Baby Pictures!

I am happy to present the first pictures ever taken of Number Two (NT). Although we now know the sex of the baby, I am going to try to avoid pronouns by referring to NT by name for now and let the photos speak for themselves.

We did not know going in that we would get the 3-D treatment, but apparently it is standard procedure now - where we were anyway. Number One was born back in 2003 when this kind of thing was just starting to go mainstream. The ultrasound equipment was modern enough that not only did it take regular and 3-D sonograms, it also supported annotations and CD burning. You may notice some arrows and text in some of the images that the nurse added. When she was done taking the pictures, she selected a bunch of the interesting ones, clicked a couple of buttons, and the CD started burning. It was pretty cool.

I think I can be pretty objective, so I'll give my opinion on some of these. We start off with the classic profile view. You can see NT's mouth, nose, eyes, forehead - even a fist. There's a little hint of an ear. We can see the chest. Everything looks perfect. Nice looking head. Heads are important.

Here's our first 3-D look at NT. It looks like he is shielding his face from a very bright light, but I am told that it is very dark in his world right now. He doesn't look very happy, but it gives us a good look at his left arm and hand, including all 7 fingers. Wait, sorry, no, there are only 5 there (the left thumb makes an appearance in another image). Whew!

Here we get a pretty good look at his face. You can already tell that he's going to be cute. Little button nose, scrunched eyes, little mouth. This baby is perfect. Try to ignore that big Chunk-o-Mama on the left.

As if I haven't given it away already, here's the evidence. After the ultrasound we met with the doctor and he laughed heartily over this picture. "It's definitely a boy!" he chuckled.

On a side note, I had a lot of trouble understanding the perspective in this one. Lacey got it right away, but if you're like me, here's a hint: the thing to the left of the arrow is the top of his knee. The large round thing... no the other large round thing... the one on the far right. That is his belly. He's basically sitting on his bottom, and of course, he's going commando.

I hope you enjoyed these. We are very excited about raising another man. We're up to the challenge and if NT is anything like Rian, it's going to be a blast. I'm looking forward to meeting this guy face-to-face in February and taking a lot more pictures!

20 weeks

I can't believe that we're at the half-way point in this pregnancy. The best part about that is finally being able to see our baby tomorrow morning at our ultrasound appointment! I'm so excited and can hardly wait!
I feel the baby move so much now. What started as a few fluttery feelings now seems like he (or she) is doing flips and kicking. Feeling him (or her) move is amazing and reminds me that there is a little person in there! :-) Wow, I can't wait to actually see this baby on the ultrasound screen!!
We're taking Rian with us to the appointment and I think half the fun will be seeing the look on his face. He has been telling people that "mommy's tummy is getting big, big, big". He talks to the baby almost daily now and today he sang songs for the baby. Too cute!

Soccer Week 5 - Rams vs. Geckos

The Rams faced off against Geckos on Saturday. Rian scored another goal in very similar fashion to his goal last week. Once again it happened suddenly, early in the game, and in his own goal. Also like last week, it was followed by Rian jumping up and down shouting, "I scored a goal! I scored a goal!!"

The soccer Rams, unlike their football counterpart, are still essentially undefeated. I've mentioned before that nobody keeps score at these games, but if we did, the Rams would be headed for the playoffs... again, if there were playoffs.

Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys beat the New York Giants 45-39 on Sunday night. It was a good game and fun to watch. The linked article on espn.com notes the unusually high score:

This game produced the most points in the 90-game history of this series. Dallas also scored its most points in an opener since putting up 49 in 1971 -- the year the Cowboys won their first Super Bowl...

Go Cowboys! Last year they were a gimme field goal away from advancing to the NFC Championship before Romo's blunder. The Cowboys should be pretty good this season with Romo as the starter, since he won't be in a position to fumble the football and prevent the place kicker from even getting it up, even if their QB Coach is now having a similar problem.

In honor of the Cowboys starting their season, this weekend I took some pictures of Rian wearing a cowboy hat we recently got from Lacey's parents. He loves wearing this hat. We were watching the Cowboys game and he decided that he needed to wear his cowboy hat. So I had to go help him find it, which as it turned out was just inside his room in plain sight. I thought it was cute that he had already looked in his room for it before he asked me for help, but didn't see it even though it was kind of hard to miss... :)

Soccer Week 4 - Rams vs. Koalas

After a week off for Labor Day, the Rams were back in action on Saturday facing the fearsome Koalas. The game started off quickly, with the Koalas scoring a goal in the opening minutes. On the ensuing kickoff, the ball bounced to Rian who looked up and saw an open goal. Rian did not hesitate. His leg swung back, his eyes focused squarely on the ball at his feet. As four Koalas narrowed in around him, Rian swung his leg forward, his foot striking the ball with more force than he knew was possible.

The ball flew forward. Rian watched with anticipation as the ball flew through the air. Time seemed to stand still. The Koalas were all around him now, but it didn't matter. The ball was already on its way. It bounced a few feet in front of him and rolled through the green grass, each blade of grass bending toward the earth under the force of the ball.

The colors on the ball flashed vividly in the bright sun as it tumbled toward the goal. The ball landed in the back of the net, and Rian jumped with excitement.

GOAAAAAAAAAAL!!!

He had done it. Rian had just scored his first goal. He was beaming. He looked around the field at his teammates as if questioning if they understood the monumental impact of what had just transpired. He began shouting, "I scored a goal! I scored a goal!!" His face said it all. Sheer excitement. Unbridled enthusiasm. He had done it.

Coach John congratulated Rian as he kneeled in front of him. He began to explain that the Rams' goal was actually on the other side of the field (see picture). But it didn't matter. Nothing could take away from this moment. Rian had just scored his first goal ever, and wouldn't be bothered by this minor detail. It made his day.