But Isn't Cross Dressing Against Church Policy?

Last Saturday Cadance starred in the nativity. When Steve told me that we has been asked to play Mary, Joseph and Jesus I replied, "But she's a girl." Apparently this doesn't matter at two months. People said having a real baby added to the presentation a lot. And, Cadance was an excellent babe in Bethlehem. We wrapped her up in some brown cloth and she hardly made a sound. She did look slightly confused, but that's okay.

Our ward Christmas event was a lot of fun. The cultural hall was decorated like Bethlehem and everyone wore period attire. They had games for the kids and a member of our ward wrote people's names in Greek, Hebrew or Latin. It was pretty awesome. Here is a picture of us


And of me with my fake baby

2 Month Update

Cadance is almost 2 months old. She has her doctor's appointment yesterday and here are her stats. 23 " long, 11 lbs 4 1/2 oz. She's in the 75th percentile. She is still doing really well. She's been moving well and holding her head up more. Currently, she's on her stomach and not particularly happy about it, but she keeps farting, which I find amusing, so there she will stay for a few more minutes. Plus, once she gets all her gas out I figure she'll be happier :)

So here is a picture of her



I was also going to post a video, but seem to have encountered some technical difficulties. Sorry.

The Faces of Cadance

One of the best things about babies if their faces. It changes so rapidly that capturing their expressions can be hard work, or really lucky. Here are some faces we've captured of Cadance

This is her normal look. About 95% of the pictures we take look something like this:




This is her Happy face:


This is her tired face:

And her sleeping face:



We call this one evil eyes:




And this one "So now what do I do with it"



And last but not least, this is her "I'm so humiliated" face:


Cadance is doing really well. We've had 3 babies born in our ward in the last week, so comparatively Cadance looks huge. She is moving her head around really well and gaining a lot of strength in her neck. And, as the picture would indicate, she has discovered her tongue, but isn't quite sure what to do with it yet.

Steve and I had a great Thanksgiving break. He is working in his last rotation of the semester and is excited to have 2 weeks to relax. I am loving spending time with Cadance and am figuring out the whole mom thing. Speaking of, does anyone have any suggestions on getting groceries from the car to apartment with a baby. What I've come up with so far is carrying her inside and then locking the door, getting some bags and taking them inside, locking the door again, etc. until I'm done. But, maybe there is a better way.

My Favorite Part of the Day

Cadance currently loves to lay on a blanket and look around. She's becoming more aware of the world. I love watching her.

The Famous Ladybug Costume

In mid march Steve and I told our families that we were expecting a baby. As expected both sets of parents and siblings were thrilled at the news. Unexpectedly, a few weeks later my wonderful mother-in-law informed me that she had purchased the cutest ladybug outfit for our daughter to wear for Halloween. This was funny for two reasons: she purchased said outfit 6 months in advance and we didn't know the gender of the baby. So, the costume was ours if a girl and not if a boy. We did have a girl and so this year she wore the much anticipated ladybug costume. We took her to the ward Halloween party and she was a big success.

A Fatty Baby

Cadance had her 2 week doctor's appointment today. She gained a lot more weight than I had anticipated, but it's between the 50th and 75th percentile, so she's normal. But, she's definitely eating well and gaining weight. I have a feeling we're going to have a fatty baby on our hands.

Here are her stats:
8lb 8oz
21 1/4 in

And some pictures from today

Reality

So here we are 10 days into parenthood and Steve wanted to make sure I recorded this piece of reality. I naturally wanted to share it


We took some pictures as a family when she was a week old. This is one of them

One of her favorite things is the bouncer seat. We refer to it as her frog

Our Story

Monday morning the 11th I started having contractions. Never being in labor before, I didn't know how intense they were or how imminent delivery would be so I tried to go about my day as normal. I visited a friend and ran some errands. I went for a walk and cut out coupons. Steve came home from his shift at 1pm. He was excited that contractions were happening, but at that point they still weren't that intense or regular. We went for a walk and then we took a nap. It was at this point, about 2pm, that I noticed a consistency in the contractions, but I still really had no idea how long I would be in labor, so I suppose I still tried to distract myself. I went for another walk and read the comics from the Sunday paper. When Steven woke up from his nap we decided to watch a movie. He went out to rent one, but my the time he came home I didn't think I could any more. I took a bath instead and Steve started timing my contractions. From what we knew they weren't what we needed to go to the hospital so we continued to hang out. "Hang" I suppose is kind of a loose term, my contractions were about 4 minutes apart and 40 seconds long. I purchased a labor ball early in the pregnancy and found leaning over it relieved some pain. Steve sat behind me and massaged my hips. At about 6:45 my water broke. It was kind of explosive, like a gush, almost like a water balloon popping. This was a shock to both of us, but Steve started to pack up and I cleaned off as well I could and we headed for the hospital. Knowing as little as I do, I didn't know how far along I was. I still thought I had hours left of labor and didn't know how I could do much more. We got to the hospital about 7:30 and the nursed checked me about 7:45. Again, to our surprise I was completely dilated and ready to push the baby out. They rush me to labor and delivery and after about 30 minutes of pushing out came our beautiful daughter.

Since then, she has done extremely well. She passed her first doctor's visit. She's been eating well and sleeping well, almost too well at some points. She is a joy to be around.

Tortilla Incident 2010 aka I would really like to not be pregnant anymore

Friday was my due date. It was a fine day. Actually, I was very excited about the fact that it was my due date and for the first time was particularly pleased with people asking when I was due. "Today," is a great answer and people get really excited when you say it.

I kept myself busy during the day by running errands and decorating for Halloween. I watched a movie and went walking. Then, the late afternoon came and I decided it was time to start dinner. Chicken tacos was on the menu. I started the chicken poaching, grated some cheese, chopped up lettuce and tomatoes and then pulled out the package of corn tortillas.

My thought was to go more on the tostada side, so I lined them up on a baking sheet, brushed them with some vegetable oil and put them in the oven. They cooked, but never really got crunchy so I flipped the oven to broil, took the chicken from the poaching liquid to cool and then sat down at the kitchen table and looked through a stores ad.

It's amazing how quickly you can lose track of the time. Also, it's amazing how quickly corn tortillas go from yellow to black. I don't know how long I sat at the table, but I realized it was for too long and when I jumped up and looked at the oven smoke was literally pouring out of any available crack.

The sheet of "tortillas" was placed outside, the vent was turned on, the screen door was opened, living room fan turned on, and all other doors in the house were closed to hopefully channel all smoke out. I would like to say that the smoke cleared in a few minutes and all has returned to normal, but when Steve arrived home I was sitting out by our parking spot to avoid smoke. When he asked what I was doing I responded, "I was thinking today would be a great day to go out to dinner." When we returned two and a half hours later the smoke was cleared but our house smelled like two chain smokers lived inside.

This morning the smell was slightly for the better but not gone. After cleaning the oven tonight I have a feeling that this week will involve lots of febreeze, couch and carpet cleaning. If I go into labor sooner rather than later I can only hope my daughter is a fan of the fire pit at the beach smell.

39 Weeks and Counting

So here I am at 39 weeks.



All is still well in the pregnancy world. I am now officially unemployed as of Friday at 5pm and am officially a full time homemaker. All I need is a baby to make it complete.

We've started the count down to her arrival

So far Cindy, Gabrielle and Kylee all went on the early side. And, although I appreciate it, I had a lot of errands to run today and going into labor would have been kind of on the inconvenient side :) But, there is still plenty of time for her to be early, although Steve and I don't think she will be. She seems to be quite comfortable where she is at the moment. I think we have a week and Steve thinks it's more like two. I kind of hope he's wrong.

The weather decided to finally cool off a bit, which is more than welcome and makes it feel more like Autumn. To celebrate the beginning of the season we bought a pumpkin last Friday and I roasted a chicken for dinner last night. Happy Autumn!

Guess the Birthday!

So, Steve and I are putting together a poll to guess when our daughter will be born. Just add a comment and the winner will get the satisfaction of being the best guesser.

Her official due date is Oct. 8th. Some other information in case it might sway you: yesterday I had a 36 week check up and my doctor said she looked like she was at 37 weeks 4 days and I was 36 weeks 3 days. So, for whatever that's worth.

Happy guessing!

Nesting Part 1

So when you get to the last few weeks of pregnancy you start to get this question a lot, "So do you have everything ready for the baby?" Mostly, I don't really know what they're talking about because you can't really be ready to bring another human being into this world, as much as we like to try. But, I understand where they're going with the question. They want to know if the "nursery" is done. My answer is no. Up until this weekend our "nursery" was yet to be purchased or was in the gift packaging it was given to me in. I wish I had a picture of the before.

My family came up from San Antonio to help with baby stuff. When my dad saw the area we planned on putting baby stuff he said, "you plan on fitting a baby in here?" Yes, and now it looks like we can.

This is how things look now


We purchased the changing table that in the corner from a consignment sale. We also purchased a ton of other stuff from the same said sale, including a pak 'n play that's not in the picture. We have her clothes organized into baskets and we bought 2 large boxes of diapers. So, now if I go into labor there will be a place for her to sleep and a place to change her diaper and I will be able to clothe her without rummaging through boxes.

Thank you mom, dad, Bradley and Peter for helping me start to nest.

What do You do at 32 Weeks

Thank you Gary and Cindy for the wonderful time at the lake!

A Picture of Me Looking Fat

This post is brought to you today my Christopher Cunningham. I made Steve take this picture just so that he could see me in the pregnancy state. Enjoy!

Finished Product Week 2

This week started off fabulous and then 8 o'clock came around and I was only half done so only one dish got completed this week and my cake is sitting in the freezer waiting for week three.

But, blueberry bread pudding just happens to be fabulous, especially served with creme anglaise.

Finished Product Week 1

My pastry class is coming to a close, and with that comes finished product weeks. What this means is that for 3 weeks each student plans what they will be completing and presenting each week. We have certain requirements we need to fill, but besides that we can do whatever we want.

For week one I baked a mushroom brie encroute with fried beet chips.


The dish was okay, although there were some definite technique errors on my part, like rolling out the dough too thick and not sealing it well enough.

But, my second dish turned out much better. It's a strawberry pistachio ice-cream napoleon



I didn't really have enough time to let the ice-cream freeze enough so it was slightly runny, but the flavor was amazing. I highly recommend adding salted pistachios to any strawberry ice-cream.

The class was a ton of fun. Up next, bread pudding and cake!

Trip to Austin

Steve and I spent July 4th weekend in Austin, TX. We figured we had no idea what his rotation schedule would look like, so if we wanted a vacation we needed to take it before he started. It was definitely nice to get away.
I don't have a lot of pictures because we spent a large time hanging out in the hotel watching movies and swimming. Oh, and don't forget sleeping in. That was fabulous.
Here are some high lights
This is me in front of Walton's Fancy and Staple. I wanted to go to this bakery and cafe particularly because one of my favorite pastry chefs, Gesine Bulluck-Prado, worked with the pastry chef to get things started. Seeing that I can't afford to actually order her stuff, I figured this was the closest I'll get.


Austin is home to the largest urban bat colony in the United States. Each night up to 750,000 bats emerge from the Congress Ave bridge to hunt for bugs. Because a hurricane came in not that many came out, but was still cool to see the ones that did. This is us with the bridge in the background


I also really wanted to see the state capitol. This is a picture of the door hinges.



This Steve from the back of the capitol


And, this is the rotunda.


We had a splendid time.

Changes

It's amazing how many things can change in just a couple of weeks. Let me tell you about them.

1. Steve completed his board exams and started his third year of medical school. We haven't received his scores yet, but anticipate them any day. His 3rd and 4th years will be rotations in hospitals. He's starting with pediatrics. So far he loves it.

2. We moved. This was quite the adventure because Steve was in the middle of studying and then scout camp. We literally moved less them 12 hours after he arrived home from scout camp. I'm grateful to have moved while only 24 weeks pregnant. I was at least capable of packing the boxes. But, being busy myself, I stayed up until 1:30 packing the night before. Waiting for Steve was good motivation though. Luckily, we have an amazing ward and the move took less than 3 hours.

Here are some pictures of our new apartment. As you can tell we still have some work to do to move in.
Some things we like about our new apartment: central air conditioning, carpet, dishwasher, garbage disposal, pantry, exhaust fans in the bathroom, and no cracks in the walls.

3. We bought a car. Sorry, I don't have a picture, but the word people use to describe it is "cute." It's a 2009 Hyundai Accent in Maroon. We like it. I love it.

4. I now look pregnant. Not "oh yeah, you're kind of starting to show," but pregnant. I think this is the best picture I have. When we asked the guy to take it he made some comment about "the three of us." It took a minute to click, but then I smiled. Yes, the three of us.

The Stuff in our Lives

So I promise we've been busy, which is why I haven't posted in so long. But, nothing we've been doing is all that interesting. But, here is goes

1. Steve finished his second year of medical school.
2. He worked in the Betty Ford Center in California for a week
3. Since he's been home he's studied 12-16 hours a day for his board examinations. He takes his first one tomorrow! and the second on the 16th.
4. I started my second class at the Culinary School of Fort Worth, Pastry Pro 1
5. We decided and found an apartment to move into. We are in the middle of packing and preparing to move.
6. I have been building a baby inside of me
7. I surprised my mom by driving down to San Antonio for Mother's Day
8. I'm still working full time and getting prematurely excited for my last day, Oct 1st.
9. My family came and spent Memorial Day weekend in Fort Worth
10. Nothing else really of note

Introducing

Introducing baby girl Ellsworth

Due October 8th, 2010


So far things seem to be going well. She's about 14 oz. No names as of yet, although my family has come up with their fair share.