Kole's Sister Is On The Way

Yes, it's the not-so-secret secret we've been hanging on to since about mid-January. Kathy took an over-the-counter pregnancy test that came back positive, then another. It was far from something we had carefully planned on a chalkboard. But, obviously God thought it was time for us to have another child. Today, in Kathy's 16th week, we had a sonogram where it was determined that it was a girl. Or, there's a 90-95% chance of it. A due date of September 29 has been thrown out by Kathy's doctor.

We waited till the first trimester was in the rearview mirror before we made a broad announcement of it. The odds of Down Syndrome or some other birth defect rise from about 0.5% to about 1%, but there is a great deal of money to be made in the medical field capitolizing off of fear and selling early indicators of birth defects. There is a lot of good that can come from early detection, but I've seen a side of the business I didn't care for, and it's obvious that there is a tremendous profit to be made from the fear of child-bearing women, and that fear is cleverly packaged and marketed. But, that's a different post for a different day.

There have been tense and stressful days, preparing for a baby when the prospect of Kathy actually returning to work was being discussed. There can be 1,000 elements dissected of what could have been if we had waited another few months, or another year. We are much wiser than we were two years ago about child rearing. Now we'll give it a shot with a maniacal 2-and-1/2 year old scatting around. There is much anxiety, but it will fall short of fear. 1 John 4:18 says "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love." So, maybe that's why God is bringing us another child right now, so we may be perfected in love.

Wow. Daddy's little girl.

From Crib to Bed

Landmark night last night, as we bought a toddler bed and it was Kole's first night to sleep in something other than his crib since he graduated from the bassinet. He's been a fairly good napper outside of his crib, so we figured it should go well. Especially after we brought it home and it was hard to get him away from his new bed. He was fascinated with it, and the ease of getting on and off. So, last night we made some quick rearrangements in the room, crossed our fingers, and we got some good results. But, we didn't quite properly Kole-proof the room, especially right next to the bed, and it didn't take us long to discover the error of our ways.

UPDATE: Now that we've been asked a couple of times - those are diapers. His little diaper bag hangs off of his changing table, and well within reach from his bed. Well, just for that first night it was.

Easter at Wah-Hoo

Easter Saturday was had at Grammy and Grandpa Gedy's Wah-Hoo Ranch, where there was a ton of open space to run and monkey around. Cousins Riley and Reagan were there, as well as Little Bruce, who is somewhere in the neighborhood of a step-cousin or somesuch. They didn't play too much together since Kole was so easily distracted by dogs, a swing, or a breeze in the air. The Easter egg hunt went much better than last year, when we had to plop him directly in front of an egg and keep him from spinning in another direction - almost having to place the egg right in his hand. Saturday the egg placement was generous and not too difficult, and just was Kole needed. We learned he is a good hunter, but not yet a good hunter-gatherer. The gathering part was most difficult. He would find an egg and immediately want to open it and inspect the goods. It was hard to get attention back on egg hunting, but eventually he did.
We had a great time, and even got so see my Uncle David and Aunt Elizabeth who made it down from Lake Texoma, who we haven't seen in more than a year because of a multitude of illness and weather issues around major holidays. Aunt Doris there as well, as well as Kole's aunts and uncles, Kelley and Kelly, Ben and Shanna.
Funny story on the way home. We had Kole in his jammies, figuring he'd fall asleep in the car and we could just put him in bed when we got home. We even reviewed the plan in the car once we got to Grand Prairie: I'll get him out of his seat; Kathy - you get his socks off and get his sleep-sack. We'll slide him into that, put him down, all done.
Problem: due to all the running and horsing around, Kole drank tons of water and it was determined when we got home that he needed a new diaper before bed. We laid down the sleep-sack on his changing table, so the diaper change could be quick, slide on the sack, and off to bed he'd go. But, when the wet diaper came off, and that cool breeze rolled across the nether regions, the pee fountain was turned on - straight into the air then down onto his PJ top and sleep-sack underneath.
So much for the chalkboard play precision. Now we had to change all of Kole's PJs, he started crying because he was so exhausted and was spending far more time in a room with lights on than he bargained for, but eventually mom and dad turned into the skid, self-corrected and got him to bed soon enough. He slept a solid 10 hours.