Only you can prevent it. . .

So my friend Janice that I mentioned before had a fun day yesterday. I'll let it speak for itself.

And I'm OK. . .

I've said before, I'm not what you'd consider a man's man. I cried while reading part of the last Harry Potter book, I've written poems that were neither for English class nor involving anyone from Nantucket, and I don't know–nor care to know–about the in-field fly rule. I can do some good work around the house, I can hang drywall, sweat pipes, and I own multiple power tools. I'm fairly computer savvy (which has become less geeky and more manly in the past few years). I enjoy watching stuff blow-up. . . and on several occasions I have blown stuff up. I love women. . . you may never find a straighter man (not to say that you can't be gay and manly, but I have a healthy constant stream on testosterone coursing through my veins). I have chopped wood. I can get fairly banged or cut up and not freak out too much at the sight of my own blood. I can hold my liquor, though I am an affectionate not a violent drunk.

What I'm trying to say is, I may not be the manliest person in the world (and as I said before I definitely should not be trying to raise a boy), but I have gotten to a point where I can say I often feel pretty damned manly.

I ask you. . . can I pull off carrying a diaper bag, and still feel like a man?

Bumbo strikes again. . .

So I sent the link to the Ready Set Bumbo video (above) to Megan Morrone at Jumping Monkeys and it made it on the show. Nothing big, but it makes me feel good.

The little monstor in my wife's belly is growing restless this week. He's so active in there right now, even my touching her belly doesn't stop him. Normally when I touch the belly the little spaz stops moving, but not right now. Everything we ready said week 27 and I think 32 are the most active.

Now I need help. I'm trying to convince my wife to let me do the room like While You Were Out. Lock her out of the room for 2-3 weeks and do everything without her. Then surprise her with the final product. So post a comment telling her to let me do that. She gets to build the baby I want to build the room.

It's a Small World. . .

Recently I took on some more responsibility at work (we had some reorganization [lay-offs] meaning I get more to do). Part of this new responsibility means new contacts with an outside vendor. Enter Janice, Janice is the account manager for a vendor that I have now become the default contact for. We started talking and emailing and have been doing so for about a month now.

So I was surprised when after a month I found out Janice is having a baby boy 2 days after my wife.

I found this out because she was asking us to pick a date for her and her boss to come visit our office (we're in Missouri they're in Florida), and she needed to travel before October. Imagine if I hadn't found out about her pregnancy until she showed up here in September. That would have been really odd.

On a side note, the baby above is another of mine. I'm actually using the babies for a promotion piece at work, the sign the baby is chewing on contains the offer for the piece.

Goin' boom boom. . .

The one thing we have gotten for the baby is the bedding. We found the bedding we liked but it was only available online or from Burlington so we got it ourselves. That's the quilt above. I redrew it in Illustrator this afternoon.

Also for anyone who is pregnant I found this song. It was on a local public radio station's Ska program on friday nights. The host had his grandson some on and played the ska songs he likes. . . he's 5. So it was some cool music for kids. This song hit us the most, it's called "Baby in 'a Belly" by the 'Vengers. I went online to google it and couldn't find anything. The band's site was gone. . . I finally tracked down the lead singer for his new project playground theatre."

Anyway, enjoy.

So close

Look over to your right. . . up a little. . . little more. See that fetus there? Click it a few times. Notice anything different? There's no "1" in front of the number anymore. We have less than 100 days left till the little bugger comes out. I can remember when there was a 2 at the begining. We don't have a room ready, we haven't registered for anything, we haven't taken our class at the hospital, we're not ready to grow up yet!--

My wife begins teaching again next week so she's been spending the week getting her class ready. She seems appalled that everyone is dropping into her classroom making sure she's not doing any lifting or straining herself to much. She's also not too happy that people keep coming in saying things like "wow, you don't look like you've gained any weight at all," or " you're such a cute pregnant woman," or "you're pregnant? No one tells me anything around here!" These all sound like compliments to me. Of course I've been saying all those things to her all summer, she never believed me, she believes them.

I never got an answer on what volume to set headphones on the belly to play music for the baby. I hope I'm not making him deaf.

Boot to the head. . .

So yesterday I had my head on my wife's belly, partly to try and hear the heartbeat again, but mostly. . . well she's my wife I'm allowed to lay on her from time to time (that belly is nice an plump right now and feels good to touch). I pushed down a little harder than normal and within a few seconds I felt—THUMP.

Just for good measure I tried it a few hours later, with the same results.

So any expectant fathers out there having trouble feeling the baby kick, try laying on him. Just so happens our son doesn't like being crowded. After all he did kick her for laying on her belly.

Ba-bump, Ba-bump, Ba-bump. . .

Since all our books and sites have been suggesting it, I decided I'd try and hear the little monkey's heartbeat this morning (I would have last night, but I had just finished slathering anti-stretchmark lotion on my wife's belly and didn't want to get my ear all greasy). The tips say to make sure everything is quiet, and first thing in the morning is about the only time around here for that. So I had my wife lay down and I pressed my ear to her belly. First all I could hear (and feel) was her heartbeat, slow and steady. I repositioned myself lower and listened again, it felt like forever, but it was only a few seconds. My sense of sound moved on past her heartbeat tuning it out, until. . .

Wow. . .