Merry Christmas, PadThai!

Grandpa Charlie built this fantastic rocking horse.
Strong enough for Ben, made for Pad Thai.

PadThai is very lucky. He is already so well-loved in our extended family, despite his being "just a big ol' belly bump" right now. Ben and I are so grateful for all of the generosity our family has shown us in helping us prepare for PadThai's arrival. Thanks to them, he will be one of the best dressed boys around, riding in only the hippest of red car seats and strollers, and playing with only the most fun and fabulous toys. Besides some fantastic grandparents, aunts, and uncles, he'll also have some very sweet older cousins to look up to--we know he's going to love his new family just as much as we do. The kiddos in this picture are his future cousins Tommy, Sarah and Ally, and baby Zack (Isaac) down below.

All I want for Christmas is a name for PadThai!

PadThai finally has a real name. . .at least it's about 95% certain. But we are still opting to keep it under wraps--in case Benny comes up with a funny reason he doesn't like it. (Yes, this has happened on several occasions.) I'm SURE he would rebut and say the same about me. . .but this is my blog post and I will not allow him to defend himself!

I wouldn't say we ever had that "ah ha" moment I blogged about a few months ago, but we did kind of re-stumble upon the winner and settle on it in a matter of a day or two. Surprisingly, it is not one of the 10 names we had been seriously considering for the past several weeks--instead, it's a name I suggested once upon a time, and Ben nixed it immediately back then. . . .so I kind of let it be and didn't ever bring it up again. . .until we had both reached our breaking point in the name search and had to start recycling previous rejects. It's been about a week now since we "settled" on it, and we both still seem comfortably happy with the idea of our little man's new moniker. To me, it's a name that suits a guy who's smiley and caring and charismatic. . .just a few of the traits I hope our son becomes.

Maybe we'll drop a few hints as the due date approaches! Here's one: PadThai's new name did not originate in Thailand!
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I haven't posted a Belly shot in quite awhile (actually, I haven't posted anything!), and thought I should. . .although, this one is actually a few weeks old, when I was about 30-31 weeks along and PadThai supposedly weighed about 4 pounds. His latest ultrasound measurements still indicate that he is larger than average. His leg bones are, GULP!, >95% in terms of length. Tall genes run deep on both sides of the family, so this is not a surprise to us.

PadThai's Nursery: Unveiled!

PadThai now has a happy little piece of our home to call his own. Benny and I toiled all weekend long to pull this little room together, and we're pretty happy with how it came out.

There are still a few things missing. . .like the fun rocking chair Grandma and Grandpa DeGeorge ordered for us and a window covering of some sort. Plus, we're still missing all those super fun items associated with poopy diapers, like "genies" and changing pads. I think we're still in denial about THAT part of raising a lil' man.

Daphne seems to like the room, too. . .as I painted, Daphne spread herself out right beneath the crib. Once PadThai makes his big debut, we're wondering if she'll decide to sleep in PadThai's room as his personal guard dog, or if she'll stick with guarding us at the foot of our bed. (Oh, by the way, don't worry about pregnant Lori painting. . .Ben did all the smelly primer painting, and I painted the walls and trim with low-VOC paint, so the toxic smell was minimal.)



Here are some pics. . .the blue ones are the "Before shots." The blue really looked quite nice, but we decided to change it up anyway. . .PadThai deserves something fresh, new, and bright!

The fun things we like are: the Moose Family painting above the crib. . .Papa, Mama, and PadThai moose; the dog butt hooks from Ikea which have not been hung yet (but you can see them sitting on one of the dressers in the picture; the framed pages from cute children's books above the changing table and Frog & Toad in the corner; and the Yellowstone Animals Mobile.

Now we just need the baby. And that diaper stuff.

Little Guy Ain't so Little

Despite my doctor's insistence last week that I am the "perfect" size--not too big, not too small--I have felt rather large for being about 6 months pregnant. I think I've been around a lot of small pregnant ladies recently, and it's hard not to compare your size to theirs. There is one woman in my prenatal yoga class who is due at the end of November--2+ months before me--and she is only a hair bigger than me right now. The Ulrich clan keeps taunting me with true tales of 9 and 10 pound babies (one of whom was my husband!), and I'm starting to think that PadThai may be on the "Baby Ginormo" track.

I am 26 weeks along in this journey, and had myself another ultrasound today, just to make sure everybody--me and he--are growing as planned. And, not to my surprise, PadThai is large. . .not super large. . .just 10 ounces more than most babies are at 26 weeks in utero. The doc estimates he's about 2 pounds, 10 ounces now. . .and most babies measure about 2 pounds at this stage. Other than his largeness, he looks perfect in all other ways. He was practicing his "breathing" by moving his diaphragm, and he yawned for us. . .he must take after both of his Grandpas.


Here's a portrait of PadThai from this morning. . .that's his head laying horizontal, looking straight at you. And there's a shoulder or arm on the left side of the frame. We think he's pretty handsome.

The Name Game: A Fight 'Til the Birth

Yup, that's what choosing a real name for our PadThai is going to be. . .a fight 'til the birth.

Ben and I started allowing ourselves to begin thinking about names for PadThai when I was about 3 months pregnant--just into the supposed "safety" zone of pregnancy, and eagerly looking forward to the significant task of choosing an identity for our baby. At that point, we still didn't know that he was a "he" yet, so we made lists of boy and girl names.

Wouldn't you know that we came up with a Top Three List for girls names after just a few weeks. Snap. Lickety split. Just like that. Boys names, however, were giving us some trouble. . . but we weren't worried. . .we had plenty of time.

And then we had the 20-week ultrasound, which confirmed that we would need to save those girly names for a later date and focus our search in the "smaller half" of all those baby name books where the boy names hang out. . .and taunt me. Our list grew quickly to a completely-non-manageable 30 names--some which I like, some which Ben likes, and very few which we both like--none of which Ben or I love.

We repeatedly told ourselves that this shouldn't be difficult and envisioned the perfect name pouncing on us in one of those "Ah-Ha! That's it!" moments. We have since devoted 4-hour car rides, the time before falling asleep many nights, and basically some portion of every day over the past month or so to discussing or researching name possibilities. And yes, we have ARGUED! Benny and I rarely argue, so this factoid alone shows how important this decision is to both of us. We are both stubborn, and we both know that we will not be giving in to the other's first choice, unless it is also our own first choice.

It boils down to a matter of priorities. Ben and I have discovered that we each use very different criteria to analyze the potential of a name and ultimately to decide whether a name is "good" or "bad."

1) In my opinion, I strongly believe that my boy must "not be one of 10," which pretty much eliminates the current top 50 most popular boys names. Ben believes that those names are in the top 50 for a reason. . .because they're good solid names.

2) I do not believe in choosing a name for my lil' guy if it is the name of someone that I know well or see on a relatively frequent basis (this does not include close family names, however). For reasons similar to the first, I do not want to feel as if I have copied someone else's choice, yet I still want to know that I have chosen a unique name, but not a name that's so-unique-it's-freaky, for my little boy. Ben believes that we should disregard all other friends', family's, and acquaintances' name choices and choose a name based on how much we like that name. According to Ben, "Lori's circle of influence is very big. . .if she's ever known or heard of someone with a certain name, the name is out." I would have to say that's not entirely true, but it's possible I may place too much emphasis on other people's choices. . .but it's only slightly possible ;)

3) I don't like names that end in "is". . .it reminds me of a certain male body part. Ben thinks I'm ridiculous, which I very well may be.

4) Ben doesn't like names that end in "er" because they remind him of occupations rather than names.

5) Ben doesn't like short one-syllable names. . .I don't like really long ones.

Luckily, there are a few things we do agree on:

1) We both like several names that end in the sound or spelling of "ik" or "ek" or "ick". . .but those are tough to swallow when your last name is Ulrich (uhl-rihk). So this point is mute.

2) We both like the idea of a name having some option for a good solid nick name.

Refusing to spend any more money on baby name books, I spent an hour or two at Barnes & Noble this past weekend "borrowing" their books. The result of my trip was that it made me like my current number-one choice even more. . .the problem being that Ben is not at all sold on this name. And then I went to the Library last night and checked-out two more books. . .one is "Baby Names for Idiots," which we currently feel describes us perfectly, and the other which has an international slant, in hopes that people in other countries know how to name their babies better than we do in the US.

So, the struggle continues on. I hope we can soon blog about that "Ah-Ha! Moment." Sigh.

Phew! We are back and ready to blog about baby!

Indeed, it has been several weeks since our last posting announcing PadThai's boyishness. The month of October has been more chaotic than we had imagined--most of the mayhem involved seeing lots of family and friends, which is never cause for complaint, and we certainly aren't complaining :)

In a two-week span, PadThai got to meet about 90% of our most favorite people from all over the US. In Virginia, we visited with future grandparents-to-be Sandy and Charlie from NC, future Uncle Mark and his girlfriend Allison from San Diego, future Uncle Brian, Aunt Jen, and cousins Sarah and Tommy from NC, future great-grand-parents G&G Prosser from Illinois, cousins/aunts/uncles Kathryn and Dale; Cherie, Doug and Mark; and Rachel. And of course, we enjoyed all the extra time we got to spend with our local family, too--the Romero clan, Susan and Ron, and Keith and Patty.

Then we trekked up the coast to NJ for two special occasions. The first was the wedding of Lori's cousin Amy and her fiance Jim--where we stuffed our bellies for hours on end and partied with dozens of the extended Whyte/Schiffner clan. The second was the first birthday of lil' Josey Vitale, Lori's childhood best friend Jen's daughter. Oodles of fabulous friends (too many to name!) were in attendance to see Josey smoosh cupcake around her face, customary behavior for the guest-of-honor at all first birthday parties these days. We even managed to steal a few hours and lunch with PadThai's Great Grandma Mary B. in Brick, NJ; brunch with PadThai's Great Aunt Marianne; and a short visit with Ben's old roomate "Fatty" and his family of Olga, Jake, and Luke.

PadThai enjoyed all the excitement, taking the opportunities to show off the round belly he currently calls "home". . .and to even display his rudimentary martial arts skills for a lucky few. Now that all the fun of friends and family is over for the time being, PadThai is happy to see that his parents are now back to obsessing about his fast-approaching arrival. Upcoming blog topics: The Daycare Search, Baby Registry Headaches, Alternate Names for PadThai, and The Nursury Lair: Before & After.

The Results Are In! PadThai is a "He"!

After waffling back and forth about whether to find out the gender, a) today during our 20 week sonogram, b) have them write it down on a piece of paper, or c) something more elaborate like waiting until Christmas, we went with the fastest results -- just tell us!

It didn't take long for the technician to declare the results - PadThai is a BOY! We hope you don't think we're awful parents for sharing this photo of PadThai's boyness, but we wanted to show you definitive proof. . .that's two butt cheeks and his main boy part.

As the father, I am obviously excited since I know boys pretty well. Of course, when we have a daughter, this one can be the protective older brother. He will also be able to rough-house with his cousin Zack, who as Lori mentioned, was born just last week on September 18th. They'll be about 5 months apart in age. Will my niece Ally be up for the babysitting challenge of two boys?

All the other measurements and ratios of PadThai and Lori were completely normal, so we're very happy and can move on to the critical issues of nursery renovations, paint colors, etc.

PadThai experiences the life of a cowboy. . .sort of.

Ben and I, rather spontaneously, decided we needed to take one last big vacation before PadThai makes his/her entrance into our lives.

And what could be a better vacation for a 4.5-month pregnant lady than spending a week in a place that requires lots of hiking in an altitude over 7,000 feet? So, off to Wyoming we went, where we split our days between Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National Park, Yellowstone, and Big Sky, Montana.

We were lucky to have my great college pal and "uber-Jackson-tourguide," Jenny, show us all the good hotspots for shopping, eating, hiking, eating, seeing art, and eating in and around Jackson and the Tetons. I fully blame Jenny for the 3-4 pounds I picked up over the week. . .and PadThai thanks her from the bottom of his tiny tummy. Ben thanks Jenny for helping him eat a record number of meats in 48 hours. . .we think he managed six in a weekend.



I noticed rather quickly that pregnancy truly can slow a gal down. True hiking (the kind where you actually increase your elevation!) kicked my sorry, out-of-breath butt. I was in good hands, however--Watchguards Ben and Jenny made sure there was no chance of over-exertion, insisting that I always be able to carry on a conversation, no matter how inane, and drink plenty of water.

Although we didn't know PadThai was a boy while on vacation, I think we had a pretty strong hunch. . .a hunch which led us to purchase several "boy" things that we persuaded ourselves could be girly. . .but really, they aren't. "Moose" pillows, big stuffed brown bears, and a green "I Moose be dreaming" onesie will adorn PadThai's room and tiny body. Daddy Ben is set on making this boy an outdoorsy cowboy...Mom Lori is not so sure about the "cowboy" part.

A New Cousin and New Friend for PadThai!

More babies to speak of!

We are so excited about the recent arrival of Isaac David Romero. . .or "Zack". He weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds, 3 ounces and just barely managed to snag a September 18th birthday. Had he waited seven more minutes, he would have arrived on the 19th.

Zack is a very lucky guy to have Ben's sister Kristin and husband David as his proud parents. All in all, he didn't give his mom too much trouble on the way into this world--Kristin is doing great after about 6 hours of labor. Big sister Ally is ready and eager to teach her new brother all about fairies, princesses, and ballet.

Little Zack is very special because he will be PadThai's first cousin, and the closest in age by about 5 years.

Congratulations to the newly remodeled Romero family-of-four!
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And another big welcome to Bella Grace, just born on September 23rd to Lori's high school pal Jodi, and her husband David Weslow. A head full of dark hair and deep blue eyes. . .we can't wait to meet her!

Babies, Babies, Everywhere!

Just wanted to say congratulations and "welcome to the world" to a few of our close friends:

Karl John Yurcik was born September 4, 2007--8 pounds, 4 ounces--in Morristown, NJ. His proud Papa Bryan and Momma Julie are happy as can be. We can't wait to meet the little guy!

Congrats to Courtney and Brett on the west coast, who found out yesterday that Court's 20-week belly bump is actually a bouncing baby girl! We are sure that Moose the Puggle is very happy about the news that he will soon have a lil' sister to boss around.

The Race for the Crib

There is a horde of sly and cunning parents-to-be, skulking the pages of Craig's List. . .trying to beat other parents-to be at their own game. We all jump on Craig's List, in hopes of finding the baby deal of the century--we've all read the books and articles about how expensive having a baby can be ($7,000 in the first year seems to be about average), and all of us web-savvy, eager-beaver parents think we'll be the ones to prove those stats wrong (without sacrificing safety or quality, of course!)by scoring deals wherever possible.

It took me about 2 days to realize that the coveted holy grail of baby paraphernalia on Craig's List is, not surprisingly, the Pottery Barn Crib.

I began my search for cribs about two weeks ago, thinking I would merely browse the listings for a month or so to get an idea for what's out there, in terms of price and quality. After all, my due date is still 5.5 months away, and it seemed a little early to be shopping for nursery stuff. But, I discovered quickly that once you spot a treasure, you have to strike immediately. . .or it's lost forever (or until it shows up on Craig's List again in 3 years.) After emailing a few folks about some white cribs, and being told that they were already sold, I began to play the game. I checked the listings every few hours, hoping that I would be the first to contact the next crib's seller.

There is an unspoken rule. In general, a good seller will respond to the first person who contacts him about his item, provided the contacter can write a cohesive sentence with correct punctuation. (At least this is how Ben and I decided to whom to sell his old car and a couple of air conditioners.) But, I digress.

Anyway, this past Wednesday morning, there it was:

"Pottery Barn White Dana Crib,$200, Alexandria, VA"


Carefully-crafting and 5-times-proofreading my two-sentence email, I clicked send and anxiously awaited the seller's response. The next morning, I came in to work to happily discover that I was FIRST, and had thrown together an intelligent-enough email to be allowed first dibs at the crib. We arranged the crib exchange for this past Friday afternoon at 5:00.

The sellers were great and let us meet their precious daughter--the one who had "broken in" the crib and had recently moved into her big girl bed. But they also told us that we beat out 8 other people for the crib. It felt like winning the lottery!

No resting while nesting

It has begun. Only a handful of days after my freedom from schoolwork, and we have purged three garbage bags of old clothing for charity.

Not sure where this enthusiasm for organization will end. Maybe I can acquire a list of jobs to see what my future holds...a "job jar" as my Dad called it. And I can put a few jobs in there too, like "evaluate which beers fit in stroller cupholders" and "grill steak to benefit baby's iron count".

Shopping with PadThai's Father

I am proud of myself. I have managed to get Ben into the following stores in the past couple of weeks:

Pottery Barn Kids
Babies R'Us
Janie & Jack
Lil' Me
The Children's Place
Motherhood Maternity
Maidenform

I did not drag him kicking and screaming. . .he willingly, and somewhat happily, strode proudly into all of these stores. In fact, he ran around the Motherhood store like my own personal shopper and brought me millions of cute outfits to try on. I think he wants me to look like a cute and "hot" momma for his upcoming graduation dinner. But he also pointed excitedly at tiny blue jammies and mini cargo pants in the baby stores. . .he seems to fear the girly sides of the store and anything pink, for he has 100% convinced himself that our lil' PadThai is a boy. I think all men do this, so mine is just obeying the trend.

Ben also discussed the pros and cons of which bras I should buy. Fellas, you should all aspire to be so caring and concerned for your wife's bosom.

Of all the baby-related items we will acquire in the next few months, not surprisingly, Ben seems most interested in the stroller. The stroller has wheels, lots of gadgets and optional features, many shapes and colors to choose from, among a whole slew of other similiarities with cars. He will approach the purchase of the stoller as if he is buying a car. Fine with me.

PadThai's new name?

PadThai really is not an appropriate nickname for a growing baby. . .nor is "the babe"--my other "go-to" name. This babe is fortunate he or she will only have to deal with my silly nicknames for 9 months, for he/she is in luck! Do not fear, PadThai, the Baby Naming Committee is here!

Johannah, my esteemed boss, and her humble assistants (two sons and a husband), have selflessly offered to take on the challenge of naming mine and Ben's firstborn. Behold the results of the committee's first meeting below:

The Barry/Rockwell nuclear family unit has taken a great interest in the naming of the newest member of the Ulrich dynasty. We have given great debate to the pros and cons of several names and will be sharing these with you on a regular (I’m sorry to say) basis. I’m sure you’ll find our delving into this important issue helpful indeed.

On our way to dinner last night, we determined that there are several broad areas of debate as regards the naming process. In no particular order they are:

Biblical/Inspirational Names:

We thought that was a great place to start and did pretty well with names like Grace and Patience and Sarah until we got to the seven deadly sins and decided that Avarice Ulrich was a lousy name. So maybe you want to forget that.

Historical Names:

Dave was a big fan of Xerxes Ulrich and Cieran thought that Zeus would do nicely, but we all agreed that naming a girl after evil Roman women (Livia, Poppea, Agrippina, etc) didn’t bode well. As since Dave was the only one who could name any emperors and their wives, we thought this might be something of a dead end.

Family Names:

We’re not touching that with a bargepole, except to say that Johannah, David, Eamonn and Cieran are lovely names and belong in every family. As we have often said, it ain’t a party without a Dave.

Sexually Ambiguous Names:

That went nowhere with the whole group. So out the window goes Madison, Schuyler, Robin, Adrian, etc. Although I do have a friend whose daughter’s name is Keith, but that’s an old southern tradition (or so I’m told)

Difficult to Spell And/Or Pronounce Names:

Uh, wrong family to address this particular topic

Good old fashion German names to go with Ulrich:

Here we really warmed to the task. Brunhilda, Dieter, Wolfgang, wow, we had a good time. But there really are great German names and that can go under the family name section we decided.

Literary Names:

Leading the pack is Huckleberry Ulrich. Next came Topsy Ulrich, and then we moved straight into the children's literature that we grew up with (the Oz books) so we got Ozma Ulrich and Ruggedo Ulrich. Then we had to stop.

Warning: MORE TO COME

Building the Nest

We have started to "nest." Or perhaps, just I have. . .Ben has one more week until he finishes school--and then this mama bird will sweetly force him to partake in the complete overhaul of our house. No corner will remain unturned--this is vitally important to me, although I cannot explain why or give a good reason. Surely, it is my instinct (or hormones) taking over.

I have started with the closets, where "purge" is the word. It is my goal to remove all things deemed unnecessary from this house, in order to make room for all of the unnecessary items we will accumulate for the lil' babe.

Instead of collecting twigs, straw, and shiny blue things, we paid a visit to Lowe's where we began scouting out ideas for the many home improvements we aim to complete before the babe's arrival. We peppered the poor countertop dude with ignorant questions about Corian vs. Quartz. We debated electic vs. gas for our new range. And we dug our fingers into various lengths of shag, trying to determine which kind of carpet will be best for the babe. Anyway, all of this has little to do with the babe, but I am obsessed about all of it because I feel the home must be in a tip-top state of perfection to welcome our new family member.

Just wait to 'til I go nuts over the nursery. . .

Entering Part 2 of 3

Well, we're a little late in getting the ball rolling in sharing our story of building Baby Ulrich, aka. "PadThai." But, there's never a better time to start than the present.

Ben and I couldn't be more excited. . .we've worked long and hard to get this lil' babe to sprout, and we're overjoyed that he or she seems to be building all of his/her parts with perfection so far. The ultrasound at 12 weeks showed our lil' PadThai waving at us furiously--a definite rightie, as far as we can tell at this point!

We have officially just entered the 2nd trimester. . .15.5 weeks along in this roller-coaster ride. I cruised through the first trimester without a bit of morning sickness. Plagued only by intense hunger, I made sure to manage those tummy pangs by feeding the buddha every 2-3 hours.

In terms of cravings, nothing in particular. . .although the general category of "cold and wet" really seems to make my happy. Peaches are truly a fantastic fruit. And I recently discovered Robek's, a fruit smoothie joint that makes a mean, yet healthy, cold, wet sensation in a cup. Poor Ben, against his will (ummm...no), was forced to take me to Red Robin last Friday for a big fat cheeseburger. . .for those who know me and my eating habits well, you know that burgers don't usually do it for me. In fact, red meat is a rare part of my diet. . .but I've found that now and then, I feel the urge for MEAT.