Weekend Roundup: with funny pictures!

First up: the rough draft of the Fairy Queen costumes!

Charming girls-- I can't wait to see them on stage this Friday. I'm rather looking forward to kicking back in the audience and just enjoying the show.

Shots of the German Scientific Dancerific Baby Shower where people kept asking me when we were going to wash the baby. The concept may still be somewhat of a mystery to some people.

Beate is the brainchild behind this adorable baby clothes wash-line.

Natalia (the fearless organizer), Alice, and me. Some of the bellies are not real.

Unless science has advanced farther than I realized.

On Sunday, we had our first BBQ of the season. The background almost does justice to the vast amounts of people in the People's Park (you know, the Volk). We live so close to the park now that the haze from all of the grills descends on our neighborhood every weekend. Take that, Icelandic volcano!

Uh-huh.

35 Weeks!

Jeremy is off being a fancy-pants at the top of the Netherlands, (the fabulous town of Groningen) giving a talk to the students and teaching them how to do some crazy techniques. I spent most of the day yesterday candy-making, cake-baking, costume-flower-gluing, doctor and hospital appointment-keeping, email-writing, and slowly realizing that I should, like, not forget that we are about to have a baby and need to do stuff like buy sterile cotton balls and sheets for the crib. Jeremy and I have bought NOTHING! If not for generous family and friends the baby would be NAKED! We would have to dress him in knit octopi and snails!
(We have plans to do a little baby shopping the first thing in May. Just a small imminent baby-arrival freak-out.)

The food portion of the day was in preparation for my first baby shower on Saturday, given by the lovely scientist Natalia. It's going to be in the lab! I just couldn't resist the urge to make a few delectables (hopefully) myself-- the kind of things that one hardly ever has a good reason to make in "real life": handmade chocolates and a cake that looks like baby blocks! The chocolates are coming along fabulously. Silicone molds! Yesterday was all about the chocolate-peanut butter hearts, and today I will attempt blueberry-chocolate hearts and the slightly scary frosting of the cake. It involves both buttercream and royal icing. And piping.

The doctor says that everything with the baby is fine, great, 10 points, even though I fail the stupid CTG/heartbeat test every time they do it. The techs at the office are very nice: dimming the lights, turning off the sound, encouraging me to breathe deeply, but something about that stupid machine makes me and the baby nervous. After 3 or 4 minutes, the heartbeat spikes and the machine makes a horrifying beeping noise which causes the tech to come in and we have to start all over again. They say that since my blood pressure and bloodwork are totally normal, that I shouldn't worry-- some babies just hate the machine. Jeez. Of course, I'm sure it is now a somewhat destructive loop, and no matter how much water I drink beforehand or how faithfully I imagine Jeremy and I holding hands in a sunny field or repeat a yoga mantra, I am just waiting in the back of my brain for the beeping.

And the BIG NEWS: my parents are coming in the middle of June!!

I also pre-registered at the hospital today. I can't believe we lucked out with such a beautiful hospital-- there is a courtyard garden all in bloom and the maternity ward features huge windows that look out over all of Cologne. You can see lots of gothic church spires!

Grounded!

I forgot to mention it on the blog before, but this weekend, I was supposed to head off to Oxford, England for my very last pre-baby nerd fest, also known as the conference about 18th c. choreographer Jean-Georges Noverre. Beate and I were going to hop on the super cheap Ryan Air flight to London and then live it up for 2 days of lectures and lots of English train riding (London is not close to Oxford, ugh). But as you may have heard, a volcano erupted.

Anyway, being stuck in Cologne is not so bad. It's sunny and almost sort of warm. We bought a hiking backpack for me at the flea market and ate a snack at the adorable Argentinian cafe across the street.

And speaking of travel, I think that we will actually plan on taking that little trip to Paris for Jeremy's conference together in July after all. If we book a sort of studio apartment instead of a regular hotel room, I think that would make it much easier. Plus, it's only 4 days, and I can forever afterwards tease the little guy about something wacky that is sure to happen while we are there (poop blow-out on the metro? Insatiable crying in Montmatre?).

OK, time to stop. My weirdly swollen hand is starting to go numb. Blech.

Here comes the snail!

I'm skeerd of snails.

Ode to a Fluff

All Hail Heidi Fluffernutter

killer of plants

stroller sitter

master of running sideways

soccer star in training

disruptor extraordinaire of carefully placed baby toy piles

licker of butter from the butter dish when you turn your back

New weirdness

So, it seems that I get the strange pregnancy symptoms that I never would have imagined---

Now, I have a bit of carpal tunnel syndrome from fluid retention in my wrists. Soooo, I have to cut back on my knitting. That's a shame because I was working on such an adorably cute garden snail! I'm sure that sleeping on my arm also doesn't help, but I find it so annoying that I can only sleep on my side that I can't control my sleep position any more than I already have.

Sidenote: I made my own pregnancy sleeping pillow by rolling up a duvet cover and tying it with ribbons. It does the trick!

I suppose I should now get off the computer.

I've been feeling more and more grotesque each day, which to me is something like this:



But where can I find one of those hats?

Baby Sweater #2- thanks to Karen

I finally finished the sweater using the delicious baby alpaca yarn that Karen gave me many moons ago. The color is perfect for spring-- I'm thinking that you-know-who will be wearing it in Nov./Dec., but that is a very good time to remember the joys of spring.

Mushroom Buttons!

I got the buttons at a crazy old-fashioned sewing supply store nearby. You know the kind, where the old guy working there is kind of joking around and kind of making fun of you all the time... They also have some cool buttons that look like old German coins, but I have to ask Beate before I buy them whether or not that would be a 'no-no'. Not all old-fashioned German things are, you know, ok to use.

Holiday note: I've been missing my friend's Rock-and-Roll Passover in Brooklyn. I made the charoses, and after the dinner we all sat around on the floor drinking Maneschewitz and reading from the Song of Songs. Sigh.

Around here, Jeremy and I made a lovely Easter dinner featuring Butter. Butter fried new potatoes! Asparagus!

And here is the other little creature that I've added to the collection:

The Nautiloid! Baby's first pre-historic sea creature.

His menagerie so far:

Save me from Myself

I must say that I am really surprised that when I say something mildly insane, like, "Jeremy and I are planning on going to Belgium and Paris with the baby at the beginning of July", people just smile and say, "ok". Instead of, "You are a crazy maniac! You have no idea what your body is going to be like 2-4 weeks after you push an entire baby out!" I appreciate people letting me come to my senses naturally, and after reading a few descriptions (really too gory to mention here, but some of the ladies know what I am talking about--- ohhh, yeah), we have decided not to be so insane. Jeremy will probably still go to Paris in July for a conference, and, if I am feeling great and the babby is doing well, we might join him for a day or so-- just so I can eat in my favorite restaurant and annoy all the French people with a little screaming monsieur.

Anyway---
I went to the doctor again yesterday and everything is still going pretty well. Le Petit weighs 3 1/2 lbs more or less, but he hasn't turned around yet-- his head is still up by my ribs. There is still plenty of time and room for him to flip on his own, but when I see my hebamme again, I'll ask her for some tricks.

I'm still working on the dances for The Fairy Queen for the music conservatory, and I have to say that I feel a little bit sorry for my dancers, having to learn baroque dance from me at this moment. It's fine, but I'm not (as you can imagine) at my top dancing form... What's really funny is that I speak German the whole time in rehearsal, and, while I am totally at ease now in regular German conversation, in such situations where I am "in charge", I still get a little flustered. Especially when I am trying to lead them through a relaxation excercise, and I forget the words for parts of the body and mispronounce the ones that I do remember. Well, teaching in English should be a total breeze after this!