Easter weekend... yeah, we know we are a little late on this one!

Well, we aren't so good at uploading pictures from our camera to the computer... which means we wait to post blogs... which means that I am now going to post a few "catch-ups."

First topic - Easter weekend!

For Easter weekend we had the pleasure of hosting to Brett's mother, Florence, for the first time in our new house! On Saturday she enjoyed playing with Peter, getting the grand tour of the house and neighborhood, and sleeping in our PINK guest bedroom!

Sunday morning we awoke to find that the Easter Bunny had come to visit (even though we forgot to dye the eggs we bought); bringing everyone treats and Peter his own set of Bunny Ears. After opening our Easter baskets we shared brunch together before getting ready for church.


At our church, Florence got to see Brett play guitar in the band for the first time, as well as enjoy being able to show her grandson off in public. She also learned that our pastor's wife, Shirley, has a son that lives in the same neighborhood as she does in North Carolina. After the service we stayed for fellowship and to enjoy the luncheon that the church was putting on.

For the rest of the afternoon Brett and I watched March Madness, after saying good bye to his mother. Peter napped a lot (all those kisses from Nana must have worn him out), and we were all shocked at how quickly the holiday had come and gone.

Good news and bad news...

At our doctors appointment on Tuesday we actually learned a little more than the sex of the baby, however the news was a little scary (especially in the way it was presented to us). After our sonogram the doctor told us that he needed to go contact our doctor and that he would come back to explain what was going on - then he left. Being the person I am, I went into total freak out mode while Brett tried to stay calm - turns out we were both sort of right.

When the doctor came back he informed us that Aaron was in great health; all of his organs were forming correctly, there was no deformities, and he was a pretty good size (1 pound 1 oz). The "explanation" however was not such good news, however and he indicated that the baby's umbilical code was short one artery (apparently ." We normal" babies have 2 - he has 1). The way that the doctor explained that many times when you find this in a fetus you find other issues such as birth defects, heart and liver problems, downs, and other medical issues; but usually those cases are in babies that show deformities within the first 20 weeks of gestation (we are at 22 weeks with no issues thus far). He told us that this would mean monthly level II sonograms and a possible need to do an amino.

Since we weren't satisfied with the doctors explanation or answers to our questions we did a lot of research online ourselves and found that the reason for all the monitoring was actually a good thing because this can also be linked to pre-mature delivery and low birth weight. The extra sonograms will be important for making sure we get the baby out when it is necessary should that time come before the due date (August 25, 2008). The other thing we found on a lot of sites was that we shouldn't worry too much because there is a lot of research that says the baby will be 100% normal.

If you want to do your own research on the subject the condition is called "single uterine artery;" however This site helped us understand what the definition of a normal cord verses what Aaron has are:

umbilical artery: in normal pregnancies there are two. The arteries, along with the umbilical vein, are surrounded by the connective tissue of the cord (Wharton's jelly) which protects the vessels from the mechanical trauma associated with cord torsion and normal fetal movement. A single uterine artery, resulting from either agenesis or atrophy of the second artery, may be less hemodynamically efficient and has been anecdotally associated with fetal growth restriction

We are trying to keep a positive outlook, however we were a little shaken by the news and really pray that everything will work out.

Baby #2 sex confirmed...

We had our Level II Sonogram this morning, and learned that baby #2 is a sneaky one! After two sonograms where IT was hiding and not allowing us to see the sex I had completely accepted that IT was probably a girl. Come to find out, WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER BOY!!!

Our OBGYN had always told us that he thought we were having a girl, but that was only based on not really being able to get a good look. However, Brett apparently knew because he guessed it from day one. For the first time in my marriage that I will openly admit that Brett was right ;)

So, anyway... little AARON will be here in August (his middle name is still a work in progress, although we are leaning toward Christopher - thanks for the suggestion Erin CHRISTINE Kelly)! We are pretty excited that we don't have a bunch of clothes to buy, even though deleting all the pink stuff from our baby registeries at Target and Babies-R-Us was kind of sad.

Just when I thought life couldn't get better...

The tree in our backyard bloomed. Not only that, but it bloomed the most beautiful PINK flowers ever.

When we bought the house we had no idea what was planted in our yard, but this is just icing on the cake. I plan to spend the entire spring, summer and early fall living on the back patio!

I love our house :)

Peter's First News Paper Article

This past weekend Peter, Brett and I traveled down to Florida to attend a friend's wedding and visit our cousin's Patti, Tim, and Grey Leonard (more on the trip in future blog).

On the first day of our trip Patti suggested taking us to the Mounts Botanical Garden to see their event called Waterpalooza. However, soon after arriving we could tell that this was not really our scene.

When we arrived we were handed a stack of literature about water conservation, the gardens, and a sheet that we were supposed to have hole-punch at each exhibitor table (The water conservation people clearly don't care about killing the trees). Being the competitive people that we were we set off to get all 15 of our hole-punches.

By the fourth table we were pretty bored and realizing that hearing a lecture on mulch or toilet water wasn't worth the lame raffle you could potentially win if you managed to get all the hole-punches. So we decided that we would go to the exhibit for the Busch Wildlife Sanctuary so Peter could see the animals before heading home.

At the exhibit there were two animals to see, an owl and a skunk - both of which delighted Peter to no end. While he was laughing at them and petted the skunk there was a man behind the table taking pictures, whom we assumed was from the Busch center and documenting the event, until he introduced himself and asked for our names.

This morning on the front page of the Palm Beach Daily Newspaper there was our picture! Click here to see the online story.

C-A-P-S Caps! Caps! Caps!

Tuesday night, Brett and I, joined by friends, Andy and Matt Spray, went down to the Verizon Center to cheer the Washington Capitals on to victory!

We hadn't been to a game since the 2005-2006 season, and things had really changed! First of all, there were fans... in DC... rooting for the Capitals!!! The sea of red shirts was overwhelming, and they weren't Devils or Red Wings or Carolina jerseys - they were Caps fans! And, wait maybe I should also mention (for those of you who don't know) it is NOT the playoffs! This was a regular season game, on a Tuesday! I don't think I have ever been to a Tuesday game that had more than 2000 people in attendance (most of which were people holding free tickets, family of the players, and the few die hard fans left in this city - read: Mary BeVard).

The other big change was the awesome level of play! The Caps out shot the Hurricain's almost 2 to 1, and most of the play took place in our offensive zone. The game was huge for the Caps because they are fighting for a place in the standings that will get them into the playoffs.

To add to the great night, when we left at the end of the game (won by the Caps 4-1), we got to our car and didn't have a ticket, eventhough we were parked in a 2-hour zone. All in all, it was a great night!!!