Showering Baby

This afternoon was our Austin baby shower hosted by Brittany, Nichole, Erin, Meg and Karen. I gotta tell you, I am lucky to have such fantastic girlfriends because I had another wonderful shower!

They served us delicious food (mmm southwestern egg rolls...mmm hot spinach dip...mmm), a beautiful jungle cake topped with a stuffed giraffe and pregnant lady friendly blue punch which I drank out of a special purple wine glass. We played the "how big is Mommy" game and fellow TriDelta alumna Megan won. I'm 11 sheets of toilet paper fat if you wanted to know.

And then so many wonderful gifties! My friends obviously know me well as books were a big part of today's shower too. They served as the cards and many have little notes to Cade written in them. Especially near and dear to my heart is Make Way for Ducklings from my parents. It is one of my favorite childhood books and when Cade travels to Boston with me in October for my cousin's wedding, we can actually go to the Public Garden and get his picture taken with Mrs. Mallard and her ducklings (well the statue version).

Today's gifts were overwhelmingly also of the practical variety. Feeding accessories, pacifiers, swaddle blankets, bath time necessities, all things we really needed. Including, the gift that made me giggle most, a coffee maker. Up until now we've never had one and I don't even know how to work one honestly (I also only drink fancy Starbucks "milkshake for breakfast" style coffee so the lack of coffee maker is no problem in my life). But Ross recently announced that his infrequent coffee intake was going to increase with fatherhood so it was time to get one. His mom came through and now the dad-to-be will be caffeinated for those late night feedings (which I can assure you will be happening now that we have all the necessary supplies).

The girls took lots of pictures and I promise to share as soon as I have them. Thank you to my wonderful hostesses and to our many friends who helped us get ready for the arrival of the wee baby Cade!

Update: Picture Proof!

This Baby

This baby, he wiggles. A lot. Wiggling with every inch of his body he must be because I can feel him up, down, right, left. How can you be in so many places at once little boy??

Ladies Who Lunch

Well I'm about a week behind the game on this but better late than never right?

Last Friday the girls at work had a baby shower for me at the always delicious Austin Cake Ball Kitchen & Bar (sadly we did not enjoy the bar part). It was a book shower so Baby Cade already has a healthy start on his on personal library. Among the books were classics like Green Eggs & Ham and Go the F*ck to Sleep.

Yes, variety might be one way you would describe it.

Even more awesome than the books was the group of gals, including cameos by some of my favorite Convions - Jenn, Lori and Blair!

Melon, Valentine's, Nursery

At 36 weeks Baby Cade's the size of a crenshaw melon (what is that??). That of course is just a baby generalization. We got the real deal in terms of info for our Valentine's Day celebration.

We had our 36-week ultrasound this morning. There's a pretty significant margin of error, 15%, but Cade is looking like about 6 pounds of baby thus far. Everything looks just as it should and he's even in position to make his grand entrance (or exit depending on your perspective). As my doctor told us, if I start having contractions we're now at the point where that'll mean it's on. And I'll have a baby. Holy guacamole.

Speaking of guacamole, Ross made me a delicious Valentine's Day dinner that started with a chips and guacamole appetizer. It might not sound super romantic but to a pregnant Texan it was a love poem. It might have been the first time he's made guacamole and it was tasty. Different from mine, less lime, but he's keeping his recipe a secret. Oh well, guess I'll just have to let him be in charge of the guacamole making from here on out.

Our delicious dinner also included pork loin, rice pilaf and asparagus. I am even fatter and happier now.

Post dinner I finally finished a happy task I hadn't gotten to all week. The nursery! With the exception of purchasing a glider, it is done! Yay! Enjoy the pictures of my two loves and the little home we're building for our soon-to-arrive love.

In Honor

Yesterday the funeral procession for Navy SEAL Chris Kyle extended from Dallas to Austin. As part of honoring Chris's life, Ross and other members of the Georgetown Fire Department displayed the flag and saluted.

Not the Same but Equal

Tonight I heard about a friend's (male) coworker who was suspiciously let go very shortly after taking 6 weeks of FMLA. If this were a female coworker all hell and lawsuits would break loose. Because its a guy, not much of a grumble is being created.

This inspired a mental soapbox but soapboxes aren't any fun if they stay in your head. So here it comes guys and gals.

Discouraging men from taking FMLA is one step in a vicious cycle that sets both sexes up for failure.

Here's how I figure: Women having babies take maternity leave. In a culture where men don't also take paternity leave, this means women become comparatively more expensive and riskier employees. Therefore employers are less incentivized to hire, promote or otherwise reward women employees. Conversely, men are forced to choose their careers over their children literally from birth.

Like I said, this is one piece of an overall problem. It starts with the double standard of mothers can take leave but fathers cannot. It's not a huge leap to see how this manifests down the road when it is socially acceptable for mothers to take time off of work for doctors' appointments, parent-teacher conferences and so on. Meanwhile fathers, who have been forced to choose work over kids, continue to do such and risk becoming less engaged parents. If Dad is less engaged, Mom has to pick up the slack or the child suffers (though you could argue that the child is suffering purely from Dad's lack of engagement, regardless of if Mom picks up the slack).

And so the cycle: women sacrificing time, energy and thus reward in the workplace and men sacrificing involvement in their children's lives. Women being treated with kid gloves at work, men climbing the ladder at a disproportionate rate. Women not bringing home as much bacon; men having to bring home more bacon to compensate and therefore virtually becoming indentured servants to their jobs.

All this isn't to say a family that chooses to have Mom stay home or work part-time is in any way wrong. Nor is a family who opts out of paternity leave. But the bottom line is families should have the choice and the workforce (and overall culture) needs to support working parents. Of both sexes.

Or we all lose.