It's A...

Puppy!!!!









No, just kidding. Somehow, Bill thought that would be awesome, however. Frankly, the thought weirded me out a little. According to the ultrasound tech, the child is human and everything looks fine. Come March, Reina will be the proud older sister of a new baby brother!

Now all of you friends of ours with boys can offer advice since very few of you had girls close to Reina's age. Looking at the photos, it seems Mr. Speck likes to suck his thumb, and, despite his slightly alien baby appearance, seems pretty content. (I am assured the alien baby thing is normal development, at least he no longer looks like a chicken embryo). Poor Aunt Katie, this time, Uncle Austin gets another player for his team to join cousins Milo and Casey. Katie's had the advantage for a while with Liz, Ava and Reina.

Incidentally, Reina could have cared less about the experience and would have rather played with the toys in the lobby or the buttons on the ultrasound machine. She does throw her head back and cackle like a deranged little witch when she gives kisses/zerberts to Speck on my stomach.

Final Vote Tally (just trying to get folks warmed up for next Tuesday)
Boy: 4
Girl: 2
Puppy: 1

Jamie voted twice, so gets counted twice (who said the system wasn't flawed?) But if she hadn't, the Girl and the Puppy would be tied. Hmmm.

Place Your Bets

Alright alright alright already! Here's your opportunity to guess Baby Speck's gender. The ultrasound is this Tuesday. Yes, we will be finding out. Maybe we'll share it with everyone else...if you're nice.

Beware of Cousins Bearing Gifts

We've had several fun days this week with Lizzy, Ava and Casey, along with Ryan and Kristin, however, not without a price. One of the realities of having children is that they are ALL walking little petri dishes. Luckily for us, Reina and I not only got to play with the kids, we got some imported Texas gastroenteritis virus to boot! I hope I don't hurt feelings...that's just life. Fortunately, we are both back in good health and ready for what comes along next. Bill escaped the worst by heading to Florida for a conference. The bum. We miss you Daddy. Speaking of bums, we only needed our Bum to make the cousin quorum complete. We missed you, too Bum!

Testing out the new trampoline with Aunt Katie. Reina didn't quite have the hang of it.

Liz and Ava clearly love it, Reina's just trying to remain vertical.

Homemade hayride thanks to Michael-Dad. Going to "Grandma's and Grandpa's Farm" isn't a thing of the past after all.

The elusive Casey! Such a happy boy, although slimy according to Austin.

Three Little Girls on a Tree Stump

Reina meets a real Llama Llama. Mutually not impressed.

The best of 15 photos of Reina with a pumpkin, and she still wouldn't sit still.

Staged hayride photos for posterity. Almost as much fun.

From Famine to Feast

After the absence of photos for longer than usual, here are plenty to peruse of the past week or so's activities. The most notable of which was my brother Matt's wedding to Jen in Charlotte, NC. It was a typically action-packed wedding weekend, with lots of stories and anecdotes. It was great to see friends and family, we finally got to meet baby Leah T., (Amy and Craig's daughter and Reina's future bridesmaid). My Nana was able to come to the wedding so we got another 4 generation photo to document the event. Sadly, I didn't take many photos of the bride and groom, however, I am told a CD is being burned for me so I will add more pictures once I can.

On Sunday, we left for Asheville, NC where we visited the Biltmore House during a perfect fall day. It was idyllic and Reina was so good. We stayed the night in a nice kid-friendly B&B but, despite the comfy bed, we didn't sleep well. It was an old house so we heard every door open and close all night. It is good to be home and sleeping in our own beds once again which leads me to the photos....

BIGGIRLBED!!!!

Look closely, you'll see the new crazy tooth.

Me, Reina, Nana P. and Great-Nana VanD. (no, VanD. isn't short for Vanderbilt)

Best Daddy Ever at the rehearsal dinner

Norma T and new baby Leah with Nana and Reina at the reception

pretty dress and a big girl

Picnic in front of Biltmore Estate..."America's Largest Home"

My favorite part of the house is actually outside, the wisteria covered porch. What a view!

Me, Reina and a naked lady statue in front of the Italian Garden.

Reina practicing the be a Biltmore gardener when she grows up, hope she doesn't have my brown thumb.

This little ham has learned to smile on demand for the camera.

Bye Bye Baby

Bill is out of town (again) with my camera so I haven't got any photos to update, or even much to talk about, but have no fear, after this coming weekend at my brother's wedding, there will be tons. Bill did take his oral EM boards last weekend, and, although results don't arrive for weeks, he at least feels better to have it over with. Right now, he's seeing if the grass is really greener on the other side in St. Louis. More on that at another time...if anything develops.

Just in case anyone was wondering, Reina has taken to her biggirlbed without looking back once. I may as well move the crib into Speck's room for all she cares. She loves love LOVES her biggirlbed! She settles down to sleep right away, plays in there all the time and even hangs out there without complaint when she wakes up. She invites the dogs to jump up and join her and I am crossing my fingers that they'll make the switch into her bed and out of ours. She talks about it a lot and likes to tell others about it as well. The other day we took a great walk with Dre and baby Jonah and told Dre all about it. She also was very proud to show Natalie her bed when she came over last weekend, but when it came time to take a nap she wouldn't stay put. After an attempt to put her back I just left her to her own devices in the dark in her room. I think she slept either in or on her bookcase, but she did nap!

Ah, the ever new and changing life of a toddler. In other news, we had an unfortunate event occur in the bathtub, when, while trying to evade the evil rinsing cup she chipped her tooth on the porcelain. No terrible damage, just a cosmetically unattractive front tooth. I feel worse about it than she does. Oh well, I guess it'll fall out in about 5 years.

Food-wise she still tends to be an enigma. Some days she'll live on Cheerios, milk and yogurt, others she'll eat anything I put in front of her including tomatoes (of which we've grown tons), rice pilaf, carrot and salad. I can never count on any kind of food to be a slam dunk and often feel like a short order cook. 95% of the time she insists on doing it herself. I suppose this is typical for many toddlers, just not any we know.

Stairs are a source of challenge and of pride, since she usually wants to hold the rail herself. Self esteem is developing nicely, sometimes she congratulates herself on an accomplishment by walking around holding her arms above her head saying "so big."

All in all Reina has embraced her new found abilities and really enjoys testing herself...and us. I sort of miss the baby, but probably not as much as I would if Speck weren't going to join us. I'm almost as excited as she is when she does something new. Granted, she still sleeps with a binky, but hey, one step at a time. I guess there's a little baby left in her yet.

So Far So Good

Well, I thought Reina napping once in her big bed was a fluke, but it seems not to be so. Not only is she napping there again today, she slept in it all night! The only downer was that I had not yet acquired all the toddler accoutrements required for sleeping in a real bed. Therefore, we purchased a waterproof mattress pad today after I changed the sheets from her leaky wet diaper. Big whoop. If that's the biggest stumbling block in this new phase of development, so be it. (I'm sure all you experienced parents are laughing at my naivete right now!)

Bring on the potty training!

or not.

Shhh.

I don't want to jinx myself, but Reina has been quiet in her room, in her BIG GIRL BED, since 1pm! Either she's actually asleep or she has gotten herself into some terrible trouble. Fortunately, I've had confirmation on her monitor that she is alive due to some, ahem, bodily functions I heard. I guess if you keep her up a little late and get her up a little early she'll sleep anywhere?

We'll see what tomorrow brings at nap time when we try this again! Wish us luck.