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!