  Anyway, long story short, traveling while visibly(-ish) pregnant is a whole different ballgame.

In the end, I'm grateful we had this opportunity and I'm thankful that it wasn't later in this pregnancy.  There was a lot of pressure on Craig this trip, for many reasons, and he handled it well (aside from the aforementioned angst while trying to park Sunday morning).  While it didn't always seem like it at the time, I think the meltdowns from Jacob were a small price to pay for the chance to visit a new city and have some special, limited-time-only experiences.  I'm so happy we did it but I am also grateful to have been home this weekend (even if we did take a little day trip yesterday--more on that soon).  Being on the road for so many weekends has made me more appreciative of the opportunity to wake up in my own bed.  I need the time home to do the little things and keep our lives in order.  Next weekend will be another busy one, so let's hope I can make the most of my evenings this week!

Atlanta - Day 3

Sunday we woke up to a dreary but not yet rainy morning.  We had to pack up and organize knowing that we were checking out of our hotel and would be living out of the car for the day, right up until going to the airport that evening.  On tap for the day was Centennial Park and the surrounding attractions, watching the Bills game over lunch, and heading to the Legoland Discovery Center.  The weather was pretty much guaranteed to be crappy, so the park was up first before the weather became a bigger concern. 

 

Centennial Park was the central gathering place during the 1996 Olympics.  You may also remember it as the site of the infamous Centennial Park bombing.  The park is beautiful and it's surrounded by a number of tourist attractions, like the Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca-Cola, CNN Center, and both the Georgia Dome (home of the Atlanta Falcons) and Phillips Arena (home of the Atlanta Hawks and former home of the Atlanta Thrashers).  We had heard Jacob was a little young for the Coca-Cola tour, and the aquarium pricing is insane.  I figure if we go back there sometime we'll buy the CityPass thing that gets you admission to pretty much everything for a major discount.  We couldn't really justify it on this trip, particularly since we could get into the zoo for half off this time.  Still, that didn't stop us from looking for all the free stuff to see. 

 

Of course, the first issue was parking.  There was a Falcons home game that day, and the area was already crawling with fans.  Most of the parking we saw was expensive, but eventually (and after much angst), we found a $5 lot close to everything and squeezed into a tiny spot there.  (Note to self: smaller rental cars will cause you less stress when it comes to parking.)

 

We walked around to the front of the World of Coca-Cola and found a great spot for the first photo op of the day.  Craig fit in perfectly with his morning bottle of Diet Coke, and Jacob is holding on to a metal Coke cup that's part of the statue.  Cute, huh?

Outside the aquarium there were a few fiberglass painted dolphins, and of course Jacob gravitated right to this one...

Eventually we got to the entrance to Centennial Park.  There were drops of rain in the air and the temperature was much cooler than it had been, but it was still pleasant and the rain was tolerable.  We came across two playgrounds within the park right off the bat, including this cool one made up of fake rocks and unique activities.

There was a thing that looked like a boat, and you could make it glide back and forth by shifting your weight.  Jacob really liked that.

He also enjoyed this slide made out of rollers...

 

...and he liked climbing on the rocks.  He even ended up with a little friend who was following Jacob everywhere.  Monkey see, monkey do!  They also had some musical activities and these twirling flower seats.  The way they were oriented you could just keep spinning thanks to gravity.  Of course, Jacob almost flew off of one (while I was trying to take a picture--bad mommy).  I snapped a shot of him mid-topple, but Craig caught him before he fell. 

 

We moved along and saw a series of fountains and monuments.  Some had to do with Olympic (or Paralympic) athletes, some had to do with the people that brought the Olympics to Atlanta, and another commemorated the bombing, including the two people who died (one from shrapnel, the other from a heart attack) and the more than 100 people who were injured.  It was hard to believe, standing in the spot where it happened, that it could have ever been like that.  To think that this beautiful park, which was once crawling with people from across the world, could have had such a horrible thing happen that plunged it into such chaos...it was just hard to imagine.

 

But 16 years later, the park is still beautiful and creates a wonderful oasis in the middle of the city.  There are trees, open green spaces, and paths composed of thousands of engraved bricks bought by people around the world.

One of the many waterfalls/fountains...

Here's a cute picture I caught of Jacob trying to play peek-a-boo around a statue...

At one end of the park was the one element I was really looking forward to seeing.  There was a fountain featuring the Olympic rings.  The jets of water shot up from the rings, and apparently it puts on a choreographed musical show a few times a day.  Just like the Olympic cauldron the day before, it was neat to see something so iconic in person. 

After walking around the park, we headed into CNN Center, home of the TV network.  There's a giant food court, a couple shops, and a tour of CNN itself.  Here's the main atrium... 

When we got there, this whole area was FULL of Falcons fans.  By the time we finished our shopping (more on that in a second), it was empty like this because it was a little after 1pm and the Falcons game was underway!

While we probably would have checked out CNN Center anyway, our urgency to go there was increased after our experience with the Braves team store the previous night.  As I mentioned, we didn't find much that we liked and everything was far more expensive than we were expecting (like $30 for a kids shirt and $50 for a decent womens one!).  On Sunday morning as I was cleaning up the hotel room, I looked at a brochure we had picked up the day before that ended up being for the Braves Clubhouse Store at CNN Center.  And the prices in the brochure looked WAY cheaper than what we had seen at the game.  When we got to the store, it was apparent this was a way better shopping experience for us.  We still struggled to find a kids' small shirt for Jacob, but finally did find one we liked.  I found a shirt for myself on the clearance rack (yes!)., and we even bought a little outfit for the baby, which was also on clearance!  It would have been better to know the gender since there were some girl options, too, but we can make the one we got work for either.  In the absence of a stuffed mascot, we were eyeing up these things called "Bleacher Creatures", which are stuffed versions of Braves players.  However, at the stadium they were $30, and Craig preferred Chipper to the other player they had...but Chipper was nowhere to be found.  However...at this store, the Bleacher Creatures were only $15, and they had Chipper!  We also got Jacob this awesome baseball that features four different Atlanta jerseys.  We had actually been eyeing up one like that in Pittsburgh a few weeks back, but he had already gotten a different ball by the time we saw that one.  So, even better that we could get a Braves one!  In the end, our shopping spree wasn't quite what we expected in that it was delayed by a day, but it was no less successful when all was said and done. 

We headed off to lunch after that, first stopping at a restaurant which was the official "Bills Backers" hangout for games.  The place was jammed and Jacob was sleeping, so Craig ran in to check it out.  Turns out it would have been tough to get a table, so we went with our backup plan, a place called Taco Mac.  It's a local chain started by a couple guys from Buffalo.  They originally set up shop in an old taco joint (selling Buffalo wings, of course) and never really got around to changing the sign.  They do have some Mexican offerings, but basically it's your typical sports bar with wings, sandwiches, salads, and lots of snacks.  Everything sounded awesome, and the food was really great.  The game could have gone better, but at least we got to enjoy the first half before the Bills imploded.  By this point Jacob's meltdowns (which I haven't really mentioned until now--they'd been happening thanks to his wonky sleep schedule, I assume) were getting intolerable.  At the restaurant he had one because he drew outside the lines on his coloring sheet (featuring the Braves mascot) and we didn't have an eraser handy to fix it.  It was ridiculous.  There had been others during the course of the trip, but that one just topped it all off. 

Against my better judgment, but with literally nothing to do until heading to the airport around 7:30, we headed to a mall near our hotel that housed the Legoland Discovery Center.  It's basically a Lego-themed amusement center, complete with rides, a 4-D movie theater, building centers, play areas, and Miniland, a display of amazing Lego creations.  We knew we were cutting it close on time--we got there around 4:30 and last admissions were at 5pm, but again, we had nothing else to do until going to the airport, and there's not a lot going on on Sunday evenings!  When we got there, however, there was a sign saying they were closing early for a private event...meaning that ticket sales had already been cut off.  UGH.  The people ahead of us starting arguing with an employee.  We headed off to the Lego store for a bit, and once those people left, Craig went and chatted with someone himself.  He explained that we were only in town until that night, that we were willing to pay for the hour or so we could be there, etc.  And guess what?  The guy let us in...for FREE.  Wow.  That was awesome and incredibly lucky, particularly considering that it's not a particularly cheap attraction.  So, in we went to make the most of our hour and 15 minutes. 

Our first stop was Miniland, which was absolutely amazing.  Almost every major attraction in Atlanta was represented, all created in Lego!  Remember the Cyclorama from yesterday?

Here it is, only a little smaller...

 The center of the room took on downtown, including the capitol building (gold dome). 

The coolest thing was when the room went dark and lights came on in all of the buildings.  It was amazing and truly beautiful.  Some of the stations had interactive elements, too, like picking the music at an outdoor concert, or scanning through a bunch of "cameras" at CNN Center or the Falcons game.  Here's the football stadium, and the screen you see above could flip between fans, referees, pictures of cheerleaders, etc.

And of course, they also had Turner Field, complete with the giant Coke bottle and cow (upper left corner).  There were hot dog vendors in the stands, baseball sounds, and even some sort of pinball game setup that didn't appear to be functional anymore.

There was also an airplane flying around the ceiling, and when the "night" was over, fireworks were projected on a wall above the depiction of Stone Mountain.  I just couldn't get over all of the different things they created.  It was truly awesome.

Jacob tried his hand at building for a while, and the area where he was doing it happened to be a spot where you could simulate an earthquake on your building platform!  We finally dragged him away from that to hit up the 4-D movie theater.  We'll be going to a couple of these at Disney, most likely, so I was interested to see what he would think of it.  This is the guy that greeted us at the entrance...

The movie we saw was a 3-D move about a futuristic car racer (the vehicles were vaguely Lego inspired). Some images popped out of the screen and it was so cute to watch Jacob grab them. At one point in the movie it started "snowing" in the theater (fine soap bubbles)!  Jacob seemed to like it a lot.

After that we backtracked to a ride we missed because we came in the back way.  It was another Disney-esque ride, one where you ride in a little car through a dark path and shoot at targets (both real and video) along the way.  I know there's a Toy Story ride like that at Disney World, and I think the newer one at Hollywood Studios is similar.  They're always really fun and this one was no exception.

Time was winding down after that and Jacob decided he wanted to go in the big climbing structure.  We snapped a shot of him on a Lego motorcycle first...

...and then he took off his shoes and ran into the play area.  He climbed and ran and loved being chased by one of the workers.  He had a blast with the other kids, and was pretty bummed when the place was closing and he had to come out.  We softened the blow by heading into the store, where we found a good set that was only $10.  Normally I would have said no to any more Legos (or anything else, given his behavior earlier), but considering we got in for free, the set was a good deal, and the three Braves items were the only souvenirs we had gotten him on the trip, I figured it was okay.  Legos should last him for years, too, so of all the things we could have bought him, Legos are probably among the most durable.

We headed out after that, still with about an hour to kill.  The mall was closed by then, so we headed across the street to Target.  It was an interesting Target, given that it was in the city, had its own parking ramp, and was two stories.  They even had a special contraption to haul your shopping cart up to the second floor with you as you went up the escalator.  Pretty cool.  We shopped a bit, had a potty stop, and grabbed a quick snack before heading to the airport. 

We drove through torrential rain to get to the airport, then had to do the reverse process I talked about from day 1 to drop off our car and get back into the terminal.  We struggled a bit to find places for all of the stuff we bought (we didn't check any bags, so carry-on space was limited), but we managed to find spots for everything and then started the trip back on the two trains.  Security was busy but decent, and I was beyond happy to be finished with that part of the process! 

Dinner options were limited in our concourse--Craig had a sub, I opted for frozen yogurt with fruit (I would have had a sub if I wasn't worried about the no cold cuts while pregnant issue), and Jacob had a couple bites but insisted he wasn't hungry.  I changed into jeans and sneakers, and Jacob changed into his pajamas.  We ran into a friend of ours taking the same flight (what are the odds?) and eventually got ourselves on the plane.  It was a little before 10:30 by that point, obviously way past Jacob's bedtime.  IPod games kept him occupied while we were in the terminal, thank goodness, but once we were on the plane, the struggle to get him to sleep began.  We didn't have a view, since we had a jet engine covering our window, and once the plane took off and the lights were off, it took a little encouragement, a stuffed animal, and his hoodie as a pillow, but he eventually dropped off.  He slept the whole way back to Rochester.  Craig did as well, and I snuck in a very light nap.  When our flight landed at 12:30am, Craig had to carry Jacob off the plane while I probably broke lots of pregnancy rules by carrying a lot of our luggage to lighten Craig's load.  Jacob was awake but sleepy and did manage to walk out to the car, but dozed off once we were officially on our way home.

I don't think Craig and I got to sleep until about 2am by the time we unloaded, got Jacob resettled, and unpacked toiletries and other things we needed right away.  Jacob and I stayed home on Monday to rest and recover, but Craig had to drive to Toronto for work.  Ugh.  He almost had to drive back ridiculously late that night, but managed to stay over, which was a load off my mind!

What a trip it was.  I'll have my wrap-up in another post--my thoughts on the trip as a whole, traveling while pregnant, and any other random stuff that I didn't get to include in these three posts.  Hope you enjoyed the recap!

Atlanta - Day 2

Day Two started with a trip back to the Cyclorama.  Originally when we discovered this place, we were going to try to hit it up on Sunday when the weather forecast was questionable.  However, we discovered it wasn't open on Sunday, so Saturday morning it was.  Craig realized as we were walking around the outside of the building and stepped in the lobby on Friday that this was a place he had a chance to visit the last time he was in Atlanta 25 years ago, but opted not to.  Amazing since he's such a Civil War buff, but perhaps he knew someday we'd need an educational portion of our family vacation.  Anyway...the Cyclorama is actually the home of a Civil War Museum and one of the largest oil paintings ever.  The painting depicts the Battle of Atlanta and was originally created as a campaign poster, but later ended up with the circus as a traveling attraction.  Then the circus went bankrupt while in Atlanta, and the head of Coca-Cola bought it, and eventually the city of Atlanta ended up with it and built an entire building to house it.  It hangs in a giant 360 degree circle, and includes a diorama on the floor as well, creating a 3-D effect.  Visitors sit in seats that turn the full 360 degrees while a narration explains the contents and characters of the painting.  The Civil War isn't my thing, but the painting itself was something to behold.  I tried to take a picture but the lighting wasn't great...

If you look closely near the bottom, you can see little figures of soldiers.  At their tallest they're about 42 inches high.  There's a lot of foliage, as well.  Then the painting covers the entire wall.  There are lots of trees and groups of soldiers in this section, but the glare obscures them a bit.  I just wanted something to remember what it looked like.

We spent a little time wandering around the museum...

...and then it was back off to the hotel to retrieve the baseball tickets we forgot to bring with us. That's what I get for forgetting to ask for them after Craig printed them!  The big bummer there was that by the time we made it back into the city and to the baseball stadium, the ballpark tours were sold out for the day (and no tours on Sunday).  That was a letdown, for sure.  However, the good news is that there were plenty of other activities to keep us occupied until game time.

First up was the Braves Hall of Fame and Museum, right in the stadium.  There were lockers commemorating the Braves pennant-winning teams, old jerseys (even from their days in Boston and Milwaukee), a giant train car like they traveled with in the old days, the championship trophy and rings, as well as various other awards and memorabilia from Braves players over the years.  They also had the Braves' bench from their old stadium, as well as the other dugout accessories like the railing in front of the dugout and the bat and helmet racks, complete with the bullpen phones still attached.  Here are the boys sitting on the bench...

And Jacob "trying on" a helmet...

Back outside, we explored the plaza in front of the stadium.  There were giant, photo-op numbers of the Braves' best players, as well as a bunch of these baseballs...

A rare appearance by me!

 There were also a number of statues, and the boys tried to recreate one here...sort of...

Once we'd had our fill of that area, we headed out to the parking lot.  The whole back side of the parking lot is what we believe was once the back wall of Fulton County Stadium, the Braves' first Atlanta home.  They've preserved the location of home plate, the entire infield, and the warning track using bricks and metal bases.  Jacob LOVED it.

He also pitched off of the pitcher's mound and ran the bases!

They also kept a section of the outfield wall, complete with Hank Aaron's record setting home run marker.

If you look closely to the bottom right of the spotlight on the right, there's a small blue box.  It's gotta be the most obvious geocache I've ever seen.  Cool spot for it, though!

There were some steps up against the wall, and at the top we could walk down the street to the entrance to the ballpark road, which was framed by this:

Not gonna lie, pretty cool to drive under the rings!

That platform used to be attached to the Olympic stadium (now Turner Field, home of the Braves--did you know they ripped off one end of the stadium after the Olympics and rebuilt it into a baseball facility?!), and at the top of the close end is this:

The actual Olympic flame cauldron!

It was so cool to see an iconic piece of Olympic history.  At its base was a large silver wall engraved with the names of all of the Atlanta Olympians.  It was really cool to see that.

 

We spent some time chilling in the air conditioning of our rental car after that, before reorganizing our stuff and heading into the game.  We waited in a long line for gates to open because we wanted to get the giveaway item, a light-up tomahawk!  We had a long wait (Craig and Jacob played catch, I used the stadium wireless and checked in on my iPod), but eventually gates opened and we got our tomahawks!

 

One of our first stops on the way in was the Kids' Zone.  There was a climbing structure, video games (Jacob had a grand slam!), and a couple mini baseball fields.  Jacob got in line to bat and got a great hit on his first pitch!

You can see the yellow ball on the left.  He hit it to the wall and loved running the bases!

We had a lot of time to kill before the game, so we wandered around the stadium and got something to eat.  I had my first ever Chick-Fil-A (I don't care about politics--it was good!), and Jacob had his favorite, a corn dog.  Later on Jacob had a chance to test his skills and throw some balls (mid-20mph speeds), and he had a couple really good throws...

 

Later on we headed up to the Coca-Cola Sky Field, high above the stadium.  There Jacob got to run along a baseline with dirt like a real baseball field!

We also got a great view of the field, the giant Coke bottle and Chick-Fil-A cow adorning the top of the stadium, and a lovely view of the city itself in the distance.  There were these giant Coke chairs up there, too, and someone traded us family pictures while we were up there...

All three of us!  In a BIG chair!

After strolling around the stadium looking for our dream merchandise (no luck, believe it or not), the game finally started.  Here is the man of the hour, Chipper Jones, up to bat!

And here's our view!

The aforementioned Coke bottle and Cow are in the upper left.  Tough to see, but definitely cool additions to the view.

We had a blast at the game--the Braves won!--and it was a gorgeous night.  Before we headed out, I snapped one last picture of Jacob looking at the field from center field...

A little hard to see here, but there was a giant "10" in the outfield in Chipper's honor. 

We stopped in the team store again on the way out, and the budget-busting shopping trip we'd envisioned really didn't happen.  Neither Jacob or I found a shirt we liked (or, at least, that was worth the money), they had no stuffed mascots to add to Jacob's collection, and there really wasn't much catching our eyes.  Craig got a shirt and a program, but that was about it.  At least we had our tomahawks, a souvenir cup, and the giant footlong thing my Icee came in.  Turns out we'd fix that problem the next day, though :)

 

We spent a while in traffic and Jacob fell asleep on the way back.  It was a late night, but at least we could just put him in bed back at the hotel and not worry about the usual drama we go through trying to get him to sleep in a hotel room.  It was a full day and it was awesome to finally make it to Turner Field and see the Braves in person, particularly before Chipper's retirement.  It was also nice to be there knowing they were in the playoffs already (although it could only be one game--we'll see tomorrow night!).  I'm glad Craig had that opportunity and even happier he could share it with his son.  It was quite the day, but we had one more day left to experience more of Atlanta...

Atlanta - Day 1

On Friday morning, the alarm clock went off at 3:55.  I had showered the night before and got dressed as quickly as possible.  Craig was up as well, and we got Jacob out of bed pretty much on our way out the door.  We got to the airport about 15 minutes later than I wanted to (but quite frankly, it was so early that it was hard to get up any earlier!), and the security line was LONG.  We also got stuck in the line where the crew members were sneaking through, so it took forever.  By the time we got through the line and I took Jacob into a bathroom to change out of his PJs, we were getting a little short on time.  He fought me right away because he really wanted to stay in his new Spider-Man PJs that I had saved especially for this trip so he had presentable jammies to wear in the airport.  We battled and I finally compromised and let him keep the shirt on, merely in the interest of time.  We finally got to our gate and we walked right on the plane.  Yikes.

The flight itself was pretty uneventful.  Jacob handled it like a pro.  He had one or two moments where he was a little louder than he ideally should have been, or didn't listen to an instruction, but for the most part he just sat and watched his movie.  Once we got to Atlanta, we stopped in a bathroom to finish changing into our summer clothes, and then started the long but relatively slick journey through the airport to the rental car counter.  We had to take one train through all of the concourses, then another train past the convention center and over to the parking structure housing the rental cars.  It was quite a journey, but it wasn't too bad.  We got our car, a nice Chrysler 200, and Jacob's car seat--a big boy booster since I didn't trust the height/weight limits on the toddler seats they had, seeing as how Jacob is right on the cusp.

We headed out to grab a late breakfast and Jacob fell asleep on the way.  It would be the first of many car catnaps on this trip.  Anyway, we drove around the outskirts of the city and caught a glimpse of the baseball stadium as we headed to the zoo.  I had been looking forward to going to this zoo for years, because they have panda bears!  There's been a webcam that I've visited for years, particularly when a couple of cubs were born over the past few years.

Upon arrival, we saw this neat building near the entrance.

Turns out it's something called the Cyclorama, and I'll tell you more about it in my next post, since we actually came back to this place the next day.  But for now, here's a little preview...

Zoo Atlanta was pretty outstanding.  It wasn't a huge zoo, but it was plenty big and it was very nice.  It was easy to get around, they had a lot of unique animals, and the viewing vantage points were great.  One of our first stops was the pandas, and it was cool to see the habitats I'd seen online for all these years.  The windows were a little fogged up, but I managed to catch this cute shot...

I was fascinated by a weird bird with the longest eyelashes ever, and then I managed to capture these cute shots outside the elephant house...

Notice the elephant's headgear...

And holy cow, one where he actually posed and smiled...for once...

There were rhinos, zebras, giraffes, tigers and lions (which we could barely see).  The gorillas were a little hard to see, but we could tell one had a baby and another one was HUGE.  And then there's this one...

Jacob and I went into a cool "tree house" exhibit that had the coolest birds ever.  There were some birds with the most colorful feathers!  I caught this picture, which I love...

Jacob saw this giant nest and immediately wanted to curl up and sleep...

I spent quite a while in this exhibit (along with a lot of other people, actually) trying to capture a picture of one of these birds, because the colors were fantastic!

We saw orangutans, a komodo dragon, and naked mole rats (ewww), and Jacob played on a playground themed after the mole rats' tunnels.  The way we ended up wandering around the zoo, it afforded us another opportunity to hit up the panda exhibit after lunch, which was nice since they were a little more lively and the windows had defogged.  The pandas were all eating bamboo, which was really cute...

There was actually a baby in the exhibit (I think he's a couple years old), and one of the bigger pandas came up and stole all of his bamboo!  Silly bears.

The kangaroos were lazy and the otters were sleeping, so we made our way to a petting zoo, and Jacob and I hung out with the sheep and goats.  He even got to brush them.  He did pretty well, and he didn't even step in any poop!

It was a very hot day, and by the time we finished up, we were all pretty exhausted.  On the way to our hotel, Jacob conked out again.  This, my friends, is what a 4am wakeup call + busy day looks like...

This happened pretty much every time he fell asleep in this car seat.  Poor kid.

That night we kept things pretty low key.  We went to Mellow Mushroom for dinner.  It's a restaurant I loved when I went to Portland, and it actually started in Atlanta.  We went to a location near our hotel and had a delicious pizza.  We headed back to the hotel afterward to watch the Braves game on TV.  We listened to the pregame ceremony honoring Chipper Jones (the player we were really there to see) on the radio in the car, then turned it on in our hotel room.

Our room was nice.  It was in a great part of town, and I got it for about $40 less than I saw it on most sites.    The room was actually a full suite, with a kitchen, living room, bedroom, and walk-in closet.  There was a queen bed in the bedroom, and a queen sofa bed in the living room.  We had to request to have the sofa bed made up for Jacob, and it was ready when we got back from dinner so we all snuggled up on the bed to watch the game.  Around 8:30, Jacob and I headed to the bedroom, closed the doors, and eventually fell asleep.  Around midnight I woke up and grabbed Craig from the sofa bed, and he moved Jacob into the living room and took his spot back in our bed.  I was in bed for a long time that night, but I don't think I really slept that great.  At least Jacob didn't wake up crazy early!  It was a pretty good setup for us, though, and we were very happy with our free breakfast, too.

And after that, off we headed to another busy day...

Letters to Baby #13 - August 18, 2012

Dear Baby,

Yesterday I had an odd moment that I'm mostly chalking up to pregnancy hormones.  I was reading a blog post by a pregnant blogger, and she was talking about her feelings leading up to the ultrasound that would tell her if she was having a boy or girl.  Already having two boys and knowing this was their last baby, she was desperate for a girl.  She'd been so caught up in hoping for a girl that it just started to occur to her shortly before the ultrasound that something might actually be wrong with her baby.  She'd had a lot of complications but it never crossed her mind that something might be wrong with the baby.  In the end the baby was fine, and when I read the quote from the technician that it was a girl, I immediately choked up.  Part of it was joy for her, part of it was my perceived reaction to how I would feel hearing the same news, and part of it was guilt for how upset I may be if we hear that you're a boy.  I promise promise promise that I will get over it by the time you get here.  I will be so excited that Jacob will have a brother to share that special bond with.  But I can't deny that part of me wants someone to bond with, too, which is why it would be awesome to have a girl.  But if you're a boy I will love you no less, I swear.  But if you're a girl, that's just something extra special for me because it means I get to share things with my daughter like I shared with my mom.  There's a familiarity there, a way to relive my childhood in a different way than I do with Jacob.  But the brotherhood thing is so special, too.  It'll just take me a while to adjust, I guess. 

But it definitely caught me off-guard how much I responded to that blog post.  I just didn't expect that at all.  Again, I chalk it up to hormones, mostly, but it just kills me that this matters to me this much.  It shouldn't, but it does.  And for that, I'm sorry.  But I know the second I see you, none of it will matter and I'll just be happy you're here.  After a long wait and many months of anticipation, I'll be so excited to meet you (and so overwhelmed by the challenge of caring for you early on) that YOU—not what you are—will be my focus.

In other news, in some ways I'm starting to feel better, and in other ways I'm not.  I have moments where I almost feel normal, but then I start feeling not-so-great again.  Last night (a Friday) I went to bed before 11pm because I just couldn't stay awake and I didn't feel well.  That part is hard, because I had a lot I should have been doing but I just couldn't.  The house is a mess, the yard could use some work, but for now it's just not happening.  Hopefully my energy will come back in the next few weeks and my nesting instinct will arrive (not sure it ever really did last time, with the exception of a couple projects I was determined to finish while I still had the time) so I'll be compelled to keep the house clean and get things done. 

I can tell that some of my clothes are getting a little tighter, even if I don't look much bigger, so one of these days I'll have to take stock of my maternity clothes and shop for some new ones to get me through the awkward phase where I just look fat.  Yesterday I rediscovered a picture of a friend of mine from when she was about 11 weeks (which is what I am today) and she had a serious belly!  She was tiny otherwise, with this little baby belly, not chub like I have early on.  On one hand I felt bad for her for getting big so early, but on the other hand I'd love to fast forward through the awkward phase and just look pregnant.  Looking pregnant is fun.  Feeling fat is not.  It's all worth it, I promise...just frustrating when nothing fits!

Well, time to head out for a busy weekend of picnics (when all I really want is a nap!).  Keep growing and I'll talk to you soon!

Love,
Mommy

Trip Update and Letters to Baby #12 - August 13, 2012

Sorry for the lack of posts the last couple days.  Obviously things have been busy!  We got back from our trip very late last night.  I had the day off today and had grand plans of sorting through pictures and blogging, but I ended up doing three loads of laundry, pulling out the Halloween decorations, cleaning parts of the house, running a couple errands, and hanging out with Jacob instead.  I baked up some brownies (brownie mix + pumpkin--yum!) and caught up on days' worth of other people's blog posts, rather than blogging myself.  I will, soon, I promise.  But it probably won't be tomorrow either, because my college roommate is coming here tomorrow and we're driving to Buffalo for a concert she has been absolutely dying to see.  Her countdown on Facebook has been pretty entertaining.  I like the band, but I love time with my roommate even more...even more than 12 years after we last shared a room.  So that will be awesome. 

In a nutshell, the trip was pretty much exactly what I thought it would be.  It was awesome to see Atlanta for the first time.  The baseball game was pretty awesome and the rest of our sightseeing adventures were interesting, at the very least.  Parts of the trip were fantastic, other parts were not.  Jacob got increasingly crazier as the trip went on, undoubtedly thanks to sleep deprivation.  He slept fine at night, but our early departure on Friday, lack of real afternoon naps all three days, and two late nights led to absolute madness by the end, and it wasn't until Jacob woke up from today's nap that he seemed to have reverted back to the relatively cool kid that I know he can be.  I knew that was a risk when I booked the flights, but figured it would be worth it.  Overall it probably was, but holy cow we had some moments where I wasn't so sure.  Even Craig and I had a couple not-so-great moments between the two of us, because (as we've known previously but often tried to ignore) we vacation differently.  We probably should be one of those couples that go on separate vacations, but that just seems weird and I don't think we're that progressive as a couple.  The pregnancy was an added odd wrinkle to this one--tiredness and inability to carry stuff actually bothered me more than I expected--and in more ways than one this trip was an interesting preview to our trip to Florida with Craig's family next month.  I'm glad we did it and I have some fantastic pictures and fun stories to share, but I was insanely happy to drop into my own bed at 2am this morning.

Anyway, more details to come...but in the meantime...let's transport back to mid-August...

Dear baby,

I'm not going to call you baby-to-be now, because you're becoming more and more real.  You're a real baby in there now, and if, God forbid, something happened, you'd probably come out looking pretty much like a normal baby.  A little funky, but more or less baby-like. 

I heard your heartbeat today.  I had a doctor's appointment and I was a little nervous because I'd felt different the last few days.  To be fair, I was sick the other night—not sure why—and I was a little worried that somehow it affected you or something.  Happily, it just appears that the nausea is easing up a little early like it did last time.  I still don't feel great, but better.  I'll take what I can get.
 
Anyway, seeing that I was a little nervous, I had a couple terrifying seconds when the physician's assistant couldn't find your heartbeat.  She moved all over looking, and assured me that at this size with that equipment it's not always easy to find.  But I was nervous, and it was a huge relief when she finally found you.  Music to my ears.  Glad to know you're still in there and apparently doing well.  Now I have to wait another four weeks to hear you again.  I already can't wait. 

You're the size of a kumquat this week, and I can totally picture you in there at that size.  I almost swore I could feel you moving today, but it was probably either gas or wishful thinking.  I read somewhere on the internet someone that was feeling the exact same sensation at the same point that I'm at (10 weeks), so maybe it's possible if you're in the exact right spot.  It'd be nice if I could feel you because I'd feel that much better knowing you're in there and moving, but it'll probably be a few more weeks before feeling you is a common occurrence.

Now that I'm feeling a little better, I'm eager to start enjoying this experience.  I know it'll get frustrating as I get bigger and realize all I can't do or can't wear, but I dealt with it last time and I'll do it again.  The nurse at the doctor's office told me not to lift more than 25 pounds, which is a problem since your brother weighs 40 pounds and I still like lifting him up for a big hug.  That's probably going to be my biggest challenge.  But I know this experience is amazing and I was sad to have it end early last time, so I know that it's something worth enjoying while it's here.  It'll probably be the last time I do this, so I need to take it all in this time.

But I also need to sleep, especially since I'm expecting your brother to wake us up tonight thanks to a little nighttime potty training experiment we're testing out.  So good night for now...

Love,
Mommy