Quick Bites

On the M front: Here's an exchange from this morning as we are getting ready for our day and watching the news on the fall of Lehman Brothers while M is snuggled in our bed. Mommy: "M, you and D need to hurry up and grow up so you can fix this mess! Mommy and Daddy aren't smart enough but you are!" M, unconcerned: "OK." Daddy: "No, you need to stay little for a long, long time and stay our little snuggly Boo-Bear". Mommy: "Oh, that's right, you need to stay small and cute as long as you can, ok, M? Forget what I said...don't grow up too fast." M: "OK, but my body just wants to go to kindergarten". These kids just make me laugh out loud sometimes!

On the B front: Baby is now about 10 inches long and moving on one pound in weight. In case anyone wants to put the date on their calendar, the B's official due date is January 30. Or is it the 31st? Anyway, when I say "the end of January" I really mean the very end of January. My sister's b-day is January 31, so maybe they will share their birthdays.

On the D front: D is learning nursery rhymes for the kindergarten Nursery Rhyme program in October. He and each of his classmates will stand up in front of the class, and the students' parents, and recite a nursery rhyme. I am having flashbacks to 10th grade when we had a weekly poem to recite. However, his assignment seems easier, since his rhymes and is only 4 lines long. D's been assigned "Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" which I don't recall learning as a child, probably because its about a boy stealing and then eating a pig and getting in big trouble for it. Hard to see how that fits into a nursery rhyme theme, but there you go.

M's decision on the baby's sex...

Forgot to mention that after M and D saw the pictures, M declared " I know what our baby is. Its a boy. I can see it and it does not have any hair and that means its a boy." No amount of lecturing on the developmental milestones of the unborn would convince her otherwise. So, from here on out, M will be calling the baby "brother" instead of "mystery" (heretofore her name for said sibling). Having babies is always fun, but there is something special about sharing this experience with other little people who are just as invested as you are, and who have a whole different perspective!

Ultrasound...wow!

Ok, so our friend Louie took some time out of his busy evening to help me scan my photos in. Just for that, I will be rooting for the Packers tonight instead of the other team...

The first pictures are the 3D ultrasounds...aren't they cool? D and M could even tell exactly what Baby was doing, and both imitated him/her when they saw the pictures with Baby's hands up at his/her face. I asked "what's baby doing in this picture" and they both threw up their hands in imitation...so cute I almost cried! I suppose this baby will spend the rest of its life imitating D and M, so its only fitting that they have a chance to do the same! The other two are the more traditional ultrasound pictures and I don't know how well they are going to come across after being scanned and saved and then loaded onto a blog. Anyway, enjoy!

Had our "half-way through" ultrasound this morning and everything looks great. All the fingers and toes and brain parts and heart chambers and internal organs and all that good stuff looks perfect. Baby is about 12 ounces and measuring 20 weeks 4 days; we are officially 19 weeks 3 days so he/she is measuring big. No surprise...as all doctor's and medical people love to point out, I have big babies. Still 20 or so weeks to go so Baby has plenty of time to keep on getting bigger and bigger. I feel Baby moving alot and he/she waved at us, rubbed his/her head, sucked on his/her fist and kicked away during the entire ultrasound. It was a "Level II" ultrasound with a 3D kicker, so we have some really neat pictures. A few of the traditional profile ultrasound, and a few in 3D that are really incredible. Once it was over Jason decided he really DID want to know the baby's sex, but by then it was too late. If we have another one (an ultrasound that is, not a baby) he thinks he wants to find out...otherwise, we'll wait until January!

For eductations sake, I should point out that I had a Level II ultrasound because I am of "advanced maternal age". The Level II allows you to see more detail and instead of being able to see fingers and toes as on a normal ultrasound, it can see joints on fingers and toes. Oh, and the 3D thing is not available on just any old ultrasound machine. Anyway, the whole mom being old thing means they check for 30 different markers of chromosomal abnormalities or birth defects which they would not otherwise look for. All 30 came back negative, so while I was not really worried, its nice to know that there is no indication whatsoever in any shape or form that things are not going along just as they are supposed to.

I will try and get the pictures scanned and online later tonight. Apparently you can get things scanned at Kinkos if our home computer won't do it (and I have zero confidence I can make that work) so I will do what I can.

Technology is a wonderful thing! Happy Baby day to all!

Best Friends

OK, this is going to be out of order because I am not all that good at this, but here are a few pictures of the kids with the appropriate caption "best friends". Though they fight sometimes, for the most part they are each other's best buddy. These were from a cooler night this summer.

Kindergarten Here We Come!!

The first day of kindergarten...what an adventure. D came home and reported that there was no time to play, all they did was sit and work...and yet he wanted to go back! His friend E from preschool is in his kindergarten class and they "mostly" get to sit together. On Thursday they did a scavenger hunt looking for a gingerbread man who left clues for them all over the school and that was a big hit. While he does not generally want to tell anyone about school, he was ready and willing to share that adventure with everyone! They ended up in the principal's office where the gingerbread man had lots of friends, which I gather they then proceeded to eat for snack.

We are getting used to the new routine...reading homework and other assignments that have to be turned in every day, other "stuff" that has to be read and returned...oh, the trees we kill!

I am going to try and attach some pictures from the first day, including one of M crying her heart out. Once D got on the bus, she was just beside herself upset "I don't want D to go to kindergarten!!". Mom held it together pretty well, but M cried enough for all of us.