Philadelphia and several firsts

This weekend John and I went to Philadelphia for our friend's wedding.

The new couple, Tara and Jaron, enjoying a

toast on the balcony after the wedding ceremony.

It was an exciting weekend not only because I got to see many of my friends from vet school, but also because John, Orzo, and I experienced a lot of 'firsts'. I experienced round ligament pain after rolling over too fast during the night and sciatica pains shooting down my right leg while trying to walk from the car into a restaurant for dinner. I would prefer to forget those firsts. The real exciting moment, that we will remember, is that John finally got to feel Orzo kick for the first time.

24 weeks and counting . . .

Getting Ready for the Baby

Everyone has a different way of getting ready for the arrival of a new baby.


Dad prepares by completing projects around the house . . .



John is starting to install a light fixture in the babies room (or what will eventually be the babies room, don't worry we didn't start off by installing a computer and modem in her room). Mom is standing by nervously because the tool John is using is the exact same one that his brother used a few months ago and sent him to the emergencey room to get stitches on his hand.

Success!!

Mom prepares by nesting . . .

...which includes obsessively organizing all the hand me down clothing and other baby stuff lent to her by her sister Lisa, her sister-in-law Lisa, and her friend Manon. And purging all the junk we have accumulated over the years by selling things on Ebay, Craig's List, and multiple trips to Goodwill. John is a little worried I'm going to get over zealous in getting rid of stuff that I'm going to start selling things that we actually need and use regularly.

The cats prepare by getting used to all the new baby stuff in their own special way...

Here is Reggie sound asleep in my niece Ella's baby carseat.

Half-Baked

At 20 weeks pregnant, our little girl is halfway there!!! She is very active, kicking and punching frequently. Now that we know we are having a girl, John and I have been busy making lists of possible names. Yesterday, while she was particularly active, John wanted to give her the opportunity to pick her own name. He proceded to yell out names to her and planned on continuing through our list until she kicked. She responded to the third name, but unfortunately John went rogue and instead of calling out a name on our approved list, called out Scallywag. I can't decide which is a worse actual name for a little girl Scallywag or Orzo?

Mom and baby at 20 weeks

For those of you that don't know we recently found out that our dog, Franklin, has cancer. Fortunately, since his mom is a Vet we found the cancer very early. He had surgery last week to remove a tumor on his small intestine, the surgery should be curative and it is unlikely that the cancer has spread. He has taken awhile to recover, but this weekend was back to himself going for long power walks on the beach where we were on vacation in Maine.