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!
___________________________

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!