Retirement

Well, its official. I am not keeping up with the blog anymore. My last post was a month and a half ago and in that time we've had a baby who is almost 4 weeks old already with zero posts to here. So what happened since I used to be pretty good about updating the blog? I blame the acquisition of smartphones a year and a half ago which made posting to Facebook so much more immediate and timely. I will continue to post updates and pictures to Facebook as I have been which gets more traffic anyway. I may miss more lengthy discussion the blog allows but, since I wasn't keeping up anyway, can't say that I'll miss it that much. I archived the blog to my harddrive, so all the baby posts for Zara have been saved. For Xavier, I'll have to think of a better way to track memories. Thank you to all those that have been reading the blog, but this is me signing off.

37 - 40 - 4

37 - 40 - 4 could either be my high school locker combination or some of the stats associated with this pregnancy. For all I remember it could be my locker combo, but really it is the later as today I am 37 weeks pregnant. Which, as all the moms out there know, means baby is fully baked and ready to come out of the oven. We had a checkup this afternoon and all signs point to no baby yet, but I'm kinda glad about that because I was planning on at least another week at work to get things done. Since my first 6 weeks out is covered by Short Term Disability insurance, it really means that I don't even need to email work in that time. If the insurance finds out you 'worked' any, then you aren't really disabled and cuts you off and we don't want that happening of course. So I really will 'go dark' when baby is born.

The 40 number is the poundage I've gained and, yup, that is pretty much what I gained last time. The only nice thing is I started out 6 or 7 pounds lower this time and haven't quite hit the same peak weight as with Zara, but there is still time (see last paragraph). At least this time the weight isn't quite as scary since I lost it once and at least *expect* to be able to do so again. Anyone have a good race they want to train for with me? Given the timing with summer approaching, I expect the first long race I train for will be the USA 10-miler in October.

And lastly, 4 as in the number our family will grow too very shortly. I can't believe it and its just kind of starting to dawn on me that I will actually have a newborn to take care of again very soon. I can take our schedule the household runs on right now and just shake it up like a snow globe because its back to square one.

Rodeo Girl

A couple weeks ago (oops, already behind again) we went to the annual Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Last year, Zara went but was really too young to have much clue what was going on. This year, she loved it. We had to do the Merry-Go-Round and another kiddie ride twice each, both petting zoo's, and even won her a big stuffed animal from our one attempt at a carnival game. John is apparently a good shot on the 'ol water cannon thingy.

As for the Rodeo, she loves the horsies and cows and was entertained by that (and like 5 trips to the potty for some reason). The concert was Lady Antebellum, who was good, but we did have to leave less than halfway in as expected when small fry tipped over on our shoulder tired. At least we beat the traffic out that way.



Since then we had an interesting week starting last Wed as Zara ran a high fever off and on and followed it up with a rash, which means virus and was in fact Roseola. Totally a non issue virus except the kids are miserable for a week and by proxy the parents. Zara got over that wanting to play instead of sleep when around Mommy and would only sleep there or with Dad. Except that means 9 months preggo Mommy didn't get comfortable enough to sleep and I even ended up on the couch at one point. But everyone is better now and has had two days of legitimate sleep and back to school and work for us.

Big Girl

Just a quick post on potty training. We transitioned Zara to big girl underwear right after I got back from France and it has been awesome. Before I left, I could tell she pretty much knew when to use the potty and I suspected the only wet pullups were when she was too busy playing to bother going. When I got back we made the switch full-time and haven't looked back (yet, expect that to change once baby comes for a bit). She only had one accident during her nap the first day at school which seemed kind of like "surprise you aren't wearing a pull-up" for her. Couple small accidents at home, but otherwise she has been great and likes being a big girl. We've even switched to underwear at night and that is working well also since she was already staying dry through the night.

So for the grand total of about 2 months our house will be diaper free...

Vive La France

While staying in Paris, this was my view from my hotel window. Not too shabby. This is Le Grande Arche, I think it is actually the coolest because it is directly in line with the Arc d'Triumphe (at least a mile away). To me it has a very interesting juxtaposition of classical and modern architectural sculpture.

 

I didn't get to do a lot of sightseeing, but did go to the Louvre on my free day. There are more images below, but this was the most interesting thing of the visit to me. Let me introduce Venus di Milo.

The divine lady representing all feminine beauty. A sculpture renown for symmetry and elegance.

Not so well known for her size 14 hobbit feet...

Americans in Paris

Last week I got to go to Paris (technically Les Mureaux, 30 min away, but we stay in town and drive out) for a week for work. This was the same location I'd been to twice before while working on the ISS and when I left ISS I thought all international travel was also past. Lo and behold, it's not. A lesson to all that the fickle whims of government funding will never cease and international partners may always be potentially beneficial. The project coordination is not a done deal, we are still in the exploratory phase, but I am very much enjoying getting to work with ESA again and even some of the same faces from ATV.

Having driven in Paris before that wasn't a shock to me, but the HOUR it took me to locate the parking garage to our hotel was and I did "good" as other folks took between 2 and 3 hours. This was literally all within a kilometer of the hotel in La Defense and I highly recommend you never drive there as words cannot convey how hard it is. Seriously, don't... ever. I actually made a powerpoint with turn by turn street view pictures (thanks google) to aid folks that were arriving for the second part of the meeting. They still had a hard time but at least didn't spend 1-3 hours circling to find it.

I didn't take a lot of extra time to sightsee and the weekdays were really long working days that left little time in the evening. But I do have some pictures to get off the camera and post up later this a week. Being preggo and having temperatures that never really got above freezing, meant a visit to the Louvre for the first time (indoor & heated, crucial sightseeing criteria in January).

Our "social event", as all bilateral meetings require by custom, was a dinner cruise on the Seine, also a first for me and pretty spectacular. The sights at night from the river were pretty neat and the boat had excellent timing passing the Eiffel Tower right at the top of the hour when it lights up with sparkles. The meal was interesting too. The foie gras appetizer was good, although it is one of those things (like lobster) that I find to be less spectacular in real life than the hype. The main was interesting because we honestly didn't know what we were eating until someone told us the next day (quail compressed into pucks like pate and not in a recognizable bird shape), not bad but also not particularly memorable. The cheese and dessert courses, however, were good. Really, I enjoyed all the food while in Paris including the three course lunches at work (seriously, the NASA cafeteria could learn a thing or two).

All in all, good trip and I'll get the few pics I took up soon.

Holiday Recap

I've been terrible at posting lately, so I'll just have to catch up on the holidays all at once. We had a great month of December and got to take more most of the holidays off from work and really relax without traveling. Thankfully we were told about the Santa at our credit union that is free and were spared the mall line to see Santa. Especially so since Zara is not a fan and had to get the Mommy shield, maybe next year.

As for Christmas morning, Zara had a blast and really did play more with the toys and presents than paper and boxes. Her big present from Santa was a play kitchen and other presents fully stocked it with wooden food and pots and pans. It continues to be a big hit. She also got several fun toys like a ride on suitcase for our next airplane ride, an elephant pillow, duplo blocks, and the Cars DVDs. She's set for awhile.




We also hosted a course for our neighborhood holiday party progressive dinner before the holidays that went great. I made a homemade tomato soup which was super tasty and my neighbor Lisa brought over a chopped salad for our soup/salad course of the italian night theme. In prep for hosting, we actually decorated the house more for the holidays including outdoor lights for the first time which turned out nice. In trying to decorate the living room for year round, we put floating shelves above the mantel with framed pictures I've taken. One shelf only made it a few hours before falling down, breaking one of the frames in the process, and I didn't get a picture in advance. A replacement is up, but I think I need some bigger prints before I call it all done.

We will have to be better at posting especially now that I am about to enter the third trimester and baby #2 is growing well. We had a checkup recently and no concerns, next visit involves the glucose test but I get to do the alternate version again with an egg/toast/water breakfast followed by a Coke for the test. Beats the heck out of the nasty sugar drink alternative.