It's a.......BOY!!!

Hello Everyone! Sorry for the delay in postings...time is flying by! I am now about five and a half months pregnant (23 weeks). We had our mid-point ultrasound which was super fun! (wish I could have one once a week...so fun to see the baby moving around in there!) Originally we had planned to keep the sex of the baby a surprise until we saw the baby in person...but within seconds of the ultrasound starting, it was blatantly obvious on the screen that we are expecting a baby BOY! Now that we do know it's a boy we are overjoyed and the insight has helped a lot with further planning and shopping. Names will still remain a surprise for the BIRTH day!

So....17 weeks to go.... still feeling great, but kind of feel like a walking beach ball. How will I survive another 4 months of belly growth??

Here are some ultrasound pictures....and a few pics of my growing belly....

Here is a pic of his little foot.....I think it's so cute...it's my favorite ultrasound picture!

His profile....and you can see his heart in the middle of the chest. (he does have legs...but the angle just dosen't show them!)

And here was our 'NO question about it' view of the fact it's a BOY!

Now a few pictures of me....tracking my belly growth...

This one was early on....at about 12 weeks....not showing yet...but a baseline picture....

This was around 17 weeks....

19 weeks....

And one from today.....23 weeks! Starting to 'pop' as my sister puts it...

We're MULTIPLYING!!!!

Happy New Year everyone!!! This year will be another BIG one for Erin and I.....we're PREGNANT!!

The countdown to Baby Yeatman is on! The due date is July 14th, which means I am currently almost 13 weeks pregnant. We made it past the first trimester, so now we are joyously sharing the good news with all of our friends and loved ones!

Here are the first pictures (of what will surely be hundreds posted on this site this year)...from our ultrasound this past week. It was an amazing experience to see the little baby in there kicking and waving to us!

We plan to leave the sex of the baby a surprise for the big day....but we do already have a nickname for the little one....BLASTO. (when we first found out about the pregnancy it was so early that the stage of development was still just a ball of cells...a blastocyst....Erin has been calling the baby Blasto ever since and it has stuck!)

We will keep this site updated with preggo pictures and any news.....

Christmas Preparation

Today was a FUN day!! We made our second annual trip to Dirr Nursery in Goshen, Ohio to cut down a live Christmas tree. This year we took Lola along and she had a fabulous time helping us search for the perfect tree. After awhile of searching.....we found it!! Here are some pictures from the day...

October Update

Although our European adventure is over, we still hope to keep this blog somewhat up to date.


We didn't wait too long before getting on a plane again. We had actually just barely unpacked, when we were once again leaving the country. This time we went to Montreal, Canada! Erin's mom, Patricia Yeatman was staring in an amazing play called The Carpenter in a cool theater in Montreal. Erin, Bob, Peggy, Bill and Lucille (my aunt and uncle) and I all went for a long weekend to check out Montreal and to see Pat in the play.


Montreal was the most charming city! Old Montreal was packed with delightful restaurants, shops, and pubs. New Montreal brought a night out in the clubs and SHOPPING!! We had two highlights of the weekend. Erin's highlight was watching a LIVE hockey game! My first live pro hockey game too...it was quite the experience. The crowd was so loud and interactive. More than most American sports. They cheered for any good move or score and booed for any bad one. Kind of fair-weather fans, but they didn't hesitate to let you know how they felt. The Canadiens (the Montreal hockey team) lost the game, but it was still tons of fun. We got to drink Canadian beer and have Pizza Pizza (Canadian delicious pizza).


The second highlight...my favorite....was seeing Pat in her acting role in the play. The play was about a close-knit Italian family which was experiencing the effects of Alzheimer's disease. Pat played the old Italian mother and was such an incredible actress we were all just blown away. Every actor and actress did an amazing job and there was not a dry eye in the whole house! It was such a pleasure to finally see my mother-in-law perform! We are all now groopies and can't wait to see another performance!!

The other highlight of October was of course Halloween. Included are some pictures of our pumkins for the year. The puking one was of course, Erin's creation.....

All good things must come to an end

We were just fed on the plane. After two weeks of wonderful Bistros, Ristorantes, Trattorias, Cafés, roadside food stands et al, eating Airplane food seems so unappealing. Stacey ordered the Cheese Tortellini, and I had the Roasted Breast of Chicken. When the food arrived, the first thing I noticed was the ice cold bun. Not exactly the freshly baked baguettes that we had become accustomed to. The food, surprisingly, was pretty good. Real pieces of chicken breast with a spinach risotto and glazed carrots. The tortellini was pretty good as well. I shoved the bun between my legs to warm it up to a reasonable temperature.

Leaving Paris was rather uneventful, and bittersweet. After lugging four heavy suitcases throughout Europe into 9 different hotels, plus Simone’s places in Rome and Umbria, going home will be nice. Clean clothes will be nice. Not having to wash socks and underwear in a bathtub in Venice will be nice.

We had a fun last day in yesterday. We rose early to get to the Louvre, and promptly got lost in the streets and subways of Paris. We eventually got to the museum, and made a beeline for the Mona Lisa, so we could get looking at her over with. For those who have seen her, you know what it’s like. For those who haven’t, it’s more interesting watching all the people elbowing each other out of the way to see a painting of a woman smiling.
We did a 3 hour whirlwind tour of the Louvre and then walked along the Jardin des Tuileries, to the Place de Concorde (where the big, famous ferris wheel is), and along Champs Élysées. We walked by the American Embassy, and tried to take a picture, but about 5 Gendarmes officers stopped us before we could snap a shot.

Then, the real reason we went to that area; Buddha Bar. The original Buddha Bar that spawned the sushi hysteria, and all those CD’s with the tranquil, chill music. It was certainly impressive. There’s a giant Buddha (about 20 feet tall) in the front of the restaurant, overlooking the whole dining room. Our table was right at his feet. The food was fantastic, Stacey had Edamame and a sushi combo plate, while I went with deep fried Vietnamese spring rolls, and the Tempura combo plate, with chicken, duck battered veggies. We had a fantastic bottle of Pouilly Fuisse wine with lunch, and were the last table to leave that afternoon.

We went back to the Eiffel Tower and took a Bateaux ride along the Seine River. The boat had big spotlights on the sides to highlight some of Paris’ more famous bridges and landmarks, while an automated tourguide told us the histories of them. It was a wonderful experience, dampened only by the cold cold rain that fell on us. It was, in fact the only time, other than a few minutes in Siena, that rain fell on us in a two week span.

We finished the night by returning to the Latin Quarter for quick ‘n dirty dinner. Stacey had crêpes, and I went to a Greek gyro joint. Both items were quick, cheap, and delicious. We were back at the hotel early, as we needed to get up and drive to the airport.
Overall it was a wonderful trip, full of moments neither of us will ever forget. We feel very lucky to have had such an adventure. Thanks for reading all about our travels! Until the next trip…..

Driving back to France

We left Venice with a lot less hassle than our arrival, we had mastered the water bus system. The day was mostly spent in the car. We got into some traffic and had to travel all the way across Italy, through the Alps on the edge of Switzerland and up into France. We saw some breathtaking peaks and mountains and also got to travel THROUGH Mont Blanc (the big white mountain). Their was a tunnel through the mountain which was 11 km long. It was warm and sunny on the entering the mountain and when we came out it was cold and raining. You can see it on the map if you zoom to the Italian/French border.


View Larger Map

We spent a long day in the car, and our normally wonderful GPS system missed an exit due to new construction. We saw the exit, but the computer said to continue for another 2 km. We obeyed, and there was nothing but highway, causing us to take a 45 minute detour through the outskirts of Torino. The highlight of that was seeing 2 black prostitutes sitting in plastic chairs in a cornfield, literally in the middle of nowhere. We eventually did get to our hotel which was a French Chateaux named Castel tres Girad in Moray-St.-Denis. We had a huge comfy room and were happy that we could just walk downstairs to the chateaux's restarurant for dinner.

Dinner was delicious. Very well priced and ended up being about 8 courses. We each ordered from the 3 course prix-fixe menu, which was to be the standard appetizer, entree, dessert. What also came was 2 amuse bouches, and choosing cheese from a rolling cheese cart that held about 30 different selections. Dessert came, but then they also had a pre-dessert AND a post-dessert course. I was in heaven. Any meal ending in three delicious desserts is one I will always remember!

It had been a long day in the car so we went to bed right after dinner.

We got up very happy that we only had a short drive to our final stop, back to Paris. Before leaving, we stopped in the charming town of Nuits St. George for a little breakfast. The main pastry shop was chocked full of delicious treats. I got a chocolate croissant AND a meringue. We also grabbed a baguette to eat in the car. It was a tiny, but very cute town.

On the way to Paris we stopped in Beaune to check out a French shopping mall. I really wanted to get at least ONE souvenir (besides wine) to take home. Since Erin and I have become addicted to espresso, we decided to find some espresso cups to take home. We found a home goods type store called ‘Casa’ which had a great selection, and we now own 6 espresso cups if anyone would like to come over for coffee!

We got into Paris without much difficulty. After two weeks of driving through Europe Erin has become a pro at navigating the crazy roads and driving patterns. Our hotel was right across the street from the large Pantheon. Our room was on the first floor for the first time in this trip and we were so happy to be able to avoid any stairs or lifts with our luggage. We had to take it all in this time for one final packing.

We decided on Fondue for dinner. It was chilly in Paris (felt like fall had arrived in the two weeks since we were there last) and we were excited for some warm, comfort food. We found a fondue restaurant in the Latin quarter which was just a few minutes from our hotel. We stuffed ourselves silly with cheese fondue, tarteflette, salami, and chocolate fondue to top it all off!! We had the house wine which came in a cool jug. We were at the restaurant for almost three hours and it was a wonderful meal.

After dinner we strolled through the Latin quarter taking in the student-centered nightlife. We stopped in an Irish bar for a beer and then went back to go to bed. Ahhh…..Paris.

Big day in Venice

We got up and were super excited for a full day in Venice….the city of Romance! We first walked back to San Marco’s square, to see the sights in the daylight. It is a huge square filled with beautiful buildings (a church and a palace and a bell tower) and LOTS of people and LOTS of pigeons. The pigeons are actually one of the tourist attractions. For one euro they give you a good size bag of corn to feed them. The second you have the corn in your hand the pigeons flock to you. They sit on your arms, head, shoulders and gather around your feet. They are very eager to get a piece of corn. We have some good pictures of me covered in pigeons. Erin is not so fond of birds so he was the photographer. Interestingly, we found out that they lace the corn with pigeon birth-control to help keep the population down.

We considered going into the church, palace and clock tower, but the line of people waiting was exceedingly long. Multiple tourists come to Venice just for the day (on cruise ships and day tours) and they all head to the main square. We decided to keep walking instead. We went by the famous Bridge of Sighs (it connects the palace and the jail…and the story goes that when a person was sentenced to jail inside the courtroom in the palace they were then lead to the jail…going across the bridge, looking over Venice for one last time and letting out a sad sigh).

From there we walked all along the grand canal, heading to the bi-annual international art show that happened to be open while we were there. We spent a good few hours looking at all of the very interesting art from all over the world. Everything from photographs to sculptures to actual video clips and digital art. It was pretty cool and we were happy to be far away from the masses of tourists.

We kept venturing deeper and deeper into the parts of Venice where only the actual Venetians go. We found a charming street with laundry hanging from all of the windows and multiple sidewalk cafes. We sat down for lunch with the locals. Erin had spaghetti with a fish tank full of seafood and I had prosciutto and cheese with bread. The service was super friendly and the location very quaint.

We did another few hours of walking, taking in all that we could of the winding canals, bridges, and many shops. We bought a bottle of wine and some cheese at a local grocery store and took it back to our hotel to enjoy on the balcony over-looking the grand canal.

We then jumped on a valporetto to the Rialto bridge stop (another famous bridge there) where we hoped on a gondola for a sunset cruise around the canals. Our gondolier was quite nice and pointed out many of the sights on the way. We kept up with tradition and kissed while going under the Rialto bridge.

Hungry again, we stopped for a light dinner at the ‘Snack and Sweet’…some quiche and a Panini sandwich followed by pistachio, berry, and chocolate chip gelato….yummmy!!

Our last stop of the night was back at San Marco’s square. At night there are three outdoor cafes which serve drinks and food and each one has a private orchestra. They call them the dueling orchestras because they are all just close enough that they have to give each other turns playing. We picked our favorite and sat down to enjoy the music and atmosphere. Our orchestra consisted of five lively venetians who sounded tremendous. The moon and stars were out and the square was lit up in a magical way…with the orchestra playing and people dancing to the music, I found it to be one of the highlights of our trip!!

The trip to Venice

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We got up early and bid farewell to lovely Umbria and our castel house in Piegaro. (we hope to go back there for a whole week someday!) We got on the road and tried to go visit the town of Assisi (where St. Francis who lived there in the 1200’s and was very popular for his laid back and environmentally friendly ways of life and who was later made a patron saint). Tried is the key word here….it was Sunday morning and there was a line of cars miles long trying to get up the hill into the town. We can only figure it was lots of people going to pay homage to St. Francis on a Sunday, but regardless we turned around and only saw the town from the distance.
At this point we had to say goodbye to our very trusty tour-guide, Simone. He was catching a train back to Rome. We cannot thank Simone enough for all of his help and for showing us the NON-tourist parts of Rome and Umbria...many spots we never would have found without his guidance.

We then were back on the road on our way to Venizia! The drive was not too bad (at least not for me as a passenger….poor Erin has been a driving CHAMP…he and Margaret-our GPS- are quite the driving team!). We decided to drive along the east coast on the way there, just to avoid the racing-strip highway for a change.

Once outside the city we parked the car, did our best to consolidate luggage and headed off to the waterways. This is the part of the trip where we realized we had not fully prepared in advance. We were not completely clear on where our hotel was located in Venice…we only knew it was on one particular section of the Grand Canal. We made the trek through the garage (each toting luggage behind us)…and onto our first Vaporetto (water bus). It went straight to the main area of the Grand Canal and then we were kicked off, quickly learning that it was strictly a bus back and forth to the garage. We boarded a second vaporetto and got off a stop which we thought was close to our hotel. We pulled our bags through the streets of Venice until we realized we had absolutely no clue what we were doing. Desperately (as the bags were getting heavy FAST) we asked a reception desk of another hotel. Erin’s face sunk to the depth of the canal when I told him we had to get back on another water taxi to get to our hotel. Our third wait and ride for the day finally dropped us off two seconds from our hotel. (yeah, we had picked this hotel for the convenience and to avoid dragging bags for hours around Venice….)

The hotel was beautiful. Our room had a balcony which overlooked the Grand Canal. We refueled with a pizza on the back patio and then set out to explore Venice. The whole town is truly a maze. It is technically 100 islands all next to one another and connected by multiple bridges. There are no streets or cars, just canals and boats. We wandered for a few hours….going by San Marco’s square and church, the Rialto bridge, the Grand Canal, and lots of squares and churches. We settled into one beautiful square for a nice dinner. Erin had lobster bisque and pork. I had calamari and spinach ravioli. We were both too full for dessert!

The beauty and charm of Venice at night quickly washed away our earlier frustration and we went to bed early in anticipation of the next day….

Umbrian Countryside

For our last day in Rome we spent half of it sleeping, we had to catch up on a few z’s after our late night dance party. We got up, packed up and got in the car for the next leg of our trip. Simone came with us as we were heading to his family’s hillside house in Umbria (another region of Italy, to the east of Tuscany). It was a couple hours drive up very winding roads into the hills. Simone’s house is up in the hills of a tiny town called Piegaro (population of about 20). It was one house in a little castle community, complete with its own tiny chapel, a pool, and a fortress. The view of the surrounding rolling hills was unbelievably beautiful. We settled into our latest accommodations. Erin took roughly 200 pictures outside because it was so beautiful.

Erin made me promise to write this: After my long night of drinking, and then driving the next day through roads that felt like you were on The Beast at King’s Island; I got out of the car once we arrived to the castle house and immediately puked. What a memory of beautiful Italy!

We then got dressed and headed down into Piegaro for some dinner. We told Simone that we really wanted to go to a family owned local restaurant. He picked the perfect spot. The cook was ‘Mama’ (a cute gray haired slightly round lady who walked around with an apron on) and the one waitress there was her daughter. We were one of two tables eating. The menu was strictly in Italian. The food was genuinely home-cooked by Mama and the wine was ‘Casa vino’ (translates into house wine which was made by the family) and was only 3 euros for a whole liter. This was the dinner where we felt like we were in small town Italy, having dinner with a local family. When we were ready to leave they gave us hugs goodbye and Erin was so happy that he had tears in his eyes. Certainly a dinner we will never forget!!

From there we went to the town of Perugia to check out the nightlife…..and wow did we find some!! The main street and square of the town was packed full of around 2000 young people. There was a hug set of steps at the end of the square and they were full of people just hanging out and socializing. We spent an hour acting as locals and sat on the steps for some great people-watching. Among some of the more entertaining people in the crowd were jugglers, drum players, and a guy doing various tricks with his bulldog. The nightclubs were tempting, but we decided to pack it in early, catch up on sleep and get up for a full day….off to Venice!

Long Day In Rome

Quick update: We made it to back to Paris safe and sound. We couldn't update for the last few days due to lack of internet access.

We got up for day number two in Roma and hit the streets hard on a five hour or so walking tour of the city. Simone was an excellent tour guide and we squeezed in a lot of sights. It was very nice to leave the maps at home and not have to worry about getting lost. We boarded a local bus (not paying the bus fare as Simone told us no one actually pays!) and went to the Vatican first. St. Peter’s Basilica was surely the largest and most lavishly ornate church you could ever imagine. The amount of marble and gold was unbelievable. We payed our respects to St. Peter (the statue of him has almost no toes left because everyone rubs them) and Erin and I decided to make the trek to the top of the large dome. It was 551 crazy steps to the top….round and round in a dizzying spiral…a great work out. The view was worth it though, we could see all of Rome.

Back to ground level we had to by-pass the Vatican museum due to long lines and lack of time. We walked and walked….to the Piazza di Spagna to see the Spanish steps, the famous Trevi Fountain, Piazza Nuvona, (with the Four Rivers fountain) the OLD dome of the Pantheon, and a few stops in some beautiful old churches.

After a good five miles of walking we went back to Simone’s to clean up and rest. Erin and I then went to a Romantic dinner at Edy’s where Simone previously worked. It was a wonderful recommendation and a delicious Italian dinner. I had beef carpaccio and pasta carbonara and Erin had mushroom gratin and veal. We shared a tiramisu and apple strudel….yummmmm!!

We met up with Simone after dinner at Piazza Popollo which was packed with little bars and 100’s of people just out enjoying themselves. It seems it is much more common to hang out in squares and walk around with a beer in your hand than to actually go to a bar to site down. There are no open container laws in the city and you can walk around from café to bar to café. We stopped at one local bar for a drink and then decided to stay up late and go to a dance club.

Simone then took us to a very popular Roman night club. It was quite the scene. We had to wait in a long line outside where they were very selectively letting people enter. Someone we made it in only to find that there was a second line where you had to do the ‘pick-me’ shuffle all over again to be allowed into the actual club. Once we finally got in we were met with a huge outdoor club scene packed with hundreds of well-dressed dancing maniacs. The music was booming. Unlike many American nightclubs people were way more focused on dancing than drinking. In fact, ONE drink was 15 euros (about 22 dollars). The main bar was covered in beautiful Roman girls dressed in all black, standing on the bar showing off their best dance moves. They also had a few Roman men on the bar…one in particular looked like he had been chiseled by Michelangelo himself and was some great eye-candy! We danced and danced and danced. I can say that we pretty much closed down the club…leaving around six AM. That was the party animal section of our trip.