Friday, August 22, 2008

Time for the Baby Pool!

My friend Chris's lovely fiance, Marilyn, told me about this website where you can actually set up a baby pool. What is a baby pool you ask? It is where you can enter a guess on the date and time the baby will arrive, how much he weigh, his length and his gender (which has already been discovered). You can enter your guess at http://www.expectnet.com/games/colelindqvist or click on the link to the left. We are inviting everyone to participate and wish you all good luck!

PS: if anyone says that I have to give birth to a 10 lb baby, you will be disowned as our friend/family member, so keep that in mind....

And then there was one...

After last weekend, John officially has only one more baseball stadium left to visit! He went to see the Atlanta Braves and the Florida Marlins, finally knocking them off of his list. He had previously been informed that all baseball trips must cease within one month of the baby's due date. He was hoping to get the last stadium in before then, but we are not 100% sure that will happen, so Shea Stadium may have to wait until next year and by then, they will have a new stadium anyways. But since the Cubbies are having such a great year, that baseball money may be better spent this year going to see them play in the playoffs or (keep your fingers crossed), the World Series!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

50 days and counting...

As of today, we have 50 days until our official due date. Of course, Cole could make his debut either earlier or later, but either way, that isn't much time! The major issue is that the room isn't even close to being done. The new carpet was put in a few weeks ago and looks fantastic, but that's about it. The room still needs to be painted (although, I graciously helped out John by placing the blue painters tape everywhere that I could reach without needing to climb on a chair or ladder), the crib needs to be put together and moved into the room along with the dresser and all of our miscellaneous baby "stuff" needs to find a home that is not on top of our pool table. John has assured me that the painting and furniture will be done by Labor day weekend. We will see....

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Our first baby class

John had to take quite the hit to his manhood this week, when I forced him to go to a baby class with me. Mind you, this was not any baby class; this was called "The Art of Breastfeeding." John was at first mildly agreeable to going when I first asked and then he found out that it was 3 hours long. He officially blames our friend Dave for his whole miserable time. Dave's wife, Kristy had previously attended this very same class last year and recommended it to me. Dave did not attend, but actually told me on more than one occassion that he wished that he had, so that's why I made John go. And quite honestly, it was his fault because I wouldn't even have thought of taking John if he hadn't suggested it. Sorry Dave!!!

I had promised John that if he was the only man there that he could leave; unfortunately of the 8 of us that attended, 4 of us brought our husbands. We saw the first one in the parking lot and John actually said something along the lines of how he was going to need to "kick this guy's ass" so he could go home. As we got into the building, we realized this husband had even brought a notebook along, which John proclaimed "totally ridiculous." Obviously, John wasn't planning on paying much attention, let alone taking any notes. However, I was glad that John went with me, even though he remained grouchy for most of the evening. At one point, the teacher made us watch a 20 minute video on breastfeeding, so I tried to make light of the situation and joked to John that "if nothing else, he at least gets to see boobs on tv". Unfortunately, he did not think that was funny. Later on, the teacher made us work with these hideous, plastic baby dolls. John had volunteered to pick ours out of the bin at the beginning of class while I was picking up the hand-outs. For some reason, he comes to our seats with an unusually large, black baby. I could not stop laughing during the "practice" portion because I had a really hard time imagining that this was our baby!

Next weekend, we have our first of two Chidbirth preparation classes, so we will see how that goes. Those are 4 hours long, so hopefully John can handle it!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

"The Hawk" comes to Phoenix





Yesterday, John and I drove into Central Phoenix to go see "The Hawk" himself, Andre Dawson. John had gotten a Cubs jersey for him to sign off of Ebay. Although the seller said that it is an "authentic" jersey, John and I refer to it as the Taiwan special, because something about it doesn't look quite right.


Even though the man has been retired from baseball for over 10 years, he is still a huge dude in person. John was thrilled to meet him and told me later all about how he used to race home from school back in 1987 (when all the Cubs games were still day games) so that he could watch Andre Dawson play. My job was to take a picture of him signing the jersey and also one of him shaking John's hand. Unfortunately, John lifted up the jersey at the same time he was shaking his hand, so the camera didn't really capture it. John is planning on having the jersey framed and it will be added to what has quickly become the sports memoriabilia room in our house.

Sturgis Bike Week



John got back late on Friday night from his week long trip to Sturgis, SD for bike week. He went with his friends, Shane and Evan. They met up with John's Uncle Greg and a few of his buddies from Illinois. Because it is quite a ride from AZ to Sturgis, they drove up in Evan's SUV and towed their bikes in a trailer. They stayed with John's cousin James for one night in Cheyenne before heading on to Sturgis on Sunday. They stayed in Deadwood, which was about 10-15 miles from Sturgis.

It sounds like they had a great time. They rode every day and saw a ton of stuff including Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil's Tower, a petrified forest, some wild buffalo, and the towns of Deadwood and Sturgis. Check out the pictures here.
They were there until Thursday when they headed out to the Denver area, where they stayed overnight at Brian and Ashley's house. The next morning, they started the long drive back to Phoenix, finally getting home after 1am early Saturday morning. It was a long trip with a ton of driving, but John is already talking about going back again in a few years. I had previously been assured that this was a "once in a lifetime trip", clearly I was misled, but I think I might get to go next time.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Who comes up with this crap?

I found this website called http://www.dumblaws.com/. These have the most hilarious and supposedly real laws actually found on the books. Here is a sample for you.

In Arizona:
  • Hunting camels is prohibited - really??? Who know this could even be an issue? As though there are so many camels roaming free in the state of Arizona...
  • Donkeys cannot sleep in bathtubs - well, now where are we supposed to put that new donkey we bought at the mall?
  • It is unlawful to refuse a person a glass of water - this one I have actually heard of; I assume this is to prevent someone from dying of heat stroke when it is one of our beautiful 114 degree days here. While it is an odd law, it does actually make sense
  • When being attacked by a criminal or burglar, you may only protect yourself with the same weapon that the other person posseses - I guess we are out of luck when a burglar comes into our house with a slingshot; all we have our kitchen knives and John's guns
  • It is illegal to manufacture imitation cocaine - I was unaware the manufacturing real cocaine was ok...

In Illinois:

  • In Champaign, one may not pee in another's mouth. Gross! I feel bad for the person who was the victim of this act, for which this law was created.
  • In Chicago it is illegal to fish while sitting on a giraffe's neck. - Again, where are the giraffes in Chicago? I guess maybe at the zoo, but who fishes at the zoo?
  • It is actually legal in Chicago to protest naked in front of city hall, but only if you are under the age of seventeen and have legal permits.

Thank goodness we have excellent law enforcement officers like John to protect us from the hooligans that would dare to let a donkey sleep in a bathtub or fish while sitting on a giraffe's neck...

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Bachelorette Party, Baby Shower and Man Shower...






During the last weekend in July, John and I traveled back to Chicago. I went for a two-fold reason: one for my friend Martinique's bachelorette party and also for my baby shower with family and friends.


The bachelorette party was great fun! Martinique got all types of scandalous gifts, which were hilarious. We started off the night at Lou Malnati's for pizza, then moved to a bar in downtown Naperville. We were lucky enough to have a reserved table and we had a great time. Martinique made friends with some weird stuffed crow and he became the life the party. Unfortunately, I was only able to stay out until 12:30 before I had to call it a night, but from what I understand the party continued into the wee hours of the morning.


The next day was my baby shower. It was so nice to see family and friends that I haven't gotten to see in a while. I saw two of my friends, Chrissy and Danielle for the first time in almost two years since Chrissy's wedding! It's amazing how the time flies. We had a lot of fun at the shower and Baby Cole got a lot of great stuff. He got a ton of clothes, so I am sure that he will not be naked for at least the first six months of his life! He got several Cubbie related items, including a "Cubs 101" book, a pacifier and a few outfits, so he is all set for spring training next year and (keep your fingers crossed) the World Series this year. Even though John did not attend the shower ("Guys don't go to showers"), he did send me a gift, which was a beautiful Coach diaper bag. Just because I am going to be a mother, doesn't mean I can't be stylish!


Even though he didn't come to my shower, John did hold a "Man Shower" of his own. This obviously consisted of a Cubs game, beer and his rowdy gaggle of friends. From what I understand, they had a great time, with many beers consumed and some inappropriate remarks shouted.


This last Friday, John and his friends Evan and Shane left for Sturgis, SD for bike week. They will be returning next Friday, 8/8. Stay tuned for pictures from that adventure!