The Number Field

Mint chocolate (foreground) and triple chocolate cupcakes.

The title of this post is not meant to be a fake-out about the baby.  Yesterday was Jenny's birthday.  We didn't have much planned, since we had already attended the ACL music festival as a joint birthday event.  For my birthday, Jenny made a cake, but then she didn't want to eat any of it, so I ate cake for both breakfast and dessert for a whole week.  As fun as that was, I didn't want to eat another cake singlehandedly so soon, and I didn't have any free time to make Jenny a cake.  Instead, I found a local cupcake shop and got two cupcakes.  One was a triple chocolate, one of the varieties they have every day.  The other was a mint chocolate, which they make as one of their Tuesday specials.

Jenny and her roses.

On my way home, I stopped by a local flower shop that has been good for me in the past; they have excellent carry-out specials.  Sadly, they were already closed (my class doesn't end until 5:50, and the shop closes at 6:00).  I resorted to plan B, and headed over to Costco where I picked up two dozen roses--the only number of roses they sold, and I did want roses for her birthday, not some other flower.

When I arrived home, Jenny hadn't started making dinner yet--she had  been talking on the phone with family.  I did want to make dinner for her, but worried that I would be home too late and that she would have already started it.  She didn't, so I got to make her birthday dinner while she talked to her brother.  By the way, since we talked with a lot of family yesterday, I found out that people are staying current with this blog!  That makes me happy, and motivates me to write more.

Showing off.

After opening cards and packages (thank you!), eating dinner, and talking to various family members, we responded to a request from Jenny's dad that we take some photos of her that showed off her pregnant belly.  You can see the result right here.  I think she looks great.

Happy Birthday!

It was time for dessert and we turned to our cupcakes.  We split them, so we could have a taste of each, and we were both very satisfied.  The flavors and textures of the cupcakes and frostings balanced each other out quite nicely.  Most importantly, we didn't have any leftovers to tempt me at breakfast this morning.  We highly recommend the cupcakes, although we don't know how they compare to the local cupcake trailer .

As we were getting ready for bed, I remembered something I had read on the pregnancy calendar for October--it says that around this time, the baby's heartbeat is audible without specialized listening equipment.  I put my ear on Jenny's tummy and listened quietly, and to my amazement, I could hear Sunflower's little heart beat!  It's hard to explain, but I would say that her heart sounded tiny, rather than quiet.  Still, it's a miracle.  After I had heard it, we tried an experiment that played to my athletic-analytical side: I got my heart rate monitor and pressed the chest strap up against Jenny's stomach.  I wanted to see if we would get a reading of Sunflower's heart rate, but we didn't.  Maybe Jenny will let me try it again later on.  We also know someone who has promised to loan us a stethoscope, so that Jenny can listen too.