This week his new trick is to knee crawl and push himself into a standing position (under the right conditions).  He hasn’t yet learned to pull himself up by things – we can wait longer for that one as far as I’m concerned.  His head has already taken a beating in the last few weeks as he’s learned the harsh reality of losing his balance around the house.

Enjoy!

Wow – what a crazy, crazy run of no blogging for me.  I’m not quite sure why I haven’t blogged in so long.  I’ll admit, there were a few blogs I started, then stopped, due to laziness, over-sharing, or self censoring.  Blogging never should be a chore.  It never should be something you feel like you have to do, right?

OK.

Well, so tonight – because I probably drank a diet coke a little too late, I’m still up – wired – and ready to write.

My first thoughts go to my little family.  WEJr is growing up so quickly.  If you don’t follow him on Twitter or his blog, you should.  He’s quite verbose for a kid who still can’t talk.  :)

WEJr is changing so quickly.  Just tonight, I told A2 that she should ‘enjoy it while it lasts’ (I’m just a walking platitude these days – fatherhood must be getting to me) – it being him being small enough to hold for extended periods of time.  He’ll be 6 months old here in just a few days.  *Sigh*  He is sitting up now on his own, and is starting to scoot a bit.  He’s just getting his knees under himself when on his tummy – and he can move around – but doesn’t quite go anywhere yet.  We’re working on him going to bed without being held now.  (He’s been quite spoiled in that regard.)

The best part, though, is that when he’s happy, he lights up the whole room with his gigantic smile.  When he’s sad, he just kind of whimpers.  Yes, he can scream – but he rarely does. Overall, he’s a generally happy, happy kid. We are sooooo lucky and blessed to have him. He is like a little piece of heaven right here in our little family.

How about a little video?

Somehow she kept the theme a secret, and she managed to pull off a BUNCH of photoshop work without even one consultation.  (If that auditing thing doesn’t work out for her, perhaps I can get her a graphic design internship somewhere…)  The theme was PLAYBILL (the broadway programs) – she had black and yellow balloons, a playbill cake, playbills with me on them, and – the most cool – a playbill of my life with all the major scenes, players, contributors, supporters, and even advertising.

It was epic.

She also asked FavUnc and the Band to play some live music at the event which really spiced things up. Thanks to FavUnc for the party pad and all the family for all their work to make such a fun party happen.

And now, for the pictures.

And now… as a little bonus (and just because my dad requested it on Fathers’ day) here is a little clip of me singing with FavUnc and the Band one of the epic songs of my childhood singing lessons… Stray Cat Strut:

Part I: South Florida

Our Florida trip was to Weston, Florida – just west of Fort Lauderdale and right next to the Everglades.  We stayed at Vacation Village – a great resort that had the world’s most hideous color palate… BUT… it was CLEAN!  Huzzah!  I love clean rooms!

This was one of those vacations where we GO GO GO.  Here is the quick run down of what we did did did:

Saturday:

Fly.  This would typically be the least interesting part of the trip, but it becomes a whole new animal with children.  Come to find out, the friendly skies aren’t as friendly to families as I thought.  There was no family boarding allowed, and the gate agent wasn’t very accommodating with seating us in a less crowded area of the plane where we could have a little breathing room.  Fortunately, there was an empty seat across the aisle from us, and the kind gentleman moved over to give us a little extra room for WEJr.  He actually did awesomely on the flight.  He just sucked sucked sucked on takeoff and landing, and slept the rest of the time.  If he’s always so good on flights, we’ll travel with him more often!

We arrived, met A2′s parents and GG and got situated in our rooms.  We then searched for somewhere to eat and settled on Flanigans, a casual dining seafood place that is well known for its (wait for it) ribs!  The ribs were pretty good, but I think the winner was Ron’s dish – the tuna.  I had the mahi mahi, and it was only marginal.  Major plate envy!

Sunday:

We found the church in Weston, which we found out is closer to the site where the recently announced temple is to be built.  We also found out there is some political wrangling going on over the name of the temple.  It was announced as the Fort Lauderdale Florida Temple, but there is a campaign to call it the “South Florida” temple for “political” reasons.  (I got the impression that Weston is much more politically and morally conservative than Fort Lauderdale.)

The best part about going to church was that I spent the second two hours of church data mining the ward for great things to do in the area.  We got tips of where to go, what to see, and where to eat.  It was great – and Mormons are super-nice people!

Monday:

We heard the previous night that the shuttle launch would take place that morning – so headed out early (5:45am!) to the Fort Lauderdale beach to see the sunrise, take pictures, and see of we could see the shuttle launch.  Sunrise on the beach was a fantastic idea.  It was practically deserted, we easily found parking, and the atlantic ocean was warm!  Who knew it would be warm!?!  Not me.  So we even enjoyed a little swimming, and got some great sunrise pictures of the family.

We were able to see a few contrails from the shuttle launch, and we spent time traveling up the A1A to see all the beaches in the area.  We returned in the afternoon to take naps and get ready for dinner.

For dinner, we decided to go back to Fort Lauderdale beach to the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company.  I had some really great Shrimp Scampi.  Yummmmmmm!

Tuesday:

We decided to get up a little later on this morning and go out to “Shark Valley” – a spot in the Everglades where there are a lot of alligators.  This plan was thwarted when our rental van got a flat tire on the interstate.  Poop.  And can I say that Dodge could not have made it harder to retrieve the spare tire from under the van?  Argh!  So we spent the morning changing the tire and returning to the car rental facility to get a new car.

The day wasn’t completely shot, though.  We chose to go to the closer Everglades attraction, and were able to take a fan boat ride through the wetlands, seeing alligators up close, as well as walking through a large exhibit of other exotic animals.  The day wasn’t completely wasted, but we got home just in time to be really tired.

A2 and I took off that night for our first date without WEjr.  We went to try Cuban food at “Las Vegas Cuban”.  I had the sampler plate, which included a little of everything.  My favorite part, however, was the fried banana.  Ohh, that made me miss Brasil!

Wednesday:

We took the drive down to Key Largo to visit Pennekamp Park.  We had heard there was a great reef there with snorkeling and glass bottom boats.  We lucked out when we stopped at the first information point there and met Captain Slate’s crew that does a combination glass bottom and snorkeling adventure.  We got on the first boat we could, and headed out to the reef.  A2, Papa, and I all snorkeled, while Baba and GG enjoyed the boat and tended WEJr.  Baba got a little seasick, but other than that we had a great time and returned from the trip unscathed.

We were tired and hot, though, as the Florida heat zapped the life out of us.  We did a little more driving through Key Largo, but ultimately decided to come back north through Miami Beach.

At Miami Beach we ate at another recommended restaurant; Joes Stone Crab.  A2 had the Stone Crab which was much better than the waiter’s description sounded.  I had sea scallops which were VERY good, and we all tried a plethora of menu options.  Overall, though, we were tired and hot and ready to go home.  We got in the car and made a pretty long trek back to the hotel, winding through the many highways of Miami and the surrounding Beach.

Thursday:

We decided we had done enough exploring and had a pool day at the hotel.  We enjoyed left over food, and had noontime entertainment from the staff and guests at the resort.  They had a raffle and there were old men trolling for young staffers to dance with.  I felt like I was on a weird cruise ship.  The day was hot and the pool felt good, so I guess that’s all that really matters.

Dinner that night was at Salad Creations – we were ready for something a little lighter after all the heavy and expensive food we had been eating…

That night, we also had a wicked game of pinochle.  Score A2/WE 1 – Papa/Baba 0

Friday:

Friday, our last day, we decided to spend some time shopping.  We went to Sawgrass Mills, the largest outlet mall in the US, and walked around several shops.  The shopping was very disappointing to me.  I guess I just don’t fit into anything, or mens clothes have just grown too pretentious.

We ate a late lunch at Cheesecake Factory in the mall where I enjoyed their Cuban sandwich.  Mission accomplished.  I had eaten all local food during this trip.  It was really yummy, too.  I could really eat Cuban food more often!

Second game of pinochle tonight: A2/WE 1 – Papa/Baba 1

Saturday:

We got up early and flew home.  WEJr was a trooper on this flight as well, opting to sleep the entire trip.  He was actually an amazing kid for the whole vacation.  He was so easy to take anywhere and everywhere — and we did!  He’s been on plane, boat, and car.  He’s been in wetlands, oceans, pools, and strollers. He pretty much let us man handle him the whole time – and the best part… it was in florida that he learned to SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT!  Huzzah!  Not a moment too soon for when mommy was going back to work, too.

Part II – Houston

As if this post isn’t long enough, I have YET ANOTHER short vacation to chronicle – and that was our quick Memorial Day trip to Houston to meet WEJr’s cousin DalPal.  DalPal is 6 months older than WEJr, and is a smiley young man.  We loved getting to know him and hug him.  I tried to lay the boys down on the ground to rough house and wrestle a bit, but they both just started crying when I laid them on each other and taught them the sleeper hold.  Oh well.

Huge thanks to Al for making WEJr an awesome tie and onesie.  Let’s make this happen, sis…

Third game of pinochle:  A2/WE 1 – Papa/Baba 2… the series continues!!!

… We also enjoyed some GREAT thin crust pizza at this place down the road from their house.  We’ll have to remember that one.  It was fantastic!

Thanks to Baba, Papa, GG, and Al for making another great weekend.

My grandmother Anderson and Ricks were epic women.  They’ve been gone for several years now, and time has been very kind to their memory.  The stories only get better as time goes on, and their memory becomes more and more rich.  Both were incredible women.

My Grandmother Anderson was a kind, intelligent woman from a great, well-respected family.  (If there’s one legacy we Anderson men have, it’s the ability to marry way above ourselves.)  Gram, as we all called her, had 12 children (9 survived infancy) and a few foster children as well.  She spent most of her life cooking, washing, and outfitting the army that worked on the farm and ranch.  She made the most epic sourdough pancakes.  In fact, most of my memories of Gram are of her cooking.  Two specific instances; one time when I was very young at the Cougar Ranch, I “helped” her pull and roll scone dough, and another time at her house in Washington, where she made sourdough pancakes for us.  Even in Gram’s later years, after suffering several strokes and losing the ability to communicate, I still remember visiting her and knowing that she knew who we were and she wanted to tell us she loved us, even though she couldn’t say it.  Gram spent her life in selfless service to her family and those she loved.  Her legacy and posterity was truly great.

My Grandma Ricks was a wonderful woman who, we all swear, never spoke an ill word of anyone in her entire life.  In fact, in a family like the Ricks where teasing and ribbing can oftentimes get a little out of hand, she would always be the one to reign in the troops.  Grandma Ricks made time for every grandchild, and had a special way of making each feel like they were the most special.  I remember going to the local Albertsons with her once when we were visiting.  After we loaded the groceries into the trunk of her car, she accidentally shut the heavy lid down on my hand.  She felt so bad, got me home quickly and took a blue gel ice pack out of the freezer and monitored my hand until it felt better.  I also have distinct memories of accidentally walking in on Grandma when she was both praying at her bedside and reading her scriptures.  She was a woman of great faith and she lived every Christian attribute to the fullest.

My own mother is an exemplary woman.  I think my brother Ben put it best when he said, “If they don’t throw open the pearly gates for her, I dont’ know who is getting in.”  Not only is she a woman of great faith, she is a woman who finds a way.  She has endured and overcome so many challenges, not the least of which was raising 4 boys and 1 daughter.  But that is just how she is.  She can turn any weed patch into a garden, can grow fruit trees and grapevines in sand, and can make any old house a home.  And not just with physical things; she can do it with people too.  She cares about everything and everyone.  In fact, if my mother had a fault it might be that she cares too much and too deeply about everyone and everything, but it clearly comes from her strong belief that improvement can be constant and that she can make it happen through faith, personal effort, and love.  I love you, Mom.  You are a great woman!

Finally, I’ll say something about my awesome wife.  This was her first Mother’s day as an official “I’ve pushed a baby out” mother.  Though WEJr honored his mother the same as he does every day (by eating and sleeping and pooping), the day did take on a slightly different tone for me as it shifted from honoring my wife’s womanhood to honoring her huge sacrifice to be a mother.  And by sacrifice – I mean letting your body and mind go to pot in order to bring a new life into this world.  (I’ve recently realized that mothers go crazy because they spend so much time talking gibberish to children who don’t really respond back.)

When I think about my wife, I think about an experience we had in postpartum at the hospital that completely changed the way I look at her.  As WEJr’s nurse was going through his discharge papers, A2 began to see spots and feel dizzy.  We called her nurse in and quickly signed off on WEJr’s release.  Then the nurse looked at me and said, “OK.  He can’t come back to the nursery now.  You can call us and we can bring you anything you need, but he can’t come back anymore.”  With that, she took her little cart and ran.  At the same time, A2′s nurse was in the room taking her blood pressure, checking her spine, turning off all the lights, laying her down and instructing her to get some rest to see if the headache passed.

There I sat, in a dark room in the middle of the afternoon, watching my wife sleep off a massive headache, holding a baby that I could not pass off to anyone else.  I was slightly panicked.  What if he was hungry?  What if he started crying?  What if he got sick?  There was so very little I felt like I could do for him.  The emotions were quite overwhelming, so I sat in the dark, fighting back tears, and offering silent prayers that my wife’s headache would quickly pass and that we could still be discharged that day.

In that moment, I realized how dependent on her I was.  Not just for feeding and caring for WEJr as his mother; but also for companionship, friendship, and everything else that is great about my life.  It is strange to realize that two and a half years ago I didn’t even know this woman who has come and completely redefined my life, gave birth to my child, and become my best friend.  I love spending every minute I can with her.  I can’t get enough of her.  As the months and years pass, my addiction to her seems to only deepen, as does my love.

Thank you to all the women who have been my mothers.  You are amazing.

This has been the best 2 years of my entire life.

You amaze me.

So let me back up and tell the story.

Antepartum

Monday, Feb 28, A2 went in for her 37 week appointment.  The doctor saw her blood pressure was a little high, so she told her she should go over to the hospital and have it monitored.  We didn’t think too much of it – A2 had rock solid pressures throughout the pregnancy – and just thought it would go down as the day wore on.

It didn’t.

Then they got her blood work back and her platelets were around 116 or so.  Platelets are supposed to be around 190.  It wasn’t in the danger zone (under 100), but not good especially because her older sister had the same issue with her first pregnancy and actually dipped below 100.  At this point, it’s about 3pm and A2 calls me to come to the hospital. They have admitted her for overnight urine test to check for protein in her urine and make sure preeclampsia isn’t setting in.

So we spent the night at the hospital in the antepartum part of labor and delivery.  A2 slept pretty well (other than having to pee often and into a bucket).  I had one of the most uncomfortable sleeps of my life (and please note, I have slept often in coach of an airplane) on the chair with built in ottoman.

When we got going on Tuesday, the second round of blood work was done and her platelets had dropped to 106.  By noon they had not found significant amounts of protein in her urine, so her kidney and liver function appeared to be OK.  The doctor was on the fence – she wasn’t good enough to send home, but not bad enough to really recommend inducing.  We were sent to see another doctor in the hospital to get a second opinion.

This was one of the funniest moments in the hospital.  This lady was crazy.  She was an older, african-american lady who had JUST gotten Dianna Ross tickets.  She was doing an ultrasound with one hand while she called her sister and closest friends to brag about her tickets.  We had a great time with her and her staff, but left that ultrasound with pictures and no particular prognosis.

All this time, I’m trying to convince every nurse and doctor we saw to just slip A2 some pitocin so we could get this show on the road.  It was my running joke…

A2′s doctor came back over at 6:00 and told us she had consulted with the other doctor and they were recommending that we go ahead and deliver.  The way she said it was, “We’ve decided we’re going to deliver this baby – and we’re going to start now.”  We both went into panic mode.  I’m thinking – what, do I need to go boil water and get some clean towels?  A2′s blood pressure cuff went off and it read 180/120… some absurd number.  The doctor looked and said… “Umm.. I’m going to pretend we didn’t see that.”

Delivery

They got us moved into a delivery room, and hooked us up to the IV fluids, antibiotics, and the wonder drug pitocin.

At this point, we were going through shift change in the hospital, and things in Labor and Delivery were going nuts.  Within the space of a few hours, we had almost every nurse on the floor in our room.  The nurse we were supposed to have ended up going into an emergency c-section, so we got the front desk nurse with helpers coming in and watching us as A2 started to labor.  When we got the epidural (the most incredible medical advancement since penicillin) we finally got our dedicated labor nurse; Christy.  Christy was amazing.  She was there for our every need.  All of the nurses were amazing, but we really felt like Christy was something special, helping us through the first time craziness.

A2 got the epidural at 10:30pm, after which I was able to get a few hours of sleep.  She tried to sleep, but every time she got close, the stupid blood pressure cuff would go off automatically – so she just counted sheep and watched her contractions for a few hours.  From 10pm – 2am, she went from a 3 to a 5 or so… not much progress.  But then from 2am – 3am she went bonkers, going quickly from a 5 to a 10.  When Christy came in she said she was going to call the doctor and get us ready to push.  Christy pushed with us for about 45 minutes, and we got the baby pretty much all the way down the birth canal.  We had to stop pushing at 4 to make sure the doctor was going to get there in time.  She came in and A2 pushed for just 10 more minutes before the nurse said to her “head’s out!” – and the next thing she knew there was a baby up on her chest.

He let out a big cry right after he came out, which was a relief since the only risk of having him 2 weeks early could have been underdeveloped lungs – but his powerful cry was reassuring.  There were cascading waves of emotion for both of us – relief, happiness, tears, excitement.  Here was the guy – in the flesh- that we had been thinking about, worrying about, praying for, and excited about for the last 9 months.  Here he was and he was REAL!

The whole birth experience was amazing.  One of my Facebook status updates said it all:

Our little man was born on March 2, 2011 at 4:14am.  He was 6 lbs 12 oz and 21 inches long.

First Family Picture

More pictures on Facebook

Postpartum

I got some pictures and video as they cleaned him up, weighed, measured, tagged him, and took him down to the nursery.  The doctor got A2 put back together while I was watching him get his first bath and get into his fresh digs.  By this time, it was about 5:00am or so, and I went back down to L&D to get things together for us to be transferred to postpartum.  We transferred to postpartum right before the nurses shift change.  We said thank you to Christy and all the other great nurses in L&D and got set up in our new digs.

First order of business – ordering food.  A2 was starving!  Then, our boy came in cause he was starving too, and we had to get mom’s milk coming in.  He fed for a bit (with some help from the nurses and lactation people), and then mom’s food arrived and she fed for a bit.  After things settled down, we slept a bit, since we’d been up all night.

Everything else during postpartum was a bit of a blur.  We had the baby room in the nursery so we could get more sleep while we were in the hospital.  He did really well in there, and they would bring him in twice during the night to feed.  Ben and Travis came to visit on the first day and Heidi and her girls came on the second day.  Family only in the hospital – we were so tired and overwhelmed we just spent most of the time staring at our boy and getting used to the feeling of being parents.

We had a short list of names – but knew which one it had to be when we saw him.  He was definitely an Eli… but we still will call him WEJr on the blog, because he definitely does have some wisps of white in those eyebrows – and he looks a lot like his Daddy as well.  (Handsome man!)

Coming Home

Coming home didn’t quite go without a hitch.  The nurse came in to discharge Eli and as she was going through the paperwork, A2 started seeing spots and having a headache.  The nurses came in, shut off the lights, and had her sleep it off – just to make sure she didn’t have a spinal headache.  But here I sit, for four hours, with this baby who has been discharged but with a wife who hasn’t… that’s when it really hit me 1) how scary parenting is and 2) how reliant I am on A2 for the care of this baby.  Totally.  Humbling.  Experience.  Thankfully, everything was OK with A2 and she was discharged at 5pm or so.

WEJr has been a model child (so far).  He eats, sleeps, poops, and repeats.  He’s had two good reports from his pediatrician so far, and is currently registering at 7lbs 1.5oz.  He and mom are both used to breastfeeding, so that’s going super well.  We’ve been very lucky to have the MIL in town to help for the last week or so.   She’s probably bored by now, but we are enjoying having her around.  She SO KINDLY finished the painting in the nursery, and we finally chose furniture… so look forward to pictures of a decorated nursery here in a week or two.

Thanks to everyone for their congratulations and kind words.  We are loving parenting, so far, and are grateful for your kind words, great examples, and encouragement.  This has been a huge miracle for us – I can’t believe that just 3 years ago I was still wondering whether I would ever meet the right person I would want to give my whole life to and have this family experience with.  I am so blessed to have met that person and I thank my lucky stars every day for her and now for this amazing, miraculous little boy too.

Some videos too:

First Video

Second Video

At Home

Kicking it all off, the nesting instinct decided to go into full gear on Monday.  The lady in our birthing class had mentioned that your wife would become a “crazy lady” some time before the baby came – that getting ready would suddenly become an emergency.  I just kind of laughed inside – “not A2 – she’s like the coolest lady on the planet.”  Well, just like clockwork – she was right.  The two emotions of “holy crap, this baby could come any time” and “holy crap, we’re totally not ready yet” hit at the same exact day – Monday.

Perfect — it was just in time to conflict with a work trip I had planned to California.  To make a story short, the trip was cancelled and we’ve been working our cans off all week getting everything ready for WEJr to come so that we could try to alleviate the second half of the anxiety.

Also, it turned out as a nice marital learning moment.  This is just one of those things you do; sometimes we have to pass up what the right/best thing to do is for what your spouse happens to need at that time.  I am blessed to have one of the least needy, most independent spouses on the planet – so I don’t have to do this very often – so I wasn’t too hard to make an exception of what I needed to do for what she needed me for – as unrealistic and hormonal as that need was.

Plus, I informed her that I now have a huge chip to cash in at a later time…

So… back to that nesting list then…

Tonight I’ll be prepping the nursery for paint and tomorrow we’ll be painting.

There is some last minute shopping to be done – as well as this terrible concept of a “push present” that I now have to figure out.  (Whoever gave A2 that “Hot Moms” book needs to be shot.)  (I know, I know, it’s cute – but you all know that gift giving isn’t one of my “love languages”)

We’ve got all the bags packed, and are almost ready to go to the hospital at any time.

We’ve met with one pediatrician close by the house, and we’re meeting another near the hospital we’ll be delivering at.  We like them both, so it will probably come down to what location we decide will be most convenient.

We posted an ad for a nanny on Care.com.  We’ve had lots of responses but haven’t really earnestly started responding or interviewing.  I’ve kind of felt like we could do that after the baby comes anyway – we will have 3 months to figure out exactly what we’re doing in that department.  I guess we’re both still hoping that the perfect thing will just pop up – maybe someone we know and trust refers someone who we will feel comfortable with.  We’ve basically ruled out using anyone from our family or Church congregation – because you have to be able to hire someone you can fire as well and I would hate for relationships to sour over it.  So… we continue to look.  We do have a backup plan, though, so not feeling too much anxiety over this.

As far as a status report on A2 – she has started battling the swelling in the last two weeks.  Every night her feet and ankles are a mess – and every morning she can barely move her hands.  We’re just elevating and keeping the fluids moving.  She’s being a trooper, though, and a great unintended consequence is that she gets to wear jeans and tennis shoes to work every day now – Doctors orders!

For those who’ve been asking for a belly picture – I think she’s going to pass on that request.  Sorry…  I will, however, post pictures of our painted nursery this weekend, though!

Oh – and one more thing.  The Christmas tree is still on the floor of the living room.  Just to see how long we can stand to leave it there… (so far I’m winning)

Now… the official BEFORE shots for WEJr’s room:

Pretty empty, right?  We’ll see how long that lasts…

A few updates…

First, I felt quite overwhelmed on Saturday night when A2 brought home the haul she made at the baby shower thrown by her church friends and family.  This wasn’t a shower, it was a downpour!

Seriously… each one of those bags is chuck full of stuff!

We got so much stuff!  Stuff is everywhere now.  Our entire family room is now covered in stuff.  This does not bode well for my recent commitment to lead a stuff-free life (Ben – I will get around to posting that 100-things blog some day – I think we blew the 100 things just in this one shower).

Really, I felt quite overwhelmed and grateful that people, many who have only known us for what feels like a short two years, would be so generous and giving.  Between this, the shower her coworkers are throwing this Friday, and the garbage bags full of clothes that keep appearing, we’re not going to have to buy a stitch of clothing for this kid!

While A2 and her mom and grandma enjoyed the shower, Ben, Travis, Ron, and I went to the NFL Experience at the Dallas Convention Center.

This thing was a pretty incredible celebration of all things NFL.  I don’t think I’ve seen Ben that thrilled since we explored the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse at Disneyland as kids (epic treehouse).

We didn't buy this.

Perhaps the best part was when we did the “Quarterback Challenge” – there were three cutouts, a receiver behind two defenders, that you had to hit in the hands with the ball.  You had 3 balls.  Ben’s score 0 of 3.  WhiteEyebrows’ score?  3-3.

Boo yah!

This year, to try to preserve a bit of our-family-ness we decided to spend Christmas eve with just us, then come join other family on Christmas day.  We went with Ben to McCormick and Schmick’s for Christmas Eve dinner.  I enjoyed a Texas redfish, Ben had the sea scallops, and A2 enjoyed plate envy as her parmesan crusted tilapia left wanting.  Other than that, it was a fantastic meal!

We went home and to bed early, setting the alarms for a 4am departure Christmas morning.  We got up and out the door by 5, with Ben taking us to catch our 6:30am flights to Vegas.  We arrived, and as we got to the rental car facility (around 8am pacific time), we passed a man who had clearly been out playing santa all night.  He had a long white beard and hair, and was wearing a red t-shirt, trousers, and boots – and clearly exhausted from being out all night.  I had to bite my tongue to not say “You’ve had a busy night, huh…” – instead I just shot him an understanding smile.

When we got to the rental parking lot, we were disappointed to find the lot empty of the car class we had pricelined for 50% off!  The attendant promised they’d have a car up soon, so we waited and along she came…

A Cadillac DTS.

This was a nice car – don’t get me wrong – but it was also a bit of a granny car.  The plusses were that it was whisper quiet on the inside (a far cry from my Civic) and just glid down the pavement.  It was a nice ride!  The minuses – too much wood glued to the dashboard, and more of a loose suspension.

We hopped on the freeway to St George and made it to my parent’s house at 11am Mountain time.  They had just finished opening up their presents and had cleaned up breakfast – only my parents and my little brother – so we gave the presents we had brought, and then went to my brother’s house to watch his girls open some presents.

Mom had made some fabric ‘quiet books’ for the younger nieces this year, and she spilled the beans that she also made one for our little bun in the oven.  We were quite thrilled.

We enjoyed a great Christmas afternoon dinner with Tio and his family, and puzzled and played games into the evening.  I was introduced to a new game called Blockus while we were there that I soon became family champ on.  Must be those ‘spatial reasoning’ skills shining through…

Monday, we did our obligatory run to Cafe Rio for lunch (yum!), then got on the road back to Vegas to meet up with A2′s family.  Her parents reserved several suites at the Wyndham a year in advance so we could all get together in the week between Christmas and New Years.  It all worked out like we planned, and everyone was able to make it in!  Hooray!

Monday night, we just stayed in, had dinner together, and caught up with everyone; enjoying the two new kids we hadn’t even met yet in the family.

Tuesday we decided to venture out.  GG and I were dead set on a visit to Hoover Dam.

It was a beautiful day, and we thought we couldn’t go wrong.  GG lived in Boulder City in the 1950′s, so she was familiar with the community and everything that went into the construction of the dam.  After a morning full of “dam” jokes, we ventured toward the dam.  The 30-45 minute drive turned into a 2:30 minute drive to the dam.  The dam traffic was horrible, the dam roads were packed, and all the dam tourists were itching (as were we) to just get there.  Good thing we had our sweet ride to enjoy the entire way there!

On the way, we lost half of our family entourage.  The ones with kids just couldn’t take the traffic and waiting, and bailed (for the better).

We finally made it to the dam, but couldn’t find parking to save our lives!  We drove all the way across the dam, then flipped a U turn and came back.  By the time we had made it back, they had reopened the parking garage for more cars.  We got in and found a great parking spot (thanks to GG’s handicap sticker).  By the time we got down the dam, all visions of going on the dam extended tour flew out the window.  We were all tired, hungry, and irritable, and yet the last thing we wanted to do was get back into that car.  So we decided to do the visitor’s center and observation deck and forego the tour.

Smart choice.

Half of the group got through security, but then *someone* had to have brought three of the prohibited items: a pocket knife, a fork, and a granola bar.  *NO DAM FOR YOU*  He had to run back to the parking lot to deposit his bag of terrorist paraphernalia so we could get to the dam visitors center.

At this point, even I, the most committed of the dam visitors, was beginning to falter.  Would I ever be able to successfully consume the dam experience?

We ran through the visitors center and then up to the overlook, got a few photos and a little info on the dam, then called it quits.  Getting back to the car we screamed in unison “get us the hell out of this dam!”

We sped back to Boulder City where we enjoyed a visit to the A&W drive in, with the freshly brewed root beer on tap.  YUMMMMM!  Best part of the day, bar none!

On our way back to Vegas we got to try out the handling on the DTS as well.  As we sped through traffic, a pink super-jeep stopped on a dime in front of us, and I had to quickly respond by merging into the other lane.  Though we all wet our pants, we made it out alive.

Today (Wednesday) we re-tried doing something together as a family; we loaded up the cars and went to the Mandalay Bay’s Shark exhibit.  This time we were successful!  We all enjoyed the aquarium, in spite of a few meltdowns along the way.  It was similar to the Dallas Aquarium (though a bit smaller).  Proving you always meet someone from St George when you’re in Vegas, I ran into the Reids from my parent’s neighborhood in the exhibit.  (I can’t go anywhere in these western United States!)

After the promised trip to McDonalds was complete and the incapable front-of-house staff at McDonalds had messed up our simple order, we came back to the resort and took it easy for a few hours.  I’ve been playing chauffer to those who wanted to go to The Strip or run an errand, but other than that we’ve been just doing a puzzle and staring at each other.

Three more days of vacation bliss to go!

1. No pretense.  She ate a full meal when we had our first date.  She was hungry – so she ate.  None of this eating a pre-date meal so you can look like you don’t eat a lot stuff.
2. Slow to judge.  She is always slow to judge someone based on limited information.  She’s no dullard, but she gives everyone a fair shot to prove they are idiots before calling them such.
3. Generous.  She took what I thought was generous and took it to a whole new level.  Give til it hurts.
4. Cuddler.  She likes to be near me, whether she feels good or not, and whether my breath stinks or not.
5. Vegetables.  She makes me eat them.
6. Thorough. She saves the yellow slip from church.  Our finances are all thoroughly audited.
7. Encouraging.  She pushes me to my limits and then helps me manage the stress.
8. Adventurous.  We’ll probably never vacation in the same place twice.
9. Rut-free.  She can’t stand that I have a glass of Orange Juice and two Special K bars for breakfast every morning.
10. Strong.  Unless it’s a spider or a lizard (in which case she turns into a totally stereotypical girl) she is not afraid of anything.
11. She’s having my baby.

It’s a BOY!!

A2 was so thrilled. She didn’t make her boy hopes much of a secret, and well… I didn’t much care either way – as long as he was growing healthily and normally – which he was. No concerns from the Doctor or sonographer.

There was some slight drama, because our appointment got reschedule, but for some reason the ultrasound didn’t get rescheduled as well – so we weren’t on the sonographer’s schedule. She was able to sneak us in, probably knowing that I would have flown off the handle at half of the office for making us wait another day or two to know.

So… one more big mental step is done. Every little step like this makes it feel more and more real.

Pinch me.

I’m pregnant.

Well… actually… I guess the appropriate term is “we’re” pregnant.  At leaste that’s what people say these days, “We’re pregnant.”

I’m guessing this is supposed to indicate that the pregnancy is a joint/team effort, and that, as a husband/father, you are involved and supporting your wife/partner as she goes through her pregnancy.  I still kind of wince, though, when I say this.  Despite the woman’s best efforts to make the man as miserable as she is during pregnancy, the woman is still bearing the brunt of the pregnancy.  Sure, they may ask us to go at odd hours of the night to find some random food they insist on consuming, but let’s be honest, we’re not getting larger and having all our internal organs pushed around inside ourselves by some alien spawn.  I feel more comfortable saying WE’RE expecting – but SHE’S pregnant!

So, first, the obligatory questions:

What is it?

We don’t know yet.  We are hoping for a human.  A2 really wants a boy.  Badly.

Yes, we are going to to know as soon as possible.  In fact, we’ll be finding out NEXT TUESDAY!  I don’t really get those who want to wait or be surprised.  I guess this is because I just don’t care either way.

When are we due?

March 15th – ish.

How has A2 been feeling?

Pregnant.  The first trimester was challenging because she just didn’t feel well.  She wasn’t sick enough to throw up most days, but just didn’t really have an apetite, and didn’t feel like going out or doing anything.  She was always tired, and sometimes a little cranky.

This made me nervous for our Italy trip, but the second trimester started the day before she left, and she felt great through the whole trip.  (Might have something to do with all the sleeping in and relaxation we did!)

Her latest “feelings” are mostly feeling like something is rearranging her insides.  She wakes up every morning feeling like muscles and things are stretching and pulling everywhere.  But, generally, she is feeling good and bearing the rearrangement of her insides well.  My wife is completely unflappable.  She is awesome.

Are you excited to be a parent?

Well – yes and no.  I guess I just don’t have visions of everyone holding hands and spinning in a circle for all eternity.  I’m far too aware of the reality of the long-term pain, cost, and struggle that raising children can be.  I know it can be a joy as well, but I’m under no delusion that it will be easy.

It’s like asking if you’re excited to go on a mission.  You know it’s going to be awesome, but you know there’s going to be hard days and difficulties.  You don’t know who your companion is going to be.  You don’t know whether you’ll like life on the other side of the ‘big change’ as you did before.  You just hope you can adapt and do your best.

Bottom line: Yes.  We’re excited to have our own children to screw up and who can blame us for all their problems.

I’m sure the WhiteEyebrows blog will become quite the mecca of parenting pontification in the next few months and years.  As we prepare to make this transition, I’m sure I’ll be pouring my thoughts out on the blog… or not.

Where are the pictures?

If you read to this point, that means you deserve to see a few pictures, right?  :)

These are old, from our first ultrasound at our first appointment.  We’ll have some better ones next week!

]]> http://www.whiteeyebrows.com/im-pregnant/feed/ 7