Bathtime

Bart has so many toys in the bathtub with him right now that, with little or no exaggeration, this is what the tub looks like.

More senior pictures

After editing this set of pictures, I wanted to tell Taylor that I was tired of looking at his face. But... that was a lie. Seriously, the kid is pretty dang handsome.







And apparently the good-looking genes run pretty strong in this family because he also has a completely beautiful sister.

It's not a puppy

Ahhh, the ultrasound. To be honest, I wasn't as anxious for it this time around. I was excited because Bart and Lisa would get to see if they were getting a brother or a sister. And I was dreading it because one of the two was going to be grievously and heart-wrenchingly disappointed and I didn't really want to deal with it. You know, because I'm a good mom like that.

Our ultrasound technician was f.a.b.u.l.o.u.s. When we went to Bart's ultrasound, the tech breezed through the whole thing as fast as she could, pointed out that it was a boy and slapped down some pictures that, as I look at them 5 years later, are totally unrecognizable as a baby or any of its adorable bits and pieces. Her attitude was an unmistakable 'I look at babies all day and this is totally not interesting - now will you please leave so I can enjoy a refreshing beverage?' The tech this time was totally enthusiastic, pointed out all the arms, legs, fingers and toes we could possibly want to see, explained everything she was measuring (and why) and even wrote happy little messages from the baby to Bart and Lisa that got printed on some of the pictures. She made it so wonderful and involved the entire family.

On to the good stuff.

Sweet, sweet little face. I'm taking a little poll here because I think the baby totally shares features with Bart and Lisa and looks like our family. And my dad insists that this baby is completely indistinguishable from any other baby on the entire surface of the earth. I have some silhouettes I've done of both children for objective comparison. Feel free to weigh in on either side of the debate.

Here's where baby gets uncooperative. The nice ultrasound lady tried and tried and tried to get a good face shot with the 4D camera. Baby covered its face with its arms and huddled up.

I'm sure none of you care about any of these and scrolled immediately to the bottom to find out. OK OK here you go - the money shot.

Yep. It's a boy. Lisa was devastated. She's starting to come around. And we have like... zero names for boys (and two totally beautiful girl names that someone else will have to use.) Name suggestions are welcome but I'm absolutely not naming a boy anything that ends in 'aden' or using any names that have at any time been used in the Twilight series of not-books.

Beating Beethoven

Since I got hurt last year, I've been trying to get healthy and start running again. Obviously being pregnant has done nothing to further these goals. I feel like I have a narrow window between morning sickness and being too big/heavy/round to run and I really really wanted to do at least one 5K in that time.

Our local rec center has an annual Beat Beethoven 5K where you try to run the race faster than Beethoven's Symphony #5 (it's about 32 minutes long.) Since I've logged less than 10 miles in the last 4 months, I knew there was almost no way I could run faster than Beethoven. Pushing myself way too hard seems unwise so I made an alternate goal. Last year I ran a 5K in 39 minutes - in two ankle braces (see pic below), pushing two kids in a jog stroller that had 2 flat tires (I barely make it to the start line and didn't have time to air them up.)

So instead of chasing Beethoven, I made it my goal to beat my 'injured' time.

Here we are at the starting line with adequately aired up stroller tires. These two bed-headed monkeys had about a gallon of hot chocolate, 5 cereal bars and a movie on the iPod to keep them happy. Nugget #3 was much more content and didn't do any complaining or demanding of snacks.

The race started with about a mile and a half of long, slow uphill climb. It was a killer with the stroller. Beethoven and his pace car passed us at the halfway aid station. The last half was more flat and I kept a better pace.

The result? 38:11. So yeah, I'm not setting any records or winning any races (or beating any 240-year-old composers) but I'm totally happy. This was really important to me. And I'm pretty sure that even though Beethoven wasted me, I placed high in both the Obviously Pregnant and Toting Over 100 Pounds of Children divisions.

Also, Minnie took this picture of me on her own. She's a skilled camera woman already!

Halfway there!

At this point I'm in that frustrating 'I have nothing to wear' phase. So I spend most days in pajama bottoms. Most of my regular pants still fit but I get really really really tired of hitching them back into place every 3 seconds. My 1 pair of maternity jeans is too big. I did get one of those belly bands that are supposed to hold your pants in place and it works really well, as long as you are only standing or walking. It doesn't hold up to activities of a sitting/bending/picking-up-of-4-year-olds nature. At some point I'll have to break down and buy new clothes, but I haven't worked myself up to it yet.

Senior pictures

Decreased mobility plus a definite upswing in laziness has really put a dent in the time and energy I can put into photography. However I've done a limited number of shoots and this is a recent set of senior pictures. Isn't she totally gorgeous?