I’m not sure what the future of this blog is. I started it to share my training for a marathon with my friends and family. I ran that marathon and posted about it over a year ago. I’m not running now since I am nearly 34 weeks pregnant. I do plan to start running again in the fall, but that is going to be a slow build up. I don’t know how I am going to fit running in with being a mom. The baby will be too small to put in a jogging stroller for the first 6 – 9 months. I would feel guilty spending time away from the baby running when the baby is awake. But I think I’ll need to run to keep my sanity.
With the birth of this baby comes a whole new world for Alan and me. In certain ways, we’ll both feel like single parents. I’ll work during the day and come to a nanny and baby, but no husband. Alan will take care of the baby during the day, leaving the baby with the nanny and heading to work in the evenings. Two nights a week and two mornings on the weekends all three of us will be together, but the majority of the time, we’ll be apart.
It could be nice to have this blog to share our experiences and to let other men and women out there that are married to cooks and chefs that it’s doable. But then again, maybe I don’t want to share that with “cyberspace”. Maybe I just want to share it with friends and family through phone calls and e-mails.
If I was a better writer, maybe I’d be more in to keeping up with this blog. But it is maddening. I have all these great posts I write in my head, but when it comes to actually putting it down, all my beautiful words, witticisms, and analogies just disappear and I am left writing a very boring, bland, and matter-of-fact post. What do I expect to get out of this blog? It certainly isn’t a book deal or other means of bringing in extra money (see prior sentences about not being a great writer). I don’t know what I expect, I don’t think I expect anything of it. Which begs the question – why do it?
I don’t know. We’ll see. As my due date approaches and life changes gears, perhaps I will come back and post more, but for now, more posts shouldn’t be expected.
There are a few new movies coming out that I really want to see, but I probably won’t see in the theater given their opening dates. BAH!
One of my favorite books is The Time Traveller’s Wife, and apparently it is being made into a movie which is coming out this summer. On August 14. One day after my “official” due date, and one day before my personal guess due date. By that time in August, I think the only driving I’ll be doing is to and from work; and since Alan works Friday nights, I don’t think I’ll be able to catch this while awaiting Cheeto’s arrival. My only hope is that it is a hit and stays in the theaters for more than a few weeks. But then will I really want to leave Cheeto with a babysitter when he/she is still so young? Hopefully, then, this movie will be released on DVD in time for Christmas so I can add it to my wish list.
Then there’s Julie and Julia. I just finished reading this a few weeks ago and am currently reading Julia Child’s biography, so I would really like to see this movie. It opens August 7, just six days before my “official” due date. Again, I won’t be driving around town taking myself to the movies by then (fearing that I have a contraction while driving and slamg on the gas and rear-ending someone), so unless Alan really wants to see this and there is a very early showing of it before he goes to work on Saturday or Sunday, it isn’t going to happen.
I will see these someday, just probably not this summer. I’m ready for the new release called CHEETO! 
We’re stopping by Alan’s restaurant tonight to pick up his paycheck and he’s making me go in the kitchen. I think he wants to show off my big belly since it has been a while since they’ve all seen it. I hate going into Alan’s kitchen at work. I don’t know why, but I do. did in Chicago and I do here. I love to meet everyone he works with and to get faces to go with the names I hear, but I feel like I am going to get in the way, I worry I may make someone screw up, and I simply feel like I don’t belong.
And now I want to go in the kitchen even less. I am not as agile as I used to be and don’t want to get in the way. This belly is weighing me down, and causing me to take up more room, so even if I squeeze up to the wall to try to get out of the way, the belly still sticks out. Plus the floors can be slick and I don’t have the proper shoes to not slip, so I will be hanging on to Alan for dear life.
Come to think of it, I don’t like to go into any professional kitchen. We’ve been given tours of the kitchen at Charlie Trotter’s and Citronelle, and there I was uncomfortable as well, for all the same reasons, primarily afraid I’ll get in the way. And I don’t know if the men and women that work in the kitchen hate having outsiders come through. I know I’m not a fan of large parties parading through my place of work (it doesn’t happen that often, but does happen from time to time). Granted, I’m not a large group, but you get the idea.
So, to any wives/significant others of cooks and chefs that may read this blog, how do you feel about going into the work kitchen? Like it or leave it?
Two months from today, Cheeto is set to make it’s debut on the world!
Well my dreams have been varied and interesting through out this pregnancy. Last night I had my first dream of giving birth to the baby. It was very surreal. It was only me, Alan, and the doctor, no nurses or anyone else. The baby was huge! It looked like a six-month old and could sit up by itself. The doctor offered for Alan to cut the umbilical cord, which he did, but not with great excitement.
Then later on in the dream (or perhaps it was earlier) I was at an antique store and found a jewelry box just like the one my mom has. I used to LOVE going through that jewelry box as a little girl, tyring on all the necklaces, bracelets, and even clip-on earrings. It is something I do want to get eventually, a neat jewelry box with all sorts of drawers and compartments to explore and store my treasures in. I have no real jewelry of monetary value, but I do have lots of fun necklaces and pendants that are currently just in a sad drawer. Heck, I’d have fun today going through my own jewelry box and finding favorite necklaces and bracelets once again.
After these dreams, I was awoken with a pretty sharp pain in my lower abdomen. Being that I am 31 weeks pregnant, I can’t help but start to get paranoid about going into labor early (come to think of it, I’ve been paranoid about that throughout this pregnancy, I bet all women are to some degree). So I laid there, the pain passed, and I waited. It never came back, so I don’t think it was a contraction. I don’t know what it was. Cheeto very likely kicked something or was laying on something, pinching a nerve.
Just nine weeks to go! I’m doing okay for now, I think my “freakout” time frame is when I am six weeks away from my due date. So, I have three more weeks to be laid back and relaxed. 
Babies are amazing. Well, not even babies. Fetuses. Here is this little thing, that is still in me, but can be loved so much. My sister-in-law threw me a beautiful shower this past weekend and I was overwhelmed with all the wonderful gifts and well wishes everyone brought. This baby isn’t even born, yet there are so many people who obviously already love it so much, and I’m not just talking about Alan and me.
Our home is starting to look like a home with an infant as the nursery is nearly complete, and there is now a basinette in the living room. Jerry (the cat) seems to think the hammock area under the basinette is for him to sleep in, when in actuality, I’m pretty sure the designer intended for that to be used to store diapers.
Riley and Jerry are very curious about all the stuff we brought into the house this weekend. We are letting them get lots of good sniffs in and really investigate it all. While Riley doesn’t have a clue how her world is going to be turned upside down in just a little over two months, I feel for poor Jerry. His previous owners had a baby and I think he may see some items and know what could be coming next. We’ll try to make the transition as easy on him as possible.
Alan and I are getting very excited to meet Cheeto and start our new life as parents and a nice, little family. I’m sure the next nine-and-a-half weeks are going to fly by, but it feels like they are crawling. Luckily I am still feeling good and just starting to slow down a little bit. This belly is getting big!
I predict I will have Cheeto on August 15. My due date is August 13, so it is very feasible. “Why do you think August 15, Erin?” you may ask. Well, for starters, I anticipate delivering a little past my due date since a large majority of women do for their first. But mores so, having just finished Julie and Julia, I am now reading Appetite for Life - A Biography on Julia Child where I just learned that she was born August 15. How cool would that be for Cheeto to share Julia Child’s birthday?
If Cheeto IS born on August 15, don’t get all cute and think that if it is a girl we’ll name her Julia. We already have our names picked out and as pretty as “Julia” is for a girl’s name, it’s not the one we picked.
Thursday will be 30 weeks pregnant for me and I am still feeling good! I am so excited that this pregnancy is going so smoothly. I have heard that energy levels can start to taper off during the third trimester, and while I am certain it will evenutally happen to me, it hasn’t happened yet.
I’ve been able to stay active which has been awesome. Yesterday evening Alan and I walked to the library (where I picked up Appetite for Life: A Biography on Julia Child). Riley is healing well and is out of her brace (she broke another toe about two months ago), so we are starting to build her strength and stamina back up. This morning Riley and I headed out before work and got in a nice 25 minute walk. Although it’s warm during the days here, the mornings are quite nice. In the evenings I stay active doing aerobics in my living room.
I’ve enjoyed all the activity and I think it is helping me sleep. I notice if I don’t workout or walk during the day, my legs are more prone to restlessness when I try to sleep at night. If I’m active, no problems at all. That is motivation enough to keep me moving until my body, or the doctor, yells stop.
Cheeto is really moving around these days and can put on quite a show. So far, that does not happen in the middle of the night, so I am sleeping well. The only reason I wake up in the middle of the night is to use the bathroom, and that only happens once an evening.
I don’t know how I have been so fortunate, but I am very grateful and, honestly, I am enjoying this pregnancy. Just over ten weeks to go. . . EEK!
