Isaac Alexander Goodall FINALLY made his entrance into the world today. Mum (acceptable spelling since they live in the UK) is exhausted but excited. Exhausted because baby #1 was 10 lbs and excited for obvious reasons.
I am now 2 for 2 in the gender guessing game which means even I am wrong with Baby Martine I am still ahead of the game.
I was recently sent an invitation to participate in a research study on the quality of life of breast cancer patients under the age of 40. It is being conducted in the Dana Farber Center with Ann H. Partridge as the principal investigator (PI as it is known in the biz). She has published some really interesting research including a study about whether you should share clinical trial results with patients if the results are bad. Like I said, interesting.
I will be providing a blood and tumor sample. Then I will fill out a survey (after judging the questions first) every 6 months for 3 years then yearly for another 7. Yes it is a 10 year commitment. I can drop out at any time in case I get cold feet. Topics will be family planning, treatment, marriage, sexuality, socializing, all the facets of life.
I think it will be interesting and makes me feel like I am helping shape future programs that may be offered to next generation. I am awesome.
Sunday was a day of near attacks on me by other species. After surviving the Rumble on Bristol Road, I went downtown to spend the day with the Koumpara. I never realized the wildlife that was circling Boylston Street. We are walking up the street towards Tremont, heading to the AMC movie theater to see (500) days of Summer. And while doing so, we saw this kid in front of us duck and his family make noise and then we saw it. It being this albatross-like-bird that could have easily picked the kid or Koumpara up and taken them to some far away land. Seriously, this bird was huge and low flying. I push Gina and basically use her as a human shield, all while screaming at the top of my lungs. Then once I knew I was safe, I started laughing uncontrollable. As we walked away, other people were talking about this thing so we know we weren’t exaggerating its size.
On Sunday, Brendan and I took Eli out for a nice long walk around Davis/Ball Square. And it was going swimmingly. The dog was behaving, I had an iced coffee, the sun was out and then we turned up our street.
We passed a house that has some shrubery out front and it seemed innocuous. Seriously. And then this cat jumped out of no where and was ready to attack. Back was arched, tail up, all the hairs standing on end. Needless to say, I screamed and Eli started barking. Brendan pulled at Eli and we tried to walk up the street but the cat would not back down. Bizarrely the cat advanced as we walked away. We tried to shoo it away but to no avail. All the time, Eli is still barking like a mad man. Brendan finally picked up the dog and started to walk home while I kept an out that the cat was not following. It was crazy and last night I ran by the house for fear of another attack on us. Life is tough in Meffa – real tough. Be careful.
Shout out: Happy Birthday Teresa and enjoy your birthday gift!
Guess the movie in the background.
Eli playing fetch.
Eli coming at you.
So this is a special picture Eli took for his favorite cousin, Kristen.
Eli with his backpack.
Now on to other pictures of Eli.
His new lookout tower.
More yard pictures.
My tomato plant.
I tried to grow heirloom tomatoes but something keeps eating them and only a few have matured. I will stick to regular ones next year.
Baby Shea is a girl!!!! Brynn arrived at 5:36 am (a morning girl like her crazy mother). She is 8 pounds, 6 ounces and 20 1/2 inches long. The message I got ends with “WE LOVE HER!” But I think it is a bit early to rush into that kind of judgment. Especially using the “L” word. I mean Teresa has only known her for about 5 hours. Let’s not rush into anything here kids. Okay? And I want pictures like yesterday of this child. And of my BFF Danica.
Hopefully, Baby Goodall will be inspired by this post and decide to make his entrance into the world (I think it is a boy no one has told me otherwise but I am 1 for 1 this month in correctly guessing genders of fetuses.)
A few months back I was drinking my Dunkin’ Donuts coffee and heading into Trader Joe’s with my canvas bags and took a look around. I realized I was officially a yuppie. The only thing that could have made it worse was if I was drinking Starbucks and maybe going to Whole Foods (which a friend calls Whole Checks).
But It was a hard pill to swallow but I had to admit it to myself. I am a yuppie.
Yesterday, this point was driven home further as we signed Eli up for doggie play group – doggie day care. We now spend the money for people to play with our dog much like we pay for people to make our coffee and clean our house (the last one we don’t do but we want to. we just haven’t searched for a cleaner).
Last night I tried to take pictures of Eli getting ready for his first day of school and will post it later tonight. (My photo session was cut short by Brendan telling me to stop. He ruins all my fun.) Also, Eli showed off his fetching ability in a video and wants his favorite cousin, Kristen to see it. So, look out for the videos of Eli being a dog. He is awesome at playing dog and has a bright future.
I love getting mail and like postcards (remember the wedding guest book?) and so I was excited to read about a postcard sharing experiment. This experiment, Postcrossing, was sent to me by Alett. I have signed up and have a postcard waiting to go to Finland to a 21 year old named Heini. I can’t wait to see what I get back. I love this kind of stuff. Check it out…
So Pandora put a monthly limit on my music listening (the free kind) but I survived. So it has gotten me thinking that I need new music for my iPod to entertain me while in the hospital.
Right now I have Leona Naess’ “He’s Gone” on repeat but I didn’t like any of iTunes’ Genius suggestions for more songs. I plan on checking Kristen’s, Emily’s and Lauren’s facebook pages for more artists to stockpile. Any suggestions? Keep in mind I also like “Taylor Swift”. I am a musical enigma.
Also, I plan on getting “The Time Traveler’s Wife” to read and other suggestions in the book department will be greatly appreciated.