Monster Penguin

The BabyGirl owns an adorable pink piggy bank, which we had not yet unpacked since moving. It wasn't safe for it to emerge from its box until we had a secure, out-of-reach location for it. Finally, we bought some shelves for the BabyGirl's room, so we unpacked the adorable piggy bank. The BabyGirl and i both were very surprised to find MORE stuffed animals in the box! You see, the BabyGirl owns a plethora of stuffed animals. So many animals. As many as we already had, i was shocked to discover even more. She was so happy to be reunited with them. It was as if she was seeing old friends after a long absence. She pulled each friend out one by one and exclaimed its name exuberantly.

"Duck!"

"Bear!"

"Pig!"

Then she came to the last animal in the box. This one was of particular interest to me. How could i have forgotten this cute little guy?

This precious creature was the first (and possibly only) sewing craft i made for the BabyGirl. It is the product of Craft Day with my dear friend Laura. You can read about it here to refresh your memory.

As the BabyGirl pulled my handiwork out of the box, i was opening my mouth for an enthusiastic, "Awwww!" Unfortunately, i was unable to express my delight because the BabyGirl interjected first by shouting the animal's name:

"Monster!"

Excuse me? "Monster?" My lovingly crafted penguin is now being called monster? Yes, it's true. Several days later she still calls it Monster.

It doesn't lessen her affection for it, however. This group of stuffed animals she plays with separately from the other bazillion animals she owns. Once when tidying up, i put Duck, Bear, Pig, and Monster in the armchair where all of the other animals live. The next time she was in that room, the BabyGirl took Duck, Bear, Pig, and Monster out of that chair and moved them to a separate location. The other morning she lined them all up and fed them a pretend breakfast with her tea set.

If the penguin has to be relegated to "monster" status, I guess it's some consolation that it still gets invited to the tea party!
 

A Geriatric, Pediatric, and Obstetric Vacation

This week was The Professor's spring break. His Uncle Stan and Aunt Vicky thoughtfully invited us to meet up with them in the cute town of Galena. We had the most wonderful time! Honestly, it was the most relaxing and refreshing vacation we'd had in YEARS. It's not very often that all the details work out so perfectly to provide you with the optimal vacationing experience. There were a few things that made this trip so great.

First of all, we had a nice, leisurely pace. Uncle Stan and Aunt Vicky, though definitely spry and vivacious, are well advanced in years. They have passed the point of pushing themselves to see\do every little thing on vacation. They were content to go out, and they were content to stay in. It worked out perfectly with the BabyGirl's nap\bedtime regimen. When it was time for her nap, we simply went back to the hotel and napped. No one was concerned about the experiences we might be missing out on. It also worked out perfectly for me, aka the pregnant lady of the group. I wasn't moving very fast; neither were Stan and Vicky. I needed to sit down every so often; so did Stan and Vicky. It was great!

Secondly, we had the most beautiful weather! It was very odd for mid-March. Usually at this time of year, you would expect snow. Instead, it was 70 degrees with blue skies! We spent every possible moment outside. Even just BEING outside was vacation in and of itself. Sitting on a bench in the sunshine was all the recreation we needed. Well, except for the BabyGirl, that is. She loves being outside, but she isn't content to just sit still on a bench. She ran her little heart out. She ran and ran and ran some more. The poor Professor had to chase her all over the place. We were visiting the home of Ulysses S. Grant (whom the GPS liked to call "Ulysses South Grant"), which had an enormous yard for the BabyGirl to run around. When it came time to leave there and head to our next event, the BabyGirl thew a fit getting into the car. Finally we told her that we were going to "Another outside," and she was okay with that. And because she played hard during the day, she also slept hard at night.

Another component of Optimal Vacation was our hotel. Uncle Stan and Aunt Vicky booked it through their timeshare deal. We had a spacious suite with a living room, kitchen, and separate bedroom. The beauty of this is that the BabyGirl didn't have to sleep in the same room with us! Praise the Lord! Sleeping in the same room as that child is disastrous. Disastrous for her, disastrous for us, disastrous for everyone in the building, and everyone on that street. For the first time in her whole little life, she slept beautifully while in a new place. It was truly a miracle.

And finally, the food. OH THE FOOD. Back when i lived in the Big City, i was totally a snob about other city's restaurants. Now i live the middle of nowhere with terrible, awful restaurants. Incidentally, Stan and Vicky are in the same situation. They have travelled the world and eaten all sorts of unique things, but now they live in a podunk town with no decent restaurants. All of us were so excited to eat good food. Thankfully, there was plenty of it! We went to a Greek steakhouse and ate, quite possibly, the best steak of our lives. If not the best, then definitely in the top 3. Each of us had to think long and hard if we'd ever had a better steak. We enjoyed it so much that we went back 2 nights later to try the lamb. Also, throughout our stay we kept to a Two Desserts Per Day Program. It was heaven! If BabyGirl#2 ends up with a sweet tooth, i think we can blame it exclusively on the amount of in utero dessert she ate on this trip.

At the end of the trip, when we were all saying our goodbyes, Stan made the comment, "Well, we had two goals for this trip, and i think we accomplished them!" The Professor and i were both confused. Goals? I don't remember discussing any goals.

He said, "The two goals were for Vicky and I to get to know the BabyGirl, and to spoil you three as much as possible."

In that case, yes, they did accomplish their goals! They paid for EVERYTHING for us. We didn't spend a dime. The steak, the lamb, the two-a-day desserts—they paid for it all. They wined-and-dined us like kings. We resorted to all sorts of trickery to attempt to pay for things, and our efforts were always thwarted. It was so generous and so loving of them. I'll always remember their kindness.

These past few months, The Professor and i have been the recipients of some truly astounding acts of generosity. I knew before, but now believe so strongly that grace is powerful. A gift like Stan and Vicky's, that was completely unmerited, and that we could never hope to repay, is so deeply moving. It inspires me all the more to live a life worthy of the calling i have received. Like Jean Valjean, to use this gift to become an honest man.

I want to be as giving as Uncle Stan and Aunt Vicky. They have their own children and their own grandchildren. They didn't have to take us on vacation; they could have very easily spent that money on a trip with their grandchildren. I don't know why the Lord put it on their hearts to spoil us, but they certainly went to it with gusto!

 

BabyGirl Goes Strolling

This weekend we enjoyed some beautiful weather, and the BabyGirl finally got to take her baby doll outside for a walk! The doll + stroller were an ingenious gift from Aunt Kay, who is one of the world's leading experts on little girls and everything related thereunto. The BabyGirl had a blast pushing her stroller on the driveway and sidewalk. After a while, however, she decided that she preferred to run, so she abandoned the doll in a neighbor's yard and sprinted down the street. The duty then fell to me to keep up with the doll and stroller =].

Here are a few pictures of our experience:

 

#2 Makes Her Debut

We had our 20 week ultrasound today, and (as you've all heard by now) we're having another girl!

Allow me to introduce you:

(If you blinked during that video,

then you missed the whole thing and will have to wach it again)

I guess this means that The Professor will have to retire his baseball glove and start breaking in a softball glove! We're very happy to be having another little sweetheart.

Here's another picture, just for the heck of it:

It's very clearly labelled, so that you don't get confused as to what you are looking at. I think this is because during the ultrasound, the BabyGirl kept calling it a lion. The ultrasound tech wanted to inform you that it is in fact a baby, not a lion.

  





We're Watching TV!

We've been without tv for several years. My parents, who watch a lot of television, are always saying, "Did you see that commercial where . . . ?" Most things in life remind them of a commercial. It's one of the funny quirks about them that i love. The thing that makes it so funny is that they have continued asking this for years, when we have no possible way of seeing any commercials, because we don't have tv.

We purposely cancelled our cable forever ago but we could still get about three main network channels plus four Spanish channels and a couple of home shopping channels. We could still watch big events like the World Series, the presidential inauguration, etc. In fact, i have very fond memories of being in labor while watching the Braves' home opener. It was Bobby's last season, as well as Jason Heyward's rookie debut.

Eventually the television broadcast made the switch to all-digital, and then we no longer got any channels. We still had the physical tv set, which we used to watch DVDs and play Wii, but we couldn't watch any actual tv on it.

At one point The Professor went to buy a converter box, but the store was sold out. The dude in the blue polo shirt said that they always sell out the same day that they receive a shipment. The shipments arrived randomly, and they never knew which day the converters were coming. If you weren't in the store within the first few hours of a day the converters arrived, then you were out of luck.

Well we certainly weren't committed to tv enough to warrant stalking Best Buy just to buy a digital converter, so we forgot all about it. We happily lived our lives for a long time without tv. Occasionally there are big events that we are interested in seeing, so we just invite ourselves over to other people's houses.

But here's where the story changes: our good friend Audrey gave us a converter box! It was so generous of her. We're so greatful and excited!

It took us a few days to get around to hooking it up once we got it, and wouldn't you know but the same day we plugged it up was a Big Event TV Day! We watched the Oscars! During the show they kept talking about the fact that billions of people around the world were watching, and they were talking about us! We're included in those billions. Small villages in Central America, all the proud people in France, and us in our basement.

And, the commercials were great! I didn't watch the Superbowl this year, but according to the world of facebook, the commercials were just so-so. Well i'll tell ya: the Oscar commercials this year were impressive. Or maybe they've been showing these same commercials for the past 4 months and i just didn't know about it.

I remember that in years past, the morning after Oscar night, numerous co-workers would show up to work looking haggard, and would spend all day complaining about how tired they were because they stayed up way too late watching the Oscars. In one particular job we started work at 5:30am, so watching tv until 11pm was in fact VERY late. This year, the BabyGirl also got to share in the experience of staying up way too late to watch the Oscars.

Truth be told, she wasn't "watching" the Oscars at all. She was having the time of her life running around in the basement and getting into all kinds of mischief because she knew i was paying her no attention whatsoever. Her bedtime was smack in the middle of Billy Crystal's opening ceremonies, and i couldn't tear myself away. Therefore, she got to stay up past her bedtime. I could just imagine her the next morning feeling tired and sluggish like all my old co-workers, and complaining to her friend David (whom she calls "Daybid") that, "I stayed up WAY too late watching the Oscars."

This small development in our lives has brought us much enjoyment. It is a fun diversion that we would otherwise not have but for the kindness of a friend. It's a break from routine, as well as a *free* source of entertainment. So thank you once again, Audrey!