dailylife

I woke up at 5.30 am this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. After I while I got out of bed and I went for a run. It was quiet on the sidewalks at 6.30 am, although there was some traffic. The sun came up during my run.

Didn’t feel any pain in my left leg this time. I do feel it’s time for new running shoes though.

It was pretty cold (around 40 degrees) so I ran with a jacket.

Friday I had a sore throat and felt like I might be getting sick; a reaction to a stressful week. This weekend we took it easy and that seemed to have helped. So far, not sick. Run was great. Felt fast but in fact it was relatively slow — 41 minutes. Happy I ran, especially after a day non-stop programming.

On Wednesday Sasha’s colleagues threw her a baby shower at work.

We received cute presents including several American classic children books, such as “Big Red Barn” and “Goodnight Moon”.

This week we made good progress with the preparations for our new arrival.

Wednesday evening I installed the car seat. It was easy but it’s nice to know that it’s done.

I stayed home Monday afternoon to receive the delivery of the crib, but it was damaged in shipment so I refused delivery. Hopefully they’ll redeliver next week.

We ordered all the other things we need this week, and every day we are receiving new packages. With the exception of clothes and blankets we’ve ordered almost everything online. It’s very helpful to read the reviews on Amazon, especially for things we have never bought before such as these baby items.

We went to a maternity class on Sunday and I didn’t run in the weekend. It was great to run and relax.

It was around 47 degrees — a lot warmer than just several days ago.

Over the last few days I’ve done quite some cooking, in preparation of the first weeks when the baby arrives. I’m not exactly sure what’s in store for us, but everybody says we’ll be very busy and tired so I figured it’s useful to have some frozen healthy dinners ready.

I made enough macaroni sauce for seven meals last week, and recently I cooked a huge batch of chili. I’m very happy with my two electric burners that allow me to cook on the balcony — it’s great for “smelly” foods like garlic and onions.

This week I’ll also freeze babi pangang and perhaps some other dishes.

Suggestions?

I felt the same abdominal pain as on Tuesday. I was wondering what could cause it — not food, because I don’t eat before my run, perhaps breathing but I was paying more attention and then it dawned on me that it was probably my undershirt that is too tight! It’s been really cold the last few days so I wore a second shirt, but the shirt is really too small for me. It’s stretch material so it fits, but clearly it didn’t work very well for me. I pulled it up and finished the run just fine. Mystery solved.

That was a pretty painful run; after 1.5 miles my abdomen started hurting and it didn’t stop for the whole run. I took several breaks and finished after 44 minutes; 3 minutes slower than my worst time so far. Anyway, still feels good to run.

My leg feels much better now, after taking two weeks rest over the holidays. Still, I didn’t want to push it with a long weekend run so I did a 4.5 mile course this morning. From home I ran down Clarendon, to Roosevelt island, around the island, and back home over Wilson.

The first mile was very cold — running downhill made the wind feel stronger and my hands hurt. Once I made it to the trail entrance near the Key Bridge, the wind was lower and I could take my hands out of my sleeves. Very nice to run on Roosevelt.

Over the Christmas weekend Irena threw a surprise baby shower for Sasha. She had arranged everything and invited our friends to Secaucus on Saturday.

A baby shower is an American tradition where a friend or relative of the future mom organizes a surprise party (usually just with girls) for her to celebrate the baby with drinks, food and a “shower” of baby presents.

Early in the morning while Sasha was still upstairs we decorated the house and prepared the drinks and snacks for the party. The decorations were adorable: pink baby balloons, garlands of tiny diapers, tiny giraffes and elephants. The cake was also carefully chosen for the occasion. We got a lot of baby presents and the girls had a fun time at the party which was spiced up by champagne (apple cider for Sasha though). Thank you, Irena, this was a great surprise! Special thanks to Ilana who chose some of the decorations and took great pictures.

While the girls were enjoying the party I went out for drinks and lunch with Jonathan and Ed.