babysitting on the couch

the cats know something weird is going on. both of them love to sit on the belly whenever possible. we call it babysitting. baby k kicks and punches them, but they don't seem to mind. odd little duckies arent they?

birthday celebration in NH

 the weekend after our birthdays we drove up to new hampshire. we stopped in manchester first and hung out with ryan and stephanie, after making a very productive stop at baby gap in the manchester mall. that is the only one i have seen that has maternity clothes too and they were having some amazing sales. for $30 i got two dresses and a sweater. yay! and baby k got his first pair of jeans and a really sweet button down shirt.

anyways, we drove out to a cute little farm and went on a sleigh ride. they took us all around and we saw animals both wild and caged, little outbuilding still decorated for the holidays, and at the end they dropped us off at a fire pit were we could roast weenies and make smores. perfect winter activity. we went out to eat after at the brazilian place where they keep bringing more meat. baby k loooves that place!

after dinner we drove down to nashua to spend the night with mark and lanelle and the girls. we stayed up too late talking, but when we woke up in the morning for church we were practically snowed in! we all six spent the day in our pjs, eating waffles and hanging out. i failed to take any pictures but it was wonderful. i got all kinds of baby snuggles in too. the snow finally stopped and we headed home.

funny how one extra day off can make a weekend into a vacation!

baby k's room

 we finally finished painting, hanging pictures, assembling furniture, and putting up shelves. the wardrobe in the corner is perfect size for baby clothes, especially since there are NO closets at all in our apartment and he needs a place for his stuff.

 we are ready for the baby and for visitors (in due time of course). and i left room above the bed for a special gift from auntie anna. :D

rump wonders why his ugly mug didnt make it into any of the family photo frames around the clock.

what's been going on?

we've been insanely busy recently. we took a trip to new hampshire to celebrate our birthdays and see some good friends (more on that later) and have been driving the 45 or so miles back and forth to guilford last week and this week to help out at another community. this accounts for a large part of the reasons i havent been blogging. i have to use my berry as a modem and service here is spotty as we are out in the middle of nowhere (kinda).

the community here is beautiful and we've enjoyed our time here. we will back again next week too. there is a lot of wildlife on the grounds (they own several acres including a huge pond for fishing) so the cats have really enjoyed sitting in the windows and watching the birds and squirrels. rumpy tried to jump through the window to get at a particularly saucy squirrel. thankfully he just scared himself and didnt break the glass. the cats travel well (thankfully) but are starting to get even more annoyed by the sight o the carrier and their leashes than they used to.

we've been to three of our four birthing classes and have one more on monday. we will finally get to tour the maternity ward of the hospital where this little guy will get himself born! only four weeks and six days (or so, but who's counting?) to go! very weird to think that in a little over a month we will be parents. we are getting close to ready for him as far as having all the stuff we want or need (for the first few weeks anyway) but i dont think there is any way to become completely mentally ready, no matter how many classes we go to or books we read. welcome to parenthood, right?

when we are back in groton this weekend i plan to post some pictures and another post or two about what we've been up to lately. see you all then!

birthday madness

for my birthday, which we had off, we decided to paint baby k's room. jeremy went in the morning and bought supplies. After puttying several holes in wall, we left the apartment to run some errands and let the mud dry. jeremy went to guitar center while i availed myself of the services of the nail salon next door. after a pedicure and a new guitar, we went to a great thai place down the street. by the time we got home it was time to paint!

i taped off the borders and jeremy prepped everything else. he mixed and poured the paint and we got to work. i was able to sit on the floor and paint a large portion of the edges and bottom of the wall while jeremy edged the ceiling.we finished about two hours later in the nick of time. it was time to get cleaned up and head to the hospital for our first of a series of four birthing classes. this one was an intro to everything, a review of a lot of info that we knew, and learning some breathing and relaxation techniques. im thinking that if labor involves this much deep breathing and back massage that it can't possibly be as bad as everyone says! ;)

in celebration of my 27th birthday, here is a pregnancy picture. now everyone can stop bugging me about it for at least another week or so...

for the record, here is how pregnant i looked when i entered my late twenties. 32 weeks and 5 days along. also how pretty baby's room is after we finished with the safari green paint job.

aerogardening again

after one week, almost all of my plants are blooming. 

the cilantro is going nuts! in a few more weeks we will have yummy fresh herbs to cook with! this is especially nice considering how cold and snowy this winter has been. just seeing grreen things growing makes me happy.

valentine's celebration

for valentines day we made chocolate lollipops for everyone at work. it was my first time making candies by myself (although jeremy helped) and it was fun. i missed my girlfriends though! baby k had a good time too. he's starting to get in the way a little bit though. :)

i made yummy mahi mahi, roasted fingerling potatoes and veggies for valentines dinner. you can see from the box on the counter i cheated a little bit on dessert.tjs makes a much better tartlet than i do though.

we ate on the china then played wii. CLASSY, huh?

30 weeks - feb 2

this was me one week ago. lovely picture, huh? 30 weeks - 75% done cooking the little guy. i'm wearing my new pregnancy red sox shirt. im not sure when baseball season starts but if it starts before the middle of april then i am all set. i have horrible posture and my hair is funky (and jeremy is not the best photographer ever - he doesnt even count to three!) but for all you guys who have been bugging me about bump pictures this ought to satisfy you for a little while longer. :)

concert in the casino

a couple of weekends ago ryan and stephanie drove down on saturday. david nail was playing a show at the mohegan sun casino on saturday night. our amazing friend justin was able to reserve us a table for a really fantastic show. it was way better than the first time we saw david play (when anna was here in october).

the band was having a good time and the crowd was waaaay into it. several people didnt stop dancing the entire time. we took it easy and sat. i enjoyed a virgin margarita. it was almost as good as the real thing. the baby liked the sourness of it though!

we did a little gambling - i put $5 into a penny slot machine and walked away with $18 and stephanie killed at the blackjack table. the boys werent as lucky. it was really really fun and great to see people that we dont get to see very often - justin, ryan and steph.

i still think it is a little bit lame that i see justin about three times more often than anna but i was able to send her a care package home with him.

seeing a great concert with friends is definitely a great way to spend a saturday night!

wii are fitter?

i've been trying to get on the wii fit for at least 30 mins five times a week. there was a week of vacation, and two weekends of moving and many other wonderful excuses for why i didnt get to all of it. but i did pretty darn good anyways:

see how chubby my mii is? there is no way to put in that i am pregnant, so at least twice a week the little scale guy asks me if i know why i am gaining weight. "growing a human being" isnt a choice, so i always pick eating too much. :)

baby k's bed

although we havent gotten his actual bedding yet, we had some of the extra pieces and now that we are in a bigger apartment, we set everything up. it is just too cute. so far the cats have been supremely uninterested in the crib (they love the spare bed in baby's room though).

the little forest creatures are adorable and we've found tons of our old stuffed animals as we've been unpacking stuff for storage. there is still a TON of work to do in there before he is all set, but i can rest easy knowing that if something crazy happens and he appears early, he has a place to sleep. he won't have much else, but it is something. cute, huh?

Junky Arm

Nine days after my three hour glucose test, my left arm still looks like I've been doing heroin. The good news is that I do not have gestational diabetes. The bad news is that the crook of my elbow still hurts!
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

update on the little guy

we went in today for an ultrasound. we got to see our son swimming around in there. he has finally turned head down and decided today to start kicking me in the ribs. oh the small joys of motherhood.

he weighs about 2 lbs 11 oz right now and has those nice long legs you would expect from the offspring of two people shaped like jeremy and me.

he helped mommy and daddy move all our stuff out of the storage unit and into our new apartment upstairs this morning. we went to babies'r'us and bought his crib and stroller/car seat. jeremy is upstairs right now assembling the crib and spare bed in the little closet/second bedroom. next weekend we will be moving all of our stuff in our current apartment up and living up there.

we are so happy to start puting otgether the little guy's room and preparing for his arrival! we have signed up of birth classes at the hospital - they start in february. we will have a few purcahses to make to complete our new little nest upstairs (like a dresser or two or three, since there isn't a single closet in the whole place and a couch) and i think some painting, but i can't wait!

baby koci will be here in about 11 weeks (give or take) and we are well on our way to being ready!

kansas trip 2011: koci family shower

 darci made a cute diaper cake and the family loaded it down with gift cards! we've been doing some shopping online with some of them, and as soon as we move to the upstairs apartment that is a little bit bigger, we will go and buy our crib and stroller/car seat. i can't wait!!!!

 the women all made tons of food - we ate non stop all day and it was great. YUM. nothing a pregnant lady likes more than a buffet!

the whole family was together in one room for the first time in ages! look at all of us! next time we are all in the same room there will be one more little koci. he is excited to meet his big cousins!

kansas trip 2011: family time!

 i got to have some serious baby time with garrett, the newest (but not for long!) member of the koci family.i spent tons of time with garrett's big brother and sister too, but for some reason didn't take a single picture with either of them :(

 we stayed with shane and darci and it was great to see them too! i have just this one super awkward picture of me and darci - again, i awas apparently a failure at taking pictures.

during our shower we got to see tons of family that we never get to see ever, like aunt corrine!

spending so much time with our families was wonderful. the kids are growing up so fast and everyone's lives are constantly changing - new kids, new jobs, new houses... it is hard to keep up from 1500+ miles away!