Ramblings

“When is Beckett going to be here?”

 

It’s a phrase Kolby utters every couple of days, in a very childish and whiny voice liken to an “are we there yet?” complaint.

 

It’s funny because Kolby has never once had the capability to look forward to something in the future.  I guess he’s just more of a here-and-now guy.  “Are you excited about our wedding?”  “Are you pumped about our trip to Australia?”  It was all met with an “eh” response and an explanation that of course he’ll be excited when it’s actually upon us, but that it’s just hard for him to feel excited about it NOW.

 

Seems like the prospect of becoming a father, and bringing home a sweet little baby boy that is half me and half him is all it took to change his tune.  He’s excited.  I’m excited.  Just a long 4+ months to go!

 

There are some things about pregnancy that are baffling to Kolby, and it’s pretty funny.  He doesn’t really understand how our baby can now be 10” long—more than halfway to his birth length—but weigh only a tiny fraction of what he’ll weigh at birth. The funniest was when I was reading aloud a line from a pregnancy book a few weeks ago that said, “your baby’s ears are now in their final position” and Kolby looked over with the most shocked and quizzical expression and asked, “where were they before?!?!”  It’s a valid question.  I told him they were probably roaming freely about the baby’s head :)

 

We’ve purchased our nursery furniture and crib bedding, and we’ve started our registries.  It’s all been so much fun.  Kolby has actually picked out most of our main baby gear (stroller, car seat, etc.).  In general, he doesn’t have a preference about much so a lot of the time it ends up that I get what I prefer for things like where we go out to eat, etc.  But as we were shopping for baby stuff, he had a preference and also had a lot of great ideas, so it was fun to just agree and go with it.

 

For the baby’s room (I’ll never get over how wonderful it is to get to say that!!), we’re planning to go with a gray and white color scheme, with some red accents.  Kolby of course wants to have some baseball accents as well.  He has this idea to get a team set of vintage-looking Rangers baseball cards, and then choose 9 players to mat and frame on the wall (one player for each position).  Then each new season he and Beckett will choose what 9 they want on the wall for the season.  It’s pretty much the cutest idea I’ve ever heard, made even more so by the fact that he woke me up the other morning at 5am to tell me about it.  Including details that the mats would be white, the frames would be red (possibly square), and that it’d look best hung 3x3 over the changing table :)

 

Anticipating and planning for a baby with Kolby has been everything I’ve always dreamed about and more.  And the fun is just getting started!

 

Here is the 20 week (halfway!) belly picture.  I now officially look like a pregnant woman, and I love it. 

Kolby can now feel the baby move/kick!  He felt it for the first time just the other day and he goes, "I just felt my son kick.  Or possibly pitch."  :)

 

We had our 20 week appointment a couple of weeks ago and things looked great.  Everything is right on track.  Praise the Lord!

Baby Name

We have a name for our sweet little baby boy.




His name is Beckett.

We love it.  I hope you do too.  If you hate it, don’t tell us… and maybe when the little guy gets here he can change your mind about it! :)

It’s a name we first heard about three years ago when a pair of missionaries visited our church, and they had a new baby son named Beckett.  Kolby leaned over when they introduced themselves and mentioned what a cool name that was.  He thought it was probably from Thomas Becket, who was the archbishop of Canterbury (i.e. the leader of the Church of England) in the 1100s.  He was killed at the request of King Henry II, and is recognized as both a saint and a martyr for the Christian church. Anyway, we logged the name away, and it’s been in our top three ever since.

For a middle name, we chose the name Miller.  It’s Kolby’s middle name.  It’s also Kolby’s dad’s middle name.  And his grandfather’s middle name.  It originated from Kolby’s paternal great-grandmother, whose maiden name was Miller.  It’s a great family name with a long history, and I’m thrilled that our child will get to be the fourth generation to keep the tradition going.

So there you have it—Beckett Miller. 

So what is little Beckett up to these days?  Oh, you know, just hanging out and growing like a weed.  He moves and twists around all the time and it’s the most wonderful feeling in the world.  He’s working on getting nice and strong so that soon he’ll be able to give a kick that his daddy can feel from the outside.  Kolby is DYING to feel the baby move.  Every time that I say the baby is really moving around in there, Kolby rushes over to feel, but can only vaguely feel that something is going on in there.  We’re still waiting on that good swift kick!

Keep growing healthy and strong, little Beckett— we can't wait to meet you!!

It's a...

It's official--- we are having a sweet little baby boy!

We were set to find out the gender at 11am last Monday, but I got a call early that morning saying that the ultrasound tech had to leave the country suddenly for a family emergency.  We were leaving town that Wednesday for vacation so our only option for finding out the gender before then was to go to a diagnostic imaging center.  It sounds silly, but when you have been counting the days and then wake up that morning knowing that today is the day that you'll find out if you're having a boy or a girl--- you'll pretty much do anything to keep that a reality.  So we got the first appointment we could at the imaging center, at 4pm.  

Of course by 4pm our sweet baby was sound asleep for his afternoon nap, and he had his legs completely glued together.  We could not get even the slightest peek at the gender.  A doctor finally came in to give it a try, and it was the same story.  He was really nice and even let me walk around for a few minutes to try to get the baby to move into a different position, but even that didn't work.  He said that it was probably a girl, but that we need to come back in a couple of weeks to find out for sure.

All of the baby's measurements and organs looked perfect, and Kolby and I were first and foremost so grateful for that.  But I will say that we were disappointed that we would have to leave without knowing for sure whether we were expecting a little girl or a little boy.  As one final last-ditch effort I started pressing on the side of my belly a little bit, and just then the doctor yells, "there it is!" and the ultrasound tech freezes the screen on a picture that we couldn't make heads or tails of but was all it took for them to officially declare that our baby is definitely a BOY!

We are so excited to have a little boy on the way.  We didn't have a preference at all (or so we thought), but  as soon as we heard the doctor say "probably a girl" we both realized that we had been hoping, just a little, that it was a boy.

Baby boy is happy and healthy and growing right on schedule.  We finally have an official due date-- December 5.  I can't believe we're already half way there!!!

Praise the Lord for our healthy little guy :)

Catching Up

Let’s see… lots to catch up on! 

I’ll start with a baby update.  We’re now almost halfway there!  The second trimester is treating me MUCH better than the first.  Being very sick 24/7 was way rougher than I expected, so I’m glad to have that behind me!  I’m now in maternity clothes pretty much full time.  Speaking of which... where have maternity clothes been all my life?!?!  Elastic waistbands, longer tops, longer sleeves... it's everything I've ever wanted in clothes!  Several friends/family gave me plenty of casual maternity hand-me-downs, which I’m very grateful for!  Building a new work wardrobe has not come cheap, though, but giving speeches wearing a suit where the skirt was only half-zipped just couldn't cut it forever!

Here’s an 18 weeks belly picture:

[P.S. Posing in pictures alone is among my least favorite things in the world.  I apologize for looking so awkward in these... I'm embarrassed to do this at all but I know I'll like having it to look back on.]

In other news, guess who’s back?!?

That’s right—it’s Summer Kolby!  What a relaxed guy.  I have a lot of jealousy about Kolby getting a summer break, but I am working on it!  Then something like this happens:

K: Hey, I didn't fix you a lunch today because I figured you’d go out to eat.

E: Why would I go out?

K: Because it’s Friday.

E: Honey, it’s Thursday.

Oh what I wouldn't give to be off a schedule and lose track of what day of the week it is!  But he deserves the break for sure.

 

 

I know y’all are all on the edge of your seats waiting for an update about our garden.  No?  Well here’s a picture of some of our loot anyway:

We often eat sliced tomato with sea salt as a snack, Kolby puts jalapeno on EVERYTHING, we have roasted and stuffed poblanos for dinner about once a week (yum!), and a few weekends ago I made my first batch of homemade salsa and it was delicious!  We've really enjoyed having the garden.  And public service announcement to anyone planning a garden soon—beware of tomatillos.  Everyone warned us that our cantaloupe plant will take over our garden, but it’s been our tomatillo plant that has gone bizerk and will likely make its way to your front porch at any moment.  Plus the stupid thing is too busy taking over the world to produce a single mature tomatillo.  So my batch of homemade salsa verde remains only a dream.

 

Let’s see what else… oh, we have a new roommate!  It’s Russell :).  You may recall that we have a detached garage in the backyard that the previous owners finished out and turned into a game room.  We had a friend from church live out there for the majority of last school year, and then another friend from church lived there for a few months this winter.  I was just about to turn it back into a nice guest house when Russell decided to take us up on our offer for a free roof over his head after graduation.  He started a job that keeps him pretty busy, but it is so nice having him so (very) close.  I don’t know how long he’ll stay, but we’re enjoying it while we can.

I don’t have any pictures to share yet, but we have a small remodel going on in our house right now.  We’re reconstructing the wall between our living room and kitchen to open up the space.  It looks amazing so far (thanks to the fact that we are doing none of the work ourselves). We considered the project for years but finally went for it.  I’m using it as an excuse to redo some decor in our living room as well, so stay tuned for some pictures of the finished product in a few weeks!

Oh, another great thing… Kolby preaches at our church once in a blue moon when our pastor is out of town or just needs a pinch-hitter for a Sunday.  It’s a great honor (pastors don’t give their pulpits up for just anyone!), and Kolby is an incredibly talented teacher—including the teaching of scripture.  I’m so amazed at his ability to write such incredible sermons, and it’s just so great to see him deliver them and hear so many people talk about how it touched them.  Anyway, he preached on Father’s Day this year.  I don’t really have the words to share what a wonderful and unique experience that was.  I think I’ll try to find a way to put the text to his sermons on the blog somewhere because I promise it’s worth your time to read them!  He preaches again toward the end of the month.

Well, that’s about it around here!

 

 

We find out whether we’re having a boy or a girl VERY soon… so stay tuned for that announcement!  To go ahead and answer the questions I get asked a lot these days—no, I don’t have a feeling as to what it is…. and no, we don’t have a preference!  A boy seems natural since both of our families started with boys first, but my heart melts at the thought of Kolby with a girl.  Can you even imagine thatfather-of-the-bride toast?!?  Oh dear.  So we’re thrilled either way!  As far as names, we have about three of each that we both absolutely love.  Some are ones that we've loved for years, and others are new.  We’re hoping one will jump out to us when we find out the gender and see our little one on the sonogram screen (which I absolutely can’t wait for!!!).  If not, our fallback plan is to have six children so we get to use all of the names :).  Sounds like a great plan to me!