And Now For Our Regular [Slightly Belated] Update (18 Weeks)

I know, I've been slipping on my posts again.  I've generally been trying to post at least every two weeks, but I didn't have a new pic (or a lot of news) come Wednesday, so I procrastinated.  I did have one piece of news that I'd been saving 'til the pics were loaded.  In my last post I mentioned that while Jamie and I were having The Talk he told me that he was interested in talking to one of our elders about baptism.  Well, that Saturday we sat down with Tim and talk about baptism, and Jamie decided to get baptized that Sunday morning!  For those of you who aren't familiar with our faith tradition (Church of Christ, to be specific), aside from the spiritual implications, baptism is a formal statement that an individual is choosing for themselves to be a part of the Church and dedicating their life to Christ; there is a lot more to it than that, but I'm simplifying for space.  Like I said before, kind of a big deal; we're very proud of him!

I'm happy, I swear; I just had a cold that day!

We discovered this week that Ren has apparently been curse with our wonderful eyesight.  The good news is that even though she is somewhat farsighted (like Denine), according to the doctor that's not unusual in children under 8, there is a good chance that she may grow out of it, and it doesn't need to be corrected yet.  The bad news is that she also has an astigmatism (like Denine and myself) and that does need to be corrected, though she may grow out of it, also; Denine and I have not, but we're holding out hope.  So this Thursday we spent an hour picking out just the right frames and got her first pair of glasses.  I thought she might be upset that she has to wear glasses now, but she actually seems pretty excited about it, at least for now.  It helps that the oldest girl in our life group at church wears glasses, and I think Ren kind of looks up to her like a big sister, so she's probably pumped to look a little more like Lynea.  I thought I had a good glasses pic, am actually shocked that we didn't get one as soon as we got home, but it has been pretty crazy the last couple of days.  I'll have to post one as soon as it is available.

Speaking of crazy, Fall Festival at our church was this afternoon (this has been a very church-centric post).  Denine spent most of the time manning our van for Trunk or Treating* while I went around to all of the activities with the kids.  Most of it was pretty standard fair: carnival games, bounce houses, hay ride, a dunk tank with our ministers taking turns getting wet.  The stand out attractions this year were the rock climb and mechanical bull, neither of which Ren was interested in, but Jamie did both.  The kids got out a lot of energy running me around, I forgot to bring a hat and got rather sunburned, and large quantities of candy were collected (the advantage to all of ones family manning Trunk or Treat being that you get to raid the leftover candy afterward).  Fun was had by all.

FYI:  Those are completely homemade costumes, courtesy of my wife.  10 points to anyone who can identify what obscure Star Wars character Jamie is; Ren is just a generic youngling.

Here is the latest "baby bump" picture, plus some coordinating pics.

Complete with Halloween-themed bump attire.  Look, she's smiling again in this one!

 

In case there was any doubt about what's on her shirt, it's a Jack O' Lantern.  She keeps saying that she is a Jack O' Lantern for Halloween; I keep pointing out that she looks like she swallowed a Jack O' Lantern for Halloween.  I also said that this officially means that Baby#3's first Halloween costume was a Jack O' Lantern (in utero counts; I still say Jamie's first movie was Phantom Menace, he could still hear it at -3 months old).  There was another pic in which she didn't look like a psycho, but the angle wasn't as good; sorry, Honey!

I couldn't resist posting this: Denine got showed up by a girl at the Fall Festival.  Granted, Denine isn't quite big enough to pull that off yet.  And even if she was, it'd be a cold day in you-know-where before she willingly exposed her belly in public, paint or no paint.

The next regular post may be a little late again, but on purpose this time:  the ultrasound that we will (hopefully) find out the sex of the baby is in two-and-a-half weeks, so I'll probably wait until then to post another baby update.  Maybe we'll have a quiet couple of weeks between now and then.  Just before the holidays come full force and everything gets crazy for six or so weeks.  I guess I should enjoy this year.  It is, after all, the last year that I won't be outnumbered...



*For those not in the know, "Trunk or Treating" is a standard at our Fall Festival.  All the participants line up in the parking lot, open their trunk (hatch, tailgate, etc.), and decorate their vehicles.  Then all the kids go around Trunk or Treating for candy.  I believe all of my family (my parents, my bro and sis-in-law, and ourselves) have participated every year since our church started Fall Festival; you can see the beginning of our decorations for the van in the pic of my kids above.  One of these years I'm planning to go all out Dia de los Muertos, but thus far lack the funds.

They Grow Up So Fast! Plus: New BB Pic (15 Weeks)

Well, it has finally happened:  I have had “THE TALK” with Jamie.  I was already planning on having it with him sometime in the near future, both because he is at about that age and because having a pregnant woman in the house kind of opens up that line of inquiry anyway.  The last time around he was only five, so the only question I was asked was “How does she get out of there?”  To which I replied, “The same way she got in,” which was just ambiguous enough to work; although it did not really answer the question, it somehow seemed to satisfy his curiosity at the time.  I have been looking for appropriate source material to use in the discussion, most books specifically for that purpose seem to be either far too secular and far-reaching, or far too conservative and narrow-sighted (if anyone has suggestions on a book, let me know; if I find a good one, I’ll pass it along as well).  I figured I’d get a book or two to use, read through them, and prepare what it was I wanted to say, how much I thought he needed to know, etc.  As is the case with most of my over planning, it was completely blown out of the water.

Whilst on the phone with my lovely wife, she informed me that a few days after Jamie had spent the night at his friend’s house, his parents happened to check the internet history on their computer and found several inappropriate websites.  They asked their two older teenage boys about it, and they knew nothing; they asked their younger son about it, and he also knew nothing; they asked their middle son (Jamie’s friend) about it, and he apparently freaked out.  It seems that, in the midst of searching for humorous videos on the ‘net, they stumbled upon some inappropriate site by accident and when he tried to close it even more sites popped up, as inappropriate sites are wont to do.  Jamie says that he had no idea that that happened and that he must have been looking for something on the TV at the time.  I make a deliberate habit of taking him at his word unless I have a very good reason to believe he is lying to me, so I believe him when he tells me that he did not seeing anything he shouldn’t have.  Nonetheless, I determined that I could no longer forestall the inevitable conversation; the time for “THE TALK” had arrived.

Honestly, it was not as bad as I had expected it to be, particularly considering that Jamie has a reputation for being easily embarrassed.  I concentrated on explaining to him why (physically, psychologically, and morally) sex should be reserved for married couples, and covering the basics of the actual human reproductive process.   There was a lot of embarrassed laughing and more than a few horrified/disgusted looks, but that’s to be expected; let’s face it, the human reproductive process is both quite humorous and quite revolting to an outside observer.  I also focused on letting him know that he can come to me with absolutely any question without worrying about getting in trouble, and that I’d rather him ask my advice before he makes a mistake than ask me to help him deal with one.  All in all it was a good discussion and hopefully laid the groundwork for open communication in the future.  I know one thing for sure:  I’m glad it’s Denine’s turn to have this talk the next time around.

In other news:  Not a whole lot. 

Work has been frustrating; one week we sit around twiddling our thumbs, the next we are chasing our tails to get something out on time.  We are currently working with one lead on several different projects, all the clients want their stuff done now, he is working out of the office on the other side of town, and half the time is out in the field.  Communication is such that from hour to hour nobody really knows what is going on, and nobody is around to straighten things out.  Wheeeee!  On the up side, I still have a job and am actually getting overtime on a regular basis again.  So, it’s not all bad.  And I do, almost masochistically, love a challenge...

Something (seemingly unrelated) that came out of my conversation with Jamie was his interest in learning more about baptism.  So, yeah, kind of a big deal.  I’m currently arranging for one of our elders to talk with him about it, hopefully this weekend.

Dad turned 60 last Thursday; for some reason that makes me feel old.  I think it’s because I’ve always categorized people 60 and over as “grandparent aged” and people in their 30s to 50s as “parent aged.”  I realize that my parents have also been grandparents for over a decade, but on some subconscious level I think I always thought of them more as my parents than our children’ grandparents.  Now it’s like a switch has flipped and I think of them as grandparents first.  Maybe it also has to do with us becoming less dependent on them, in a number of ways.

Last, but far from least, is the newest “baby bump” picture.  Yes, I teased you with it in the subject and made you read the whole post before I showed it to you.  Mwahahahahah!  *chooses to ignore your ability to scroll*

 Sorry, no smiling in this pic; she was at least smirking in the other one I shot, but the bump was not as well defined in it and it is, after all, the star of the show.  On a side note, we did not deliberately plan for her to be wearing the same shirt in all the baby bump pics, she just happened to be wearing it again this week.  Although it's not a bad idea, keeps things consistent...

There shouldn't be anymore actual baby pics until the next ultrasound, which is scheduled for November 17th, so everyone will just have to be satisfied with external images until then.  Hopefully we will also know the gender at that point, so there's something to look forward to with eager anticipation.  Maybe we'll even reveal the name then.  Or maybe not, I haven't decided yet.