swimmingly well

Now I'm a happier camper because my husband arrived safe and sound, although very tired last week. I thought the moment he walked through the door would never come! I felt the worst for our French cat, Mopsy, who had been confined in her little cat carrier for about 36 hours with no food, water, or a chance to pee! Poor thing! When Yann finally flew into Miami, he expected to just get his bags, breeze through customs and then hop in the rental car and head to Sarasota. But they kept him sitting and waiting in customs for 3 1/2 hours! And they knew he had an animal with him that really needed to get out of that bag, but they didn't give him much sympathy. So, when he came to my house I had the litter pan all set up for her and I've never seen a cat pee for that long. Poor baby.

Anyways, we have been having lots of fun since he came. Baby classes (actually, natural childbirth education class), feeling baby moving like crazy in my stomach, baby shower (he just showed up at the end for a few minutes), boating, swimming, eating out a lot, and shopping for baby and for a good pair of flip flops for Yann.

We are quite comfortable at his parents vacant condo. We've moved my dog over here and are working with him and the cat to help them get along. It's going well, but he gets upset every time she walks in front of his food dish. He thinks she trying to steal his food. How do we deal with this issue, anyone?? We put his food in the closet and left the door open a crack. God forbid she ever wanders into that closet.

Baby shower was awesome. I love seeing all my old friends! (But let me get back to the shower later.) It was actually a good idea to have it the same weekend as my 10 year high school reunion. This way, I already had a lot of friends coming into town for that. The cocktail hour for the reunion was on Friday night, so Yann and I had dinner with some friends first and then we walked down to the bar where it was. Let me tell you, the guy from our class that planned this event, did not do a good job. It was so disorganized: no one really knew what time it began or even what bar it was at. There was supposed to be a dinner the next night, but some people hadn't heard about a dinner and no one knew where it was either. So, as Yann and I go into this two floor bar it's insanely loud, filled with very loud bass and club music. Baby started going crazy, moving a lot. Then, we went upstairs to where this reunion was to be held. First thing I couldn't help but notice was the extremely thick and grey haze of cigarette smoke filing the entire room. Also, as I looked around at the general population of the bar I realized that only about 40% of the people there graduated high school with me. The rest of the crowd was a random mix of cigarette puffing, beer guzzling old dudes playing pool. So, we literally stayed for 10 minutes and high tailed it outa there.

Back to the shower: I need to post the pics from the shower, but I don't have my transfer cord thingy for the digital camera handy. So, it was really great to see so many friends I haven't seen for a long time and the food and gifts were so good. We got lots of baby gear, people! Loot! It blows my mind how generous people are. Loads of cute outfits and all kinds of soft blankies and jingly stuffed animals. A car seat!! A "Stationary entertainer", which is basically a big colorful mess of plastic made in China, but darn it if all babies don't love to sit in those things! After everyone left, Yann and I sat in the pile of gifts and began cutting off tags to wash things and it really hit us that we are about to become parents in just a few weeks. It was an exciting feeling, although a little scary! I've been so focused on the pregnancy and learning about the delivery, that I hadn't been thinking enough about after all that! Well, I guess I can start dreaming about that now, because I'm at about 33 weeks and the midwives say any time after 37 weeks I could safely deliver the baby with them.

My other favorite part of the weekend was when my friend Abby, the very lovely and talented photographer of Liga Photography, took maternity photos of Yann and I. I cannot wait to see these pictures. and post some of them here! She showed my a few, just on her camera, after the shoot and I think they will be amazing, as her photos always are.

We are going up to my cousin's wedding this weekend in Chicago and I will be back with news and photos from the Windy City!