How We Roll

Baby Shock officially has a set of wheels, TWO sets of wheels actually.  My wonderful department at work surprised me with the GRACO snap n' go stroller we registered for (as well as some items to help baby fit confortably in his car seat).



















I was caught off-guard because they gave me my gift early instead of waiting till the shower at work. Aunt Lisa and Uncle Steve had planned on getting us that stroller, but the QA department beat them to it. So instead, they bought Baby Shock his second set of wheels, a bright orange Chico umbrella stroller. He'll be able to roll in that one as soon as he can sit up on his own.  It is really nice and compact, so we'll be using that for travelling for sure. No matter what set of wheels he chooses, Baby Shock will be riding in style. Our heartfelt thanks go out for these two wonderful gifts.

Hook em' Horns!

Lauren and Teri have been telling me that they can't control themselves when it comes to buying Shock Jr. baby clothes. They sent me a package last week with a great variety of sizes of clothes. Included was a little something to remind me of home: Thanks ladies for making sure our little one is ready when we finally get down to Austin.

Shower Invitiations

A dear friend is throwing my work baby-shower for me in May and invitations were handed out today. She used a picture from another friend's arsenal of photos. They are so cute, I had to post :) Thanks Loree, they turned out great!

That wasn't so bad afterall

Today I had my 28 week appointment, which involved a glucose tolerance test. They gave me a bottle of sugary-goodness last appointment to drink for this appointment. Luckily they gave me fruit punch and not the orange, because I've heard the orange tastes like flat orange soda. Mine tasted like a very sweet Hawaiian Punch. You have to down it within five minutes, and I managed to get mine down in two. I felt an immediate sugar rush, which Shock Jr seemed to enjoy. I had heard many horror stories of this test, but I did not get the jitters or any incredible headaches everyone promised. Maybe this past week of Easter candy and sweets got me prepared. I have to wait for a call back for the blood test results, but Dr. Zaita seemed to think I don't have anything to worry about. The rest of the exam is the usual stuff: pee in a cup, weigh-in, blood pressure, fundal height measurement and listening to the heart beat. Everything looked great and we heard a nice strong heart beat as usual. My waiting time between appointments are getting shorter; three weeks to my next visit, then every two weeks from then on. Holy cow...time is flying!

Home Movies

We bought a camcorder to record the important moments and adventures in Shock Jr.'s life. It's a Panasonic SDR-H40 hard disc drive (HDD) camcorder. Damn is it small! This is our first camcorder. I'm a gadget guy. I love my toys. So of course I wanted to play around with it. So I read the instruction manual cover to cover (NERD ALERT!) and got to work, I mean play. I present to you the very first Shock Family video entitled "The Nursery".



It's the director's cut, a.k.a. "unedited". There is a loud, gratuitous throat clearing that I added for effect. In my excitement I forgot to describe some of the items in the video in my voice over. The clock on the wall is a "Hey Diddle Diddle the Cow Jumped Over the Moon" clock. The baby monitor is on the window sill by the crib. An animal mobile hangs over the crib. Jennifer's mobile she had when she was a baby hangs over the glider but I didn't even get that in video. I'm a dumbass. Hopefully the quality of the home movies improves as the quantity increases.

Suggested Baking Time

So the other morning I was thinking to myself that 9 months can really seem like a long time. I do realize that human beings are complex mammals and understandably they should be allowed to bake as long as necessary to reach perfection, but my goodness it seems as if time has begun to stand still. I think we are just anxious to see our little mini-me and who he resembles. I did a little research on how long other moms in the animal kingdom have to wait to meet their little ones. Let's just say I won't be complaining about my short 9 months. The longest gestation for a mammal is the African Elephant. Baby elephants get a free ride for 22 months, that's almost 2 years! "Holy cow!" you say, but the Alpine Black Salamander doesn't get to meet her young for 38 months!Can you imagine carrying a baby in your belly for 3 years? No. Thank. You. (Talk about a face only a mother could love.) I think that once my Spring semester is over at the end of this month, I will be able to start letting it sink in that there will be a baby here in 3 months, at which point I will run around in a panic screaming "There's not enough time!" Luckily I have a wonderful partner-in-crime that will help me with all of the preparations necessary...whew!