if you like awkward or silly photos, you'll enjoy this contest for awkward prom photos held by sfgate's the poop blog.

rex is really enjoying the time here in michigan with his grandparents. right now his grandpa hall is holding him out on the screened in porch while a storm blows in, and rex is fascinated by the wind blowing through the trees. we'll see how he does as it actually starts raining... hopefully he'll enjoy the white noise.

to all of our friends here in the great state of michigan: email me so we can schedule a time to get together! we're booked through this weekend, but free after that. rex wants to meet you!

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the video below is making the rounds of the online ad buying community. i definitely LOLed and recognized these situations. :)




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turns out rex does indeed love the sound of the rain. just like his mama!


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according to the nypost, hugh jackman and daniel craig are going to be in a play on broadway together this fall. hottttness!

i know you've always wanted to know more about zambonis. well, then, you might get a kick out of this article.

our little guy is getting so big! he was weighed at his doctor appointment today and is a whopping 7 pounds. such a cute little nugget!
he is already holding his head up quite a bit, and has such an amazing, alert gaze. i'm so totally in love...
in the middle of the night last night i took this photo of him, very content and alert after a feeding:


we are heading to michigan on monday for a nice, long visit (5 weeks!). we're really excited to see family and friends on an unrushed and mellow schedule. the flip side is that we're going to miss all of our friends here -- especially since there are a lot of people we haven't seen lately due to our new parent schedule. we are so lucky to have so many good friends!

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on a very different topic, i'm really excited about eminem's new album. i've been desperately needing some new tunes, and have been really enjoying the new green day one (thanks, michael!).
regardless of what you think of eminem, you've got to love that he flew a bunch of unemployed detroit auto workers to see his performance on jimmy kimmel. way to represent detroit, em!

OMG, i can't wait to see this! not only does it have deborah gibson and lorenzo lamas in it, but the special effects look ridiculous (check out that shot of the golden gate bridge!)

things are going very well here. rex continues to be a bit of a nightowl, and he's generally interested only in going to sleep after mid-night feedings if he's nestled on me (vs in his co-sleeper or crib). however, he's generally a darn mellow baby, only feeding every 3 hours or so (and since the dr says we need to feed him at least every 3 hours, we're counting our blessings it's not more often), and he is generally comforted pretty easily by any of us (me, steve or grandma hall).
it turns out that he's already found his calling, as a model. a local photographer offered to take some free photos of rex (she also took some maternity shots of me, less than a week before giving birth) and is giving me a discount on prints (since she'll be using the photos promotionally as well. if you'd like to check the photos out -- which you should, since he's darn cute -- go here and then click on 'client proofing' and enter the password "mrrex" (no quotes). let me know which ones you think i should order!

we're heading to michigan at the end of this month. i'm really excited to see our friends there and to spend some time in some warm summer weather!
i decided i needed to get some fun, flat sandals for the trip and was browsing around online and fell in love with these:



they're hella expensive, though, and i wasn't sure what size to get (and they're sold out in most sizes too) so i ended up checking out the line of 'miss trish of capri' sandals at target when we went there yesterday, and bought these:



kinda hard to see, but there's a jeweled bee on the toe. sooooo cute!

things i've learned in the first week:
- "wipes" technology is amazing. how did people wipe their baby off after changing, disinfect counters, etc, before wipes?
- the diapers with the "i'm wet" indicator strip are key.
- we have great friends out here. we haven't wanted for anything (other than sleep) since rex was born. our fridge is full, we've had company on a fairly regular basis, and when we've put out a request for something, it's been taken care of. we are soooooo lucky.
- getting out hasn't been all that hard. we've had to go to the doctor almost every day (my c-section incision isn't healing all that well) and rex has done a great job getting out and about. i had the pleasure of doing my first out-of-home feeding at a starbucks two days after being released from the hospital.
- steve is the bomb. truly.

we've uploaded some videos of rex. not only is he super cute, but you can hear his funky little squawking sounds in them.
if you're interested in checking them out, you can view them on my youtube channel. the most recent one, from yesterday, is here:

wow, go youtube! i knew we had lots of helpful video clips on the site, but this story is absolutely nuts!

we're home!
today we brought rex home from the hospital. he is doing really well.
we had a couple of tough feeding days at the hospital, but he's stopped losing weight (all newborns lose weight as they learn to feed) and is generally a well-tempered little guy.
it's great to be home in our own space and we realized that we picked a great week to come home: lots and lots of great sports on TV (did you SEE that celtics-bulls game tonight?!?)
the local moms club brought us an amazing dinner tonight (takeout from a really yummy local diner, nona's kitchen. it was wonderful not to have to deal with figuring out food while we're still unpacking and settling in!

that's really all of the news here. our life = feed the baby, burp the baby, change the baby, sleep or get stuff done while he sleeps. repeat.

oh yeah, and i just read and enjoyed this article about pirate aficionados and how the rise of actual piracy in somalia sucks for them. it's a fun read.

Rex!

He's here! And he's gorgeous.
I'll have to post my labor story at some point (although I will definitely make it safe for squeamish readers), today I'll just give a little update.
Rex was born via C-section on Sunday morning at 4:34 am, almost exactly 24 hours after my first labor symptoms. He's on the tinier side, weighing in at 6 pounds, 3 ounces at birth. He was 19 3/4 inches in length. I was just about the same size. I think my mom said that I was 6 pounds 4 ounces and 21 inches (mom, feel free to correct me here with a comment on this post).
He was very tired his first day, but managed to still charm a bunch of fabulous friends that were kind enough to come and visit us at the hospital. He's been having trouble feeding, though, which has become a bit more of a problem as he's gotten "older".
The first day or so, he's expected to sleep a lot. After that they want him to be feeeding every 3 hours or less. He seems to have a good latching instinct, but soon after latching he gets either distracted (oooh! Lots going on out here outside the womb!) or sleepy. Therefore he's not getting enough to eat, so feedings are taking lots of time each time, and are as often as every hour and a half.
This morning I had a mini-meltdown. Rex wasn't feeding well and yet kept trying off-and-on for a number of hours. Every time he'd seem like he was done trying and ready for sleep I'd get him swaddled and in his crib and then he'd cry again. It was sooooo frustrating! The nurse was about an hour late with my pain meds, so that just added to the drama. When Steve got up I was just about in tears. Luckily at that point there was a nursing shift change, they brought my meds, and the new nurse helped me use a pump to get some food in him. Then Rex and I were both able to get some shuteye.
Things have gone better since then. We've had two really good feedings, taken some naps and we've both got bellies full of yummy stuff (Steve went out and bought me some gourmet goodies at AG Ferrari, an Italian market across the street).
Now we're chilling out together. He's lying on me while I type this on my bberry with my tumbs of fury...
Keep your fingers crossed for us that we'll stay on this positive path!

we have such talented friends!

tiffany will be featured on natgeo tv's "garbage moguls" tomorrow night at 9 pm. there are clips on their website at www.natgeotv.com/garbage, and you can see her profile, where they call her "garbage barbie" here.

storyteller megan stielstra is profiled in an article in the chicago examiner that you should check out.

and my father-in-law, bruce, is going to be a blogger for the detroit new's auto blog section. i'm having trouble pulling up his first post, but apparently it's going to be here.

i had my worst night of sleep yet last night. i am TIRED still, and i was in bed attempting to sleep for almost 10 hours. argh. my hip hurts, my head is congested, and it was really warm (for here). i guess i'll have to take a nap later today.
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i ordered the kindle. i hope it gets here before our little boy does, so i can play with it. i definitely want to transfer my subscription to the new yorker magazine over to the kindle in a couple of weeks when it expires. i am sooooooo excited!

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gavin newsom finally officially announced his candidacy for governor. is it just me, or does he always look like he's smirking?

it's gorgeous here today, and i'm just over a week from my due date (!). i am hoping that our little dude will hang out for a bit and not make an early appearance. i think we're generally ready, but it would be nice to have a bit of R&R time before he comes and turns our world upside down.
he's been moving around a lot lately: not so much kicking as pushing at my stomach from a few different angles. it must be at least one of his feet under my right breast, and then there's probably either a hand or an elbow just to the left side of my belly button. i don't know if anyone notices it but me, but when he's pushing on both of those spots i think it makes me look really lopsided.
we have a few things we still need to get ready (sterilizing bottles, finalizing the announcement/contact lists, etc) but we're in good shape. we put our spare bed in the baby's room so that i can sleep in there if necessary (or, i suppose, steve can -- he's been complaining that i've been snoring lately, which is a completely new thing for me). we've got the carseat base in one of the cars, and the bags are mostly packed for the hospital (just need to grab last minute things like the camera battery, which is charging, some toiletries that we use every day, etc).
i am going to try to read a book on baby sleep habits this week. i started reading "healthy sleep habits, happy child", which i think is pretty horribly written and extremely boring so far. i think the main problem is that with many non-fiction/advice books the premise should be about a chapter long (steve thinks maybe the books should be pamphlets instead) and yet they feel the need to drag it out to an entire book in order to justify charging you $20 for the book. i guess i need to accept that, and learn to skim more effectively...
i am thinking of buying myself a kindle. i've been wanting one for quite some time, and when i went to a management class at work, one of the guys in the class approached me during the break and let me know that the kindle was the best thing ever for his wife while she was breastfeeding. he said that she was an internet junkie and loved following the news, and while it was not too hard to prop up a book and try to read it while nursing, it was impossible to find the time to get online or to read the newspaper, and that the kindle allowed for her to do this with one hand while nursing. sounds like a plan to me! i just need to get up the guts to make the purchase... maybe later today.

i was really hoping i'd wake up canadian today, but i've scanned through the details and alas, i guess i'm not canadian.

what a lovely little story for easter! susan boyle, an unemployed 48 year old, shocked the judges on the show 'britain's got talent' with an amazing rendition of 'i dreamed a dream' from les miserables. the copyright owner has disabled the ability the clip to be embedded, so you'll just have to click here, to see it.
you won't regret it.

omg, she's so cute!

ouch.

steve showed me this business card from steve martin awhile ago, so it's not new, but i still love it.