Not really baby related

Yesterday one of the folks who trains at my dojo and is a professional photographer took some pictures of my friend Matt and I doing some aikido.  I think this one turned out really well.  (I think it's pretty clear, but just in case, I'm the one in the air ;))  If you dig it, you can check out more of Keith's photography at www.keithtaylorphotograpy.com.

(c)www.keithtaylorphotography.com

Eggsies

So we had our first birthing class today. We discussed nutrition for Claire among other things. Apparently, Claire should be eating two eggs a day. We're pondering purchasing a chicken...
-jeff

Anniversary gives baby the hiccups...

So last night Jeff and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary! We went to eat at Home, the place in Buckhead run by the guy from Top chef. It was upscale Southern with a twist, very tasty. Fried green tomatoes...with savory herb ice cream!(I'd never had a savory ice cream...Jeff thought he had, but I mean, they do it all the time on TV, but not so much for sale in the frozen section at the grocery store, ya know?) and my salmon had a sort of guacamole and... watermelon! And Jeff had the biggest pork chop I've ever seen. Anyhow, we stuffed ourselves and had a nice evening.
In the middle of the night I was woken up by the funniest sensation. I had heard that babies around this age can get hiccups in the womb, but it hadn't happened before. That had to be what this was, it was so odd! Eventually they went away and we all went back to sleep (at least until baby woke me up again this morning...)
-claire

Don't leave out Simon...

Just so our other "baby," a.k.a. the incredibly ferocious and sometimes snuggly cat, Simon, doesn't feel left out (because ya know, when we're at work he's totally reading blogs all day, when not busy sharpening his claws) I thought I'd put up a pic of him too...As you can see he's a huge fan of cardboard, especially the kind with catnip on it (kudos to the person who figured out to make cat scratchers from cardboard! It makes a huge mess but he loves it!)
-claire

In baby preparation news...

We've gotten the office (mostly) cleared out so it can become a nursery, and last night we put together a changing table, so now it's not quite so barren.  I'm sure more and more baby paraphernalia will accumulate there as the time approaches. :)

-jeff

So here are the promised ultrasound pics.  These are about 2 months old, so baby is a bit bigger now, but hopefully we'll have some new ones to share in a few weeks after the next ultrasound appointment.  This one shows a foot (the left one I think).

This next one one is a side profile with a little fist.  It could be she's pondering punching Claire...

This last one is my favorite.  Look at that smile! :)  Baby's probably laughing because of how much trouble she gave the ultrasound tech.  The main purpose of the visit was to look at her heart (which looked just fine), but every time the tech tried to get a look at it baby had her fist or elbow in the way and wouldn't move them.  She was a bit stubborn about letting us find out if she's a boy or girl too, so we were told it's 'probably' a girl.  I've decided to run with that for now, though hopefully we can get a definitive answer at the next ultrasound appointment.

-jeff

Name the baby!

Well ok...not really.  It is true that we haven't settled on a name yet though.  If you have one you think is especially cool please leave it in a comment ;)  Who knows, maybe we'll dig it too...

-jeff

a photo from sister's graduation

Back in late May, Leigh graduated and we went up to celebrate. So here we are with her and her diploma. Luckily it was cool because we were outside for the whole ceremony. And then Jeff packed all her stuff and she and the parents took two car-fulls of things south. Now she's in VA. Close enough that she'll be able to come to meet baby when (s)he gets here!
-claire

photo

So here's a photo of me (and baby, of course) at Versailles last month. I've got a couple of older ones too that I'll throw in here once, hopefully, Jeff can get my computer working correctly again.
-claire

Baby updates

Claire and I were talking about the best way to share all the upcoming changes and developments with friends and family as it gets closer and closer to the arrival of baby!! We figured this might be a good way, so we'll be putting up photos and news and what not as it happens. Hopefully in the next few days I can get the ultrasound pictures we have so far scanned so we can post those. In the meantime I think that Claire is probably going to put up some pictures of her in Paris being all pregnant.
-jeff