Welcome to (someone else's) Zoo!

Okay, so I frequently compare my life to a zoo... you can probably guess that since I haven't updated my blog since Ian was BORN! Hehe. Anyway, I'm taking this rare moment of solitude to share our adventure at a cheep petting zoo last weekend... ugh!

Daddy was meeting one of his lichen-y friends (interestingly, the ONLY other lichenologist in Pittsburgh!) last Saturday down in the middle of nowheresville, PA. I was itching to go somewhere outside, so I took Ian to this crappy little petting zoo out there. It made my inner vegan kind of sick to her stomach. There were dead birds in the cages, you could actually feed the bears the same crappy pellets that you fed all the other animals, and there was a sad little monkey by himself in one of the cages. Okay, enough of the Debby Downer stuff (God, liberals can be annoying! LOL!). We had FUN! :)

Ian was fascinated with this turtle! He could have just stared at him all day!
Okay, pop quiz: Which of these animals reminded me of Yukon?

Was it (a) the miniature horse?

(b) the sheep?

(c) the goats?

(d) the donkey?

(e) the llama?

(f) the LOUD donkey?

or (g) all of the above? If you picked "g", you were right! They were all just like Yukon because they were begging for food! I felt like I was at home! Again with the zoo analogy...

Anyway, I'm sure you couldn't give two hoots about all these animal pictures, so here are some more Ian pictures!

There was this one goat running around by himself so I thought it would be cute to get a picture of him with Ian. Ian just LOVED watching him (probably thought he was another dog!) so when the goat got close, I got my camera ready.

This is kind of what I wanted.

This is what I actually got. The darn thing started chewing on Ian's sippy cup! Needless to say (since I'm obviously SUCH a good parent! LOL) I dropped the camera and yanked the cup away immediately... but not before I got a shot of Ian's face that just says, "Aw, MOM! Why?!?"

Anyway, after seeing a few more animals (including these grizzly bears who fought over their treats the same way our dogs do!), Ian and I stopped and took a little break.

The very best part was the Cheerios at the end!

He's here!

Ian Osborne Slone Dolney is finally here! Okay so that was a week ago, hehe. Life since then has been a whirlwind of family visits, doctors appointments, lots of diapers and sleepless nights! Now I know where the show title "Baby Boot Camp" came from! :)

I woke up last Thursday morning-- um, how do I put this delicately-- I thought that the term "stress incontinence" that they talk about in pregnancy books had happened to me (and then some!). It turned out that my water had broken! I called the doctor's office (I had an appointment at 10:45, but they told me to come in early to check me out). I was already 4 cm dilated and was told to get myself to the hospital because I was in active labor!

Well, after chitchatting with the nurses for a few hours and having myself a wonderful time in the delivery room, they put me on Pitocin because I was "way too happy to be having real contractions". What did they know? They didn't even check me! (Of course, they did later on and I was still only 4 cm dilated... so maybe they did know what they were talking about!) Apparently I'd been in (wussy) labor for the past few days and didn't even know it. Whoops.

About 8 hours later at 11:38 pm, Ian came into the world. It was kind of a rough delivery and he came out with a conehead because he was face up and they had to vacuum him out-- the midwife even called him Dan Akroyd. But he was already alert and adorable!

Anyway, being that this is the first spare second I've had, I just wanted to let everyone know that I appreciate all the love and congrats that have come my way even though I've barely had time to talk to anyone. Bryan and I are totally thrilled and madly in love with this little guy!

Now to the important part-- pictures! There will be more to come as I get myself somewhat

back together!!! :)

Our last picture as a (childless) couple!

Eww what's this junk on my toes?

This is Ian's Popeye face. It's the cutest thing! It's the exact same expression that he had when they pulled him out and placed him on my belly. If he wasn't a newborn baby I'd be afraid of him. LOL. :)

Ian makes kissy faces for Grandmommy.

Ian chills out with Granddaddy.

Ian's tired after being in that crazy hospital!

35 Weeks and Counting...

Okay so I'm 35 weeks along and the baby measured at about 6 pounds, 5 ounces just a week ago... I just know I'm totally in for it!

Anyway, I finally found my camera cord... for some reason it was in Julian's toy box. What a great place for it! For those of you who have been wanting to see them (and those of you that aren't!) here is my latest pregnancy picture!

Granted, it was 10:00 at night and I was exhausted. Hopefully I can get a halfway decent one before he comes!

Oh, and last week we got the nursery painted. Our theme is "Acid Trip Zoo". Or something like that. Eventually this fabric will be curtains, and there will be a crib in here too! But in the meantime, this is all it is. :)

In case you couldn't tell, Rachel (the cat) loves it in there. Not that I blame her! It's pretty fly!!!

New Technology!

Okay so I suck at this blog thing... but I am trying really hard not to! Things have been quite, um, active around here. Just two weeks ago Bryan and I were a family of two, then we moved in with his mom and became a family of three, now we're (temporarily) a family of four! And our still nameless baby isn't even born yet!!!

You see, Renee's been studying for the Bar exam which doesn't start for another two weeks. Needless to say, it's pretty hard to get anything accomplished with a two year old around! So Julian has been staying at Grandma's house for the past few days.

Yesterday, he brought one of his Thomas the Train pieces into the dining room while we were eating dinner. Next, he brought up an old wireless adapter. Add another USB cord of some sort, a packet of post it notes, and Voila! Julian made his own fax machine!

I just had to get out my camera. :)

Here we go...I'm jumping on!

It's really ironic. The last time I kept a blog was back in 2005 when I was running. I only managed to keep it (the blog and the running) up for a couple of months until I met my sweet Bryan and got distracted. I tracked myself as I became better at running, as I lost weight, and as I celebrated being by myself once again after-- well, you probably already know.

But here I am-- I'm no longer by myself. Nor will I be for a long, long, time. Hopefully never. But I found myself reading that old blog once again (back in December) and was inspired to recapture the spirit of that blog again... the spirit that only comes with being a runner. Since it was Christmastime and I was going home to Florida soon, I decided that January 3, 2008 would be my start date-- the day we got back to Pittsburgh.

I even sat there on the plane making a schedule for myself. I was so excited! I was finally going to lose those pesky 50 pounds I'd gained since my freshman year of college! Woo-hoo!

But fate had other plans... as I returned to my house here in Pittsburgh I took a routine test that many women take with no real reason to suspect a positive outcome (ok so I was a week late!), I saw 2 little blue lines. 2 lines that meant that I wouldn't be running for a long, long time.

And here he is-- the cause of that 2nd blue line! So this is an "old" ultrasound photo of him at 13 weeks... before he revealed his (ahem) masculine glory. I'd upload the other ones, but of course my scanner died before I could do so. Maybe someday!