Pea Pod updates

Well since there has been a request for more baby news and I only aim to please, here's what I got:
First things first, is forgetfulness a part of pregnancy? You know how they (they being Dr. Ryuta Kawashima of Nintendo DS' Brain Age) say that when you are concentrating with intense focus, your brain will shut down access to senses you aren't using? Well, I think that my brain has shut off the "memory" function so as to focus on the Build-A-Bear workshop going on in my stomach. Secondly, I feel very blessed to have not experienced the throwing up part of pregnancy, however, heartburn has come at me full-force. Here in Austria the pharmacies don't allow you to just stroll willy-nilly around until you find the medicine you need, you have to actually speak to a pharmacist every time you go in. So the other day I tried to ask for Tums or something for heartburn, but I don't think she understood me. The good news is Brett works for a UN organization that has an area complete with American type things, like cheddar cheese and Tums, only the latter of which I hope to consume. Thirdly, I went to get my blood tests done last week and although the nurse who took my blood didn't speak English, I think we got along just fine. She would gesture, I would nod, and really, getting your blood drawn is pretty straight forward, assuming that the nurse knows what she's doing. Unfortunately when it came time for my results, there was no one to gesture, nod, or speak broken English to me. So basically I have a piece of paper that indicates I'm low in 2 areas, but which ones, who knows? I have another appointment with my doctor at the beginning of June, so hopefully she will make sense of things for me.

In other related news, Austria is a hard place to be when you're sense of smell is heightened. Brett said that it's like I have a super power or something, but I can tell you there's nothing super about getting on the subway with a bunch of stinky people practically breathing on you. Why is deoderant still not hip here? Oh well. I seriously spend most of my time at home hanging out, watching cheesy movies, and working. It's a nice set up.

My last thought is that I'm really glad that everyone says I'm really going to love my own kids. I didn't grow up playing with dolls, and the idea of having kids was one that took a while to grow on me. I wasn't the type of girl that gushed over babies or wanted to hold every one that I saw. Don't get me wrong, I love my nieces and nephews and think my friends have some of the cutest kids ever, but the idea of having my own used to really freak me out. I think just like marriage, having kids is a very personal thing and there is no specific time/age to do said things that works for everyone. But for me and Brett, we know that this is the right time and that everything will work out.

To keep from having a blog with no pictures, here are a couple:
Me and my dad when my parents came to visit:


Me and Brett at his office:

Oh and FYI, I'm almost 12 weeks along. That's what everyone really wants to know, right?

Budapest

Firstly, and most importantly, Lindsey is doing well. She has not been vomiting, nor attempting to claw my eyes out, but we still have a few months of pregnancy to go. She will tell you that being away from American restaurants is excruciatingly difficult during this critical period of pregnancy. Unfortunately Chipotle, Cafe Rio, Pizza Hut, Rumbi and Little Caesar's are unavailable.

We had an ultrasound over a week ago and saw our baby. By analyzing the pulsing sounds and images of the little heart, we were able to confirm that our firstborn's heart indeed beats for America. So all is well and we found a very good doctor who speaks perfect English. She also worked in the US for quite a long time as an OB/GYN.

Now, what can be said about Budapest? It is located in Hungary, which is another one of those former Soviet states. It is the third former Soviet country that we have visited since our arrival in Europe over three months ago. Much like Slovakia, Hungary has some visible lasting affects from communism. Not least among these is the feeling that if someone sneezes too hard, several blocks of rickety old buildings will come tumbling to the ground.

One thing that was surprising to see was the people in Budapest - the actual Hungarians. We didn't really know what to expect to see once we arrived. We figured it would have been similar to Bratislava where we were greeted at the train station by a pregnant, gollum-esque woman who was enjoying what was probably one of many cigarettes during her day.

I had assumed all Hungarians were gnarled old women with scarves on their heads and whose knobby knuckles protruded as they clutched crooked walking sticks (needless to say we decided well in advance not to accept any shiny apples from strangers). But despite their super weird language, Hungarians are quite excellent and beautiful people as far as we can tell.

One quick interjection/observation before we continue with this thing. This one is about Europe in general. When we return from our little Euro excursions, people often ask what the place is like and what we saw when we were there. We have noticed that usually no matter what city we visited, our answer to this question is generally the same. It goes like this: "It was fun, there's really cool old architecture, we went to a castle, we saw a cathedral, and we ate (name of local cuisine) at the banks of the (name of river).

Now, don't misunderstand. Europe is not necessarily boring, but we have noticed that each city has the same basic category of sights to be taken in. Furthermore, if any city has been an exception (well, that's not exactly the right word... how about 'enhancement') to this, it has been London. London has all the aforementioned and much, much more. Anyway, that's just an observation. Back to Budapest.

The Andersons were with us on this excursion. They came to Vienna to visit us and to travel around a bit. They also came with peanut butter M&Ms and Costco trail mix. Lindsey and our little embryo were equally thrilled. We stayed at a luxury hotel on the banks of the Danube (courtesy of the Andersons) and took in every reasonable sight in the town. The highlights of which were, get ready, St Stephen's Cathedral, the castle district, and the architecture of the parliament building. All of which are pictured here:






We're glad to be back in Vienna and can't believe our time here is more than half way finished. There is still so much we want to see in the next 2.5 months. But if we can manage to see Paris and nothing else between now and when we go, we'll call it good.