"What Was Old" Baby shower

This past weekend, two of my dear friends, Courtney and Meredith, co-hosted a baby shower for Jake and I! The theme was "What was Old" after you know what :-) They all chipped in on some group gifts, including a pack n play and other "essentials," and then each brought an old time toy or book, too. Oh, and how could I forget? We now have a gazilion onesies.

A gazillion onesies? Alyssa, isn't that a bit of an exaggeration? Well, yes, but I like hyperbole. We nonetheless have a lot of them now because great minds think alike. Not only did Angie make us some adorable applique onesies and Meredith picked us up a cute-as-a-button yellow onesie with blue flowers, but the activity at the shower was decorating used onesies! Courtney went to Once Upon a Child and scoured it for onesies in a range of sizes. Then she went to Jo-Ann's and picked up some great fabric scraps. Ironed on the transfer paper, and voila! We could decorate to our hearts' content! The crafty person in me just about died. It was so much fun to see what everyone came up with.

Interestingly enough, the men put a lot of deep thought into their onesies, so much so that I think their wives were beginning to wonder if they would ever finish so they could bring their babes home for a nap! Take a look at these beauties!

Tommy's depiction of Pittsburgh on the left, Ryan's Elephant with clothes, and DW's intricate spring flower. Very impressive, guys!

I'm happy to note as well that Courtney and Meredith made a concerted effort to mix up the color pallette at the shower (they know I'm not the biggest fan of an "everything pink" approach, although I'm certainly warming up to the color), except for the men in their families who all thought it would be HILARIOUS to wear pink shirts that day. Too cute, boys, too cute. 

It was such a lovely day hanging out with our friends and their families, and we are so fortunate to have such supportive and caring group out here. Thank you to everyone who attended and those who were there in spirit for your good vibes and much appreciated gifts. Yeah for celebrating Baby Melbs!

So bit by bit we're accumulating more and more stuff for baby. Look at all these cloth diapers (that I still need to strip and prepare...soon, sometime soon, and I promise to take pictures to blog about).

And the armoire that's quickly accumulating adorable outfits that, come hell or high water, I will make sure she wears at least once!

And here's this week's photo (31...but who's counting?):

And Ma, can you guess what I'm drinking here? Hint: It's your favorite morning drink :-)

Happy and safe Memorial Day Weekend, everyone!

3/4, 75%, .75, almost an entire cookie...

30 weeks. Out of 40. This baby is going to be here before we know it!

News from pregnancy land...
1. Growth is right on target--yeah!
2. She's moving like mad. Rolling, jabbing, kicking, poking, hiccuping--she's doing it all. Although I hope to be able to feel her hiccup more. The only time I felt her was at this last midwife appointment. She had the hiccups, and it must have been the way I was laying or because I could also hear the hiccups, but I felt them very low in my back, very faintly. It was great!
3. I'm still walking nearly every day and taking ballet class. We'll see how long I can keep it up before I can't breathe anymore. It's getting harder by the day, especially when I'm sitting down. Today I had to forcibly put my hand on my belly to keep her from kicking up into my diaphragm. That punk!
4. Name is picked! But you'll have to wait until she arrives to find out!
5. We toured UPMC Mercy this last weekend, which is where we'll give birth if complications arise, I deliver early or later, or she's breech. It was certainly ok, but it reinforced my decision even more to give birth with the midwives when the first words out of their mouths were "if you get here and you're in labor, go to the emergency room" (seriously? If you've just started? Or even if you're dilated 5 cm? The chances of spontaneously delivering at that point are very slim, and isn't it good to be walking to let gravity do its job? I'll walk from the parking garage, thank you very much) and "our routine is to start everyone on an IV and fetal monitoring. No food or drink, just ice chips." I'm sorry, but anyone who has seen me hungry knows I become a beast. I'll damn well eat if I want to. And if I puke it up during transition? Who cares? It's normal!
6. Childbearing classes this weekend...more to come on that later!
7. I'm apparently carrying low. Where the heck is baby going to go when she "drops" before labor begins? I'm nervous about that.
8. Cravings--any baked pastries, milk, sweets. But really, this is nothing out of the ordinary for me.
9. Things that haven't progressed any: my craft making, work on the nursery, and Jake getting his overview done before the baby arrives. Any reinforcement on this last point will be greatly appreciated :-)

Third trimester--whoa!

Can you believe it? Cause I can't believe it. 28 weeks--ahhh!!!

And guess what I decided to do? I started taking a ballet class at my work. I thought, "Hey, beginning ballet! I can do that!" Only the last time I took a real ballet class was 10 years ago, I'm now pregnant, not in tremendously good shape, and the class was 90 minutes long. Guess who's gonna be sore tomorrow? I forgot how much you use your calf muscles--which have been killing me anyway--and I was not jumping very high at all (not like I could). But on the positive side of things, I'm going to think of it as preparation for labor--building leg muscles, working through some initial discomfort, and remembering to breath. Hopefully baby enjoyed the movement!

*Update: Since I'm about 3 days late in posting this because of a dead camera battery, just wanted to let you know that my calves kill from ballet class. Still. Two days later. I can hardly walk up stairs. On the upside--because there's always an upside--it's given me a great excuse to sit down as often as possible :-)

The Value of History, or the History of Values

The US Army killed Osama Bin Laden.

If you haven't heard this news, you've clearly been living in a cave (pun very intended). I feel compelled to write about this historical moment because of the moral and ethical questions it has brought up for me in the past few days, particularly in light of the fact that I soon will be a parent, attempting to instill our child with a sense of "values." But what are those values we want to instill? And how does this historical moment challenge the value system we think we know and abide by?

Just so you know, here's where I'm coming from: while I don't subscribe to any particular religious system of belief, I certainly do subscribe to the idea of karma in a grand sense. What you give out to the universe you receive in return. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth (but not necessarily literally). Thus, do unto others as you would do unto yourself. In one respect, Osama got precisely what he karmically deserved. Which is perhaps why, when I heard the news, I didn't feel particularly bad.

Yet neither did I feel particularly good, either. Why not capture him and try him in court for his crimes? Could justice have been served in any other ways? Now it's a moot point, but I wondered...

And then I felt downright awful and disturbed when the "dancing in the streets" started and celebrations sprang up, both in the flesh and on Facebook. What makes our celebrations of his death any better than the extremists' celebrations of 9/11? Without question the damage to our world that Osama has generated is morally reprehensible and inexcusable, but aren't we sliding down one awfully slippery slope by rejoicing in his murder? Or are our value systems that flexible enough to accommodate such picking and choosing of "sin" and negative actions?

There are no easy answers to these questions. I posted on Facebook the ubiquitous Martin Luther King, Jr. quote that's floating around out there:

"I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that" Martin Luther King, Jr

While this is a bastardization of what he says in his sermon, "Loving Your Enemy," I like the sentiment nonetheless. After I posted on someone else's status update--who had also posted the same quote--to "Spread the Love," the wrath came upon me. Things like, "Love didn't save that nut" and "Love doesn't apply to terrorists." Once again, I beg the same question I posed earlier but in a different light: are our value systems that flexible enough to accommodate such picking and choosing of "love" and positive actions?

So at this historical moment of significant value, I ponder how history has shaped values throughout time. And I wonder how--as time continues, as I grow, as my children grow--historical progress will continue to shape, mold, and challenge my own values. Despite all this, I'm still not sure what to make of all this, nor has it brought me any closer to determining the values I do want to pass on.

But I'll end with this anecdote: A former professor's daughter posed the following question to her over breakfast yesterday morning: Was Osama Bin Laden as evil as Voldemort? That's a loaded question, and I'm breathing a small sigh of relief that I'm not a parent yet because the answer--like so many answers about this subject--are far too complex to answer with a simple yes or no.