Baby On Your Six

We've been packing (or in the process of packing) for what seems like an eternity now. The move officially takes place April 14th-15th, so we're just over 2 weeks away from it now. We've been putting stuff into boxes and wrapping it with packing paper for a few days now, and I think every other box we fill we're making "FRAGILE." Frankly, I didn't know we had that much stuff, period. But apparently, not only do we have a ton of crap, most of it is dangerously breakable. And I'm not just talking about my G1 Optimus Prime, 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime, and Voltron action figures that I wrapped up last night. Or my ceramic lawn gnome. We apparently actually own valuable crap. Who knew?

Olives. Green olives. And vanilla ice cream. Yes, folks, I believe DrummerWife had her first official bizarre craving last night. At about 10pm, as we're both just about wound down for the evening, DrummerWife proclaimed that she could really go for some green olives. And then...she added that some ice cream would go really well with it, too. Then, she got up, and got herself some green olives. I didn't even know we had green olives. But apparently, we did. She ate a plate full of them. Then, before we went to bed, she had a couple more. And then she had an epiphany as we lay in bed...the perfect snack...the pinnacle of quick-meal food consumption...green olives, pickles, and milk. ... ... I'm scared.

...sharing a fast-moving stomach bug. DrummerWife and I both spent the day at home yesterday with a particularly nasty stomach bug. She had the couch, I had the chair, and we didn't do much of anything short of, well...let's not go there. I'm doing better today, except for feeling like I went 12 rounds with a prize-fighter and lost. DrummerWife seemed to be doing OK this morning, so here's hoping she's doing better than I am - because that means our little Peanut (or Aaron Christopher, as we're leaning towards at the moment) is doing well, too.

BEHOLD THE DRUMMERBABY. (click photos to enlarge them) This is the DrummerBaby Profile. As you can see, the little tyke is already sporting Mom's nose. (It's the little nubby thing sticking up in the center of the picture.) This is just a really cool picture of DrummerBaby's spine. It's obviously the long, spiney thing running just about the length of the photo. This particular photo depicts DrummerBaby doing what I like to call the "rockfist." You can clearly see him with his arm primed to pump his little baby-sized fist into the air, perhaps in tribute to some tiny little rock band he hears inside DrummerWife's uterus. Or perhaps he has a tiny, uteran iPod that none of us can see. The world may never know.

. . . . . . . . . It's... . . . ...a boy. Yep. A boy. As the technician put it yesterday afternoon - "There is the scrotum. Penis." [Insert digital arrow into photograph] Scrotum. Penis." I have to admit, I thought it was a boy all along. But I really wouldn't have cared either way. I just wanted a healthy baby. And we've got a healthy, active baby boy bouncing around inside of DrummerWife. He's got ten toes, ten fingers, DrummerWife's nose ( really , we saw it on an ultrasound profile photo - it looks just like DrummerWife's nose), and despite my musings on the topic - no tail. I'd like to thank our mothers for joining us yesterday - it would have been a cool experience just with DrummerWife and I, but having the two of you along made it extra special. Ultrasound scans to come tonight. :)

Today is the date of the Level II Ultrasound. The technician will be going over DrummerBaby in extensive detail - fingers, toes, heart, you-name-it. It should be a pretty exciting time for DrummerWife and myself - and also for DrummerMother and DrummerMotherInLaw who will be joining us. Also...if all goes according to plan...we should have a gender this afternoon. Cross your fingers. :)

We had 2 potential replacement tenants come through our apartment last night. One was a weird, older woman who did nothing but talk about how great her current apartment was. The other was a young engaged couple looking for a new place together, much like DrummerWife and I were 2 years ago when we moved into the place. They got the apartment - that wasn't what was weird. What was weird was that it was a) strange to have people parading through your home, and b) weird to be watching the people that would be moving into your home when you leave eyeing it up like a dude picking out his lobster from the tank in the lobby of a restaurant. I felt like shaking those two kids and going, "Yeah, you think it's great now, but just wait 6 months! It'll be small! Cramped! You'll hate the jackass who lives on the other side of that wall!" But I didn't do that. Because I remember how charmed DrummerWife and I were by the place when we first saw (strange as that seems now...

...in deference to DrummerMother. But there is no way I can do that without losing the spirit of the post - the anger, the frustration, and the honest emotion I was feeling at the time. But because it upset my brother, and because that just can't happen without someone's consent, I'm going to effectively delete it. My brother wins. No one can disrespect him. And no one can criticize him. Or get upset with him. I surrender. I understand that this (and the soon to be deleted previous post) aren't what people to want to hear from me. But the fact of the matter is, I'm not egotistical like my brother would like to believe. I don't have some far-flung superiority complex, no matter how good it makes him feel to half-heartedly believe that. I'm concerned, I'm angry, and I'm emotional. And guess what, brother , despite your desires otherwise - I'm allowed to be all of those things. Post deleted. Sorry, I'm not on board.

[message deleted, as requested]

Our neighbors just had a baby about 2 weeks ago. Due to conflicting schedules and general craziness, we just got to meet their kid Friday night. We've known they were having a boy for quite a while, but we just didn't know the name. Well, we found out Friday. Phoenix Jagger. As the father said, "He's either going to be really cool, or a complete dork." Yeah, I guess that about sums it up. As DrummerWife put it - "that kid's not going to be able to spell his name until he's in 4th grade!" That sums it up, too. On a related note, I think "the Peanut" has officially entered into nickname territory with us. We're still referring to DrummerBaby as "the Peanut", and I'm afraid it just might stick. Now, that could change once we have a gender and we settle on a real name, but I can honestly see us referring to the kid as "Peanut" for years. I can only hope that it's a girl if that's the case, because what bo...

A friend of mine at the message board community I frequent ( http://www.thenorthernlights.org/ ) put this together while we were discussing what to call my offspring. Someone suggested Drummer II, as if my child was my sequel. I proposed Drummer II: Electric Boogaloo, because every good sequel has a subtitle. Moments later, this appeared:

Well, I guess with all the lifestyle changes going on in our lives at the moment (new car, new furniture, preparing to move next month, baby on the way) DrummerWife is having a bit of difficult time taking it all in. She's never dealt with change well, and this are all pretty major ones for us. Last night, she had another bout of the Pregnant Tears. She's been doing much, much better with them as of late, but I guess everything going on just kinda wore her down. And on top of all of that, she's been having trouble sleeping as well, so that couldn't have helped any. And then this morning, she had to fight to get her wedding and engagement rings off her swollen finger. Seems she's got the Pregnancy Swelling going on as well. What fun.

Well, the paperwork for the Accord is finally finished. It's a long story, but suffice it to say the dealership was letting us drive the car without us actually owning it this past weekend. But as of about 7:00pm last night, we officially owned the thing. Well, the bank owns it. We're paying them back for it. Whatever. Anyway...we actually heard the following phrase last night: "It's not that you two have bad credit. You just haven't borrowed enough money." Wha...wha...wha... what ? Because we're not up to our ears in debt, we're not going to get a lower interest rate. The logic behind this just ASTOUNDS me. We've both got over $25,000 in student loans. That's not ENOUGH? What IS enough? A mortgage? Well, following the logic dictated by last night's revelation - we won't GET a good mortgage because we don't already have one. Because, after all, you apparently can't loan a large amount of money cheaply unless you already HAVE lo...

We bought a car. DrummerWife's piddly little Ford Escort ZX2 is no more. Well, at least no more for us. Now, DrummerWife will be cruising around in a lovely little 2003 Honda Accord. It's a nice little ride, and I think we made a good decision buying it. It's safe (airbags, 4-wheel ABS, front disc brakes), big enough for us, a kid, our stuff, and a stroller, and it has those funky child seat restraint doo-jiggies. So, all-in-all, it's a winner. Here's a picture. Click on it to make it bigger. Enjoy. Weee.

We had a smattering of ice fall from the sky yesterday, and DrummerWife went to a meeting for work in and around the 9:00am hour. She was walking down the sidewalk in Pottstown and kinda...well, fell. She didn't fall on her stomach, thankfully, but she did take a bit of a spill. She called the doctor, and they told her that most likely she was fine, but to take the rest of the day, relax, and make sure that everything was right. Fortunately, everything was - she said she felt DrummerBaby move at one point during the day, and that reassured her that everything was A-OK. As scary as it was to hear she fell, and much as it scared the DrummerWife, it was good news to hear that the baby had moved.