The Name Game

Everyone has been asking if we have chosen a name for BBF (Baby Boy Fein) so I thought we should just confirm that YES, we have chosen a name. Furthermore, NO, we will not tell you! :) We have elected to keep the name a secret so everyone will have a nice surprise on his Birth day. Additionally we would like to keep our options open, just in case another name comes along... we would hate for people to send us blankets with a name embroidered only to have us change our fickle minds. So basically we are keeping it a secret for your benefit. That's right, this secrecy is all for you.

Also, no, we will not give you a hint. Not even the initials. We are using the English alphabet so that tells you there are only 26 letters it could possibly be. And No, if you guess we will not tell you if you are right, wrong, hot, cold or close. Don't expect us to slip up either because we have spent the last 5 months affectionately referring to BBF as "Barry"and will call him that until his birth.

Ok, how about if we tell you that we are NOT naming him Barry. According to my Baby Name book The Very Best Baby Name Book; 60,000+ Names, that means there are only 59,999 possibilities and half of those are for girls. I know, that was a generous hint. You're welcome.

Snow Everywhere!

Yesterday (Wednesday) I woke up early to check on "Winter Storm '08" (duh, duh , dummmm...) and found there was no snow on the ground and the news channels said there was not any snow in the Seattle area (it was all further north or south). Driving to work, the news reported that the Kirkland and Bellevue school districts would be closed... while i was driving through Kirkland and Bellevue with no snow in sight. Most all my coworkers made it to work and we all laughed at the weatherman and scoffed at how they were making a mountain out of a mole hill. Well, i woke up this morning to 3 inches of snow and big, fat flakes falling. I was unable to get off of the hill we live on so it was a "snow day" for our family as Mike worked from home. My house is now pretty clean and nearly every piece of fabric in the house has been washed, dried and folded and I started on a baby quilt. Very productive.

After I called work, I got back into bed with Mike and Winston and while they snoozed i watched the flakes fall past the bedroom window. The house was completely silent... the furnace was between cycles, the refridgerator was not humming, people were still inside at 7am... it was so peaceful and it made me think that this was one of those perfect moments in life. Absolutely beautiful to all my senses. And then I thought about how this moment may not happen again for a really long time with a baby who does not understand snooze buttons or snow days. And so I decided to stay in bed for a couple more hours cuddled up with the family. It was wonderful.

Now, Seattle does not have many snow events, maybe just 1 a year or 1 every other year but snow isn't that much of a novelty, especially becuase you can hit a ski slope about 60 minutes from town. Oddly enough, my sister Chyna called me this morning from Las Vegas and said "IT'S SNOWING! AGAIN!" and that the schools in LV had closed today. In my 18 years living in that town, i only recall it snowing twice and I didn't even know what a snow day was. I just flipped on the tv and the national news is showing pictures of The Strip with palm trees covered in snow. Weird. It's like hell freezing over. Now THAT is a novelty and Chyna can tell her kids about the "Winter Storm '08."

It does look like we will be in for bad weather and driving for the next several days but it will warm up before Christmas so no White Christmas this year. Mike played with Winston a little bit out side... Winston LOVES snow and ice and so he was in heaven today.

Kid Brother And Meeeee!

Here's a photo of my little brother Jonathan and I at our PreSchool probably about 1984... i think Jon is about 3 here. I can swear I remember taking this picture, but then again it is one of my favorites so I can't be sure that I am not conjuring this memory from the photo. Thanks for scanning the pic mom. I miss my lunch box. I also miss being bigger than my little brother (he is more than 6 inches taller than me now... but I got him in girth!)

Additionally here are some costumes that my mom sewed when we were kids (in reference to my first post about the Roman Monkey costume).

Me & Jon in our panda and racoon suites; Cousin Terra as Mrs. Santa Claus and me as a snowflake in the Christmas pagent; Me as a Star during the Christmas pagent; cousins Terra, Derrick and me in a rabbit cosutme (this is the first Halloween I actually have memories of)

Bump at 30 Weeks

I know... you're speachless!

Hiccup-o-pot-a-mus

Although I have read that babies can have hiccups in utero, I had totally forgotten about it until someone brought it up late last week. At the suggestion, I began thinking about this funny series of movements I had occasionally been feeling and made a "note to self" to pay attention next time. Well, since last Friday I think this kid has had the hiccups about twice a day every day! I am sure that I am feeling hiccups because they are low in my belly where his head is and they are more or else rhythmic in frequency... the most similar sensation to compare it to is as if I can feel a little heartbeat. Very cool. Not sure if twice a day is more or less than usual so I will ask the doc when I see her on Wednesday.

My kid may be a hiccup-o-pot-a-mus but I feel like a hippopotamus! I'm still not sure how I can possibly get any bigger...

An End to Monkey Business

I wanted to share a picture of the completed Roman Monkey that I blogged about in November. If you click here you will be directed to a photo albulm of all the monkeys that were submitted; in the end they decided that "everyone was a winner" which upsets my competetive side however there were a lot of cute entries. The monkeys were taken to Ronald McDonald House which houses families of extrememly ill children that are being treated at Seattle Children's Hopsital. When they delivered the monkeys, they lined them all up on a large couch to take photos during which time a father without his child happened by. My coworker informs me that the man said he just had to get one for his son at which time he emphatically stated that our Roman Monkey had to be The One. Therefore my competivite side has rationalized that our monkey was clearly the winner. :)