iiiiiiit's sonogram time!

Here you go everyone. Now you can see what we saw!

Skeletor! (It's a ____!!)

So yes, I am going to make you read (or at least skim) this post before saying what the baby is! Not that many out there don't already know, we did send over 40 text messages today, call a bunch of people, and announce it at work. Anyways, on with today's story.

So today is the day we found out the sex! I still had to go to work in the morning though, as I had to get a bunch of videos shipped out and had a class going on that I was in the middle of attending. Well anyway, at 9:15 I popped out of my seat and left the course and, with the wellwishes of my fellow classmates, walked quickly out of the building and drove home to pick up the Little Kitty for the Big Appointment.

So we drive up to the hospital, hit the wrong floor on the elevator (but realize it in time), and go on up the the 4th floor where all the baby stuff is. Sign in, wait, and in a few minutes time get lead to the sonogram room (yey!!). This is where we saw what you see above, which we lovingly referred to at the same time as Skeletor. If you don't know who Skeletor is (He-Man's arch nemeis), here you go:

But enough about childhood heroes and villians, you're here to read about the baby. The nice sonogram lady took lots and lots of measurements and summarily informed us that everything looked perfect. This naturally made us both very happy. The rest of the sonogram went as follows:

So in case you missed it in the photo just above this paragraph, we're having a son!! Right where the little mouse arrow is is where his manhood sits, in case there are any doubts. The Little Kitty was very excited that she has known since April what it was going to be. I can attest to this fact myself, and congratulate her on her intuition (let it also be known that Granny was right as well, and may keep her perfect guess rating, lol).

The rest of the visit went very well. We saw Dr. Solomon, who assured the Little Kitty that everything was going well. He suggested Melatonin and Camomile Tea to help her sleep (she's had a pretty bad bout of insomnia lately), and antacids for her stomach (she's been having some nauseousness which the doc thought had more to do with her stomach changing positions and the subsequent acid fluxes than her being preggo sick).

So we thanked the good doctor, came home, and I went back to work. Tonight we celebrated at Chili's and went to Target, and bought our first outfit for the baby! It had dinosaurs on it. For those wondering, our theme is dinosaurs.

So that's all for this post (not that it's long enough). We also got a DVD of the sonogram, which I plan on ripping the video from tomorrow at work and posting shortly. I'll also take a picture of the clothes and post those too, just because it's fun.

Wow, a son. Guess it's time to get ready to raise a boy to grow up and be a man. Scary prospect, that. But one that'll be totally worth it.

Oh, and dinosaurs are wicked awesome.

It lives! It liiiiiiiiiiives!!

So yes, it's been almost a month since my last post. This week I plan to rectify my past laziness in keeping up with what all has been going on. Anyways, on with our story...

Me for the last few weeks: "Hey, soon I'll be able to feel the baby kicking yeah?"

Little Kitty: "Well, probably sometime in the fifth month or something."

Me: "Nah, it'll be sooner than that right?!"

Little Kitty: "I dunno, it has been kicking pretty hard. Maybe."

Little Kitty on Thursday night: "Hey, it's moving around again, wanna see if you can feel it?"

Me: "Sure!"

So I place my hand on her stomach, concentrate reeeeeal hard thinking "kick baby kick!". Lo and behold, it does! However, it has been the only time it's worked so far. Now whenever it starts to move and I try to feel it, it stops!

Well, as least it knows how to play a good joke on it's parents. That's a good sign. :)

In other news, I just got back from being gone for ten days in Utah. Now Utah is a nice state. I got to see some friends there, and I got to take about 300+ pictures of everything from the Mormon's cool stuff to cool stuff in a big graveyard to natural rivers and giant boulders. Also, I did a bunch of training there, which nearly made my head explode, but which also was a very good thing to get me moving forward in my job.

I also came to a realization while I was away. The first was just how much I would miss my wife and child-on-the-way while I was gone. You always here about it from other people who have to travel occasionally, but you don't really understand it until you haven't seen your love for over a week and you realize that there's still 2 more days and a thousand miles between you. It's not a pleasent experience, but it did lead to a second realization.

That realization is that I really am responsible for a family now. Now don't get me wrong, I've always had an OK work ethic. I would get done what I needed to get done and if I needed to put in some extra work on a rare occasion then I would go ahead, do it, and go. However, that's not necessarilly enough. I can become much, much better at what I do, and take steps to even advance my personal goals much, much more than I currently have. It will take a lot of study, and a lot of work on my part, but in the end I need to make sure that my family is provided for not only emotionally, spiritually, and physically, but financially as well.

Now this does not mean that I am going to become one of those crazy workoholics who's job comes before all else and the only thing that really matters is advancing up the ladder and making more money. However it does mean that I can take some time outside of my 8-5 job and do a little studying and a little growing to make sure that I become more than I am now.

I guess becoming a man who strives for growth in all areas of life, not just the parts they find shiny, is part of becoming a father too.

Hey look! I'm growing up!

P.S.: On July 29th we have our wicked-awesome sonogram where we find out if it's a boy or a girl!

Woohoo!

P.S.S.: Yes, those are robots playing soccer. Doesn't technology rock?!

small change

I've had more than one blog over the years, and while perusing through old material, I came across this:

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so i'm in the shower today, and i'm thinking...what's changed in me lately?

now...i'm not talking about small changes. i'm not talking about...haircuts, or what kind of toothpaste i use or even...what my job is going to do.

i mean, that's all good and well and all, but what about...spiritually?

and its easy to say, and we hear it all the time that you grow and you adjust and you ease into being a good christian...but is that enough? i mean, Christ didn't call people to making small little changes and "ease into" being a christian.

we see him calling people out of their entire worlds. in luke 9:59 he asks this guy to follow him and this guy asks, just to go bury his own, father. and Jesus, he didn't miss a beat and said "let the dead bury their own dead". even in the very next verse, Jesus tells someone else to follow him and they ask to say goodbye to their family, and Jesus tells him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." and i don't know about you but...that seems radically different than what we hear today. i mean, if you told someone that what do you think they'd say?

but that's the point, isn't it? Jesus didn't call us to some...humdrum life where we can just change a little bit and be like him. he called us...to change. and not just change to this, this...culturized, sunday-wednesday church that comes in, sings some songs, and goes to lunch.

but you can't change radically all the time, but you can make radical changes in your life more than once, and more than twice. and if you haven't...if i haven't...then there's something wrong and we need to fix it.

and we need to do it now. we need to change ourselves so radically that we never even know who we used to be. we need to change ourselves to be so much like Christ that anyone, and everyone, that used to know us doesn't know what happened to us.

and i'm not saying that...that it's somehow bad or wrong or that you're lost if you don't change as fast as the next person or you don't know how to radically change your life or you just...don't understand what the big deal is yet. but just going day to day isn't enough. just being a "nice person" isn't enough. if we're not trying and striving and sweating and bleeding to change...is it enough?

and we're not perfect. we're going to fall and trip and stumble and crash, and burn sometimes...but only, if we're trying as hard and as long as we possibly can to be more...like...Jesus.

and if we're not...we need to fix that. we need to find someone, anyone, that can help us be who we know we need to be so that we don't...get left with this small change scenario when we are called and created to be so...much...more...

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I hope i can express this to my children one day. obviously my parents did something to help me realize that myself.

I don't worry really, about raising decent children who grow up to be decent adults.

Sometimes though, I worry about raising truly great children who grow up to be truly great men or women of God. It'll be tough to figure out, I'm sure, but I'm willing to put in the effort to help make it happen.

Guess it's time to get started on me. :-)

Father's Day

I didn't write the song at the bottom, but it sums up what I think of my dad. Without him I'd have gotten nowhere, and even though he thinks we made it easy to be a good dad, he made it easy to be a good kid. I look around and see so many guys, both kids and adults, and wonder what went wrong. Chances are they didn't have a father to back them up, show them how to live a good life, and how to be a man. If I manage to be as good of a dad to my kids as mine was to me, it's to his credit (along with mom), but there are certain things that you can only learn from a good father, and I've learned an aweful lot, and I learn more every day even when I don't talk to him. To me that's the mark of not just a great dad, but a great man and a great man of the Lord above.

What's a dad for dad?
Tell me why I'm here dad
Whisper in my ear that I'm growing up to be a better man, dad
Everything is fine dad
Proud that you are mine dad
Cause I know I'm growing up to be a better man

Father I will always beThat same boy that stood by the sea
And watched you tower over me
Now I'm older I wanna be the same as you
What's a dad for dad?
Taught me how to stand, dad
Took me by the hand and you showed me how to be a bigger man, dad
Listen when you talk, dad
Follow where you walk, dad
And you know that I will always do the best I can

Father I will always be
That same boy that stood by the sea
And watched you tower over me
Now I'm older I wanna be the same as you
The same as you

When I am a dad, dad
I'm gonna be a good dad
Do the best you could, dad
Always understood, dad
Tell me I was right, dad
Opened up my eyes, dad
Glad to call you my, dad

Thank you for my life dad.

Not Cutting the Baby in Half

So today was our first appointment with the new doctor. His name (as the title suggests) is Doctor Solomon. He came complete with a great attitude, jokes, and a beard, just like we picture King Solomon in the Bible. Well...with the beard at least.

Anyways, to continue the story, we got down to the hospital with little delay, and within short notice we (she) had refilled out all her paperwork and we were called in to see the doctor.

So he came in, insisted that we not get up from our seats, and welcomed us warmly and started asking a bunch of questions. The Little Kitty answered them all and had some of her own. The whole time he was very considerate and made a point to go into detail on many health issues and/or things we didn't quite understand. This was rather nice, as the previous doctor, while seeming competent enough, didn't seem have quite the bedside manner we were looking for.

There was no ultrasound this time, but Doc Solomon did bring his microphone thing, and upon putting it to LK's belly, we once again got to hear the "thumpthumpthumpthump" of the Little Monster's beating heart (at 168 beats per minute). This time though, we heard a weird "whoosh" sound. Upon seeing the odd looks on our face, he told us that that was the baby's kick! I didn't know babys made sounds when they kicked, but apparently they do! That was really really cool. A couple seconds later we heard a "beep beep...beep beep", and the doctor told us that it was not, in fact, the baby, but rather that his microphone thing needed new batteries.

So overall it was a great treat to go. Great doc, great place, and the Little Kitty felt it was a bit more "homey" than the last place, so what's good for her is good for me.

Release the Beast!

Countdown!

Widgets are pretty neat things. You can see that I've added a countdown timer for when the baby is supposed to be here. Every week the picture will change and bit by bit you can see what stage it's in as is grows into a larger little monster. Hoorah!

In other news, the Little Kitty has decided to change doctors. While the last one seemed perfectly confident, she didn't really seem that excited about what was going on. Her nurse was very nice and joyful for us, but she had this kind of "meh" attitude which kind of turned us off. The new guy (yes, guy) is supposed to be really good and was suggested by our general practitioner, and we go to the appointment with the new doc on Monday. I think I'm going to try and steal a friends audio recorder and record the heartbeat. That'd be fun. :-)

Other than those couple of updates, there's not a lot to report. I will however have a new post once we get back to the doctor, complete with new pictures (hopefully) to put up. I've also gotta find where the wifey put the ultrasound picture and get it posted...maybe I'll remember that next time too!

I hope my kids get the Little Kitty's memory, mine seems to short out way too often, heh.

As a side note, I doubt our doctor will be as sinister as Doctor Wiley at the top, but it's the only picture I could find, so there. :-)

Adios!