We had a great trip to C harleston, Illinois to visit John's family this past weekend, though the trip was too short. We even changed our return flight home on Sunday so we had a little more time, but we paid for it getting in so late on Sunday and both John and I were exhausted on Monday. Thankfully, both of us were off from work. The one picture here is of the cake from the baby shower the Beurskens family had for us. John's mom (Cathy) and sister (Maria) did a "jungle" theme along the lines of the bedding we picked for the baby, and it went from the invitations to the decorations and even the cake! The cake was delicious - yummy chocolate icing and the design on the cake was from the plates for the party! The other picture is of Tux and his Daddy, cuddled together late Sunday night after we got home. Tux loves to cuddle in like this with John, but not with me, though he (Tux, not John) will let me rub his tummy when he does this. Since I included Tails in last week's blog I wanted to make sure to give Tux equal billing!
As I said, we had a nice visit with John's family. His parents moved into a cute new house where they hosted the baby shower on Saturday. We had over 30 people there, though the guys ended up leaving after they ate, and saw Maria "making" dirty diapers in the kitchen for one of the games we played that afternoon - guessing which type of candy bar was melted in the diaper. It was pretty gross, though funny. I only got one of five right in that game myself (Three Musketeers bar), but that is the only one of the 5 that I even eat! The others all had some sort of nut in them...which was funny, as you would not expect to see that in a baby's dirty diaper! We were overwhelmed with everyone's generosity at the shower. We received a lot of gift cards and clothes/soft items (toys, rubber duckies, bath toys, etc.), baby monitor, and I think i came home with about 100 newborn diapers that John put in a carry on bag...wonder what the guys looking at that through the x-ray machine at the airport thought since we obviously did not have a child traveling with us! We were able to get everything back to NJ quite easily. Thank you to everyone who was there and was so generous to us and "Baby Boy Beurskens." One of the neatest gifts we got was a DVD of Grandma and Grandpa Beurskens reading some kids' stories. This way when we are too tired when the baby arrives we can pop in the DVD and let him watch and listen to his grandparents, all the way from Illinois!
We got to hang out with all the cousins, aunts, uncles and friends on Friday and Saturday nights as well, with a pool party on Friday night and then a BBQ on Saturday. We had quite a fun time, and we did a few family portraits on the campus of Eastern Illinois University with all of the Beurskens - John's dad's brothers and all of their families. Special thanks to Maria and Mindy for arranging that, and for the photographer for putting up with us! I have to say, it was quite muggy/humid out in Charleston all weekend, but I kept drinking a lot of water and iced tea to stay hydrated, but it was way hotter than it's been in NJ all summer so far!
I mentioned that John and I both had Monday off...I had my 30 week check up and all is well...gained another (gulp!) 3 pounds in just 2 weeks! It was not too long ago that it took me 4 weeks to gain 4 lbs! I can definitely feel it, and I get full much quicker and the indigestion is bothering me again because I eat too much and/or too fast. John is doing a better job reading up on things and was telling me yesterday what I needed to eat more of to help the baby's brain development and hand-eye coordination. After my appointment, we went to visit 3 local day care centers. We liked all 3 places; each has something that is an 'advantage' over the others, so ultimately they cancel each other out, but the one we liked best overall is actually the cheapest...though they aren't necessarily cheap. One year is about what my parents paid for TWO years of my education at Rutgers back in the late 80s/early 90s! We have to decide relatively soon if we want to go with them, as they only have one spot open in September right now...we would not be using it until December or January, depending on when i go back to work, but to reserve that spot we'd have to put a deposit down so no one else could jump in there in September.
Again, have to say again how overwhelmed and thankful John and I were this past weekend from all that his mom and sister did for the shower, to the generosity of everyone who was there, as well as several who were not but sent gifts to us. Our little boy is lucky to have such generous and loving family and friends!
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