It's a......

BOY!

That's right, Maxson is going to have a baby brother! We are ridiculously excited!! One of my first thoughts? It is a good thing that we do not own nice things. I have a feelings these boys (their father included) will be wrecking our house in no time. Well, hopefully not until our house is really our own...

I can only see 2 downsides: 1) I will be outnumbered. 2) Chris and I cannot agree on a name.... Maxson has tried to help, but we don't really like Bob of Pop either (one of the few agreements Chris and I have).

I suppose we have plenty of time to come up with something :)
Baby's heartbeat is clocking in a 145 beats/minute (perfectly normal). He is weighing in around 8 ounces, tiny little champ. He was squirming like worm, but I am starting to feel it, which is amazing. I did not think I'd be in awe as much this time, but I have to say that I still love to feel my little moving around. You would not think it is possible, but I am already ridiculously proud of this kid. I suppose I am easily impressed, but you have to admit, he has had a productive few weeks!
Everything else is looking good! I have another doctor's appointment today to check on me, but assuming all my blood work comes back normal, this is looking like smooth sailing (knock on wood).

An update on Maxson:
The kiddo is a rock star. He just turned 11 months this past week. His vocabulary consists of several words: Mama, Dada, Bye-Bye, Cat, Pop, Uh-Oh, and we've discovered that he is always looking at the dogs when he says Bob. It's a little random.

He is cruising like crazy and can stand and even take a few steps on his own, though as soon as he realizes that he is sailing solo, he plops onto his bum. He is pointing to just about anything and everything. My desire to fuel his curiosity means that I'm stopping every few feet while walking the aisles of Target to see what he is pointing to and show it to him. Our outings take a little bit longer than usual as a result. His personality is becoming more and more apparent. This is a kid that loves to laugh, he loves anything kinda scary/exciting and he is fearless. This could be an amazingly terrifying combination for the future. He is constantly making goofy faces and playing around with people, he loves to chase or be chased, and he will try to climb up on just about anything.

Well, I suppose you all want to see pictures, so look below for ultrasounds from yesterday!
(above) an arm and hand! He's shaking his fists at us...
(above) The whole body. You can see the little circles on the side near his head are his little hands, and you can see his little feet at the bottom.
(above) A close up of his adorable little face!

(above) a more clear shot of him from the side. You can see his little hand against the side of his head, and a picture of his ear! This one is probably my favorite.

This one is probably Christopher's favorite. No mistaking it, she zoomed in and labeled it....this feel weird to post, but there you have it.


We love you all!

Storks, Parasites, and Baby A.

All right, so here's the deal. It's been nearly 11 months since the last time we wrote here, and there are roughly 11 months worth of baby-related excuses as to why we've been too busy to put anything here.

In order to play catch up and get to the real business, here's how I'd sum up the last 11 months:

- Babies are inherently messy, disgusting creatures. But with one laugh, all that goes away and a face covered in corn souffle becomes the most beautiful sight in the world.

- I have fallen into the trap that, I think, nearly every decent father falls into. If you ask Jules, this trap is the one that ends with her saying, "Oh, it's MY turn to change him? And how many diapers have you changed today?" But if you ask me, I've fallen into the "my kid is the most amazing and unique kid to ever set foot on this earth" trap.

- The instant joy of hearing your kid first say "Da da" can immediately be wiped away when he follows that with a seven minute speech about some wife-stealing home wrecker named "Bob".

- I probably get an unhealthy amount of amusement from putting Maxson into random scenarios, just to see how he handles it. Naked in a pumpkin. Steel pot. Large rocks in the Badlands. To be fair, he handles these situations pretty well.

- Out of the pages of the bad parenting handbook, as far as I know, he's only been hurt once. And that was scary. Seeing your kid bleed, if if just from a cut on his finger, might be one of the more traumatic early parenthood sights.

- Everyone says it, and I'll keep the trend going. Maxson has grown so much, so fast. There's not a day that I don't marvel at all the things he's learning to do. Just a few months ago, the kid could barely sit on his own. He's weeks (days?) from walking, cruising around furniture. He's on his way to complete mastery of the English language (he can say "pop!"). He's huge (well, probably average if not smaller than average, but much larger than he started). He's got more hair than I do already.

That's the short version. I feel like there are a million memories ready to be written, but those will come later.

The other cause for writing in this space again is that, as of mid-January, Maxson will be a big brother. We found out a few months ago, and have gone through every emotion, from shock (you're what? preg-what? who-nant? no.), to happiness (a new little peanut!), to confusion (how did this happen...? I thought...oh, there's no stork then? what's a pe...oooooh). But most importantly, we've found ourselves feeling just absolutely excited that we're able to have a second beautiful kid. Maxson has truly been a terrific kid. Which we're told guarantees the second to be equally terrific (right? RIGHT?).

In about ten days, we'll check on the gender of the kid. And from there, smooth sailing!

So far, all doctor's appointments have been great. Julia's doing great - I think we all can tell what a great home she is to parasitic beings that leech her precious nutrients away from her own organs. Baby A is doing great so far - great heartbeat, good looking ultrasounds.

There will be more details in future posts. Maybe even some pictures.