Still Kicking

Well we had another doctor's appointment yesterday and things are going great! It's always fun to hear the baby's heartbeat and to have the doctor confirm that things are going well. Kasey can attest to this more than I, but we may have a wild one on our hands. In the last week or so this girl has been driving her mom crazy with punches, kicks, or whatever she is doing to amuse herself in there. It's been amazing feeling the "kicks" from the outside and even starting to see movement.

They are trying to get us back on a regular schedule with our appointments so we actually go back next Tuesday to have our last ultrasound with the technician to make sure everything is still going well with the baby's health. We'll try to post some pictures from that!

Happy Dyngus Day!

For those of you out there not lucky enough to be Polish or live in South Bend, Dyngus Day is a Polish holiday celebrated the day after Easter. In Poland, boys wake up girls by pouring a bucket of water on their head and hit them on the legs with twigs from willow or birch trees. I still wake up Kasey every year with a glass of water on her head, but I stopped hitting her legs with twigs once we got married. According to Wikipedia, one theory is that Dyngus Day originates from the baptism on Easter Monday of Mieszko I (Duke of the Polans, c. 935 - 992) in 966 AD, uniting all of Poland under the banner of Christianity. Around here it's an excuse to eat and drink too much!
Dyngus Day is a pretty big deal in South Bend with it's large Polish population, but it's turned into more of a political holiday, especially for Democrats. In fact, Bill Clinton made a stop at the West Side Democratic Club this morning for their pancake breakfast.

Tonight we enjoyed a low-fat dinner at the Smokers' including sausage, three different types of pierogis (cabbage, mushroom, and potato and cheese), kapusta (saurkraut with mushrooms, onions, white wine, and butter), and kifle (cookies) for dessert. Jen Smoker is Polish so we enjoyed trading stories about our families using different Polish words and phrases growing up. Here's a picture of Phil, Jen, their son Henry, and me after the feast.

In the Homestretch

We're in the third trimester! Tuesday was 28 weeks, so twelve more to go--assuming Baby Blaze arrives on schedule. To celebrate, let's have some cyber cake. Here are a couple of pictures of the "graduation cake" I made as part of my cake decorating class in February. Shout out to Jen Smoker and Kelly Noto who took the class with me and are now masters of the Wilton rose!

Six Months Update

As Matthew's post details below, we had a wonderful time in Florida. I'm ready to make this an annual trip--there's nothing like escaping snowy South Bend in early March to enjoy warm weather, beaches, and baseball. Since Matthew uses the blog to entertain more than inform, I'll fill in some gaps with a few of my favorite pictures. You'll notice that I'm looking quite pregnant in a few of these, so this should satisfy those of you who have been requesting an up-to-date picture of me, six months pregnant.

In other pregnancy news, we had a doctor's visit right before our trip and everything is looking good. I passed my glucose test, so no gestational diabetes. I'm feeling pretty great, but I'm getting a lot bigger and that can be uncomfortable--I often feel like she's living in my rib cage. This is somewhat painful, and it's hard to breathe at times. I know better than to complain, though, because I'm aware that she's only going to take up more room over the next three months! She also moves like crazy. Sometimes, I'll be laying on the couch, and Matthew will be able to see my stomach move from across the room! It's bizarre.

Next week, we make the turn into the third trimester!

Spring Training Babymoon Recap

Kasey and I decided that we needed one last trip before Baby Blaze arrives so we left behind beautiful South Bend and headed to warmer climates. Specifically, we headed to Ft. Myers, Florida, to enjoy the sun, sand, and some Spring Training baseball.

Our trip got off to a bit of a rough start last Friday. Our flight out of South Bend was delayed 30 minutes and then our flight from Detroit to Ft. Myers was delayed 90 minutes. We boarded the plane in Detroit at 10:30 only to sit on the runway until 12:45 am as they de-iced our plane and had to plow and salt our runway. We finally landed in Ft. Myers at 3:30 am and arrived at our hotel after 4:00. Thankfully, that was the only bad thing about the entire trip. We may be done flying forever.

After just recovering and enjoying the warmth on Saturday, we took in our first baseball game on Sunday as we watched the Red Sox host the Twins. The easiest way to describe Spring Training is that it's like watching all the big league stars play in a small minor league park. Autographs, pictures, and foul balls are easy to come by and everyone is just happy to be there because most of us came from somewhere much colder. They also have all kinds of fun things going on like free pictures with the 2004 and 2007 World Series trophies.

On Monday we drove over to the beach and spent the day there. Kasey and I had made a bet on our min- golf game at Smuggler's Cove the night before. Since I lost I had to run into the water wearing a speedo, cowboy hat, and suspenders, and had to post the picture on the blog for all to see. I'm a man of my word so here is the picture.

We wanted to check out another park besides the Red Sox, so on Tuesday we drove up to Sarasota and watched the Reds host the Indians. It was smaller than the Red Sox and not nearly as crowded, so it felt like you were watching the game at a nice high school field. My day was made when I went to get something to eat and the menu included a Goetta Dog. If you don't know what a Goetta Dog is, don't worry about it - it's a Cincinnati thing.

At the Reds game they played bingo during the game. Yes, bingo. When you walked in the park you were given a bingo card. Then after each Reds player batted the announcer called out a number. However, they seemed to be making up the rules as we went which did not sit well with Kasey. Out of nowhere they just announced that they wouldn't call any numbers for pinch hitters or the DH. Well, the problem with that is that after two or three innings they start substituting for everyone. We never heard anyone say what the prizes were, but we were only an N-35 away from glory.

On Wednesday we got the best of both my favorite teams as we watched the Red Sox host the Reds. We went to the game early to watch batting practice and see if we could come up with any souvenirs. I caught a foul ball in batting practice that took a bounce off the lawn in right field, bounced again off a 10 year-old kid, and landed in my hands. Hey, the kid had his chance and already had caught another ball so I didn't feel bad keeping it.

Kasey got a souvenir of her own when her new favorite Reds player, Edinson Volquez, threw her a ball from right field. She caught it no problem and then had him sign the ball and her belly.

Finally, I have to recap the events from a sure-t0-be-classic mini golf match between Kasey and I on Wednesday night. After my defeat earlier in the week at Smuggler's Cove that was mentioned earlier, I challenged Kasey to a rematch at Castle Golf. I controlled the front nine and made the turn with a two stroke lead. I played well on the back nine, but Kasey played just a little bit better and was carried by her three holes-in-one. It came down to hole 18 and I had a one stroke lead. Then the skies opened up and started to pour on us. But you know we weren't going to leave with only one hole left. So, in a driving rain, I went first. The 18th hole was a three level hole that had pipes leading from one level to the next. My third shot went down the last pipe, but in typical mini-golf fashion, it lipped out of the hole that it was designed to drop in. I tapped in for a four. Kasey then hit the exact same shots I did, but her third shot somehow managed to stay in the cup and she eked out an improbable tie. You can be sure as soon as it gets warm enough in South Bend, we'll be out at the local putt putt course until I win.