Bingo

I have been meaning to record this for a long time. This kid has rhythm! :) (He sometimes gets excited and claps more or forgets a clap, but he really knows how to clap to this song!)

DONE!!!

Can I just tell you about my amazing husband? He has been working on his Master's degree for the past ~5 years. This has included all of our dating and married life and more. On more than one occasion, he has been threatened with being kicked out of school due to having received a "C" grade (barely passing for grad students) in a class in 2006. Because of this "academic probation", he has had to work extra hard to pull his grades up in his classes, all the while fighting the removal with appeal after appeal and working full-time (not to mention all that has gone on with Boo and I over the past two years!).

He finally got two "A" grades and was able to get off academic probation for good. He finished his coursework in December, after which he had to take a comprehensive Master's exam - over all his classes. 6 years worth of studies!! Well, he worked super hard and PASSED the exam on the first go (one only really gets one try, but one could, in theory, appeal to take it again) on Feb. 26, 2010!

Now we get to take our long awaited trip to Tempe for his graduation. We are going to stock up on ASU alum paraphernalia. :) This is like a dream come true - and a hardly likely outcome, considering all that was going on with his schooling last year at this time. Having him free of study demands has afforded us liberties we have never known. Like being able to go places all day on Saturdays or Fridays off. Or having Dada help out with Boo's bath - something I always felt guilty asking for before, since he really needed to study. Or having him help with much of anything for that matter (even though he always found time to help out with things I REALLY needed). Now we can finish painting our house and get tile our kitchen and dining floors, and take care of our lawn (which I think is suffering from pink snow mold...), and do everything else we always talk about but never do for time's sake.

And did I mention we get to go to Arizona? Yeah, I know I did. :) I am SO looking forward to the warm or hot weather, be what it may. And not worrying about Boo getting sick (assuming there is not much sickness going around in mid-May...). And a LONG road trip (Boo cannot fly very easily with oxygen) - seriously, I LOVE road trips. And spending time with family that we don't see very often/that I have never seen at all!

If S were to read this post as I am writing it, he would remind me to "take joy in the journey", as I am often reminded around here. Admittedly, I do get caught up in looking forward to the future quite a lot. But, I must also admit that life around here is going well, we are happy, spring is coming (oops, there goes the journey again...), Boo is learning and having fun and so am I. Lest anyone remain in doubt, we are not waiting until this much-awaited graduation ceremony to be happy. :)

Our Little Teapot

This video comes as a result of our physical therapist suggesting to me that I push Boo over on occasion (on a soft surface of course!) to get him used to falling and that it is OK to fall. We set the routine to music (like I do with every other routine) and then we practiced all day. By the next day, Boo was tipping HIMSELF over at the appropriate time! It is amazing to me how fast he catches on to things, especially when they involve music. This is one of our fun diaper routines (except at the end when he had too much time on camera...).

It's a girl!

Yes, you heard me. :) We will welcome her into our family in the end of July (I actually think it will be early August). All the sickness I have been feeling (way worse than last pregnancy!) has finally mostly subsided. I don't think I will ever feel 100% during pregnancy, so I will just say that I am feeling good and leave it at that. The ultrasound was unremarkable in terms of problems. We will have a fetal echocardiogram at the end of the month to make sure the heart is free of defects. They did notice that the kidneys were holding the maximum volume they would allow without calling it "abnormal". So we will have another ultrasound in about 10 weeks to make sure that it is still normal. I am determined not to worry unless they tell me I should. :) And she is a little smaller than my due date would indicate. She is about 6 days behind schedule, but they do not worry about that discrepancy until it is 10 or more days off. So so far, so good. Anyway, we are SUPER excited! We have a room that has always been our future daughter's room (it was painted two-toned pink by the previous owner) and we are excited to have a use for the room. S is excited for our daughter to take a leadership role in the family with the rest of the future children. And I am excited to shop! :)

As a side note, we told our ultrasonographer about Boo's birth defect and his trouble that he had in the womb (part of my preeclampsia). She was very surprised that they at the University did not catch such an obvious birth defect as tetralogy of Fallot. She and the perinatologist went back and looked at his ultrasound records and discovered two things:
1. Boo's defect, even knowing what it was and looking for it specifically, was still undetectable on the ultrasound pictures.
2. SHE herself performed the ultrasound! I am pretty sure she felt terrible about that, and we probably wrecked her day by letting her know of all Boo's problems. But we were very clear and sincere - really and truly we do not assign blame for all the problems poor little Boo has had. It was actually a bit comforting to know, after wondering for quite some time, that Boo's defect was really not discernable and things could not have turned out differently.