A name change - Baby K

First, if anyone cares to know, we stopped calling our little one "Sami" - it just kind of happened, well, once we settled on what we think we'll actually name her.  And so, we've started calling her Baby K (she even kicks to it once in a while when Trevor addresses her as such!).

This week was a blur of interesting happenings, a few which I think are worth remembering and therefore worth recording, in maybe no particular order in accordance to time, importance, or gravity: 

Tuesday I witnessed a pedestrian get hit by a car. Like, feet in the air, land on the head, lay on the ground motionless. I've never seen anything so scary - cars stopped (including the one who hit him), sirens roared. I shook the rest of the way to work, and was reminded to be careful crossing the street and driving. Life can change in seconds. 

Wednesday I took a trip to the French Meadow with a couple friends (i.e. the restaurant).  The live music and candles on the table and beautiful organic food . . . while not quite a trip to France, it definitely felt like we were far away from it all for a couple hours. That same night found a couple of us at the home of another friend who is on bed rest. Her attitude is wonderful, and I'm reminded to be thankful for every day of health that I'm experiencing. God bless and keep her and her baby safe. 

Thursday Trevor and I caught up with an old mutual friend from college days (and our D.C. days, come to think of it!). Dan the man as we call him came over for dinner and chatter on the patio, it was so good to hear about his recent happenings in work, church, school, even jury duty experience. There is no replacement for tried and true old friends. 

Friday I called a guac-a-movie night, something that I'm starting to think should happen every Friday until baby comes: dinner at Chipotle  and a movie at the cheap theater (craving note: I feel like I need guacamole on a daily basis, and if money grew on trees right now I'd be at Chipotle every day - I mean, they make it perfectly, and save me from all the chopping).  We saw Gran Torino, and I thought it excellent. And it made me very sad because I think the story in many ways reflected reality. I would recommend seeing the film. It reminded me of a book I read recently, The Cross and the Switchblade, about gang culture in the slums of NYC (I'd also recommend reading that book).

Saturday started with us getting a ton of stuff done around the house, and ended with a beautiful dinner with dear friends to celebrate a birthday. I was reminded that three of the couples there were sitting around the exact same table last fall, talking about starting families. And now all three of said couples are expecting our first children. WOW, things change fast. 

And today was remarkable in that we actually started registering. Which is probably not a big deal to anyone else, but to me the task seemed just a bit terrifying. So of course, we just started with what we knew - things like picture frames and curtains (not really knowing if that's allowed, but they're for the baby's room so figured they count). We did draw the line at an i-pod docking station, but it was certainly tempting (I mean, music for the labor room, you know?).  I will say, this registering experience was not traumatic at all, in stark contrast to registering for our wedding which did involve tears in Target. What an interesting concept: registering. I'm thankful. All this make me think of the idea of "showers" as well - what a generous custom. We actually just went to one today, a baby shower that was for couples (i.e., husbands allowed).  Neither Trevor nor I had ever been to such a thing, and it was was wonderful. The party lended itself to a couple of gender observations: 1 - All the men ended up congregating in the kitchen (wait, isn't that where the women belong? Oh wait no, that's just where the food was so of course the men were there. I think they were also scared they might have to play games . . . which brings me to 2 - The guys did get dragged into playing games. And a man won every single game. I was impressed and yes, a little shocked. 

And while I'm talking about shopping and accumulating, I've had many thoughts this weekend (not original thoughts, mind you, but rather ideas influenced by various blogs, friends, and books) about the hope to live with ever increasing minimalist simplicity. We're truly trying to keep life simple - to accumulate less, to conserve, to be content with what we have, to give away what we don't need.  There is always more we could do to ascribe to such a mentality. SOOOOO much more we could do, it's humbling to think about.  But it's definitely something to stay mindful of, to strive for.  

And while I end this, I'm hopping on target.com to register for a couple things I forgot that we "need". You know, like baby nail clippers, a monitor - things that people not that long ago did perfectly fine without but that we for some reason now cannot live without.  Ironic, if not a little conflicting with the above paragraph.