Baby Jack's Nursery

By popular demand, I've finally taken some pictures of baby Jack's new nursery. Tommy put together the model airplanes all by himself! I'm sure there are a few finishing touches that we need to do, and I know there are still some things we need to buy (and no doubt few we're forgetting), but I really like how its turning out. I can't wait until the little guy is here to stay in the room! I've had quite a few friends who have had babies over the past few weeks and I find myself wanting more and more to meet little Thomas Jackson, to see how he looks like Tommy and how he looks like me, and of course to finally hold him, hear his little cry and kiss his tiny forehead. Only 56 days to go!

More of Tom and Greta's Visit

On Sunday, after spending a couple days getting to know Manhattan, we decided to venture east and head to Newport, Rhode Island for the day. Tommy and I visited the city last fall and thought Tom and Greta would really enjoy it.

Given that it was a beautiful day on a long weekend, traffic was pretty atrocious in and around Newport, but once we got out of the car, we definitely didnt' feel overwhelmed by crowds. We started out with a trip to the Breakers, Cornelius Vanderbilt's fabulous home and the most famous of the Newport mansions. Since Tommy and I had already taken the tour, we soaked up some sun on the back lawn while Tom and Greta toured the inside.

Next, we took a tour of Marble House. Marble house was constructed for Alva Vanderbilt, wife of one of the grandson's of Cornelius. After hearing the stories of her getting the house built for her then promptly divorcing her husband, or forcing her daughter to wear rods up her back hoping to marry her off to royalty, we decided that we didn't think we'd like Mrs. Vanderbilt very much, but Marble House was definitely a beautiful place!

After a late afternoon snack at the International Tennis Hall of Fame, Tom and Greta took a quick walk on the Cliff Walk (I didn't think I could make it at this point!) and we headed back to Connecticut.

Neither Tommy nor I had to work on Labor Day, so we all headed to Yankee Stadium to catch the Yankees take on Tampa Bay. We were excited about how easy it was to get to the stadium - on game days there is a direct train from Stamford to Yankee Stadium! It was fun to get to see the new stadium in its inaugural season and even though I've never been a huge Yankees fan before, you can't help but cheer for them when you're there. We bought a cute Yankee onesie for Jack, ate cheese fries, and cheered Yankees on to victory!

Tom and Greta tour Manhattan

We're so excited that Tom and Greta (Tommy's dad and stepmom for those of you who don't know) were able to come spend a week with us around Labor Day. We had a wonderful time and a week of the most beautiful weather of the year!

They arrived on Thursday night before Labor Day and Tommy and I took Friday off of work and we all headed into NYC. Tom and Greta wanted to get a feel for the city, so we decided that the best way to do that was to take a double-decker bus tour of midtown and downtown. Tommy and I have never taken one and I think the consensus was that it turned out to be a great way to get an overview of the city and appreciate the interesting and varied architecture that you may miss walking down the street.


We finished the night with some pizza at Colony Grill back in Stamford - Yummy!

I was completely worn out on Saturday after Thursday at the US Open and Friday touring the City, so Tommy took his Dad and Greta to Stew Leonard's where they picked up some lobster rolls and steak to have later in the week. Early Saturday afternoon, we headed back into the NYC for dinner. Before dinner, we stopped by Central Park for a carriage ride. Our carriage driver was definitely a character, who spewed all kinds of facts and jokes almost faster than we could comprehend! Here are a couple of photos:

We had 8pm reservations at Bar Americain, Bobby Flay's second restaurant in NYC. We had to wait 10 minutes or so for our table - not a big deal, but they made up for it for the rest of the night - free appetizer, free dessert. While everything was absolutely delicious, I feel inclined to mention by drink. So far in my pregnancy, I have been very disappointed in the selection of non-alcoholic beverages. To most restaurants, a non-alcoholic drink seems to mean fruit juice put in some sort of pretty glass, but fruit juice nonetheless. Bar Americain made me a "faux-jito" - a delicious mojito without the alcohol (and I don't usually even like mojitos!).

After dinner, we walked back to Grand Central through Times Square and took the obligatory photos:

What a fun night!

US Open

Many of you know that I was pretty disappointed that I, once again, didn't manage to buy tickets for the US Open tennis tournament this year until they were all sold out. When we moved up to Connecticut, someone who had previously done an MDP rotation told me that was one of the best things she did while she lived here. Fortunately for me, my co-worker, Glen had some extra tickets at the last minute, so Tommy and I got to go after all! We went on the Thursday of opening week, on an absolutely gorgeous day. Before we arrived, all of us were a little disappointed because none of the "big names" were scheduled to play that day. As it turns out, we shouldn't have been disappointed - we got to see some really close matches, and some great upsets!

Here we are in Arthur Ashe stadium:

Glen and Shawn:

The first match we watched was Dementieva/Oudin. Elena Dementieva was the 4th seed and Melanie Oudin was an unranked 17 year-old American, so I think everyone thought the match would be over pretty quickly. By now, everyone knows they were wrong! Oudin won in a long 3 set match and wound up being the surprise of the tournament, making it all the way to the 4th round!

The next match turned out to be just as good. Unranked Yaroslava Shvedova defeated the no. 5 seed Jelena Jankovic also in 5 sets.

Because the first 2 matches lasted so long, Tommy and I unfortunately didn't get to see James Blake play in the 3rd match of the day on Arthur Ashe stadium because we had to pick up Tom and Greta at the airport. Here are a few other photos from the day. I'm so glad we we got to go - thanks, Glen!