Another Gavin Movie

Gavin got a bath tonight. Then he got hang out mostly nekid under the heater. Its been rare that we have been able to see him so alert and unbundled at the same time.

Meet Gavin Paul

This should be a bit more satisfying than ultrasound pictures. Gavin came a bit early on April 10, 2009. He was 4lbs 4oz and 17.75” long. He is a champion eater. Here is a little movie of him getting burped.

I cannot say it happened in a fashion that we had anticipated. But all thing considered, we are very, very thankful for the way things have turned out and that Carri and Gavin are both going to be fine.

Thank you all for all the support and prayers.

Ultrasound Picture: Part Deux

 

OK, so I got some feedback that the previously posted pics were hard to interpret.  So I tried to add some signage to make them easier to understand.  Clicking on each image will enlarge it.

These are not the state of the art 3-D ultrasound pictures, so they show things in 2-D.  So its like looking at one plane cutting through an object.  That's why the first picture kind of makes him look like an alien.  The image is showing what his skull looks like about 1cm deep, so you are seeing his eye sockets, not his eyes.  And a cross section of his upper chest.  You can see his hand next to his head but you can’t see the rest of the arm.

This next one happened to catch the very front of his face, so you can actually see the soft tissue of the bottom of his nose, his lips, and a chubby little chin.  That's the bright spot in the middle.  It is similar to how a face might look when someone is shining a flashlight in his face while telling a ghost story.

This is a view of the bottom of his feet.  Probably one of the easier ones to understand.

Here is a profile with some of the parts labeled.  I am not sure if the part in front of his face is his lower arm or his upper leg.  I am thinking its his arm.  If you can tell, leave a comment below….

Hopefully this helps!  Don’t be afraid to leave comments.  Just click on the part below that says “comments.”

Pre-Pre-Pre-School Pictures

We got some new ultrasound pictures today.  He is looking good.  Carri is feeling well and beginning to show now at week 23.  The baby is pretty active and we can feel the kicks consistently now.  He flipped from being upside down to right side up within the first minute of the ultrasound.

This one looks a little creepy since it is showing the eye sockets instead of the front of the face.

This pic is difficult to understand at first.  The bright part in the middle is the front of his face.  The light horizontal line is where his lips are meeting.  The top part of the same bright spot shows the front of his nose.

These are both of his feet.

This is a profile of his face.  You can see a bit of his ear as well if you look closely.  I think that is his arm in front of his face.

A Lesson From Katie…

Anna forwarded this yesterday.  Katie recently had an unfortunate incident that happened at school. 

Here is some text from Anna’s email:

“So, I think I told you guys the story where Katie bit through her lip at school in the lunchroom? Attached is the special Christmas card she made for our custodian, Rony, who had to clean up the "puddles of blood" from the lunchroom to the office.
Isn't it precious?”

 

So please let Katie’s gracious message remind all of us, in this season of giving, to enthusiastically thank all those who help and support us every day.  Especially those who are left to mop up after us when we exsanguinate ourselves in a public setting.

Some Blogging Tips

It appears that spring might have actually arrived to Seattle. Our mischievous friend La Nina has restricted our temperatures to about 50 degrees every day this year so far.(OK, there were two days of warmth before now) But yesterday it hit the 70s finally and today will probably be in the 80s. Its a shame it took till the ides of May to produce some blue sky this season.

I hadn't mowed the lawn in 3 weeks and the grass was about a foot high. Bella had been giving me concerned glances when she was attempting to perform her duties in the sea of verdant blades. So yesterday evening was consumed by a lot of mowing and re-mowing since it was the first time in a while the grass was moderately dry.

Onto today's business... I wanted to put some information about how you all can participate in this blog.

Comments - At the bottom of each post, there is the word "comment." If you click on that, it brings you to another page that allows you to write a short message about something in the post. And you can read other people's comments.

Subscription - At the bottom of the entire blog is the link that asks if you want to subscribe. If you click on that, you will get an email to tell you every time a new post is added.

Posting - If you want to add a post, look to the very top of the blog page. Up towards the left side is a link that says "new post." Click on that and it will bring yo to a new page. From then on its much like writing an e-mail.

If you want to add pictures, click on the little picture icon at the top. You then have two options. You can upload pictures off your hard drive. This will take a few minutes. You can also link to pictures that are already on the Internet. This is faster if you have an appropriate picture. Please confer with your lawyer about copyright issues (I think our litigation risk with this site it pretty low). To add a picture off the net, click on it with your right mouse button and select "properties" on the menu that pops up. Then copy the web address that is shown for the picture. Then past it into the URL box back on the "add picture" page.

Videos are added in a pretty similar fashion. It takes a couple minutes for a short video to load but you can work on other parts of the post while it uploads. Its really easy to post off of youtube. The video of Mike's sailboat was done that way. the following link explains more about video posting:

The interface for arranging the pictures and videos can be a bit clunky. But you essentially click and drag the box that the media is in to the place where you want it.

Post Length - Don't worry about adding every detail of the event a putting up a bunch of pictures. Just try to write a paragraph or two and add just a couple pictures. If you put up too much stuff it can make the page take a long time to load. And its better to post more small stuff than to feel like you need to spend a lot of time making a super thorough post. If people want to find out the specifics, they can ask you in the comments. Or you can break up something into multiple posts and spread it out.

For example, my first post about our trip last September was probably too long and had too many pictures for one post. It would have been better to break it up into parts.

That being said, any post is a good post. I just don't want people to feel intimidated and think they have to write something worthy of Great Book status to publish on the blog.

Labels - If you do post, please take a moment to add labels. Right above the "publish" button, there is a little script box that says "label this post." Please add key words from your post to this box. Try to include the names of the people the post involves and any big picture topics, such as camping, birthday, boat, etc. That way it will be much easier for people to find and sort old posts if we end up using the site in the long run.

Let me know if you have any questions. I hope you all have a good weekend!
-Paul

Happy Mothers' Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms in the family. Jim, Sandy, Mike, Patti, Carri and Paul all got together to celebrate Patti and Sandy today. The parental units hopped a ferry over to Seattle and Carri and I picked them up on this side. We went to the Seattle Art Museum

SAM was having a special exhibit of ancient Roman art on loan from the Louvre's collection. There were a lot of marble statues. There were also mosaics, jewelry, bronze inscriptions and sculptures, and a lead sarcophagus to boot. It was a great stuff. It was also unfortunately the last weekend of the exhibit, so it gallery was packed and pretty hard to get around in. Next year I guess we should just do Mother's Day in Rome...


Afterwards we had lunch in the museum's restuarant. Highlights included establishing that our server was from Germany. Mike had vegan soup (I think he is considering switching to vegan.) Then we walked to our favortite gellato place at the Pike Place Market.

Just because we just hadn't gotten enough sugar, we stoppped at a really nice candy store at the Pike as well. Sandy was searching for a special kind of candy that Grandma Isobel had been reminscing about. We were unable to find it, so Grandma got a chocolate covered Twinkie instead as it was the closest approximation we could find to the creme filled chocolate she had described. But the rest of use got in on the action and tried some "Seafoam." It was an airy wafer Crispy wafer something or an other covered in dark chocolate. Patti used to get them with her mother when she was a girl.

We then walked along the water front so the Kitsap contingent could retunr home on the ferry. It rained a tiny bit, so we rolled the seismic dice and perambulated under the Alaska Way Viaduct.

Hopefully Patti and Sandy had a fun time on their day. Happy Mother's Day to Shannon, Katie, and Anna too!