Mural is DONE!!

Goodness, How cool is this!!! A whole tree covered in gorgous animals for me to talk to my little girl about!!  I'm so excited.  Now I just have to find a good excuse to do more murals around the house :)

I've got more pictures of it up here.  I really need a better camera lense to get the whole thing... with the room so small I can only get so far away.  

Mira's Mural

We decided to do a mural in Mira's Room.  Here's the first couple of pictures.  

The mural is of a tree.  In the branches are song-birds, an owl, a squirrel and at the base will be a rabbit.  The muralist is a local Texas Artist April Patterson.  

Her web site: http://www.aprilmurals.com

Her Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprilmurals

Sketch

From Mural

Day 1: Love the twisty tree bark!!

From Mural

Little kicker

I'm in the seventh month now, and I've been really surprised lately with how much I've felt Mira moving. Especially about 30 minutes after I've eaten. She'll wriggle and squirm and then just when I think she's done I'll get karate chopped from the inside. It's fun sometimes, but distracting at other times. Like when I'm trying to get to sleep. I'll be just about to doze off and then... ker-pow!

Mama at 6 months

Here are some pictures of me at the end of my 6th month of pregnancy. I'm standing in the nursery again, and you can see that the room has made a little progress... If it looks like my nose is a little red, that's cuz I've been fighting a little cold. Nothing too serious, just the sniffles and a sore throat.

20-week sonogram pictures

Ok I finally got around to posting these. Here are the photos from our 20-week ultrasound.






These two are of her profile. You can see the side of her face and her hands.








In this one, you are looking straight down at her. You can see her spine and her forearm.




This is her bitty foot.

And this one is (they tell me) how they know she is a girl... Looks like nothing but white and black specks to me. /shrug

Mira Lee Drake

It's wonderful to know what to call my baby! I find myself drawn much more to my wife's growing belly, becoming more attached to the life that's growing inside now that I have a name to call her.

We didn't do this prior to choosing the name, but it was satisfying to find the meanings of her name being so very very positive: Princess, Merry, Wonderful, Beautiful to look upon, Extraordinary, To be admired, Wonder - there are others but I like these the best :)

Meaning and Roots of the Name Mira:

Name	Gender	Origin	Meaning	Similiar Names
Ameerah	female	Arabic	princess	Amira, Almira, Allihmyir, Almaia, Alimaia, Almaye
Emerald	female	Spanish	a bright green gem	Esmeralda, Esmarelda, Esmaralda, Esmiralda, Esmirelda, Esmerelda
Kasmira	female	Old Slavic	war-like	Kasamira, Kazamira
Meara	female	Gaelic	merry	Mira, Meera
Meera	female	Hindu		Mira
Mira	female	Latin, Spanish; Hebrew	wonder; aim; light of God	Myra, Mirila, Mirella, Mirelle, Mirielle, Myrilla
Mirabelle	female	Latin, Spanish	wonderful; beautiful to look upon	Mirabel, Mrabella, Mirable, Marabel
Miranda	female	Latin	extraordinary, to be admired	Myranda, Meranda, Mira, Randy, Mandy
Palma	female	Old English	palm bearing pilgrim	Palmyra, Palmira, Palmiera

We're going to have a girl.

So yesterday we went in for our 20 week ultrasound. The doctor says we're going to have a little girl. Brian and I are thrilled! I'll post the ultrasound pictures and more details soon... stay tuned.

Alaska 2008

Bout time I figured out how to put up a pic ;)




(Little version clickable -> Big: for printing purposes)

ZOMG It's ALIVE!!!

mood... bugeyed

So, just last night I felt the baby move for the first time. It wasn't anything titanic like "ow! my hand!!" but the sensation of that little moving bump, sliding along the underside of my palm has been sending tingles to my brain for the last day. Subtle twitches, but incessant and amazing.

<--- Gonna be a Daddy!

Does this outfit make me look pregnant?

So it's official: I look pregnant. I met someone for the first time, and she asked me when I was due. I can't say how happy I am to be past the is-she-pregnant-or-just-fat-I-can't-tell stage.

Planning way ahead

It's been really nice having two sisters just ahead of me in this parenting journey. I've been figuratively looking over their shoulders by scanning their blogs and listening intently to conversations at the family gatherings...

Scraped from their blogs I've browsed on to other blogs that strike me as 'good places to remember and revisit in 12 months or so...

http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/
A great blog with activities and even songs for young children.

http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/my_montessori_journey/2008/06/cards-and-count.html

Montissori was my primary education - and in my opinion a fabulous method of educating young children. This blog is my first foray into getting ready to try and pass some of that love of learning on to my own little one. *I am SOOO looking forward to this*

And another montisorri link - this post in particular about early math education and materials:
http://montessorifreefall.blogspot.com/2008/08/choosing-montessori-materials-math.html

More later.

B, out!

Cravings

Today, Brian needed to make a quick run to the store for some school supplies (he's taking some evening classes). I asked him if he would pick up a couple things for me while he was out... just a jar of jalapeno pickles and some rocky road ice cream... did I just ask my husband to get me pickles and ice cream??? (Lest you worry, I don't eat both in one sitting... typically.)

It's a live one!

The morning of August 17th, 2008, I woke up and was just lying in bed, enjoying the warm bed and thinking about what I wanted for breakfast. These days I'm always thinking about what I'd like to eat next, being 17 weeks pregnant. As I was daydreaming of eggs-over-medium, I felt a little stirring in my belly. It definitely wasn't a hungry tummy grumble. It definitely wasn't digestion (my stomach was empty). I hadn't moved suddenly, so it couldn't be shifting due to gravity. It was a fluttering and then a tightness on one side that slowly relaxed. This was the first time that I could say without a doubt that I felt baby move inside of me. It was sort of strange but mostly amazing.

Mama at 3 Months

Here's me at the very end of my third month of pregnancy. (These pictures were taken on July 11th, 2008.) I'm starting to get a little baby bump! The room I'm standing in will become the nursery... as you can see, it's not much of a nursery yet.

Our First Ultrasound

On June 25th, 2008, Brian and I went to a routine checkup with my OB/GYN. I was 9 weeks pregnant, and the doctor wanted to try to listen for the baby's heartbeat using a Doppler. After several minutes of trying to pick up the heartbeat, the doctor was unable to do so. He said that it was probably no big deal, but if we'd like the peace of mind we could have an ultrasound. Otherwise he would try to listen for baby's heart again in two more weeks. We told him that we'd like the ultrasound, and here is the result!

Brian and I think the picture looks more like a lima bean than a baby, but when we were able to see it live, we could make out tiny arms and legs and there was a constant flickering in the center that we were told was the heartbeat. In this picture, the head is on the left where the crosshairs are, and you can almost make out the legs on the right.

The doctor says everything looks healthy and was impressed that we were seeing baby's limbs move so much at this early stage.

Welcome!

Hello family and friends. Welcome to our blog. When Brian and I found out that I was pregnant, we wanted a way to document our upcoming experiences as new parents, and that is what this site is intended to do. You will be able to get updates, read stories, and (most importantly) see pictures as our family grows. Thanks for visiting us, and we look forward to your comments.