Nugget's Big Photo Shoot

We had our main ultrasound this week at the hospital. Nugget has all of her/his parts, but we are not 100% sure on the gender. The little bugger was not the most cooperative baby at showing even the simplest of parts (like the left arm) to the poor technician, so as we moved south, the legs were crossed for a while. We kept coming back to see if positioning had changed, but the best we got was a glance of a tight-legged baby. We think Nugget is a girl, but are not sure enough to make any major clothing/gear/room painting decisions. Most of the gear and some clothes will be hand me downs from Ryan anyway, even if we have a girl, don't expect to see many pink fluffy things purchased by her parents.

Nugget's foot measured 2 cm in length. So tiny and sweet!

We think that in light of the new non-information about Nugget, the spelling should be modified to Nugg-IT. :) After the great Naming Summit, we are down to 5 girl names, and 6 boy names, with 2-3 lead contenders in both categories. A later summit shall be held when we enter the third trimester. No more ultrasounds are presently scheduled, they shall be reserved unless deemed "medically necessary". (Ryan slept through a stress test once in utereo, and this was considered reason enough for a peek, so we might get another look)

Yesterweek

This is Ryan's new concept for time. He has two tenses yesterweek for past or later for future. It's really fun trying to work out what will happen in the next few days with him and watch him figure it all out. We are gearing up for about a month of family visits. My parents will arrive late tomorrow night, and Jeff's parents will come at the end of the month.

It is fortuitous for the boy that his grandparents are coming for several reasons:

1) Today's lovely battle over a nap. He simply WOULD NOT go to sleep! I even left him there for a while and only came back in when he got rowdy in the crib. His response of late is "I can't!" WHICH I LOATHE. I don't know where he learned it, I make a conscience effort NOT to say things like that in front of him, but it a standard excuse for EVERYTHING lately. I finally won the nap war after a 30 minute drive to nowhere, which resulted in my going to Costco for more gas wearing my slippers :)

2) Ryan seems to think that it is nearly his birthday. Not sure why, but the g-parents ALWAYS have gifts, so I doubt I can convince him otherwise.

3) I need to take more breaks. With the impending arrival of Nugget, I am craving every second of free time, knowing that very soon we will be re-set to zero on how much time I can run away from it all. I am trying to make all my alone time with Ryan count for something too, as he has NO IDEA what it will do to his domain in sharing his Mommy time.

In other news, our family will once again walk in the March of Dimes Walk for Babies in April. This is a cause near and dear to our hearts, since Ryan was a preemie. Please consider supporting Team Zamboni. (this was Ryan's fetal nickname). You can make a tax deductible contribution to our team by using this link: http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t1325586

We still don't have the video done from Hawaii. I had to take the computer in for some service to the disc drive, and update iLife, so things may be moving along soon. In the meantime, I will make you all jealous with some scenery photos from Hawaii.

Nugget of Joy

I have been rather tightlipped on the internet of late, as I have had a BIG secret since Christmas Day. A new member of our family, Nugget, will be joining us at the end of August (30th official due date). I wanted to wait until all family and work associates were informed of my condition, so no googling gave up any surprises. We're doing a journal, including weekly photos to minimize the second child syndrome of no photos or pregnancy memories that many people experience. Below are a few of my favorites. The first is six weeks, the second is 10, and the last is 12 weeks (blurry Hawaii shot). Today marks the beginning of week 14, but my photographer and assistant are both taking a late nap, so we will take that photo tonight.

As you can see, Ryan is getting into showing off his belly too. He informed my yesterday that there is a baby in his tummy too, and that his name is Baby Emmett. (our close friends have a 5 month old son with this SAME name, coincidence?)

We're not hung up on the gender of this kid, we just want a full-term and healthy pregnancy.

Hawaiian Hiatus

While you all were digging out from "SNOWMAGGEDON" (headline in HI newspaper) my family and our close friends the Burghdoffs were soaking up some sun in Hawaii, the ONLY state that did not have snow last week. HUGE SMILE.

Best part of trip: seeing several endangered species including: An albino humpback whale, green sea turtles, and a Hawaiian Monk seal.

Worst part of trip: Two hours of screaming overtired children (Ryan age 2 and Hazel, age 18mths) on the red-eye plane ride home. I gave up my seat so my son could stretch out and sleep and sat by total strangers two hours into the long flight who gave me a real stink eye for moving into an empty seat! I ignored them and tried to nap. Boo to the airline for NEVER Turning off the stupid TVs!

Lessons learned: I love boogie boarding. However, a pedicure was a waste of money, as the sand destroyed it. Also, spray tanning looks good, if you can keep it off of your feet. I'm still sanding some of the orange bits away a week and a half later. Also, video taping dolphins that are leading your boat at over 30 MPH will not turn out well, it will be very blurry, and 12 minutes is too long to tape anything!

We took lots of photos, but I think the best parts were captured on video. Hopefully my editing department (jeff) can sort through the footage and we can get a video montage up soon. In the meantime, here are a few photos.

Happy New Year!

We've been too busy doing to get busy documenting. Ryan has been ice skating and downhill skiing in the past few weeks. He and Daddy are out playing in the mud now, so I have a chance to catch up on the blog.

I don't have any photos of the skiing, as it took both parents to hold him up. But he sure had fun. There were stuffed bunnies stationed down the bunny slope to give beginning skiiers targets. Ryan enjoyed touching each one.

We are getting sick of the rain. At least it isn't any colder than 40 at night, but that is making the mud all the more goopy. The landslides are starting around here. Luckily not in our neighborhood. Only 2 weeks and 6 days until we leave for our Hawaiian get away! I cannot wait.

Ryan's First Movie

Jeff has spent a LOT of time making this special movie about Ryan--from the VERY beginning through his first moments home from the hospital. I hope you enjoy it.

Apple Picking

We shot this back in October. I'm learning more advanced technological maneuvers with the computer. It's a longer clip, but quite funny.