Cutest baby toy ever

We just received the tummy time surf mat. It looks like a little boogie board. Cutest baby toy ever - here's a picture, and what you can't see from this picture is that the part at the top (above the orange pillow) can be filled with water and some fish float around in it. I know that it won't really matter to the baby, and he can have tummy time on a blanket on the floor for all that he will care, but I cannot wait to take some pictures of him on this. Thanks to the Princeton girls for this!

Storytime Baby Shower

Last weekend, Lauren threw me a baby shower. We had a great time: ate strawberry shortcake and party sandwiches, chatted, and did not play any of the stupid baby shower games that I have subjected friends to in the past... A highlight of the party was "storytime". I had asked for people to bring their favorite bedtime story, nursery rhyme, or lullaby, and we went around the circle and everyone read a story, sang a song, or passed on advice. The best part of the party was definitely just seeing so many friends from different parts of my life get together - a friend from Princeton, some former labmates from Caltech, a friend from Pasadena, a friend from the general science community, some labmates at Stanford, and some other Stanford postdocs... The worst part is that I forgot to take a picture.

Something to look forward to?

According to this week's BabyCenter Pregnancy Bulletin, it appears that within a couple of weeks, I will begin to have trouble getting out of bed. As if trouble sleeping, and trouble not rolling onto my stomach, and trouble waking up weren't enough already?! Anyway, the advice in this newsletter (from a "pediatric sleep expert") definitely scared me - will getting out of bed really become this much of a production:

"Here's what I did: I'd roll over onto my left side (if I wasn't already in that position) and "tip" myself out of bed, feet first. When my legs touched the floor, I'd use my arms to push myself up into a sitting position on the bed. From there, I simply stood up."

Dr. Daddy

Nevermind baby books or the infant CPR course that we took last week - we decided that in this family, the best way to prepare to be a good parent is by getting a Ph.D. With that in mind, Eric, Huong and I headed down to Pasadena for Eric's commencement ceremony last week. We had a great time (despite the oppressive sunshine and heat), and even got to meet up with other pregnant friends like Vala (in the picture below) who is due 6 days after me.

Just barely fitting in

I've had a very smooth pregnancy so far, but a minor irritation has cropped up this week: I went to the Physical Chemistry seminar on Monday afternoon to find that my belly only just barely fits below the desks in the auditorium. So sad! Fortunately, there are very few seminars in the summer, so I should be OK.

Princeton in Annapolis

Eric and I spent the past weekend in Annapolis having an alternative 7th Princeton reunion. Ten of us rented a great house and spent two days relaxing, grilling, playing Wii and "Speed Scrabble", and most importantly, eating crabs! We also got a fabulous surprise when, upon awakening from a nap on Saturday afternoon (Eric was recovering from his red-eye flight and I nap every weekend day), we came downstairs to find a surprise baby shower waiting for us, complete with decorations, gifts, and cupcakes! Thanks everyone :)

Making room for baby

We spent the past weekend going through the house trying to organize and downsize in order to make room for all of the baby gear that we've been steadily acquiring. This included recycling some old class notes, donating unused clothes and "stuff" to Goodwill (thank you Eric for agreeing to get rid of the old, non-working TV even though it once allegedly belonged to the surfer Tom Curren, you really are the best husband), and stashing things in our garage storage locker. My favorite part was using "space bags" which triple your storage space when you vacuum out the air between your blankets and clothes.