Monday, March 28, 2011

6 months

Well, here we are...six months down, three more to go.  It's funny, Malia used to really hate doing these pictures but now I think she's actually starting to enjoy it.  She way to stubborn to ever admit that I may have actually been right, though.  The little one is really starting to move around quite a bit now.  It's gotten to the point to where I can feel her doing cartwheels, or whatever the hell she does in there, at night if Malia snuggles up to me in bed.  I don't even have to try to feel it anymore, its pretty obvious.  I can't imagine how she sleeps with that circus going on in there.  Must be payback for all the flashlight torture we dished out earlier.

We're still haven't picked a name yet.  If you look over to your right, you'll see that we've narrowed it down to a few of the top contenders for you to vote on.  I figure what better way to make one of the most important parenting decisions than to let the fine citizens of the interwebs decide!  I only wish that we had beat that couple that auctioned the rights away to naming their baby on ebay to the punch.  We could have a a cute little RC Delco running around, in addition to a few bucks for Mom & Dad's vacation fund!  Oh well, maybe next time...

Speaking of crazy, Malia has been inundated with crazy baby ladies (or CBL's as I call them) lately.  You know what I'm talking about; those random strangers, and not-so-strangers, that feel like its OK to touch her because she's pregnant...  Malia is just waiting for the next lady that does it.  She's already got it all worked out:

"Well, I never!"


CBL:  "Oooh, look at you!" (puts hand on Malia's belly)
Malia: (Immediately puts her hand on CBL's belly)
CBL:  (Startled) "Wha, wha, what are you doing?"
Malia: "Yeah, weird isn't it?"

I hope I'm there to see it...it will be awesome.






What could go wrong?


Also, we're already looking into daycare... Apparently you have to start looking several months before you baby is born.  Funny thing, turns out daycare costs like a million dollars a second...yay! There goes all that "extra" money we thought we might have.  It's too bad that you can't just lock your kid in the backyard while you're at work.  She'd have the dogs to keep her company, so she at least wouldn't be lonely.

In other news, Jax the handi-capable junkie dog is doing quite well.  We've weened him off of the hard stuff and now he's getting back to somewhat normal.  He gets the staples out this Saturday which is a big deal.  I offered to do it myself with my new office scorpion, but Malia thought that it was a bad idea...I'll have to admit that think she may be right on that one.

Other than that, it was a pretty slow week for us here... Malia went back to work after a week of dog sitting, and boy was she ever excited about that!  My new job is going pretty well.  It's turning out to be much more complicated than I had originally thought, which is a good thing because it won't get boring.  I'm just still the new guy which sucks because it seems that I'm asking a question every couple of minutes.  I'll figure it out soon though.  

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Belly Picture and more Doggy Shenanigans

Well, we're now at 23 weeks...It's weird to think that we have just over 3 months left before the newest member of our little dysfunctional family arrives.  Malia is starting to become more uncomfortable which, sadly, is probably only going to get worse.  The little one has taken to sitting really low and squishing Malia's bladder. Malia likes to say that "Ugh, she's using my pelvis like a friggin' hammock!"

We've had to resort to the flashlight trick a couple of times which only leads to more squirminess. I guess that should be expected though. I mean, look at it from her perspective:  There you are, chilling out and all peaceful, floating around in the darkness and then: BAM!  A giant flaming fireball right next to your head.... It would freak me out too.  It doesn't help that I used one of those giant Mag lights. You know, the kind you could club someone to death with.  Now that I actually think about it, we probably shouldn't do that anymore.

We abandoned the crib that we bought on Craigslist because our good friends Ron & Katie offered to let us use their crib.  Its a gorgeous solid maple crib that was handmade by Ron's Dad.  I am very happy that I don't have to fix up that gross crib anymore.  It was definitely a chore that I was not looking forward to.

We have finally set up our baby registries for those of you who would like to get something.  There are links to both a Babies R Us and a Target on the right, just below the creepy baby thingy.

 
No pants Dog

The other really big thing that happened this last week is that Jax finally got his knee surgery!  We found a vet that did the procedure for roughly half of the other quotes that we got from other vets around town.  It was still ridiculously expensive, but thanks to our tax return it was doable.

The vet we chose did the surgery a little differently than most do.  It was pretty invasive and will require more time to recover, but the benefit to this way is that the joint will be much more stable in the long run.  The poor guy has an incision from just below his knee all the way up to his hip which has 35 staples keeping it together.  Getting him home afterwards was probably one of the worst things that I have ever had to do.  The poos guy was in so much pain and didn't understand why this was happening to him.  Getting him loaded into and out of the Civic was really hard, but once we got him home, he did much better.  He had a rough night that first night because his pain meds weren't really sufficient.  I went back to the vet the next morning and got a prescription for a much better painkiller and he was much happier.  He's doing good now, but we've got a long way to go for a full recovery.


Raaawr!

On a more fun note, I got inspired by a picture I found online of somebody creating various creatures out of office supplies and decided to make my own office scorpion for my desk at work.  You see, I have a very large desk and am in desperate need to find stuff to put on it so it looks like someone actually sits there.  I'm also pretty excited about a model of a B-17 that I bought the other day.  I'm planning on putting it together over the next few weeks and filling up some more real estate on my desk.  I must have put together a dozen or so of these models as a kid, but then I would blow them up or something equally juvenile, so I'm looking forward to trying to do it really well.  I'm hoping it will be a pretty effective distraction and also a cool desk accessory.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

22 week pic n' stuff

Sorry to keep our tens of readers waiting an extra day for the update.  I'm quite sure you've all been waiting on pins and needles...

Anyway, Malia is feeling pretty good.  The little one has gotten into a routine that keeps Malia up a bit at bedtime with all of her antics in there.  I felt three or four really good kicks, punches or head-butts...whatever they were.  Her knee is also responding well to the cold packs & ibuprofen the Doc prescribed.

We went in for our 5 month check with our OB doc last Friday and everything is looking good in that department as well.  Her fundal height measured at 23cm, which is a bit on the larger side, but perfectly normal.  The doc told us that your measurement should roughly equal the number of weeks pregnant that you are. so we're looking good!

The name front is not looking so good though...  Normally, Malia and I agree on almost everything without even trying.  Not this time though. It seems that all the ones that she likes, I don't and vise-a-versa.  She even got really upset with me after looking over a list of names that I picked out of a name book.  Like I was deliberately trying to pick an awful name or something.  Granted, on a second viewing myself, some of them were pretty terrible.  Were taking it pretty seriously and trying our best to go through all the possible schoolyard permutations.  For example, I had taken a liking to the name "Anna", but Malia instantly vetoed it when she said it fast.  Try it for yourself... go ahead, I'll wait...  What did it sound like to you?  We heard cute little "Anna Leake" turn into horrible "Anal Leak".  Great.  There goes that one.  Basically, its going to be really hard to pair a pretty girls name with our last name.

It was much harder than I though.  Trees are heavy.
In other news, we finally got some trees for the backyard and got them planted last week.  We are hoping that they'll grow to create a barrier between us and the mouth-breathing apartment dwellers behind us.  Hopefully we'll be able to avoid anymore "accidental doobage" that'll cost me another thousand bucks at the vets office.  We found a smoking deal, pun intended, at Home Depot on the fast-growing Green Giant Arborvitaes.   8 footers for $30 each, so we grabbed six got them in the ground, thanks to my brother in law Chris.

Speaking of the black hole of money that is my dog, Jax; we've finally got enough money to pay for his bum knee surgery.  You see, his super spazziness has caused him to tear his CCL, the doggy version of an ACL.  We really got lucky and found a vet that recently came over from Eastern Washington who does the surgery for roughly half of what everyone else charges.  We were a bit skeptical at first, but after doing some homework we learned that apparently all the vets over here on the Westside are just douchebags that charge that much because they can...  So Jax goes in on Friday for surgery and its supposed to take him up to six months to recover.  We even have to take him to doggy physical therapy in a friggin' swimming pool.  Man, he sure is lucky to have come to live with us.

Monday, March 7, 2011

21 Weeks

It's that time for the weekly belly shot again!  Malia was a good sport this time and delayed her almost instantaneous change into her jammies when she got home so I could snap this one.

She went to the orthopedist for her knee last week, and the good news is that the doctor doesn't think that there is anything wrong with the joint. He thinks that the pregancy has made her body have an immune response to her knee and will probably go away as soon as she has the baby. He prescribed  a brace, cold packs and a new chair at work so she could stay off of it.

Malia has been less than enthused about the new chair.  She emailed me today saying that she felt dumb rolling all around her office and that all of her coworkers thought she was being really, really lazy.  She especially didn't like it when I called her a cripple; she much preferred the term handi-capable.

Today we got the shipment my mother sent us, or rather sent to her granddaughter because it was addressed to her and not us.  She told me that she bought all the pink stuff that was in town, and she wasn't kidding.  There was even a bitchin' tie-dyed onesie.  Thanks to my Mom, she gonna be the pinkest, most tie-dyed newborn at the hospital!

On another note, today was my first offical day at the office.  It is a little strange because I've never worked in a professional office setting before.  Nothing bad, I'm just not used to such formality. I'm more used to a lewd and crude atmosphere. I did have a pretty uncomfortable moment in the lunchroom today. I brought my sandwich, chips & yogurt in a Safeway plastic sack and when I went to the cafeteria at lunch, I noticed that everyone else had a nice lunch tote thing. Not only did I have to sit by myself because I'm the new guy, but I brought my lunch in the most ghetto thing that I could have possibly chosen. A black hefty bag would have been worse, but not by much...

Anyway, so there I am sitting by myself and my stupid noisy grocery sack lunch is making the most noise that it can possibly muster.  So what does everyone do...stop talking and stare at the new guy with his ghetto lunch sack.  Awesome.  I felt like that fat kid at the 3rd grade lunch table who had the paper bag when all of his friends had the Han Solo lunchbox.  Lame...  So, I went and bought myself a fancy lunch carrier today; the Lunchinator 3000 with "New Cooling Gel Power!"  Eat that, assholes!  Bet your sack doesn't have cooling gel power, does it?

Other than that, it was a good day.  It was information overload, like any first day tends to be.

By the way, Stoner Dog Jax seems to be OK.  I'm not entirely sure he's sober yet though.  I just to this pic today, you be the judge :)

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Halfway there!

After much scolding from my mother, I have finally found some time to sit down and update the blog. The last couple of weeks has been pretty hectic for us; me in particular.  My Grandmother passed away on Valentine's Day and on the very same day my dog got reaaally stoned (more on that one in a minute).  Now, I know that most of you have been religiously checking the blog everyday for a new post filled with riveting and exciting stories and waiting with much anticipation, so without further ado:

20 WEEKS!!!


My Gammy
My Grandmother, Gwen Leake, peacefully passed away on Valentine's Day at 86 years old in my hometown of Pascagoula, Mississippi.  Her health had been in decline for quite some time so it was not a surprise, although such news always comes as a shock to the system.  I hopped on the first flight I could get booked into Houston, which was ridiculously expensive.  There I met my aunt Linda at the airport and the next day we made the long 8 hour car ride to Pascagoula.  It was good to catch up as I couldn't remember the last time I had really gotten to spend any time with her.

The funeral in Pascagoula was very nice and my Dad and Linda both gave wonderful eulogies that, at least for me, seemed to capture the essence of what she meant to all of us.  The whole family then piled into the car again to make the trek back to Houston where she was laid to rest next to my Grandfather, Charles.

Handsome Devils!




It was all pretty exhausting, but I feel like it was a worthy tribute to a woman who had such an impact on all of our lives.  It was also really great to see my family.  One of the downsides to living up here is that I don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like to.  I even got a chance to eat some excellent Gumbo, which is pretty much impossible to find up here. :)




Stoner Dog:
OK, for those of you who don't know about our dog Jax...he's a very "special" kind of dog; and by "special" I mean "dumb as a box of rocks".  Don't get me wrong, I love this dog to death.  He is the most loyal and loving dog I've ever had, but I think that Jax would ride the doggy short bus, if there were such a thing...that or have to wear a doggy helmet.  I can't decide which mental image is funnier. Needless to say, he is a bit of a handful.  To make things worse, he's a really big dog! We think he's a cross bethween a Rhodesian Ridgeback and a German Shepard.  Basically, this means that I have about 95 lbs. of  stupid running around my house on a daily basis.  But he is sweet.

With the prerequisite background out of the way, I can get to the real story.  I got home around 4pm and let the dogs in from the backyard.  Everything seemed to be just fine as both Jax & Cody were really excited to be let in, as usual.  About half an hour later I noticed that Jax was acting pretty strangely.  I got up to investigate and as I watched him swaying and staring at the garbage can, he fell right over!  I quickly scooped him up and rushed off the the vet.  

"Welcome to Banfield, we're here to take your money!"
On the way to the vet the only explanation that I could think of for Jax's behavior was that some a-hole from the apartment complex behind my house had thrown over some kind of steak filled with poison or something.  I was livid and really worried at the same time.  The vet took him in right away and ran all kinds of tests to try and find the cause of his erratic behavior.  Well, after 3 hours and $650 all the vet could tell me was that she couldn't figure out what was wrong with him.  She thought that it might be antifreeze poisoning, but they didn't have the test needed to see if that was the case or not. She told me that I would need to go to another Vets office to get anymore help.  I was pretty upset that I had spent all of that time and money for them to tell me that I had to go somewhere else because "we just don't know whats wrong with him".  Note to everyone:  DO NOT waste your time with Banfield Pet "Hospitals".  They must hire all the vet school rejects or something.  Total scam. So, I begrudgingly pay my bill and get Jax into the car to go to the other Vet.  On the way to the other hospital is when I get the call from my Dad about my grandmother...

Well, once I get there the Dr. seemed to instantly know what was wrong with him.  The conversation went something like this:

Dr: "So, I think I know what's wrong with your dog, but I need to ask you something"
Me: "That's great!  What do you need to know?"
Dr: "Yeah, so I'm going to ask you this and I want you to know that I need the truth in order to help Jax here.  I just want you to know that I won't judge you at all, OK?"
Me: (Uncomfortably) "Uh, yeah...sure, whatever Doc"
Dr. "Has Jax had any access to some Marijuana?  Like, maybe he accidentally got into your stash or found a pipe or something like that?"
Me: (Relieved) "Ha ha ha! Do you think he's stoned!?  If he did get into some, it wasn't from me.  I bet that someone could have thrown it over my fence though!"

Approximate representation of Jax on the ride home.
The Dr. ran whatever test they run for that - a doggy urinalysis or something, and sure enough...he was baked out of his gourd!  They just sent me home and told me to keep an eye on him.  I guess someone threw a sizable chunk of weed over the fence and Jax got to it.  I still can't figure out why they would do such a thing.  If it was a joke, that would be an awfully expensive joke.  Maybe some kid was ditching his stash before Mom caught him or something...who knows.  It turned out to be an expensive joke for us, though.  Close to $1000!


In other, less dramatic, news; I start my new job on Friday!  I had to go down to Boeing Field today to do some HR stuff and get my picture taken for my badge.  Friday is my official first day on the job.  I'll have to drive back down to Boeing Field for the orientation seminar which is supposed to take half the day and then back up to the Everett Plant to my new office after that.  Malia and I are both excited!

Speaking of Malia, she is still feeling pretty good despite being 5 months pregnant.  Her knee is giving her some trouble though.  That particular knee has given her trouble in the past, so I think that the pregnancy is exacerbating the problem.  She's got an appointment with the orthopedist on Thursday to get it checked out.  More exciting though, is that she and I both can feel our little girl moving around in there!  I thought I felt a tiny little kick before I left to go to Texas, but I for sure felt one two nights ago!  Very cool!!!

The nursery is coming along nicely as well.  We finally decided on a color - Cosmic Cream.  Its a very pale yellow with a peachy hue to it.  Its girly without being too overbearing about it. I think it will go nicely with all of the stuff we have in mind.
Mama & Baby