February & March in Naples

Hello family!!!

We check the blog every few days and have enjoyed the latest posts! Here in Naples, we've had a busy February and March with quite a few happenings. In February, we celebrated our first St. Valentine's Day as a married couple, went on a mini "babymoon", and had a wonderful visit for a few days in Tampa to celebrate Mom and Dad's 30th Anniversary. March brought two weeks of Posch family visits and we even got to see Teresa Suarez when she came to town. Joe and I have attended classes to prepare for Tiny's arrival: an 8-hour birthing class and a 2-hour newborn care class. Joe is one of the lead scorers on his soccer team and has recently had a huge weight lifted: he found a summer job! He will be a research assistant for one of his Ave Maria Law professors here in Naples and is extremely excited. Not only will Joe get to research a topic he loves (the separation of Church and state), but this position will boost his resume immensely and help him when he applies to the Blackstone Fellowship internship next summer. Right now Joe is trying to write a 30 page paper while sick with a fever - please remember him in your prayers! He is trying to make it through the last tough weeks of this draining semester and then we will be catching up with you all in Sanibel!

No doubt I am in "nesting mode" because I realize that we've been adding more craigslist furniture to our cozy apartment: Joe's digital piano, Tiny's crib & dresser, and patio furniture. It's so satisfying to check off these things from the "before the baby comes" list! I've also been picking up extra nannying hours so we will have some savings for when I stop working sometime in mid-April. Tiny is now 33 weeks along and, in addition to the constant moving and pushing on his/her poor mother, we've been noticing long spurts of hiccups. Also, Joe and I went to our first ultrasound last week and were finally able to get some pictures of Tiny! I hadn't been to the doctor since December, but the doctor assured us that our baby is "perfect, perfect, perfect!" and we're hoping that means Tiny will arrive "perfectly" on schedule... which is probably wishful thinking. :)

Here is Joe sitting down to our St. Valentine's Day supper. This was my first attempt at filet mignon and I must say that it came out perfectly. Delicious!

Newlyweds on St. Valentine's Day!

Extremely happy with his second love, "Roland"! After we got the piano, Joe kept saying over and over "Can you believe this is real? We have a PIANO!" It is so nice to hear beautiful music being played and Tiny enjoys it too!

It was recommended that we take a "babymoon", which is a special vacation taken before the baby arrives. We were only able to take a day-long vacation due to law school but it was a wonderful time! We began the day with mass, then I-Hop for breakfast, then naps in the afternoon, then to the beach for the sunset, and then out to dinner at a restaurant near the beach called The Lighthouse. This is a picture with Joe and his third love: the beach. He stood there for at least an hour and said that he felt the stress of law school washing away with the waves. :)

I enjoyed the beach as much as a pregnant lady can... I was looking forward to supper time haha.

29 weeks

32 weeks

(And you can see the new patio furniture in the background)

Two pictures of Tiny! The first photo shows the head and face. The second is Tiny's profile picture.

What do you think? Boy or girl? Posch or Tompkins?

Well, we love you all very much and are counting down the days to when we will see everyone in Sanibel!!