Our little Brasileiro!

We are so very happy to share the news that our little Brasileiro, Elijah James, was born May 10th! He weighed 3.744 kg/8 lbs 4 oz and was 48 cm/19 in long. We went in for a scheduled appointment that morning, and by the time the doctor called me in, we were in labor. About 11.5 hours later, our beautiful Elijah was born.
Tomorrow he will be 2 weeks old and is already changing and getting bigger. He is a great eater, already gone through one not-so-fun-for-us growth spurt last week, and is generally very calm and happy. He is becoming really alert and is quite observant, looking around with his bright blue eyes at all the new surroundings.

1 Day Old, light hair and orangey highlights

Me and my boy

Elijah loves when Daddy holds him.

My loves. We're so lucky that Daddy is such a natural! 

He is an expert soother, diaper changer, and maid :)

My sweet pea sleeping.

We're so happy to have our baby in our arms now and are trying to enjoy all of the new experiences of parenthood. As someone who loves to sleep, I am amazed at how little sleep is really required to function. The first several days we were literally running on minutes of sleep a day, but now we've all gotten much better at napping during the day and night (2-3 hour naps). On that note, he just woke up, so it's time to start the eat, poop, sleep routine once again!

I'll post some more pics and his birth story soon. 

Oh Happy Day!

No, we haven't had the baby yet, but we've still got plenty to be happy about around here this weekend!
I remember how much I looked forward to springtime in New York City. After having cold, gross days for what seemed like more than half the year, a single day of sunshine had the power to bring out the smiles in everyone around the city. We ditched the puffy coats in exchange for cute t-shirts and an iced coffee and took advantage of the usually short-lived sun warming us from the inside out.
Now that we live in a city that is perpetually warm, you'd think that feeling would be long gone. I have to admit, even a place that is always at least 85 degrees gets a lift in its spirits on an especially sunshiny day after endless gray days with thunderstorms. Now if only we had a Starbucks on the corner...
Besides the change in weather, yesterday was a memorable day for us for two special reasons. First, our adorable niece turned 5! It seems like she was barely just talking the other day, and she's quickly become a very chatty, smart, and super cute little kid.  And now we know she won't be stuck sharing her birthday with her cousin!
Second, we got news that my brother proposed to his girlfriend last night! Jay and I are both thrilled for them and cannot wait to officially add Daphne to our family. They are such a beautiful couple, inside and out, and they're blessed to have found each other.
The good times continue this weekend, too. Jay is running in his first official race tonight with some friends of ours. It's a relay race where each person on the 6 person team runs 3.5 km. Not exactly a marathon, but it should be fun. Because we're getting close to our lil guy's BDay, Jay would only agree to run if I was there with him "just in case."  I'm looking forward to taking some action shots for everyone from the sidelines.
Speaking of action shots, our good friend Debora volunteered to take some pictures of us before the baby comes (today is 39 wks, 2 days). Although we have perfected the one arm self-portraits over the past 10 years together, if I do say so myself, it's great to have some pictures of us further than 2 feet away. Thanks to the cooperative weather this morning and Debora with her new camera, I think we've got some keepers :)

Here's to hoping the next pics we post on here will be of the bebe!!!!

Cha de bebe!

How lucky can one girl be? Last week was my third baby shower for this lil guy! I feel so fortunate to have such great friends not only in the States, but also here in Manaus. My close friend Debora threw me my last baby shower (cha de bebe) and invited all of our girlfriends. It was a lot of fun for everyone, and we ended up with some really cute books and DVD's in Portuguese for the bebe. I know I will think of our Brazilian friends whenever we read the stories together. We also got some disposable diapers which should come in handy for the really gross newborn poop that is sure to come in a few weeks! For now though, they are serving an equally important job of making our second bedroom smell like sweet, fresh baby :)

Debora and me at the beginning

A Brazilian tradition...the girls all painted my belly!

The belly, Jay, and I all done up! 

Just the Ladies (e um menino)

Now we're getting to the final countdown!!! Less than a month to go (36 wks)!!! We can't wait to meet our lil guy and introduce him to all of his Tias e Tios Brasileiros :) 

St. Patty's Day in Manaus

One of the fun parts of living in New York City used to be celebrating St. Patrick's Day. It was always amusing to see how much people (meaning Jay and his friends) looked forward to getting together and going out to celebrate, especially if it fell on a weekend. The last year we lived in the city, Jay and I even marched in a band in the big St. Patrick's Day Parade up 5th Avenue.

As the big day approached here, we didn't really have any plans. Despite this being a country with lots of saint days and holidays, Patrick did not make the cut. I guess not everyone fully appreciates a guy that rid Ireland of its snakes! 

At basically the last minute, we decided to get together with our friends Mark and Debora for a traditional Irish dinner. I made an Irish beef stew, and we put it over mashed potatoes with chicken sausage. We couldn't find any proper Irish beer at the grocery store for the stew, but we managed just fine with some expensive Brazilian made Scottish ale. 

We all dressed in green and listened to hours of traditional Irish music while we cooked and then ate til we could eat no more. It turned out being lots of fun, and Debora got to celebrate her first St. Patrick's Day! 

Cooking the stew, 33wks

Yummy Irish dinner

Don't mind the crazy hair- it gets hot cooking here ;)

Debora and me 

Mmmm... Frog Legs

I'm not sure if it has to do with being pregnant or the fact that I have more spare time now that I am not playing with the orchestra, but I have been on quite a cooking kick lately. Nothing special, just making real food for lunch and dinner more than usual and not going out to eat so much. By real food, I mean we're eating less grilled cheeses and Top Ramen (a favorite of Jay) and more roasts with veggies, paprika chicken with brown rice, etc. 

One of the greatest kitchen appliances I have come to love thanks to living in Brazil is the pressure cooker. I had only heard horror stories about it being dangerous in the States, so I was surprised how many people use one here. You'd think in the US of all places, people would prefer the speedy cooking with a pressure cooker (45 minutes for a 3lb roast with perfect potatoes and carrots) over the slow, all day cooking with a crock-pot. And for the record, I use my pressure cooker about 3-4 times a week and have never had any explosions or near explosions. 

So last week I thought it would be nice to have some chicken with veggies for lunch. I looked to see what I could throw in the pot, and I found some fresh kale we bought a couple days before. I pulled it out of the fridge, washed each leaf, and set it down to start trimming it. At that point, I saw something small and brown under the top leaf and called Jay over in a hurry. As he moved the top leaf, we both saw two little black eyes looking up at us. Turns out a little frog had come home with us on the kale 2 days earlier, chilled out a bit in the fridge, and almost got boiled for lunch! 

Needless to say, we didn't end up eating any kale with our lunch. Hopefully that little froggy enjoyed his break from the heat of Manaus once he thawed out :) 

 

Surprises

Yesterday turned out to be quite a memorable day for us, and not exactly in the best sort of way. 

I'll get the bad surprise out of the way first. As Jay walked me to my last rehearsal for a while, I stopped looking at the sidewalk for a couple seconds. This is never a good idea here because the sidewalks are not only very crooked and very uneven, but there can also be garbage in some spots. Well, as we approached the intersection, I felt something slippery under my foot. I looked back to see what it was, thinking it was just some fruit peel or whatever. If only... it turned out to be a big, dead, hairless rat! And I was wearing flip-flops! EWWW! I immediately got so grossed out that I almost lost my breakfast right there. I made it to rehearsal and washed off my shoe, but it still gives me the heeby-jeebies to even think about it. 

While I was busy counting measures at rehearsal, Jay was taking part in a tv show about sports in our state, Amazonas. His Muay Thai teacher invited him and another student the day before to be part of a segment about Muay Thai. He agreed, thinking it would basically be a demonstration of combinations they've learned in class. He was a little surprised to see a scene set up with chairs outside for an interview, and even more surprised when they told him he would be the one getting interviewed! While he does speak portuguese, this live tv situation was not exactly ideal. So the reporter asked him a question, which he answered to the best of his ability, and then he said the guy just looked at his teacher, kind of stunned, not knowing what just happened, and then never talked to Jay again after that! I tried to find a clip of it, but so far haven't had any luck.

That was definitely a day neither of us will forget anytime soon (though I really wish I could)!

Mahler 1 Concert

I have officially played my last concert as a pregnant woman. For the last 2 weeks, our orchestra has been rehearsing Mahler's Symphony No. 1 with the Experimental Orquestra (youth symphony), and we played a side by side concert this week. As a trombonist, it's always fun to play Mahler, and although it was not a perfect performance, the energy of the group was great. Jay even said it was an "inspiring performance."
One of the big feats for me in this concert, being 30 weeks pregnant, was the fact that I made it through the whole piece (more than an hour long) without needing to go to the bathroom. The lil guy squirmed around a lot during the concert. I think he is a big Mahler fan!

Side by side concert

Low brass section

Our bows at the end 

Because of the timing of the opera festival, I won't be playing any operas this season. While I do want to continue playing until he's born, cramming into the hot pit for 4 + hour rehearsals would probably not be a great idea for anyone. It's hard enough to maneuver around down there without a big belly getting in the way. 

It's kind of amusing how many people think I am due any day now. It's pretty funny to see their faces when I say I still have more than 2 months left. Jay and I are looking forward to seeing how much bigger my belly will get in the next 10 weeks, and of course, we can't wait to hold our lil guy in our arms!