100th Post!

Wow, this is officially the 100th post on the Gottwoods blog.  Who knew we had 100 posts worth of things to say?

In other exciting news, we are starting to work out the details for a trip out East to visit both our families this spring.  The idea is for Phoebe and I to leave as early as possible in March (probably right after her two month baby check up).  This will give Jeremy at least a week or two to work on final projects/presentations/etc for his classes without baby interruptions.  It has been really hard for him to get enough done with the fuss-budget around so our plan is to try to give him as much time as possible to get caught up and finish the quarter.  We'll head to my parents' house in Michigan where we'll get Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle John to help with baby duty (and maybe I can catch up on some sleep).  Most importantly, we'll take Phoebe to meet my Grandma and the rest of the extended family.  They are all really excited to meet her - but then again they haven't heard her scream yet :)  While Jeremy will definitely miss us (RIGHT JEREMY?!) he is looking forward to the uninterrupted work time.  I am sure the cats will appreciate the baby's absence as well.

Once Jeremy finishes the quarter, he'll fly out to his folks' place in Maryland and a day or so later, Phoebe and I will meet him there.  Hopefully his Grandma will be able to make the trip up from Florida to meet Phoebe as well.  We'll spend the first half of Jeremy's spring break in Maryland and then we'll head back to the west coast around the middle of the week so that Jeremy can have some time to rest and get things organized before the spring quarter starts.  I'll also need a little time to get organized since the next week is when my official maternity leave ends, so we'll be putting Phoebe in day care for a few days a week while I get some work done.  I won't be teaching, but I do have some projects I have to finish and, despite what I thought when I was pregnant, there is no way I will get them done without some day care. 

Anyway, we're pretty sure that flying with Phoebe will be a logistical nightmare - luckily my parents are borrowing as much baby gear as possible from friends so I won't have to lug all of Phoebe's stuff with me.  I am especially not looking forward to the two legs of the trip where I will have to fly with Phoebe by myself.  Don't tell John, but I am hoping to convince him to fly to San Francisco to see his buddy and then fly back to Michigan with me - or maybe we'll just surprise him with plane tickets :)  I'll be sure to let the rest of you all know what flights we're on so you can avoid them - I am not looking forward to being that person - you know the one with the screaming baby that is getting dirty looks from everyone.  We were hoping to delay (or just completely avoid) flying with a baby, but we really want both of our grandmas to get the chance to meet Phoebe and it turns out that spring will work better for Jeremy's schedule than summer, so there you have it.  We'll be flying with a 2 month old!  Wish us luck!