FUNdraiser

What makes a fundraiser a FUNdraiser, you ask? I identified two distinguishing characteristics of the latter.

1. Not actually having to call anyone asking for money.

2. Eating many, many chocolate dipped coconut macroons, along with a cupcake and a cookie here and there.

On another note, it is very difficult to hold a camera still or keep a natural facial expression while taking a picture of oneself. A further word of advice: Using a flash (to cut down on blur because holding the camera still is impossible) while taking a picture of oneself in the mirror is not recommended.

39 weeks

Last Day

A lot happened last week or two. Here's the short version.

Jill, Kristi, and Caitlin threw me a baby shower at Suzi's Saturday a week ago. It was fantastic, and I ate about 3 dozen mini cupcakes. So much for keeping the pregnancy weight gain in check. But seriously, if I can't do it now, when can I? It was so fun to open all the little baby clothes and books and to see everyone, including a few people I hadn't seen in over a year, probably. The decorations were adorable. Lots of pink with white polka dots, and as it turned out, I randomly decided to wear a dress that matched (the odds are higher than they might usually be for something like that, since I only have 2 maternity dresses). Caitlin took pictures; you can see a selection here and here. The baby got tons of good loot. She is going to be very well dressed and well entertained.

My final week at work was pretty quiet. I had basically started telling people on matters other than the main matters I worked on over the last two years "'no" in order to preserve my time to deal with anything that came up on the matters with which I was more heavily involved. This led to several pretty slow days, including Wednesday, where I billed a record low 0.7 hours and went to breakfast (baby shower for work) at the Four Seasons and lunch at an Italian restaurant in west midtown for a coworker who left the firm to work for the Boston U.S. Attorney's office in the organized crime division (cool, huh?). Everything seems to have been finished in good time, and I have received virtually no emails since I sent out my absence memo Friday night. It's sort of eerie.

Friday afternoon, my mom got into town with the baby's furniture. We ran into a few snafus:

(Doorman: "You can't move furniture in after 3 today because tomorrow is Yom Kippur."

Emma: But my mom got up at 4 a.m. to get here in time for us to have it moved in by 4, and the memos sent last week said nothing about an earlier cut off today. And I'm almost 9 months pregnant and the baby has nowhere to sleep.)

Luckily the managing agent for the building got sick of hearing me tell a very long version of the above story and agreed to let us have until 4. We made it. Barely. Now the baby's room is all set up. It's such a settled feeling! John loves the furniture, which I was a little worried about since all he'd seen were pictures I took on my phone, and I guess she can come any time.

On Saturday, John and I took advantage of my mom being in town, and we all went to brunchat David Burke & Donatella. This is one of my favorite lunch/brunch places, I think mainly because I'm sort of in love with the cheesecake lollipop tree (complete with bubble gum whipped cream in which one may dip the cheesecake lollipops).

My mom and I also stopped in at FAO Schwarz, of course, because who doesn't love an enormous toy store (seriously, if you haven't been there; you should go).

Monday we went baby shopping, mostly for people other than Baby Prete, but inevitably she ended up with a couple of things. John asked me the other day if I thought she was going to be spoiled. Hmmm . . .

Last night, all three of us made it to stake FHE at the Mets game, where John and the missionaries made several posters to try and get the wave started in the Mormon section. Unfortunately, most people had come at the beginning and left around the time we got there, so they had mixed luck. Anyway, I think he had fun.

And now we wait, I suppose.

Baby update

As scheduled, I had my second estimated fetal weight ultrasound today. If they had comment cards at the hospital, I would have given my tech an A+. Seriously, I'm thinking of asking if I can request her should I be at the same hospital for our next baby. Her name was Deborah. She was wonderful.

The tech at the 19 week anatomy (gender) ultrasound was relatively good at explaining what we were looking at, but when I went in July for the EFW, the woman barely said two words the whole time. At the end, she gave me absolutely no information about how big the baby looked, whether anything seemed off, etc. Deborah was a different story. She explained what we were looking at with each screen and cheerfully answered all my questions throughout. At the end, she actually told me how big the baby was measuring, and she said the doctor would probably fax the report to my doctor this afternoon or tomorrow (in contrast to last time, where the tech told me nothing and said the doctor would get something to my doctor after about a week). So, here's the update on Baby.

-Still a girl :)

-Brain, head, heart, stomach, diaphragm, bladder, kidneys, amniotic fluid, etc, all looks good. And she's head down (as she has been at every ultrasound so far).

-Late third trimester weight estimates are notoriously inaccurate, easily varying by a pound or even more from the actual weight. The tech estimated her weight at 5 lb 14 ou but then basically told me to disregard it because it means virtually nothing at this point. The percentile is what matters. She is in the 32nd percentile. At the July ultrasound, she was in the 30th percentile, so she's on the small side, but growing appropriately and, again, there's no reason to be worried.

-She doesn't have long hair or much hair, but she does apparently have a little fuzz, so she's not completely bald.

"She's just like us!"

This triumphant quote is courtesy of the partner for the case on which I have spent the majority of my time at the firm. In celebration of the conclusion of the third year of the case, we all went to Nobu for lunch, where I ate my weight in spicy shrimp tempura, but that's another story. A very boring story. (I actually initially came onto the case during its first anniversary celebration, which coincided with my first week at the firm and merited only a strawberry shortcake cake and champagne in a conference room; last year we went to Chelsea Piers and hit golf balls and ate Mexican food.) We were a large group, and we lingered long after the Nobu lunch rush had died down.

About half-way through our meal, Jessica Simpson came in and sat down right smack in my field of vision. It took me a while to recognize her, but eventually, we all confirmed that it was in fact Jessica Simpson. A few minutes later, she whipped out a blackberry to send a quick message - the same model we all have at the firm.

Frankly, I think the fact that we have the same blackberry might be insufficient support for claiming that Jessica Simpson is "just like us!" My impression is that the only thing Jessica and I really have in common - other than the blackberry - is long, blonde hair, although my coworker (yes, John, a female coworker) did point out that pregnancy has increased my bust size somewhat, so maybe we're less dissimilar on that count than we might usually be. Otherwise, though, I actually think we have very little in common, and certainly, the partner has less in common with her than I do (let's all hope). And I'll admit it: I'm very happy not to be "just like" Jessica Simpson.

Cozy

After a long weekend of painting, we are ready to post pictures of the new wall. Be warned, small spaces are difficult to photograph. If you don't like it, just trust us, it looks great in person.