Manu Kenzo Baron-Jerugim

So our little Prince showed up on this planet a week ago, and we have the whole story on a new blog at the Manu Kenzo Experience Everything is good, except that after a lot of work and preparation for an extreme natural birth we had the opposite experience and Manu was born through a C-section... Nothing is ever perfect, but everybody is fine, healthy and the little one is especially beautiful! VOILA!

Mike posting: Any day now....

Hi All! I haven't posted here in a while, but seeing as my lovely wife is currently sleeping and fit to pop at any moment, I thought I would post a few shots for curious minds. As of today we have officially hit the 40 week mark. Nesting, to the extent that not having moved into our own apartment will allow, has been taken care of. The bags are packed for the hospital, and we are simply waiting for the little monkey to let us know when the time is right. Isn't she pretty? We have also occasionally been watching Raphael dance tango in the park, as there are gazillions of tango in the parks here, and Raph is becoming quite the tanguero! Go Raph, go! More to come soon.....

Moved to Montreal... yes we did!

Ah yeah, we finally did it! We moved to Montreal!!! YEAHHHHH! We're very happy to start something new, explore new things, make new friends and have our new baby! Things have been going well, we're staying at my parents' house for now but have been visiting apartments and hopefully found one that's just right, we'll find out later this week or next. Mike has been interviewing for jobs and had an offer he's still waiting to finalize, so no comment about that until it happens. I'm almost 29 weeks at this point, so there is only about 80 days to go... It passes by way too fast!

26 weeks.... and growing... Time goes fast!

Moving boxes and new belly pictures

Ohhhhhh, movingg..... backaches.... grrrrrrrr There are boxes everywhere, it's a mess here... We're selling a bunch of stuff, pretty much every furniture we own actually. It'll be great to start everything fresh over there! i'm getting fat though, so bending over to put stuff in boxes is becoming hard. otherwise we've been seeing a bunch of our friends since they want to see us before we lieave, and that's been cool! We never see our friends here in Los Angeles, too much driving, too much stress in everybody's lives anyway, so it's hard to get out and drive for an hour to go out at night, everybody has become part of this mode it seems. Luckily we have a few friends who live closer to where we do, and we have been able to see these guys... nothing else is very new, the baby Monkey is kicking when there is music, especially loud music, he/she loves it... then sleeps for 2 days... hahahaha It's a hard life! We took new pictures, and are religiously archiving the evolution of the belly... quite an impressive achievement we women go through, I mean, I don't want to sound like I'm patting myself on the back, but do you all ever think about the physical changes we manage to produce when we're expecting a child? I never thought about it of course before it happened to me, but oh man! I still wonder how much more my belly can grow out of the petite-ness that I am! Nature sure has a very crazy interesting way of doing things! Love it!

Baby monkey pictures (ultrasound)

Here are the pictures from the ultrasound we had monday evening. He/She is a monkey! The legs are above the head like a contortionist trick! Cute huh!?

20 going on 21... weeks...

We heard the heartbeat.... Very cool!!! Next monday will be the ultrasound where we'll finally see our little monkey! Can't wait.

Week 20.... Meaning I'm 4 months pregnant! I found that picture on the left on the internet, we're actually getting our own ultra sound very soon while in Montreal but there are some amazing actual photographs of other babies that are truly astonishing!!! We're leaving tomorrow for two weeks to go for check ups and finding a place etc etc! That's the update.... Oh, we also had a baby shower which went well, we saw a bunch of Mike's family members who we don't get to see very often, so it was nice. Of course they brought gifts which is always nice! haha Mostly though, everybody was happy for us, and it was exciting to have so many people as excited as us! :-) We felt "flutters" or little bubbles a few days ago, and that was really fun, feeling the baby move really subtly is amazing and we really are looking forward to bigger movements that we can track. I remember my brother in my mother's belly who had different reactions to me playing the piano or to when my mom was in a bath.... sooooo much fun! So there. We'll probably post some pictures on the travel blog if anybody wants to see and will try to have the ultra sound with us to put up on there. Until then, bask in the glow of my new "front pack", it's becoming more and more apparent! hahahaha

13 weeks and growing...

Ok ok, I never write here.... Anymore... So in light of this, I'll write about what's going on now, which to many people will be oh so boring, but oh well! Here is what a 13 week old fetus looks like (not mine): I think it's alreay partying in there without me knowing. It's like a practice for everything he/she is going to be doing behind my back later on in life! That's ok, I'll get you, little one! So far I've had many people ask if my belly is bigger. Yes it's SLIGHTLY rounded, it's really just a bump. I look like I fell in the cookie jar more than anything else! But it will change fast enough. For now, I'm still enjoying being able to fall asleep on my stomach. I never had nausea, just about a week of aversions to certain smells and therefore foods. But nothing bad. I had bouts of tiredness that got me to my bones, but that also was rather mild. I feel irritated here and there, but nothing different from any old PMS. Which goes back to the eternal "don't mess with a pregnant lady!", and I would add "even if she doesn't look pregnant!" So there, that's the scoop, nothing that interesting since I don't have any gory details of how I threw up there or there, nothing like "I have been beating my husband every night since I found out I was pregnant", and nothing like "my eyes are so puffy from crying I can't see through them".... Sorry! ;-)

ooops...

More on the travel blog.... :-0

Another good green gift guide

inhabitat offers a good selection of gifts in categories that make it easy to find something for that person who has everything! I love the lumen stuff, I think you can find them at Design Within Reach also. There are also things like mini solar keychain LED lights, or trees can be planted in the recipient's name (45$ for 450 trees), egglings are also very cool for cheap, a sort of garden in a bag but in an egg... Ecospheres are starting to be known by all, of course a photovoltaic bag is nice though on the expensive side, but nice! Then there is Generate (or gnr8) which has very modern type of gifts. The salt & pepper hug is so cute! Moi jewelry for the geeks and many more... Last but not least is uncommon goods! There you can find menu organizers, procedural dating organizers, pregnancy prep gift sets, door mats, and so many more fun gifts....

Really cool original gift guide

Between a twist n spout, an inconvenient truth DVD, sign language bookmarks, and more, all under $77. I love it! Find it at Core77.com Then for the more ecological oriented, the treehugger gift guide is pretty resourceful with a nice "user friendly" navigation. Everything is featured including bamboo utensils, fuel cell car kit for kids, eco camp kit for the outdoorsy type person, organic wine and beers, green jewelry, organic chocolate and teas, clothing etc...

Affordable Solar panels

It's getting hot in here has a quick interesting article on the affordability of photovoltaics. Seems like everyone should be getting on the train at this point!!!! According to the U.S. Department of Energy itself, PVs are now “producing electricity at a cost of 8-10 cents per kilowatt/hour, making solar electricity a more cost-competitive and integral part of our nation’s energy mix.”

Furoshiki, or how to origami your giftwraps

The Japanese government publiched this in an effort to be "green".... The idea is not to wrap in plastic but still be able to carry them, except this way is pretty! cool, huh!?