asteroid B612

added to the blog roll are a couple of friends from Cono days, Genevieve and Dawn, discovering that blogs are a great to keep in touch. I agree. Our families go way back with these folks. We may as well be related. :-)

Charity (former housemate at Cov) has moved to covblogs. new life, new blog. wishing much happiness to the newlyweds.

Things are looking up a bit here in Ellis world. I think we're starting to get the hang of things. Ellis is eating better (if he wouldn't fall asleep on the job...and, let me tell you, once he's asleep he is unwakeable! not even cold washcloths!!). He had his 2 week checkup this morning, and he's back up to birth weight plus a half an ounce. Still a tiny kid, but I think his face is chubbier.

I'm feeling a bit better. Wed-Fri last week was pretty rough, but by Sat I had perked up a bit. Ellis and I spent the afternoon lounging over at a friend's house, which was nice. On Sunday Ellis went to church for the first time. He slept through everything. And yesterday we went to Border's and Starbucks for his daddy's birthday. My head is starting to wake up a little, and I'm thinking about the papers I want to work on

He is such a good little baby. He rarely fusses, except when he's getting hungry. He'll even lie their quietly while i sponge bathe him, looking around with his bright eyes. I've noticed that he's starting to respond to me in particular, or maybe i just smell like dinner.

We're just having a great time with this little guy.

Not much to write about. Life just revolves around sleeping and the boob, both going about as can be expected at this point, which doesn't feel great, but gotta press on. One thing long hours in the rocking chair affords me is plenty of opportunity to get to know the camera as an Ellis-capturing device. I think I like flash off the best. He's wearing newborn size onesies. I love how the way they droop all over him makes him look like a little hustler or something.

I'm still alive. Really. Ellis will be a week old tomorrow. Exciting. I keep going back and forth from being really excited and feeling like I've just got to survive. I never get tired of holding my little boy. He is really amazing. He's curled up in my lap right now all snuggly in his blue fleecy blanket.

Anyway, so this is what happened. Don't read on if you don't want to know all the gory details.

Presenting our little guy!

Four weeks early and a whopping six punds, Ellis Thurman was delivered at 3.24AM, June 15 2005. Mom and baby are resting comfortably at Abington Memorial Hospital, here in PA. Herself will fill you guys in with futher details when she comes home tomorrow morning. Thank the Lord!

I haven't been around the computer much lately. We spent the weekend with my fam in Lancaster. Their computer was fried by lightening last week, so no internet. It was fine. I didn't feel much like getting on anyway.

It's been warm here. No where near New Orleans heat, but still it's warm. My parents don't have air (another testimony to the fact that this is definitely not Louisiana), but they have a lovely backporch atop a yard that slopes down into the fields, with a pleasant breeze always blowing up it. My dad built a pond and waterfall last summer, so sitting there in the breeze with the gurgling of the water watching the birdies play was really nice. When I wasn't doing that, I was sitting on the couch.

We had Sam Fest 2005 in honor of my brother's high school graduation. Pretty low key open house; lots of his school buddies were around, so there was this herd of teenagers and then everybody else.

On Friday, my mom took us to all the cool out-of-way Amish/Mennonite used furniture stores. Antiquing for real people with real incomes. We were mostly just looking to get an idea of prices. We ditched some of our furniture in NOLA, and we just need others, like a dresser. Elvis is more set than we are in the way of furniture! We did buy a rocking chair. It's so cool. It's old and distinctive. It welcomes you into its seat and is low enough for my short legs. I can't wait until someday when we can start furnishing, because let me tell you, these places we went to were incredible! The prices beat out even Target for solid antique pieces.

We're back in Philly now. I'm not going anywhere until we have this baby. This is the last month and my body is getting ready. I all of a sudden realized that I'm not ready, though. I mean, I am but I'm not. We've been so upheaved these past couple of months that getting ready for labor has sort of been back burner. Then there's the little things: packing bags, washing a few baby clothes, getting diapers, etc., getting a carseat. I'm also all of a sudden realizing that I really do mind changing doctors and hospitals. I've been trying to just roll with the punches. But, I miss my old doctor and hospital!!! It was nice, comfy, and, most importantly, familiar. I don't think I'll be the type of woman who spends her last month furiously nesting. I just want to lie on the couch in front of the tv.

I'm thinking about getting this stroller. I like that it's multi-terrain, smooth riding, durability, easy maneuverability, reclinable seat, all ages. It seems the only drawback is bulkiness for small cars, which I have. But this is the stroller we're buying with gift money for that purpose, and if I want a quickie, lighweight one, I can afford an umbrella stroller later, whereas I couldn't afford a good, solid stroller later. Whadya think?

Yesterday was our Fourth Anniversary.

Somehow it felt bigger this year. More momentous. This has been a year of a lot of growing for us. Then there is all these life changes. I'm very thankful that I've got the best husband in the world! :-)

Last night we went into center city Philly to a really fab-o Italian restaurant just off of South St. In some ways, it felt weird to be driving around Philly, not an unfamiliar place, in our car with Louisiana plates. Like it still hasn't sunk in that we're not on vacation. We both really like this city and were happy to find such a great restaurant. We shared an appetizer plate that was like a salad of calamari, mussels, salmon, shrimp and other seafoody things and a spinach salad with a raspberry dressing. Then we shared a plate of gnocchi with red peppers. So good! I had filet mignon with a mushroom sauce and Chris had prosciuto wrapped veal. The entrees came with a side of gnocchi (which had an interesting tomato sauce--at first it seemed fairly straightforward, but the after taste was kind of spicy) and spinach, which was so good! Probably sauteed with garlic. Too full for dessert, but we had coffee; I actually got an espresso, which was a little disappointing. It wasn't "brace yourself I'm for real coffee" kind of espresso. It just tasted like strong coffee. We brought a bottle of wine. I had a couple of sips; very good, wish I coulda drunk more, but I drank like a liter of Pellegrino (and went to the bathroom about a hundred times). We left two and a half hours later very satisfied with our dining experience. I love food, and I love it when I get to go to a place with really good food. And I love finding a good Italian restaurant, which is harder than you might think. It made me think of last summer's wild dining in Italy.

Afterwards we walked around the park in Rittenhouse Sq. Five years ago after we had first met and fallen in love, we had spent a dreamy evening there. It was fun to go back.