9:45pm, Thursday, July 17, 2008

First trip to the store to satisfy sudden ice cream need.

(I got 2 flavors, just to be safe: Dreyers w/Butterfingers and Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie. We have satisfaction.)

Movement Detected

The first time it felt like a wave moved from one side of Pam's belly to the other.

Then she felt something that she likened to "that part at the beginning of Fellowship of the Ring when the elves are fighting [Sauron] and there's that deep sound and wave that moves through them. It was just like that."

And last night I felt a series of rapid movements, faint and small, but definitely there.

They call this "the quickening."

We're halfway there people. Size of... a banana!

The anatomical ultrasound happened last week. Everything is as it should be.

Circumcision update: currently leaning to not doing it. I really thought more people would comment on that, and not just to me, personally. Oh well, it is a sensitive subject.  

We sold the futon. It was in the way of future crib. Next up, selling the dining room table and getting a smaller one. Then, a smaller desk, and we'll be able to redo the office into his room (a large purple dragon may take over a wall). And a sewing table I'd better check if my mom wants.

Speaking of my mom, she decided it would be impossible to spoil the kid from Houston so she's moving up here with my grandmother. We're doing all we can to Austinize her asap.

Congratulations are in order to a few other people we know...

Just hitched: Pam's sister, Amy, made it official with her fella, Don.

Just agreed to get hitched: our friends Rob & Robyn and Casey & Kelley (apparently there's a marriage bug going around)

Also in a family way: our friends Phil & Jen, about 10 weeks behind us. Pam & Jen went to pre-natal yoga last night for the first time in preparation for baby expulsion.

Stripping mastic off cement floors is for sucks.

That's all the news from here....

Operation House Re-Do 4 Kid A

We've got about 1000 sq ft in our house and only 2 bedrooms, one of which has been the office/guest room. So that room will become the kid's room which means that the dining room is going to become the dining room/office which means that the kitchen needs to be redone so we can have some more storage space and just a better working room in general. 

We're moving the back door from the kitchen to the dining room so we ordered French doors this week. Our friend Trevor (the Elder) is overseeing the project so he came over and widened the doorway between the kitchen and the dining room. The next day, we rented a floor stripper because we're going to do stained cement floors. We started in the dining room, which had 2 layers of acrylic tile. The stripper peeled off her clothes.... er, sorry... peeled off the tile as easy as mowing the lawn. It probably took about 30-40 minutes total.

Then we turned around to do the kitchen and hit the proverbial brick wall. The linoleum flooring did not want to let go. I went back to the Home Depot and bought a couple of new blades. That helped for about 2 minutes. Then about this time, it was time for Pam and I to go see the doctor so I had to take off. When we got back 2 hours later, Trevor had done some research and was now scoring the linoleum and pouring boiling water over it. This helped a great deal but it still wasn't as easy as mowing the lawn. Eventually, we got thru it all (about 8 hours for both rooms) though there are still some small batches of backing on the floor and age-old black remnants of adhesive in both rooms. We're going to get some eco-friendly stripping solvent from some friends today and that's how Trevor and I will be spending tomorrow.

A few pics below. Unfortunately, that's not snow floating in the air but dust particles.

Kid A

This isn't the greatest quality ever, but when the doctor can only record in VHS....

Regardless, you can still see him moving around (big stretch!), watch and listen to his heart beat, and see some of his bone structure, like his spine and arms and legs.

The sonographer was taking some measurements of some of the bones, telling us he's growing just fine. You can't really make it out in the clip but we were able to see the hemispheres of his brain; they were totally ready for learning.  Later, you may realize that you're looking up from below his feet. This was when she was trying to determine if he was a dude or dudette. She couldn't tell, but the doctor would in a few minutes.

This video is not even 6 minutes long but it seemed a lot longer while it was happening. Also, keep in mind the little nipper is maybe 4" long here.