More Black & White Photos

This time, the crappy black-n-white photos are of #2 from his/her final ultrasound, instead of being pics of Jackson from a Chuck E. Cheese car.

All was well with the baby on the ultrasound (got a good view of the heart this time) and I was able to ward off Chris's promises/threats and keep the gender a surprise. For the record, Chris & Jackson now both think it is a girl. This, despite what Chris thought he saw on the first ultrasound. When I asked him what changed his mind, Chris just said "I don't know what the hell I was looking at. I have no idea." That statement is SO true in SO many ways. Also, for the record, I still think it is a boy.

This is What Happens When Grandma & Grandpa Come to Visit

He only asked to go to Chuck E. Cheese's about 15 times tonight.

Tricycle

The tricycle is on loan from my friend Joanne. Her kids are well beyond the tricycle age, but I've heard a certain story enough times to know that I ought to give this tricycle back to her when we are done...or at least not sell it. We'll be keeping it for a while though as he is still trying to figure out the pedaling-thing. :)

House Progress

Monday was the first day of framing. Yippee!

Despite the appearance of walls, Jackson still refers to the home site as "the big hole" since that is what we called it in the beginning. Only now, when we get there, he just keeps asking where the big hole went. He doesn't quite understand that the big hole is now full of a concrete basement and wood.

Linguini from "Ratatouille"

He was supposed to dress up as his "favorite book character" last week at daycare.

I took the assignment liberally....as in, Linguini is technically a movie, not book, character. Although Jackson does own a Golden Books version of Ratatouille, so he was able to bring the book in to share with the class like he was asked (it also helped to back up my story that he was a book character).

I was also a bit liberal with the word "favorite". I just took "favorite" to mean "dress up like a book/movie character that you already own an outfit for".

Perfectly reasonable interpretation of the assignment, right?

Thanks for the Underwear, Grandma!

Now if he could only figure out where they are supposed to go...

Gatlinburg

Ridin' the kiddie train.
Playin' in the kiddie park.
Ridin' the kiddie cars.
His first water slide!
On the way up for another water slide.
More water slide fun. This was his second water slide trip and at the end he started to cry because he got wet...and by wet, I mean that his jeans had a few splashes of water on them. Did he NOT notice the water the first time he went down the water slide?
"Give me my cracker back duck!" That's what Jackson shouted several times and almost got into tears over after I told him to throw one of his crackers over the balcony for the ducks to eat. He willingly did as I suggested, but I guess he just didn't think that the duck would actually take him up on his offer and eat the cracker...

#2's Picture Debut

I really don't like ultrasound pictures because they mostly look like a blur of black and white dots and hardly resemble anything like a human to me. But, because I have been accused by friends and family alike of "slacking" or "not loving this one as much", I feel compelled to post these up here. Over the last few weeks, people have accused me of neglecting #2 by failing to post any stories and/or ultrasound photos and by not watching my nutritional intake as well either.

I'm pretty sure I am guilty on both counts.

But #2 can take solace in knowing that this lack of attention later in life will probably work to his/her advantage. As the second child, I'll probably be much less worried about and attentive to what s/he is "getting into", so s/he will inevitably get away with more things than Jackson will. It's all a matter of which side of the coin you look at. On the negative side, you may get a little less parental concern. On the positive side, you may get a little less parental concern. If this one is smart, s/he will see the bright side of being #2.

These photos are from a 16-week ultrasound taken last week. We have another one in 3 weeks because they couldn't get a good look at the heart this time around. I guess it will be nice to get to see the baby again and make sure that things are still going well, but I'm not looking forward to the next 3 weeks of Chris trying to convince me that we should find out the baby's gender. Chris believes that he saw what he needed to see in the first ultrasound to believe that it is a boy. I'm not exactly sure how he "knows" this - they don't teach you to read ultrasounds in MBA school, do they? I like making fun of him and his "I know what I saw" theory, but I find it hard to make too much fun of him because my gut instinct is to say that it's a boy too. Anyway, Chris obviously isn't 100% convinced of his ultrasound reading skills because he still wants to ask the technician at the next ultrasound if it's a boy or a girl. We'll see if I give in to his wishes between now and then, but I'm holding steady for now. I'm not really sure why we need to find out anyway, we've already got boy and girl names picked out. We just carried Molly Grace over from when we picked it as the girl's name with Jackson. If it's a boy, it's gonna be Luke. We're working on a boy's middle name though. Chris jokes that he always wanted a Luke Duke (Dukes of Hazzard, anyone?) in his family, but that's not flying with me. Then, of course, he also wants Peyton, which ain't gonna happen as long as I have anything to say about it. I'm pretty sure that the smart money is on Luke William though.

Spine & Ribs...okay, I'll admit it, this one is pretty obvious.From left to right, that's the arms with the hands up by the face and then you can see the folded legs on the right. I imagine that's the boy/girl parts between those legs down there, but I really can't say for sure. Could be cord or something, I guess.Heartbeat.

Sesame Street Live

We took Jackson to see Elmo Makes Music at the Murat Centre on Saturday. It was his "big" 2 year birthday present from Chris and I. And by "big", I mean "expensive". Before we actually thought about what we were doing, Chris had ordered 3 "best available" tickets and we were on the hook for well over a "Benjamin" thanks to the ticket handling charges, etc.

But I digress.

When Chris ordered the tickets, we realized that we were in the 4th row, which didn't give us any pause - at first. Then we thought about Jackson and how a 2 year old might be easily scared and traumatized by a stage full of giant 8-foot singing, dancing, monsters just a few feet away. Plus, in trying to build up the show for Jackson in the days leading up to it, Jackson just kept saying "no Elmo" every time we asked him if he wanted to go meet Elmo in person. So, by the time Saturday rolled around, I just figured that we had blown the money and we would have to chalk it up to a poor first-time parent decision.

Much to my surprise, however, Jackson was really excited when we got to the theater and stayed that way pretty much through the whole thing. He got scared momentarily (no screaming, just pulled his knees to his chest and watched from the sides of his eyes) when the lights first went down and the music started and all the characters came out on stage, but it quickly passed. By about 5 minutes in, he was movin' and grovin' and singin' and wavin' and clappin' with the best of 'em. They did an ABC number that Jackson really liked and when it was over he kept holding up his index finger and shouting "one more time". But it was all for naught - Elmo didn't listen. Then again, he probably couldn't hear anything through his giant, ear-less foam head anyway (which makes me wonder how he could "make music" anyway). In the end, I think Jackson had a good time and we got away with buying him only one souvenir - a spinning, light-up Elmo thing-a-ma-bob that cost $15 and will inevitably break in a matter of days. But, even though he will probably never remember the show, you are only 2 once.