Our latest sonogram

This is our baby boy at 23w5d.


I think he's flipping us off.

But everything looks good otherwise. Yay.

Guess I'm officially part of the family

I now get *those* kinds of emails (ya' know, the "inspirational" or "affirming" or whatever kind that you need to forward to your 100 favorite people...) from SM's aunts on both sides of the family. And he only has two aunts.

Does SM get these emails? Um, no. Just me.

I take it as an indication of affection...

Once again, in honor of St. Patrick's Day...

I bring you this iconic photograph.

Update on my bro...

He leaves for Afghanistan sometime this week. Even though his job is more administrative than combat-related, it still scares the crap outta me that he is going to a war zone. Please keep him and all our troops in your thoughts.

We're having a boy!

Okay, I'll admit that I've known this for quite a while. In fact, we’ve known since the 13w check-up that we’re having a boy. Well, we’ve known since we first got pregnant that we’re having a boy, but the ultrasound tech confirmed it at 13w. And we actually kept the secret. Can you believe it?

Anyhow, we were in for our routine visit at 13w, the one where the tech checked for Down Syndrome by looking at the baby’s neck (the NT test). The tech (a guy) was chatting with us to put us at ease (I was quite worried about our risk factor). He asked if we were planning on finding out the baby’s sex. We told him that we were. He asked if we wanted to know now (then). My stomach jumped a little, and we told him that we did. He told us that it was a boy. I asked him how he could tell. He said — and this is almost a verbatim quote — “because of the giant penis”.

Well now… it seems that our baby has a giant penis! SM should be proud.

Anyway, we were still a little skeptical, giant penis aside, so we wanted to wait until another ultrasound when the baby was further along to really confirm it. Unfortunately Li’l Pea didn’t cooperate at 16 weeks, but we've had two more sonograms since -- and he is definitely a boy. One tech even said he was "a proud boy" (another comment on his giant penis?).

Maybe we’ll have to change his nickname. ”Li’l Pea” just doesn’t seem appropriate anymore somehow.

A year ago today...

This is what I was doing...











Taking pictures of Half Moon Bay in Antarctica, our first stop after crossing the Drake Passage.

Some scary shit

My brother is deploying to Afghanistan for six months at the end of the month. He's a reservist, and I think his job involves air transport. I don't know exactly what he does, but I do know he's not infantry or anything like that.

This isn't the first time he's deployed, but I do think it's the longest. And I can't help but be worried.

My mom is definitely going to be very happy when this summer arrives -- that means her baby will be home and so will mine.

We found this out last week...

Fat Tire is coming to DC!!!

SM is having a great year with both the baby and his favorite beer arriving soon.

Some historical perspective

On the baby's gender, that is...

As everyone knows, we are going to find out the sex of the baby, as soon as the baby lets us. Both SM and I believe our kidlet is a boy. Most everyone else seems to think the baby is a girl. As one friend said, she pictures me with a girl — but then she went on to say, “But I’m always wrong, so that means it’s probably a boy.”

But here’s some food for thought. If you look at the biological parents of each generation, we seem to have a bit of a family tradition: first-born boys.
* SM's and my generation, circa the late 1960s: both sides (two families), our parents’ first-born were boys — SM, my brother
* Our parents’ generation, circa the late 1930s: both sides (four families), our grandparents’ first-born were boys — SM's uncles J. and C., my dad and my mom’s older brother J. who died as an infant
* Our grandparents’ generation, circa 1910: okay, this is where some first-born were girls

I find it curious that we have to go back one hundred years, literally, before you can find a first-born girl on either side. I believe that my maternal grandparents were both younger siblings of first-born daughters. I’m not sure about my dad’s grandparents or SM's side.

So it’s a tradition for both of our families: first-born boys since the early 1900s.

I wonder if this observation will change anyone's mind to thinking we're having a boy...?