Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!! Here we almost 9 months pregnant. 35 1/2 weeks to be exact.
The lady who teaches our birth class at Northwestern says that at 37 weeks a baby that is born is considered full-term. Even just a day before is still pre-mature.
So technically he could join us in the next few weeks. We're pretty excited!!
Todays plans involve napping, some laundry and later on we'll be playing games and eating crazy-good food with our good friends and neighbors the Goviers.



Here is the little guy at his first Christmas! I've gained 53 pounds... which is a little more than I should, but Aiden likes potatoes and chocolate. What is a girl supposed to do?? Geeze.

Baby Shower Registry

Oh my goodness! Toby and I are completely overwhelmed by all the gifts we've been getting for Aiden. Not to mention soooo grateful. We're going to have the best dressed little guy in the world.

We've also found some awesome stuff at the thrift stores and garage sales in our area, so we thought we would list what we've gotten so far.

We've had two beautiful baby blankets knitted for us. One by his (hopefully) future nanny Katie Govier and one from my grandmother Lore. Lore also made a matching cap and some booties. Sooo sweet. We found another knitted blanket at a garage sale that I'm sure someone lovingly made and then we have several fleece blankets we've gathered, including one that matches our room stuff that Katie VanEaton sent us. Little moon on it. Love it :)

My neighbor Melissa has two boys and gave us a box full of stuff including a boppy nursing pillow that attaches in the back that she said is great.

Yesterday we got a musical melodies bouncer in the mail from the Warrens! I think it plays 5 different songs and rocks babies to sleep. My mother found me a really great electric breast pump. Beth sent us a steam sterilizer that we can use in the microwave for bottles and such since we don't have a dish washer. I see that coming in VERY handy.

Claudia sent us a bassinet and lots of blankets and washclothes and bibs and adorable onsies and hats and all sorts of stuff. So did Toby's sister Stephanie. Adorable clothes and some burp cloths and bibs and blankets.

My sister Ellie has a client who dropped off 4 boxes of baby clothes ranging from infant to 12 months. I guess she is bringing a suitcase full when she comes in Jan. and my father who will be here Saturday is also dragging a suitcase of babyclothes around with him on his business trip. (hope they check his bags at the airport. That would be funny)

My dad is also planning to buy us a crib when he is here.

Some friends gave us a car seat with a little infant booster pillow and some other friends just recently gave us a high chair for when he's a little older.

At the thrift store we gathered up a lovely diaper bag. Toby thinks it's too girly though for him to carry around!! We got a whole bunch of chewy books and little toys. A DVD of baby Da Vinci and Baby Mozart.

A friend of mine gave us a baby bath tub and my friend Sheryl has found all sorts of stuff at the Evanston resale shops like monitors, a baby scale and all sorts of blankets and clothes for me and the baby.

Leroy and Jaynelle bought us a wipes warmer while they were here, not to mention the adorable onsies and outfits they brought with them to dress their newest grandbaby.

Believe it or not I did NOT list all the gifts we've gotten. Some ladies at Chipotle got Aiden some little "daddy's helper" onsies. He's gotten clothes from just about every relative in the mail and they are all ADORABLE. Thank you soooo much. It's hard to believe that in just 5 1/2 weeks-ish a little guy is going to be wearing them. He's also gotten lots of chew toys and play matt thingies. He's got a winter jacket for 6 mths, mittens, socks of all sizes, a bag of assorted shoes...

As far as what we still need:

We're planning on using cloth diapers at home, but he'll probably sleep in pampers (or whatever brand) and go out in them. So diapers are always good. Wipes. Toys. Books. Towels. Baby-sitting :), bottles, plastic baby ware (plates, bowls, sippy cups, baby spoons), baby-proofing stuff, bath stuff (like toys, shampoo, soap, lotion), baby music, humidifier (they have one at Target that's a frog that we love)...

We're registered at Babies R Us. The registry number is: 51528077 or you can just go in by our names. We've also found some really great stuff at IKEA that we like.

If you're coming to the baby shower please don't feel like you have to get us anything!! We really just want our friends to come and share in the joy and fun and play games! It'll be a blast!! But if you do insist on getting something, we LOVE stuff from thrift stores and second hand items. It's our way of recycling. Seriously. Just go to a thrift store and pick up a toy or something little. Seriously. I'm not kidding. We'd love it!!

Also, if you're planning on coming to the shower on Jan. 3rd, we'll be finishing up the baby pool, so bring $10 if you want to buy in. The game is posted two posts down if you need a reminder!! My friend Missy is going to be collecting the money for that, so she may email everyone to remind them.

Wedding stuffs

We think we've found the perfect wedding location and as soon as we're sure, we'll put a link to it up on this website so people can go to it and start reserving cabins and lodges or campsites or whatever for the weekend.

Our plan is to have everyone fly in Thursday night, Aug 7th and then we'll have a full day of festivities and family fun on Friday. Rehearsal and rehearsal dinner Friday night and then the wedding will probably be around 5pm-ish on Saturday.

So... more later :)

Aiden's pool

Here's the game:

Guess the date and time closest to Aiden actually being born and you win half the baby pool. The other half goes to Aiden :)

It's a $10 buy-in for each slot. Each slot is one hour long. If you decide on a date and time that you would like, please send Amy and Toby $10 and then we will reserve the time for you!! (Note: we can't reserve the slot until we have the money... it's too hard to keep track of who's paid and who hasn't!!)

Aiden's due date is Jan. 27, 2008. They say first babies are late... and boys are late.... but who knows really???

Here's the link to the calendar so you can see who's guessing what:
http://my.calendars.net/aidenminor07/d01/01/2008?display=M&style=B&positioning=A

Take a peek and tell us what you think!!

The babyshower is going to be on Jan.3rd and you can sign up in person then. Last day to sign up will be Jan. 13th, 2008.

We're engaged!!

Toby proposed on Friday, Nov 9th. We went for a walk to the lake when he got home from work. There was a play going on in the little community center right on Sheridan and Granville at the playground. He found some rocks that faced the Chicago city skyline at night. I could hear the waves from the lake crashing onto the rocks where we stood. He was very nervous. And he got down on one knee and said some very sweet things that I won't repeat and then pulled out the beautiful ring in the box and asked me to marry him.

He's so cute :)

We've set the date for Aug.9th, 2008. We'll be sending out Save-the-date cards soon!

This is my first post on my Blog.

We thought we'd create a blog site for the Baby shower with some pictures of his room and some ideas of things we'd like, since a lot of it isn't from Babies R Us and Target.



We've included a few pictures of us. Obviously the ones of me pregnant are recent. I've gained 40 lbs already. I'm 29 weeks along.

Toby and I are going to see a woman today who does massage during labor. We're hoping to have to use the crazy epidurol drugs... of course, lots of women say that until the moment arrives!!


We'll be delivering in the new Northwestern Women's Apprentice that has all new private rooms and showers etc., so Toby and Ellie will actually be able to stay and get some sleep if they want.

Aiden's due date is Jan. 27, 2008.

So far the theme for the baby room is purple and blue stars and moons. Once we finish painting and putting up the border, I'll take some pictures and post them.

We've already received some really lovely gifts too that I will post soon.