Furniture Fun

There are so many decisions about parenting you have to make before a baby even arrives it's enough to make your head spin. What to buy, what to buy new, what to buy used, what to paint with what kind of paint, the list goes on and on.

This beautiful blue chair is our 1st furniture purchase. We got it from Craig's list and are very excited. After countless hours of shopping around and searching the internet, we had nearly resigned ourselves to spending an exorbitant amount of money on a new chair that would fit Allyson's frame. Then at the last minute this nugget of joy popped up in our browser window. Score!

I plan on modifying a dresser to make a changing table and we were given a crib from a very close friend as well.

The best new toy, however, will be a room air conditioner--a hand-me-down from Allyson's parents. It is almost 100 degrees here daily and we could all use a cool down.

I know that many, many more babyish needs will present themselves before this is all said and done, but for now, it feels good to have a couple of things out of the way.

The Latest Fuzzy Pictures

I've finally uncovered my buried scanner to post the images from our ultrasound last week. I know that they can be hard to make out, but here's the gist of it:

1st pic: This was where we learned that Myles was a Myles and not a Rosemary. You can see the little arrow pointing to the significant spot. The two white lines to either side are his femurs.

2nd pic: Myles was hanging out in Allyson's pelvis, so it was challenging to get a facial shot. I had to turn the pic over so that you could make it out more easily. He looks like a little alien, I know, but I think that's what we all look like under ultrasound.

3rd pic: A focus on the heart rate. If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can kinda see the two parallel lines inside the dotted line. This is looking at his little, healthy, 4-chambered heart, which was beating at 143 BPM. Not a bad ticker, if I may say so.

So the main outcome of our visit to the nurse midwives was that we have a very healthy baby boy on the way. He is tall and lanky for his age, and apparently rather strong as well, since the practitioners were rather surprised that I could feel him move yet.

And, as they put it, "He's a boy, and he's not shy about it!"

shhh...Don't tell Mason

Happy 30th Birthday Mason!

To celebrate this July (the special date is 7/13) Mason and I will be taking a final child-free vacation to the place of his choice--lovely Seattle and Bellingham, Washington. It is the best of all possibilities. First of all, it gives us a chance to visit Mason and his dad's old stomping grounds and leave a bit of his dad's ashes in his former home. It also gives us a chance to visit several of his friends who have made the northwest their home. Of course, the beautiful seaside coolness of the northwest is a real treat for me. I can't wait. Thanks to a marriage that has generously used its credit card, our Seattle hotel will be paid for with Thank You points! We also plan to camp out in spare bed rooms or possibly a school bus with friends once we hit Bellingham on the big day. I can't think of a better way to welcome my final trimester. Mason and I have been blessed to travel many great places together in this romance of ours. I think it is so perfect that we will be both traveling again and yet somehow going home. Too bad I can't go crazy on the seafood.

Myles Scott Stone: Ninja Baby

So today we finally got a good peek at Binker and it became rather obvious that The Binker was an alias for Ninja Baby.

For those of you who snickered when I said I couldn't wait for the baby to start kicking so I could feel it move--go ahead and laugh. Joke is on me a bit already and I know the best is yet to come.

This little boy has some moves!

We are very happy.