Still no baby...

not to get any hopes up out there, but I AM having contractions...all week in fact. hopefully they'll stop teasing me (and making me uncomfortable and unable to sleep) soon!!! anyway, keep checking in as I THINK we'll have a baby announcement soon enough (we better!).

last night we took cate to see santa. she kept saying she was going to sit on his lap, but when push came to shove she kept a 2 foot distance at all times. she did sit on the stool next to him so the picture FINALLY doesn't have mom and dad feeling stupid sitting on santa's knee. I'll scan the picture in later...it's cute. anyway, she did like talking to him and asked for 2 cars (matchbox cars)...when he asked if she wanted anything else she said "a piano for my mommy so she can play christmas songs." this was the cutest thing she could have said for two reasons: first, the other day I said how I wish I had a piano so much and I really feel it at christmas, and ever since her mission has been to get me a piano from santa. second, we just LOVED that when santa asked her what else she wanted for christmas, she thought of me instead of herself. what a sweetheart.

off to enjoy more contractions.

And we have a decision!

Drumroll...where is Nate going after he graduates? STANFORD! That's right, folks, he's made a decision and will be doing a post-doc at Stanford when he graduates from UCSD this winter. Yea! We're super excited about going to Northern California and that Nate will be working for our good friend Markus Covert. It's going to be great!

Nate also met with his committee last week and it looks like he really is going to graduate and be Dr. Nate after all. He will have his final defense late Feb/early Mar, then we're off to Palo Alto.

All great news for sure...it actually feels very strange knowing when he's going to graduate and where we're going to go, but it is really nice knowing too. Go Nate!

Nate's especially excited about being affiliated with a school that actually has some decent sports. I mean Tufts has one mean sailing team, and UCSD has, oh wait, nothing. Go Stanford!

In other news...my belly is growing to crazy proportions. 3 weeks to the due date and we can't wait!!!

T-4 Weeks!

Only 4 weeks until the due date!!! Here's what I look like today. Obviously I haven't dropped yet - I think Nate described my belly perfectly by calling it totally perpendicular to my body. I don't want her to come tomorrow, but she needs to not be TOO late so we can take advantage of the time that my mom is scheduled to be here. Everyone cross your fingers.
Cate is very sweet to her little sister - she talks to her and gives her hugs and kisses. Gotta love it.
I have super nice friends who insisted on throwing a shower, even though I tried to stop them. Isa Sabey got everyone together for a nice breakfast at a local restaurant...and my friends totally spoiled me. Thank you everyone. I had such a nice morning with all my dear friends. Here I am with Kristin & Barbara. I didn't get a picture with Isa - I'm so mad! Thank you, Isa for getting us all together for a great morning out!
Here's Cate at her last music class last week - she LOVED music class. I'm sad it's over. I would have signed her up for next session, but we'll be moving too soon...no, we still don't know to where!
This is a picture of a CRAZY BIRD. It was sitting on the rearview mirror the other day when Cate and I were out...it didn't matter how fast I drove, he just held on tighter. I let him hitch a ride around the corner, but then honked to get him off so he wouldn't die on the freeway. Cate told me that we gave him a ride home. It was really cute.
Tonight Cate came walking in the room with a concerned sort of look on her face. Then she said "I don't want to do the hiccups." Sure enough she had the hiccups. She hated it. She kept telling us she didn't want to do the hiccups. We tried to scare her, so after that she kept saying "Boo" after she would hiccup. It was really funny.

To answer any pregnancy-related questions: I'm feeling well overall, getting very tired, eating lots of Tums. Thankfully I'm not swelling up like I did with Cate...hopefully it will stay that way! It's so much more comfortable when your hands and feet don't feel like they're going to explode. Not that I'm all that comfortable these days, but it could be worse I guess. I went to the doctor Friday and am about 1 cm, although not thinking we're really very close to a delivery. Baby is measuring fine and everything looks good so far. Will keep you posted! We're starting to get into the weeks where I'm scared to call anyone on the phone because they always think it's with "news." Let's just say, Nate will be doing the calling, so if it's me on your caller ID, probably no news. :)

Halloween Report

FINALLY getting some pictures up from Halloween. Cate had a BLAST and kept telling me how she said "trick or treat" - it was very cute. She is still swimming in candy - will it ever be gone?!?!

Okay, so here are LOTS of pictures. For those of you who AREN'T Cate's grandparents, sorry! :)

Here's the beautiful little ballerina.

Showing off her moves...

Finally, I get to go trick or treating!

Even though carving pumpkins is kind of a pain and takes forever, it was totally worth it - when I was almost done, cate woke up from her nap and was so excited about the pumpkins, especially the one that is smiling. It was really sweet. The next few days we had them on the kitchen table and she kept winking like the pumpkin. What a cutie.

Amelia, Hannah and Cate ready to go off for some Halloween fun...this is the best picture I could get of the three of them. Talk about wiggly.

Here are the girls with their dads, who were also their halloween bodyguards on the trick-or-treat trail.

After trick-or-treating was done, a group of cate's little friends (and parents) came over to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown." Hannah is generally the most energetic of the group, but she was completely enraptured by the cartoon - it was pretty cute. None of the kids like the part where Snoopy pretends he's in WWI. Also funny. Anyway, after everyone left, Cate was pooped. I tried to get her to come cuddle with me, but instead she climbed up with Dad.

The ballerina and her mommy.

Cate & Friends...

You need to go visit my friend Emily's blog to see a FUNNY series of pictures...just click here. Amelia and Hannah are our neighbors who also happen to be Cate's best buds. Unfortunately for Amelia, Hannah and Cate are a little older and, shall we say, pushier? Especially Cate...she gets VERY defensive of Hannah when Amelia is around, which is totally understandable since Amelia is so HUGE and SCARY. The three of them together is seriously a crack-up - and it's so cute how they love each other. Anyway, Emily's post is funny, so make sure you go see it.

I promise to post my own pictures from Halloween soon, as well as some video!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

The Pumpkin Patch

Here are a few shots from our trip to the pumpkin patch Sunday morning. This is the farm in Ramona that we are afraid may no longer be there due to the fires. Once all these fires are gone we're going to drive out to check on things. It's so strange looking at these pictures knowing that the weather and condition out there is SO different now. I'm so glad that we went when we did. We've gone there for several years. Just a quick update (Nate's Grammy McCarthy called today to check in - I hadn't emailed or posted any updates, so she got worried, so I think I better fill you all in!). We are definitely safe. Never had to evacuate. They're starting to lift the evacuations closest to us and the winds have shifted, blowing the fire away from us. Sadly it's just blowing the fires towards other people. Wish these fires would just GO OUT. We're still staying inside in our clean, filtered air. What a week!

On to the fun pictures of our trip to the pumpkin patch - let's lighten things up a bit, shall we? There are a LOT of pics, so get ready (I'm not even posting all the cute ones!) Also, make sure you keep scrolling down. I did a LOT of posts today. :)

Cate did such a good job pulling the wagon all over the farm! It was so dang cute.

Nate makes a new friend...

Nate and I were kind of looking around the farm, then we turn around and Cate's picking pumpkins like there's no tomorrow. She's much stronger than we realized. :) We had to put some of the pumpkins back, and we still came home with more pumpkins than we know what to do with.

What's cuter? Cate pulling the wagon alone, or pulling it with her Daddy? I still can't decide. :)

Believe it or not this is Cate smiling. I could NOT get her to give me a normal smile - she looks like she's in pain for ALL of these pictures. I promise I'm not torturing her! She really is smiling!

Still no smile, but at least it's not quite so painful...

This face actually does reflect her mood. Needless to say it's the last picture I took at this perfect picture-taking spot. I'm just glad I got her to actually sit on the pumpkins - she wouldn't do it earlier because she said she would fall. Ah, our adventurous daughter.

Nate's turn behind the camera trying to get Cate to smile. He was as successful as I was. After several strained, squinty faces, we finally got her laughing, so this is the best we could get in terms of actually looking HAPPY at the pumpkin patch.

It was such a fun morning. I love our little family!

More Cate-isms...

Yesterday Cate started calling her little friend Hannah "Han." (Adrianne always says Han, so Cate apparently has picked up on that.) "There are some trucks for you, Han." "Let's watch Bambi, Han." Cate is such a casual talker, huh? :)

Also, lately when you ask her if she wants something, wants to do something, etc and the answer is "No" she says "I'm alright" instead. Sounds so funny coming out of her mouth. Again, very grown up and CASUAL.

Cate the Ballerina!

Cate had her first Halloween party last Friday, so she finally got to wear her ballerina costume! Once I did her hair and makeup, she looked so OLD. It was adorable, but killing me at the same time! Despite how old she might have looked, that thumb never lies... :)


Here she is in full costume. She LOVES the tutu. Since she can't wear it when she's in her carseat, she just hugs it the whole time we're driving. So cute.


When we were walking out to the car (after showing off her costume to her friends at the park), I turned around and she just looked so cute with her biss (blankie) and thumb in mouth...so I asked her if I could take a picture. She said yes, but then pulled this face right when the camera clicked. Little stinker. She really was in a good mood!

Biddy Sports!

As I mentioned in a previous post, Cate's first Music Class and first Biddy Sports were the same week. The Music Class went BEAUTIFULLY, and she cried her way through the entire morning at Biddy Sports. I was a bit worried how the following 5 weeks of Biddy Sports were going to go, but the 2nd week she LOVED it. It ended up being lots of fun and she starts round 2 next week with her Dad on Saturday mornings! :) Here are a few shots from her Biddy Sports class last week.

Learning how to dribble... (I have a really cute video of this that I'll post up here as soon as Google Video decides to be nice to me)

Cate and Coach Sergio practicing dribbling. Whenever she said "Coach" or "Sergio" it was sooooo cute. "Look, there's my coach's car!" "No, Sergio, it's Sarah's turn." Also, whenever she would practice dribbling with Sergio she would just giggle the whole time. It was so funny.

Here are Cate & her friend Sarah. Sarah was the ONLY other girl in the class. I can't tell you how glad I am she was there!!!!