Picture Update

Our Memorial Day weekend was actually fairly relaxing and productive at the same time (I feel both rejuvinated and that I've accomplished things). Part of that may come from a wonderfully relaxing evening we spent last night with Jeffrey, his aunt and his grandmother. It was the perfect way to end a long weekend.

Jeffrey made us a wonderful spaghetti dinner that even his Italian grandmother approved of (well, besides the strawberries in the salad — but Jeffrey's aunt made the salad, so we can't hold that against Jeff).

Anyway, this month's pictures have a bunch from Renee's surprise baby shower and include a few from our Memorial Day weekend, including some of Aidan's godfather, Jeffrey, with Jeffrey's grandmother.

Fun in the Sun

Our Memorial Day weekend has at least been psychologically washed out by weather reports. It was largely predicted that this weekend would see lots of rain, and that's been more or less true. However, most of the rain has come at night, leaving the days mostly clear and enjoyable (although hot and sticky).

In order to cool off, Aidan and Renee put on their bathing suits and ran through the sprinkler in the backyard. Aidan was very much in the running part of the equation, but he had some trouble with the through-the-sprinkler part. He prefered just to put his hands or feet in the water, which was fine until he stepped on the sprinkler and "readjusted" it so that it only sprayed into the ground.

Oh, and for anyone who may have been partly involved in our search for a grill, the search ended yesterday at Lowe's. We purchased a BBQ Grillware grill, which came with free assembly and a free filled tank of propane. It's a very large grill, but I was able to fit it in the back of the Element (after unassembling parts of the already-assembled grill). I also had to make two trips, one with Aidan and Renee, then one without, as I had to rearrange the seating to accomodate the very, very big grill.

Part of the excuse to get the grill was because of the new baby. We figured it would be nice to not have to heat the house by cooking indoors so often as well as keeping things sort of simple (no large pans and such to clean). Plus, I just wanted to get a grill. I guess it's time to search out some vegetarian grill recepies.

Aidan, the Dancing Dog Who Asks Why

Aidan is officially at the stage where he incessantly asks "why." I do my best to answer him, even if I have to use "big words" to come to some conclusion, but sometimes we've boiled the "why" down to what I consider the base-constituant parts, and I can't go any further. Such as, "why is a deer a deer." I don't know. At that point, I just turn it around on him and ask Aidan why he is a person. This sufficiently confuses him (or satisfies him; I'm not sure which), and he'll stop asking "why."

I'm still looking for a good, creative way of encouraging his curiosity but still being able to withstand the barrage of questions.

On a related note, Aidan is learning how to read and can already pick out several words on a somewhat regular basis (font and context seem to throw him off sometimes). We were practicing words with him, which he loved, but it's sort of fallen out of favor these past few weeks, mostly due to people rushing around and busy schedules and all ...

We still haven't found out too much about a new school for Aidan. This search may be put off for a while, since there is just so much going on at the moment (new baby arriving, etc.). He's doing well, although his teacher at school had no idea that Aidan knew how to draw some of his letters — he can pretty much write his first name — and sign virtually the entire alphabet. Here are some observations from Aidan's teachers:

1. Aidan was in home center pretending to be the children's pet puppy. He never said a word. He only barked. He said "ruff, ruff," as he was pretending to drink from the doggy bowl.

2. I noticed Aidan and a friend dancing to some music. THey were spinning around and around in circles when they were done each time, they said "whooooooah" and laughed.

3. At circle, the children played a game of "transportation charades." Aidan pretended to ride a bike. The children immeadiately knew what he was doing!

You Turn Me Right Round, Baby

Thus far, the pregnancy has been fairly smooth. Early on, there was some anxiety because of the low progesterone levels, but this was taken care of with the progesterone supplements and is much less of a concern now. In fact, we have been off of the progesterone therapy for several weeks now and things seem to be fine.

The only other point of anxiety has been that the baby has seemed to be breech. This is not necessarily a concern, as most babies do eventually turn into a head-first presentation, but this has been a source of worry for several weeks.

In our interviewing of the doulas, we discovered that not many doctors will vaginally deliver a breech baby (although this is "routinely" done in other countries) and that one remedy would be to have the doctor try to turn the baby with a method called "external cephalic version." This method has about a 50% chance of success and will likely cause some distress to the baby.

As an alternative, we received the suggestion that we try several other methods, such as having Renee do handstands in a pool or lying inverted on an ironing board that is inclined on a couch, so that her feet are up and her head is on the floor. Renee's been trying both of these, and the ironing board has been a frequent visitor to our living room recently. One evening as we were getting Aidan ready for bed, he told me his back hurt and went over to the ironing board and did his best to mimic his mother, including acting as though he had a large belly with a baby inside.

Another alternative suggested was to try acupuncture. Neither Renee nor myself have ever had acupuncture performed before, but supposedly there was a high rate of success with turning breech babies via acupuncture. So, with nothing to lose but a few dollars, Renee went in for her very first acupuncture appointment this morning and ...

The baby turned! Just like that. Renee now reports that she can feel the baby kicking into her ribs (as opposed to before the procedure when Renee primarily felt the baby kicking her bikini line). It wouldn't necessarily be unexpected if the baby turned back to a breech position, although obviously our hope is that this won't happen. But our anxiety has significantly passed, which is a good thing in itself, and we have knowledge that, if necessary, we do have a technique that has worked for us once, so hopefully it could work again.

Store Wars

Okay. I have tons of other more important things to post about that I just haven't had time to get to.

However, this was just too funny: Store Wars.

Warning: contains lots of puns and possible copyright infringement.

Week 34

Robin and Kathryn helped to organize a surprise baby shower for Renee. The guise under which we were to lure Renee over to Kathryn's house was to be a tie-dye party of sorts, where we would create some tie-dye clothing for all the kids (and possibly the adults).

Renee was very, very interested in this and we blocked off the day on our calendar for the tie-dye event almost two months ago. But there was a problem: tie-dying is a messy job and Renee would likely not wear clothing appropriate for a baby shower if she's expecting to get dirty. So, we had to come up with another story to encourage her to bring some nice clothes to change into.

Plan B, formulated to help support Plan A (sometimes lying can get very complicated and difficult; remember that) involved Kathryn inviting all of us out to go see her boyfriend Doug's band play at a local pub. Doug plays the bagpipes. While we were excited about seeing Doug and Kathryn ... well, Doug plays the bagpipes. Fill in your own joke.

I had thrown a surprise baby shower for Renee when she was pregnant with Aidan and after that event, I swore that I would never do that again. Not only was it much too stressful, it was also difficult for me to lie to Renee. And then there was the matter of a pregnant woman — complete with raging hormones — who was thinking that there wasn't going to be a shower and we would never be ready to have a baby, the house wasn't ready .... To sum up: Stress City.

Obviously, I was under some illusion that someone else throw a surprise baby shower would be easier on me. Sure, we had lots of stuff for the baby and we had a very good idea of what we were getting ourselves into, unlike the first pregnancy. So there wasn't the pressure of not having the appropriate clothes, etc. on hand. We had that.

And to make sure the house was ready, I spent the last several weekends painting the baby's room (formally the drum room, for anyone who is familiar with our house and its contents). On the morning/afternoon of the baby shower, I did some final touch up on the paiting and then brought in all the furniture (it wasn't until Sunday that I was able to reassemble the changing station, crib, etc.). So, most of the previous reasons for stressing about not having a baby shower were removed. There was no reason Renee should stress. And she didn't.

I, on the other hand probably could have blown a gasket. I figured Renee knew what was going on, but she just wasn't letting on. I had to ask for a list of gift items she might want. Big clue, I thought. But Renee never said anything.

The days went by and Renee never let on. Apparently, she really was expecting to tie-dye some clothes. Last night, Renee was up late (or, at least, late for Renee), preparing all the materials and supplies that we'd need to successfully tie-dye. She was wrapping elastic bands around shirts and onesies for the baby. I was aghast. I wanted to stop her, but what was I going to say?

In the end, of course, it was all worth it. As we drove over to Kathryn's house, I told Renee that she could just carry her clothes into the house; I'll bring in all the supplies. So, I walked around to the back of my car with Aidan in my arms as Renee walked in. I grabbed the camera out of the car and waited until I heard everyone shout, "Surprise!"

I then took Silas and Aidan back to our house for the next hour or so, then made it back to Kathryn's just in time for some cake, to the absolute delight of both Aidan and Silas.

So, as I mentioned, the baby's room is all painted, the furniture is all assembled, clothes put in handy and accessible locations, and we are — in general — ready for the baby. And a doula has been hired!

We met with two doulas recently, both of whom were extremely educated and experienced, but in different ways. Each doula seemed to be a perfect compliment to each other, as each doula's best skills and talents seemed to fill the void of the other's. For example, one doula has a two-year-old child; the other does not have any, but has participated in the capacity of a doula for nearly 300 births.

Eventually, after long debates and changing out minds a zillion times (both Renee and I are Pisces, indecision being a characteristic trait), we finally decided on Monika (the one with the child). She was a perfect match for us in many ways and she'll be worth every penny. As one famous quote says, "If doulas were a drug, it'd be criminal not to use them." She'll meet with us twice in our house and once at the doctor's office before "the big day."

Educating Aidan

Aidan has been soaking up so much lately. He is very interested in words and spelling and is doing well recognizing numbers. His current day care facility is base on the philosophy of learning through unstructured play. However, as one person observed, Aidan may have learned all that he can from this environment; it may be time to move him to a more structured school where he can further develop his interests and talents.

His current school, because of their philosophy, don't have the alphabet on the walls and do not help them write their names (something that Aidan is beginning to do) or associate colors with items #151; such as red :: apple).

The trick here is that we don't want to push Aidan, obviously, and stress him out before he's ready to handle the extra material. However, just this morning we decided to pick up a reading program that we originally started way back when Aidan was probably about a year old, but it soon fell out of our routine. But because of his apparent appitite for learning, we are bringing it back for him.

A friend of ours, who's son is now 8 years old, was doing this with her son and when he was about 4 years old (upon entering preschool), he was reading at a second-grade level. We'll see how this works for us....

The lesson plan is to show Aidan five words per day. After a week, we start to introduce new words. That's it. Only five. The point is to not tire him out and get bored. But after I showed him his five new words, he wanted more. And more. We probably went through about 30 words, maybe more!

The point being, is that by all appearances, Aidan is hardly being challenged, so the search is on to find a good preschool for Aidan (one mom from Aidan's school, upon hearing we were thinking of enrolling him in a preschool, said she applauded our efforts as it was widely known that Aidan was the smartest kid in the current school; whether that was said purely as a compliment and words of encouragement or as truth, it sure was wonderful to hear!).

This is in incredibly complicated thing to do, as some preschools focus specifically on physcial attributes (sports, ballet, swimming, etc.) and others on mental. Some have long waiting lists, others don't. Some are terribly expensive, others aren't (and the "good" ones are not necessarily the expensive schools). Some are convieniently located near work or home; others aren't.

Add to this equation the fact that the new baby will be arriving shortly and will potentially going to a different school (probably the one that Aidan's at currently), so we may have a lot of running around to do on drop-off and pick-up. The arrival of the new baby will also be a disruptance in Aidan's routine, so he might feel more comfortable at his old school with is old friends, as opposed to introducing new, more challenging situations.

So, our search is just beginning, updates to follow as we learn more!

Week 32

Only two months left and time to get everything in order. I'll start painting the new nursery this weekend, hopefully finishing it up by next weekend.

Renee is doing very well, despite bouts of extreme tiredness. She's still working and is planning to work as late into the pregnancy as she possibly can. Her doctor's appointments, which were scheduled about once per month up to this point, will now be more frequent.

Last time, when we had Aidan, we hired a doula for Renee and myself. While the experience itself was mixed, the presense of a doula was incredibly helpful and worth every penny. We are currently interviewing doulas for this birth and should come to a decision sometime next week or the week after. The first of the two doulas we expect to interview was very nice and seems to be a good fit for us, but we will reserve making a decision until after we speak to the next candidate.

We have also started to come to some agreement on names, but we still have not narrowed them down to any particular set. We will not be announcing any names prior to the birth, although we may release the initials, once we know....

Observations for Aidan

Here are some more observations from Aidan's teacher at school:

1. Aidan and friends were working in woodworking. I watched as he gathered wood and hammered away! When I asked him to tell me about it, he said, "It's a cage for a bug."

2. The children wanted to know how big my baby was [Aidan's teacher is pregnant]. So I drew them a little diagram. I had to go to the bathroom and when I got back, they all drew their own version. Aidan participated as well!

3. While outside, I noticed "the blue guy" push Aidan. Aidan yelled and said "I don't like that! Stop pushing me. Leave me alone!" I was proud of him! He didn't even ask for my help.

Baseball Trip

We headed out to Arlington yesterday with Silas and Kathryn to see a Red Sox/Rangers game. Aidan is still pretty obsessed with Johnny Damon (with a certain amount of encouragement from me, no doubt), and Aidan was really looking forward to seeing Johnny play some ball.

The first thing out of Aidan's mouth after we were through the turnstiles was, "Where's Johnny?" Then Aidan started to notice all of the Bs on everyone's hat ... "Hey! He has a B on his hat! Hey, he has a B on his hat, too! Hey ... wait a minute ... he has a T on his hat!"

As luck had it, Johnny had a pretty good game, helping the Sox win by hitting a home run (turned out to be his first of the year), an RBI double, and a bases-loaded single in what was an exciting game (at least from our perspective).

We had very good seats (section 19, row 26 ... for those not familiar with the Texas Rangers's home stadium, that's 26 rows behind the visiting team's dug out). There were a ton of foul balls hit in our direction, and if we weren't just a couple of rows under the deck above us, they would have landed directly on us. Since our section was behind the visitor's dugout, there were plenty of other Red Sox fans to share the joy. There were plenty of "Let's Go Red Sox" chants to the point that a Rangers fan in the area said to his friend, "We're at a home game, right?"

Aidan got lots of compliments, and was eventually picking up on the "Let's Go Red Sox" — he designated himself as the chanter and I had to do the hand claps. After Johnny hit his home run, Aidan was comfortable enough with everyone that he started to give out random high-fives. Pretty cool.

At the end of the game, a Red Sox fan (about my age) was walking up the stairs and passed us, saying to Aidan, "Good game, little guy." Aidan replied, completely unprompted, "No, Johnny had a good game!"