Knitting & Sewing

So, this is a post I almost posted right before the baby came.  Now everyone wants to see pictures of the baby, but I'm going to post this anyway, so I can feel like I accomplished something.  On this blog, that is.  I'm accomplishing lots of diaper changes and things like that.

I finished my first knitting project:

...in the nick of time, of course.  It took me a long time, mostly because I didn't work on it very regularly.  All the times I thought I could work on it, like when Tim was reading to me in bed, I was so hungry that I had to eat instead.  (I finished this about two days before Gabey came.)

I think I will make some little booties next - that should go faster.  If I finish them before baby comes, of course.  (Hah!)

I also bought a sewing machine!!  It was a great deal on Amazon, including free shipping.  It's computerized and has lots of cool stitches and easy-to-use features.

I'm making baby wipes out of flannel and the machine is much-needed for hemming them.  (Yep, didn't finish those.)

Here's Tim doing one.  For his first ever time using a sewing machine, he made very straight stitches, I must say!

It's been nice to have some projects to enjoy while I'm sick (bad cold, ugh) and waiting for baby.  Here's a 40-weeks pregnant photo of me, trying not to look cold.  40 weeks is 9 months/full-term, for those who don't know.  (Baby came 6 days later.)

Downtown Minneapolis is in the background.

Here's some Minnesota ice formations in late February.  And houses have some serious icicles around here.

Here's how different everything looks now.  Ha.  Ha.  Ha.

Picture taken April 20th.  We're getting six more inches of snow tonight.  That should really be the last snow.  Really.  For real this time.  It's supposed to be in the 60s on Friday.

Okay.  A few recent pictures of Gabriel.

He loves to look out the windows in the sun room.

And sometimes he likes to sleep.

Sometimes he gets excited.

And sometimes he wears his Star Trek engineer shirt that Uncle Joseph gave him.

He's 7 & 1/2 weeks now, and growing fast.  Ta ta for now.

Happy Easter!!

Happy Easter to all of our friends and family.

We made it to morning Mass, which was beautiful, and then had Easter dinner with our friends Michael, Colleen and baby Kathleen.  We seem to be wearing our coats for every picture we take in Minnesota, even though this one is inside!  Gabriel borrowed a hat for the walk home.

Gabriel has continued to have some problems with nursing, which has been hard.  I just took him for a cranio-sacral therapy appointment today as well as an appointment to address his tongue tie issue.  So we're hoping things will start to improve!

And now....more baby pictures.

Baby Gabriel with Grandpa Mariusz (Tim's Dad).  He stayed for 9 days and helped us so much! Especially with his wonderful cooking, which helped me get my appetite back, and his ninja baby skills.

Bulldog Baby

First Bath in His Own Tub

Chillin' with Daddy

Yes, there is still snow on the ground!  I think this was March 30th.

Chillin' with Daddy Close-up

He really seems to enjoy walks, at least judging by how well he sleeps through them.  (:

We're all doing well besides the nursing stuff.  Starting to catch up on sleep enough to feel human again!

Again, a Happy Easter Season to all.

Introducing Baby Gabriel

Gabriel Timothy Kowalewski was born March 1st, 2013 at 4:35am.  He weighed in at 9 lbs 12.5 oz.  Height 21" - a little taller than average.

At the birth center a few days after the birth.

First few hours of life.

With the blanket Mommy knit for him. (Don't worry, we don't let him
sleep in this weird position.)

With Grandma Christie.  We don't know what we would
have done without her help! 

For some "artsy" photos, here is Tim's photo stream (click on the photos for full size).

Almost There!

Hi everyone - since we don't get to see many of our friends and family often these days, I thought it was high time to share a picture showing how big I am.  We're 38 weeks along now, so there's not much time left!

Some of you know this, but we got quite discombobulated when the baby didn't turn head-down by 34 weeks.  He was still transverse, laying across.  My midwife told me later that most transverse babies end up turning head down, but she "didn't want to get my hopes up."  I wish she had told me, because I was really upset!  I was thinking I would probably have to have a C-section.

By my 36-week appt. with this breech expert doctor, the baby was already head down.  Whew. Thank God!

We're going to do cloth diapering, and so far we have samples of different kinds to see what works best.  I thought it would be smart if Tim and I figured out how they worked before the baby came.

G-Pants:  the only kind of cloth diaper with flushable liners.  I thought that would be good for the first couple of weeks.

A wool diaper from our dear friend Janelle.  It's made from an up-cycled sweater.  I think it's the cutest cloth diaper I've ever seen!

We practiced swaddling, too.  Swaddle doggy!

Tim's contribution:

Christmas Photos

Happy 9th Day of Christmas!

Practicing before Christmas Eve Mass at St. Stephen's

Adorable Children's Choir

The Nativity scene was very cute - I liked how they included little houses and a farmer figurine and chickens at the bottom.

Nativity Scene at the Cathedral

"See O see how much I love you"

Frozen Mississippi

We're not minding the cold too much.  Tim is still biking to work most days!  Here he is in his storm trooper outfit.

I don't think he will get mugged.

We've noticed that it doesn't feel cold to us unless it's below 20 degrees when we're outside.  I think we're getting acclimated.   For some reason though, when Tim told his co-workers that, they laughed at him.  Maybe it's going to get colder...

Again, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Christmas Letter 2012

This has been a year of great changes for us!  As many of you know, Tim finished his PhD in electrical engineering at the University of Washington in May.  His research focused on surgical robotics.  I was privileged to help edit his dissertation and see him defend it.  His work found that the expensive way that surgeons evaluate trainees' surgical skill is no better than a guy with a stopwatch -- the new approach that Tim is working on is better.

After a huge amount of work and an especially challenging last six months, Tim (we) got his (our) reward.  As one friend put it, we gave birth to a PhD.  Oh, and during this time I continued to teach English as a Second Language, which I really enjoyed.

Tim had already landed a job in Minnesota, and they were eager to get him out here, so without much of a break, we moved here at the beginning of June.  You can read about our road trip if you like -- it's the first post in this blog.  Tim started as a professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis in mid-June.  We rented a lovely duplex unit in a lovely neighborhood in lovely St. Paul.

Tim was thrown right in and his job has been demanding and rewarding ever since.  He enjoys teaching and working with students.  He is also continuing his research, so he had to find students to work in his lab and has to apply for grants and lots of other fun stuff.

He was surprised at the....interesting lab facilities when he arrived.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

As for me, I figured I would take a few weeks to settle in and then look for something in ESL.  Wrong!   About a week after arriving here we found out we were pregnant!  After over three years of prayer and everything we could do to achieve pregnancy morally and naturally, it really is a miracle.  If I haven't said this to you all before, thank you so much for your love, support and many prayers for us!  They worked!!

Our baby boy is due in early March.  We have been taking some wonderful birth classes and are doing our best to prepare, at the same time realizing we have no idea what is about to happen.  We're very thankful that Tim will not be teaching any classes next semester.  I've had a very good pregnancy -- "morning" sickness (really all-day sickness) was very intense, but everything else has been going well, for which we're very thankful.  Since you can't see the baby yet, here's his adorable coming-home outfit.

Other than that, we have been getting involved a little at church and trying to meet people, now that I'm feeling better.  I play piano for a little inner-city Catholic church in Minneapolis and we really like that community.  At the same time, there's a church closer to us that we like as well, so we'll have to decide which one will become our official parish.

All in all, it's been a very significant year and we're growing a lot, as well as feeling very thankful for the many blessings.  Marriage seems to get better with each passing year - especially with this new baby chapter of our lives beginning.

We wish all of you and your loved ones much peace and many blessings this Christmas season and New Year!