Baby Number Two

Much to my horror, I realized that I haven't bothered to post an announcement that Kate and I are expecting a second child! I did throw a post and some ultrasound pictures up on Facebook, which means that anyone who follows this blog (both of you) probably already knows this bit of news. But just for completeness sake I'm going to post a quick note here as well!

Yes, our family is going to be expanding by one very soon. Kate is due in late February. We're going to wait until the baby arrives to find out its gender and we (finally) have some names picked out. The boy names were the hardest for some reason. Fair warning, we're keeping our name ideas to ourselves as well.

Here's an ultrasound picture of our soon-to-arrive bundle of joy, taken in early October:



We're both very excited by this new member of the family. Tessa is aware that there is a baby in Mommy's belly, but that's about it so far. She's been practicing swaddling and rocking a baby by using her dolls, but she still tends to carry her dolls by the hair or shake a doll out of its swaddling...so I'm thinking she won't be helping with little sibling real soon. :-) She does plant kisses and hugs on Mommy's belly, all intended for the baby.

Kate is far enough along that we can all feel the baby move pretty easily. The other night Kate was a little worried because she couldn't remember feeling the baby move most of the day. On a lark (since I was playing music for Tessa already), I turned on some rock music (it might have been Queen) on my iPod and placed it against Kate's belly. Almost immediately, baby started dancing around! :-D

Kate had the same nausea and lack of appetite during the first trimester that she did with Tessa. By a couple weeks into the second, though, she was largely over it. She still isn't always real motivated to eat things, especially (paradoxically enough) when she's really hungry. But as long as she nibbles here and there, she's been able to stay interested in eating most things.

(She did go through about a two week period between first and second trimesters where all she wanted was pizza. This is not as much fun as one would think.) ;-)

Anyway, as I said, we're really looking forward to expanding our family. Tessa is a joy to have -- at least 90% of the time. Kate is a wonderful mother. And I find that being a father feels both natural and amazing at the same time.

That's it for now. As always, thanks for reading and I hope you're having a great day.

Family Outing

Well, this three-day weekend is off to a good start.

Kate and I decided that we would take this Friday as a family day and decided that we'd head down to Denver to do...something. It was a toss-up between the Denver Zoo and the Children's Museum. We decided that this would be a seriously low-key outing, with no timetables or need to be somewhere at a particular point. We would just head south and see what happened.

We didn't even bother to truly decide where we were going until we hit the north edge of Denver. At that point I decided that I wanted to take Tessa back to the Zoo. We have a membership with the Zoo so it wouldn't cost us anything to get in. Since we'd been to the Zoo a few times this year, we wouldn't feel like we HAD to see everything and read everything and so on within the time of our visit. We would just pop around and see what we really like to see and call it done.

So if you've never visited a zoo when the weather is cool and cloudy, this is me advising you to give it a try sometime soon. The cooler weather meant that many more of the animals were out and active. (As opposed to the summer time when it often too hot for most critters.) We made a beeline through the Great Cats as saw the likes of servals, a leopard having a meaty bone for lunch (Tessa: "Big cat eat rock"), a several tigers. We took Tessa through the Tropical Discovery building - one of her favorites - where she was fascinated by fish, turtles, frogs, and komodo dragons (which she can now say). She was frightened by an iguana, and I watched another lizard fall out of its tree then lunge at the glass to try and get me.

We took a look at some of the arctic/sea creatures, and it was the first time I'd ever seen the arctic foxes up and moving. The sea lions were also active and we watched them from the underwater viewing area, though they made Tessa a little nervous. We popped over to see the wolves and watched a single white wolf pace the length of its habitat. We then doubled back because Tessa wanted to see bears. We paused at the giraffes and the lions...and the male lion started roaring, and Tessa decided she was done here.

We took lunch at the Samburu Grille, with Kate having a grilled cheese sandwich, Tessa having a pizza slice, and me having a chicken quesadilla and nachos. We then cruised through the elephants, a few hoofed animals, the monkeys and finally the bears. Oh, we'd also seen the mongoose pack and a pair of enormous African (Asian?) porcupines. And by this point it was getting on to 3pm and we were about done with the Zoo.

My other reason for picking the Zoo was that I was hoping we could duck over to the Museum for part of the afternoon as well. We waffled a little bit about paying full price admission for only two hours of time, but then we just went ahead and did it. I really wanted to take Tessa through the Museum because she's getting to an age to actually notice and be interested in certain exhibits.

We visited the Discovery Center first, where Tessa got to play with magnets, blocks, puzzles, a see-through piano, an air tunnel with mesh scarves, giant foam blocks, a dinosaur pit, and several types of tambourines. I have to admit that some of my favorite moments of parenthood involve just watching my daughter discover, explore, and play. There is really nothing quite like it.

When the Discovery Center closed, we took Tessa through the Wildlife dioramas, which she found more engaging than we initially thought she would. Lastly we took a quick run through the Space Center and let Tessa try out a few things. I personally found the infrared camera to be the coolest thing - it showed that Tessa is one hot-blooded little girl, as opposed to her somewhat refrigerated mother. :-)

We left as the Museum closed and headed off to our planned dinner at Sweet Tomatoes in Westminster. If you get a chance to try this place, it's just fantastic. It's a major league salad bar with a wide soup bar, plus some pasta, bread, baked potato, and dessert options. Very cool. Tessa gobbled down peas, beans, noodles, mac-and-cheese, cheese foccachia, green peppers, grapes, and raisins. I personally managed to have two salads and minimal pasta - for a change.

After dinner we headed back north to Fort Collins, where we put effort into keeping Tessa awake on the drive. We succeeded and Tessa was a relative snap to put to bed. The kid was actually really, really good all day. She had only one semi-meltdown and it was obvious that it was only because she was so tired at that point in the day. We were able to calm her down in just a couple minutes.

We also did the whole day without a stroller. Tessa either walked on her own or was carried by me or Kate. Less to lug around and maneuver, making us more flexible in what we did.

So I'm chalking this up to a really great day. We get so few chances to go out and do something non-stressful as a family. It was wonderful to give ourselves this opportunity.

Naturally, tomorrow we're going to try to get a few things done around the house, including grocery shopping and a Goodwill run. Plus some reorganization if we get the chance. If we can get our meager to-do list done tomorrow, it might mean another day of rest come Sunday...which would be seven flavors of awesome.

As always, thanks very much for reading...and I hope you and yours are having a great day!

Halloween Weekend

Technically, this wasn't Tessa's FIRST Halloween. However, this was the first Halloween in which we actually did something with her. We weren't originally going to, figuring that she was too young to really know what's going on, but then her godparents bought her this awesome ladybug costume...and we just HAD to go out and show off our cute kid!



The condo division that we live in doesn't have much by the way of young kids in it. (College kids, sure, but no young-un's.) So we were pretty sure that taking her around the neighborhood wouldn't really be worth the effort. Instead, Kate tracked down details for the annual Treatsylvania celebration that takes place at The Farm in Lee Martinez Park. We'd heard about Treatsylvania many times before but, of course, never went there ourselves since we didn't have a kid.

Well, let me tell you...this Treatsylvania event is awesome! You enter the Park in groups and follow a trail lined with decorated "Doors" representing the commercial sponsors of the event:







The kids knock on the Doors and volunteers open up and offer up treats.





Mostly the treats were small bits of candy, but many vendors also dropped in coupons, pencils, and other little tidbits.

Tessa was hesitant at first, but she likes to knock on doors...so she would dash up, rap on the door, and run away back to Kate! But when she started to realize that no one scary was coming out...and that the people would put treats in her (provided) bag...she started to get into it. By the end of the line, she would knock once then try to open the door herself to get inside!! :-D

Altogether, it was a very well-organized and comfortable event. We're definitely visiting again next year!

This took place on Sunday. On Halloween Monday, Kate took Tessa to the Tiny Tot Halloween sponsored by the Downtown Business Association of Old Town Fort Collins. I'd heard about the event in the newspaper and suggested that Kate might try it out while I was stuck at work.

Basically, all the businesses in Old Town (and according to Kate, they do mean ALL of them) have treats for costumed little ones who come in for a visit. Costumed employees are eager and welcoming to all young candy-seekers and their parents.

Apparently the event was PACKED! Kate took some pictures to show how amazingly crowded it was:





...so this is obviously another popular event. Kate says that despite the crowds, it was still well-organized and Tessa had a lot of fun running around getting more loot for her (again, provided) bag.

Both events are obviously very commercial and geared toward advertising a variety of local and regional merchants...but that's okay! Both are still a lot of fun for the kids and a safe way to spend Halloween.

That night, after I got home from work, Kate and I bundled Tessa back into her costume and popped down to visit Tessa godparents - Debbie and Rick - to show off the outfit they had bought for her. While we meant to just do a quick stop, we ended up camping out with Debbie on their front porch and helping hand out candy. Deb insisted on taking me and Tessa around the cul-de-sac to meet her neighbors so she could show off her adorable god-daughter...so Tessa got in a half dozen "real" treat-or-treating stops that night! She also enjoyed helping hand out candy.

Crowning moment was when a gaggle (probably eight or nine) of teenage girls swarmed up the walk for their treats and spotted Tessa the Ladybug. They literally ALL broke into a loud and simultaneous "AWWWWW!" :-)

The drawback of the night is that Kate and I decided to let Tessa have a few pieces of her loot, including a couple Kit-Kat, Smarties, Three Musketeers, and chocolate-covered raisins. I know this will come as a shock, but she's now hooked on sweets. ;-)

But it was a seriously good weekend.

Anyway, thanks for reading...and I hope you're having a great day!