This is now

Here she is!

Lest you be concerned that this blog will turn into nothing but pictures of Ainsley, I'll tell you that this will be one of the only posts full of her pictures.

If you're not on facebook, here are her stats:

Ainsley Jane Adams

Born on 30 March 2012 at 9:07 p.m.

8 lbs. 2 oz.

20.25 inches long

Our little bug - based on one of the best children's books ever...
Easter!  You can't see it, but we stuck her in an Easter basket and a cute onesie - "Just Hatched"  One day she'll thank us (we hope).

She eats and sleeps like a champ - woohoo!  Life is certainly different these days, but we're having a blast adjusting to life as parents.

Kinda surreal...

And P.S. In case you didn't get enough of little AJ in this post, call, text, or email us and we'll give you the info to access a picasa album that Steve updates regularly with plenty more pictures of the little one.

The Curse

I do not like cats.

The reason? I'm allergic.

Funny then how EVERY mascot I've ever been affiliated with happens to be some sort of feline.

Boulton Elementary BOBCATS

Mueller Park Junior High PANTHERS

Woods Cross High WILDCATS

Brigham Young University COUGARS

(UK schools don't have mascots so University of Edinburgh doesn't really apply here)

It gets even better....

When I got a job at Columbus State Community College, I picked up right where I left off:

CSCC COUGARS

Then I got another teaching job at Ohio Dominican University and literally laughed out loud when I was confronted with the university mascot:

ODU PANTHERS

It's a curse, I tell you. But it's coming to an end!

On 22 August 2012 I will officially start my Ph.D. in History of Art, and the mascot this time around isn't a cat....

It's a BUCKEYE!!!

I submitted my acceptance to Ohio State University last week. Pretty cool that Steve and I will now share alma mater's. OSU has been very good to us so far, and the next four years will continue that trend.

That was then...

One word to sum up the days and weeks leading up to the birth of our daughter:

ANTICIPATION

We couldn't wait to see her face, kiss her cheeks, cuddle her close, and even hear her cry. There really is something special about being pregnant, which I won't attempt to explain, but I wish every woman could have a pregnancy like mine (minus the diabetes part, of course) - even though it was automatically high-risk because of the diabetes, I didn't have a day of morning sickness, no complications, sleep was never a problem (even at 39 weeks), no cravings, no crazy hormone-induced mood swings - I was very lucky. Steve was lucky too. =)

I didn't post belly pictures on the internet (you know, the week by week progress comparing my belly to changing fruits/vegetables - the raspberry to pumpkin thing), but we just got these photos back from a maternity shoot that we did at the end of February and I thought I'd show all of you a small sampling of what I looked like with a belly.

When we picked my mom up from the airport the evening before Ainsley arrived, she still didn't believe that I was about to have a baby the next day...my belly was pretty deceiving the whole pregnancy. Regardless of appearance, our little one has arrived and our world has been changed for the better.

Stay tuned for pictures of the new arrival.