Week 17_Spencer's Sociology Project

So, kids obviously learn all sorts of things from their parents, like their values, likes & dislikes, how to walk & how to drive a car (Teresa would say no one has yet to teach me how to drive properly). Hopefully our child will learn lots of things from Teresa and I so he can grow up to be a good person and not the weird middle aged man wearing tennis shoes with velcro fastners because his parents never taught him to tie his shoes. Hopefully there will also be lots of things he will not learn from us. His mom will need to teach him how to park, especially when turning right into a space. I just can't handle it. Our next door neighbors are going to have to teach him to cook or to eat things other than microwave dinners as neither of his parents can do that.

However, with one person depending on me to teach him so much stuff, I just can't resist the chance to perform a bit of a sociology experiment. I haven't figured out exactly what it will be, but I plan to teach my kid something that is completely harmless yet completely off the wall. It will be something that he is taught to do on his eighteenth birtday but never before or after. I think I will start it out along these lines "Kid, you come from a long line of Shell men who honored the memory of their ancestors by wearing their shirt and pants backwards on the day of their eighteenth birthday. It is a sign of respect for your great, great, great, great grandad Fauntleroy Hosea Shell who first set foot in the New World wearing his clothes backwards to confuse indians trying to sneak up on him." I will tell him the story of Grandappy Fauntleroy over and over again for eighteen years reinforcing in him how important it is that he honor this tradition on his 18th birthday. I also have to remember to instill in him the fact that he should never say a word to his mother about this as she might do something to ruin the fun, I mean experiment, uh no, I mean tradition. So, how will this experiment turn out? Will he wear his clothes backwards on his eighteenth birtday? I don't know, but I bet you are all going to make sure you are at the birthday party to find out.

Now for a bit of houskeeping. My Mom and Dad were nice enough to buy the Kid a wonderul Moses basket for trips away from home or for nights when he doesn't want to sleep in the crib or on Sammy's doggy pillow. See pictures below. Also, Teresa is doing great (still tired a lot). Everyday I realize again how great she is handling the whole pregnancy thing and I am convinced that she is the most beautiful pregnant woman (or any sort of woman for that matter!) that I have ever seen! Don't believe me? I have the picture below to prove it!!!

Week 16_Quick Update!

Look what Spencer and I (okay, mostly Spencer) did this weekend! I finally feel like this baby thing is beginning to come together. Okay, so there's no mattress and we don't own any diapers, but a new piece of furniture is a big step for us.

We also started a registry at www.amazingregistry.com/babyshell. I'm super excited that I can register through many different websites and stores and it all appears in one place- this site! This way I can remember what Spencer and I need to get before the baby comes. My memory has been a bit absent recently; I'll be in the middle of a sentence and start forgetting basic words! Plus, we can save money using Amazon.com! Hooray! I hear children are expensive although I find this hard to believe since I've barely cost my parents a dime! :) Spencer is already planning Baby Henry/Andrew/Cooper/Alan/Mac's college fund! Oh, and I guess we should mention that each week we are trying out a new name and hopefully one will stick. If you have suggestions just let us know. Last week Spencer wanted to try out Baby "Mealticket" Shell and was just hoping he would end up playing in the NFL or finding a cure for cancer. Spencer thinks that if we can mooch off of our child when we're older then it won't matter if our 401ks are going downhill. Oh I hope Spencer is really ready for this child! I'll admit though he's been pretty excited to participate in the shopping and putting together of stuff for the baby. I've been very impressed and a tad surprised, but I've especially enjoyed him talking to our in-utero son! Cheers to Spencer, another true blessing in my life!

Week 16_First Flutters and Shopping!

Hooray! So today I think I felt my first "flutters"! It kinda felt like someone was inside of me scratching at inside of the stomach. It was a pretty neat feeling and I even called Spencer at work to tell him about it. I'll be excited when Spencer can feel the baby kick too. I told him if he really wanted to be a part of this experience that I would help him out by kicking him each time the baby kicks me. Spencer declined my kind gesture. So much for enjoying this pregnancy "together."

Only one complaint as of recently. I am still very tired. I was told I'd get tons of energy in my second trimester and so far, it's just not happening. I also don't really ever have an appetite now which is good for not gaining too much weight, but bad since I have to remember to eat. I've had pretty much only fruit and ramen noodles for days now. At least we are saving money- Ramen is only 17 cents a pack! At this rate, this kid might actually have a college fund!

Another weird thing occurred when I tried to wash my hands this week. I leaned over the counter in the bathroom to wash my hands and my stomach touched the edge of the counter!! It was so weird! I've never had a belly that touched things like that. Plus, it's not fat and squishy it's actually pretty hard so it kinda hurt to run into the counter. I guess this is just the beginning.

Now that we know it's a boy, I have been doing some window shopping and a tiny bit of real shopping. Below is the first (and so far only) thing I have purchased for Baby Shell.

Baby's First Polo (Georgia Tech Game Day Ready!)

My Mom has also contributed to Baby Shell's Polo Addiction...I mean wardrobe... with the following:

Sooo cute. Now if only I can convince Spencer that our unborn child who won't actually walk for awhile really will NEEEED these....

I think since "Daddy" has some loafers, "Baby" will want some too. Obviously my new goal is to have the best dressed kid ever....even if I can't put him in pink ruffles.

Week 16_IT'S A BOY!!

Well I believe the title says it all. We are officially having a little boy! God has blessed us so much and now He's added to it with a son! Our son will be the first grandson on both sides of our family and the first great grandson for my Mammaw, and Grampy and Grammy Drew as well as Spencer's Gan Gan and Papa and Bonnie! So watch out- here comes a pretty special guy!

The first picture is a cute one of the baby's profile. The second picture could get me arrested for posting it on the internet...but maybe it's like a baby's naked bathtub picture where everyone just thinks it's cute. Oh well. It's proof!

So now the fun can begin as we (okay really just I) get to start designing the nursery! I guess my pink themes are out!

So since it's late and I'm tired I'll just give you the quick and informational update (which means less humor than Spencer's posts).

Baby:

Test Results came back! No down syndrome, no tay-sachs, no Chromosome 8 and 13 defects (I guess that's good although I'm not sure what the chromosomes 8 and 13 have done wrong in other babies), and no spinda difida. Basically, the kid is decently healthy for being T-4 months old.

Teresa:

I thought God gave me nice fingernails during pregnancy because He feels sorry for my other pains. I was wrong, they are really to scratch my constantly itcy belly. I thought God gave me shinier hair because He feels sorry for my other pains. I was wrong, it is because He knows I have less engery to blow dry my hair completely before work each day. I have to admit I'm impressed with God's planning He's done to anticipate my aches and pains!

Spencer:

I always knew God gave him more patience that He gave me, but now I know why. Spencer has to have the patience to put up with Pregnant Teresa! Before I was pregnant, I didn't realize that everything is his fault. Pregnancy has cleared by view though and now I know that when my clothes don't fit, it's Spencer's fault. When I run into a wall, it's Spencer's fault. When I lose my phone, it's Spencer's fault. Interesting I didn't pick up on this before I became pregnant! Anyway, Spencer is a champ and is taking all of my hormone swings in stride, although sometimes I think they still surprise him a bit!

So that's the update for now- Good night, sweet dreams, don't let the bed bugs bite, and God bless!

P.S. This is something I would expect to see at my dad's house in Novemeber:

Week 15_Spencer's Turn

Yeah, I know it has been weeks since we have blogged. Our apologies but we have been a bit busy. What have we been doing? Touring every daycare within 20 miles of our house that's what. So, you may be wondering why we are looking for a daycare for a kid that hasn't been born yet. Apparently, although I can get a handgun in three days, the waiting list for daycare in Atlanta is a year long. Seriously, whatever happened to the law of supply and demand? You would think if there is a one year wait list for daycare people would be falling all over themselves to open new daycares.

So, we have now toured a number of daycares, each with a name like "Sunshine House" or "Bright Horizons". I guess the names are designed to convince parents that their kids will have a better than average chance to succeed in life if they would only send them to that daycare. If the name really does have that big of an impact on the kids future prospects, I think I know a lot of people who attended "Mediocre Prospects Day School" and even a couple who went to "God's Wasted Effort Christian Academy."

So what do you look for when taking a tour of a daycare? I haven't a clue. At the first few, I tried to concentrate and ask serious, well thought out questions about how the faculty and staff would nurture the mind & soul of our offspring. However, by the third tour I had thrown in the towel. They all looked the same and the tour guides all gave the same chirpy answers. So, I chose a new tactic and am now simply trying to concentrate not on picking the right daycare, but on not picking the wrong daycare. Here are a few things I look for when trying to weed out a daycare:

1) No open vats of acid. ANYWHERE.
2) There should be no doors bearing the sign "The Pain Cave"
3) It is not good if you overhear a teacher calling a child "the nappy headed one"
4) During nap time, kids should not have to resort to covering themselves in paper towels due to a blanket shortage
5) There should not be a fleet of television camera trucks stationed in the parking lot reporting on a "developing story"
6) One of the extracurricular activities should not be called "Fight Club"
7) It is a bad sign if one of the kids offers me two juice boxes and some fingerpaints for a pack of smokes
8) Nobody named Claude should be on the staff. Very common serial killer name.

There are other things one should look for of course but this is just a guide. Next week we are checking into "The Mama Don't Leave Me Here School". Wish us luck. Hopefully by the time our kid enters second grade we will be notified that he/she has been accepted into a daycare.

Week 13-Welcome Second Trimester!

Today we registered at Babies R Us. We hadn't planned on doing it this early, but we were out looking for a crib and couldn't remember which one we liked so we thought we'd add it to a registry so we could order it when we got home.

Registering for a wedding went like this: "Hey, we need plates. Let's get these. These look nice." "We need a comforter. I like this one. Let's get this one." THE END.

Registering for a baby went like this: "We need...um...what do we need?" "Maybe we need a bottle. Let's look at bottles." Then we head to the WALL OF BOTTLES with more options and name brands than a new car. "Okay, what about diapers? Here are some...and some more...and some more..." I think both of our heads were spinning by the end and honestly we have no idea what we registered for and if what we registered for will be of any use to us. In fact, I got home and looked at our registry and was surprised to see that Spencer got a little carried away with the registry gun. He registered for things I had no idea about! The funny thing is he is color blind so he couldn't tell that some of the things he picked out were pink! HA! If we have a boy we may have a very confused little boy.

So we have picked out the crib and changing table and glider that we like. It's on our registry, but we're planning on getting it. Again, we just couldn't remember the name brand between seeing it at the store and getting home. Below is what it looks like:

We got it in Cherry just like the picture and the glider is in cherry too. I haven't seen Spencer put so much thought into anything like he did with picking a glider. You'd think he was planning on breast feeding in that thing every night! Hmmm...if only I could arrange that.

Below is what I look like right now. I know, it sounds snotty to think anyone would care what I look like, but I figure if strangers like to touch pregnant women's bellies, then maybe family and friends would at least like to look at it. My boobs have gotten huge and in this picture I'm not sucking in. I'm not actually showing as much as this picture makes it look. I had just eaten a big meal. :)

Oh, we also went to the Doctor again this week as said in a previous post. Well, here are the pictures:

I think it pretty much looks like a little kid. And to answer some questions I've gotten recently:

No, I can't feel him/her kick yet.

No, we don't know the gender yet.

No, I'm not in maternity clothes yet as I don't "look" pregnant...just fat.

Yes, I can still wear some of my regular clothes.

Yes, I know I'm supposed to be eating healthy...please stop reminding me.

And Yes, I will eat that cinnamon bun anyway.

So that's about it for now. I'm beginning to get hormonal which is not fair to Spencer, but he's handling it well. He now refers to our house as the "Ice Box" and I'm not sure if it's because of the temperature I keep the thermostat on or my mood. Ha! We're ready for Month 4 and so far are enjoying the Second Trimester! Hooray!