.

on my last day of work, i was convinced i had a meeting with HR. instead, it was a suprise party!

there was pizza and vodka (nugget wanted some, but held back). and everyone designed onesies. here's a pic of the masterpieces.

at ben and julie's fancy wedding in new york city, we got dressed up and did some more dancing with nugget.

and as we suited up, it was determined that my circumference has surpassed matt's.

way to go in the weight gaining department nugget!

matt did a great job of building nugget's crib the night before the nyc baby shower.

dodger tested it out and gave it his seal of approval.

then as i started maternity leave early and my nesting instincts kicked in, i finished some of the other decorations. namely, i made some animal art for the walls. we got a rug (after much deliberation from ABC carpet's basement). and we got our not-so-cheap glider.

nursery, taken down!

thanks to the wonderful organization, decoration, and love of kory, marni, karyn and shlomit, nugget's shower in nyc was a ton of fun. kory made these adorable cupcakes, marni made some pink fortune cookies, karyn made a delicious salad, and shlom did a bang up job on the decorations.

we had some crazy games including match that baby name to their celebrity parent and find the safety pins in the bowl of rice. don't ask.

but it was a lovely afternoon of ladies. nugget is going to have some fun girl nights.

for the festivities, dodger wore his ogilvy secret santa present he got from frida.

christmas eve was jam-packed with festivities. in addition to a brazilian churaschuria christmas evefeast prepared by a japanese brazilian man and his half japanese/half italian daughter, we had a co-ed baby shower with 30 of my relatives!

quite a hodgepodge of a night.

my cousin esther organized fun baby games and requested that each guest bring their favorite children's book for nugget. each person wrote a little note for nugget in the book they brought. and now her library is ready for action! nugget also got alot of clothes, blankets, and a diaper bag from momma lam. note: everyone seemed to thing nugget was going to be a boy because of the way i was "carrying". but have no fear, my most recent january '09 sonogram confirmed that she is still indeed a girl!

as to make sure matt didn't feel left out, he got a gift too. here's his gift from the spa at willow bend:

nugget was spoiled on her first trip to sturgis! we got to look through alot of john and matt's baby clothes to see if she wanted any.

then we got to visit a lovely amish friend of the family who had a 3 month old. it was my first time to see a diaper changed and to dress a little baby. i also got a lesson in breastfeeding.

the next day, what i thought was going to be a low-key ladies luncheon with me, denise, mom, and grandma joy, turned into a big momma love fest! i had no idea what was going on when we walked into st. john's episcopal church and loads of ladies screamed "surprise." mom planned a wonderful shower with very strict rules. everyone in attendance had to share positive stories of motherhood. no one could bring a gift unless it was something they no longer needed or unless they felt truly compelled.

of course, everyone broke the rules. :-)
nugget got some wonderful handmade items (a quilted blanket and sweater), a doll, some clothes, some advice, and lots of love.

here's a picture of me and grandma joy and the "mother love" party:

no pics from this trip. but it was the first time my mom saw my big belly. she thought i looked "huge." thanks mom! ;-)

at 5+ months, my belly circumference was still smaller than matt's. the three of us did some mighty fine dancing.

nugget is a pretty good dancer. she must take after her mom.

just back from france, we went to our 20wk sonogram at st. luke's roosevelt. 

with the groin injury just barely healed, we took off to paris on september 14. nugget was kept super cozy on our fancy l'avion business class flight which allowed us to recline at a 140° angle.

This is an apology to nugget and all of our family and friends for being so slack about posting to this blog. I'm hoping i can do some catching up now before she actually comes into the world and can start blogging on her own. So here goes...