Happy New Year!

2008 has been a wonderful year and we wish everyone a happy and healthy 2009!
Hopefully little man will give me more time to post about him on line, but for now a quick pic and our best wishes to you and yours!

-Mad Scientist Hair Style

Merry Christmas to All

and to all a good night.
Until Thomas deems otherwise...

1 Month Old

Thomas turned one month old last Thursday and I can't believe how it just flew by! It certainly didn't help being in the hospital for a week, but I'm so glad he is doing much better! He had his one month pediatrician appointment and he now weighs a healthy 9 lbs 13 oz and is 22 inches. This little guy is an eating machine so he really keeps me busy. He is starting to sleep for 3-4 hour stretches at night which has been pretty nice, but he has a hard time falling asleep in his bassinet usually from 12:30am to 3 or 3:30am depending. His schedule does tend to vary, but one thing I've noticed is that when Daddy comes home from work he decides it would be great to sleep for 4 hours, while he stays awake all day for Mommy. Mommy will try to remedy this! I tried to tell him that a 2 hour nap during the day would be SO great, but he wasn't hearing it. The biggest problem I find is that I barely get the time to eat anything, and often get to lunch around 3pm if I'm lucky, but usually 4 or 4:30pm.

He seems to be changing and growing by the hour! Here are some recent pictures...
He has pretty good head control when you hold him on your shoulder, and he loves to be in a vertical position. Today he was fussing no matter what we did until we sat him upright on the couch and suddenly he is as content as can be and looking all around. He thinks he's older than he really is; the nurses were even saying that when he was only a week old in the hospital because he was so alert and curious, and well behaved despite all he was going through.

Well I have lots more to write but he's getting hungry...

Happy Belated Birthday Thomas!

Name: Thomas Alexander
Birthday: 11/11/08
Time: 7:27am
Weight: 7 lbs 14 oz
Length: 19 inches





With everything that's been going on I realized I didn't even post TAD's birthday information. And I've been bad with sending pictures too so here are some for now.










Just born

















In the hospital again












2 weeks old and back home again




Wishing you all a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

Quick Hospital Update

Yup, we're still here.

Thomas' test results came back showing he has MRSA, the most resistant form of a staph infection. It started to get a lot worse before it got better and his chest was so swollen and red and painful. Today there has been major improvement as the antibiotics are kicking in and the site is draining (something ugly, but I've never been so happy over the sight of oozing puss). Thanks to heat compresses every 2-3 hours on his chest it started to drain on its own late Thursday night, and the pediatric surgeon will not need to touch him since it's better for the body to do it on its own. He was supposed to have his last dose of IV antibiotics tonight at 4am, but earlier this evening the nurses had to take it out again. They have been closely monitoring his IV since it fell out and his arm puffed up a couple days ago and the poor little guy had to be poked a few times again since they have trouble threading the needle into such small veins. All I could think was not again, he cried so much both times they tried to start it, and his skin is all red and irritated from the tape.

Luckily, they've decided to spare him (and they're running out of places to try) so he is going to get the oral antibiotic at 4am. This is the first time today I've had a chance to breathe, and I should probably get some sleep. He has been feeding like crazy today that I think all I've been doing is nursing him. I thank all of you for your voice mail, facebook, and text messages of keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. I'll hopefully be able to return calls soon.

We are expected to go home tomorrow (later today technically) if he doesn't react badly to the oral medicine.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........

One Week Old

and two hospitals.

I will preface this by saying Baby Thomas is doing remarkably well for what he is going through; he is such a little trooper.

Yesterday he turned one week old and though I haven't been online for a few days I was going to try to post a little about his birthday, but instead we ended up at the pediatrician and then at the Emergency Department. We're still here at Newton-Wellesley Hospital and will be for at least 48 hours while he gets antibiotics for an infection he has, and they check for other things like meningitis (just to be on the safe side). It was hard seeing him stuck with so many needles since his veins are so thin and the needle is small; they failed to get it in twice and had to stop. He also got a spinal tap (and didn't even cry) and some cultures taken.

Poor little guy is 8 days old and half of his life has been spent in the hospital. We have to be careful holding him as he is attached to an IV and other monitors so there are a lot of lines connected to him. Overall, he is a good little fellow and still feeding and very alert. He didn't get a fever until today and already the medicine has knocked it down. He is a hit with all the ladies because he is so adorable and sweet (luckily they attached a lojack-like device on his leg so no one steals him! One of the student nurses joked that she wanted to.), and is being very well taken care of.

Hopefully we'll go home tomorrow night if his tests come back alright and he responds well to treatment. Fingers crossed...

Red Sox Baby

OK so it's not the real reason we chose Beth Israel to deliver Thomas, but I can't wait to see him in the cute little cap! Being the Official Hospital of the Boston Red Sox has its advantages. I actually used to go to Brigham and Women's Hospital and had a really great OB/GYN but then she moved to Chicago, and since I already had other doctors I see at the BI, figured it made sense to have them all at one hospital if they ever needed to share information.

BIDMC’s name is displayed throughout Fenway Park while photos of babies born at BIDMC are featured on the jumbotron, wearing the official baby hat of the Red Sox. Each newborn at BIDMC receives the hat and other Red Sox goodies, including a certificate for a free tour of Fenway when the baby reaches five years old.

It's really nice to be able to choose between such top notch hospitals in Boston, but I also wish I were closer to family.

Last Weekend of Blessed Sleep?

So TAD's projected birthday was yesterday and I guess I should have trusted my initial instinct that he will be late (he already takes after his parents!) After my appointment last Monday I thought he was a lot closer when to my surprise the doctor told me I was 3-4cm and 90% effaced! It wasn't the cms since I know plenty of women who have walked around for 2 weeks being a few cms dilated but it was the effacement that really caught me off guard. I have been feeling a lot of pelvic pressure, but no contractions. The doc said I would probably be fine if I wanted to get it over with and be induced as he was pleased with the progress and said I would probably not need a c-section. He said I could have the baby tomorrow if I wanted. I told him I had to vote and still had things to finish at work. Since I wasn't expecting the news too I didn't feel ready either!

Though the last few weeks of pregnancy are no walk in the park, it doesn't really bother me if he comes late, if anything I'm grateful for the extra time to get things ready, but what I find annoying is the many people who act like he's 3 weeks late (even before his due date); there's only so many times I can stand to hear, "He STILL hasn't come yet?!?!?" or hear the jokes that he will be "4 feet tall by the time he is born" UGH! I consider myself a pretty calm person, but those comments only make me feel anxious and that doesn't do any good. I've still been working, but the last couple of days I worked from home, which is a little less distracting and I can be in my comfy pajamas all day. Everyone tells me I'm crazy to still be working, (and toward the end of this week I've started to think they're right) but I'd rather spend as much time with the little one after he's born.

Besides the whole miracle and amazing process of conceiving and growing a new life, it has been interesting to say the least being pregnant. On a social aspect you really learn so much about people's private lives. I went to go vote during my lunch break at work last Tuesday since I work closer to my old crib in Brighton than where I live now, and keep forgetting to change that; actually they still had the good ol'
Rock for me. It took so long, not because I had to wait in line, but because the women signing me in and then walking me to the booth had a million questions and then had to tell me all about their experiences. Besides slowing me down a lot, I don't mind and find it's funny all the personal stuff you learn about complete strangers! And it's not just women, it's the men too! At times it can be touching as their eyes glisten with joy and pride just thinking back to the day their own babies were born. It's a moment many have tried to describe, and ultimately say it's a feeling you have to experience yourself to fully realize that amount of love...I can't wait!

Week 39

I have a suspicion TAD is feeling quite snuggly, which isn't a horrible thing even with the general uncomfortableness of late pregnancy. Reason being, I still feel like there's a lot of last minute things we need to do; things that of course we can still do after the birth but I'm expecting we'll be both too tired to want to do anything besides sleep when not taking care of the little guy.

I'm still working, and plan to work up until I think he's coming, though it's getting pretty tiring so I may take a day off this week since I have the time, and then I can go run some errands. I put together an Oktoberfest at work and while we were celebrating the office gave me a card everyone had signed and a very generous Babies R Us gift card. It was really nice; then the Friday before last the women of the office threw me a lovely baby shower after work. It was really sweet and felt like a 2nd family. My friend Zoi's little man Rocco "crashed" the party, and he was such a hit. Quite charming at 18 months old. (I may have some pictures to add later, but the coworker who took them is sea kayaking in Mexico (so awesome!), so maybe when she comes back.)

We bought the Baby a new car last weekend, ha ha. I should have thrown that on the registry! It was easy getting by with only one car when we lived in Boston, right on the Green Line, and we had figured we would have had to buy a 2nd car 2 years ago when we moved here, but we actually made it work pretty well, and saved money in the meantime. It's awesome having a 2nd one now though! We bought a 2009 Hyundai Sonata, and thanks to the Hub's diligent research combined with the crappy economy we got it way below invoice. When other dealerships can't even match the price it's safe to say you're getting a good deal.

Well off to do some more cleaning and errands. I can't say I'm getting the "nesting" instinct, but I can't sit around while SD does all the work. Well technically I probably could, he's been so great and accommodating, but I'm not that kind of girl!

Funny Skit

Rarely is SNL funny enough to watch anything other than the opening bit and then fast fwd to Weekend Update, so it's no surprise I fell asleep through all of it last night (well maybe being 8 1/2 months pregnant had something to do with it as well). Thanks to the Internet you can find the rare funny gem like this one.
Lucky for the show that former cast members want to come back for these funny political skits lately.

Birthday...

Take a cha-cha-cha-chance.

My friend, PS, set-up a baby pool for TAD, which I've added to the top right corner of this blog. I have a guess of my own, but I don't want to influence anyone else's so I'll add it a little later (but not too late!). So what's your guess?

I can't believe he'll be here so soon! The last couple of months really flew by. I'm just so excited to meet him =)

Since him and I probably won't be eating cake on his birthday I've been indulging in some pre-celebratory cake (and other delicious desserts) for the both of us these last few weeks. The cakes were more due to all the showers, and I much prefer a big hot fudge sundae from Friendly's or Uno's Chocolate Wow...mmmmmmm.

Baby Showers

This weekend marked the 3rd baby shower in a row. First for Tad (ours), then Button (Jennifer & Brian's), then Poof (Aura & Kevin's). We're all slated to have November babies. It's been really special having 2 of my friends, both of whom I've known for so many years, pregnant at the same time! They are both going to be surprised at the sex; I predict girl for Aura and boy for Jen...just a hunch and a 50% chance of being correct.Tad received many new and cute things. My sisters put together a really nice shower, and Salvatore's food always tastes great (we also had our rehearsal dinner there the night before the wedding). Here's the cake they supplied, which I thought was cute.







The 2 babies that attended (outside the womb at least) were very well behaved and cute as can be! Here they are with their mommies.







Then we have Button's cake...





followed by Poof's cake.










I can't wait to meet these new little people!

Shoe Fetish

Milo has two favorite sleeping spots for whatever reason. So if you don't see him at the top of the stairs, he is undoubtedly surrounded by shoes. He loves sleeping on and near our shoes. He cracks me up, but is as happy as a clam when he's surrounded by shoes.

Now Oscar on the other hand likes to beat up our shoes. His favorite being SD's big brown shoe (near Milo's tail in the picture). When we went on vacation a few weeks ago to the Cape we came home to find one of that pair in the upstairs bathroom! He literally dragged it across the kitchen floor, through the living room, and up the stairs into the bathroom. It was hilariously sitting on the bathmat next to the tub, where he likes to bring all of his "prizes." That shoe is not light, and Oscar is quite small so that's a feat I would have loved to see!

These cats are so silly.

My Celebrity Mom

My mom is really good at writing grants to get money for library books for the Springfield Public Schools. I believe last year, thanks to her, one of her schools received a prestigious federal grant that only 1 other school in Mass was awarded bringing thousands of dollars to help revitalize their somewhat rundown library.

Now her hard work has paid off again, and she made it to the papers. She really cares about helping the children, even if it means extra unpaid time at work running the Scrabble club or buying supplies with her own money. She's passionate about what she does and I very much admire her for it.
So nice job Mom! You rock!
;-)

Prepared?

I'm not sure if one can ever be prepared for giving birth, but in an effort to be a little less unprepared we went to an all day "Prepared Childbirth" class last Sunday.
Description:
This comprehensive childbirth class covers all aspects of pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum including: the anatomy and physiology of late pregnancy, the labor and birth process, signs and stages of labor, options for coping and pain management, common complications and promoting positive communication with your care-giver. We will help prepare you for all aspects of birth from knowing when to leave for the hospital or birth center to taking care of yourself after birth. This class provides some information on natural coping methods such as relaxation, breathing and massage (although not as much as the natural childbirth class), as well as information about pain medication and epidural anesthesia. All participants will receive a detailed information packet and view a birthing video. We encourage participation by your partner or support person. You should call to register for this class in your 4th or 5th month of pregnancy and it should be taken around the 7th or 8th month of pregnancy.

Having very few weekends left to sleep as late as we want before the little guy makes his debut, there are very few things to get us up early and we hoped it would be worth it.

It was a pretty good class and I'm glad to have gone, but probably not worth the nearly $200 price. There were 4 other couples, all first timers, and all of us except one having boys (I swear it's the new craze!)

I love Anatomy and Physiology thanks to an awesome teacher I had in high school and that part of the class made me want to go back to school. The body really does some amazing things!

Luckily there were no annoying people in class and the instructor was pretty entertaining. We learned some good techniques to try to help labor along before the doctors would intervene. I'm trying to not set my mind on any one way to do it, though my fear of needles has me hoping it won't be too painful (yeah right, I know). I hate needles, but one in your spine makes my back hurt just thinking of it.

I was thinking of maybe becoming a member of this Isis Maternity, the company that partners with a lot of Boston hospitals to provide these services, but since they wouldn't give me the 10% discount on the class even though someone on the phone had told me that would apply if you signed up for membership close to the class (we signed up on Friday), it was really no longer cost effective. I still may check out their "Mom and Baby Yoga" class during maternity leave since my coworker dates a woman who wrote a book about how beneficial it is in helping both mom and baby sleep and feel better. Could be interesting. They also have a class to lose that "Mummy Tummy" but I think I'll just go back to the gym.

All in all, still not feeling prepared, but feeling a little better about childbirth.
=)

November Babies

They say good things come in threes, and babies are pretty good indeed!

I recently found out another one of my friends is pregnant and she is also due in November!!! I've been so tired I've been bad at keeping in touch and hadn't seen her and her husband since I held the MS Charity Dinner Benefit back in late March when she was almost a month pregnant and I was a month and a half. We're about 3 weeks apart!

-Photo op with someone elses empty beer bottle... sneaky, sneaky, hee hee;

It was kinda hard not drinking that night (besides good ol' Shirley Temples) as I got a lot of offers from people to buy me a drink for putting the event together.

This is her first and they're waiting to find out the sex, which I was thinking today during A Baby Story how exciting that would be, but the suspense would have killed me by now! Maybe next time...

So now I literally have back to back to back weekends of baby showers from late September to October (for Tad, then Button, then Poof)--how exciting and special to share this with two friends who go way back (Jennifer to childhood and Aura to 5th grade).

Congratulations Jen and Brian!!!
-Two more BU alums
See you soon for a nice "adult" dinner before we all become parents! And the extra great thing is since she's in the area we'll be on maternity leave together. Starting with our fathers we'll have 3 generations of friends...hmmm kinda rooting for Button to be a boy now that I think of that!

Another Wedding and a Trip to Chicago

Here I am: still being a bad blogger.

Wanted to post real quickly in between trips.
We went to Elizabeth's wedding last Friday in Chicago. It was gorgeous weather, and it was held right on Promontory Point which juts out into Lake Michigan. She looked beautiful and was so happy! When they were getting married a butterfly came and landed right on the bride's dress near her shoulder!
It was a mini BU reunion and we all had a wonderful time!

The next day E and Dan were off to the Bahamas and Joanna, Ji Yeon, Woojin, Scott and I met up downtown at Lou Mitchell's for brunch. YUM--MMMMY! It was a place recommended by Jo's hotel and it was so good! If you're ever in Chicago it's worth going to. You're greeted with a smile and a nice lady who serves fresh homemade donut holes while you wait for a table (because it's sure to be packed). Then as we waited for our food they brought us all a little cup with fresh orange slices and a prune. The food was all fresh and made to order, as each omelette came out in it's own little pan. Then to top it off before you pay the bill they give everyone some of their homemade ice cream for free.

After that we all headed separate ways as they had planes to catch and we met up with Jesse and his new wife Miriam for the day. I literally don't think I've seen Jesse since Espresso Royale the night of graduation. 6 years too long--I'm very happy he is done with going to Iraq after two tours and is now out of the military, though I guess they can call him back for one more year. We hung out and went to Millenium Park for the Jazz Festival, though we didn't hear much music.

We then took the Metra and went to a delicious Italian restaurant in Little Italy. It was a good time and good conversation. They got a sweet Creme Brulee and we got a Chocolate and Mint Ice Cream Lava Cake. I have to admit, ever since my glucose test came back just fine (yay no gestational diabetes!) I have been indulging a little too much in my sweet tooth.
Well I'll try to be better with baby updates since I only have 10 weeks left--yikes!
For now we're off to the Cape to get away for the rest of the week and celebrate our 3rd year anniversary.
Last vacation just the 2 of us (though the little one makes himself known by kicking me like a little ninja!)
Hiya!

Babies, Weddings, Green Monsters and Fireworks

Well as you can tell I'm barely online lately. I've been pretty tired and engrossed in reading Angels and Demons.

I'll try to do some more recapping that I've been meaning to do.

The Big Ultrasound
We had the big ultrasound on June 9th where we were excited to learn It's a Boy! I call this the Big Ultrasound because it's much longer than a regular one with my doctor and they measure a lot of things and really get in depth. At Beth Israel it's done in Radiology. They counted all the fingers and toes, we were able to see the 4 chambers of the heart, the hemispheres of the brain, and overall he looks very good and healthy. We even saw him drinking the amniotic fluid--it was amazing to see! This thing was so in depth they could even tell from which ovary the egg was fertilized. He was moving quite a bit during the ultrasound, but at the time I still couldn't feel any of it due to the anterior position of the placenta (things I would never think of). There is no question of the sex--definitely a boy! My friend Aura is due a week after me with her 2nd and had an ultrasound the same day (even within 15 mins of each other) so we were texting each other on the way to the hospital to wave hi to the little ones and wish each other well. In the beginning it was hard not to get a little anxious, always eager to see and hear the heartbeat and hope everythng looks ok (thankfully it did).

Things are going well. I'm really feeling the baby kick a lot now, mostly when I lay down or am eating food. The last ultrasound we had was Monday of last week and he's measuring over 2 lbs and looking good. Beth Israel also does the 3D ultrasounds which I'm not big on as I think they look kinda freaky, but seeing him live on the monitor was very neat. You can see more of the facial structure and the little bitty shape of the nose, things you normally just see in profile.

Niferose's Wedding
June 15th we went to Jen and Nick's wedding. It was a great time and it's still funny to think how Jen liked him way back in middle school and now they are married! Her dress was gorgeous and a pale pink which everyone loved. Here's a picture of "the six of us," a group that started around middle school, some of us as early as elementary. The ceremony was at Mount Holyoke's chapel where she went to college and the grounds were lovely for picture taking. Aura's daughter Carolyn was a flower girl (an old pro, she was also the flower girl in my wedding) and she was so cute as we all got ready together. She's very excited about her mother's pregnancy and everything we did she'd say the babies are talking, the babies are sitting near each other, the babies are walking; then she'd come over every so often and hug me or pat my belly and exclaim, baby! Nick cracks me up and sang/performed a signature song of his, which I caught on tape. Now they are going through the process of buying their first house together--good luck on the inspection and everything!

The Philly Move
June 21st we drove down to Philly for the last time to help our friends move back to Boston. PS has all the gritty details on her blog so I defer to that. We're very happy to have them close by!

Green Monster Seats!
We enjoyed a unique view of a Red Sox game from atop the Green Monster, and it was wicked awesome! It didn't matter that they lost or that no home run balls came flying at us--it was such a cool experience. I won a sales contest at work and this is what I got/hoped for. I've been in a lot of behind the scenes places at Fenway but this is the one place I could never go. The left fielder was pretty close to us even though we were high up.

4th of July
I'll close with the 4th of July party on my cousin, Wendy's roof deck on Beacon Hill. It was pretty nice and made me nostalgic of the days when the Hub and I lived in Kenmore Square right along the Charles as we'd have 4th of July BBQs up there where you can see the barge shooting off the fireworks. Our roofdeck was lit up by the CITGO sign, it was the best thing about that tiny studio apartment we somehow survived in together (that thing was tiny--it must have been true love, ha!) It was also reminiscent of childhood 4th of Julys since her Dad was manning the grill and we sang happy birthday to her and her twin sister Darlee.

All for now--need to get some sleep. Tomorrow it's off to The Stacks for a BBQ. I can't believe it's already August; this summer is flying by!

Long Post: Part I

Things have been busy but I'll do my best to recap here sans all the details a fresher memory would supply:

The Hub and I took a mini roadtrip at the end of May into early June. It was fun; first stop was Philly for the weekend where we were hoping to meet Shaun but he did not wish to evacuate. We all thought Saturday night into Sunday morning was going to be the big birthday so we made sure to know where all David's essentials were so we could take care of him. Needless to say we never got woken up in the middle of the night in a labor frenzy. We had a good time relaxing and going out to eat around Philly.

-Two preggos 41 weeks and 17 weeks

We left Monday morning to make our way to Baltimore to see the Red Sox play the Orioles. It was cool to be at an away game, though funny that there were almost as many Sox fans as there were O's. Camden Yards was neat to see but not as nice as I was expecting; I guess I'm biased with my love of Fenway Park. It's also kind of sad to see so many empty seats. After the game we drove down to Laurel to be closer to DC for our next leg of the trip.

The next day it was off to DC and there was so much to see and do we certainly didn't get to everything. There was a lot of walking and, unlike good old New England, it was hot! We parked along the Tidal Basin across from the Jefferson Memorial and walked toward the Washington Monument. We took in the World War II Memorial and read the quotes and facts that were in abundance.Besides school I learned a lot of this history through my dad and his vast WWII knowledge and collection, and his fondness for watching the History Channel.

Then we walked the length of the reflecting pool to the Lincoln Memorial. That was the one I wanted to see the most so when I got there I was determined to walk up all the steps even though SD offered to run up and take a picture. My legs were tired and weak from the walk and the weather, but I knew I would regret it if I walked all that way only to sort of see him at a distance and through the lens of a camera. I'm so glad I did and to top it off it was nice and cool in the stone shade of it.

After that we went to the Museum of Natural History where the highlight for me was the gem and mineral part where they store the humongous Hope Diamond. It's nice that all the museums are free.

We saw the White House from a distance and then headed over to Arlington National Cemetery. By that time it was later in the day and my legs were not up for more walking. Next time we go back I would definitely do one of those bus tours where you can jump off and jump on throughout the day to save all the walking. I had also wanted to do the night tour but it said it was 3 1/2 hours long which seemed like a lot, so we opted out.

The next day we went to the National Zoo, which was fun, but I swear it was one big freakin' hill, and did I mention the heat? Here are some pics from that day. This panda was the younger one and I felt like he should have been hosed down or something; he was just panting so much His father was inside happily chewing away. I love seeing all the different wildlife at zoos, but am always somewhat torn, especially when seeing the lions and bigger animals as it seems like they never have enough space in which to roam around. I do understand some of it is for conservation, and there was a nice educational aspect of it. I liked the way they had staff at various areas throughout dispersing interesting facts, which is something I didn't really see at the Franklin Park Zoo.

Well I'm gonna stop for now so I can get up tomorrow for work, and will have to continue my other updates another time. Oh the weekends go by too fast!

P.S. The Bon Jovi concert was awesome!!!

Whooah we're halfway there

Livin' on a prayer

This song has been stuck in my head since last night when I found out I'm going to the Bon Jovi concert tomorrow night in Boston!! Whoo hoo!!

Things have been pretty non stop lately and I have a lot to post about from the roadtrip to a wedding, to the BIG ultrasound, the big Philly move, Green Monster seats, celebrating the Hub's 30th bday, 4th of July/my twin cousins birthday, and the Pearl Jam concert, all while getting some quality time at the beach, trying to settle on a contractor for the kitchen and find a good day care. I'll have to find time to do one lonnnnnng post. Promise! (just not tonight)

I'm just jumping on to say I'm so excited for tomorrow's concert at the Garden! This baby has been rocking it!

The Big 3-0

Happy Birthday to my Sweetie!

First Comes...

Then comes...

Then comes the....



That's right we are expecting our first baby November 7th! Things have been very busy lately with weddings, roadtrips, and renovations that I've been a bad blogger, but I'll try to be better between falling asleep at an old lady's hour (I'm super tired, but feeling good). For now we are off to Philly to help our friends move back here and meet fashionably late Shaun.