A Lot of Work To Do To Catch Up

My friends Lisa and Tejal harped on me about not continuing my blog and when I logged in today, this is what I found. I must have written this right after Lucian's birth and never posted it but I would be sad if I never expressed these thought so here it is...


Written sometime in June 2008...

The juxtoposition of life and death has never been so apparent to me as it was this past weekend. I spent this past father's day fighting back both tears of joy and tears of sadness. Almost exactly 24 hours after experiencing the absolute beauty of becoming a father for the first time I learned of the passing of one of my best friends, Chuck Schwink.

You can't imagine the emotional roller coaster that the last month has been. As Lucian's due date approached, Chuck's health seemed to decline. I am quite sure that I cried at least once every single day in the month of June. So much happiness and so much joy. And in the midst of all of this I am also running an annual fundraiser for the foundation that I created in memory of my father who passed away only 18 months ago.

I think that is where it all began....this emotional roller coaster ride. You see, in August 2006 Christine and I got engaged. I popped the question about 1/4 mile from my parents house in a spot that had special meaning to me. My father was only the third person to know (after myself and Christine, of course). I can still remember how excited he was. As we planned the wedding and settled on a destination he was so excited to get to be wearing shorts and flip flops for a wedding. He would die only a month later.

I remember so many events leading up to his death that seemed to point to the powers that be that allowed me to spend even more time with him...(we spoke every day but often when I went home I spent a lot of time with friends). The first divine intervention (although a painful one) came about a week before our family was about to go to Hawaii for two weeks. On a short bicycle ride I slipped and broke my arm in a freak accident. There went all of the Hawaiian plans for excursions. But in hindsight it was perfect, Dad and I hung out the entire vacation.

On the last weekend that I ever saw him I had gone in for a WVU football game - which usually meant me being out and about - I got sick and ended up spending most of the weekend hanging out in my parents basement talking to my Dad and watching football together. Looking back, I was never so happy to have an injury or get sick.

The death of my father felt like getting my heart ripped out. My father was my best friend, my mentor, my inspiration. He would miss my wedding, the birth of his grandson, and all the memories yet to come.

The outpouring of kindness, friendship, and true love that was seen at my father's funeral will be with me for my entire life. The tributes and the the thousands of people that came to pay their respect was a testament to the man, the father, the friend, the husband.

My friend Chuck was there and I will never forget one thing that he said to me. I had just introduced him to one of my relatives as my boss and he pulled me aside and told me not to ever introduce him as my boss, that he was my friend first. And that he was. Chuck and I (and often our buddy Craig) shared a lot of memories from the various NACUBO trips we have taken over the last six years. From golfing some of the legendary courses in the country, to enjoying fine wines, to partying on his boat, the memories are many and some of the stories legendary.

And Chuck was there at my wedding, having fun, meeting friends and family from all over the country and always displaying his charm and charisma and the everlasting smile on his face. Little did I expect that upon returning from my honeymoon, three days later Chuck would be diagnosed with cancer....and a year after that he would no longer be with us.

So while I stand here as a new father, two of the people that I would have loved to have had Lucian learn from, laugh with, and love on his own are no longer with us. I know in my heart that they are hanging out together, looking down, maybe getting in a round of golf.....all the while smiling....two great men....two great dads.....two people I loved and miss.

What's in a Name?

Since there have been so many inquiries about the name of our son I will clear it up.

First, the pronunciation:

• Lucian is pronounced LOO-shun
• Xavier is pronounced ecks-ZAY-vee-er
  

Now the meaning:

• The names are of Latin descent and the meaning of Lucian Xavier is "The Bright Light."

And here is one more picture of our Bright Light

One Day Old.....Good Mornng Peanut!!

Well...we made it through the first night and we are just hanging out with Lucian today and enjoying Father's Day at the hospital (he is looking forward to watching his first US Open).

Here is the morning shot. I had another shot with a full head of hair but it was a possible "NIP" shot and we did not want to pull an Elaine.

Welcome to the World....

Lucian Xavier DeLorenzo was born at 6:00 PM on June 14, 2008

He is a little peanut at 5 pounds 5 ounces

He is 18 1/2 inches long.

He is definitely built for speed....just like his Dad!!

Christine is doing fantastic.

Predictions

2:50 PM ET - We are now 4cm dialated and the Doc is very happy with the progress. Time for delivery time predictions. In the sporting spirit I have put a challenge to Christine.

Tiger Woods tees off at 2:50. I have challenged her to have this baby out before he finishes #18. She laughed a little and then I think she wanted to smack me.

Let's hope for the best and get this boy out....it will be the bets Father's Day ever!

Here We Go

12:10 PM ET - This baby is determined to be born the natural way. Christine's water broke at 10:45 am, about 15 minutes before the doctor was going to come in and do it himself.

Coincidentally, her brother Greg and his girlfriend Erin showed up from San Diego at 10:30.....I have been here for 48 hours with nothing and they get here and fifteen minutes later she goes.....go figure.

They put in the epidural at 11:00 am so we are mostly pain free. I have my finger on the button for when she acts up and needs to have some meds pumped in.....LOL.

Contractions are getting intense and just about 3 minutes part and Christine is doing great.

Cross your fingers.........as much pain as I am sure it will be we really want a natural birth.

4th and 1

8:30 AM ET - Okay its gameday sports fans. It is 4th and 1 and we are moving forward with the final phase. Our Doc is ready and gave us the gameplan for today. He put the final gel in to soften up the cervix at 7:30 this morning and will be back at 11:30 to break her water and get things moving along towards a natural childbirth. This is the final step before deciding to do a C-section

No matter what, our Doc says we will be having this baby today!!

Christine is a little sore and tired but doing great and ready for the final push. They are managing her pain and we are all managing to keep her spirits up.

We thank you all for your support and well wishes and please feel free to leave comments here on the blog and I can read them to Christine.

We love you all!!

So Much For Naming Him Jason!!

2:00 AM (Saturday) - Friday the 13th has come and gone and this movie is still stuck in the same plot twist. I am certain that the boy did not want to come out on this day.

I can't believe we have actually been here for almost 40 hours with very little change (other than doctors and nurses). We are on our third doctor in rotation and our 5th nurse. Everyone is so kind....and sympathetic. There have been a few couples who have barely been here for a couple hours and had a baby.......the STOP and DROP.....damn overachievers!!!

We have faced a sore back, stiff neck, headaches and aching legs........and that is just me!

My little Christine has been put through the ringer but she is tough and is holding tough and really doing an amazing job. I could not be more proud of her. She is getting some pain meds that have helped with the contractions and her spirits are high.

The waiting game has been tough but I do have to thank my good friends and ESPN and NBC since I have watched all 11 hours of coverage of the US Open on both days as we just do a lot of sitting and waiting between pee breaks, blood pressure checks, and bed postion rotations.

The Docs have given us a 4-down plan and we are on 3rd and long right now as far as trying to have a vaginal delivery. The next decision is whether or not to go for it or PUNT and do a C-section. It will really be up to how much more Christine can endure.

I am very hopeful that the next post will be to welcome our son to the world on a beautiful weekend morning!!

The Calm Before the Storm

1:30 PM ET - After about 90 minutes of very painful contractions the doctors gave her a shot to take the edge off the pain. It put her to sleep for a little while so she can rest before the next phases. They are going to be checking in around 4:00 to see where we are and when an epidural can be administered. Spirits, anticipation, and pain levels are high.

Thanks for all of the thoughts and prayers!!

Tick Tock

11:00 am ET......The waiting game continues...Christine is acutally dialated now and they started pumping the drug Pitocin into her IV to bring on contractions to help move the labor along.

They seem pretty confident that this will bring us a baby sometime this afternoon but I am just hoping the baby is here before the final pairing tees off in the US Open on Sunday (just kidding honey!)

Christine (yes she let me take this picture) is doing great. She is such the trooper. She is anxious to be a mommy and doing anything and everything they tell her without any complaints (she is leaving all the complaining up to me).

She still has her sense of humor as she just asked me what I was doing and I told her I was updating the blog for everyone her reply was, "that's great, I am just sitting her having contractions!"

For those of you wondering, yes, she has asked for every pain med available.

We love you all and I guess this will be an extra special Father's Day!!

Game Day

Well its 4:00 am and we are waiting for the baby............kind of sounds like the beginning of a Bruce Hornsby song or something. With a due date of July 4, I must say I was a little out of sorts yesterday at noon when Christine called me from the doctor's office and said they were sending her to the hospital.

The first few hours were a blur as I raced to the hospital, raced home to get her mom and her bags and then back to the hospital, and then paced around until about 6 pm.

That is probably when the reality hit me that this is going to be a long haul. They call the room at the hospital a birthing suite, but it is not set up so much to be a suite for the dad's...unless you are a midget and can fit and sleep on an uncomfortable pleather loveseat.

The only saving grace was a flat screen TV where, yes, my wondeful wife let me spend the day watching the US Open and the NBA Finals.

Christine is doing amazing as we wait for the inducing process to take its course. She is getting some rest now as I get in this quick update and we hope to get started with some more aggressive processes in a couple hours.

We both can't wait to meet our little guy. More to come later today.

PeePee TeePees & BooBoo Bunnies

I kid you not...these are real products. As one who has made the rounds to every baby superstore and boutique in the metro DC area, trust me there are things out there that you never imagined for kids.

The PeePee TeePee is obviously my favorite. I was trying to figure out why I had never heard of this marvelous little invention until now but I guess it is because most of my friends around here have been girl makers. I am a boy maker.....so you have to learn about PeePee TeePees and things of that nature. Apparently this is an essential element when changing the diaper of a boy. Christine's friend Diana was the first to tell us about them as I guess she had some interesting experiences. We just sent these in a care package to our friends Charlie and Jen and he could not wait to call and rave about how nice they are. Who knew that spraying pee was such a hazard to new parents.

I am sure that throwing a washcloth over baby Delo's package will do the same trick, especially since we received 800 baby washcloths already, but you have to appreciate the creativity. It's like a little dunce cap for his wee-wee.

Another apparently necessary item for the young these days is the BooBoo Bunny. Now this one I was against but Christine had to have it. If you know anything about my wife and her obsession with bunnies then I guess it makes sense. I did finally break her of the habit of screaming "BUNNY!" while we are driving back to West Virginia since she almost made me wreck a couple of times.

But back to these new age little devices that even have there own jingle:

If a boo boo has you feeling crummy,
Stick an ice cube in my tummy.
Hold it to your boo boo tight.
Soon everything will be all right!

And that is how they sell you. Who wants to stick just an ice cube in a rag an put it on your kids cuts and scrapes when you can take the time to freeze a little plastic ice pack and then try to find this miniature stuffed bunny when your child needs first aid. I am quite certain that BooBoo Bunny will be programmed into my child by my wife and I will be looking everywhere for this one little bunny all the time. I can't wait for that.

There are so many fun items when you really start to go shopping and you just know that half of them don't work, the other half are only practical for a month or two of your kids life but what are baby showers for other than getting items that you would never buy yourself. One of my other favorites is the spillproof bowl. I am hoping that one comes at the shower.

I wonder how many of these things are created by parents just like us that got tired of improvising with other things and remembered the old Schoolhouse Rock song:

"Mother Necessity where would we be.....Without the inventions of your progeny?"

Which reminds me, I have been putting together a list of all of the DVD collections from my childhood that are must owns:

H.R. Pufnstuf
Lidsville
Land of the Lost
Speed Racer
Johnny Quest
Scooby Doo
Sigmund and the Sea Monsters
Schoolhouse Rock

I can't wait to sit around and watch all of these old time classics with my boy. Mix in a little of the new stuff and he will be a renaissance man by age 5.

We are fast approaching and the final touches are being put in the nursery. I really wanted to do a Calvin and Hobbes picture but they are impossible to find anywhere. I loved Watterson committment to not commercialize the brilliance of Calvin and Hobbes......until now!

I Love My Wife

For those of you who have had children there is a new respect that you have to have for women as they go through pregnancy. I can't express how much I love my wife and how proud of her I am for carrying our child and doing all of the things she does.

I know that her, and all women, go through so many changes in their bodies during pregnancy that it is hard for men to really appreciate the experience.

In all actuality it has been a pretty smooth. We are so grateful that everything has been going so well and that she has had a healthy pregnancy. While she was nauseous a lot she barely had any really bad morning sickness. At 32 weeks and going strong she has still only gained about 20 pounds and she looks great but she is starting to feel uncomfortable.

Through the first two trimesters, Christine has literally glowed. While I don't always share her enthusiasm for looking through catalogs of baby stuff all the time, watching her nesting habits, now in full swing, and how she talks about all the little outfits our son will wear (and continues to cry when she sees the tiny socks), has had a profound effect on me. I do now catch myself comparing children's clothes and toys everywhere I go and of course saying, "I would never put my son in something like that."

Christine is worried to death that I will let our son wear outfits that don't match or just run around with nothing on but a diaper or a onesie.....hey, I hope he takes after me.
It also never gets old how excited people are to see us and Christine's growing belly.

So with seven months down, things are starting to get uncomfortable. She never did quite make it to the yoga classes and workouts have fallen by the wayside (mostly because I have not been the drill Sergeant I promised to be). The most mundane tasks have become a bit of a comedy routine (for me at least). Her struggles include rolling over, getting up and bending down, and pretty much doing anything that requires a lot of movement.

I know that she is ready for this baby to come out as she constantly tells him to quit kicking her and she is starting to have a lot of trouble sleeping..fun fun.

I am sure she will kill me for writing this but she will now snap about little things that in the past would have just rolled off her back. But no matter what may upset her, you can be assured that a half hour later, she will come to me with a sheepish look and say that she's sorry.

And then there is the stuff that all guys know about but I am probably not allowed to write about here.....oh what the heck...the gasiness, the indigestion, the belching, the peeing when she sneezes, the new hair growth.....and all the while she looks more beautiful to me everyday.

I write all this because it is just amazing to me what a woman she is. That she is able to work and do things around the house and still carry our child. She eats well, she takes care of herself and I am sure this will all help our baby have a smooth delivery.

So I just got an IM from her that said she had "hobbit feet" so she was going home. See that is the best part of all of this..Christine is very funny and we do constantly laugh together about all of these things.

It is just amazing in and of itself....but going through it with my soul mate makes it even better.

Honey....I LOVE YOU!!

The Lessons of Life

Did you ever stop to wonder how it is that you know all of the basic things that you know? All of the little life lessons that have kept you out of harms way, free from embarassment, and curious about the world around you.

• Look both ways before crossing
• Fire is hot
• Ice is cold
• Always say please and thank you
• Don't pee into the wind
• Don't swallow quarters (that is a personal one)

It just seems like from the time we were born that someone was always teaching us how or why to do something. How to be a better person, why you need to study, how to meet a girl (LOL).

So much information that we take for granted. I thought about this yesterday as I darted between two parked cars and jaywalked across the DC streets. I guess that is not accepted behavior when you are either pushing a stroller or have a kid in tow.

Am I now a role model?

Oh my god!

I know that my father is up there looking down at me and while I am sure that he is very proud, he is laughing as hard as he can. All of those years of "I told you so's" and "I hope you have one just like you!" are now coming to fruition.

We were talking with Mom last week about whether or not we could survive a child that was anything like I was. Not that I was bad....I was actually a good kid and good student, but I was hell on wheels and I did have over 300 stitches in my body before the age of 10.....please help me if my son is anything like that.

While I was happy that we bought a home near wooded area with trails and creeks, now all I see is danger....from the tree my son could definitely fall out of, to the rock formations that I am already certain he will skin his knees on climbing, to the old rope swing hanging over the creek........it is very much the type of area that I grew up around. If I had a dollar for all of the times that we went to play on "the cliff" after all of our parents expressly forbade it I would be able to take my wife on a nice vacation!

But I guess the important thing is knowing already that he will be a typical boy, and he will disobey, and he will do things that he is not supposed to, and he will, unfortunately get some boo boos along the way........all I can do is teach him how to climb, how to fall, how to run....and oh yeah, those other important things that I mentioned before.

I really can't wait....................to go sled riding!!!!

The Name Game

No, it's not what you are thinking....we are not revealing the name until baby Delo comes popping out. What I am talking about is the naming of the grandparents, more specifically the grandmas.

There are so many options out there - NaNa, Nonni, Nene, Granny, Grandma - to name a few. In my family, we went with NaNa. The thing I remember most about the names of my Nanas is how I was taught to distinguish between the two. You see to a 2-year old still learning to talk, the last names of DeLorenzo and Satterfield would have been butchered since kids are better with the 1 and 2 syllable words. So what did my parents do, they named them by where they lived....thus NaNa Watson (who lived in the community of Watson) and NaNa Big Hill (who lived at the top of a big hill).

And then we have the other side of the equation....does Christine's mom want to be called a spanish name or a more traditional English name. Spanish for grandma is "Abuela" and the nickname is "Lita" so they called their grandma "Abulita." I kind of like that.

My nieces call my mom NeNe but she has not decided if she wants yet another grandchild screaming "NENE!" all the time.

It seems that it is always something to think about....

On another note, our friends had their baby last week so I guess I will be able to call Charlie and get some hands on experiences from him for his first week as a Dad. It's all about the sharing.

Lost in Translation

Let me start by saying that I love my mother-in-law. She is absolutely the best! But I am just getting used to what my wife and her siblings have been used to their whole lives.....being amused by not understand something that she has said. You see, she is Mexican born, and though has spent most of her life in the US, has a definite accent. They all have a lot of fun with her when she says certain things and sometimes she is the last one in on the joke. I am finally getting used to the fact that it is standard family practice to laugh and poke fun....and you know me...always the wise ass!

So now that the stage is set, we were having dinner this past weekend at my inlaws....some wonderful home-cooked Mexican dishes (sorry Todd and Greg....I get the bulk of the cooking now...the price for you boys being away). Anyway, after dinner she was telling a story about something and all that we heard was "have you ever had 'hashish'?" Well, immediately Christine and I are cracking up, and her father joined the fray shortly....and she just kept going. The story went on about being on the streets in Mexico and seeing "hashish" and even selling it....my eyes were watering and I thought Christine's water was about to break she was laughing so hard.

We obviously knew that her mom was not a childhood hash dealer but we had no clue what she was trying to say. When we all quit laughing hysterically we were finally able to get the correct word from her......HEAD CHEESE!! She was talking about head cheese....that lovable treat that is not actually cheese, but rather a jellied meat dish made from the head of a pig or calf which typically takes the form of a large sausage and is served sliced as a cold cut. Mmmm...yummy!

I guess I would need the 'hashish' in order to ever eat the 'head cheese.'

And now...the rest of the story. How does this tie to the DELO CHRONICLES you may ask? What does this have to do with getting ready for a baby? Well, as it turns out..everything. You see, I neglected to mention that my mother-in-law is going to be the baby boy's nanny. You can't imagine how excited we are to have a family member serve in this capacity and we will be forever grateful. I am already very hopeful that our children will be bilingual from the start.

But back to my point; you see when you have a baby's grandma/nanny that cannot pronounce everything correctly (e.g HECHINGER's), you have to be very careful what you name your kids. I would not want the boy to not be sure of what his name was because grandma can't pronounce it correctly. The poor boy could have an identity crisis before the age of 2.......no I am not giving away the names yet!! The naming issue will be next another post.

The things you never thought you would have to worry or think about. And in case everyone is wondering....my beautiful wife is doing great! We are at 28 weeks and the baby is now kicking up a storm...baby classes start this week....now that will be a fun post!

Withering Weekends

We have all grown up constantly measuring time. How many more days till Christmas? How many days till school is out? How many vacation days do I have left? We all have done it our whole lives.

This past weekend I was talking with one of my buddies, also expecting soon, and we were talking about the weekends we had left to get things done before the baby arrives.

I just thought...WOW!

I had to get out the calculator. At 40 years, and 8 months, I have had the last 2115 weekends all for myself. Sure I had commitments and things to do with other people, but they were still based on things for me. I was in charge of my time.

Now I just had to come to the realization that I have exactly 13 more weekends until the baby is born and then they all belong to him. Think about it, I will spend the following 1000 weekends devoting my time to my son....through childhood, sports, academics, special field trips, etc.

All of those weekends, so many things that I have done.....the trips, the fun, the memories. Now I have just 13 left and then I have to focus on someone other than myself....to give my time to the development of my son...........13 weekends left.......I better go and start planning for this one!

Got Soy?!?

I was cleaning out the freezer yesterday and I came across SOY ice cream. Yes you heard me right.....I said SOY ice cream. It came at the perfect time since it reminded me of my brother-in-law Greg who purchased this wonderful treat for us last month when he was visiting from CA. Greg and his wonderful girlfriend are departing today for a 2 1/2 month tour of Europe. Christine and I were certain they were going to be on Amazing Race!! Since they will probably be too busy to read this I have no problem stating that we are all hoping they return with some news about their future.

Now back to the SOY!! Greg is a bit of a hippie type, Southern California boy. I can certainly appreciate certain bohemian aspects of life as I lived that life so many years ago, but come on SOY ice cream!!! With my worst case of the munchies in my college days I don't think I could have put that down and you are talking to someone who lived frequently on death dogs and potato logs from the Dairy Mart. It is pretty awful...sorry Greg. I threw out a whole tub of SOY ice cream so the planet was not saved.

So I had to ask myself....."Self," I said, "What is this magical bean that can produce everything?" And of course my good friends at GOOGLE found me the answers I needed. I assumed SOY ice cream had to come from soy mik so I started there. The definition I found of soy milk is "the remaining liquid after soybeans have been crushed in hot water and strained"....sounds yummy.

So then I decided I wanted to know all of the things that can be made from SOY. This reminded me of an old Steve Martin routine about McDonalds making everything from one machine...it went like this:

“I have a theory about McDonalds, and that is that everything they make is all one thing. And in the back, they have this big vat full of this ’stuff,’ and these little molds come by and SCHLURP! Hamburger SCHLURP! Malt SCHLURP! Paper box SCHLURP! Here’s your change.”

Perhaps this list will make my point. Here are the FOOD items made from SOY:

Cereal, Cheese, Chips, Coffee, Creamer, Edamame, Energy bars, Flour, Grits, Ice cream, Meat alternatives (burgers, hotdogs, sausage, bacon), Miso, Pasta, Soy protein powder, Roasted soy nuts, Soy milk (sometimes called soy beverage), Soy nut butter, Smoothies, Soy sauce (teriyaki, tamari, shoyu), Tempeh, Tofu, Vegetable oil, Whipped topping, Yogurt.

Now for the NON-FOOD uses:

Animal feed and pet foods, Candles, Caulk, Cleaning products, Cosmetics, Crayons, Dishwashing liquid, Fire logs, Biodiesel (alternative fuel), Furniture, Furniture polish, Lip balm, Massage oil, Oils for machinery, guns, engines and more, Pond liners, Building insulation, Printing inks, Soaps and shampoos, Socks, Stains, Stain remover, Wood sealer, Yarn.

So basically, the same product that made my ice cream makes caulk, fire logs, and socks!!! Are you kidding me?

I guess SOY has become the "STUFF" since Martin did this routine almost 30 years ago...COMEDY IS NOT PRETTY. God I loved Steve Martin back in the early years....its hard to believe I was 9 years old listening to Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Richard Pryor. Remember the Columbia House record club? I still have all of those albums and casettes. How the world has changed? I can still remember being so excited when the box from Columbia House came in the mail and I ran to the stereo to listen. Now I could have instantly downloaded 100 albums in the time it took me to write this post.

I can only imagine what world my son will live in when he is my age!

My boy, I have so much to teach you....."This is an album...we used to listen to them on a wheel that spun around and then you dropped a needle on it!"

"What is that sound you ask? That is static...we had it tough as kids my son!"

Lions, or Tigers, or Bears...OH NO!!

It's a Boy! But now what? The instinctive response I seem to get from everyone when you tell them that you know the sex of your baby seems to be,"that's great, now you can decorate the baby room!"

It seemed like it would be an easy task when it was all in theory....Christine and I must have looked at a thousand pictures of baby rooms, each of us certain of what we liked.....now its crunch time and we have not a clue!

Do we need a baby room consultant? I mean it seems that there are consultants for everything these days, why not someone to come into our house to show us some spreadsheets and charts and graphs all in a nice PowerPoint presentation. Do they have the stats on what will affect my boy's life? If I decorate the room with a sports theme, will I have a little athlete, or if I put too many cuddly animals in there will he be in the band? It is so much easier to make decisions at work when you are playing with house money and these crazy consultants are showing you every statistic man has ever thought of to prove their point.

But this is "my house" money and these are the first decisions of my child's life....this is serious shit and I am freaking out a little bit thinking about it. Do I put in a bunch of impressionist paintings, pump in classical music and hope that my boy can appreciate the arts? Do I let the boy listen to classic rock from day one so that he appreciates Zeppelin and AC/DC the way his dad does?

So many decisions....color, decorations, furniture, theme.....it really is a bit overwhelming. The only good thing is that there is no shortage of advice from friends and family....I guess they are my consultants....just without the charts and graphs! This will all be fun, I know it will. The kind folks and Disney, Baby Einstein, etc. have already done so much of the legwork for us...HAH!

Just wait till we start the Name game!

Life Is Just So Cool

So today we went to an imaging center to get the sonogram of our baby.........the place was pretty ghetto and smelled of feet when we went into the building but we were able to get by it knowing that we would see the sex of our baby today.

Doctors offices always fascinate me....its the people watching. The first person we saw looked like a six month pregnant Alanis Morissette. Although I think that Alanis might carry her baby supplies in something slightly more fashionable than a ripped CVS bag. Then there is the guy who brought his laptop to do work while waiting....not a bad idea, but seriously, talk about an over inflated sense of corporate value.......I can already hear this dork bragging back at his office how he was even working during his wife's sonogram. I am certain that his wife was soooo happy about this behavior (lessons I am slowly learning)

Strange people aside, the most annoying part of the morning was that they tell Christine to drink 32 ounces of water an hour before the appointment and not go pee. Well if anyone has been around 5-month pregnant woman they could not hold a pee for an hour on 2 ounces of water, let alone a whole quart. So as my wife is ready to kill me because I am telling her to deal with the pain it won't be long (a big mistake by the way), the nurse notices her discomfort and tells her that is fine to go pee and then just drink more water..........so what is the point of telling her to drink the water in the first place? As my Pops would have said, those instructions were about as useless as tits on a boar!

But back to my behavior.....I now have two strikes against me in doctor's offices......the first one came when I answered the phone in the exam room wating for the doctor a couple of months ago. I didn't realize that sitting in a waiting room means that you are only allowed to wait, and talk to your wife....no phone calls, no emails, no brickbreaker, no nothing.....but you are allowed to read the pregnancy magazines. Now this strike came when apparently my wife was in great deal of discomfort, which I should have noticed from the "Monica vein" in her forehead......lesson to all husbands....sit back, hold her hand, and shut your damned mouth, because when a pregnant woman has to pee and is not allowed to and she says to leave her alone.....she is deadly serious!!

Well once she got to pee things were instantly better as we were whisked away to the sonogram room by the sweet little nurse who reminded me a bit of an aged Shirley Partridge....."Come on Everyone there's a song will be singin'.....we'll make make you happy..."

Anyway we walk into the room and the she sits at her post and has more controls and gadgets in front of her than Mr. Sulu. Now for the cool part.....the sonograms that they do these days are in 3D, not the cheesy red lens blue lens glasses 3D but real 3D imagery...I mean we could see the baby's face and it was so cool...it was like it was looking right at me.

We saw the face and the arms, and the fingers, and the legs, and the feet and toes.............and then, we saw it......the little appendage that we were looking for...and that made it official....it's a boy!!! The best Valentine's Day present ever.....my wife is carrying my healthy son....a boy to carry on the family name.

Of course happiness can sometimes be bittersweet. As elated as I first felt, I also felt a bit of sadness that my father would not be here to see his first grandson. But maybe it is all by design and the good lord sent a little bit of his spirit back down to earth in our child. We can only hope.

What...you want to see pictures...no problem...I would not want to keep the coolest thing I have ever seen to myself.