Aunt Kelly Throws a Shower

My sister Kelly hosted my first baby shower over Easter Weekend, and she did such an amazing job. She made my favorite foods, including Hershey Pie, and had elaborate decorations (notice the diaper cake in the picture below). It was even further proof of what a great aunt she's going to be--so thanks, Kelly! Thanks also to her husband David and my mom for their help with the event.



We got some wonderful gifts from our family and friends in E'town. My mom made an afghan and a scrapbook for the baby, and we also got some special things of Mamaw Lettie's. First, my aunt Rita gave Baby Blaze and me a necklace that she had once given to Mamaw Lettie. Mamaw Lettie wore it every day for years and years, and Rita wanted the first great-great-granddaughter to have it. It meant a lot to us, and I put it in a little shadow box that we'll hang in the baby's room, along with Mamaw Lettie's "be careless" advice. My grandmother also gave me a doll quilt that Mamaw Lettie made for our baby. Both of these family heirlooms are pictured below.


My favorite part of the shower was hearing the women in my family talk about their own pregnancies and children. It was especially funny to hear about how attitudes toward baby care have changed over the last thirty-plus years. Like how my Aunt Shirley drove home from the hospital holding her son in her arms in the passenger seat, and how I stayed in a hotel in Illinois with my parents when I was two weeks old, and slept in a dresser drawer! But hey, my cousins and I survived!

Thanks to everyone who attended. It was wonderful to see you all!

We Didn't See This One Coming

Well, we had our last ultrasound this morning and let's just say we got quite a surprise. Baby Blaze looks as healthy as can be hoped, but now also looks like a boy! That's right. You can only imagine the response from Kasey and I when the ultrasound technician stopped about 10 minutes in and said, "That's interesting." My heart about stopped as I imagined some bad news. Then she said, "It looks like I was wrong on my original reading of the ultrasound. You're having a boy." Silence. Of course we must have asked a hundred times, "Are you sure?!?!"

The ultrasound technician pointed out that she told us the first time that she could only be 80 % certain that it was a girl. Of course, my response to that was "well, how certain are you now?" She said there is no doubt now and that she is 100% certain.

This is exactly why we decided to go with green paint and a lot of neutral colors. Thankfully, there isn't a whole lot of things that we can't change or take back to the store.

We've got pictures from the visit, but our scanner wasn't cooperating so I hope to get them posted later tonight.

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.

Blaze Tricks Nick Into Moving World's Largest Piece of Furniture

Baby Blaze might not be arriving for another four months, but she's already cramping our style by making us spend our weekends at places like Babies R Us, Value City Furniture, and the baby section at Wal-Mart. Last week it took us two long nights to finish painting her room. Here are some pictures of Kasey putting the finishing touches on after about five hours of taping off walls and painting the trim.

Then the real fun began on Saturday morning when we picked up her furniture. Surprisingly, Babies R Us doesn't deliver furniture, so I had to recruit my buddy, Nick, to help me pick up the crib and armoire that we ordered. With the temperature at a balmy 20 degrees on Saturday, it was the perfect weather to ride around town in a rented UHaul truck with 194,000 miles and pick up furniture.

The morning started with a pleasant surprise as we ran into the Kinnucan family at Babies R Us. Confusing looks were exchanged as the Kinnucans were not quite sure why two guys without kids were strolling into Babies R Us at 10:00 on a Saturday morning. Once we got that all cleared up, Andy and I tied up the customer service desk for at least 20 minutes as he was trying to return some sort of baby cage and I was trying to pay the remaining balance on the furniture. When the salesman wheeled out the furniture, Nick and I pulled muscles in our backs just looking at it.

I'm not going to try to explain how we got a 200 lb, fully assembled armoire into our house and up the stairs. Any story I would tell would never do it justice. I was kicking myself for not having Kasey take some pictures or a video because it would have been great for the blog. Let's just sum it up by saying that it took every bit of 30 minutes to move the thing, Nick nearly died twice, and I thought I had crushed my hand and damaged my surgically repaired ankle on two different occasions in which we dropped the box. Kasey was her usual helpful self as she used the old "I'm pregnant" excuse for the 200th time to get out of doing a little bit of work.

Here's a picture of me with the beast.

A True Great

As many of you know, my great-grandmother, Mamaw Lettie, passed away last Sunday night at the age of 100. When I tell people this, they are usually surprised that I had a great-grandmother still living! I also find myself explaining that she was much closer to me than you might think a great-grandmother would be. She and my grandmother (her daughter) were neighbors and best friends for my entire life, which meant that she was just about everywhere my grandmother was. We really thought of her as an extra grandparent, and a wonderful one at that.

My favorite memory of Mamaw Lettie is that she would always tell my sister and me to "be careless" whenever we would leave her (as opposed to the usual grandparent warning, "be careful"). She really wanted us to enjoy life and not take things too seriously. I also remember playing Skip-Bo with her, learning how to sew a nine-patch, and the great sense of humor she had. As she got older, she seemed to think she could get away with saying just about anything, and that made her lots of fun to be around!

We were so lucky to have her in our lives for so long, and I know she was ready to go (in fact, she bet a family friend $100 that she wouldn't be there for her 101st birthday!). The one thing that makes me especially sad is that she and our daughter never had a chance to meet. Had she made it to June, we would have had five generations of women together. Believe it or not, my great-great-grandmother was alive when I was born, and we have the picture to prove it. But as it turns out, Matthew and I knew we were having a baby at Mamaw Lettie's 100th birthday in October--so little Baby Blaze is actually in the picture above! We got our five generations picture after all.

I'll miss you, Mamaw Lettie--I can't wait to tell Baby Blaze all about you.

Baby Blaze Endorses Barack Obama

SOUTH BEND, IN - The next generation of the Blazejewski dynasty - South Bend's most well-connected political family - endorsed Barack Obama for president on Friday, with Baby Blaze calling him a "man with extraordinary gifts of leadership and character." "I can feel change going on out there somewhere," Baby Blaze said in remarks made shortly after her mom, Kasey, drank a glass of orange juice this morning.

"I have marveled at his grit, grace, and ability to relate to babies from all different types of backgrounds" she said. Baby Blaze's endorsement was ardently sought by the camps of all of the remaining presidential contenders, and she delivered it at a pivotal time in the race. A young, fiery debater, in her second trimester, Baby Blaze is in a position to help Obama court the toddler voter as well as Babies-R-Us sales associates, two key elements of the Democratic Party.

Baby Blaze's parents also endorsed Obama from their front porch before a handful of people, including a guy driving a snow plow, the mailman, and the groundhog that lives in their backyard. "Today isn't just about politics for me. It's personal," Obama, 46, said when it came time for him to speak. "I was too distracted with my own career to remember the successful student government campaign Baby Blaze's dad, Matthew, ran in 1994, but I've been told it was something magical. And I was busy supporting the causes of the people of Illinois when Kasey ran for SGA at UK in 1996. But in the stories I heard, I saw how my grandparents and mother spoke about them, and about that period in our nation's life - as a time of great hope and achievement. To receive the endorsement of the first child of two great political figures like Matthew and Kasey moves me to tears...."

Baby Blaze had remained on the sideline of the presidential campaign for months, saying she was friends with Obama, McCain, Big Red in the Bend, Anna Banana, and some cute boy she had seen at the Farmer's Market last weekend. Lately, according to several associates, Baby Blaze became angered with what she viewed as "Stalin-like" comments by Hillary Clinton when she proposed that recess time in schools be eliminated and replaced with an extra science class. "I understand the need to improve the education system in this country, but getting rid of recess? That's just un-American. I told my mom that if I was born into that kind of world we better move to Canada before I start school."

"The world is changing and will never be the same once I arrive sometime in the middle of June. The old ways will not do. ... It is time for a new generation of leadership. So it is with Barack Obama," she added.