Showered in love and cute pink stuff

Until a few weeks ago, we had nothing in the way of baby products and I'd been feeling pretty unprepared for this whole parenthood thing. That all changed after a couple of baby showers, thrown by my mom, sister, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law. It's amazing what a bunch of women and a few carloads of gifts can do to bolster your confidence!

The first shower was held in Minnesota. My mom and sister put together a fantastic party, and it was great to see so many of my friends and family. I didn't have a chance to take many pictures of the actual shower, just before and after. Here are some highlights:

The centerpieces were cute little stuffed animals which match the nursery PERFECTLY.

They made little diapers out of napkins and filled them with mints:

Alisa decorated with baby clothes on a clothesline. Adorable!

The cake was supposed to represent a baby with a combination of both Jeff's and my qualities, but somehow the Packer/football theme seemed to overtake the literature theme. Typical.

My friend Jodi is pregnant and due shortly after me. The babies wanted to chat, so here they are, probably gossiping about all the cake we ate.

Grandma Pam, aka Party Planner #1:

Auntie Alisa, aka Party Planner #2:

Jeff's mom and sister threw a shower the following weekend. This too was a great success, despite some crappy weather. Again, I didn't take enough pictures to capture the awesome-ness of it all.

Susie had a cake made with baby pictures of Jeff and myself. It's a great way to guess what Baby Schmidt might look like. My prediction? Dimples.

Auntie Dana:

Grandma Susie:

Dana delivered her son Brennan in June. When he was born, I remember thinking how far away December seemed. How did the time fly so quickly?? Anyway, he's pretty pumped about meeting his new cousin. I can't wait to watch them grow up together!

Thanks to the generosity of our family and friends, we have pretty much everything we need (and more) for the baby now! The nursery is still a work in progress, but it's getting closer. It feels good to be more prepared, if only physically. As for the emotional preparation, well... I still have four weeks...

Thanks everyone!

Betsy's Adventure

As many of you know, Betsy ran away earlier this month. Some of Jeff's friends had come to Eau Claire from Minneapolis to surprise him. When they burst into the house, the front door didn't shut and in all the chaos Betsy escaped. Thus ensued a frantic search over the next day and a half. To say the least, we were devastated. Betsy has run away before, but has never been gone for more than a few minutes. We drove around Eau Claire, talked to the neighbors, called Animal Control and the Humane Association, posted lost dog notices online, and came up with nothing. Her name is on her tag and she's microchipped, but we didn't get a call from anyone. Nobody seemed to have seen her anywhere.

I was starting to lose hope after Jeff and I drove around searching on the second night she was gone, still with no results. I woke up several times that night to go to the bathroom. Each time, I went into the living room and checked for any sign of Betsy. At 3:00 a.m., I stumbled into the living room and was shocked to see her out on the deck, shivering and scratching at the patio door! Somehow, after being off-grid for 30-some hours, Betsy had made her own way home. She was limping a little and was VERY tired, but recovered within a couple of days and is now back to her perky little self.

Resting after her escape. What a stinker.

Since her return, we've asked Betsy about her little excursion, where she went and what she did, but she's not giving anything away. We've also chided her extensively about all the worry she caused, but she doesn't seem very remorseful. The entire experience has given us a glimpse of the emotional ups and downs that will inevitably come with parenthood. I don't know how we'll handle the stress, quite frankly. For now, we figured out a good way to contain Betsy in the baby's new play yard. :)

 

Officer in Training

It's been an eventful month. I'm going to do my best to summarize in a few posts.

I went to Washington, D.C. early in November for a conference. There wasn't much time for sight seeing, but I managed to walk around the Capitol a bit and take a few pictures.

We also took tours of the Capitol and the White House, both of which were really interesting. Cameras weren't allowed in the White House, which is too bad, since I saw a member of the first family in person, a mere 10 feet away. That's right... I saw Bo, the First Dog! He's just as adorable up close as on TV, and seemed totally unfazed by the crowd of admirers. I guess he's adjusted to his celebrity status.

The best part of the trip was being able to see my friend Dana, who lives in the area. She's pregnant with a baby girl too, so we made sure the babies got some time to hang out and chat, fetus to fetus. It was pretty clear to us that they're going to be great friends.

Baby Schmidt didn't go unnoticed by the locals in D.C. In between meetings with our Wisconsin legislators, I was walking near the Capitol when a machine gun-armed police officer stopped me. I racked my brain, wondering what federal law I'd broken and how I'd talk my way out of it. Fortunately, he just wanted to give me this super cool badge for the baby:

She looks good as a federal cop, doesn't she?

On the flight home, I realized that between work trips and vacations, Baby Schmidt has taken 10 plane rides and visited six different states in utero. I'll be sticking close to home for a while now, but I'm hoping the traveling has instilled a sense of adventure in our baby!