Do I really look *that* different?

Today I was talking to my office mother, Habiba. Habiba is a wonderful Somali woman. She is so in tune with people and all the touchy feely intuition girl stuff, which is why I guess I shouldn't have been so shocked when out of nowhere she said, "so tell me, Elena. Are you pregnant now?" I wasn't going to lie, she is my office mother after all.

She said that I looked different - more "glowing" and that my face was rounder. So the body changes have begun, apparently.

I never would have thought that someone would be able to tell so soon.

Doctor, Doctor

I spent half the day at work trying to find a doctor to go to. My first appointment is scheduled for December 5th. At this appointment, the pregnancy will be confirmed, they'll do routine blood tests, and have lots of time for questions and answers.

My first exam will be on December 21st. I can't believe this is all happening!

The Baby Blog

So I thought it would be a cool idea to start a baby blog so I could document everything that is happening and be able to share it all later, whenever we decide it's okay to tell people. Can you imagine how disappointed I was to see that the blog name babygrover.blogspot.com already existed!?!? It's kind of strange because this girl is due at the very end of this year. The strange part is, their family's last name isn't even Grover, it's KELLBACH!!! I guess her maiden name is Groves. Oh, and another weird thing is that her wedding anniversary is the same day as ours. And you're probably wondering how I know all this. The answer is that I'm nosy. That's all there is to it. I read the whole blog, looked at her baby registry and flickr account and now I know. This is why I am good at tracing and finding people.


You're probably not reading this to learn the details of some random lady's life, so I will end this post with my first belly picture. Here we are at end of week 5 (I think):

For real?!?

Early November I started feeling a little funny in the boob department and also feeling a little yucky after eating dinner. I wasn't sure what to think. I kind of thought I was possibly pregnant, but hadn't missed my period yet and didn't want to get worked up about it either way. Although, I'm not going to lie, I bought a package of cute green and yellow onesies.

However, the night before we went on vacation I thought the responsible thing to do was take a test to make sure. After all, we were going to have 24 hr access to all the alcohol we wanted. So I came home and waited for Lane so we could do the test.

I have serious issues peeing on sticks and into cups, by the way. I just can't do it. Anyway, I immediately left the bathroom after taking the test and Lane and I both went to check the results exactly two minutes later. Here's what we found:


We were so excited and Lane told me what a good job I had done, as if this were a one person accomplishment ;) He also said he already knew I was pregnant! So I immediately pulled my What to Expect When You're Expecting book and started studying.

A friend of ours asked if we were going to bring home a Baby Grover from our vacation, I laughed and said I didn't think so. I had no idea we'd be taking a Baby Grover with us to the Dominican Republic!

It was really good timing. We were able to read all about being pregnant, talk about it tons and just soak it all in. For ages I've daydreamed about us having babies. It's so surreal to think there's actually a little rascal growing like crazy inside of me.

At dinner one night Lane told me how happy he was that we were starting our family. I think we both got a little teary-eyed.

Our Elfamorphosis

If you've been searching the internet to see Lane and Elena dressed as Santa's little elves, doing a Christmas boogie, look no further! We have elfed ourselves, and are sharing the results for your viewing pleasure!!

Check it out:

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9600613872

Thanksgiving Week

We returned from vacation on Monday night to a mostly messy apartment and an empty kitchen. We had just enough time to pick up a turkey and some other essential items at Trader Joes before David and Christianne arrived.

My 10 year old niece is such a sweetheart. Even though I had just seen her in June, I was surprised to see that she was nearly as tall as me, and wore a bigger shoe size than me. Before she even arrived to DC, she knew she wanted to go to the top of the Washington Monument, see the Jefferson Memorial at night, and go ice skating. We were sure she got to do all of these things. One night she decided to write a story. So she just sat down and immediately started writing, only stopping to give us paragraph by paragraph updates. Christianne amazed me with her descriptive accounts of being caught in a rainstorm - the clouds trembled, the lightning flickered, and she was safely covered under a blanket of trees... I loved it.

We spent Wednesday cooking and cooking, and cooking some more. It was nice, because there wasn't much to do on Thursday except clean up a little, which made the day more relaxing. We had David, Christianne, and several friends over for the following feast:

1. Mixed greens with apple, dried cranberries, candied pecans, and goat cheese

2. Roasted turkey with an herb paste rubbed all under the skin. We stuffed it with fresh herb sprigs, onions, celery, and fresh citrus fruit.

3. Dressing, which my brother called hippie stuffing. I made it with asiago sourdough bread, spicy italian sausage, dried apricots, fresh apples and cranberries, pecans, pine nuts, fennel, other regular veggies, tons of fresh herbs, and moistened it with spicy apple cider and white wine.

4. Spinach Gratin (which I could have added a little extra spinach to)

5. Roasted sweet potato and roasted banana puree with a nut streusel topping

6. Mashed Potatoes

7. Sauteed Green beans

For dessert, Lane made delicious Pumpkin Crunch, a recipe shared by our dear friend Malia, and I made an apple cranberry pie. It was a serious feast.

I truly thought I was going to pass out after I finished eating my dinner. Lane was in all his glory. We purposely got an extra big turkey so we could have tons of leftovers.

After running about 8 cycles in two days my dishwasher decided to crap out after Thanksgiving dinner, leaving us to wash all our dishes by hand.

The next morning, we put on the Christmas music, decorated the tree and the rest of the apartment. I just love getting a head start on the Christmas holiday. The rest of the weekend was spent checking items off of Christianne's list, in addition to visiting the American Indian museum, the Smithsonian visitor center (the castle) and the Botanical Gardens.

June and October

In June, while Lane and I were in Indiana one night, Lane looked at me and said we should decide when we want to have kids, and it should be soon. I was so surprised and excited to hear this come from him. So I cried.

Later on, we talked about how we wanted me to stay home, and what we'd need to do to make that happen. We decided we'd have to sell our house in CA. This is quite possibly one of the most overwhelming things to figure out, let alone trying to do so from 3,000 miles away. So we procrastinated and did nothing.

In October, we had this moment where we both just realized that if we got pregnant we'd be happy and totally ready to take on the new challenge, adventure, and stage of our lives that a baby would bring. And, that maybe actually having a 9 month deadline would get us into shape to do the things we've been dragging our feet on.