It's Margarita Time!

Well, maybe not. But the Bean is the size of a lime, so we thought a little Tequila might be in order. Right, Grandma?

And check out the ever-rounder belly. Just beautiful.

Meanwhile, Bean toys are sooooo much fun for mothers-to-be! Thank you, Auntie Janet, for the micey puppet. The cats are fascinated, although they got freaked out by the camera...



What boggles me is that we now have a puppet smaller than the Bean! (okay, not the whole puppet... each individual mouse is smaller. But still, you know what I mean.)

Cultural Immersion for the Bean

In keeping with a new twist on an old tradition (right, Poppy?), we have introduced the Bean to the joys of bellydancing from a very young age. Hey, Eva turned out well, so it seemed logical. And the anniversary of a much-loved restaurant seemed like an ideal opportunity.

Actually, Bean has experienced bellydance before last night, but Mommy doesn't let me take pictures of her doing her prenatal bellydance DVD.

While we were at it, we reinforced a love of lamb, roasted veg and pilaf.


Finally, although Mommy didn't drink much of it, she had a very good time reading our fortunes in the dregs of our coffee cups.


Thanks to Auntie Sarah for taking the pics!

Meeting the Midwife

The end of ten weeks of pregnancy means it's time to meet the midwife! We were met in the waiting room by a sweet medical assistant, who ran us through the process that will be routine at all of our checkups: pee in a cup, get weighed, check blood pressure, go into the exam room. Easy enough.


We'd been in the room just a couple of minutes when our midwife came in... preceeded by a bump! She's 20 weeks pregnant herself, with her first child. Laughing, she said that she's been practicing for seven years, and finally "gets it" on a whole new level. She and M. jammed about ugly maternity clothes, the weird feeling of stretchy ligaments, and several mom-to-be books that were, frankly, offensive.


In all, we like her. A lot.


And Bean was quite obliging, when the midwife put the doppler to M.'s belly - she found the heartbeat right away. Of course, then Bean shifted, and it took another couple of minutes to find the heartbeat again, but it came through loud and strong at 178 beats per minute. Quite an active little one we've got in there! Both Bean and Mommy passed their exams with flying colors.


We got home, after running a few errands, to Bean's first package! Thank you, Auntie Janet!

Finally, what you've all been waiting for...

The belly shot!

This morning, M. woke me up: "I can't fasten my pants!!" Not usually a statement followed by a happy-dance, but in this case we made an exception. Break out the bella-band!

Obadiah Polamalu

I know, I've been ridiculously silent on the fact that the Steelers won the Super Bowl. Not that it didn't affect me, not that it was a boring game (ha!), but rather that it was difficult to come up with words to describe something so momentous as a sixth Super Bowl championship.

Suffice to say, then, that it was a good night...

shared with good friends.

But what, you ask, has inspired me to write about such a lovely night, when it is now two weeks later?

My wonderful wife gave a joint Valentine's Day present to me and to the newest little Steeler fan:

Bean, say "Thank you, Mommy. You're the best!"

"Am I Still Pregnant?"

...said Mommy this morning.

See, her body has decided that, whatever the calendar says, the second trimester has begun. The fatigue that laid her flat at 4pm every day stopped as suddenly as it began. As did whatever small amounts of nausea she had experienced. So without those initial symptoms, and without having begun to show, it seemed a natural question for her to ask.

Until, that is, she went from zero to ravenous in 0.2 seconds flat. Bean does know how to make its presence felt.

Meanwhile, we did a little day trip to Newport this afternoon. Mommy and Uncle Jacob were not so happy with being dragged down to the waterfront (where the temperature was at least ten degrees colder than it had been thirty feet further inland) to be photographed.

In fact, Mommy became quite... er... crabby.

Other than the wind right on the water, it was a lovely day to be in Newport. And we realized that we may have to go back pretty often, as there's really something for each of the Bean's grandfathers there: tennis for Poppy, sailing for Grampa, and for Pappap....

Valentines for Nerds

Or at least for this particular nerd. How better to spend it than at the Museum of Science? Heehee. Uncle Jacob, Mommy and Mummy spent the day watching lightning, wandering exhibits (frogs and mythic creatures!) and roving Mars. It was fabulous.

One of my favorite exhibits has always been the one on human reproduction. Today, it was particularly appropriate:

Although Bean isn't quite this big yet, we're only a couple of weeks away. Amazing.

Given the day, I'd also like to send a little love to all the folks who have suggested amazing places for gender-neutral, brightly-colored Bean clothes:

http://www.underthenile.com/underthenile/categorybyDept-196.htm (okay, not clothes, but awesome)

http://www.hannaandersson.com/division.asp?id=baby

http://www.polkadotpatch.com/gender-neutral-clothes.html

http://www.kitsel.com/unisex.html

http://www.zutano.com/

http://store.americanapparel.net/babies.html

http://www.babywit.com/ABABY.html
http://www.landsend.com/ix/boys-clothing/Boys/Tops/Age+Range=Baby+(0+-+24M)/index.html?seq=1~2~3~4&catNumbers=318~319&visible=1~2~1~1&store=le&sort=Recommended&pageSize=12&tab=3

We're going to have one well-dressed little Bean, I think!

Milestone

Welcome to week 10! Which means a little graduation ceremony for the Bean, who has left behind the life of an embryo to become a fetus! YAY BEAN!!

In other news, a little shout-out to a friend of Auntie Sarah, who is trying to get an eco-friendly baby gift business off the ground. Having seen what most of the big box stores have to offer, Bean says, "Yay you!" Not only is the stuff organic, but it's mostly gender-neutral - awesome for kidlets like the Bean who is going to end up wearing a lot of yellow for those first few weeks. (Primary-colored baby clothes? Anyone? Please?)

Coffee Bean

Joni mentioned this poster in one of her comments, and when I saw it on the T today, I couldn't resist snapping a pic.

It is, of course, all the more appropriate for being coffee-related, as M. and I often joke that we wouldn't be together if it weren't for coffee. Most of our "firsts" centered on this particular beverage, to the point where it was only appropriate that my engagement ring was hidden in the filter basket of our coffeemaker.

Of course, Mommy isn't drinking much coffee right now. But still...

In other news, in what can only be deemed pure cruelty on the part of Motha Naycha, as she's known in these parts, it's a lovely, 60° February morning. Just enough to make all us New Englanders hope for spring, when we all know bloody well that it's likely to snow at least three more times this winter. And I don't want to hear a word from all you Californians.

Growing a Bean

We're about halfway through week nine. Bean is somewhere between an 1 1/2 - 2 inches long (from top of head to tailbone - called the Crown-Rump length). Most major organs are in place, although still developing. The heart has four distinct chambers. Fingers and toes are developing and differentiating, and eyelids protect Bean's new eyes, which already have irises.

Mommy and I had a meeting with the nurse who will be taking care of us - J. is the right-hand woman to our midwife. We spent 45 minutes going over questions of weight gain, nutrition, which meds are safe, what we should look for in a prenatal vitamin... We had gone in with a bunch of questions, and by the time J. got through everything, we had none left. But it's so nice to feel that if any arise, we can call anytime and know that we'll have a nurse on the line within a few minutes.

Meanwhile, Bean seems to have inherited my love of all things salty. Mommy has been eating more olives, crackers, and pickles than ever before. (And less sugar - this is definitely partly my kid.) I made pickled broccoli stems a couple days ago, and Bean definitely approved. Then again, with all that garlic, what's not to like?

Baby Swag

We visited today with a colleague of M.'s, her husband and their two utterly adorable children. The younger one being nearly two, they had plenty of baby stuff that they no longer needed... and because M. told the folks at school yesterday, we were the first folks they thought of. They told us to come with an empty trunk. Good thing we took them at their word.


I think Luna was completely freaked. One way or another, she's doing her best Halloween-cat pose.

What an awesome gift tho - toys, crib sheets, lotions and potions, and (awesomest of all) cloth diapers! Wow. Even though I know we were doing them as much of a favor as they were doing for us, it's still overwhelmingly sweet.

Besides, M. enjoys the baby toys.

The kids' rooms were done in much the same Ikea patterns that we're using, so we got a little bonus: the monkey! Which, of course, meant that I got to indulge in a bad visual pun...

Yes, that's a monkey in my pocket....

Names, redux

First, I want to thank our buddy Deb for a brilliant suggestion (not that I would have expected much less). Given our choice of "Obadiah" for a boy, several of our friends have suggested that we could just admit to our geekiness and call him "Obi-Wan". But Deb came up with an equally cool nickname for Hepzibah: "Hep-Cat". How incredibly appropriate, on so many levels! Gracey especially approves.

Of course, then we went out to dinner last night with Dad and Beth, to our favorite Armenian restaurant. Over more lamb, swordfish and pilaf than even we could eat, Dad reminded us of that old family gem of a name, Gershom. How could I have forgotten? It immediately went to the top of our list, right up there with Obadiah.

Meanwhile, the restaurant owner, George (Kevorg) mentioned rather wistfully that his name is rather falling out of fashion, and perhaps we could help to reverse that trend? (George and Gershom... suddenly I'm chanelling Aunt Sally.) As tempting as it is to essentially guarantee extra helpings of lamb when we go out to dinner, I'm not sure "George" is quite in the same league with Obadiah and Gershom.

Couldn't Resist

Yep, this is me geeking out. But this cracks me up. I saw this picture of a 6-week-old embryo in a fabulous book, "A Child Is Born". (I love this book, by the way; no scaring the parents, no worst-case-scenario, just a very cool photo essay.) And immediately, my inner geek woke up and cried out...

...Admiral Ackbar! "It's a trap!!"

Guess we now know what inspired George Lucas.

And someday, perhaps Bean can command the Rebel Fleet.

Mumma Gimp

So a quick round of toe surgery has me hobbling this weekend; the crutches aren't really required, but do help me to not put all my weight on a stitched-up toe. So whereas I should be spoiling my lovely pregnant wife, right now she's the one doing the spoiling. I made it through church without the crutches, wearing Marcey's clogs because I can't get my foot into my own shoes.

For those of you who might wonder, no, this will not prevent me from rooting for my Steelers tonight. It's Bean's first Super Bowl, after all, and Uncle Jacob's coming over. Break out the Terrible Towel!

In between rounds of dealing with the cranky, gimpy patient, M. finished up the last bulletin board for the church. Her artistic skills have been called into use to stretch colored canvas over the old cork boards; the ones that are up at church look fabulous.

Speaking of church, today we told my Teaching Parish Committee about Bean. Once again, let us just say how incredibly lucky we are to be in such a loving community.