Baby Concert

Last Friday. I went to a classical concert for babies. The place was packed full of mommies and babies. I couldn't believe how good the babies were. The concert lasted about 45 minutes and for the first 20 minutes the babies didn't make any noise or even move. After that, they started to move about a bit but were not disruptful at all. They must've really enjoyed the music.


The concert was given by a friend of mine that I met through a group called "Bumps and Babies". (It's a Thursday morning coffee group of moms and moms-to-be. I love it!) She is a professional violinst and leads a string quartet that performs at special events all over London. She is a sweetheart and such a good mother to her eight-month-old son.


Our baby LOVES the violin. We learned this one night watching Jay Leno. His musical guest was a young violinist that was absoultely amazing. The baby went crazy when she heard it and still does every time she hears the violin. She perked up quite a bit during the concert and responded really well to Mozart.


Who knows if she will actually take up violin or not but I am happy to expose her to as much as possible. Neither Oscar nor I are musically talented so it would be a welcomed surprise if she is :)

Baby and Me: 37 weeks and 3 days

Win Some, Lose Some

I attended an infant first aid class this weekend, which was really informative. I hope I never have to use it but I feel better that I am somewhat prepared. One of the girls from our prenatal class hosted the class at her flat. I thought it would be a nice gesture to bring a sweet treat since the class lasted three hours.

I decided to make a crumb cake. It is easy and always a hit. Plus, it goes really well with tea and everyone here loves their tea. Since the class started at 12:30 on Saturday, I wanted to make it Friday afternoon and have it done with. So after I got up from my afternoon nap on Friday, I got started on the cake.

I wasn't impressed by the butter that I had bought but figured that it would be fine. Everything seemed to be going well .... until I put it in the oven. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was heartbreaking to watch my beautiful cake turn into a disaster. The edges started to puff up like pizza and the middle bubbled up and then sunk down. After 20 minutes, I took it out of the oven and it was burnt on the bottom and edges and completly raw in the middle. What could've gone wrong???

The disaster cake.

I had already cleaned up the kitchen while it was baking so I didn't feel like starting over again. I just left it. To my surprise, I didn't let it get to me. It is never fun to take the time to bake something only for it to turn out bad. Plus, I was thinking that I had wasted some good American flour on it! During the night, I kept thinking about what could've gone wrong. I came to the conclusion that it must've been the butter (that was more margarine like than butter), or the sugar (that was larger crystals than I normally use).

I was up early on Saturday morning and ready to take another chance at the cake. I went to the store on the corner and bought new butter and sugar. I wasn't going to chance anything this time. I went home, got out all of my ingredients, and double checked the recipe. Then, I realized what I had gone wrong. Baking SODA is NOT the same as Baking POWDER! I remember putting in 3 tsp of baking soda and thinking "that's a lot of baking soda" but never once did it cross my mind that it should've been baking powder.

In the end, the cake turned out beautifully (with baking powder!) and everyone loved it. I saved a few pieces for Oscar and me and we already finished them this morning. So I guess, this goes to show that in baking - you win some and you lose some. The important thing is to learn from your mistakes. I am sure I will pay A LOT more attention to recipes when they call for baking soda and baking powder from now on.

Crumb cake success!

A cultural note: There are only two Americans in the group - me and a lady from NY. We were also the only ones who thought to bring something. Even more, a homebaked good. She brought some Duncan Hines brownies. It is not very common here, or in Spain, to do that. It must be a very "American" thing to do. I still do it anyways :)

Sweet Dreams, Sweetheart!

Since I am down to my last month, we thought it would be a good time to set up her crib. The crib, changer, and mobile were gifts from Oscar's parents and we were very grateful for their genorosity. I was so proud of Oscar for putting it together all by himself. It didn't even take him that long either. To start off, she is going to sleep in our room in a Moses basket next to our bed. Then, when she is ready, she will move across the hall to the guest bedroom where we have the crib set up.


Ya que estoy en mi ultimo mes de embarazo, pensamos que seria el momento para montar la cuna. La cuna, el cambiador, y el movil eran regalos de los padres de Oscar y estamos muy agradecidos por su generosidad. Estaba muy orgullosa de Oscar por montar la cuna el solo. No tardo mucho tampoco. A principio, ella va a dormir en el Moises en nuestra habitacion a lado de nuestra cama. Luego, se camibara a la habitacion de invitados donde tenemos la cuna.

Thanks so much to Alfonso and Margarita for lending us the Moses basket. It fits perfectly next to my side of the bed and there is even room to rock it.

Muchas gracias a Alfonso y Margarita por dejarnos el Moises. Queda perfectamente a lado de mi lado de la cama e, incluso, hay sitio para mecerlo.

Our adorable crib. My good friend, Alison, gave us a cute set of blankets over Christmas. I am sure she would've never guessed that they would turn into the bedding for our baby's crib. The cross on the wall is the first gift from my mom to the baby. It is so sweet!

Nuestra preciosa cuna. Mi buena amiga, Alison, nos regalo un juego de mantas en Navidad. Estoy segura que ella nunca penso que luego se convertiria en la ropa de la cuna de nuestra nina. El crucifijo en la pared fue el primer regalo de parte de mi madre a la nina. Me encanta!

The crib with the changer on top.

La cuna con el cambiador.

I had sent a picture of the crib to my mom when it was empty. She told me that every once in a while she would check the picture again to see if there was something in it but the crib remained empty. So I tucked in Little Lamb and sent her a picture. She got a good laugh :)

Envie una foto de la cuna vacia a mi madre. Me dijo que de vez en cuando volvia a mirarla para ver si habia algo dentro pero siempre estaba vacia. Asi que arrope al muenco, saque una foto y se la envie. Le parecio bastante gracioso :)

A Special Birthday

I had a very special birthday this year. Oscar took the day off of work and we spent the whole day together - just the two (and a half!) of us :)

We went to The Wolseley for breakfast. I had never heard of it before but it is pretty famous in London. Oscar reserved a couple of weeks in advance and they only had a couple of tables left ... on a regular Tuesday morning! I had a decaf cappuccino and we split a mini pastry basket. It was the perfect start to a wonderful day.

At The Wolseley. The building itself was really pretty. Very "old town" London :)

After that, we walked to Harrod's. While we didn't have great weather, it didn't rain so we could at least be outside. Oscar gave me a special watch for my birthday but it was too big. And, since I wanted to wear it right away, we went to Harrod's to get it sized. We had fun just walking around the store for a while. They have some of the most outrageous things there. Nothing that I would ever buy but it is still fun to look at.

Then, we had some time to kill before our afternoon tea reservation. We were in the neighborbood, so we decided to go the the Natural History Museum. We stopped in on the weekend that we had visited London - long before we knew we would be living here - but didn't stay for long so we wanted to go back. It is a great museum and one I am sure we will go back to again.

We spent most of our time at the dinosaur exhibit and the human mind/body exhibit. The human mind/body section was so fun. There are lots of little games that help demonstrate how the mind works. It was very interactive and had things like memory excercises, optical illusions, and left brain/right brain tests. It was really interesting.

I love this picture Oscar took. There were too little dinosaurs that moved but their shadows were the best part.

There was a whole section on pregnancy. It was neat to read about the different stages and see how far our little one has come. Oscar, of course, took a picture of me reading the part about labor and delivery.

After the museum, we went to afternoon tea at Brown's Hotel. It came very highly recommended from my cousin, Leah, and is a part of the British Tea Guild. I had only been to afternoon tea at a hotel once before with my mom and Angela. I really enjoyed the experience and wanted to go again. Oscar had never been and was a little hesitant about it but he ended up having a good time.

We had the best table in the whole place. A quaint little table right infront of the fireplace and next to the piano :) (PS - Oscar doesn't drink tea - or any hot liquid for that matter - so he had orange juice!)

The dessert top tier. There was even a cake trolley that came around, too. I had to try the Victoria Sponge. Pretty tasty!

Second tier are scones. They were really, really good! The strawberry jam and clotted cream that went with them were out of this world. Oscar said that next time he is skipping the clotted cream, though. Not that he didn't like it but it is really rich and fills you up fast.

Sandwich tier. I love finger sandwiches and the English ones are the best. I had a separate plate for me since I couldn't eat smoked salmon or fresh mayonaise. My favorite sandwich was cheese and onion chutney - yum!

I had the afternoon tea blend - one of my favorites!

There was a live pianist that played beautifully.

The one who made my day so special.

I can't think of a better way to have celebrated turning 30. I also saw it as a final farewell of being "newlyweds" before we become a family of three. I have so many things to be thankful for this year and I know next year will bring so much joy, happiness and adventure. I am so blessed!

I got home from our lovely day out to a beautiful bouquet of roses that my parents had sent me :)

Baby and Me: 36 weeks and 3 days

Birthday Dinner Party

Last weekend, Oscar and I hosted a dinner party at our flat for my birthday. We have been blessed with some really great friends here and it was fun to celebrate with them. We love to entertain so any excuse is a good excuse for us.

I decided to do a casual Italian dinner. So I went with anipasto and sundried tomato crostini for appetizers and eggplant parmigina, sausage/ham/cheese calzone, and a pepper/mushroom/onion pizza. And, for dessert, a fun M&M cookie cake! I don't have any pictures of the main dishes but you have all seen them before. Here a few others, though.

We served our favorite Spanish wine - V2 - from the vineyard I used to work at. It got rave reviews from all. I saved a bottle for me to celebrate when the baby is born. Much better than champagne!

Sundried tomato crostini. I will post the recipe separately. Super simple and so tasty!

Antipasto. This was a big hit and had a really nice presentation. Too bad I couldn't eat any of the sliced meats - they looked delicious!

Oscar should take up food photography as a hobby :)

Happy 30th birthday to me!

I made half a batch of shortbread cookies so each couple had a little party favor to take home with them. They turned out pretty cute :)

Nesting

Today has been a nesting day. Not one of those "Oooh, I've been so productive and cleaned the whole house" kind of days but one of those "Nothing seems to be cleaned/organized/prepared enough" kind of days. Needless to say, my own to-do list overwhelmed me and almost got the best of me.

I had such a special birthday yesterday and was still so excited about it last night that I could hardly sleep. I planned on posting lots of fun pictures today and telling you all about it but, obviously, that didn't happen.

No, no. My top priorities were organzing the pantry (very important, I know), washing the baby's sheets, hunting down US Embassy information to faciliate getting her a passport once she is born, getting paperwork ready for the delivery ... you catch my drift. None of these things had to be done today yet I felt like there was an urgency to get it all done.

I knew I had to get in the shower, if I wanted to make it to my doctor's appointment on time, but a voice inside of me said that I needed to catch up on my scripture readings. My parish distributed a daily readings guide for Lent that I am doing and was a few days behind. Of course, one of the scriptures I read was just what I needed to hear. It was the story of Martha and Mary and the need of prayer. Jesus comes to stay with them and Martha gets frustrated because she is busy serving while Mary sits and listens to Jesus. He replies:

"Martha, Martha, you are anxious and worried about many things. There is need of only one thing." Luke 11: 41-42.

That helpled me to put things in perspective. I ended up arriving a few minutes late to my appointment (which I hate but it didn't bother me tonight). As I was rushing out the door, I put on my new watch that Oscar got me for my birthday, only to notice that I put it on upside down and didn't know how to undo the clasp. A white shirt got tossed in the wash with some dark clothes and has blue streaks on it. (Even after I spot treated it and washed it again, they are still there.) The baby's sheets are staring at me to iron and I haven't even thought about starting dinner. Yet, I decided not to worry about any of those things and to post on my blog.

After hearing from my doctor that everything continues to progress nicely and the baby is healthy and moving in the right direction, I realized that those are the things that are most important.

Tomorrow is another day and everything will get done sooner or later. And, if it doesn't, then we will manage either way. (To be honest, our flat and everything for the baby is really in pretty good shape. I was just looking at it from a warped perspective.) So maybe tomorrow or sometime next week I will post some pictures from my birthday :)

Best Birthday Gift Ever

I can't believe this time a year ago Oscar and I were wandering the streets of Rome celebrating my birthday. So much has happened in the last year and time has really flown by.

As if a trip to Rome (and a beautiful hat) weren't enough gifts for my birthday, God gave me the best birthday gift ever: the chance to serve during Mass at St. Peter's Cathedral. It was the most special gift I have ever received. I think about it often and remember how beautiful everything was - the music, the smell of incense, and the closeness I felt with God.

I will never forget that very special gift. You can check out last year's post here and I also added the video again below.

Baby and Me: 34 weeks and 5 days

Child Birth

Oscar and I went to our prenatal classes over the weekend. As you can imagine, Oscar wasn't that keen on the idea of going. I, on the other hand, couldn't wait to learn more. I don't think Oscar had ever been in an "academic" environment with me before so all of the things he had imagined about me being a student soon became a reality. I sat us front and center of the class, was a very active participant, and asked several questions. At one point, he turned to me and said that I was being a know-it-all.

There were six couples and everyone was really nice. Most of the men had witty senses of humor, which made the class more enjoyable and much more relaxed. All of the ladies were really nice and we are all due around the same time. The course was very helpful and we got a good overview of what to expect during labor and delivery and how things work here in London. Oscar was pleased that there weren't any videos or human photos at any time. He retained more information than I thought he would. I laughed yesterday when he said that I was "nesting". Even though I don't think that I am, I was proud of him for recognizing the behavior :)

We didn't go too much into breathing excercies like I had anticipated - bummer. Luckily, I have been going to prenatal yoga and have learned a lot from there. I mentioned this to Oscar and he said that he already knew all he needed to know about breathing and referenced Bill Cosby.

A few years ago, long before Oscar and I hopped on the baby train, we were channel surfing late one night and found Bill Cosby Himself stand up comedy show on HBO. There were several different parts to it but the one that we found hilarious was "Child Birth". We were laughing so hard that we were crying and I could hardly breathe. My mom came in and asked what was so funny - we couldn't even respond. She said she remembered laughing like that when she was pregnant and watching the Carol Burnette Show.

Ever since then, Oscar imitates Bill Cosby's breathing excercises. While I think it is funny now, I don't know if I will find it entertaining durning labor. Oscar is great about using humor to lighten a situation so I know that this will resurface once I go into labor. I just hope I can appreciate it and his good intentions.

If you haven't ever seen it, you should check it out (Bill Cosby Child Birth). It is a little long but well worth it.