old site archive
note: this is the archive from the pre-wordpress (blog) site. most of the links won’t work, we’re storing it here for posterity.
03.30.07
they’ve shut my office down so they can move us all to our new location this week — so i had two days ‘off,’ but was so busy with work, i did a bunch of work from home this week. so, today feels like sunday, which is why you’re getting the update now. hopefully work will slow down and i can spend some more time with the awesomest family in the world.
(sorry to all you other families out there, you’re awesomeness is sub-par in comparison).
so… where to begin…? owen got sick this week and had a bit of a fever. total trooper though, stuck it out, weathered the sickness storm and got all better… and then, well… kara got the fever. she wasn’t as much of a trooper as owen was, she claims her fever was higher. but really, kids are tougher than us all… i hope i rolled a twenty and dodged the disease… we’ll see.
huge news: owen crawled for the first time last week. we thought it might be related to the fever, but he still mosies about on the sofa and the floor. he even stood for the tinest of bits on his owen this week. big exciting stuff. to that end, he’s starting to do that assisted walk thing where he’ll hold your hands and truck about the house. it’s pretty damned funny — he’ll get going so fast that his upper body leans forward, with his legs trailing behind… he’s totally going to take a digger one of these days.
so, now all he wants to do is stand up and walk. he might skip the crawling phase all together at this point. we’ll keep you posted.
caden has his first case of the clap today — kara caught it on video. and then we updated the photos as well this week.
love and miss you all. prove to us that you exist.
03.25.07
kara and i went away for the first time this weekend. kara took me to olema in california. we stayed at the olema cottages — i totally recommend it. we’ll be going back at some point and bringing owen. they have chickens, ducks, horses and rabbits on the premises. it’s a bit hippy, but everyone there was super nice and really mellow. was a nice change of pace from the ever increasing hectic nature of my job. i think growing up sucks…
responsibility is over-rated.
owen has the clap.
yep. the clap. we don’t know where he learned it, but if you ask him to clap for you, more often than not he will. now this is confusing things at this poing as we’ve been trying to teach him sign language — and as you can imagine, clapping and “more” in sign language are pretty damn similar… but, it’s too cute to not do it, so, well, we like to see him clap.
we’re also starting to think about his 1 year birthday party… it’s crazy that it’s coming up as quickly as it is… but we’re working on plans for the backyard to finally get finished. we’re installing fake grass, as we’re too realistic about our ability to keep a lawn fresh and clean — it’s cool stuff though and i promise, it looks pretty real. that said the landscaper is coming out in a few weeks to get started on the planter boxes… all pretty exciting. his 1 year party will be here in no time, no doubt.
in other, baby related news, our good friends in japan, hisano and yasu had a baby girl. she came a bit earlier than expected, but everyone’s doing okay and little chinatsu is doing awesome, and you know me, i always root for the premie! little chinatsu is out of the incubator at this point and is tube-less, all good signs. hisano is all recovered and doing well. omedetou! with all these new babies, we’ve created the ‘friends of owen‘ gallery.
good luck to jason and ong-lee who are due soon as well. 
and kulikov! hang in there.
pictures updated…
03.11.07
ah, so i upgraded the home comptuer to windows vista ultimate – and i must say, i quite like it. since doing so, there are a few applications on my computer that don’t work exactly the same, hence the delay in updating the blog. we did update the pictures already though. we’ve now just updated the videos as well. not sure what his deal is, but he fell asleep on two different occasions at odd times… they’re pretty funny.
owen is going through another round of teething we think. he’s had a few hellish nights in the past few days which have made things a bit harder on us, but he’s worth every screaming, i-won’t-shut-up-when-you-put-me-down night. mom and dad chowanec were just up visiting, which was nice, as kara and i got to get out of the house a little bit and go to a show with some friends. tonight we’re going to walk to sushi with the little man and then enjoy a bottle of wine — the best way to spend a sunday.
i’ve since ditched dreamweaver in place of nvu for the web editing. and i must say, i’m constantly impressed with the free software that exists on the web and requires nothing from the consumer money-wise. there are a whole host of dedicated people out there that are willing to do amazing work for free.
notables:
nvu - a free web editor that i am using to update and publish the site. not as sweet of an interface as dreamweaver, but still nice nonetheless.
gallery - this is the photo gallery that we are using to power owen’s photos. again, super slick, very easy to setup and totally customizable.
zonealarm - a sweet software based firewall to keep your pc protected. it’s not ready for vista yet, which sucks, but i’d also suggest paying for the pro version… but the free one is pretty good too.
winamp - the world’s oldest (?) or at least most popular media player.
filezilla - the ftp program i use to upload files to the site.
02.24.07
my lord… sorry for such a long delay in the updates. work has been so crazy for me lately that i haven’t had time to look up, much less update the website. we did a stealth photo update last week. we’ve updated photos and videos this week. owen is 8 months old! that’s just crazy for us — we can’t believe how fast the time has gone. he is so expressive now, it’s so amazingly cool. he definitely has a sense of object permanence now –when he drops things he goes looking for them. he’s switching his toys between his hands — all good signs.
i can say this though — all those toys you buy your kids mean nothing. owen’s favorite toys remain empty water bottles and the lids to various pieces of tupperware. he could almost care less about the ‘commercial’ toys he has. he just loves the tupperware and empty bottles. it’s pretty cute though.
he is also fascinated with sesame street now… which is a nice relief. baby einstein was about to drive us crazy. at least we can watch sesame street and enjoy it. it’s a much, much smarter show than i think i ever gave it credit for. it’s actually fun for us to watch sometimes. we keep all his favorite episodes on tivo (which, if you don’t have one yet, you are seriously, seriously missing out). one of his current favorites is the natalie portman episode — everytime she comes on screen he gets all excited. we think it’s his first crush. cloth diapers are still going strong, in tandem with the potty training. kara can’t even remember the last poop-filled diaper she has changed. he fusses a bit before he has to drop the deuce and we unlatch him, throw him on the potty and, well, magic happens. i’ve just exhausted my list of duke euphamisms.
he has his first birthday party tomorrow for his friend frankie, who’s turning one. he’ll be there soon enough, which is a crazy thought. we’re trying to get the backyard ready for his party, but we’ve got quite a bit of work to do on it.
oh, and he got his first tooth finally! it’s as sharp as a razor and now when he chomps on your finger in that cute way a baby
does, it hurts like a mother trucker. it’s like a little needle digging into your skin. at least that explained the horrific nights of sleep the past few weeks… we’ll see how the next one is when it comes in. we’re trying to get a photo of the tooth, but it’s pretty hard to uncover.
photos and videos posted for your amusement…
talk soon.
01.27.07
whew. sorry for the delay… work has been a killer lately. anyway, we rounded out his 6 to 7 month gallery with photos from the past three weeks. we’re going to start on the 7 to 8 month gallery next, so hold tight.
yes, i know the age bit to the left is still busted. so, let’s see… what’s happened…
1. trip to the zoo: owen got his first trip to the zoo three weeks ago — it was family day all over san francisco, so the zoo and museums were free. he didn’t really check out the animals all that much, but we’re definitely going to continue taking him there. it’s a really low-cost way to kill some time and make it fun. our zoo doesn’t have funnel cakes, which sucks, but we’ll live.
2. swim lessons: he’s started on his swimming lessons. for the most part he doesn’t participate in the swimming, rather, he is dragged around the pool by kara. it’s cute though — they have this game (the class does) where you sit your baby on the edge of the pool and then say “humpty dumpty sat on a wall… humpty dumpty had a great fall!” and the baby falls forward into your arms and the water. we posted a video of this. if you listen closely you can hear kara singing.
3. babu food: we know we said this before, but owen is chowing (no pun intended) through his jarred baby food. he really likes the fruits.
4. potty training: yes, you read that right. kara is potty training the little man already. he’s got this little bjorn pooper that he, well, deposits into. i read this book that lets parents know that poo jokes are only funny to the parents, but i promise, it’s a kick to see him hanging out on his dooker. i wish they made little baby newspapers he could hold. we’re hoping this eases him into the act of potty training when he’s a bit more self sufficient. we’ll see.
5. cloth diapers: two reasons — 1 — see above. he’s not going in his diaper nearly as much, so changes are a bit less frequent. 2 — we saw inconvenient truth and felt like we were killing the planet. soon, we’re going to eat granola and become fruitarians.
anyway, we miss you all. if you want one of the calendars my mother keeps talking about, email us. otherwise, there’s new photos and videos posted.
talk to you soon.
01.07.07
we had a pretty busy week this week. we’re working through some ’sleep’ issues with the little man. and here’s the thing — there are too many people who think that they have all the right information to get your kid to sleep. here’s how it generally goes: you buy a book on how to make your kid sleep. you read it. you try it. and then you find another book that contradicts the first book. and then you find another book that contradicts both those books. and on and on and on.
so, at 4am, after having your kid cry for an hour and a half, to the point he has no voice any longer, you start searching the web. and it just compounds the problem. so, you’re left with no direction to try, because nothing is working or everything you read is telling you that everything else won’t work… you cannot sleep at night because the baby keeps waking up… you try to sleep through it, which makes you the biggest a-hole on the planet.
but you try and try and try. and eventually, they sleep for 12 hours straight — for one night mind you — but boy, is it a glorious night. take a wonder at what we were dealing with this week.
but… we took a ton of photos
for everyone who visits the site (all 3 of you) and we took owen to the zoo today for the first time. he mostly slept, as it was his nap time, but he got to check out the giraffes. he doesn’t recognize them yet as something to smile at, but he is increasingly loving phoebe more and more. the cats too. and food.
i’ll fix the date issue to the left as well at some point soon. bear with us.
12.29.06
whew. christmas is over! happy to report we all made it through the holidays with nary a scratch on us. we had both sets of grandparents up and michael over for the holidays - the house was pretty cramped, but all in all we had a great time. owen went berserk (well, baby berserk) under the tree and was slapping all the presents he could — which is his way of saying ‘let me open this now.’ he, however, lacks the fine motor skills to use his hands deftly enough to remove the tape and paper, so we did most of his opening for him.
he’s six months old now - hard to believe, it’s been going by so fast. he’s plowing through his baby food at this point - he knows what the spoon is. he, as with all children *i* know, hates peas, but gobbles up bananas and apples. he even makes a sour face with theapples that’s just awesome.
we’re moving him through sleep training - again! the last few nights have been rough around 3:30am, but all-in-all we’ll see how this round of training goes.
looking forward to new years - which is now just a couple of days away.
huge amounts of xmas photos are posted as well as another round of videos.
12.17.06
we realize that it has been a really long time since the last update — we’ve been so busy with work and getting ready for the holidays we didn’t realize how time was flying by.
lexie and zoe both had their babies! lexie had a little girl, lucia, on december 10th and then zoe had a little boy, mika, within 24 hours on the 11th! both of them are recovering well and both babies are simply beautiful. owen has some new friends now, which is super cool for us.
we just got back from another trip out to austin to see marc, aimee, jenny and bill. everyone is doing well. it’s the middle of december out there and its shorts weather — i think it was 75 or 80 degrees outside. was just beautiful. owen has moved from rice to “food.” he’s eating pureed banannas, yams, avocados, etc. he seems to like them all alot. he makes these really cute ‘give me more’ faces as you shovel the food into his mouth.
he’s still teething, however, so he’s a bit fussier than usual. he’s also about to hit his six month old mark this week, craziness. we can’t believe he’s growing as quickly as he can. he’s much more tactile now - loves touching things. his new favorite toy is empty water bottles which he bangs his hands on and then giggles when it hits the floor.
photos updated — videos soon.
oh, and he loves keyboards. he typed you all a message:
bwvc n n nnn bb nhhy7ujhy7ujm
?;?; cxxxxxx/.9.,bv vc bcbcrbvrjegbbgjbgvbb bbbnbgbvil..m n hn m,nm
nnm n
love you all and see most of you soon for the holidays.
11.26.06
well, the holiday break is over for me — heading back to work tomorrow. we had a really eventful week — we’ve been getting the house ready for a work party next month, took owen to his first thanksgiving dinner (thanks gards!), cut and dressed a tree (i did the cutting, kara made it pretty) and had a pancake brunch for some friends today. that, and i got to play some games i’ve been dying to try. since i work in games, everyone’s asking about the xbox 360, playstation 3 and the wii. i got to try the wii today and, let me tell you, i am dying to let owen play it at some point. it’s really inventive (something nintendo excels at) - your controller is motion based, it’s like a wand that you hold and control the action on screen. it’s super kid friendly and i’m really excited to get mine (next week).
i’m disappointed right now in the ps3 — the launch games didn’t wow me, and the console itself is 600 bucks, so i’m not getting one anytime soon. then the xbox 360 (which i secretly want for the holidays this year) is a really nice machine as well. it can double as a media server for those of you who want to add one to your living room. problem is, i need an hdtv to run the 360, which, well, kara and i are negotiating over. because we’re looking for a couch right now as well, and i have a feeling that i’m going to lose this battle…
anyway, there are a ton of new photos
up — some in last month’s album (from austin — thanks aimee) and some from the thanksgiving dinner and beyond (5 months old now!). we think owen is going through a growth spurt — he’s eating every two hours right now and sleeping a ton — which we think are indications of a growth spurt. he had a mini meltdown at the tree farm, but we think that’s because we’re so used to feeding him on a three to four hour schedule. turns out, he was hungry, nothing else. and, the tree farm. well, there’s a photo of the tree on the car. that lasted about 15 minutes at which point we heard this loud snap on the roof and next thing we know, we’re pulled over on the freeway trying to re-tie our tree to the roof. the tree was spared (we’ll photo it for next week) and we just crammed it in the back seat and drove home — should have done that in the first place. finally, we’ve just started owen on baby-rice. he seems to like it alot.
anyway, good luck to lexie and caspar who are due in a couple of weeks with a baby of their own.
happy holidays.
11.20.06
i took this week off. it is such a liberating thing — time away from work. owen and i spent all day playing video games, doing laundry and creating our big to-do list for the holidays. i found out that owen likes to watch almost anything on television — including watching me play videogames (final fantasy 12 for those of you keeping track.) and he likes watching soccer games on television too. i think, in both cases, it has something to do with the contrast on the screen.
he’s learning how to play peek-a-boo right now. you can cover his face with a blanket and then ask “where’s owen?” and he’ll uncover his face and look at you. it’s pretty disarming… which leads me to another, relatively random point… kids reduce us to blabbering idiots. except… i don’t care if people think i’m blabbering, i know i am, and i’m doing it to make him laugh. so, if you don’t have kids and you see someone acting like a jackass in front of their child, generally its to keep the kid from crying and what not, so cut them some slack.
and… if you’re at a crosswalk, move to the side so the stroller can get through… i mean, seriously. what kind of malcontent do you have to be to force the person with the stroller to sidestep you? and, when you’re in a store and we’re being all polite-like behind you, get the hell out of the way. hang up your cell phone and move a bit to the side so we can get through. and (and yes, this happened to me), don’t honk and/or flip off the guy crossing the street in the crosswalk with his stroller. again, malcontents, all that.
we’ve got a busy week ahead of us. the gards are having us all over for thanksgiving (owen’s first!) and then we’re having a work-party here on december 9th. should be a grand-old time. we’re starting it at 2pm though — so he can go to bed at a reasonable hour. we’ll move down the street to the local bar. and then we’re having the entire family up here for christmas this year. should be a rocking good time. we’re just getting prepped for all that now.
and, if you check back next week, you might see owen shopping for his first christmas tree.
love you all — photo gallery is updated.
11.12.06
finally got the photo gallery back online — what a pain in the ass that was. anyway, go check it out mom(s). we know you’re the primary customer. we’re getting geared up for the holidays at this point. owen is about to have his first thanksgiving and christmas, so we’re prepping the house and generally getting ready to have a little work shindig that the little man is going to make an appearance at.
we took a *lot* of photos since the last posting, so the gallery is pretty updated with some awesome photos. we just love his little red and black hat with the skull and crossbones on it. he rocks it when he wears it. we took him to see explosions in the sky last night — the venue was terrible. it was like being at a high school prom that was sponsored by scion. i bought a beer for 12 dollars. the nachos (read chips with that mass produced cheese product on it) were 5 bucks and the worst hot dog you’ve ever seen was 5 bucks as well. there were no ins-and-outs. it was pretty terrible as a venue, but explosions rocked which made the evening well worth it.
we stayed just outside the main doors where we could hear everything fine, but could keep owen at a safe distance. don’t worry, he was wearing his ‘phones.
owen is really learning how to cry now — we think he knows it gets him attention. so we’re at that phase where we have to let him cry a bit, as heartbreaking as that is. but, on the upside, for the past few nights he’s slept 6 hours at a stretch…
thanks for caring.
10.30.06
yes - we know the photo gallery is broken. it looks like i have a corrupt mysql database. we’ll fix it as soon as we can. sorry.
10.29.06
sorry it has been so long since a photo update… things have been really crazy for us lately. we took owen to austin, texas to see all our friends who live out there. we took owen out for some barbeque and then some tex mex and then for burgers and… well, i think we ate continuously the whole trip. food was awesome though. he did great on the plane both ways, with a tiny bit of crying when we were landing into sfo.
he officially went to his first ‘real’ show: built to spill. we used his soundproofing headphones again to protect his little ears. he was a hit with everyone, even if he was asleep in the bjorn. and then there were some around town ‘festivities’ that he was a champ at. again, we’d use his headphones and then muffle the stroller with blankets, etc. to keep things quiet around him. he slept the entire time when we did this, so it worked out fine. we got some nasty looks from some folks though who likely assumed we were totally irresponsible and just took our baby out for booze.
and then the little man attended his first halloween party. he dressed up as the prince from katamari damacy. it’s a japanese video game where this little green prince has to move this big sticky ball around the world and collect everything possible in order to, yes, return the stars to the sky. now the stars fell out of the sky because the prince’s father, the king of the cosmos got drunk and ruined the universe. that is, people, the real story behind the game. only in japan. i am the king of the cosmos, kara is the sticky ball and owen is the prince. we won the costume contest. incidentally, kara made the costumes… but that’s not all she made. when we went to austin we had no idea how we were going to handle a bed for owen. kara whipped out her trust sewing machine and made, yes made, a collapsable bed with a matress and everything. when collapsed, it fits in our suitcase. i’m trying to convince her she could sell these things. so bug her about it.
anyway, we’ll get back onto updating the site more frequently now that our travel schedule has calmed down a bit. next week we’re going to post the ‘list of things you actually need to buy to prepare for a baby’ as opposed to the ‘list of things the baby industry would have you buy to prepare for a baby.’ we’re not starting to realize where we overdid the preparation and where we under-did it.
photo gallery updated.
love you all, hope you’re all well.
10.08.06
ah, where to begin? owen is having a bit of a melt-down as we speak. they don’t happen that often, but when they do… watch out. 
past that, we think we’re noticing his skin getting paler from when he was born, perhaps my white-as-hell gene is overriding kara’s filipino genes, who’s to say? and kara noticed a few weeks back that owen had a dominant position to which he turned his head — turns out he’s coming in lopsided so we have to take him through these stretching exercises to even out his noggin.
was a busy weekend here - we had the blue angels in town for fleet week which is always loud. they turn around over the ocean outside our house so you can hear them come screaming by every 10 minutes or so. but, we did take the little man to the free bluegrass concert they hold every year in san francisco. we saw gillian welch and the avett brothers — both of which were fun. owen got to rock his headphones for a bit too.
and then today we took him to the open studios — it’s a month long art show where local artists sell their wares from their studios. you sort of hike around from spot to spot and check out stuff. owen, as usual, was a big hit.
we’re heading to austin in a few weeks to check the place out, hang out with marc, aimee and jenny, so that’s exciting. owen will be taking his first plane ride. i hope he’s mellow for the flight… will report back.
updated the photo gallery — i moved all the albums into their corresponding months as it was getting a bit busy at the top level of the owen gallery. we’ll continue like this until he is older at which point we’ll likely compress the album down a bit more even.
also updated the video section with some new videos.
we’re also happy to report that our friend hisano is pregnant. we’re super excited. owen is going to have his first international friend sometime next year.
i’m going to go now, the meltdown continues.
love you all.
09.30.06
so… we’re all finally home. kara spent two weeks travelling up and down california with the little man and phoebe. from san francisco to thousand oaks to san diego to thousand oaks to san francisco. and we’ve got pictures to prove it! owen is growing faster and faster now. he has like, 12 chins, and, dare i break my family friendly blog, man-boobs. and a spare tire. and thunder thighs. he’s still damned cute though. sorry it has been so long since an update. i thought i uploaded one before i left on my trip, but it turns out i hadn’t. so, below this post is the post you were supposed to get. do you like how we write this site as if there are actually people reading it? well, other than our mothers, mind you. ah well, it’s fun to think people might stumble on the site at some point…
i guess it goes without saying, but i’m back from my work trip through europe. i went to england, the netherlands and denmark. there is a distinct lack of fat people in the netherlands and denmark. and the bread out there is amazing. the flight home, however, leaves a ton to be desired. i had to catch a 6am flight out of copenhagen to amsterdam and then over to london for my flight to san francisco. all of this, of course, so i could see my son. but, before i get there, let me explain the trip…
i was immensely homesick! i don’t think i’ve ever been homesick. i couldn’t sleep when i was there, i couldn’t bear to get on the plane to leave owen. i just missed the little man so much it was crazy. i would call kara every night just to hear him babble in the background. i got him a few things in amsterdam - which is a beatiful city, mind you. also, in amsterdam, they have the coolest bikes ever. we’re hoping to import some with the baby seats on them so we can ride around our neighborhood in total european style.
anyway, that flight home went like this: i got to the airport at 4.30am to find out my 6am flight was cancelled. now, this gets complicated, but… that 6am flight connected to a 9am flight to london via amsterdam which connected to a 11am flight from london to san francisco. here’s an important note: the london to sfo flight was a separate itinerary (virgin airlines - the *best* flight to europe, too. the amenities are awesome) than our copenhagen to amsterdam flight (on klm, total crap airline, as you will soon see). since the flights were on multiple itineraries, things get complicated fast. the 6am flight was cancelled due to technical reasons, which apparently happens all the time. the klm employees were flabbergasted when anyone expressed any amount of frustration. bear in mind, we got to the airport at 4.30am! anyway, since this was one of two itineraries, klm would *only* book us to london, where their itinerary stopped and virgin’s itinerary started. klm rebooked us to london via amsterdam on a flight that left copenhagen at noon. now, our flight via virgin to san francisco left london at 11am. so, basically, we were stuck in copenhagen.
i called klm/northwest and got the only flight home that i could, on their crappy airline, with their crappy service on their soon-to-be-decomissioned-planes. the only way i could get home was: copenhagen to amsterdam to a 2 hour layover to minneapolis to a four hour layover to san francisco.
it amounted to twenty eight (!) hours of travel. i, however, didn’t want to stay in europe for one more minute — i was dying to get home to see owen. so my co-worker and i jumped at the opportunity, paid full fare for the flights, dealt with the airports, security checks, lack of sleep and limited access to food so we could see our families. full fare you ask? why yes, because we didn’t go through london to get home, their ‘obligation’ to us was null and void. i hope, seriously hope, klm and northwest go out of business.
anyway, we got home. my bags, however, did not. they’re still missing with my threadless shirts and a host of work material in them. klm and northwest have *no idea* where they currently are since they were never scanned into their system.
but, i got to see the little man, so i feel better. moral of the story: stay the *&@! away from klm and northwest. they are terrible airlines.
so, the jetlag isn’t done yet, but owen, little owen, little-owen-with-the-spare-tire is laughing up a storm and getting way more talkative. if you laugh at him, he laughs at you. it’s pretty awesome. and… well, he’s losing a ton of hair at this point. kara said it was all over his crib so it looks like he has a racing stripe on the side of his head. kara went and gave him a haircut today, which was both scary and cute at the same time. just getting to see him now makes the whole ordeal above worthwhile. his new hair is growing in as we speak, so we think it’s a temporary change for the little man. we’re getting ready to take him to austin to see some friends soon — marc, aimee, kent and jenny are all waiting for him in austin. and we’re taking him to a concert there, so we’re going to pack his headphones for safety. we can’t wait.
photos and videos updated for those interested.
talk to you all soon.
love you all.
09.10.06
not much to report this week - we’ve been busy planning our collective trips and i’ve been slammed with work trying to get ready… kara and owen drove down to la today to see the granparents on the chow side and then down to carlsbad to see the greenwald granparents. they took the new car, which at least means we got it. and, you know what, we really like the mazda 6. drives nice, is quiet inside and is full of cool little features. owen is getting more and more talkative now. each week brings a new sound, or so it seems. he loves making raspberries at the moment. he’ll do them if he sees you making the same sound. and he seems to get hung up on making “ooooooo” sounds as if he’s trying to say something. it’s totally disarming.
and… he’s starting to lose some of his hair. i freaked out about it, kara didn’t. we’ll see how that goes though. he also recently outgrew his size 1 diapers in the most dramatic way possible (use your imagination).
finally, our friends rich and beth had their baby recently - a little girl. huge congrats to them.
new pictures this week, including owen’s tattoo.
…links for you:
gophernow.com: this place is totally cool, it will tell you based on the time of day and your zip code who is open to deliver to you.
cribcandy.com: a cool online furniture blog with links to cool things for your home.
09.03.06
agh, we finally bought a car yesterday. what a freaking hassle that is. we were there for 5 hours so someone could shuffle in between rooms, come out, tell us that the ford truck is ‘hard to sell in this market’ and start quoting some b.s. wholesale price, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah, blah. but at least it’s over… i got out of there only pissing them off a little. you see, the way i see it, it’s my job to spend as little as i can, and it’s their job to get as much money from me as they can. so, they have this $1,000 financing rebate, if we finance with them (i have a feeling my dad is going to be pissed at me for this…), but anyway, there’s not prepayment penalty and no minimum alance. that being the case, i brought up that after the first month, can i pay the car off completely…? the finance guy just about flipped his lid and started telling me that i would be creating so much paperwork for the dealership that it would make life ‘unfair’ for them. he kept asking me to ‘be fair’ to the dealership. i told him commerce was at work here and if i qualified for the financing and i had no penalty for paying it off early then it was his problem and not mine. he didn’t like that. i was insulted that he wanted me to be ‘fair’ to the dealership that was sitting there trying to squeeze every last penny out of me.
we ended up getting out of there under invoice, which i think makes it a success for us, but who knows. i think they lie about everything.
here’s some of the stupid tricks they do:
1. they write everything down in scribble, and in marker so to confuse you. it literally looks like they are doing math with a sharpee marker. they do things like list the sale price with ‘+ fees’ written next to it. i told the guy three times to go calculate the fees and bring that back to me.
2. they use more then one salesperson. they literally sent out 4 different people for me to deal with.
3. they try to portray salesperson vs. salesperson. i had the quote ‘i could go grind him some more…’ which insults my intelligence.
4. they try to sell you all this add-on crap, like a 72 month warranty, lo-jack, clear-coat ‘armor.’
5. they claim to not know when the rebates expire. you can check online at carsdirect.com and find out the expiration date. just another dishonest way they try and pressure folks into buying.
in the end, and here’s the kicker, they have to ship the car from a dealership in thousand oaks, where my parents live. i should have just called them and had them go down and negotiate the car. oh… and the guy who finally sold us the car after 5 hours, told us that ‘their margins are low.’ and… one of the floor managers was, quite literally, screaming at one of the salesfolk so loud that everyone on the show floor could hear. i told them it was bad for business and someone should control that guy’s rage.
but…
owen is doing well. we think he’s weighing in at around 12.5 pounds and he’s coming up on three months soon. i head to the uk in two weeks, kara is going down to visit the g-parents next weekend. owen continues to be incredibly talkative, it’s like he is telling us a story and can’t get the words out. it’s cute as all hell, but it looks kind of frustrating for him.
we updated the picture gallery,
but admittedly, there’s not that much new up there this week. for whatever reason we took less pictures this week than we normally do. and we’re hoping to hear from our friends rich and beth, who should have had their little girl by now…
bye.
08.27.06
a relatively slow week in owen’s development. we’re finding that things just get far more subtle in terms of day-to-day changes with him. he’s still cute as hell though. so, last week, we mentioned that we would try weening him off his late night feeding to encourage him to sleep even longer during the night. well, owen won soundly, the first night we tried weening him was the single worst night of sleep kara or i have ever gotten. he woke up at: 11pm, 1:30am, 3am, 4am, 5:30am, 7am. we think it is because kara cut his evening rations in half, at which point he responded by waking up twice as much. it sucked, to say the least.
we posted some new pictures and videos as well.
we are planning to take owen to austin to visit our friends marc, aimee, kent and jenny in october. it is going to be his first plane flight, so we’re a bit nervous, but since we have two or so months to get ready, we’re hoping to have it figured out. i’m heading out to the uk in september for a work trip, and kara and owen are heading down to socal to see our family, take a trip on the boat and, in general, get away from me. 
we have a travel filled few months, to be sure.
owen is also a fan of the english premier league. he wakes up early enough to watch games with me on saturday and sunday mornings, before kara gets up. it’s cool — i think he likes the contrast of the green pitch and uniforms. he just stares at the screen…
alright. love you all.
bye.
…new this week:
talkative: it started with the cooing last week, but boy does he keep on going. he has started responding to our presence by making sounds. he sometimes seems to reply to our voice. he definitely responds to baby einstein. that, and he chuckles as well. it’s not a laugh, and not a giggle, but a two tone chuckle. a ‘heh heh.’ it’s cute.
thumb? sucking: owen found the taste of his own hands this week. he prefers them to the pacifier now. and when he is chewing on a pacifier, he’s switched out the soothies and replaced it with a nuk.
08.20.06
not much to talk about this week, to be honest. we posted more pictures this week. it’s a shame because we had some friends over last weekend but most of the pictures turned out really blurry, so we posted what we could. i had another really long week at work this past week, things are looking rough in the near-future as well. including a flight to the uk and tokyo in late september. i don’t really want to fly, with all the news and all, would rather be at home with the little man and my lovely wife. we’re looking at getting the new car this week. keep your fingers crossed. i hate dealing with car salesmen, but go figure. maybe we’ll have owen negotiate…
…new this week:
shots: owen got his first round of shots this past week. it pretty much sucks. ignoring the fact that someone just shoved a needle into our son (repeatedly, mind you), since the way to vaccinate folks is to fill them full of disease, he had a mild fever for a few days. he’s finally kicked that and is relatively back to normal.
concert: owen went to see ozomatli today in stern grove. it was really packed though. we had a good time — jeff and dana met us on the grounds and we listened to ozomatli play their blend of hip-hop and latin music. owen got to use his awesome sound-proof headphones so we could protect his ears.
sleeping patterns: we found out that owen should be sleeping 6 or so hours at a time. we’ve (well, kara really) has been getting up every morning at 3am to feed him for the past few weeks. turns out, that most kids his age sleep right through that 3am feeding. so it looks like we’re going to have to ween him off the late night feedings.
08.13.06
as you might expect - more pictures are posted. i had a really long week at work this week, so i didn’t get to hang out with him that much this week. really makes you miss him when you can’t be around him. that kinda sucks. i have, however, been watching him from the webcam. he tends to nap during the day so there is the off chance you will catch him on camera from time to time. otherwise, 6-7:30am and 7-8pm are good times to see if he’s in his crib.
we’re hoping to buy our car next weekend, so keep your fingers crossed for us. i hate having to deal with car sales(wo)men. i have to negotiate all day at work, so i don’t look forward to it when i come home. we’ve narrowed it down to the mazda6 gt wagon. we think it’s alot of car for the money, so we’ll keep you posted. but that’s pretty much what we’ve got our eye on at this point. kara has started taking owen to the mommy and me yoga classes at our local gym. he is, evidently and quite predictably so, the cutest and best-behaved baby there. kara reports that he dances alot on his back by kicking his legs around and what not. then again, we’re totally biased as to the cute thing. we can’t help it.
our friends, marc, aimee, tony, lexie, jeff, dana and aaron all stopped by this morning for a quick pancake (pancrepe) breakfast, some mimosa and some owen time. it was good fun. photos from that will make it into next week’s update because we’re only posting week 7 photos this week.
next week, we take him to see ozomatli at stern grove.
oh and for those who pointed it out, i fixed the talkative video in the video section.
…new this week:
theater visit: we took little owen to the movies today! we’re so proud of ourselves for working up the courage to be “that couple” in the theater that brought their child in. we decided to sit in the back near the ‘older’ crowd who coo’d at owen when they saw him. we figure we were safer amongst our elders if he were to cry. bonus! he slept the entire movie. we saw little miss sunshine at the balboa theater. it’s a hilarious movie, we highly reccomend both it and the balboa theater. the balboa is a small, independantly owned theater. awesome place.
cooing: he is making so much more noise now when he’s awake. it’s this cute, ‘i-want-to-sound-as-much-like-i-know-what-i’m-saying’ sort of sounds that he makes. and he is smiling *so* much more now.
first dude friend: owen’s first guy pal, caden grethel and owen met up for lunch (with their moms of course). i think there are more visits in the future.
bath update!: we (by ‘we’ i mean kara) has figured out that owen enjoys his baths much more if we put a warm washcloth on his chest while he’s getting bathed. it keeps him from getting cold (and thus, cranky).
…links for you:
emusic.com: if you like music, this site is worth subscribing to. however, they carry mostly smaller, ‘independant’ labels. but for 40 songs a month, for 10 bucks a month, it’s like getting 2-3 cds a month for 10 bucks. totally worth it in my book.
pandora.com: to keep with the music kick, this is part of the ‘music genome project.’ it’s pretty cool - you enter the name of a band you like and it plays music from that band and other bands that are, erm, statistically similar to it. it takes a while to train, but it’s pretty cool for discovering new music.
8.06.06
owen continues to grow very quickly on us. in two weeks we’ll update you on his official weight as he has to go to the doctor for his first round of immunizations. i can’t imagine he’s going to handle it well. but he is generally being a good baby. we’ve got most of his patterns down now, and as i write this (6:22pm), he is getting ready to be fed, changed and put to sleep (around 7ish). this is his toughest part of the day and he tends to be fussier at this point than he generally ever is during the rest of the day.
he sure is cute though.
we updated his photo gallery with photos from week 6. there’s definitely some good ones in there. although, i’d suggest you check out the video section. there’s some hilarious videos in there. my two favorites are mighty little man and it happened so suddenly. you’ll see why on the latter. just pay attention to the words of the song that was being played (honest to god) when the video was being recorded. we got the web camera back online in his nursery, so mom(s) and dad(s) can check out owen in his crib during the wee hours of the morning (6ish should be a good time) or later in the night (around now, 7ish or so). if you want to check it out, click the link above in the
navigation bar. it’s too complicated to link below in the text because it has to open other windows and stuff.
and, while we love the audi, we’ve pretty much narrowed our car options down to the subaru (outback or impreza) or the mazda m6. we *really* like the mazda. it’s a quiet, sporty car for the money. just seems like you get so much more for the money and don’t have to sacrifice *too* much when it comes to aesthetics. ah well, we’ll keep you posted even though you don’t care.
oh, and i finally moved the ‘what’s new’ section of the website into the bottom of the blog. just click the ‘archive’ link down there.
…new this week:
acne: his acne cleared up — we connected it to his baby shampoo of all things.
crying patterns: generally means a few more things now (as opposed to our earlier statement that he is either dirtied himself or is hungry). we’ve determined that when he’s crying he wants to either lay on his back, lay on his belly, sit up, sleep, eat or be changed. so, generally, when kara is asleep, i’ll try the five of them i can, if they don’t work, i then take him to kara to be fed. but we’re getting better and better at this whole thing. however, it’s *rough* to watch his eyes fill with tears. that part sucks.
bottle feeding: he takes bottles and doesn’t care who’s administering them. we were warned that babies sometimes won’t take bottles from their mothers. he doesn’t care one bit either way as long as he is being fed.
movies: it dawned on us that our movie going lifestyle has since deteriorated into nothingness. but here’s what we do instead: i go to the theater and have them give me the movie popcorn with butter so i can bring it back home. the local theater let’s us do this without buying a ticket. go do that at your local mega-plex and let me know if it works.
…links for you:
ing direct: this is an online bank that gives you a 4.6% apr savings account. beats what wells fargo will provide.
slickdeals.net: uh, yeah, those of you who don’t send in your rebates are silly. just go out in the street and throw money onto the sidewalk. that’s basically what you’re choosing to do.
zillow.com: this is our little house-appraisal website. it’s pretty cool and can give you a good idea of what your dwelling might be worth.
7.29.06
we’re cranking through the weeks now. it’s almost as if we are starting to figure out his cries too. we have a general understanding at this point whether or not he’s upset vs. hungry vs. tired. it’s nice to be at this point, but we are not as lucky at figuring out whether or not he’s dueced his pants yet. here’s where i get soft and all that jazz. if i had known having kids was this cool, we would have done this a long time ago. it has just added the greatest possible dimension to my relationship with kara. she’s an awesome, awesome mother. and watching him grow is just amazing.
he’s taken to watching television now. we were lucky enough to get some of the baby einstein dvds which completely captivates him. it’s great to put him in his ouef chair and throw those on while kara and i get some stuff around the house done (laundry!). although, if you look at what those dvd’s contain (at least for the 0-3yr range), they’re just videos of people playing with kid’s toys. they’ve totally got that market cornered though. it’s pretty simple stuff, really.
anyway - we updated the photo gallery with some new photos as well as put a new video up with phoebe getting her revenge on owen. it’s pretty funny stuff. there’s lots of cute pictures in the gallery for our moms.
…new this week:
acne: so they tell you all about baby acne when you go to these orientation classes. owen’s got quite a few little whiteheads. they come and they go, sure, but it’s still pretty weird to see zits on a baby.
hiccups: i forgot to mention this in the previous updates, but baby hiccups are awesome. he gets them all the time. we’ll try to catch it on video at some point, because it is hilarious.
cooing: he makes so much noise now. it’s like he is trying to talk, but just can quite get the words out. it’s pretty cute.
work: the little man (and his mother) made the trip to my work this week.
pro-tip: when changing the diaper of a little boy, remember to point the bits downwards before wrapping up the front side of the diaper. this will prevent him from pissing all over himself, his clothes, his changing table, his mother, father, dog, etc.
07.23.06
owen celebrated his 1 month old birthday yesterday. to celebrate, we posted some new pictures in the photo gallery for you to check out, if you’re so desirous. to that end, we ordered some of the photos from shutterfly.com and they turned out awesome. what a wonderful, wonderful service they provide. 4×6 prints are 19 cents each. since we’re posting the pictures in high-resolution, you can get them printed huge if you want. our friends eric and shannon had their baby not too long ago, so a huge congrats to them. kara’s cousin laura and her husband chris gave birth to their little one too! lots of babies right now… now we’re looking forward to rich and beth, lexie and casper and zoe and ben’s babies to arrive. going to be a busy year for all us new parents.
i’ve since returned to work now that my paternity leave is over and let me tell you, i miss the little man when i can’t be with him. i’ve done what i can to change my work hours so that i am heading into the office at 7:30am and leaving at 5pm sharp. i wasn’t too great about getting out on time last week, i keep getting sucked into these late afternoon meetings that cannot seem to end when they should.
anyway, on with the week on week changes…
…the week to week update:
weight: he is definitely continuing to gain weight. we’re starting to see dimples on him that don’t make anatomical sense — namely on his elbow. he has dimples on his elbow. that’s just weird. his cheeks are filling in now, his legs are, uh, rounding out (for lack of a better term.)
sleeping: well, he’s getting a bit less predictable now. it seems as though he can sleep through the night pretty well, until his last feeding of the night — sometime around 3am to 4am. he tends to not want to sleep after that feeding, resulting in one of us having to tend to him until he dozes off. it took 3 hours both saturday and sunday to get him to sleep.
dooking: he’s dooking less now, but when he does, watch out.
neck control: it’s getting better and better. soon enough, i think he is going to have control of his head.
…new this week:
toys: he is starting to respond to his toys now — mostly things with bright colors, i think. but we can watch him track objects we put in front of him. he definitely likes looking at the human face though - he will track my face when he’s lying down. it’s pretty cute.
smiles!: well, not exactly social smiles, but he has been smiling alot more frequently now. it’s cute as all hell — we’ve posted pictures in the gallery for you. follow the nav bar above.
07.13.06
photo gallery: we’ve installed a new photo gallery on the site. bear with us as we get it all running smoothly. it is going to be much easier for me to maintain moving forward as it automates alot of the work i was doing manually. and it has some really nice features (for my mother really…) it arranges the photos in albums, so keep clicking thumbnails to view albums. you’ll notice a ‘breadcrumb’ at the top of the gallery window (right below the blue navigation bar for the site). this will allow you to back up through an album pretty easily. but the cool bits are the following:
voting: although i only really expect my mom to take part in this, you can vote for your favorite photos and it will keep a running tally.
comments: you can leave comments on the photos if you want. (mom).
rss feeds: only for the geeks, but this will allow you to be notified when the gallery is updated. i don’t expect anyone to use this, but if you have a web browser or an application that support rss feeds, knock yourself out.
digital prints: this is the absolute best (advertised) feature. you can pick any of the photos and click the ‘print on shutterfly.com‘ button and be taken to the photo-printing site if you want to keep any of the photos on the site permanently by having a physical print. again, i only really expect my mother to take advantage of this, but hey, it’s cool.
jump straight to the new pictures here.
i’ve changed the photos / videos link above to take you directly to the new gallery.
note: i think the ‘view slideshow’ button is broken. i mean you can click it, but i think it takes you to an error screen. i don’t know why its doing that, and i don’t know how to take the option off the menu. not sure i can, really…
…links for you:
getfirefox.com: just go and use it. it is so much better than internet explorer.
ivr cheat sheet: this guy should win a medal for compiling this list of ‘get me to a human’ button combinations for those annoying digital voice answering systems so many companies use.
epl: you watched world cup, right? follow the english premier league now.
daddytypes.com: a blog from a stay-at-home(?) dad. nice to get the *other* side of the parenting coin from time to time.
gashlycrumb tinies: uh, both disturbing and oddly compelling. i cannot *imagine ever reading this to your kid* and am bewildered it ever got printed. but like i said, disturbing and compelling.
…in other news:
my paternity leave is about to come to an end — i’m really bummed. it’s been amazing watching him grow these three weeks. it’s just nice to spend so much time with him and kara. in fact, i can’t remember a time since our honeymoon where kara and i were together this much. it really does help reset your priorities. if i could retire and do this full time, i would. being a parent is cool. he’s doing good, but more on that below in the week to week update.
no update on the car except we’re narrowing down our options because we got a membership to consumer reports. we’re now looking into the following cars: honda element, mazda m6 and the impreza wagon. although we’re a bit disappointed in the cargo space in the impreza wagon, but it remains a very cost effective, fun car to drive. so we’re not sure where this will end, but i am leaving the bulk of the decision up to kara as she’ll be driving the car the most.
…the week to week update:
weight: he is definitely starting to show his weight gain. you can see it in his arms, thighs and cheeks. he’s starting to look more like a baby and less like an alien.
swaddling: definitely likes this less and less. we think it’s due to his leg-stretching needs. we’ve moved him over to a sleep sack
and it seems to work a bit better. the thing we’re really starting to monitor now is his temperature. he seems to get warmer alot easier now.
womb simulator: not sure this works any longer. i think we’ve gotten all the mileage out of this we can expect. although we’ll continue trying it when he gets fussy.
pacifier: still digs it. just much more selective now of when he’ll use it.
…new this week:
talking to dogs: we realize that when he does something we like (a burp for instance) we praise him as if he were dog. ‘good boy!’ but said in that tone you use when congratulating your pet. we’re working on this.
alertness level: he is *so* much more alert now. his eyes seem to track things a tiny bit. but he definitely enjoys checking out the faces of those who hold him.
sleeps less: he’s still a good evening sleeper, but he definitely takes shorter naps during the day, which leads to fussiness, see below.
fussy!: he is infinitely fussier now during the daytime hours. we’re learning what his cries mean and we’re definitely comforting the serious cries and worrying a bit less about the not-so-serious cries.
nursery: we moved him into his nursery this week, so he’s sleeping in his crib now. once we get the shelves hung, we’ll put his camera back online if you want to check him out.
neck control: he has an amazing amount of neck-strength. not sure if it is above average or not, but he seems really strong.
…recommended shopping list:
angel sleep monitor: this is the single greatest peace-of-mind baby product we have ever bought. it monitors the baby’s breathing and movements under the crib mattress. i don’t want to talk too much about *why* that is valuable. click the link and see for yourself. this is a must have.
carriage for car-seat: so we went back and forth on getting the bugaboo stroller as we just didn’t like alot of the stroller options. after seeing the value of not getting owen out of his car seat to go in and out of stores, i can’t imagine living without one of these. we use this more than the stroller we actually bought.
skip*hop mini diaper bag: i love this thing. it’s convenient as all hell. we keep one in the car trunk when we’re out. search the web for skip*hop - they make a bunch of cool bags for parents.
sleep sack: see note above.
07.07.06
alright! little man is two weeks old now and is still *fingers crossed* sleeping well at night. kara and i don’t feel terribly sleep deprived at this point, a huge, huge relief for us. we’re learning all about this thing called the ‘witching hour’ though, where owen is simply unconsolable. it happens between 6pm and 8pm at night, and generally there’s not much we can do if he decides to be fussy. but it turns out to be somewhat common (as we’re finding out from friends of ours).
the little man gained 1.3 pounds in a week, the doctors say that’s really good. they generally expect newborns to gain .5 pound a week. he also grew a half-inch as well. no signs of jaundice (knock on wood).
he does absolutely abhor getting a bath. but he does love to sleep with his arms above his head, for whatever reason. in other news, we had a hilarious, er, blowout this morning. i’ve posted a photo for you, it’s certainly gross, but was completely funny. i couldn’t do that if i tried. phoebe and the cats seem to be adjusting well to owen’s presence. whenever he cries, phoebe comes running over to lick his head, feet, exposed flesh, etc. i think it has something to do with phoebe’s insticts. i imagine in the wild, dogs/wolves/etc. lick their pups to keep them quiet and, presumably, out of danger. but then again, i’m not a animal psychologist, maybe she likes the taste of newborn. we’ll never know.
we’re looking into another car at this point as well, we’d love your opinion, if you want to share. we’ve got it narrowed down to the following wagons: audi a4, subaru impreza, mazda m6 and the scion xb. that being said, we’re looking at all used cars at this point. but email us if you have an opinion, or, if you own one of those cars, or know someone who does.
…the week to week update:
he changes: he definitely does — we can tell now, that he is a bigger baby than he was before. we’re starting to notice that he’s ’rounding out.’ he’s definitely starting to show some of his baby weight.
keeps you guessing: er, see the aforementioned fireworks.
swaddling: we’re noticing that he doesn’t like this as much anymore. we’re guessing that he likes to stretch his legs more now than last week so he tends to scream at this point if we swaddle him too tightly.
womb simulator: still working.
pacifier: he still digs it.
…new this week:
alertness: he’s far more alert this week than he was last week. when you hold him, he checks out your face - stares right into you. it’s a very touching experience.
naps: he naps after he feeds - i think there must be something sedating about mother’s milk. since i’m on paternity leave at the moment, we take some afternoon naps together. he sleeps either on my chest or nestled in my armpit. it’s pretty rad, i highly suggest it.
poop machine: aforementioned fireworks. and… he’s tearing through diapers. we’ve made the mistake twice of not having our diaper bag with us when we take him out.
the stump!: his belly button stump finally fell off! we were both excited and horrified. it’s a pretty gross piece of dried up, rubbery flesh.
06.29.06
so… i spend alot of time in front of the computer now. when i have my shifts with owen, it generally involves watching some world cup 2006 games, or surfing the internet/playing games. since i am holding him the bulk of the time, i can only use the mouse to do anything on the computer — i’m not terribly talented at typing with one hand. that being said, here’s some random links i found during this week while sitting with owen for anyone who’s interested:
stumbleupon.com: this is a web-portal that bounces you to sites you may (or may not) be interested in. since i only have the mouse to work with, this is a great way to pass time.
radio head flash video: for radiohead fans.
sigur ros video: for sigur ros fans.
neon site japan: cool photo site.
meebo.com: online instant messenger - no client needed. compatible with aim, msn, yahoo, etc.
…the first week:
he changes: my mother kept telling me how quickly the baby changes in the first few days and i think she’s right. either: (a) we’re getting to know him better, which alters how we look at him, or (b) he’s physically changing, or (c) both. it is certainly very cool, any which way it happens. furthermore, you will get to understand his or her crying - you’ll know the big cries when they start vs. the little ones that go away.
keeps you guessing: this is our favorite - everytime we think we’ve outsmarted him, he proves us wrong. the third night he was home we had thought we’d worked out a new method to getting him to sleep. little owen likes to be held, and for days, it was the only way we could get him to fall asleep — he’d have to be laying on us or be held by us. so, we had this system and we thought it worked and a day later we’d realized it didn’t work at all. so we’re sensitive to feeling smarter than the baby, because he’s winning every time.
swaddling: learn to swaddle. no ifs, ands, or buts. kara has gotten really good at it and owen seems to prefer being bound together like a little buritto. this combined with the pacifier or the womb simulator is our current method of getting him to sleep.
the first poo: so… i wasn’t ready for this… the baby is carrying around alot of fluids from when he was in the womb. during his first few days, he’s working on getting all of this stuff out of his body. the end result is pretty nasty looking. it doesn’t smell as bad as it looks though. it will likely be very dark and tar-like. the hospital recommended to us that we put vaseline on his butt-cheeks to help with the cleanup process.
the second poo: once he gets through the merconium poos (see above), he’ll move to the mustardy poos. owen makes a lot of noise when he drops bombs - you can *hear* them. it’s quite funny. end result is mustardy and seedy. it’s kinda gross.
all the crying (stay calm): i’m not so good at this one — i’m learning to be more and more patient with him. we’ve narrowed down his crying to these issues: he needs to be burped, he needs to be changed, he needs to eat, or he’s dropping the deuce. generally if he is really screaming his head off, he needs to eat. the other issues, in their degree of fussiness: changed, deuce drop and burp. point is, and i constantly need to remind myself, this is his only real way of communicating with us.
sleep: get as much as you can, whever you can. sleep when he/she sleeps and don’t take those naps for granted. kara and i tend to trade off every 3 to 4 hours depending on how fussy he is. i get the benefit of sleeping through the feedings, which take kara anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour, once you take changing his diaper into consideration. it’s super important that the lady gets as much sleep during the day as she can to compensate for the fitful rest at night.
pacifier!: what a freaking godsend these are for us. like i said above, i’m a little annoyed we didn’t take one to the hospital. he only seems to like the soothie brand, we tried some others and he just spit them out right away.
womb simulator: this thing, so far (2 days in a row) works like magic. we can put him in his co-sleeper with this thing on and he gets all mesmerized. it’s voice activated as well, which is nice. will report back (see not above about how he keeps us guessing).
car rides: this is an old standby for most parents, and i don’t fully understand why it works so well, but we can easily knock him out for 2 hours by taking a 20 minute car ride. this is something of a last resort in the middle of the night for us (thankfully we haven’t had to do this yet). but anytime we put him in the car, he’s almost instantly out. to that end, i’m really happy we have a stroller and a chassis that allows us to dock the car seat - we don’t have to wake him to transfer him from the car to the stroller this way.
ouef chair: this is just a cool chair. it is, incidentally, the most expensive chair in the house right now. we attached a ribbon to the end of it so we can bounce him with greater ease. like the womb simulator or the car ride, this has a sedating effect on the little man.
…birthing:
induction: we think this is the way to go. we had some serious reservations going into it as we had heard all sorts of horror stories on how bad it hurts, how aggressive pitocin is, etc. in the end, we had a pretty good experience overall. we noticed that because we were already at the hospital, kara got painkillers (see below) pretty much on demand. i think, given herstate of dilation, they would have sent her home if we had a ‘natural’ birth.
painkillers: again, we can’t imagine birthing without these. kara got two kinds: the ‘cocktail’ of which i never got the actual name of and the epidural. the ‘cocktail’ was administerd directly into kara’s existing iv and took immediate effect. this worked best for early labor. once she moved into active labor, the epidural was a life-saver. she could actually sleep for a while, which the nurses will suggest given the energy it will take you to birth the baby.
nurses: we were really worried about not having our birthing doctor there. kara’s doctor was pregnant the same time as us and delivered a week early which left us with a new doctor at the last minute. at the time, this was really harrowing, but in the end the doctor does not matter as much as the nurses. the nurses are with you *much* more of the time and will make or break your experience. to their everlasting credit cpmc had fantastic nurses that took really good care of us. so, if you’re stressing about your doctor, don’t. stress about getting quality nurses.
nursery: cpmc allowed us to keep little owen in the nursery at night, which allowed us to sleep alot more in those first two days than we otherwise would have. i felt a bit like we were ‘cheating,’ but in the end, the nurses are amazingly versed in baby and will be much more efficient than you will be and it won’t detract from your time with the baby - as it allows you to focus your energy on the quality time you spend with your little one. i would do this again without question as the rest it allowed us to get was without question, one of the more important things we could have done those first two days. there will be plenty of late nights where you’re soothing your baby, so don’t feel bad about it.
bring your own food: regardless of what your hospital tells you about the food, bring your own. it is, afterall, hospital food and it won’t be very good. i tried, repeatedly, to enjoy the hospital food… if i were to do it again, i would have ordered in.
ipod & docking station: bring whatever you can to make the sterile hospital room a bit more like home. for us, it was having our music there. we bought a mid-priced docking speaker station for our ipod, which proved invaluable. once we were done with it at the hospital, we put it in the nursery so that when kara breastfeeds she has some music to listen to.
pacifier: we feel pretty stupid for not bringing these to the hospital with us. once we found out how calming it can be for the baby we just about kicked ourselves. bring one with you - your baby may or may not want to use it, but if he/she does, you will be glad you brought it…
…recommended shopping list (to get to week 1)
soothies - these are the pacifiers owen loves.
ipod speakers - this is the set we got.
ipod -
soothe-a-sleep - we took the speaker out of the bear - they say no stuffed animals for newborns
mini cosleeper - we got two of these, one for upstairs, one for downstairs
little ninja - he doesn’t have this yet, but it’s cool.
swaddlers - diapers, tons and tons of diapers.
ouef chair - this is our little bouncy chair.
boppy - breastfeeding pillow
workout ball - this is great for bouncing the baby on your shoulder. takes all the work out of it. kara also used it pre-birth to stretch and prep herself.
07.23.06
1 month old! we’ve updated the baby blog — although i am thinking about changing the site a bit to combine the baby blog with this page, as they are starting to overlap too much. i’ll do that next update though, after i have given it a bit more thought.
photo gallery has been updated.
links above have changed a bit. i finally posted some videos, but you have to click the video gallery link above to get to them. please let me know if they do not work on your machine. i’ve never compressed video before for the web.
we added a few new books to the reading list for those friends of ours who are preggers and/or new parents.
the webcam is currently offline, but will be back up once we get the shelves put into the nursery for it to sit upon.
email us if you have anything you want to say.
07.13.06
three weeks old — and going strong. we updated the baby blog with more details than you actually will care about, but bear in mind, this site is for *us* as much as it is for communicating with you. we got a new image gallery online, so check the blog for details, or jump to the link here. if you notice any issues, email us.
kara and i celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary on tuesday. it’s crazy we’ve been married this long. i’ve got to start thinking about our ten year anniversary party. it’ll be cool.
…and speaking of parties. you are officially on notice. we found out from our doctor that in the native american culture, when the baby first smiles, they call all the friends and relatives over to celebrate the baby’s first, well, smile. i think this is a great excuse for everyone to get together at some point soon and celebrate owen, now that he’s here. so, we’ll keep you all posted and we’ll give as much lead time as we can. but there’s a party brewing…
alright love you all — thanks for all the support and love and phone calls and emails. they really do mean alot to us.
(and yes, i know, i know - the videos *are* coming, i promise)
07.07.06
two weeks old now — things are still going well. updated the baby blog here. i’m going to migrate the web site to a new server, so if it goes down for a few days, don’t get pissed. we’re going to try and get an image gallery up for the photo section as it is getting quite large and unwieldly.
we met with our doctor last week to check up on owen and while we were there, he mentioned that when he worked with native americans he said they would have a smile party to commemorate the baby’s first smile. we think its an awesome idea, so stay posted, cause you might be getting an invite in a few weeks. it will give some of you the chance to meet the little bugger anyway.
photos updated. videos still coming (i promise)
06.29.06
owen is 1 week old. since so many of our friends are having kids soon, we thought it would be helpful if we created a repository of information to share with other soon-to-be or just-become parents. by no means do we mean to suggest we actually know anything, but we felt it might be helpful if we cataloged anything we learned so that others don’t have to repeat our mistakes. you can find it here or up in the navigation menu above.
oh! the web camera is now pointing to our nursery ninja. it will be there until we actually get some shelves for the room at which point it will be facing the crib. the ninja is owen’s protector.
06.26.06
he’s finally here! agh, after a long overdue wait (long for us anyway), owen michael chowanec made his entrance, with a bit of drama no less. kara is recovering amazingly well. we’ve posted a ton of photos. the webcam is now live, but there isn’t much to see yet — the little man is staying with us in our room for a while. click the link in the title bar above to check it out. for posterity’s sake, we posted the mixes we put together to listen to while we were in the hospital. i’ve pasted our version of a play by play below for your reading and clicking pleasure:
he was born on 6.22.06 at 3:51pm.
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interactive play-by-play of owen’s birth |
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6.21 (7pm) |
admitted to the hospital |
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6.21 (8pm) |
we watched the aristocrats (very inappropriate, we know) |
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6.21 (8:15pm) |
while john is getting food, they put an IV in ara (twice) |
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6.21 (11:30pm) |
our first nurse, collette, leaves her shift. |
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6.21 (11:31pm) |
our second nurse, erica, starts her shift. |
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6.22 (2am) |
kara gets her first shot of pitocin - it’s a synthetic hormone that starts the contractions. |
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6.22 (5:14am) |
kara requests her first set of painkillers. |
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6.22 (6:30am) |
kara gets her second “set of cocktails.” |
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6.22 (7:00am) |
the cocktails stop working, or the contractions get stronger. either way, the epidural is requested so that john does not have to watch his wife in unspeakable pain. |
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6.22 (7:03am) |
the epidural is requested, with more fervor. (to be fair, they were on it, we just wanted to make sure they understood how much we wanted the epidural. we even played this song. loudly. |
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6.22 (7:30am) |
with the song still playing, epidural god, dr. “gersh” shows up and jams a needle into kara’s spine, installs a quick port and then turns on the happy juice. kara feels instantly better. |
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6:22 (7:33am) |
kara’s third nurse, kathleen shows up and will turn out to close the show with us. she was totally awesome. |
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6.22 (7:35am) |
baby cannon is 3cm dilated. |
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6:22 (8:06am) |
kara’s water broke to arcade fire’s “crown of love.” click here for a (sample) |
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6.22 (11:23am) |
baby cannon is at 8cm dilated. |
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6.22 (1:30pm) |
baby cannon is at 9cm (and change) (close enough) dilated. |
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6.22 (3:17pm) |
the birthing process starts. kara works with the nurse on some “test pushes.” nurse kathleen then marvels at kara’s unspoken and incredible pushing talent. |
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6.22 (3:23pm) |
the nurse notices that every time kara pushes, the little man’s heart rate drops quite a bit. |
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6.22 (3:26pm) |
the birthing doctor, dr. julie huh, shows up to bring owen into the world. |
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6.22 (3:35pm) |
after a few contractions she tells kara that she might need to use the ‘vacuum’ to get owen out to protect against the heart-rate drops. unless we cen get him out quickly. |
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6.22 (3:51pm) |
owen michael chowanec makes his first appearance. |
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6.22 (3:51pm) |
nurses suzanne and tina show up to rock the proverbial casbah by being an extra set of hands for the other nurses. now there’s like 10 people in the room and the only person we really know is each other… |
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6.22 (4:00pm) |
we tell the grandmothers. they sob uncontrollably. |
since his entrance, we’ve gotten alot of phone calls, all of which we are massively appreciative for. In the time we’ve known him, he’s already filled more than one diaper with his diabolical bombs. Everyone at cpmc has been awesome.
again — thank you all for your support through this. we can say, it is the single scariest and most exhilerating event of our lives. it is amazing that two people can create something so profoundly beautiful. we wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
thanks.
06.18.06
when is this kid going to come out? i should have known from the ultra-sound on 12.07.05 that this little guy isn’t in a rush. just look at him…all laid back with his legs stretched out and arms tucked behind his head. what?! does he think he’s on vacation?!
well i hoping this laid back “attitude” is reflective in his personality and is an easy baby. so if that’s the case i can wait a little while longer. although i have to say, i’m starting to feel like things are happening down there and maybe he will be here sooner than thursday. so keep your fingers crossed.
the nursery is done (for the most part). we’ve posted new photos of it for you to check out. and we updated the belly photo as well. it’s probably the last update before the little man is born.
thanks to grandpa greenwald for all the hardwork on the nursery — we definitely could not have finished it without you! and thanks to grandma and grandpa chowanec for the new furnace. and then thanks to all of you who keep checking the site, it’s nice to know we have a audience.
john is going to install a webcamera soon so that you can continue to keep up on owen as he grows up in his nursery.
we’re so close - wish us luck!
06.17.06
ok… the littleman is officially late. we have our induction date set for the 22nd of june, so at the very latest, thursday is the day. we will keep you all posted. thank you for your calls and emails.
06.03.06
put a fork in me i’m done!!! do you see the big belly? i still can’t believe how big it is.
only two weeks left, but john’s convinced he’s coming this week. i’m not so sure. our last dr.’s appointment didn’t indicate either way. his head has dropped down which has give me some much need relief around my ribs and i can breathe a lot easier. it does come with a few trade off’s like needing to pee ever 1/2 hour sometimes more, wierd pressure down there (sorry TMI?) and bending over has gotten significantly harder.
i learned i’ve been having contractions and didn’t know it. the dr. was checking the heartbeat and she informed me i was having a contraction and i was like “i am?!” i just thought it was the baby moving around and sticking his body out. so now i’m totally confused about fetal movement and contractions. i hope i recognize the real thing.
we are cutting it close with the nursery. we finally got a floor!!! look at the photos here! *much rejoice* after several phone calls, being stood up by a few tradesmen, we finally got someone to install and finish the hardwood floors. i still don’t understand how these guys could leave a 9 month pregnant woman hanging. jeeze! my dad is helping us with a ton of detail work like the trim and molding all week (thanks dad) and john is finiishing up some painting (thanks babe) and we’ll be good to go. just need to assemble the changing table, crib and dresser, hang the doors, install shelves, hang the closet rod, find an area rug and hang blinds. okay so we have a bit more work to do but we’ll get there.
this might be our last update — who knows!? for those tinkering with writing a letter - now would be a good time to start. and remember, it can be about anything you want it to. think of it as a contribution to a time capsule. click here if you want to contribute!
the web-camera is coming soon - that way you can check out the little man remotely.
05.20.06
now it is getting crazy. we’re four weeks to go. at the rate of kara’s belly growth and the movement that is going on, we think it could really be anyday now.
we had two more baby parties since the last update. kara is in a book club and they hosted a baby book club gathering where the ladies met and brought their favorite children’s books as gifts for us - it was super thoughtful and cool. and then we had a shower at casa de chowanec in southern california where grandmama c hosted a massive amount of food and quite a few people. we thank everyone for their generous gifts. photos can be found here.
the nursery is nearing completion — the floor is going in as we speak. we’ve got some trim work and some touch up painting to do, but all in all, we’re cutting it close.
as you’ll notice to the left, we’ve got the baby’s first name picked out but we’re having a hell of a time figuring out the middle name. we’re taking suggestions — email us here.
we’ve also updated kara’s gut-check photo - it is getting almost supernatural at this point. 4 weeks to go! wish us luck!
04.30.06
ack, hard to believe there’s only 7 weeks left. kara’s belly is getting huge. the little man’s new nickname is ’spare tire.’
we had one of our two baby parties last weekend - the little man launch party. our incredible friends, jeff and dana gard, threw the event which included catered thai food and mini bottles of liquor. as well as a mad-lib (not safe for all ages, mind you) and a baby birth-date pool. it was excellent fun - jeff and dana rule - click on their names to email them. we’ve posted plenty of pictures for you to look at, in the event you missed it, or live outside of the bay area. it lasted about 10 hours and pretty much drained our supply of alcohol - we wouldn’t want it any other way. also, a big thanks to the blases, who cut their time in austin short to drive across 3 states to be here. and thanks to everyone for the gifts — we certainly appreciate it.
beyond that, we’re almost done with the nursery, the walls are in the process of being painted and all we really have to do is get the floor installed and stained and we’re all set - except for the furniture, but that’s coming in due time (we hope!).
kara’s gut-check is also updated. like i said: huge.
party highlights:
04.19.06
damn - sorry it took so long for an update - things have been crazy around here. we’re jamming on the nursery, although we’ve called in the professionals to help. they did so much in two days that it was ridiculous. literally, in two days, they did what would’ve taken me (john) weeks and weeks and weeks. lesson learned. get out of the way and let the pros work.
we’re getting ready for our baby party this weekend - we’ll be sure to post photos of that, assuming i am capable of handling the camera. there will be beer.
little man is kicking and moving like crazy - i think we’re going to have our hands full.
other than that, check out the photos section - we’ve updated it with kara’s new gut-check and some nursery-in-progress-but-almost-done photos.
(oh, and kara’s birthday just passed, so those of you who haven’t wished her a happy birthday, here’s her email)
03.29.06
can you say hormones!?! i’m doing fine as is the baby, but poor john is getting the brunt of my raging hormones. i think this is what they call nesting. i have this compulsive urge to get everything in order and if i haven’t figured it out yet, it often ends with me crying and john trying to console his crazy wife.
john’s parents were in town helping with the nursery last weekend, unfortunately i think the experienced my raging hormones too. sorry =)
other exciting news our doctor, the one that is supposed to deliver our baby is also pregnant and due only 2 days after i am! so we may or may not have our doctor deliver our baby. so here’s where i just need to remember to just breathe…
03.19.06
let my just start by saying: i am an idiot. (this is john writing, of course.) you see, we got all gung-ho on the downstairs room to turn into the nursery and while i was hunting for the crowbar, i stepped on a rusty-as-all-hell nail. if the little man were born by now, he’d have learned his first curse words.
this then began a 4 HOUR TRIP TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM. you’d think it’d be easy, right? no. i thought was just going to get a tetanus shot and be on my way. after waiting an hour to be seen by a dr., i got x-rayed to ensure there was no ‘foreign matter’ in my foot. then, they cut the wound open and flushed it with fluids — oh! after driving a needle into the bottom of my foot to numb the fact that he was CUTTING AWAY MY FLESH. it was nothing like television - i wasn’t surrounded by hot doctors and nurses and people weren’t running around to check on folks. anyway, not much done on the nursery this weekend. go figure.
in the end, it was just ridiculous. i got 3 x-rays, a needle shoved into my foot, and had some doctor clear and flush the wound - and they gave me drugs. to put this in perspective, the “wound” is no larger than a freckle.
kara wishs she had taken the digital camera along. the little brat better appreciate this sort of thing later.
we’ve posted pictures of me being an idiot. note: not for the squeamish (there is a picture of my bare foot up there).
kara’s latest gut-check is also posted.
03.11.06
john worked so hard today on the nursery. i’m so proud of him, he’s doing a good job although i wince every time i see him use the table saw. the other night we watched my belly roll around, kind of wierd but kind of cool too.
john hates hammers. john can hear his father laughing at him from here. bill never thought john would use a hammer. john still hates hammers. and saws. and drills. for his latest handiwork, check here.
kara’s gut check photo has been updated here. knock yourself out.
03.04.06
15 more weeks and counting… i can’t believe how fast time flies by now.
the baby is moving around a lot, a definite reminder that he’s coming soon and there are so many things left to do. the nursery is underway, demolition is done, the furnace has been replaced and moved and now we’re waiting for the plumber to come move the water heater. john’s been great about doing all this work and i’ve been going stir crazy not being able to do it myself. (note from john: he hates doing this kind of work. certainly doesn’t have the patience for it.)
there’s talk of a baby shower party in late april, keyword “party” no clothes pin leg crossing games here (girls you know what i’m talking about) keep an eye out for the invitation it should be fun. boys are invited too. there will be beer.
we’ve gone through and updated the baby fund shop site. check it out and get your very own ourlittlehellraiser t-shirts and mugs (no pressure of course, doesn’t cost us a thing to have the merchandise).
we’ve also been working on converting the downstairs “office” into the nursery. we’ve bored you suitably with pictures here. you can also go there for an updated gut-shot.
In terms of the delay in our updating — the chowanec family lost one of its matriarchs on februrary 16th, 2006. john’s situ (lebanese for grandmother) passed away and thus we both jumped on a plane back east to pay our respects. she will be missed.
02.11.06
not much new to report on this week… other than my growing belly. it still measures 31 inches around, same as last week, but has definately made a shift forward to popping out (check out the new photo) i think my butt is doing the same thing (popping out). well at least i won’t tip over, need to be balanced right?!
we got a test shirt from the baby fund shop - the logo is going to get resized to be a bit smaller. we’re pleased to see the quality of the shirt is good.
02.05.06
we’ve updated the college fund shop to link to actual goods now. if you want to show support, check it out. granted, the items cost a bit more than your average store, but the small markup that we’ve added to the base cost of the goods will go to the baby’s future. so, if you don’t shop there, you’re hurting the baby. let’s see if guilt helps our cause.
we’ve also gone and updated the registry section of the site — lots of folks have been asking us, so we thought we’d jump on this one early. you can see a basic theme running through our selections: nothing overly cute-sy or traditional. we like non-traditional stuff. please check it out.
we also updated kara’s gut-check photo in the photo’s section - go here for it.
in terms of how i’ve been handling this whole going-to-be-a-dad thing — i haven’t been that stressed (yet) about it. kara continues to expand from the gut outwards, her belly button is going to disappear soon and start poking out. that will be a bit weird. beyond that, i am still working on the open letter project - it’s fun if a bit weird. don’t always know what to write and it turns into a stream of consciousness thing quite frequently. but i’m still pretty excited by it.
much love to you all - thanks for all the support.
01.29.06
alright, so i’ve been asked alot what my weird food cravings have been. i have to say at this point i’m feeling like myself and not really craving anything unusual. but in the beginning i went through several odd food items like:
dried apricots - i’ve never eaten these in my life, but for some apparent reason it was the only think i wanted when i felt a little green.
apples - i’ve never wanted to eat so many apples in my life. i would have 2 to 3 a day and snap at john if he tried to take one of my slices.
peanut butter and jelly sandwiches - this one was particularly funny, because is was accompanied with a song and dance.
pepperidge farm apple turnovers - i was eating these daily and would stock up on them at the grocery store. i still have two boxes in the freezer.
i did have some unusual food aversions:
eggs - i’m still not interested in eggs the idea of them made me nauseous
pizza - made me nauseous too
bacon - i didn’t want it and it didn’t sound good to me. john started freaking out at this point, wondering what has happened to his wife.
in & out burger - didn’t taste very good to me either nachos - i didn’t want these either. very surprising.
popcorn - i normal crave popcorn everyday but i didn’t want any for at least 4 months!
any of you who know my eating habits, i’m sure this comes as a complete surprise as it was for me. half the time i didn’t know what to eat, because what i normally ate just didn’t sound good any more. (john says: thank freaking god this is over and done with. both bacon and in-and-out have made a healty return to the diet.)
01.22.06
the site has been relaunched. blue for a baby boy. we are certain it will have issues in some browsers. let the chows know if you see anything weird. huge thanks to marc and aimee blase (professional graphic artists) for their help on the site.
we’d love to hear what you think of the site… email us here.
pro tip: we like firefox more than we like internet explorer. you should try it. it rules.
01.18.06
we found out today that it can now be referred to as a “he”. kara has had her suspicions for at least a month now when she subconsciously referred to the infant as a “he” in her speech to others. in fact, when she was getting the ultrasound she kept saying “he’s kicking!” then we refrained in the event “he” would be a “she” and the story of her mother referring to her as a he would have been quite embarassing. all is well, however and the doctor said all looks good. still on course for the 16th. if you are curious, check out the images in the photos / videos section for pictures and whatnot.