say hello to the wee little baby d., folks! at 20 weeks, our little one weighs in at just under a pound! and look at that shapely head and that lovely spine...he/she's come a long way from the peanut we saw at 9 weeks...it's a totally surreal experience to be lying on your back in a hospital bed, with your husband next to you stroking your hand, as both your eyes are glued to the images of this little squirmy thing on a monitor...and the little squirmy thing is both of you at once and an entirely other being too...watching a little baby develop is an amazing experience...all you see everyday is your belly growing bigger...but then you see these images, and you can't help wondering, where did that spine come from? and the four chambers of the heart? and the little fingers and toes and kneecaps and butt? where did all those come from?

an experience like this will give you new respect for all life because you realize how amazing of a miracle it is that any creature comes into being at all...

happy birthday to me! and happy 20th week to my littly baby! we're half way there! woohoo...now off to sweet maple cafe for a birthday brunch w/ my teddy & my mommy & my bro...

...i did a really stupid thing on sunday...we went to the botanic gardens for the bonsai show w/ teddy's little sister lauren, and i was really looking forward to taking some photos...well, being the lazyass photog i've been lately, turns out the two batteries i had w/ me for my camera were totally lacking in juice...i took a total of maybe 6 photos before they both died on me...what's even dumber is that when i got home that night, i dug through my camera bag and found a totally juiced battery hiding amongst my lenses...i felt like such a dodo...



...in addition to this little booboo, i also kept spilling stuff...i spilled at least two differnt kinds of liquids down my cleavage before the clock struck half past noon, and then at ellen's bday party, i spilled an entire tuperware of little pimentos extracted from a jar of olives...



...you know, i've always been a bit of a space cadet and a major klutz, but this pregnancy thing is not helping at all...teddy just takes it all in stride and says it's to be expected in my condition...i guess he read about it or something...apparently, your brain cells get diverted for the purpose of manufacturing miniature human body parts, and the everincreasing bump on your frontside throws things just a bit off balance...



...as of tomorrow, i'm half way there...20 weeks...yowza...



...today is my last day as a XXXI-year old...tomorrow i get to go see our baby on a sonogram...although we don't want to find out the sex of the baby...will they still let me see the monitor i wonder? i hope so...i'll just keep my eyes on the head and torso portion...



been listening to--

befriended--the innocence mission

electric version--the new pornographers

how i learned to write backwards--the aislers set

the creek drank the cradle--iron & wine

our endless numbered days--iron & wine

the meadowlands--the wrens

summerteeth--wilco

march 16-20, 1992--uncle tupelo

s/t ep #2--califone

your favorite music--clem snide

where shall you take me--damien jurado

mermaid ave i&2--billy bragg & wilco

happy saturday! yay! boy, do i need some r&r...this working 5 days a week thing is not getting any easier when i'm toting a beanie-baby sized human around in my tummy...that may not sound like much, but you gotta understand...the little human is pressing against certain organs that's making certain life functional things you take for granted--oh, things like breathing and NOT having to pee every hour--rather difficult...and i don't get much relief at night either...i'm at the point at which i'm admonished to stay off my back, and for a backsleeper like myself, that means i have to very consciously stay on my side (they say your left side is best...probably because of where certain organs are situated), which isn't easy once i'm asleep and lose control over what my body may be doing...teddy has accused me of pushing him further and further off the bed since i've begun this sleeping position, as i naturally inch over towards the side i'm sleeping on...poor sweetie...he won't wake me up either because i have to get up so damn early for work...

...i just found out yesterday that my best friend from college, michelle, whom i haven't seen in two years is also pregnant! she's due in august! my dad officiated her wedding, so he'd be so happy for them...there are so many people having babies...speaking of which, my friends sam & jenny had their big bouncing baby boy on monday! his name is caleb, which i think is a great name...

...speaking of baby names, teddy & i have been looking through a book of 40,001 baby names...it's just ridiculous how many there are to choose from...and teddy comes up w/ these names that i know will make the kid hate us once they're old enough to realize what we've done...i mean, i want to pick a name that's not so common, but i want it to be pronounceable AND spellable(which rules out a lot of the gaelic names i love so much like aioffe or saiorse)and not something that SOUNDS like an insult...well, we've got five months...and no, we're not taking suggestions...sorry!

...and then there's the issue of what to do with my name...i don't want to completely lose my old name of 'rxxx', but i don't want to hyphenate, which means i can take rxxx as my middle name, but i don't want to lose my old middle name...i've been sjr for so long now, ya know? i could've kept my own last name, but that gets confusing too, and it's just so much easier to say 'ted & sarah dxxxxxx' and not 'ted dxxxxxx & sarah rxxx'...ugh...ok...whatever...we'll see...

...lots of parties this weekend...i'm going to my friends rea & miki's condo housewarming tonight, and then we're going to a surprise birthday party right after that, and then tomorrow is the bonsai fair @ the chicago botanic garden (teddy & brown john used to be bonsai enthusiasts and have an extensive library of bonsai journals, books and videos) and then tomorrow evening is a coctail mixer for yellow ellow's bday...hopefully i'll get a nap or two in between...

p.s. HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB DYLAN...I DREAMED LAST NIGHT YOU WERE SINGING ME A SONG OFF JOHN WESLEY HARDING, BUT WHEN I WOKE UP I REALIZED IT WAS JEFF TWEEDY'S VOICE...THANKS FOR THE MUSIC ANYWAY!!!

been listening to--
dear catastrophe waitress--belle & sebastian
fever to tell--yeah yeah yeahs
john wesley harding--bob dylan
slow train coming--bob dylan
without a sound--dinosaur jr

...teddy & i did go on a photoshoot downtown on sunday afternoon...it was a beautiful day with sun and mild temperatures and tourists and everything! we took the brown line down, which was a headache due to track repairs (the train started going backwards at one point), but we made it down to madison & wabash...we walked over to the new millenium park on michigan ave which i had never even seen before...i guess i don't go to that part of town too often...there were lots of folks out enjoying the weather...families with picnic baskets that looked like they were out of a movie, little babies running amok, digital cameras snapping up kodak moments galore...i can't say i was too inspired...it was a bit too...uhm...contrivedly picturesque?? i don't know...



...after a bit of peoplewatching, we walked over to the cultural center where they're having this great exhibit called 'isn't that amazing: the appeal and speil of ronco and pompeil'...those are the guys behind classic all-american gadgets such as the veg-o-matic, whip-o-matic, among other o-matics and doodads...they were famous for selling their goods on tv...the fathers of infomercials...the exhibit had a tv playing a video of the old ads, and we stood transfixed watching these amazing demonstrations, and i couldn't help wondering if i could get me one of this and one of that on ebay...if you're anywhere in the vicinity of the cultural center, i highly recommend this exhibit...it's a bit of history and fun and it's free!



teddy has requested that i revise my previous post, the part about me 'dragging him on a photoshoot' cuz he went willingly and there was no dragging involved (except my feet which is quite normal)...you see, he didn't mind because he wanted to do some watercoloring while i did my photoshooting...for our wedding present, i got teddy a klutz instruction book on watercoloring because he's been wanting to learn how to watercolor for months...he just started using that book this past weekend and hasn't been able to stop drawing and painting since...so he sat at a table in the daley plaza by the picasso and made the loveliest little picture in his sketchbook...it was of these pink tulips beneath a honey locust tree in the plaza...i hope he paints some pictures for me so i can post them in my office like my coworkers do with their kids' doodles...except teddy's aren't doodles...they're works of ART...yup...



...so our next big event is our postwedding pizza party bash for our friends...we went over to the leadway bar on damen & farragut last night and talked with brian, the man in charge over there...i think we're gonna be able to do it on friday june 17th...the leadway is a great place...it's got two outdoor patios, free pool & darts, and an art gallery room that can be used for live music and parties...we're gonna try and pack out that place, so if you want an invite, shoot me an email...