Baby shower

It's been awhile since we've done an update...and here we are less than three weeks from our due date! Where have the last eight months gone?!? Everything is going well with the baby and we've nearly assembled all the baby gear we'll need for the first few months. Thanks everyone for helping with that monumental task! It was impossible to find many of the larger items in Fairbanks, and frustrating to have what we couldn't find here shipped to us. Luckily, we have a great team of supporters willing to store, ship, and lug stuff back here for us...hooray for wonderful parents and wonderful Rachel, who just returned from her Thanksgiving trip with not one, but two large packages for baby. Whew! Speaking of wonderful Rachel...

Three weeks ago she opened her home to a horde of gift-bearing, hungry women, gathered to celebrate the impending arrival of baby Kaufman. Such a support system we have in place here in Fairbanks! I feel terribly lucky to be surrounded by so many great (and generous!) women.


There were gifts from many friends and family who couldn't be there...here's a sweet little onesie from auntie April who we miss very much. We'll see if we can ship her and little Marit up here to meet the baby this winter...Jeb, you can come too! :)


The first hand-knit hat I unwrapped...thanks Sarah! I think this one will be the perfect coming home hat for baby. There are so many great knitters around here...I really need to learn to knit so I can reciprocate!

Ellie was so thoughtful to bring her extra "poop chart". Lauren can't believe such a thing exists while Erin's inner scientist appreciates the subtle differences between day 2 and day 3 newborn poop.

Putting your baby in this turns him or her into a living stuffed animal...how fun! I actually pointed this bunting out to Rachel in catalogue as "the cutest thing I'd ever seen", only to find out at the shower that my mom also pointed this out to Rachel asking if she thought I would like it. Great choice Mom! We love it :) Thanks to Rachel and all the ladies at the shower and to so many friends and family who sent gifts. I'm sure you'll all be seeing the things you gave us again and again on the blog in the countless baby pictures we'll post as proud parents in the coming months and years!

Boodle the duck

Here's a post for my little duck-loving Marit...occasionally we're lucky enough here at the office to get a visit from Boodle, my officemate's pet duck. She thinks she's people, but she's a great little duck with a nifty hairdo.


When strangers come around to visit with her (in this case, me) she retreats to dad's lap until she decides it's safe. When she decides we're only there to give her a pet and take pictures she hops down and resumes her inspection of the carpet, no doubt looking for crumbs dropped during countless working lunches.

I think here Jeremy is telling her bird migration stories. "The common Eider flies each spring from the Russian coast all the way down the Aleutian chain to Alaska..." Careful Jeremy, Boodle is studying that map awfully closely. Better keep an eye on her this spring!

Daytrip to Delta Junction

Last weekend good friends Shiway and Dave came up from Seward to try again for this year's moose...they were hoping for better luck near Delta Junction. Since the boys were going to spend the day out moose stalking, it was a perfect excuse for a visit with Shiway, Ellie, and Wyatt back at the homestead. Rachel and I loaded into Julie's car on Saturday and headed south.

Shiway spent some time cuddling Emma who wasn't invited on the moose hunt :( Poor Emma. I'm not sure if Shiway was invited this time, but she didn't seem to mind it if she wasn't!


I got a few pointers on how to turn kid junk food into kid health food. Don't believe it folks...throwing a few diced tomatoes on boxed mac and cheese does not make it health food! Who are they trying to fool?


Rachel practiced the fine art of baby feeding on little Wyatt. She found the best way to keep him quiet while Ellie was out of sight was to shovel in another spoonful of yogurt. "How much yogurt is a baby supposed to eat?", we wondered, as Rachel scraped the sides of the empty container. I hope our little one likes yogurt, because it looks like it's Auntie Rachel's favorite baby treat!

We had plenty of "feel the baby move!" breaks during dinner. Of course there were never any good kicks while the hands were there to feel them. Ellie said that this is the way it works...babies are very good at moving enough to make the mom say, "okay, he's kicking, put your hand here", then staying perfectly still until all hands are gone. Then repeating the process.

Wyatt tried to feel the baby too. Maybe they were communitcating through some secret baby language. Ellie loaned us two boxes of baby clothes and a few toys for our newbie. Maybe Wyatt is saying, "You be careful with my things, baby!" Or maybe he's just saying, "Good luck buddy...the trip outta there is CRAZY!"

Halloween

We had a long few weeks on the baby front here after discovering at our week 31 appointment that the baby had not yet made the turn to a head-down position. There was some concern among our midwives because in AK, if a baby is known to be breech going into labor, the only option for delivery is a C-section. None of us are interested in that so the midwives gave us some suggestions to try to encourage the little banana to turn, most of which involved me upside down (in the pool) or lying on a board propped up at a 45 degree angle, with my head below my hips. None of this was comfortable for me, and because the goal was to make the baby uncomfortable enough to turn, I'm guessing that I wasn't the only one who wasn't enjoying myself. Thankfully, this past Sunday, after a long day of squirming, stretching, and rolling (the baby, not me), I noticed that little feet were poking me at the top of my belly and there was no little round head below my ribs where one had been for the last several weeks. It was confirmed yesterday at my 34 week appointment that the baby is head-down and in an excellent position for birth. Much relief!! So our fingers are crossed that we can coast through the last 6 weeks with little worry.

In other news...Max and I took our "beach ball" out to the annual Halloween bonfire at our good friend Steve's place. Luckily the temperature, though cold enough to freeze a bottle of n/a beer, stayed above zero, and the fire was hot enough to keep our exposed skin comfortable - at least on the side that happened to be facing the fire. Can't you picture Max hanging out in a beat-up VW van somewhere along the CA coast? Damn, he sure can pull off the beach bum look! The night we met he had just returned from a summer at Shoup Bay and hadn't yet made it to the barber. My first impression of him, with his long blonde bangs and visor (despite the fact that the sun had set hours before) was "California surfer dude". This picture brings me back ;-)