Languages

E and I talk a lot about little Bella's language skills. Even her name has to suena bien in English and Polish. As the world continues to shrink, we both feel that language skills will become more valuable and yet, more precious as cultures and languages become diluted by globalization. Its a strange dichotomy. I hope to use her as my own personal Polish translator. Our plan is to have E speak to her in Polish while I speak to her in English, mainly. We'll intersperse Spanish and Italian as context dictates and because its fun. I'm interested to see how all this transpires. I want her to have local playmates so she can absorb as much Spanish as possible. I wonder, if we're here two more years will she absorb enough Spanish to give her a foundation with which we can build on easily if/when we move to the US? I may have found some answers.

Since I really enjoy reading Slate, an online magazine, I thought I'd share this. That book is now at the top of my Christmas list.

Belly Shot - 36.5 weeks

Here's E, 3 days before her 37th week.

Bella Dancing - Week 36

Her first home movie. She was very active at midnight last night, as the clock verifies in the background. Dancing around. We think this sets a bad precedent for her normal waking hours. Check another longer dance routine right here

Hospital Visit

After I crassly crossed through the center of the ward via the nurses station, the visit went quite well. We saw the pre-labor rooms, the private labor rooms, the delivery room and the two-bedded recovery rooms. Everything was very clean, bright and new. I was satisfecho. My most important question, as my father has mentioned it every time I spoke to him in the last few weeks, was which entrance to use in the middle of night. The Doc said to use the entrance for urgencias. I told E I'll just drive up and drop her off and go find a parking spot, jokingly. She glared and I replied "Well, I can't just flip the keys to the valet." We'll figure it out. She's got her hospital duffle bag packed; Dad, I know how to get to the hospital via multiple routes (all I can think of is the fire drill in "The Royal Tenebaums" - "Ari, obstacle!") and I know where the emergency room entrance is.

Quiet weekend planned for us as the weather looks nasty. Lots of fog and humidity. I upgraded to the full Canal Plus package. Now Bella can be calmed by the familiar buzz of crowd noise during soccer games.

Doctor Visit

Since Dr. Vila still hasn't received his crystal ball shipment, he's sticking with the 19th as our due date. I've got the 6th-10th and E's got the 10th-15th in our two-person due date pool. He estimates her weight at 2.5kg, pretty good, I think. The 4D didn't show anything too new, its harder to fixate on a certain zone since she's bigger now. She was sticking her tongue out and keeping her right hand covering our view of her face. We're going to take a tour of the hospital on Friday.

Male Nesting

Here I am, in the garden, doing my own version of nesting; planting our aloe pups.

She's getting ready

Today, the 18th, gives us roughly one month to go. E has prepared. We have the crib, the tub, the changing board, the rocking chair, the stroller, the car seat; all the goodies. E has washed all of our little Bella's stuff and sorted it into newborn, winter, 6mo and up, and fancy. The stuff she'll need at the beginning is in drawers. The other stuff is in vacuum plastic bags in the closet with the Boppy, the baby Einstein etc. I can make it to the hospital in 4.5 minutes. I think I'll have to handicap my trial runs with raw eggs in the back seat; as a testing substitute to a woman in labor. That 4.5 minute run contains two tire squeals, one 3rd to 5th shift and one rolling-yield-in-third-gear. I shave seconds daily; I pass it on my way out of town to work.

I've read my Daddy's book. E's read all hers. I've read the section of the guia de la matrona that pertains to the pareja and how I should conduct myself at the hospital. We've watched the Rachel Giving Birth episode of Friends, again. We've settled on the name. We're trying to call her by her name instead of the nicknames that have been increasingly growing into Polish gibberish. I was going to practice my 'catching' with a lubed-up watermelon, but decided against it.

We're 100 pages into Catch 22. Little Bella likes Clevinger the best, I think. Words in that book that I've read many times I've never said out loud, and some of them are quite challenging.

Belly Shot - 33rd week

Belated Belly shots - Week 32

Here are the belly exposed and covered versions.

Reading to the belly

I've got a lot of favorite books depending on the genre, but my all time favorite novel that might be considered literature and worthy of AP English classes is Catch 22. I've started reading it to Bella in the evenings. Short chapters, constant change of voice, its perfect. Plus, I haven't read it in a year.