Wanted: Mary Poppins, please!

So with all the musical dance numbers and associating with chimney sweeps on the streets of London aside...what we really want these days is Mary Poppins. She was, in fact, practically perfect in every way, wasn't she? Is that why they NEVER mention paying her $400 a week in the movie?

I'm not kidding you...we've been quoted by one lady for $400 A WEEK! Um...no. Thankfully several of you have sent us your leads for child care options and here's where we cast our net even wider.

We need help. Finding child care is a priority for us now, even though you may think it's too early to start looking, you'd be mistaken. How do we know? Well, because we're on 5 different waiting lists already, with not much hope to be moved up the ladder.

I know this is torture for you mom, and it pains us to have to be looking for someone when we know the perfect person lives a measly 400 miles away, however, your option for you to take Stuffy during the week and "let us have him" during the weekend just won't cut it! As Brad put it last night...we need to "steal" someone's grandma here in town.

Really, we're looking for someone(s) that will provide tons of love and attention on our little guy when we're at work. Especially while he's just a little squirt, I don't need to know they have a fancy curriculum, etc. I just want someone who can give him the attention an infant deserves and requires. We're open to someone who can come to us, or us to them. And, sad to say, but money is a factor in this decision, so we need someone who is affordable (i.e. under the $400 a week mark).

If you know of someone who may be a good candidate for us starting care in September, let us know and we'll follow up with them.

Till then, it's a spoon full of sugar till we find that Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious person!

Belly Laughs

So... today is officially 21 weeks and 1 day. I wore a shirt to work today that I've had for about 2 years. It's NOT a maternity shirt, although, every time I've worn it in the past, I've asked Brad," does this make me look pregnant?"

This morning I didn't even have to ask. See why? And yes, I'm just now over the HALF WAY mark... (eeeek!)

I've only gained about 12 pounds since before I was pregnant (but it is coming on much quicker now than in the 1st trimester...can anyone say Tagalongs?)

We thought these pics were fun and showed off Mr. Stuffy in a glorious, all-belly sort of way!

ps... from Stuffy

So, Mom totally forgot to give everyone a Stuffy update, so here it goes.

1. I am about 7" tall right now. For those of you out there who like to measure in the way of real life objects : that's as tall as a beer bottle.

2. Based on the last doctor's visit, right now I weigh anywhere between 14-15 oz. Translated to Mom, that's about 5 pounds gained in the last 2 weeks (and she thought she was never going to gain after the "loss" of the first 3 months-- HA!)

3. I enjoy teasing Mom with movements that make her wonder if that was me or if it was something she ate. Although, I couldn't resist the other night doing a jig on top of her full bladder. It freaked her out, mission accomplished.

4. As of Friday night, Dad had a great idea for a name, Mom agreed, and I liked it because I did some sort of jab-kick-punch to cast my vote. I'm kinda excited to have another name to hear besides Stuffy. Although, don't get your hopes up that they'll give it up to you guys, they're afraid some of you will totally hate it and burst their bubble. So, for now, all you lucky folks get to call me Stuffy....or Mister Stuffy, if you like!

That's all from the womb for now! Later alligator!

House wishes and survey dreams

Sorry we fell off the blogging wagon till today, it's been a busy weekend that rolled right into a busy weekend. For perspective, I only got in about a 30 minute nap all weekend! :)

Most of our time has been consumed over obsessing about details of the new (hopeful) house. Now, we need something from all of you. On the count of 3, everyone reading this think super, crazy happy thoughts for us that the survey/ appraisal happening this week goes really, really well. This is one of those benchmark moments for us (as of Friday) that we need to go in our direction to keep things going smoothly. It's a long story, but we ordered an additional survey (that we don't have to pay for) to clear up a discrepancy that shows between the current owner and the owner before that's title inquiry. All I can say at this point without weighing you all down with the problem is the magic number is anything above 791.8. So ready? Get your happy thoughts ready to blast out there... 1....2.... 3!

In other Girton news, we enjoyed a great dinner out with Brian (it was his birthday on Friday!) and Marlene and Jim. Always fun to get us all together and it turns out that "The Trails" wasn't just for crashing weddings after all! (Though I wonder if we made into a few pictures of a family reunion that was going on in the background?)

Saturday brought snow to our neck of the woods and our good friend Jennifer! Jennifer, if many of you don't know, is quite skilled in the way of cabinet knob replacement. If you ever have a craving for Tagalongs and need to replace about 25 cabinet knobs in your apartment, Jennifer's great to have around! She's also incredibly good at making you feel great about your choice in baby clothes and even offers great advice on baby naming. Jen, maybe you should offer this as a service to the public? Thanks for coming over to help, keep me company and scoff at Brad's attempts to take over our little project! :)

Saturday evening I was lucky enough to not have to take a math quiz (like someone I'm married to...but he rocked it with another A !!!!) so I went to the O'Grady's for a Davis family February birthday celebration spectacular. It was a lot of fun to see everyone together and get caught up with that side of "my family" that I may not see as often.

Yesterday was a tasty breakfast at Brunchies with the Lewis family. Big news-- Abby is getting a new kitty cat today or tomorrow, so we're super happy for them. Here's hoping for many more breakfast get togethers and play dates once we get the house over in your new 'hood!

The rest of Sunday was spent doing "sunday things". Brad organized a little formula and diaper drive for the Perry Triplets- which meant we had a reason to go to Babies R Us and look at a few things for ourselves, too. It was CRAZY busy and to our credit, we ventured into the 6 aisles of "Infant Care" (there should be dramatic music playing for that part). Those aisles overwhelm me-- so much little stuff and things to put places I didn't think they made things to put in those places (really, why must we put our offspring through the rigors of that kind of thermometer?)

All in all, it was a good but busy weekend. Here's to a little quieter week, but with great news about the house survey and more opportunities for napping next weekend!

Baby 101 with the Perry 3

Last night, Brad and I had a chance to initiate ourselves into the world of newborns. Our friend from work, Sam and his wife Abby were kind enough to welcome us into their home and help out (although I think we got more help than we gave) with their new triplets. What did we learn?

1. Triplets are cute.
2. 6 pound babies are tiny, especially in Brad's arms.
3. Brad can change a diaper and feed -burp a baby very well.
4. Babies squirm and squeak and then squeak and squirm.
5. Dogs like babies and wish they could have their own Boppy Pillow. (we'll consider that for Mazy - it'd have to be a VERY LARGE one, though!)
6. Dr. Brown bottles may not be so great after all.
7. Something called a sleep sack could be one of the coolest things ever. (Do they make those in adult sizes?)
8. Babies fall asleep while eating. Just when you think they're done....NO!
9. Burping is an art form.
10. We hope we are as laid back and relaxed with our 1 baby as Sam and Abby are with their 3!

Sam & Abby - you guys rock! Thank you so much for letting us come and take a test drive with your munchkins. Whether you feel this way or not, your easy-going attitude and the fact that you genuinely seem to enjoy this crazy early part of babydom gives us huge hope that we'll feel the same way when it's our turn.

To Sam, from Brad : I got the impression that perhaps good fathering skills come with the beard...I think I'll keep mine for a while longer! I've been getting flack for mine because according to some, babies don't like it...I think not!

To Abby, from Heather: If I start dreaming about fruit, I'm blaming you.

To Milo, from Mazy (the pups): Sooo...this guy who came to prep you for the baby....did he respond well to belly-showing or should I play it tough?

To the triplets, from Brad & Heather: We SO know you guys were putting on a good show last night with your quiet, occasional squeaks and non-poopy diapers. Brad in particular appreciated his first go-around being an "easy" one. However, we're not fooled. Take it easy on your mom and dad, especially during those early am feedings! Keep up the good weight gain!

Busted!

Sooo....at 11:30am today, our Girl Scout cookie order arrived. It is now 2:46pm and I am eating the last Tagalong in a box that was opened at 12:15pm. To my credit Brad had about 2 of the cookies from the first row (and they are in short, horizontal rows, not tubes like Thin Mints).

At about 2:30pm I was hungry. I wanted cookies. I took my box of opened Tagalongs to two nearby co-workers and offered them some. They graciously declined. So, I did what any pregnant girl would do...I said, "okay, but do me a favor, if Brad asks you, tell him you had some because I'm about to finish this box!" While one co-worker said, "I'll say I had 2!" My other co-worker said "Uh-oh!" and pointed behind me.

Guess who was standing there while I was staging my cookie coup? ....

House inspection...check, check!

Hey everyone! We just came back from our house inspection this afternoon. It went great! The biggies that we were advised (by a lot of you, thank you!) to ask about were all affirmative. I.e. No aluminum wiring (common to that time of construction and the area), newer breaker box, furnace, a/c, etc. The inspector was very thorough, and took his time walking us through the key points of where everything was and how it worked and didn't seem bothered at all by me asking "what's that?" and "how old is that?" about 50 times. I was tempted to ask "Why?" and then make him show me the proof of what he was saying in an encyclopedia, but I stopped doing that somewhere in elementary school, after wearing mom and dad out with that practice for years!

The seller (investment company guy) and a few of his staff were there putting in some final smoke detectors, etc. The inspector guy was impressed with their work because they went above and beyond on a few pieces that according to him and our realtor most folks wouldn't have. The funniest thing was when he was going over the report details with us, the only thing that was left as a "needs fixing" was that the patio door deadbolt was listed as not extending fully. The investment guy laughed and didn't believe him. They placed a bet because the investment guy showed all of us that it turned to 90 degrees. Inspector guy said "yeah, but watch this" then pulled out a screwdriver and opened it from the inside buy prying it with the screwdriver. The hold for the bolt wasn't drilled far enough for the bolt to click locked. Five minutes later, one of the workmen brought over a drill and Inspector guy tried to break in from the inside again... it was secure!

Found out that our attic goes the length of the house and that in the storage area the previous homeowners left a few things for us...a rocking horse being one of them. Investment guy says he'll throw that in for us free of charge...hahahaha. I personally am just as weirded out by attics as basements, so Brad has attic duty from here on out.

On the Stuffy front, he's making his presence known a little bit more every day...either that or my stomach is cranking out some weird twitches and twinges (could be all the vanilla ice cream we've been consuming!) He's very excited by the house, we think.

Mazy and Nala on the other hand have no clue what's about to happen, although Nala's on high alert with the presence of boxes now in the apartment. That cat's been around the block to know what boxes and packing tape means. Thankfully she's taking it in stride for now.

Back to work tomorrow after a nice long weekend...these short weeks somehow always seem to be the longest, though. Hope everyone has a great week!!

A post from the Pops

18 Million commercials...tonight they seemed to have added a ton more commercials in between survivor scenes. Or....Heather just happened to have it on CSI. Now onto the real post...from the dad's side.

Since I'm in class right now (online for a Computer Information Systems degree), I thought I'd share some things as if I was a teacher. So first things first...whoever thought our baby would be a girl, you all were wrong...it's a boy and we decided to let everyone know the name we picked out and it is.............................................just kidding, you didn't think it would come that easy did you?

Lesson #2, 0 comments; this is what we've saw on every post but 1 (a huge shout out to Jennifer for showing the love). So here we go...Comment: com·ment - noun - meaning "A statement of fact or opinion, especially a remark that expresses a personal reaction or attitude". So feel free to show some love on our posts to let us know what you think, it won't harm anything or hurt our feelings...and if it does, we'll delete it!

Now enough of the studies. Heather is doing awesome, just very tired. We felt after this weekend that we were on a huge rush for so long, and after finding out we got the house and figured out we are having a baby boy, we just crashed and we still aren't up to par yet. So we're very glad the 3-day weekend is almost here so we can relax and do a little packing when we feel like it.

So I'm going to end on this note, as quite a few of you probably received Heather's e-mail, but if you didn't, let us know if you know of anyone who is in need of an apartment for a 6 month lease with an opportunity to extend after the 6 months. Feel free to e-mail us anyone you might think could take over our rent.

So I'm out of here for now, Survivor is almost over and it's about bed time for us...yes I know, 9:00 pm...we're pretty crazy!

Have a good weekend everyone and look forward to a new picture of Heather on Sunday!

Quick Post, Big News!

It's a BOY!!!! Here are the ultrasound pictures (there are tons, but these are pretty easy to see stuff without wondering too much what you're seeing!)

We'll post more about today's experience later, but the highlight had to be the ultrasoundist, after many tries finally saying... "And there's the turtle!"
Enjoy!

First set: nice profile shots.

Second set: Profile with a hand, two feet, on his belly showing off his nice backbone.
This set: Showing dad his future pitching arm, good face-front shot, the "turtle" shot (with arrow),
Last set: another shot of "the turtle", I think a foot (not sure), and a funny two elbows touching two knees (like he's doing a crunch)

This week, baby wanted ice cream and a house!

Yep, Stuffy was craving some vanilla ice cream this week, and oddly enough wanted a house. So, we did what any good parent does, we got the baby whatever it wanted and we went to the store to buy the ice cream and as of Saturday, we signed a agreement letter for a new house!!!!!

Here it is:

You can go to this website and see more pictures: http://c21scheetz.com/homesearch.htm?scope=ALL&id=34383804&action=detail

Of course, we are so excited to be moving into our first house and the next month (until closing) will be a hectic one while we go through our first buying experience (the paper work already is crazy!)

In other news since last week, I've been on the end of the "odd things people say and do when you're pregnant". I'm boggled by people who just randomly try to (and sometimes succeed)touch my stomach. Seriously? And, for those who know me well know there is a hula hoop size "personal space" force field around me that has been in place since I was a kid. I just stare in amazement and do my very best to keep myself from reaching over and rubbing the offender's (non-pregnant) belly and making many sarcastic comments. The other strange thing is people who are evidently former employees of the Psychic Network, because they enjoy making random statements about the gender and appearance of Stuffy. Like this stranger who just stared at my belly and looks at me and just says " Boy. Brown Hair." she repeated the three words about 4 times until I realized she was "prophecizing" about the baby. And, again, those of you who know me will not be surprised that I was 1 second away from saying "Girl. Blonde Hair." Unfortunately this conversation rolled into this same fortune teller letting me know that at least I'm as far along as I am because this is the month that I can buy things because the baby could die any time.

Seriously???????????? Who says this to someone who is as obviously with child as I am? (um..check out the belly pictures to see the beach ball that has lodged itself in my abdomen...4 more months and Brad's going to start selling ad space on my belly for extra money!)

My other vent from last week? People who do one or both of the following...and if you are one of the people who have done this already, I probably should apologize for complaining, but the truth is I'm cringing on the inside when it happens. 1. Being called "Little Mama" I am neither little or anyone's "mama" who is able to verbally express it yet. It's weird and somehow skews with the fact that when I was little I called my mom "momma" (I'm from Tennessee, so yes, I said y'all and momma a lot). It's a name that just seems to make the person saying it laugh to themselves and I don't get the joke.

2. People who have taken "ownership" of our child who have absolutely no family-friend connection. For instance...people who introduce conversations by critiquing what I'm eating because I need to take care of "our" baby...or "How is my grandbaby doing today"....Um, the last time I checked the only 3 people who have ANY right to say that sentence are 2 & 7 hours away and they have been on incredibly good behavior when I know that all they want to do is be nearer to us and share in every moment. I've always been a little quick to judge when people step over those "I know you" lines when they really don't...and I'll tell you what, this baby is making me crazy protective lately! The last person to exclaim concern over me traveling to work because of the weather possible harming "our baby" caused me to slam my hand on a table and the words "It's NOT..." actually came out of my mouth before my filter kicked in and I just stopped. The person didn't even notice I was about to finish what probably would have hurt their feelings. However, other people's feelings aside...I'm starting to feel like the people who make these comments aren't considering our feelings and honestly (even though they wouldn't know it) sort of rubs in the fact that all of our blood relatives are not near us.

That's when we're grateful for friends who are indeed family (shout out to the O'Grady, Davis, Shepherd and Noffze houses) and technology that lets us call Chattanooga, Winamac, Lafayette, Atlanta, Italy and others so we can feel connected. And, thank GOODNESS there are all sorts of crazy-good friends at work who help balance out those that make us want to spit nails.

Wow. I needed to vent! And, what I need now is another cup of ice cream and more staring at pictures of the new house!!!!

Oh, yeah...we find out if it's a boy or girl tomorrow morning, so tomorrow's blog post should be a good one!!!! Later everyone!

Something fun!

Today's highlights: 2 pieces of chocolate cake in 20 minutes, exciting resource found at work (made even more exciting by the sugar rush from the cake), toured a great house that would be our ideal first house, went to the hospital only to find out that the expo had been cancelled (not so great, but wasn't out of our way), and wrapped up the evening with some tasty Hamburger Helper and (hooray) leftover apple pie!

Since today wasn't incredibly eventful, we thought it would be fun for you guys to get a glimpse of what Stuffy may look like! Can you guess which of us is which (except for our moms, of course!) Have fun.

Apple pie caught my eye!

Not only did the idea of "needing" an apple pie come into my mind...I decided to do something about it. I made the apple pie you see below, entirely from scratch. Oh yeah, I said from scratch - even the crust. Holla at ya pregnant, baking girl!






What I really wanted was apples and marshmallows.... Go figure, I found a recipe at Allrecipes.com that was an apple pie topped with marshmallows. The crust recipe I found was the pie crust equivalent of a sugar cookie. When this baby wants sweets--it wants SWEETS! Even Brad liked the pie and he's not an apple pie guy.


This weekend was also a huge success because of Saturday's Once Upon a Child sale. (this is a second-hand kids clothes store) we found out last week that they were having a $15 all-you-can-fit-in-the-bag sale. Nothing like saving money and a pseudo challenge/ competition. Brad and I went with the strategy that he would be the muscle, if needed - though I was ready to throw some elbows if necessary. We'd been warned that it could get crowded and fierce. We got there in line about 10 minutes before they opened, started in on the first rounders we saw for "neutral" baby stuff. About 30 minutes later, thanks to Brad's tight rolling of tiny clothes in a pink plastic shopping bag, we walked out with 27 items--that would have been $117.00 if we'd paid the clearance price....for $15!!!!!! We were proud at another bargain for baby.


After all that competitive shopping, we spent the rest of the weekend milling about and resting in the apartment. Tomorrow we're looking at a house after work-- something that if it worked out would be a great find...but since we're not in a rush, there's no harm in looking and seeing what happens. And, we go to a maternity expo tomorrow night. Hopefully we'll get an idea of who could be Stuffy's future pediatrician and get some freebies!


I'm off for some more pie!