Quick update, in list form

1. Our mom's families threw us baby showers. Yay! Between the showers and our friend Dana, who gave us some of her son's outgrown clothes (thanks, Dana & family!), X is now (we think) all set for clothing until he reaches about the 9 month size. (PS-- these were family only showers, so don't be offended if you weren't invited.) 

H family shower

A cupcake, with X on it!

And the E family shower. 

I forgot to bring my camera. Oops. But my cousin Patty and my mom both posted pictures on their blogs, so check them out here and here. This shower was a joint one for my sister and I (she's due 4 wks before me)... thrown by my cousin Michelle & my mom. 

This was actually more of a family reunion BBQ with a shower intermission. My sister Sara flew up for the shower, and we hung out pretty late with cousins after almost everyone else left. I actually had to leave at 11:00 pm to meet up with friends for late night coffee-- and felt really bad. (I expected the family BBQ/shower to be over by 10.)  But that's how awesome it was-- my cousins, their spouses, my parents, and my sisters are really fun to hang out with. 

I had to steal this picture from Mom's facebook. Contrary to what the evidence seems to show, I was actually 20 wks pregnant at the time. I just didn't stand at the right angle for it to be obvious. This picture is of me and the other pregnant ladies there-- my sister and Michelle.

2. Speaking of Michelle, she had her baby Wednesday-- on his due date! (She's now 2 for 2 with having babies on their due dates!) She's hilarious, and a faithful blogger. (Blogging the birth story from the hospital HOURS after he was born!) So check out her blog post on her baby's birth. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll try to nominate her for a Pulitzer (or whatever they give out for blog posts).

3. Kenneth climbed Mt. Rainier. Well, almost. He got sick a few thousand feet from the summit and had to turn back. Here are some pictures:

4. Baby updates...

• My hunch is that X is going to arrive on or before November 1. Somewhere in week 39 maybe. We'll see if I'm right, but that's what my gut keeps saying. (I've probably now jinxed it and X is going to come at 42 wks. Bah.)
• Apparently mothers who consumed a large quantity of nuts during their pregnancy (i.e. nuts or a nut product everyday) increase their child's risk of developing asthma by 50%. Guess what I have for breakfast everyday? Peanut butter on toast. At 7 months pregnant, the damage is probably already done, so I'm planning to continue eating peanut butter on toast. Sorry about the asthma, X! At least I haven't given you fetal alcohol syndrome or something worse!
• X has been kicking for a while now. Kenneth has felt them now, and he's even seen the kicks from the outside! So bizarre, and yet so cool!
• I don't have gestational diabetes! Hooray! But here's the thing about the test-- everyone warns you about how nasty the drink you have to have is. But no one told me about how hard it would be to fast for 12 hours while pregnant. Or having my blood drawn 3 times (I thought it was just twice.) That was no fun at all!
• We've been re-organizing our apt for the last 2 months. We're staying in our 700sq ft apt, so we're making space for baby things. Our apt now looks like it has been furnished by Ikea, but it gets the job done. We have a few things to take to Goodwill, and a few things to put in storage, but other than that, we're all set. Pictures of what it looks like to cram 2 adults, a big dog, and a baby in 700sq ft to follow.  I'm actually kind of proud of how it turned out-- we made it work!
• We now have all the ABSOLUTELY necessary baby things-- car seats, bassinet/crib, clothes, diapers, and food source (me). We need to get more diapers and more odds & ends, but if heaven forbid, X were to arrive tomorrow, the amt of scrambling we'd have to do is pretty minimal. We've even started packing our hospital bag! (Ok, full disclosure-- it has 2 pairs of loose, old sweat pants for me and 4 going home from the hospital outfits for X. But it's a start!)
• We're signed up for childbirth classes, a hospital tour, and a car seat safety class. Kenneth took a class called "Conscious Fathering" last night. On a related note-- Kenneth has been great during this pregnancy. He lets me whine when my back aches or when I was feeling nauseous, brought me breakfast in bed most days during my 1st trimester, and he's been there for every doctor visit I've asked him to go to. Pregnancy isn't easy, even with an amazing partner, so I have a new appreciation for the women who don't have the support of their partner during their pregnancies. 
• Nothing is official yet, but we think X's baptism will be Thanksgiving weekend so we can sneak it in just under the wire, before Advent starts. (A lot of Catholic churches won't do baptisms during Advent). But we still need to decide on X's godparents and whether he'll be baptized at the church where we got married, at Kenneth's family's church, or somewhere else entirely. 

5. We've got an exciting month ahead of us-- a trip to the beach! a trip to CA for my dad's 50th birthday! Kenneth turns 30! A visit from my stepsister! Great-great-aunt-Grace turns 99! Not the best picture of her, but she really does make 98/99 look good.