Halfway there!

20 weeks, and Bean is very much present in our lives. Kicking harder and more frequently, although not hard enough for anyone but Mommy to feel it. (She did stop poking me with every kick, however, and instead says "blip!" for every felt movement.) Bean's personality is coming through in some of those moments, too; I don't know whether kicks signal enjoyment or dislike, but we hope that it's the former, since the kicks are frequent when music is playing. The church organ, Mummy singing, the style doesn't seem to matter. Bean apparently loved "Spring Awakening"... and we do hope it was the music and not the dysfunctional parent/child dynamics that resonated.

In growth news, our Bean seems a little ahead of the curve: the average at this age is 10 ounces, which is what Bean weighed last week, according to the ultrasound. Most of the initial development seems complete, other than lung function, which is still in progress. From here on out, the emphasis seems to be on growth: Mommy's and the Bean's.

Paw in mouth disease?

With apologies, I am forced to withdraw some apparently unfounded accusations that I made in this very forum about a month ago.

Our little black cat, whose photo (taken on a bad hairball day) appeared as the illustration to a text on "how to accustom your pets to the Baby", has far surpassed our expectations. In her first-ever encounter with a one-year-old, she had her tail, ears, and fur pulled, her eyes poked, and her back slapped. Throughout, she purred, she rubbed, she stretched to full height on her back legs to head-butt and kiss this little boy. Although she had plenty of opportunity to run away, she didn't; when she had had enough love, she simply went and curled up on one of the dining chairs.

So, Luna, we are sorry for suspecting that you would quickly make use of your talon-like claws to maul the Bean. We apologize for assuming that you would be the most damaged. And we most heartily thank you for not scarring the son of our birthing instructor. Good kitty.

Photos from yesterday

But first, a picture of the expanding bump:

Sitting on a bag of mulch after too many hours in the garden...

The blooming heart, currently the crown jewel of the shade garden.

A Taste of Summer

From Marcey:

Today was, in a word, gorgeous. It began with a trip to the greenhouse for mulch and flower box annuals, and ended with a grill and a Sox/Yankees game to remember. It also involved sunblock, talking with neighbors, and opening the windows.
It's this time of year when everything begins to feel heightened for me - the launching of end of school events, report cards, and of course spring blossoms and buds. This year it feels especially technocolor and vibrant.
The baby is kicking all the time now, especially to music!
I have photos to post of Eliza in the garden, being green-thumb-y and fabulous, but I left my notes on how to download them at school. So, for now, envision my wife in her sandals, smudged with good, rich dirt from head to toe, especially on her nose, which really just adds to the charm. Imagine bleeding hearts dripping from her multi-colored shade garden, freshly mulched with heavily scented cedar chips. And imagine us, mamas-in-waiting, marvelling at how lucky we are to have a free day in the garden with the sun on our shoulders and a little bean playing between us.

End of Semester Insanity

Since M. and I are both on an academic calendar, posting here has become rather... well... difficult. But it's supposed to be a lovely warm weekend, so I'm sure we can be persuaded to do something worth talking about (unless y'all want to hear about my papers).

In the interim, a video clip from yesterday's episode of Ellen, in which she talks with the mother of the boy in Springfield, MA, who hanged himself after having been teased with gay-related language.

Healthy Baby!

Bean had a fairly long photoshoot today, but hasn't yet learned how to love the camera. Finding the left hand took quite a while - the tech kept measuring other things and coming back to the left side to try again. Shy kid. Actually, sleepy kid, sucking thumb with head against the placenta. A tummy-sleeper, like Mommy... or like Mommy would be, if there weren't a Bean in the way.

The good news is that there is no sign of anything wrong. All of the internal organs are the right size and shape, the heart is pumping away, all four chambers. Today's measurements, combined with the triple-screen bloodwork and the nuchal translucency ultrasound, have reduced the risks for trisomy 18 and spina bifida to less than .01%, and the risk of Down syndrome from 1/180 (simply given M.'s age) to 1/9600. So YAAAYYY for a healthy baby!

And no, we did not find out the sex. The ultrasound tech was really good, and had us look away as she checked the kidneys and leg bones. It cracked us up, because she looked a LOT like Amy Poehler, and we kept half-expecting something wacky to happen.

Pictures:

Profile and parts of the left arm. You can see nose, eyes and lips, esophagus and stomach.

Overshot the mouth, looking for the thumb. Either that, or thinking hard. I kinda enjoyed seeing the ribs, which are ossifying nicely.

As I mentioned before, sleepy kid using the placenta as a pillow. Bean was rocking to Mommy's breathing, so the picture blurred a little, but the tech was nice enough to switch on the 3-D ultrasound for a couple of minutes so that we could not only get the King Tut images of the 2-D, but the Bog Man as well! And note: Bean got Mummy's long fingers.

Kicks!

Need I say more? Fluttery, pokey kicks!

Hi, there, Bean! ("Hi there, Mommy, hi there, Mummy!")

(For those of you who will nitpick and mention that the Bean is not saying hello to me, that I can't yet feel those little flutters, cease! Mommy pokes me everytime the Bean pokes her. It's like a family game of "telephone".)

This is also the week where the Bean will begin to hear and respond to external noises. One website that we consult fairly regularly notes that loud noises that the baby becomes accustomed to in the womb will not likely be an issue after birth. Which means that the Bean should be able to sleep through NPR with no problems. Either that, or Scott Simon's voice will be as familiar and welcome as either of ours.

What are you going to do...

...to end the silence?

Today is GLSEN's Day of Silence. In honor of all who have had to live in silence, notably the silence of the closet, students around the nation are refusing to speak all day, to bring awareness to both themselves and others of what such silence might mean. There are days when I feel incredibly lucky, when I look around at my own home state, at Connecticut, Vermont, and Iowa.

Then I read about the persistent bullying in schools, rooted in a policing of "proper" gender roles. I hear friends talk about the response they get in playgrounds, when their sons are seen playing with dolls ("You need to beat him.") I get reminded about the kids we've lost to the silence. I hear the virulent rhetoric of the Yes on 8 campaign, and similar groups forming in Iowa, New Jersey, New York... I hear the subtle twists of language in the Day of Truth campaign. And I ask myself, and I ask you all:

What are we going to do?

Easter

Easter is a great day to spend with family. A Mommy, a Mummy, and a bunch of aunties and uncles, for instance.

Uncle Jeremie gave the Bean a flavorful and colorful hint of Italian heritage. The flower in the center was Mommy's doing - she made each of us an eggshell vase as a place card.

And a chenille chick!

YAY UNCLE JACOB!!

We're all so proud of you!

But Gracey thinks it's kinda far away for cuddles. (want to take her with you?)

Photo Days

Our buddies Juana and Kayla were in town for the past couple of days, which means two things: photography...

...and silliness...

...and sometimes, both at once.

And then, while Juana and I reviewed all the photos of the day, M. and Kayla made art of a different sort.

And a good time was had by all!

A larger gallery of photos from our photo trip to the Cape are available here.

"That's ME?"

Yes, Mommy. That's you. More specifically, that's what the Bean is doing to you.

Another day off, another trip to the local zoo. M. had a lovely time sketching macaques, lions, kangaroos... but did notice that her lap is getting smaller.

Feeding the llama was a great excuse to get her so stand sideways to the camera.

And, in case anyone thinks it might simply have been the cut of her shirt:

Happy Holidays to all!

Being Consistent

Okay, so with all of the kvetching we've done about color and gender roles, you would think that we'd bring the same considerations to our blog. But up until today, brown has ruled the day. Now, I have nothing against brown - it's the color of coffee, after all, and coffee is good. In addition, most of the gender-neutral baby clothes that we find in big box stores ends up in some shade of brown/yellow. Some of it's quite nice, too, with lions and giraffes. But it does get a little... monochromatic.

So it's time to add some blog zip! The patterns at the top of the page are from the fabrics that have a prominent place in the nursery. Then I just got color happy. (It's spring. It's time for color.)

But I'd like to hear back from y'all - are any of the colors too hard to read? Too distracting? Or did I not go far enough? ;)

When it rains, it pours

And this is the best rain of all, on a sunny day:

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Vermont has become the fourth state to legalize gay marriage -- and the first to do so with a legislature's vote.

The Legislature voted Tuesday to override Gov. Jim Douglas' veto of a bill allowing gays and lesbians to marry. The vote was 23-5 to override in the state Senate and 100-49 to override in the House. Under Vermont law, two-thirds of each chamber had to vote for override.

The vote came nine years after Vermont adopted its first-in-the-nation civil unions law.

It's now the fourth state to permit same-sex marriage. Massachusetts, Connecticut and Iowa are the others. Their approval of gay marriage came from the courts.

Indeed!

Rainy Day

First of all, for Auntie Jen and Uncle Spaghetti (don't worry, Sam, we don't mean you), finished eggs:

Mommy continued her creative streak during today's downpours. These, fortunately for me, were edible creations! Channeling her Armenian side, voilà! homemade (even the crust) lahmajune. Also tahini cake and Grandma Bartucca's fried meatballs. (Tasty, but apparently not photogenic.)

By the time I got home, soaked to the skin, the house smelled awesome.

Another result of the rain: the Red Sox home opener against Tampa Bay will be tomorrow, weather permitting, rather than today. Bummer of a way to come back from Spring Training, no? But it's okay, Bean - we'll have plenty of opportunity this year to cheer our team. (Not a word, Poppy. Not one word.)

Such Culchah!

Yesterday, our local museum was having its annual flower and art show - as always, a fabulous time. This year, Mommy gave the Bean a first lesson in art appreciation - and yes, Bean, in visual art, it does rather help to be able to see it. (Still, you couldn't ask for a better teacher!)

Later, with borrowed tools from the mother of one of M.'s students, we had a cultural lesson of a more hands-on nature, learning to make pysanky, or Ukranian Easter Eggs.

Mommy even managed to wrest the camera away from me for a few minutes.

Bubbles emerging where we least expect them

"It is a risky business to hope," writes Madeleine L'Engle. Truer words are not often spoken. To hope is to open the heart to possibility, and an open heart is all-the-more-easily broken. Bean, my sweet child, I wish for you the ability to hope and to love without heartbreak; as your mother, I would spare you that hurt. More than that, though, I would wish you continued hope, continued love, even during the breaking. I would wish your heart openness even after you become conscious of the risk.

Because just as the heart must be open to experience hope, so it must be open to experience joy. And what rejoicing is in so many hopeful hearts today, as word comes from such an unexpected quarter to nourish the hope. Another bubble has formed, this time in Iowa - how long it will last, whether it will be durable, is anyone's guess. But for right now, little Bean, I can feel all the more confidence bringing you into this world, where love can still rule the day.

Three Cheers for Iowa! (are you listening, California? Rhode Island?)

Still a bouncing baby, but a little less than before

Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop.

No jokes about falling off of trucks, please - us or the Bean! I do have to wonder at the comparison. A turnip? Not exactly the most popular veggie. Why not a potato, I ask you? Or an orange?

This does mark the week when the fruit and veg analogy begins to fall apart a little bit: it's a cute idea, but there are fairly few examples of veg that are both the right length and the right weight. So this week, we begin alternating between the two, which rather messes with my head. (This week a turnip, next week a bell pepper? What's up with that?)

In other news, this is also a peak time fore hearing development. So Mommy and I have been reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory out loud. We're really just big kids at heart, ourselves.