Meet the Eggberts!

Knot Twins Birth Announcement

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17 days to go!

It is hard to believe that I have just 17 days (or less) left of my pregnancy, and it is mind-boggling to compare Finn and Erik at 8 weeks...

...to their size 32 weeks! Only their heads fit on the screen!

Though we will meet them so soon, waiting for these last few weeks to pass is challenging. I can only compare these last few weeks of pregnancy to how I felt running the last mile of a half-marathon; even though that last mile was such a short distance to go in comparison to what I had already ran, it was tough for me to maintain the race pace I needed to in order to meet my goal time because my body was so tired / sore. It took me a lot of concentration and motivation to will myself to keep running during that last mile years ago, and it is taking a lot of mental toughness to hang in there right now (though at least now it is perfectly reasonable to rest while I wait it out)!

And so...until then...lots of naps and popsicles!

Happy summer!

Happy first day of summer! For the first time in my entire life, I could do without the summer heat! It is tough to be pregnant when it is hot outside, and I eat a lot of popsicles for my own survival. Though it is hard to believe how fast the weeks have gone by, I am now 32 1/2 weeks pregnant! The twins are doing really well, and we are currently scheduled to meet them on July 27. (Unless they have a different birthday in mind...but I hope they can be patient.)

Finn and Erik are both about 4 pounds each now, and they are beginning to tire me out. Today marks my first day of working from home, and though over the past few weeks I was feeling really stressed out about finishing experiments and being away from the laboratory, I am now embracing the comfort of my couch and pajamas and air conditioning!

Sadly, we decided not to garden this year - not only were the preparations too much work for David to complete by himself, but the upkeep would have been challenging given the mid-summer arrival of the twins. However, preparations for the nursery are in full swing, and our apartment and car are now ready for little ones. Since I would normally show photos of us preparing The Danger Zone around this time, here are some photos of our nursery preparations instead.

Ipita was convinced that my parents bought this Pooh Pack N Play as a house for him, and was quite frustrated to discover that he was not allowed to jump inside whenever he wanted to.

David had a lot of fun drinking beer and putting together the cribs...

...which look like this when put together with our cute Winnie-the-Pooh nursery materials!

David and I (but mostly David) have been testing out our new baby gear by using stuffed animals as stand-ins for the twins. Here is Pooh in the car seat...

...with a bear friend in the double stroller...

...and taking a ride in David's baby carrier.

Here is Kermit getting ready for a ride in one of our single strollers. I am very excited to have two of these single strollers because I can actually lift them.

We are beyond excited to meet our two little ones! I cannot wait until July 27 (but I will...and you should too, Finn and Erik)!

Congratulations, Kristen DPT!

Kristen visited last weekend in celebration of her upcoming graduation from Northwestern (I am travel restricted and cannot attend the graduation, so we had a little pre-graduation party instead). I am so proud of her, and excited to see which of the "real world" jobs that she is interviewing for will turn into her first physical therapy position.

No celebration is complete without a giant cupcake! We felt it was best to take a picture of this while it still looked like a cupcake (after this photo was taken, we continued to coat it with sugary icing and it began to look more like an igloo).

I got Kristen a pinata for her graduation present. After my own ups and downs at Penn, I believe that the piece of paper that confirms the end of all the frustrating things that come along with graduate school (otherwise known as the diploma) isn't necessarily the answer for achieving maximal closure and satisfaction as a new graduate. Instead, the pieces of paper that really matter are all of the little pieces of paper on the ground...after the destruction of a symbolic paper donkey. Everyone's donkey represents a different challenge they overcame in order to graduate - for some people it is dealing with difficult people, for others it might be a difficult class or experiment - in Kristen's case, her donkey was named Lois.

Kristen looks quite ready for her battle with the pinata.

It turns out that pinatas bought at Target do not go down without a fight, which is fitting, because I don't think the real Lois would ever go down without a fight. The head of the pinata severed quite quickly, but it took several rounds of bat swinging for the entire thing to erupt.

Success! Congratulations, Dr. Kristen! (Keep a patient slot open for me at the end of the summer - I think my lower back might need some physical therapy by then...)

Little bits of news and spring

The weather is changing rapidly from one day to the next (it was 84 and sunny on Monday but today's high is 20 degrees colder than that, for example), and that seems to fit the state of our lives lately. My bump is growing at a crazy pace that can only mean these two little boys of ours are going to make an appearance a lot sooner than three months away feels like!

We have begun to prepare for our nursery. Thanks to all of our very generous friends and family that attended our baby shower over Easter weekend, we finally have many items to put in our nursery! We have also moved our furniture around so that the room is ready for cribs and a dresser (and Pooh decorations!) that we will pick out on Monday after my 24 week check-up in Syracuse. I will post pictures when it is all put together. As my body keeps changing, I am beginning to feel incredibly anxious and unprepared for my impending motherhood status; I am hoping that putting together the nursery will provide the organization/preparation I usually require (as a type A person) to feel ready for change.

David is also preparing for another year of farming at The Danger Zone. My role this year will be limited to documenting our garden's progress and eating all of the yummy vegetables that David grows (not a bad role to have), but I am very excited for another year "on the farm." David is still finalizing his master list of vegetables that we will grow, but I anticipate that this list will include lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, and peppers. Please feel free to comment on this post if you feel strongly about us growing pumpkins this year. David is not so convinced we should take the space since Linus and Lucy were so small last year...but I am convinced that growing more pumpkins is always great idea. Though lately I have been able to outnumber David in disagreements by simply reminding him that technically I count for 3 votes and he only counts for 1, I feel confident that other people outside of my womb also love pumpkins as much as I do (or at least, almost as much as I do), and so I leave this decision in the hands of the limited readership of this blog...

Halfway!

I am halfway through my pregnancy now, which is incredibly surprising. I think David would argue that the weeks are not going by fast enough, but I feel like time is just flying by! A few observations related to my experiences as a pregnant lady so far:

1. I am not sure how people survive being pregnant without naps. I am not taking naps, but I think if I could take naps every day, I would be a more functional person (particularly during the evening hours). Every day around 2:00 pm (right now), my energy begins to fade over time until it finally becomes time to go home for the day, and then I collapse onto the couch. I see other pregnant people walking around that look awake, and I want to stop and ask them what their secret is for staying so awake, but I don't...because...

2. Well-meaning people interpret my growing baby bump as an invitation to both share a lot of personal information with me as well as ask me very personal questions. (And just to be clear, I am not talking about people I know in any way, I am exclusively referring to strangers.) I do not always have the patience to carry on conversations with these people, particularly at times when I am very tired, but mostly I just find it very strange. People who hardly know me ask about my birth or breast-feeding plans like they would comment on the weather outside. And while I know that they mean no offense or imposition, I just can't for the life of me figure out why pregnancy seems to be the universal signal to ignore all personal boundaries. (Yes, woman on the elevator this morning and other woman in the Target checkout line a few weeks back, I am talking to both of you.) And so to all of my friends that have been pregnant before me, if I have ever asked you any questions that crossed this barrier, I sincerely apologize; if it is any consolation, I am sure I meant well too, even if I didn't know any better.

3. Speaking of my baby bump, it is now growing at what I would consider to be an exponential rate (and I am really hoping this translates into more weight gain when I visit the doctor's office next week). It took a while for me to show (even with twins), but now that I am showing, my reflection in the mirror is crazy weird. Because I cannot feel the twin's movements constantly yet, I sometimes go hours without thinking about the fact that I am pregnant...and then I look in the mirror and get a strange sort of wake-up call.

4. I always thought cravings were a myth, but THEY ARE REAL. And they are ever changing - in the beginning, I only wanted to eat buffalo chicken bites, but now all I can think about eating is Velveeta macaroni and cheese!

5. Not that I didn't appreciate how nice it was to be married to David, but I definitely appreciate this fact more than ever. While I am a puddle of pregnant lady on the couch, he keeps our apartment/clothes clean and brings me food. While I cannot pretend that being pregnant is easy for me, I think his job during all of this is more difficult.

Overall, pregnancy has not been nearly as terrible as I imagined, though I still cannot claim to be one of those people that loves being pregnant. But as selfish as that makes me feel sometimes, I already know that even if I don't always like carrying the Eggberts with me on the inside, I will never want to let go of them when they are finally in my outside universe! I can't wait to meet them!

This year's Lenten sacrifice

The Lenten season is back again, and it was very hard for me this year to determine what exactly to give up for Lent this year. In past years, I mostly stuck to giving up food or drink items - junk food, chocolate, or soda - but this year I am already missing some of the foods I cannot eat because I am pregnant, and so I decided that limiting myself even more would just drive me crazy. (And it's Girl Scout cookie season - can I really be expected to stop eating junk food when there are GIRL SCOUT COOKIES around??)

Instead, this year I have decided to give up all of the trashy celebrity webpages I use to distract myself from accomplishing real work. At 2:30 during an afternoon workday (particularly now that I am focused almost exclusively on writing my paper instead of doing benchwork), my mind slows down and thinking about science becomes harder to manage. I begin to browse the internet, and because the point is to not to think for awhile, I eventually shut my brain off completely and head to People.com or USWeekly.com (or sometimes, even TMZ.com), where suddenly whether or not Lindsay Lohan met her probation requirements becomes very, very interesting. My browsing of these celebrity webpages can last anywhere from 10 minutes on a slow tabloid news day to 30 - 40 minutes when "earth-shattering" news happens.

It's hard to regain my productivity after these mid-afternoon mind wanderings, and since the summer / maternity leave (seems like it) is fast approaching, I have decided to take these next 40 days to try to be less distracted at work. And so, so long celebrities...try not to make too many bad decisions while I am away.

(But don't worry, I can't possibly give up every distraction at work...you can still find me on Google chat, especially around 2:30ish?) :)

Meet the Eggberts!

Hello, friends. It has been a while since my last post. I'd say I was caught up in the chaos of the holidays and the new year and was too distracted to blog...or maybe it was because I just got back from a long trip to California to present my research and am still jet-lagged (and recovering from all of the stress that goes along with getting lots of work done before I left)...but truthfully, it has been a while since my last post because all I could think about posting was THIS:

Meet the Eggberts, 1 and 2! We are expecting twins in late July / early August!

Visiting Kristen in Seattle

Over a month ago now, I visited Kristen in Seattle. She has been completing her physical therapy rotation in Kent, WA this fall, and I thought it would be fun to visit her while she was there. We had a really great weekend.

Kristen had to work during the afternoon that I arrived, and so my first stop was to the original Starbucks. Or at least, what Starbucks is calling their original store. Kristen and I took a coffee tour of Seattle on the Saturday I was visiting, and we learned all kinds of secrets about that sneaky company. Secret 1 - the true original Starbucks store was a block down the street from the store pictured above, but that store burned down, so they rebuilt it at the location I visited. During the rebuild, another Starbucks had already opened up in downtown Seattle, making the place I visited the third Starbucks in existence and not the first. (Silly details ruin all good marketing schemes...) I happened to be in Seattle the first week of pumpkin spice latte season, so I shelled out the big bucks to get my latte from the flagship store. (It was delicious.)

Right down the street from the flagship Starbucks was Pike Place Market. I was very excited that they had bouquets of flowers for $5.

I also took a ferry boat ride to Bainbridge Island and back while I was waiting for Kristen. It was magical, even without McDreamy to keep me company! I could honestly ride that boat all day long.

Here is a view of Seattle at night from the ferry boat, taken with my limited camera.

We visited the EMP, which is a really cool museum (especially if you like Nirvana). They had a special exhibit on the music in horror films, which featured a scream booth. Naturally we had to take photos of us screaming. Above is the two of us together (which didn't turn out as well because we we did our individual photos first and were both laughing by this point).

Here is Kristen, who looks like a normal person screaming (or singing in the shower)...

...and here is the one of me. (I do not look so normal, but I love love LOVE this photo anyway.) Lesson learned - my "scream face" is more terrifying than anything that could possibly scare me...

On our coffee tour, this latte was on special at one of the cafes we visited...perfect for David!

Before I left on this trip, David told me that he "hoped I would see Mt. Rainer" while I was visiting WA. I did not understand what he meant; how could I miss a giant mountain?? It is the strangest thing how it can be completely hidden from view...and then...all of a sudden in plain sight. We saw the mountain as we were driving back from our coffee tour.

Kristen and I took Levi to a dog park and walked around there for quite some time. This was not your average dog park in the woods; the views were breathtaking.

Happy Levi, playing fetch.

Kristen and I went to a pumpkin beer festival the day I was leaving, and we wanted to make pumpkin t-shirts with puffy paint to wear for the occasion. (I am sure you can guess which shirt I made.) We had a lot of fun making these shirts, but neither of them dried in time for the event, so we did not get to wear them. We were forced to buy Halloween-themed clothing from Wal-Mart instead.

What a fantastic trip! I am looking forward to seeing Kristen back in Butler in December (in just a few weeks)!

The lull before the holiday rush...

The holidays are fast approaching, and this weekend is my last weekend in Ithaca before I begin a massive amount of traveling to see family and friends over the course of the 2011 holiday season! There is not much to report, but here are some random photos taken over the last month or so that do not require their own post, but are still fun.

My laboratory is in the middle of another CHESS cycle. We were given three weekend blocks of time throughout October and November to conduct our experiments, the last of which is a 24 hour time block this weekend from 12 noon on Saturday to 12 noon on Sunday. My CHESS data collection has been frustrating as of late (to put it mildly), and so I am hoping this weekend's trip will be more productive. On November 4, Karen and I worked a night shift at CHESS during one of the Crane weekends there, working from 10 pm until 9:30 am. To survive, we watched episodes of Gilmore Girls while we collected data (and during our 3 hour wait for broken equipment to be repaired), and to stay awake, she consumed a 5 Hour Energy drink and I drank this 2 L of Coke Cherry Zero out of a coffee mug. These were terrible choices - we may have been awake, but we made ourselves massively sick to our stomachs. While in undergraduate, I used to consume a 2L bottle of Coca Cola (not diet) EVERY DAY, 5 days a week...and I have no idea how I did this then, but I am not capable of it now! It will be awhile until I will want to consume cola-type beverages...

Our Sunday afternoons are spent watching NFL football. Here is a cute photo of David and Ipita while enjoying the Dolphins' first win last weekend (the Dolphins also won their game yesterday too).

I have been invited to give a talk at a conference in CA during January. I was excited about this opportunity for about an hour, and then I became completely stressed out about getting more work done between now and then. David and I saw this wine in the store a few weeks ago and thought the name was clever enough to justify purchasing a bottle (the label also suits me perfectly, because I take a bath almost every day to unwind). I am sad to report that the wine itself was nothing special, but I still like their concept of a Tough Day Chardonnay...

The coolest shoes I have ever owned!

I have a problem buying things for myself. I am very good picking out things I like, and I always have a strong desire to purchase them...but I lack follow-through. When it comes time to click "purchase" or to go through the check-out line, my guilt sets in and I save the item(s) to my cart for a later day (to be forgotten forever) or put the item(s) back on the shelf. (The only exception to this pattern is when I open iTunes, the store where all of my self-control vanishes...)

When I saw Adidas's new special edition Kermit shoes, I knew my obsession with the Muppets (and passion for Kermit, in particular) would and should win out. These shoes were made for me to wear them, and though I spent an hour putting them in the cart and then closing the webpage, I am so glad I was able to click "purchase." I only wish I had bought two pairs, because now they are sold out of my size and I have no option to extend their lifetime by having a back-up pair in my closet.

This is the box they came in. I have kept it, and I currently store the shoes in it when I am not wearing them so that they last longer. (David thinks this behavior is hilarious.)

THE SHOES! Go ahead, be a little jealous. Money may not be able to buy long-term happiness, but it certainly can buy shoes that put a big smile on my face!

Happy Halloween!

As Linus and Sally were not big enough to carve, David and I went to Grisamore Farms to pick out some pumpkins for carving. I found a Groupon deal that allowed us to get $20 dollars worth of pumpkins for $10; this amounted to 60 pounds worth of pumpkins!

Here is David holding the pumpkin he picked out to carve.

Here is me (pretending to) pull the wagon with our three 20ish pound pumpkins. These pumpkins were so heavy I could barely lift them individually, let alone pull three of them.

We invited Karen (a post-doc in my lab) over to carve with us since we had an extra pumpkin (and she loves Halloween). The pumpkin I carved is obvious - nothing makes me happier than carving a smiley pumpkin every year - but Karen carved "Happy Halloween" and David carved the spider web pumpkin.

Our pumpkins all lit up in the dark.

Tonight we will inevitably be visited by many trick or treaters. I hope that they 1) say "trick or treat!" (many of them just stand there and wait for candy which I find both entitled and way less fun) and 2) save me at least one bag of Reese's Pieces!! (Maybe I will have to eat one before they start arriving, just to be safe.)

UPDATE: We were not visited by very many trick or treaters, which means we do have leftover candy! Also - the kids that stopped by were very polite, which was a nice change from last year. There were even high schoolers collecting cans for a food drive instead of candy! And now I must eat my words above with a slice of humble pie and a few bags of Reese's Pieces...

The last harvest

Ithaca had its first snowfall yesterday, which means our gardening days are over. We have packed up The Danger Zone after an incredibly successful year.

This is the parting shot of the Danger Zone before we tore it down. From afar it still looks like we had quite a bit still growing, but do not let this picture fool you - the already cold temperatures damaged most of what we had left.

Once thing that we wanted to try to harvest was our potato plants, which we planted later (and sort of haphazardly) in the season after our onions failed to produce anything. This is a picture of David beginning to dig out the plant...

...but sadly, we found only the remains of potatoes that had rotted. I guess we waited too long to harvest them. We will know better next year.

We brought Ipita on our last journey to the garden. I think he will miss his trips outside! I will certainly feel guilty when we take him in the car next because he will be tricked into thinking he is going on an adventure (when really, he will be going to the vet for some shots).

So long, Danger Zone!

Ben's baptism

Ben's baptism was held at Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church on Sunday, October 2 in Durham. It was such a special day for everyone! Amanda and Paul got a really neat outfit for Ben to wear during the ceremony - part baptism gown, part romper - and I thought he looked adorable.

Here is a nice shot of father and son before we left for the church.

During the ceremony, the children of the church were invited to come forward to make the sign of the cross on Ben's forehead and welcome him to the church. I have never seen this done before and I thought it was a really nice sentiment, but their church really does need to start providing a chair for the person holding the baby being baptized!! Poor Paul got so tired holding Ben at an angle that was low enough for all of those children! Amanda had originally wanted me to hold Ben during the beginning of the ceremony, but I passed this job over to Paul for fear that my noodle arms would not be strong enough to manage 21-pound Ben for a long period of time. I definitely made the right decision! You can see Amanda, Erik (the godfather), and me laughing as the line of children kept getting longer and longer. (I swear they started bringing random children in from the street to meet Ben, because it didn't seem like there were that many children in attendance when the receiving line for Ben was initiated.) I never would have had the arm strength to make it through the entire line of kids!

Instead, I got the job of holding Ben during the actual baptizing part. When we were getting set up for this part of the ceremony, I thought I could just hold Ben close to my body (easier on the arms) with his head facing into the water.

However, the priest motioned for me to bring Ben over the center of the baptismal font, and when I began to move him, my arms began to droop. I was very relieved that I chose to wear a short-sleeved dress for the ceremony, because if I hadn't, it would have been very obvious to all of the bystanders that I skimmed the surface of the water with Ben while moving him to the center of the baptismal font (dampening his backside and soaking my arm). Ben's near-drowning was only temporary though, and I soon got Ben stabilized where he wasn't partially lying in the water. (But now all readers of this blog are thinking twice before granting me repeat godmother duties...)

My favorite part of the modern Catholic baptism is the end of the baptism, or what I like to call "the Simba moment." This is where the newly baptized baby is held up by the priest for the entire congregation to see (just like the beginning sequence of Disney's The Lion King). Ben nearly missed his - he was being fussy after being doused with water, and so Amanda made a break for the church lobby to calm him down instead of joining our candle-lit procession to the front of the church for the Simba moment! It was one of those spontaneous mishaps that we will all remember and laugh about in the years to come. The priest clearly thought we were total amateurs, but it was not our fault we were unprepared. The Catholic Church has rehearsals for many of the other sacraments (First Holy Communion, Confirmation, Marriage), and baptisms should be no exception. How is anyone supposed to keep everything straight on the fly with a squirming, wet (because they were partially drowned by their godmother) baby on their hands?

Godfather Erik, Godmother Sarah, Paul, Amanda, and little baptized Ben.

I am thrilled and honored that Amanda and Paul asked me to be Ben's godmother! I am looking forward to all of the memories we will continue to share together.