Third trimester!!!

To celebrate reaching the third trimester, and say goodbye to Alex for yet another Australia trip, we had dinner at a fabulouse place, Restaurant Eve in Alexandria. (Thanks again, Adam, Katie and James for the gift certificate!!). Yum! Here's Lorraine after dinner:

House pics, Part 1

Well, it's been 2 months since we've moved in, and we've slowly been making progress on getting the house in order. Here's the first batch of pictures (the rest of the rooms are still "under construction"):

The basement, aka Alex's man cave (for the time being - Cookie will likely have other plans for the space!)


The living room (aka Roxy's room - she's on the couch looking out the front window)

The dining room (with French doors out to the backyard)

The kitchen (with our newly installed island taking center stage)

The backyard (complete with playground, patio, and now, a firepit!)


Look for the second batch of house pictures, coming next month!

Shopping for Baby!

Once we got back home, it was time to start shopping for Cookie Monster. After all, we have a room for him, but not much else!



Our first stop was Great Beginnings, the country's largest baby and teen store up in Gaithersburg, MD. It was overwhelming! Fortunately, the staff there were excellent, and helped us with lots of our choices. We ordered our crib (a Pali, which is not involved in the recent crib recall), a dresser/changing table, and a bookcase. It should arrive sometime in November. Here's a picture of the crib (we ordered it in Pecan):


We also decided to go with a down under theme, in honor of Alex's recent visits to Australia. Fortunately, CoCaLo decided to put out a Fall 2007 bedding line just in time for us! Unfortunately, we haven't even seen this in person - only through pictures. Here's the set:

It features koalas, kangaroos, crocodiles, and a dodo bird (we think!).

From there, we created registries at Babies R Us and BuyBuyBaby. Let me tell you, creating a wedding registry is NOTHING compared to a baby registry. After all, this is the well-being of your own child here!! In any event, we picked what we thought would be best for us and Cookie. Only time will tell!

24 weeks!!

Apparently, at 24 weeks, the baby is at the point of viability (able to live outside of the womb). Crazy, huh? Anyway, here's Lorraine at 24 weeks:

She's still feeling well, with just a bit of swelling from all of the heat here in DC. Needless to say, she's very much looking forward to cooler fall weather!

Babymoon in San Francisco

Alex was out in San Francisco for a week on business, and decided that Lorraine should join him for some R&R. So he flew her out FIRST CLASS with some of his many FF miles - it was great! While there, we took in a baseball game, did some shopping, visited with Aunt Judy at the Winchester Mystery House, met up with former co-worker Aileen, ate some great food, and had a fun time.

Here are some pics of us at the Giants game:

A view from our club seats at AT&T park - not bad, huh?

Look at the happy couple!!
That's Barry Bonds, hitting home run #761!
Cookie Monster enjoying his first baseball game!

Yum - cotton candy!!!
Lorraine getting ready to savor her favorite meal at Michael Mina's - lobster pot pie!!!

After our very filling meal at Michael Mina's, in the lobby of the Westin St. Francis.

Next stop - baby shopping!!

G'Day, Mate!

After our Vermont trip, Alex was off to Australia for almost 2 weeks for business. He spent a week in Sydney, and then a few days in Melbourne.

Here were some of the highlights from his trip (in picture form):

Alex's approach to the Sydney Harbor bridge. He actually climbed the outside of the bridge!!!

The Sydney Harbor bridge - you walk along the left arch of the bridge (yes, harnessed in and with a guide).

Alex's view from the top - pretty incredible, huh?

Alex posing on the Sydney Harbor bridge with the Opera House in the background.

Alex and his new koala friend at the zoo!

Yep, there were kangaroos at the zoo!

And a fast-moving Tasmanian devil too!

The view of the Sydney skyline (with the Opera House and a part of the Bridge) from the zoo.

Finally, Alex got to take in his first AFL game in style. Go Geelong!!!

Our next stop (together)...San Francisco!!

Halfway there!

Last weekend we were in Vermont for cousin Dan's wedding to Erica. It was absolutely beautiful, as was the bride. While there, Lorraine hit 20 weeks, the halfway point in her pregnancy. Here are two pictures from that weekend (thanks again to Lara for the dress for the wedding!):