Just got an email from my best friend Amy Sue. She comes from a family with four children, so there was bound to be some "incidents"...

From: "Amy Lawlor"
To: "Molli Rudnick"
Subject: near fatal accidents
Date: Sat, 28 Sep 2002 14:27:21 -0700

I just read your babalog and never fear, children are indestructible, just read a few of our families near-misses, missus!

cyndy: 2 or 3 yrs. old, mistook a glass of fresh motor oil for apple juice
and gulped it down while daddy was working on the car (glad I wasn't in
charge of diaper duty)

cyndy: again, 2 or 3 yrs. old while eating a handful of sunflower seeds (IN
the shell mind you) she began to choke, picked up a grown-ups' screwdriver
and gulped it down. Then she REALLY began to choke. (ahem, where are the
parents??)

Jake: 1 year old. while traveling through the deep south (four kids, two
parents and a dog crammed in an old VW bus--read: no opening windows to
speak of) he "swallowed" a penny, or a nickel. After frantic calls to our
CA pediatrician my parents eventually found the coin in his diaper. No, it
didn't "end up" there, it had simply fallen in while he was playing with it.
Who gives their kids loose change to play with anyhow?

Me: 10th birthday, struggling through a vicious pneumonia on the night of
my first slumber part. The biggest concern seemed to be who was going to
entertain all my friends who were already over while I was in my room
shaking off the chills of a 102 fever? No worries, my sister stepped right
in and took over the party queen role for me. thanks sis, but did you have
to open all my presents too?

Thanks Auntie Aim!

Everybody's partying for Ken tonight... eating delicious shrimp tacos, getting snockered... good on ya! My life is a blur of spicey foods, long walks and lovin', so one can't really complain. Well, one can still complain but not without sounding ridiculously hormonal and a little crazy...

The first time (I remember) hanging out with Ken was at one of Danner's parties somewhere on Fountain, way before we moved to L.A. The Fountains of Wayne were playing on the stereo and we sang every word as loud as we could until we had cleared the room and the party was mostly over. Oh yeah and then he came up to SF for our wedding... whoops we're not supposed to talk about that unfortunate incident. Hey, you were there in spirit buddy!

Happy Bday Kenji, I raise my cranberry juice and pint of ben and jerry's to you.

P.S. Save some cake for me, ok?

For the third morning in a row I have been up at 4am. A weird haze fills the valley around our house. It's nice to have a break from the heat even if it's just for the morning hours, but it's also pretty creepy and quiet in our house.

I'm having trouble figuring out what I'm supposed to be doing. I'm actually pretty good at waiting. I've never been one to freak out at long lines. One time Miss K, Basart and I waited for hours and hours to see Weezer at Spaceland. We got all the way to the door and the fire marshall showed up. The club was over capacity and they were not going to let anyone else in for the rest of the night. It all worked out ok because Justin let us know the next time they were playing and we got in no problem...

G and I took a three hour baby CPR class last night. The teacher was an RN who kept the class moving and interesting. We practiced on baby manikins.

There were a few moments when I thought about how scarey things would be if anything happened to our baby. Then I started remembering all the near-fatal and frightening things that happened to my sister and I when we were little. My parents seemed to handle it all pretty well. Here's the short list...

I know that headline breaks all rules of journalism, but this is my site dambit and I can make ridiculously lengthy headlines, run on sentences and typos aplenty if that's the way I like it. And that's the way I like it, uh huh uh huh, that's the way...

G surprised me with a fantastic Frank Romero painting for the baby room. It's not typical Romero, but I fell in love with it the moment I saw it. I was watching Frank paint a series of 1x1 oil paintings of his trademark classic cars, I looked up and hanging in the corner was "The Cowboy". I love it, I love it, I love it and now it hangs in our house!

Thank you sweet and generous husband from the bottom of my squishy heart!

P.S. I'd like another little, teeny early birthday present and I bet no one can guess what it is... it couldn't be....hmmmm.... a baby free belly?!?

This information from our Bradley Method workbook is helping me get through the waiting game, hope it will prove interesting to those of you out there waiting with me.

And to answer your question, "No, we have not had the baby yet..."

Don't Pay Attention Too Soon

Most women experiece many series of contractions throughout the weeks and months prior to their actual labors. These natural pregnancy contractions are an important and beneficial part of your body's preparation for birth. It is often a challenge late in pregnancy to determine whether the contractions you are experiencing are natural pregnancy contractions (NPC), which mean your body is preparing for labor, or natural labor contractions (NLC), which mean you are in labor.

It is important you don't waste your precious energy getting all excited and perhaps losing sleep over the natural pregnancy contractions. These NPC's are a very important part of your body's preparing itself for labor, but are nothing to be alarmed about. Generally, you should not concern yourself with contractions until they are: 10 minutes apart or less, lasting approximately 60 seconds, and are strong enough that you don't move or talk during contractions. These natural labor contractions should gradually become stronger and closer together, and often continue, regardless of change of activity. To get an idea of how strong your contractions are you can ask yourself, "If I were in the middle of the street and a contraction started, would I have to stop for the contraction?"

Hopefully I won't be in the middle of the street when I (finally) ask myself that question. Or maybe I should ask the age old, "Why did the pregnant lady cross the road?"

hmmm?

"Because there was ice cream waiting on the other side!"

My sister and I drove out the 15 yesterday and found ourselves in Temescal Canyon. We had massages, lounged in pools of mineral water and then had to come home. It felt like we went to Maui for the day, like a lovely dream. We also covered ourselves in mud and let it bake dry on our skin. We both learned a valuable lesson that "less is best" when it comes to mud or you'll be spending a good hour trying to get it out of your hair and bathing suit.

...it's also accurate if "Kobe" turns out to be a "Kobe" and not a "Katy"! I am 32 and we conceived of this here little boy in January. At least we hope it was January because I was still boozing it up in December!

Dearest dedicated readers, sorry for the lack of updates. I'm just hanging out eating terrible food and trying to keep the ankle swelling to a minimum.

More soon I promise!

from babycenter.com...

Fetal Development: 37 Weeks

How your baby's growing: Your baby may weigh between 5 and 7 pounds at this point and is probably 19 to 20 inches long. Your baby's head is now cradled in your pelvic cavity — surrounded and protected by your pelvic bone. This position clears some much-needed space for her growing legs and buttocks.

Many babies now have a full head of hair, with locks from 1/2 to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if her hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children are born with bright red or blond hair, and fair-haired couples have been rewarded with Elvis Presley look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies don't have any hair at all.

How your life is changing: The next couple of weeks are a waiting game. Try to enjoy this time before the baby arrives and get plenty of rest.

I could not find any words yesterday. I wanted to blame it on the extra dose of hormones in my system and the anticipation I am feeling. The words just would not come, but the tears and sadness came over me in waves.

Around 3pm I finally managed to get out of the house and swim for an hour. The Boys and Girls Club of Echo Park dominated the pool. There was so much joy as they shouted and played, took turns making ridiculous moves off the diving board. Watching them gave me a few moments of peace.

As I ranted and cried, G was busily looking up "crazy" and "dramatic mood swings" in the index of our pregnancy book (aka the "bible" written by William and Martha Sears.) Somehow we had dinner and watched a Frank Capra movie, because it felt right. My husband is a true saint.

I woke up this morning to blue skies and a lighter heart. I know it will get easier the farther away we are from horrific events that occured just last year. Perhaps the memory and the shock are still too fresh, too sensitive to linger.

If you click on the picture you can view the great song Ken & Matt wrote! It makes me laugh and cry every time I hear it... enjoy!

On Friday when the nurse said, "...any day now", it really hit me hard. This boy could come at any time. I'm trying not to freak out at every little weird sensation that goes on with my body, but I can't help thinking "Is this a contraction?" To be honest, I'm awfully tired and mostly feel like sleeping.

Miss K and my sister (with lots of help from Ken B., Coulter and Miss Varnelli to name a few) threw us an amazing "baby party" on Saturday night. It was a marathon twelve hours going from 4pm to 4am. The food was incredible; completely spanish style with paella, garlic shrimp, spicy potatoes, tortilla and a delicious ice cream cake (see below) to finish it off. When everyone gathered around and sang "Happy Baby" I had to blink back tears. I am so overwhelmed by the love and support of all you wonderful friends out there. Amy Sue drove down from SF to party too!

Ken and Matt wrote a song called "Whatcha Namin' Dat Baby" it was too hilarious and wonderful to try to explain in words. Hopefully we'll have the video up soon so everyone can see it and hear it to believe it. Greg sang a Tennessee Ernie Ford song called, "I'm Gonna be a Daddy Now" which includes some awe-inspiring yodeling. This boy is going to come out crooning, clapping and stomping his feet!

Someone just called fromt he LA Times to interview G. I thought they were calling about his art exhibit, but they were calling about the closing of the Ackermansion. According to the reporter, Forrest Ackerman had to sell his house in order to pay for some pending litigation.

More soon when I find some time to look into it...

It's amazing what you can get for under $10 at the International Market in Thai Town. I wasn't even trying to economize. For ten bucks at the Mayfair you probably get a soda and a loaf of bread. I was bummed that they weren't cooking up the delicious coconut cookies, but I think they may only do that on weekends and holidays. It looks like baby's having Thai food for dinner, he's kicking and clapping already for the Tom Kai Gai.

Did anybody sleep last night? It felt like the whole city was up. I tossed and turned, continually readjusting me and the baby then I finally just got up and watched old Star Trek reruns until dawn. Meanwhile, G got a few strange work calls and after stomping around the house just put on some shorts and drove down there. It's time to get the heck out of the Eastside and try to find some shade and a nice breeze, we're going to try Mom and Dad's first...

I took the train to Solana Beach with Miss K, Ms. Varnelli, and Ms. DeFelice. We had a great time seeing the Hips play and eating excellent food. The train is the way to go, I highly recommend it.