Happy Birthday Daddy!

I felt a little guilty that Osei's birthday wasn't going to be very special.  We are in Colorado for a month living out of suitcases (which is definitely special), but Osei and I have been together almost every minute.  So no chance for surprise plans or gifts or anything like that.  And, it is not like you can completely avoid new parental responsibilities just because it is your birthday (though I changed the big ones!).  So, we had to improvise a little to make the day special!

Thursday morning we met with my old high school cross country coach, Joanne, for coffee at the Laughing Goat in Boulder.  We enjoyed catching up with Joanne, and I have a feeling she made a quick expert assessment that our little girl has some athletic potential (wishful thinking that she'll follow our footsteps and fall in love with running?)

Then Osei and I went to Beau Jo's pizza for lunch.  We weren't that impressed, but were pleasantly surprised when Grandma Nancy stopped by to say hello.  Yay us for making a plan and sticking to it!

Afterwards, we took a drive around the neighborhoods of Denver to explore a little.  As we plan our move to Colorado later this winter, we can definitely both see ourselves ending up in Denver!

Then we met up with a high school friend of mine (and fellow Fairview cross country runner) for happy hour.  We enjoyed meeting her new husband, Nadav, and spending time with both of them.

As if we couldn't pack more activities into our busy day, then we met Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Ralph at BJ's for dinner.  The pizza here exceeded our expectations, even though it meant a two-pizza kind of day!  I carried Palesa in the ring sling the whole evening, and she did wonderfully.  In fact, as we walked along Pearl Street to meet Beth, I even nursed Palesa in the sling (while walking).  We had a few strategically placed blankets for warmth, but otherwise, it was all pretty natural and normal!

Overall, I felt extremely blessed to spend another birthday with my dear husband, Osei.  Happy Birthday, love!

Palesa does her Party Tricks

On Wednesday, Osei, Palesa and I had dinner with Cyndi and Ron at their house.  The meal was delicious (no surprise there), the conversation wonderful, and all enjoyed getting to know Palesa.  Cyndi was astonished at the developmental progress Palesa had made in a few short weeks!  We put the blanket on the table and propped her up on her belly, and she was happy, smiling, and drooling the entire time.  She held her head and neck up for at least 3 minutes, though none of us bothered to time it as we encouraged her and made funny faces to keep her smiling.  This was especially fun for all of us because she maintained such good eye contact.

Yes, we make her work very hard to hold up her head and neck all by herself, but it is definitely paying off- Palesa is one strong little baby!

Jazzercise, running, and cookies, oh my!

Osei thought this outfit looked like a Jazzercise housewife.  I think it is cute.  She is smiling and holding her head up all over the place.

Friday was a great day for all of us. In the morning, Bryan and I went running (!).  This was my second run post-Palesa.  I'm also testing a Nike + Sportwatch with GPS (this one), which tracks my pace, distance, calories burned, and elapsed time.  It is great for tracking my progress for getting back into shape.  I also am excited to do another product test for Nike.  My first run was on Tuesday, and Friday's run was also 3 miles, but my pace was about 1 1/2 minutes per mile faster!  It also helps that I got to run with Bryan, an excellent running partner!

Friday we also went to visit dear friends, Kevin and Becca at their house in Longmont.  They were so excited to finally meet little Palesa!  We really enjoyed our visit, getting to see them again, and the delicious cookies Becca made for us!

13 Days, and a great visit from great friends!

Today was a really great day.  Our dear friends, Chelsea and Dave came to visit from Vermont.  We had a wonderful afternoon, and were very blessed when they cooked us two meals for the week.  Chelsea seemed so astonished at how much smaller Palesa looks in person than in the photos.  So, we took this picture to give a sense of scale.  I guess you could say she is still pretty tiny.  

Daddy likes to blow kisses on her.  We were actually trying to keep her awake, with the grand idea that if she stays awake in the evening, she'll sleep during the night.  Unfortunately, we were far from successful, and Palesa and I were both up since 4:30 am.

Chelsea, Amy, and Palesa

Little Palesa

37.5 weeks

Hello all,

Time is ticking and we should get to meet this baby within the month (though hopefully closer to two weeks). As of today, I'm 38 weeks and 1 day.

This past weekend we had a wonderful party/baby shower where we got to celebrate with friends and family in Boston. We all had such a nice time and both Osei and I are extremely blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful and supportive people. We were especially touched to have people come from so far away (Vermont and New York City) to join us for the festivities, and were blown away by the generosity of all.

It finally hit me Saturday night that our next "event" is the birth of this baby. It has felt like non-stop activities and travel all summer long, and now nothing is left on the list but to have this baby! Now feels like the perfect time to just slow down, cuddle on the couch and enjoy this last bit of precious time between just Osei and I. It feels very special.

Much love and hugs and blessings to all,

Amy, Osei, and baby Omee

33.5 weeks

Hello all,

We are happy to report another big adventure for this past week!

Last Wednesday, we had a wonderful visit with Osei's parents (who are both extremely excited to meet their first grandchild). After work on Thursday, we headed up to Vermont for a weekend of wedding festivities and to celebrate the marriage of my dear dear friend (and my oldest friend!) Chelsea to her now-husband, Dave.

Osei, Omee, and I also spent 3 days camping at a pond recreation area. Our new tent is a massive barn of a tent- it sleeps 8 people and was big enough to stand up in. We had an air mattress, and the ground itself was incredibly soft to begin with. We brought a few extra pillows, and it was remarkably comfortable. We both slept so well that we hardly even heard the team of college rugby players (at least 30 of them!) crammed into the campsite next to us!

We probably also slept so well because we were so exhausted from all of the fun wedding activities! The bachlorette party was breakfast and a hike, followed by a day of working on the farm where the wedding was to be held. I was first in line to volunteer for picking blueberries (and actually picked more than I ate this time). Saturday we all went orienteering. This took place in the woods, and we were given a topographical map with little controls located all over the map area (1 square mile). Each team had to navigate and find as many of the controls as possible, competing against the clock and other teams. We certainly weren't the fastest team, but we were far from last! Saturday night we all went Contra dancing, (which is the New England version of square dancing), and I can't honestly remember the last time I had so much fun. I would highly recommend trying it!

The wedding on Sunday was beautiful, and it was an honor to see two people I care about so much get to marry their best friend. I know from experience that there is nothing greater than being married and getting to spend the rest of your life with your best friend! The wedding was on a beautiful hilltop meadow, overlooking lush Vermont mountains and surrounded by foggy forrests. Due to the wet grass, I opted to go barefoot for the ceremony (I was a bridesmaid). The sun emerged just as the ceremony ended, and I think I will always remember standing in a beautiful field that looked like something from the Sound of Music, barefoot, pregnant, and with the sun now shining. And as if it couldn't get any more perfect, little kids carrying bowls of blueberries and blackberries ran around feeding us delicious treats grown on the bushes around us.

After all the fun we had this weekend, I also realized that I'm definitely not finished being pregnant yet! Which is a good thing, because I have about 6 more weeks to go, but right now I am enjoying this pregnancy so much that I'm not ready for it to be over!

Hugs and blessings to all,


Amy, Osei, and Omee

Horse Back Riding

For my bachlorette party, my three amazing bridesmaids took me horseback riding. We had a blast! No one woke up the next morning with hangovers, though I think all of us were a little sore!


The talented photographer, Susan Horn, was even snapping pictures from the back of a moving horse.


Beautiful Colorado, just outside of Golden.


I forgot how green Colorado can be. It was a perfect sunny day in June.


We had an amazing day, and I am thankful to Suz, Becca, and Melony for making our wedding experience so memorable!

Good food with good friends

We had friends over the other day for lunch and enjoyed a delicious spread of sandwiches, tomato & basil salad, tabouli, spinach salad, and lebanese bread with hummus...

My husband's summertime favorite may very well be fried plantains. He cooks on low heat with vegetable oil. Unlike bananas, plantains tend to stay quite firm even when extremely ripe. As they cook, they become sweeter and sweeter, until they are like candy with a crispy golden outer shell.

Speaking of candy. Okay, okay, this was a different occasion, but I liked the picture. On our way home from CT, we had dinner at Crocker Barrel. Now I can say I've been there once and can cross it off the list. My arteries rejoice.

A good and proper French lunch (sushi)... away from the office

My colleagues took me for lunch today... here is Boris and Joanna

Laurene and Joanna

Lizette and Felice

I really do work with a cool bunch of people :)

The waitress loved getting six different credit cards to split the check.  Thanks, guys!

And they say running is a metaphor...

Its these guys again.  Time send them to their next life.  They were OK.  Laces didn't seem to stay tied very well.  And they began to tear around the tops.  But I had some good memories, some great runs, and put in my fair share of miles wearing them.  

The last run tonight was good... at least now I'm ready to retire them.  I ran with my friend Kristin, who I often run with on Tuesday nights at Niketown, when I get to hear about her life and she hears all about mine.  

So when life throws in little plot twists, like a relationship ending, this is exactly why we need both girlfriends and running buddies.  When we're lucky enough that they are one in the same person, this is why running is cheap therapy.

It is ironically appropriate that I retire my shoes just as my relationship with Serge ends.  Technically I should have stopped running in them after my run Sunday morning, but I wasn't quite ready to put them to rest yet.  Actually, maybe I should have replaced them 50 miles ago, when I noticed them tearing in places they shouldn't, and I noticed my knees starting to hurt a little.  If relationships are measured in running shoes, Serge and I lasted through multiple pairs.

Maybe it is not a perfect metaphor though...running shoes are pretty easy to just replace-tomorrow I will run in a new pair and think nothing of it.  The timeline for moving on from a relationship isn't so simple.  Especially when you weren't quite ready for it to end, even if maybe part of you knows it was time.

But, like running, every time I stop running in one pair of shoes, I always know that there will be another pair.  And, as one very wise running mentor once reminded me, just keep moving forward, one foot in front of the other.  Constant Forward Motion. 

A little cottage in the woods

Just before driving back to New York.  

The pretty red roof

Our cottage in Vermont sat on a peninsula

I used to build (less elaborate) versions of the neighbor's house when I was a kid with Lincoln Logs

What could be more fun than this?

17 degrees outside.  Just past 4:00 am, post 8+hour drive (thanks, holiday weekend traffic).  One hill.  2 wheel drive.  4 brave guys.  

We would have hitch-hiked the last 2 miles to the house, except our stuck car was kind of blocking the road.  Not that dirt roads in Vermont get much traffic at that hour.  

We made it!  Champagne toast!  

Dennis' birthday party

Sasha, Alex, Dennis (the birthday boy) and Dennis' brother.  Anna made Borsch (traditional Russian beet soup), which I tried for the first time.  I only had room for a bite, post pizza, but it was delicious!

Katya, Eugeney, Serge, Emilia, Roman, and I think that is Sergey's foot.  Dennis is standing

We've seen those socks before... they are Daniel, not Sergey's feet!

Every time I see an Italian coffee percolator, I think of Jess

I heard from a good college friend today, none other than Ms. Jess P.  You will one day see her on SNL, or doing stand up, I predict.  

Typical Smithie... A very accomplished flutist (is that a word), I think a Music major, possibly double major in Italian too.  She now lives is San Francisco (again, typical Smithie behavior to migrate to cool cities, what can we say?) and is getting ready for an MBA in finance/economics.  Clearly she and I took similar different paths from Smith by starting career paths that appear to have absolutely nothing to do with anything we studied in college.  In addition to intramural soccer and the community orchestra, Jess is now doing Venture Capital analysis and research for Dow Jones.  That is precisely what I love about Smith though.  Jess knows what I'm talking about here... must be a Smith thing.  

Anyway, whenever I think back to my time and friends at Smith, images of Jess are never without a coffee percolator.  I'm not really sure what branded such a distinct mental image, but I pity everyone else who sees coffee percolators and does not have the pleasure of remembering Jess P. stories and laughing.

Birthday candles, Korean Saunas, Chinese Food, Superbowl, and Russian friends

After our day at the Korean Sauna, we were all just far too relaxed

We also worked up an appetite for Chinese food at a buffet in Queens

It was actually an Asian Fusion buffet

They offered fresh sushi too

And just in case anyone left the all-you-can-eat buffet still hungry, we had a birthday cake for Sergey afterwards back in Brooklyn while we watched the Superbowl

New Year's Party

Just look at the expressions on the two faces.  

Bust a move... in detail

A step-by-step visual manuel to this dance move by Serge.  Note the strong backup support here.