Back from Absence

So i must apologize. I have been so busy the past month that i completely forgot about you... my Blog....
But i now have much to write about...maybe i'll bullet... it will be easier to read...

Jen is now 32 weeks. She has grown quite a nice belly. This is the home stretch....no turning back... this is the last phase. Are we ready? Well is anyone? really? Over the past 6 weeks we've attended Lamaze classes, infant care classes... and we still have a breastfeeding and infant CPR class to take. Jen had her baby shower last weekend, and it was really nice. We've got a really great family and friends that are showing so much support for us. We also got a lot of gifts from them too, so we've been ( i mean i've) been busy putting together high chairs, strollers, chairs... blah blah blah... This child already has more beds than i do. Actually the stuff is pretty easy to put together, i mean compared to IKEA this is child's play. One of my favorite gifts is this baby monitoring system. In case you don't know what this is...its ..... essentially a spying device for over-worrisome parents. So its a video camera that is placed above the crib and there is a video tv that you can put downstairs. The video TV receives the radio signals from camera above the crib, and you get to see (and HEAR) the little guy or gal while you are sipping on your coffee in the kitchen... Technology... gotta love it. Now this thing is high tech too, the camera actually has infrared lights, that will allow you to see things when its dark...
Now you may ask, what will you do with this device when you don't have any babies to monitor... well.... i was thinking we could put it in the kids room, ya know... like big brother... keep an eye on those kids.... make sure they are doing their homework....
OR, i could point it to those pesky neighbors... and keep an eye on them.... all in good fun of course.

One thing that i must blog about is this technology that i have been saved by. Yes I have been saved oh yes,.... by DVR.
I don't know how i survived without this invention. Its truly the greatest thing since sliced bread, especially when you have children....
So now i can record sports or anything else (i don't watch shows... so when i want to watch tv, i want to watch what i want to watch...) and not have to to watch it. So i can go off and do whatever it is i wanted to do that day, and when i get the chance, i'll watch the game.
ALSO, i don't have to watch those durn tootin commercials. Now a 4 hour football game is down to 1 hour... A 3 hour hockey game is down to one hour... a two hour basketball game is 40 minutes. A 90 minute soccer game is.... um..... 90 minutes... ok well not really since there is a halftime...
One of the greatest parts about this is that when i am watching something and Jen wants to talk to me I can pause it... and give her my attention. Before she would be unhappy when i would ignore her while watching a game or not pay attention to what she was saying. To women, not looking at them while they are talking is next to not getting them a card for valentines day... bad stuff. So DVR could actually be seen as a device that can help marriages... interesting eh?

So what's the deal with the whole birth thing here in the US? We're not finding out the sex of the child... So we get to the lamaze class and the woman next to jen says "You AREN'T finding out the sex? HOW ARE YOU DECORATING THE ROOM???" I thought to myself... Camoflauge...
Like the child can tell the difference (or knows) between pink and blue? I think alot of parents are so disjointed from parenting that they don't understand the difference between what is being done for the child and what is being done for them. They go off and waste their money and time on things that the child has absolutely no interest in whatsoever. These parents i like to think of as designer parents... they do it so they look good in front of other people, and don't stop to think what they are doing... and that the child won't know the difference. A child needs one thing and that is love, and i'm afraid that alot of parents these days don't have the time or care to do so.
Ok so back to this deisgner woman... So later on in the class we're going around talking about why we signed up for the natural childbirth class. She starts by saying "My name is blah, and i want all the drugs you can give me"... Anyway i guess i proved my point eh?

I just saw a documentary called "The Business of Being Born". It was about how the US culture has been duped by the medical and insurance establishment into believing that natural childbirth is anything but, and how different childbirth is in the rest of the world. I didn't realize how poorly women are treated here in the US as far as childbirth is concerned. We are becoming a very stupid society. We don't educate ourselves and question things anymore. its very disturbing.

Belly TV

Its amazing how long you can stay fixated on a pregnant belly.... you can spend hours just waiting until a new kick or blob moves across the stomach.... Its kind of like campfire tv... when you're out camping there are only a certain number of things you can do...watch the stars move....drink beer....cook food....listen to night creatures.... and watch/play with the campfire.... its actually quite entertaining..... after you've had a couple cold ones.....its rather nice and simple and lets you forget about the seriousness of life...a perfect escape....
anyway... back to belly tv....i can't wait until we can see a butt or an arm moving across.....one can consider that an upgrade... its like upgrading to digital from rabbit ears... you get to see a bit more....the resolution is better....i suppose when the baby comes up we'll be upgrading to hi definition.... and i think that's when we get the cable bill....

New Layout and Font Size

Since i've found myself squinting to read this blog sometimes, i've decided to make a couple changes...
instead of a black background, i've gone with the traditional black on white
I've increased the font size too.

Let me know if this is better to read!

Craving of the day

So this whole pregnancy craving thing? Its real and you better be prepared. Tonight Jen had a craving for "baked goods".... yep baked goods.... She'll never get mad or pissy with you, but she'll continually press the issue. So much so that you start hearing voices... and begin to develop a craving for it yourself. These pregnant women, totally dangerous...
So i got in my car and made a b-line to the store, good thing i did since i was starting to mumble things like "muffin".... and "strudel"....
As I raced though the aisles, leaving a trail of sweat in my wake, i realized that i had no idea what baked good to get. No idea... The panic was really hitting now...
My nose directed me to the smell of fresh baked bread... muffins and cookies... .yum.

Indecision was rampant....scanning the bountiful shelves... i decided my only salvation was to get an assortment. I got muffins and cookies and cake and pie and brownies... as much as i could carry. I piled it high in my arms... it looked like a betty crocker totem pole.
Maneuvering the pile like a circus performer, i made the trek to the checkout line, skillfully avoiding the human cashiers in favor of the computer cashiers... which i find to be less prone to ask the obvious questions... specifically ones like "starting a bake sale, huh?" or "somebody has the munchies....", or "got a pregnant wife at home?"

I drove like a nascar racer.... except i wasn't driving in circles... and i was driving the prius... which is rather slow... and most nascar drivers wouldn't drive a prius... so... anyway... i drove as fast as that little hybrid engine could... fred flintstone would be proud.

After doing ludicrous speed in the prius... i pulled up to the house and grabbed the goods from the back. i narrowly escaped losing the muffins to the drooling attack dog.... and made the procession to the high altar.....
i was sure i could survive...
the presentation of gifts was made to the female praying mantis... muffins....cookies...brownies... cakes....pies....
she loved them... voraciously devouring the globs of cookies and cake... gorging down the brownies...and then....
she called out my name...
and bit my head off...

ha ha ... ok thats not what REALLY happened. but i had fun writing it....
Jen loved the baked goods, and i didn't really get all of what i said... i only got brownies and cookies... and muffins... (i'm a bit of a sweet-tooth too) and she was very appreciative and kissy kissy like that. So i enjoyed going out for her and making her feel happy...

Poking and Kicking

So yesterday Jen was excited since the baby was really active and you could actually SEE the baby pushing up against her skin. What i mean is that every so often you could see little bulging from her belly... I was amazed! Apparently little C has been very active lately especially when Jen hasn't eaten yet.
I'm wondering how a baby can affect a mother's appetite. It must release some type of chemical to notify the mother that it is hungry... and somehow it must release other types of chemicals to let the induce certain cravings? I don't have any idea.

Baby's R Us...The insanity

This past Sunday we went to Baby's R Us to register. In case no one is aware, Baby's R Us is a warehouse full of babies and you pick one out to bring home. OK, thats not quite right, but the place is rather daunting. This place is huge... and its FULL, chock FULL of baby stuff and pregnant ladies... I had no idea there were so many things for such a tiny thing. The store does this whole "Registration Brunch"... which is their way of getting the guys to go along to the store. So guys think that there is going to be alot of good breakfast items to gorge on... No way Jose...
I had a stale donut (you know the el cheapos from the grocery bread isle..) and couple pieces of mangled fruit. AND NO COFFEE...
Next up: the presentation.
After filling up on formula (i had to eat SOMETHING), we got to play a game. It was "guess the most popular baby items". I didn't do so well. I think out of ten i got zero... Jen didn't do much better, she got one. I guess we aren't trained baby consumers (that sounds a bit odd...) that we need to be to be part of the baby experience. Actually no-one did much better. There were eight other couples, and i think the best score was by the guy who brought his own coffee... bastard.
So the game was over and they then lectured us on the content of our binders. I don't remember much since i was trying to keep my eyelids open with the silicon bottle nipples...
The presentation took one hour... I'm not sure how that happened...I must have blacked out for a while....
It did prepare me for the best part: the registry.

Luckily for me (and the rest of my future family), Jen is the most organized person in the world. Just think of the most organized person you know... and then quadruple it. That is my wife... and i love her for it. While other guys were getting sappy cubic zirconia for their loved ones, i was getting a labelmaker. She loved it too, and proceeded to label the entire house... including the dog.
So this organization reduced our registration time down to three hours... I imagine if she wasn't as organized we would have closed the store. She knew pretty much what we needed so we zipped around the warehouse like turtles on speed. We got all the necessary items and some of the unnecessary items... which we promptly deleted online when we got home. I got to use the laser gun... which is a bit overrated. It provides the guy with a way to stay involved in the process and i found it to be a bit unreliable. I think it provides the guy with a chance to throw something that friggen won't scan... Damn thing nearly took a trip across the store.
Did you know that you need three strollers... yeah! that kid will have more vehicles than i will... You need one for the infant stage, one for the toddler stage and one so that you can lug that kid through airports and malls...

After our three hour marathon....we both needed some food... and i needed a beer. Ah sweet hopped fermented malted barley... how i love thee...

18 week Ultrasound pictures

Wow.... here are ultrasound pictures... its amazing what technology can get you these days.