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26 Weeks!

Thursday, December 10th, 2009

Kelly and Champ December 2009

As you can tell by comparing the photo to the left and the last photo I posted at 19 weeks, there’s been quite a bit of growth lately! I intentionally wore the same shirt so you could see for sure how things look. Some shirts make me look bigger than others.

About a month ago (November 17th), Jonathan felt Champ move for the first time. Since then, this child has become an unstoppable source of movement! It’s delightful! My sister has also felt Champ move, but so far this child has been stubborn and shy around my Mom. The best was when my sister stayed over last week and she could SEE Champ moving! It’s incredible! I am thankful for every single little kick, punch, squirm or whatever it is.

What do we know about you this week, Champ? According to What to Expect When You’re Expecting, at week 26 “He or She now weighs a full two pounds and measures nine-plus inches. And this week, the eyes, which until now were developing under fused eyelids, start to open. Of course, there’s not much to see in there, but if your baby spots a bright light (or hears a loud noise) near your belly, you may notice an increase in fetal activity.” So far this child does not like loud noise, if lack of activity is any indication. I like to think that means we’ll have a nice, calm child who will not be a screamer. That’s what I’ll continue to think until this baby proves otherwise.

Other exciting things happening lately:

We bought Champ a baby book and filled out the parts we could do already! It was so fun for Jonathan and me to sit down and write down the little milestones we’ve already experienced.
We passed our glucose test! YAY! I wasn’t terribly concerned about gestational diabetes, but I am glad we don’t have to worry about it.
We had our first baby shower! It was great to have most of the Eskesens and the friends from my parents’ neighborhood together while my sister was here. I really enjoy seeing our family. We got some wonderful things for little Champ and are beginning to feel a little more prepared for his or her arrival.
Jonathan and Katherine painted Champ’s room this color. Thanks for all your hard work, Katherine! I think it will be perfect for either a boy or a girl.
We selected and purchased bedding for Champ! You can see it here. It is called “Oh What a Beautiful Morning” and I believe even the name of the bedding is fitting for this child. We have a morning baby so far. What a great little alarm clock!

As you can tell by the excessive use of exclamation points, we are very excited to know that Champ is continuing to grow. Sometimes it seems that 40 weeks is forever and other times I am amazed at how quickly the time has gone by already. More than anything, each day we are thankful for this little miracle the Lord has placed in our lives.

Posted in baby, family, photo | 5 Responses »

20.5 Weeks

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

“For you formed my inward parts, You wove me in my mother’s womb.

On the right side you can see his or her legs all smooshed up

I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.

Profile

My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth;

Your eyes have seen my unformed substance; tiny foot

And in Your book were written
The days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.”
~Psalm 139:13-16

Baby McPherson, you are a miracle. Dear Lord, please let us not forget that in the midst of sleeplessness, diapers, tantrums, crazy heaps of laundry and the unknown of parenting. Thank you God for knowing our days and for continuing to provide for us in such abundance.

Posted in baby, family, thoughtful | 8 Responses »

19 Weeks!

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

The last few weeks Champ has been growing like a, um, champ. I’ve been feeling Champ move around quite a bit lately, anywhere between six and ten times a day. The books described this feeling as a “fluttering” I’d say it feels like I swallowed a gold fish whole and the goldfish is now swimming around in the lower part of my abdomen.

I’m not holding a fruit or vegetable for this week’s post because the fruit is a mango covered in white cheese. Gross. And a complete waste of good cheese. What else do we know about Champ this week? Sensory development time! Here’s what the books say about this week: “The brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don’t be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you. ” If you know Jonathan or me very well, you know this child will hear some happy tunes!

Here’s a photo from this morning so you can see the bump in all it’s beautiful glory.

Dear Champ, the last couple of weeks you’ve been growing like crazy! I can tell this because we’re having growing pains, you and me. I know my belly was too small for you, even as tiny as you are, and with each of those round ligament pains, I’d rejoice that your life continues to flourish inside me (though it hurts like a mother and I’m glad they’ve subsided for now). We had a little scare with those pains on the right side and a low fever last week. I called the doctor and thought my appendix was going to burst, but instead it was just you, growing your little heart out and maybe making it seem like my stomach was going to explode. I was afraid your dad was going to have a heart attack, he was so worried about you and me. We’re trusting that the Lord knows what He’s doing though and we’re just going to let His work continue in your little life while I eat lots of fruits and vegetables, drink plenty of water, take long walks and get good rest. We got to take your Auntie Carrie to the doctor and she saw you for the first time as we quickly looked at you via sonogram. I’m glad she and your Dad were there! You’re one loved baby and nobody can even see if you’re ugly or not yet! We also started a baby registry of items for you. I’m afraid your parents are not very good at picking things aside from books. You will have as many books as you want about all sorts of things: dinosaurs, farms, flowers, different places around the world, history, places we visit, music, animals, there are books on pretty much any topic imaginable (though the weekly limit in our family is six books per person per week from the library), however, I do not think you’ll have a diaper wipes warmer or many of the fancy gadgets sold in the stores. Your mom hates clutter and plastics. It’s your cross to bear.

Posted in baby, family | 6 Responses »

Weird fatherhood dreams

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

As we mentioned in the last post, we’ve been reading a lot of books about being pregnant and one or two about having a baby. The amount of information available is overwhelming. One of the books–I cannot, as usual, remember which–mentioned that there was a good chance that all that thinking about parenting could cause a mother to have lots of dreams about her baby while she was pregnant. It failed to mention, however, that the same thing might happen to the father.

While Kelly has not reported an unusual dream life in the last few months, I probably have bizarre baby dreams 2 or 3 times a week. Here are some bits of the stories my subconscious has come up with:

We are about to have the baby, but 150 of our relatives and friends are at the hospital. They are having a party, or at least talking and laughing a lot. I feel bad for leaving them, so I stay with them. Then I miss the birth, and I feel worse. But I feel worst of all when I finally go to the delivery room and discover that we already have a second child.
We have our baby! I miss the birth. The baby is is the size of a toad. Thankfully, we are completely unconcerned, since it will get bigger.
The baby has to stay at the hospital for weeks. This is totally normal, and what every baby does. When I finally go to bring our child home, he is already mobile. Instead of learning to crawl like a normal child, he propels himself by scooting forward on his knees. He is very fast. We are sad that we missed this important developmental milestone.

… And that’s why I’m sometimes very glad to wake up and discover that we don’t have a baby yet.

To the parents who read our blog: did you have weird baby dreams?

Posted in baby, family, just plain weird | 5 Responses »

Baby McPherson is on the way!

Tuesday, September 22nd, 2009

It’s been a busy summer! We’ve camped, we’ve hiked, gone to a wedding or two, enjoyed some fun with friends and family, Kelly’s run around in a few little races and somewhere in there the Lord decided to bless us big time. That’s right folks, Baby McPherson is on the way! Our due date is March 18th and we are really excited! So far, things look great. The baby’s heartbeat has been holding steady at 160bpm and during the ultrasound we were able to see its fingers, toes and all sorts of crazy baby things! It’s amazing to see and read about all the things that are going on without much effort on our part. If you know Jonathan and Kelly, you know that we are reading up on the child’s development, learning everything we can, listening to our physician and doula, and making lists of questions that we come up with that are not covered in the documenation we read! It’s a really fun time.

So far, Kelly is feeling well aside from general tiredness, which seems to be getting better. Clothes still fit pretty well, though there is a “just ate Thanksgiving dinner” look going on lately. The maternity clothes will come soon, but she’s not trying to rush that part. Running is still an option, but not so much running. Length and frequency of runs have decreased significantly and that’s okay.

Since we can’t tell what Baby McPherson will look like, here are a couple of photos of us as babies to keep you entertained and guessing. Here’s hoping he or she gets Jonathan’s dimples!

: Kelly circa 1979

Jonathan circa 1980

We first learned about Baby McPherson in July (about 5 weeks). We were a little surprised and a bit incredulous. Baby McPherson was about the size of a poppy seed and Kelly didn’t look or feel pregnant at all!

What? Im pregnant?!

But pretty soon, he or she was the size of a lentil…

And then the size of a garbanzo bean…

And now the size of a palm!

Finally, here’s a photo of Baby McPherson at about 11 weeks:

So that’s the big news in the McPherson household. We’re excited, a little terrified, and very thankful for this blessing the Lord is bringing into our lives. We can’t wait to meet him or her (we’ve decided not to find out until the birth, if we can help it) in March, and in the meantime we will be posting about the adventures of being pregnant and getting the house ready for a child!

Posted in baby, family | 12 Responses »

Running runners who run

Monday, September 14th, 2009

Well, there’s been quite a bit of running lately in the Eskepherson family (and friends)!

On Labor Day, my brother and I and some friends ran the Super Jock & Jill 4+ fun run for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. It was pouring outside the whole time, but it was really fun, here are some photos of the fun:

Erik, Kelly, Christi, Michael and Brenda

Here’s Erik comin’ round the bend on what we thought was the final turn. He broke free from our little group early on and well, killed our time.

pretty rainy!

and a few minutes later, here we come:

Somebody's feelin' like Rocky!

After the race we headed back to the McPherson casa for some brunch and warm beverages. It was pretty chilly. Oddly enough I’d selected the race because of the likelihood of sun and nice weather.

We finished!

This past Saturday, Megan and Katherine participated in the Iron Girl Seattle10k. David, Jonathan and I were there to cheer them on as they ran! The course is basically two laps around Greenlake park, so we got to see them twice!

Here are some photos from their big finish:

Megan approaching the finish line

: Katherine coming to the finish!

: They finished! We made them pose for photos with their medals.

As you can probably tell, Jonathan was the photographer for both events. Thanks for the photos Jonathan! Great job running friends! I can’t wait for our next race!

Posted in Seattle, family, friends, running | 3 Responses »

Not much blogging lately

Saturday, July 18th, 2009

It’s not because we haven’t had much to blog about. We’ve just been busy. Here are some highlights from the last couple of weeks:

July 3rd, we hiked the Ape Caves with our friends the Marths, Olsons and Rafers:

Then we went to Christi and Michael’s to have dinner before the fireworks on the 4th of July:

July 5th, it was about 90 degrees outside, so we decided it was the perfect time to hike Mt. Si. Somehow, we were able to convince Katherine to join us! After consuming great amounts of water, we made it:

All in all, we’ve been enjoying the beautiful weather and just enjoying the outdoors together.

Posted in family, marriage, photo | 3 Responses »

Halvsies

Tuesday, June 30th, 2009

Not sure what you call someone who finishes a half marathon. Not a marathoner, but halfer? Would the plural then be halvsies? I guess you could call us halvsies or marathoners-between the two of us we did run 26.2 miles. We just shared it.

In dreaming of my plans for my 30th birthday celebration, I somehow got the great idea to run a half marathon. Jonathan planned to run with me, but during one of our training runs in January, it was quite evident his knees would not permit him to participate as planned. I pressed on with training, running toward my goal of completing that half marathon without stopping. My only intention was to run the whole thing. My brother Erik decided he’d join me for the fun! Sadly, his desire to train wasn’t as great as mine. His longest run before race day was four miles. FOUR MILES. I was concerned that he would sustain an injury or hate me by the end…

I also called this the traffic jam marathon. While heading to Qwest Field Thursday afternoon, we were stuck on I-90, waiting to get off the freeway and to the events center where I could get my bib number. Here’s the view we enjoyed for 50 minutes before I realized I could in fact walk along the off ramp with the other desperate marathoners. I’m SO GLAD Carrie drove so I could hop out of the car without having to deal with my vehicle being towed! Thanks Carrie!

Time to make a run for it! Traffic isn't moving!

After running toward the Qwest events center, we arrived inside in time to get our numbers and goody bags and yay! we were ready for the race! This picture is a bit blurry, but it’s the best we got:

It's official!

I spent most of Thursday and Friday monitoring my water intake to ensure hydration for Saturday and Erik, well, he ate a bunch of peanut butter and honey sandwiches.

We got up early Saturday morning and hoped for the best! And then, another hour of jammed up traffic!

Not again!

And there were, of course, more people running on the side of the road:

He's ready to run! He's already running!

We were finally able to exit the freeway, then about ten minutes later, we decided to just get out and walk-that was around 7:20 and we’d been in the car for an hour and a half. We walked/skipped/ran to the start and just jumped the fence into the nearest starting group. We crossed the start line at around 7:40 though the event officially began at 7:00. The first five miles went by very quickly and were very enjoyable. It was a great day to be out running! The weather was beautiful, the bands were great, there were cheer groups from area high schools cheering us on and the general atmosphere was up beat and fun! We even saw a bald eagle in a tree right along Lake Washington!

Here are some photos of us finishing the race (from the race photographers, you can see more photos here):

Really happy to cross the finish line!

We planned to cross the finish line together, holding hands:

and we did it together!

As we were crossing the finish line, we could see Mom and Jonathan and Katherine and then Carrie, Brenda, Christi and Holly with their signs cheering for us as we finished! It was so wonderful. I was just really really happy that we did it and made it without injury. I think Erik was mostly happy to be finished and rather tired. We got some water and a banana, bagel, bag of chips (seriously! Sunchips were SO GOOD at that moment), a bottle of cytomax and then we stretched out and I got chilly so I wrapped up in a mylar blanket. It was fairly easy for us to find everyone at the family reunion area.

And Erik is displaying his granola bar

Christi, Katherine, Brenda, Jonathan, Holly and Mom and I'm guessing Carrie is taking the photo.Thanks for being there to cheer us on! It was great to have such a crowd there for us! We love you!

He's a winner!

We were also able to miraculously find some of our friends! Here’s our friend Christi, who finished much faster than we did, but will still be my friend! Great job Olsons!

Christi and I get a photo together before we head out!

Thanks for being excited for us and for your encouragement!

After all the photo nonsense and some talking excitedly, we had brunch at the Portage Bay Cafe where I topped my french toast with every type of fruit I wanted at their toppings bar. Please excuse Jonathan’s elbow in this photo. He didn’t know how excited I was to take a photograph of my food.

Yummy french toast

We were all delightfully full after brunch and headed home where we cleaned up, skyped with Rachel and I took a nap in the yard then moved inside to take another nap in my bed. We had some Freshway Pizza for dinner and watched “Run Fatboy Run”. All in all, a very enjoyable day indeed.

That was such a fun time, I think we’re going to do another one! Anybody want to join me for the Super Jock n’ Jill half marathon on Labor Day? Looks like this one starts at Redhook in Woodinville, heads up to beautiful Bothell and then back down to Woodinville on the Sammamish River Trail. It’s going to be fun!

Big thanks to Jonathan who encouraged me to train and helped me find time in our schedule and did things like take me out to buy running gear and didn’t complain when we ate sandwiches for dinner on long run nights and is generally encouraging and wonderfully wonderful. Kelly and Erin, thanks for listening to all my random questions about running and for giving me a training plan and for offering to run with me even though we never found each other on race day! Carrie, thanks for being my friend and for being excited for me! And Mom, thanks for taking the bus early on a Saturday to see us cross the finish line! Wendy, thanks for your tips from afar-move back to Washington so I can have a running buddy (oh and the schools here are better and it’s not so hot and all that too).

Erik, I’ve got to be honest, I didn’t think you’d make it-but you did it! I’m impressed with your determination and your fierce love for me that made you brave the pain I know you were feeling on race day. Thank you for being such a great brother and good friend to me. I promise for my 40th birthday we’ll do something less intense, like maybe we’ll hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon or go fishing in Alaska or something easy like that, okay? Love you!

Posted in family, friends, fun, running | 8 Responses »

England, Where were we? Oh yes: More of Leeds

Friday, June 26th, 2009

We arose the morning of the 29th to a sunny sunny morning! What a treat!

When I looked out the window, I saw this in the garden:

Dad, Mom, Bara and a troublesome tree

My parents LOVE doing yard work and they did a little while we were in England. Later, Mom and Bara headed to the local garden center to get some (organic) spray for the tree.

Tim and Rachel did some work:

then we headed back into Leeds to see the Uni and generally hang out. Our first stop was the Library, (Parkinson Library? Sorry Rache, I forgot the proper name) and Rachel gave us tours. We got to see where she studies and the special collections and generally tour around. It’s a beautiful library with what I would call an art deco theme.

After the library, we walked to the English House, which is really a bunch of houses connected. I got to see the super special poster with all the photos of the students of English. Here is Rachel pointing out here photo:

We followed that up with some delicious lunch (sandwiches and milk shakes! YUM!). At this point we were walking toward a park to enjoy our lunch and Grandpa stopped and said, “I”m not walking a mile to see some damn park” so we stopped right there and ate outside the engineering building, which is about as attractive as engineering buildings are apt to be.

After lunch, Mom, Dad, Erik, Jonathan and Rachel went to Carr Mills to see her room and where she lives while Grandpa and I chilled in the Library where it was nice and cool and oh, Rachel’s dorm is over a mile away so it was probably good that we opted out of that portion. This was one of my favorite parts-hanging out with Grandpa and asking him questions about his job and what it was like when he and Grandma first got married and how it was to have seven children running around the house all the time.

Upon the return of the rest of the group, Mom, Dad, Erik and Grandpa headed back to Bara’s while Rachel, Jonathan and I walked back to her dorm for my official tour and to hang out with Tim and get some groceries. After our adventure, we arrived back to Bara’s where we corralled everyone and walked to the nearest fish and chip shop and got our supper. Erik liked it immediately:

Erik digs in!

The men finished out the night with a rousing game of Settlers of Catan

It's about as exciting to watch as Risk

Meanwhile, Rachel and Terry enjoyed some good old fashined “rock, paper, scissors”

1, 2, 3, Go!

It was a very good day.

Posted in England, family, photo, travel | 2 Responses »

England: York

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

The day began with some sweet hanging out of the laundry and hoping it was dry by the end of the day. I REALLY enjoy line drying our laundry and will be a happy girl when we get our own clothesline (after the yard project is complete).
Here is what our stuff looked like in England:

Out to dry

Maddy made delicious porridge for breakfast. Good job Maddy!

Then we went back to our favorite train stop at Woodlesford and caught the train to York! This was maybe my favorite day of the whole trip! Grandpa decided he’d rather stay back and finish a book he’d started the day before so it was a bit sad that he ditched us, but otherwise it was most enjoyable.

We arrived to York and walked along the old city walls. Jonathan was able to use the gorillapod to set up a sweet shot of all of us:

We went to York minster and decided we’d like to climb to the top! It’s not everyday you’re able to climb to the top of a cathedral! Regrettably, the line was long so we bought our tickets and then headed out to explore a bit more. We visited shops and looked around, the men went to a shop that really only sold meat and then we all took tea at Betty’s tea shop.

After we were filled to the gills with tea and food, we went to the Jorvich Viking Centre and learned of the Viking history of York! It was very interesting and a little creepy and maybe smelled a bit dodgy, but it was great! After the Vikings, we climbed the tower (which was really two towers) to the top of Yorkminster.

Mom and Dad-almost half way!

The view from the top was beautiful

After getting over the fact that we climbed hundreds of stairs while confined within a spiral staircase made of stone, we headed to one of the squares for the Historic Pub Tour of York (can you tell who picked which activities for the day? Mom and Kelly and Rachel=tea, Mom and Dad=climb the tower, Dad Dad Dad=pub tour). Oddly enough, the pub tour was very enjoyable, though I did ask for a coca-cola classic rather than ale. Because who wants ale when you can have a delicious coke? Not me.
It was just our family on the tour, which made it very nice and a little bit hilarious.

First stop on the pub tour-The Lion and the Lamb

The Lion and The Lamb was our first stop and the pub in closest proximity to Yorkminster. The church ran the pubs at one time, which must have made its location convenient!

It was very nice to sit and rest after all that walking:

And Dad and Jonathan enjoyed some bonding time:

Thankfully, the glasses of ale were small so everyone had their sample without incident (Big E and I skipped out on this one)

More pub tour photos:

After our historic pub tour it was time for dinner and since Grandpa wasn’t with us, we had Italian! It was delicious.
We were able to catch a glimpse of the sunset as we headed back to the train station for our train to Leeds.

Sunset in York

J&K with York sunset

Posted in England, family, marriage, photo, travel | 4 Responses »

Oatmeal for Breakfast

Or: The New Adventures of the McPhersons