Scarlett Joan Goulding has arrived!

Scarlett actually arrived last Tuesday, March 23rd at 4:33am, but I've been a little busy since then. It feels funny to type her full name, since we're calling her Scout and it seems to fit her perfectly. She is a little replica of Rob, so another nickname is Roblett. She is thus far a champion among babies--a good eater, a sound sleeper, and a very sweet observer of everything that goes on around her.

The labor was intense, and I won't get into details here, lest I frighten anyone. Suffice it to say it was all well worth it, and we stuck to our birth plan, with much help from our incredible doula, Angelika (below, holding Scout in her lady bug blanket.) The plan was to have the baby with no interventions (induction, pain medication, serious talk about rehab, etc), and oh my god it hurt worse than anything I have ever experienced in my life. I think Rob is probably still traumatized from watching me go through it, but he did an amazing job of helping to keep me calm and focused. And now we have our beautiful baby girl, and we are completely content just staring at her all day long.

These are the people in your neighborhood

Liz and Rob-Stan have officially moved to San Francisco! Liz left my apartment on Friday morning, taking with her all of her weird bags and baskets full of clothes (whatever happened to suitcases?) and I was immediately devastated. She moved HALF A MILE away, but I was still all sad that she's not going to be around to drink tea and read on the couch with me, or download about our days while I eat chocolate ice cream for dinner.

So, because I missed her so much, I made her come over yesterday to help with Ellie's baby shower. Liz did all the decorations, making little phallic blue balloon bouquets, since Ellie and Eric are having a boy. It was a lovely shower with lots of fun gifts, some that Ellie might actually steal from the baby.



On Saturday, I went to Liz and Rob-Stan's new apartment with Rob and my Aunt Carolyn, who came to town to make cupcakes for the baby shower (and also to take a week-long painting class in the city.) It was completely empty and we sat on the floor, chatting, until my stomach started eating itself and I announced that we had to leave for lunch right then or the baby was going to stick a little fist through my belly button and try to grab Rigby's dog treats.

When we came back, several hours later, the movers had arrived and left, and seriously, the place looked amazing. I'll post some pictures soon. This means that my sister and I are living in the same city for the first time in 14 years. Some people take it for granted that their family members will always be close by. But since I've made the decision to hopscotch all around the country, it's not something I've ever been able to count on. And with the baby coming, I am feeling extra grateful to have my sister around, someone who I can call when I need a babysitter or just have some balloons that need blowing up.

It's a Baby!

More specifically, it's a baby girl! We went to the hospital for our anatomy scan today, and because the baby is basically see-through, we got a look at her vertebrae, the inside of her brain, and her heart. The technician aimed the camera between the baby's legs and said "Can you tell what you're looking at?" I wanted to tell her that everything we had seen so far suggested I was carrying not a baby, but a plate of calamari. But I just shook my head and she told us it was a girl.

"Are you 100% sure?" Rob asked. It's not that he didn't want a girl, but neither of us wanted to leave until we knew that the hospital was sure of what they were telling us.

"I'm sure," she said. Another technician and a doctor backed her up, so yes, we're pretty sure. Girl baby! And she's really cute, except if you look directly at her face, in which case she looks like something out of a ghost story. Perfect for Halloween. My feeling is that once she has fattened up a bit and is no longer translucent, she'll be totally adorable.

It's like Christmas Eve

I'm seeing my doctor tomorrow. It is basically freakish how excited I now get by doctor's appointments. I love them like nothing else, and wish that I was going more often than once a month. I always feel like I'm visiting the baby. Today someone emailed to ask when my next appointment was and I wrote back:

Tomorrow! I can't wait!

I might as well have dotted the I's with hearts and drawn little unicorns all over the page. But you can't do that in email.

The best thing is that I actually have two appointments tomorrow: one with my doctor and one at the hospital to find out if the baby is a boy or a girl. Dear Middlesex, I hope it is not both.

Tomorrow is also my last day in the office, plus the movers are coming to get us packed. We like to keep it lively, people. And I would just like to announce that if the baby is a boy, you are all being recruited to help name him, because after several conversations about this (including the one where Rob very seriously suggested the name Achilles), I do not think we are qualified to name a boy.

Wedding Weekend in Pictures

My feeling is that when true love, pig roasts, and chair surfing are involved, there's really no need for words.

Happily Ever After

This weekend Rob and I were in Berkeley for the wedding of our dear friends Brooke and Krista. The ceremony was in their backyard and was lovely and very memorable--they were married by the community of 40 friends and family. Krista's mom read a poem by Oriah Mountain Dreamer, which you can see here. I think one of my favorite things about it was that her mom was really not very into Oriah's name, and told Krista that if she had to say who the poem was written by, she was going to say it was a poem by "Oriah M. Dreamer", presumably to make it sound less, um, insanely hippie-ish. But the poem and her reading were quite perfect. She did not say the author's name at all.

Krista and Brooke looked like tall, elegant princesses. [I'm sorry, but really, what kind of blog post would it be if I didn't insert my height insecurities?] I will post more pics as soon as possible, but for now, I just wanted to post a big congratulations to my beautiful friends. And I wanted you to see the cake, which was a lemon affair with fresh raspberries and blackberries.

A Whole Nother State

There are lots of things the jury duty official could have asked. He could have asked "Who here has served on a Grand Jury before?" or "Who here has been convicted of a crime?" or "Who here is having digestion issues and simply can't sit on these wooden benches for one minute longer?" I am guessing there are countless ways he could have shrunk the pool of potential jurors, and none of the aforementioned ones would have helped me out much. I've never been on a jury, or convicted of a crime (unless you count that one party in college when I was 20 years old and got hauled off to jail in a paddy wagon with 35 of my closest friends and acquaintances. But you don't count that.) Plus, I'd eaten bran cereal that morning and was feeling fine.

What the important guy in the suit did ask was this, "Is there anyone here who does not live in Manhattan? Please line up in the center of the room." I thought about this for approximately 3 seconds and then stood up. Rob, you see, has been transferred to work in the San Francisco office of [censored!]. And, because he is bringing me along with him, it would be very hard for me to serve on a 6-month case in New York. In fact, when I told the official my news, he even said "Wow. That's a whole nother state." Yes, it is.

Then I said to him, "Plus, I'm pregnant and would probably be having a baby before the case was over."

"Congratulations," he said, waving me away because I had obviously become an extremely unattractive prospective juror.

So there you have it. I'm pregnant (due in March) and moving to San Francisco in November (we're in the city today looking for places to live. This activity toggles between being exciting/fun and exhausting/a remarkably quick way to get in an argument.) In other good news, my company has been kind enough to allow me to transfer as well, and I will do my job out of whatever spectacular apartment we do eventually find. Which is good, because otherwise I would probably just lie down in the middle of the city, thinking about how much I love it, while my weight balloons out of control.

The other nice thing about having a baby is that it affords Rob the opportunity to fake punch me while we're getting ready for work in the morning, all because "the baby told me to do it." Rob and the baby already have a very special bond.

We'll miss New York a lot, but I am truly ready to move back to my favorite city in the world, made that much better by its proximity to wine country...which I will be enjoying again at some point in 2010.

Adventures in the Heartland

Rob and I are leaving town on Friday for 10 days. I'm told we travel a lot, and though I guess this is true, I always think of "travelers" as people who go to far-flung, exotic places. Like Vietnam, South Africa, Schenectady. Rob and I have been on more of a domestic tour: Denver for me, San Francisco for him, Los Angeles for me, Pittsburgh for him. Which brings me to another point: in addition to traveling a lot, we travel solo a lot.

But here we are, 2 days and counting until our next trip together to the enchanting land that is known to its inhabitants and fans as...The Midwest. I think I'd like to call it The Wild Midwest, just to give it that sense of allure and romance that one normally associates with times past. And by times past, I'm not referring to the night my friends and I had a party at my house, took Ecstasy, and then drove all my little sister's friends home before heading to the beach. Just kidding. We did not go to the beach.

I love where I grew up. That doesn't mean I'm clamoring to move back there anytime soon, but there's just something so refreshing and NORMAL about that place. I guess I have to say that since I was formed there and everything. But I think it's no mistake that many of my best friends to this day are people I met growing up. Anyway, whether or not I'm biased, if you haven't been to Oak Park, Illinois, I recommend a visit. Famous for Frank Lloyd Wright, Ernest Hemingway, Kathy Griffin, and several top Deepish Thought commenters. Stop by my grandpa's house--he'll make you a brandy Manhattan.

Our upcoming trip actually starts in Indiana, at the home of Rob's brother John, where we will barbecue, hot tub, and heckle John's pet swans Frederick and Jewell. We then head to Oak Park for about a day and a half, and then up to Wisconsin to a house my grandparents bought many years ago with one of my uncles. The house is on Lake Archibald...Archibald would be a good name for a kid. Or an eagle...I digress. The lake is the center of all activity. We will either be lying on the pier, me looking at all of my brown relatives and trying to figure out how I ended up with the legs of Casper the Friendly Ghost, or on the pontoon boat with cocktails and cheese crackers--because we are elegant. Or maybe we'll be making s'mores at the bonfire, or making loon calls from a canoe.

All I know is that I could not be more excited about this trip. I will always love exploring new places, but sometimes it's really fun to just go home.

Accomplishments

Congratulations to Natascha, who found out yesterday that she passed the Bar exam in Colorado! I wish I could have heard the conversation when the woman from the Colorado Supreme Court called to give her the news and Natascha just kept asking “Are you sure?” Yay, Tash!

Kudos to Rob C (of Liz and Rob fame) who quit his job to follow his dream of tormenting my sister by sleeping in while she goes to work.
Just kidding, he quit left his job to start his own business and be the master of his domain. More to come on this.

And welcome to Jordan Tristan (“JT”) Riley, born Monday 6/1 to my dear friend Krista. I’m going to visit them today, so I will post a photo next week. I’ve seen a few already: the kid is a looker.

In terms of personal accomplishments, all I really have to share is that I walked to work in flip flops today and I have finally gotten all of the slime off my feet. Anytime this nasty weather wants to take a break would be fine with me.

Putting the Move on

Something fabulous: the day after the "Moving Rules" showed up in the elevator, the following note was placed over them:

I am sick of reading lists of rules in the elevator of my own home.

I am sick of reading lists of rules in the elevator of my own home.

I am sick of reading lists of rules in the elevator of my own home.

I am sick of reading lists of rules in the elevator of my own home.

It went on like that. And there was one in each elevator.

"Did you do this?" I asked Rob. He said no.

We eventually did get our furniture delivered, though it did not happen on a Saturday. So we are now getting accustomed to our new dining table, desk, bookshelf, and sliding sofa. What this means is that we have massively increased our living space; for the past 3 years, one of our rooms has just housed a large guest bed and a larger amount of cat hair. I liked to close the door and pretend it wasn't there at all, which is--I know--not the right way to treat an extra room.

The furniture thrills me, with its utility and its shininess. Tonight, I made dinner. When it was ready, I walked to the new dining table, removed the placemats and set them on the coffeetable.

"Uh...don't you want to eat at that table?" Rob asked, indicating the dining table. Where dining happens. Turns out it's not just a receptacle for the placemats.



We ate dinner with the TV on, even though we couldn't see it. We have to ease into this whole grown-up dinner thing.

Afterwards, Rob asked, "Want to watch Transformer 3?"

"I wouldn't do that if you paid me," I answered honestly.

He rolled his eyes and asked what I wanted to watch.

"I would watch Milk," I said slowly (I can't believe we haven't seen it yet.) "OR! You could watch Transformer 3 and I could read in...the other room."

A hushed silence fell as I considered the possibilities and Rob watched me.

I got up from my seat and hugged him. "Aren't you so excited?"

"To have a place to put you?" he asked. "Yes."

2008: The year of the baby

Here is a list of the babies we welcomed into our lives in 2008. Congratulations to all of our wonderful friends on the making of these cuties!

Grace


Tommy


Timmy


Roan


Chloe


Naya (twin Ketan not pictured, but very cute! These two were born on Dec 30.)


Gabrielle


Lily



Not pictured:
Nicholas
Zorion
Liana
John
Allie

I asked Rob which was his favorite baby (parents of these babies, I was just kidding when I asked this. No one has a favorite baby. Except all of you.)

He responded, "I'm not into favorites. I'm more of a merit-based person. I want to see what they've all done in a year."

Molto bene

We leave today for Italy: Venice, Florence, Siena, Positano, Rome.

It's unlikely that I'll blog for a while, but I will collect lots of stories while Rob and I are traveling. I'm guessing a few will be worth sharing.

Welcome Grace Emily!

I'm fairly sure this is not my news to report, but I can't help it. GRACE EMILY was born today to my amazing friends Amanda and Dan. Grace is 7 lbs 10 oz and, though I have not seen her picture yet,* I am sure she's gorgeous. Dan says she "seems long."

I got the phone call as I was walking into an eyebrow waxing appointment at Bliss. Dan literally called as I was supposed to be checking in, so when I got off the phone with him, I went through the salon doors and yelled "I'm sorry I'm late! My best friend just had a baby!" And, I am not even kidding, the woman behind the desk did not crack a smile. She just handed me a sheet of paper and said, "Go back that way, take a left and wait." I could immediately tell that her heart had somehow been replaced with kidney stones, but even she could not ruin the glow of knowing there is a beautiful healthy baby in Chicago, with her beautiful healthy parents and I get to meet her next weekend!

*Post obviously updated to include pic. Gorgeousness proven.