The Nursery

Well, Kelli and I were able to get most everything done in the nursery. We bought the furniture from Baby's Room in Lexington, deciding for a cinnamon-finished pine crib, hutch, and dresser. Knowing the furniture we picked, we started with the painting, and went with a green and a khaki. After we painted, and applied a second (and a third in some spots) touch up coat of green, the chair rail was bought and painted. I didn't have the time or the patience to try and do it on my own, so a friend from Kelli's work who does home stuff on the side came over and helped put it up. We moved in the furniture, and this past weekend, Kelli and Carol put the furniture (crib) together, and did the bedding and window treatments to complete the nursery. The walls are a bit bare, but you get the idea of what the room will look like. Below is the semi-finished product.

Sulking

I do it after every Kentucky loss.

Blog Permissions

If you guys think of anyone that is close family/friends that would like to see the blog, send me their email address(es), and I'll add them to the list.

Kelli at 21 weeks

Taken today, January 17.



You can definitely start to see the beginnings of a wonderful little belly. There isn't a whole lot of difference than what was there 2 or 3 weeks ago, but the baby will start filling out starting this week or next.

Until later...

Ultrasound trip

For all the love and affinity I have for Mac computers, I have great disdain for them in their neglect to include a driver for Sony HandyCams. Kelli called me this morning and said "Hon, maybe we should get the video camera, so we can tape the ultrasound." I love a new toy, so I said "Absolutely", ran out the door, went to Sam's (didn't have what I wanted), Circuit City (not open until 10 a.m.), and finally Meijer's. I scored the sweet HDD camcorder and was on my way home to charge it.

We're all charged up, ready to go, at the doctor's office, and the ultrasound starts. Everything goes great until I get home and realize the Mac and the Sony are not compatible. I should have known better. You see, Sony makes PC's. And, Sony uses Windows OS for all their PC's, not Macintosh. So, I have to figure something out. Any ideas, Darren?

You all can see the video on the camera, but in the interim, here are some pictures. The pictures aren't great, mainly because they are pictures of pictures, not pictures of the ultrasound screen.

Here you can see the baby's head, the dark round thingy in there being the brain. On the actual picture, you can see the two eye-sockets, a nasal cavity, and other facial features. And, to those of you who want to remark on the size of the baby's head looking somewhat large like the father's head, the doctor said that looks like a very normal size. ;-P


Here is another (bad) picture. You can see a normal looking spinal column in the two pictures if you look close enough. The ultrasound technician said it is normal (at this point, anyway) to have the baby facing down like that. Basically, the baby was laying face down, so the ultrasound was a bit harder to perform, even though everything was normal.




It was a very cool time for us. The first three or so minutes of the ultrasound I forgot to turn on the camera. I'm kinda glad, because there is a bit of a *sniffle* that you won't hear. That sniffle came from this proud daddy.

The baby weighed 15 oz. We were not told the length. I'm guessing the paperwork would show us, but we either forgot to ask or they forgot to tell us.

One thing they did tell us: The estimated ultrasound due date was May 23rd. Once the doctor who reviews the ultrasounds in detail examines it, a decision will be made whether or not to change the official due date. Our doctor said this "change" is normal, and they won't officially change it until the day falls outside of a ten-day window of the original due date (June 1). We are sitting at about eight days now. Of course, if anything changes (officially), we'll let you know.

My new shaving technique

^That isn't quite what it looks like. :)

As some of you may know, I've adopted a new shaving technique. Instead of squirting gel from a pressurized can that smells more like deodorant than shaving cream, I now use an Italian or English cream that smells of eucalyptus, lavender, rose, limes, or violets. It truly is a pampering. What was once a chore has become vastly more enjoyable.

The technique I've switched to is called wet-shaving, and there is a very good, but rather lengthy explanation of every detail about it here.

Men, (and women too) do yourself a favor. Invest a little time reading, a little time researching, and a little bit of money into a single-blade, double-edged razor, a few sharp double edge razors (my favorites are the Israeli Personna's [found on eBay] and these Merkur ones) a good badger hair shaving brush (I have this one), a good razor (any on www.classicshaving.com will do), and some good cream (I recommend any flavor of Trumper's, Proraso, [available at Target] or a similar glycerine-based cream).

It is as close to a pampering that you can get every day, for little cost.

Kelli hears about my shave everyday.


Well, the Cats are almost on, and I've still got work to do. So, I'll quit playing around on the blog.

Until tomorrow...

Kelli at 17 weeks

This picture was taken on December 22, which is about 17 weeks. I'll have a post of a 21-week picture and a recap from the ultrasound after Wednesday, the 17th.