Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Family. Show all posts

Friday, June 8, 2012

Peanut!

Ah... remember the summer of 2010? We spent two months in upstate New York, watched a lot of soccer (and despite our passionate cheering, Germany did not win the World Cup), and I was getting more and more pregnant with the Bean...

Acorn Bump 20 weeks-14.jpg


Yepp, that's what I looked like.

Only, it's not a 2010 pictures. It's a bit more recent. Shot three weeks ago. 'Cause... I'm pregnant. With the Peanut. 26 weeks today... 14 more to go. A September baby. Another baby boy. Conrad's little brother. Eeeeeeeeeek!!!!!

(And Saturday the Euro Cup starts. Germany better win this one.)

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Surprise Baby!

Quick recap... here's photo of the Baby Surprise Jacket I finished a week ago...

IMG_9313


Cute, eh? And soooo soft and cuddly. I asked you to guess who it's for, but no one dared to make a wild guess (chickens!). Since I can't keep mum about it much longer I'm just gonna blurt it out, right after I go through a list of candidates.

'Cause candidates there are many! Besides three tiny ones born to friends just recently, there is big time baby news in the family.

First, there's a November baby on its way. Proud mamma: my step-sister.

Second, a boy is arriving in December. Surprised papa: my little brother (barely out of his own diapers! school).

Third, a January baby is also on order. Its tentative name: Beanie. Its over-joyous, over-the-moonish parents are... drum rolls... champagne cork pops...: moi and the Hubs. We! Us! Beanie parents! YAY!!!!

That's three cousins all being born in the span of three months! My poor father, who says he doesn't much like kids (which we don't believe, since he is a great dad to us), is a bit overwhelmed by the prospect of triple grandfatherhood. Tee hee. I, on the other hand, couldn't be happier--for my brother, my step-sister, but most of all for us! The Beanie--who got its name at the first ultrasound, where it looked like a two centimeter long lima bean--has long been awaited, mostly in talk. When we got down to business, so to speak, we didn't expect that the Bean would turn up within just a few months. We found out in May, and what I remember from our England trip most vividly are the frequent stops to Boots to get more pregger tests: I successfully peed on sticks in London, Oxford, York, and Manchester!

Perhaps now you can guess why there wasn't much knitting or blogging in June. 'Cause I was in the bathroom, thank you very much. Morning sickness translated in my case into afternoon-evening-night sickness, although it's gotten much better over the last couple of weeks. Now I throw up only at midnight. Progress!

I'm totally fascinated by the pregnancy changes. I mean, you hear this stuff about weird appetite and the whole morning sickness thing, and it's all true (creamed herring bites, anyone? Some OJ with that?). But the craziest thing is my sense of smell, which especially during the first two months was über-human: I could smell California from here. Now that I'm in my second trimester things are returning to normal. I suppose this will change again once there's a bump to carry in front of me. (Hel-lo bump.... where are you?)

Good night now. The Beanie needs sleep. 'Cause this week it's growing from "medium peach" to "small grapefruit" size--and that's a lot of growing!

(Oh... the cardi? Yes, for the Beanie. Can't you tell? It's green! Like green lima beans!)

Saturday, March 6, 2010

A Special Knitter

This is a photo of Ginette, taken on Christmas Day of 2009. As you can see, Ginette was a knitter:

Ginette knitting


Ginette was une femme formidable. Born in France, she was swept off her feet by Frank, who had been on his way from war-torn Belgium to the U.S., and once he returned to claim her after the war, she moved to the U.S. as well. The home they made together was a refuge of love and laughter, and it became the center of happy gatherings with family and friends. Many of my favorite memories are of visits to their house; it was there that my husband introduced me to his family, and we've been celebrating our Thanksgivings there ever since.

When Frank fell ill, Ginette, herself (almost) as healthy as a spring chicken, took care of him, but at last he passed away. Married to him for 62 years, Ginette followed him this week, not two months after his death. While this fills me with immense sadness, I know that Ginette didn't want it any differently. She had told her daughters this much: she wanted to join her husband and was ready for the journey. She will be missed here terribly.