Cha-cha-changes

I don't know how often people change their minds about baby names, but after I read an article in the Edmonton Journal on Tuesday (30 Jan 2007) about the most popular baby names in Edmonton, I talked with Caitlin about our name choices. It said that for a boy, the trend is heading away from harsher, more masucline names like Chuck or Rick, and going for names that end in "n" because they have a softer, more feminine tone to them. Ethan was the #1 choice, and Nathan was in the top ten. I believe Brandon was in there as well, but I'm not so sure. For girls, coincidentally enough, the stronger names ending in "a" are all the rage. Diana, Ava, and Olivia are some of the top choices. Abigail was another popular choice, and in 2006 there was 21 different spellings of the name! Abbygail, Abygale, and Abbiegayle are a few of the variations. Maybe people read my post awhile back and took it to heart. It's the idea that people are trying to imagine a name for a judge or a lawyer, instead of a cheerleader. Debbie, Susie, and Patti are peppy, zippy names that tend to be shunned these days. I'm still holding for Erini, and so is Caitlin, but we've been pondering using Bronwyn.

But wait! That's a Welsh name, and my roots are Scottish! Um... so? Erini is a Greek word, and I chose that name because that's where I served my mission. I don't think that you need to name your child something that has direct connections to your family roots in the past four Generations. Yet I contradict myself with the names we have selected for a boy, Joseph Brandon. The name Joseph is because, a) that's my mother's grandfather's name, and b) my middle name is Joseph, and that's keeping with the tradition of giving the son his father's middle name. My dad's name is Larry Steven, and my Grandfather's name is Lester... Hmmm. Don't remember his middle name, but I'm not sure if it was Lawrence or not. I'm banking on not, and if I'm right that would mean this is a second gen tradition. Ah well, getting married in the temple is a second gen tradition that I plan to carry on, why not the naming as well? As for the name Brandon? Caitlin likes it. She was considering Robin, after her brother, but she's a bit more partial to Brandon. For all I know, we'll change our minds the minute baby is born.

Another change we have is the size of baby!
Baby is filling out mommy's tummy, and quite frankly, Caitlin is running out of room. I used to hear the complaints about how baby is punching kindeys and stomach. Now, it's ribs and bladder.

One thing you might notice in the picture is the background. It's actually clean! Grandma-to-be (Caitlin's mom) came by and helped us (ie. Caitlin, I've either been at work, or at rehersal) organize our apartment. I knew we had a lot of room, but I never quite realized how much junk we have! I wish that I could have done before and after shots. Then again, no I don't. Those who have seen the disaster area we call home will be able to judge for themselves and recognize some of the changes that we've made. One of them being the new dining room table. (Thanks again mom!) The reason we didn't set it up sooner is because we had too much junk on the old table! It will also be a treat to have people over, and we won't have to clear chairs for people to sit on. I told our hometeacher that he's not going to recongize the apartment when comes to visit next time! I say next time, because we met up with him today at the temple. We hadn't gone for so long, Caitlin said it was sometime around August '06 last time we went. Woof. Don't know how many oppurtunities we'll have to go to the temple in the future, but Dustin goes every week, Friday or Saturday, and he invited us to come along. I had rented a car today, so we didn't need a ride, but he wouldn't have any problems giving us a lift in the future. Caitlin only has a couple more weeks until her Materity Leave kicks in, and then we don't need to worry as much about having the time off. Her last offical day of work is Valentine's Day, 14 Feb 2007. I say this because I have Saturday's off until "The Mikado" is done, but Caitlin does not. I'm going to try to get the temple every weekend, because once baby comes, schedule is going to be in upheval.

Another tradition I would like to continue is blood donation. That is kind of a tradition, because both my dad and my grandpa have donated blood. Grandpa can't donate anymore, but dad is approaching his 75th whole blood phlebotomy. One of the reasons I wanted to donate was because dad donates. (The other was that I got to skip class since the clinic was at my high school.) They took my 37th pint today, and I surprised quite a few people with that. Mind you, some of the older donors are a little jealous, because I have it easy to catch up and get more donations. Back in the day, the waiting period was 150 days or something, then it was 120, then 90, and then I think it went to 60 days before it was set to the current period of 56 days (8 weeks). Today, you can potentially donate six times a year, whereas in years previous you could do three pints annually. Max. And yet, not many people donate. The stat is in the neighbourhood of 3% of the Canadian population. Hopefully, baby will decide to add to that percentage of Canadians who do. Hmmm.... If I keep up a good donation schedule, I might get my 100th donation by the time baby is of age to donate, maybe sooner. If I keep at a max schedule of six per year, I could get 50 by March 2009, and 100 by July 2017. Doable.

On and off

It would be a bit trite to say Caitlin has her good days and her not-so-good days, but that's the best way to put it. There is no way to predict when a good day will be, or if the good day will last the whole day! You would think I would be used to this by now since we are fast approaching the ninth month of pregnancy, but I'm not. Sometimes I miss going out, which is weird, since Caitlin was the one who would tell me that we need to go out and do something.

Miracle upon miracle though, Tuesday was a good day, and we decided to do something rather spur of the moment. Rather, I was flip-flopping on whether to go or not, but Caitlin suggested that we go when the LRT that was going to the Jubilee Auditorium arrived before the train that would take us home.
I am so glad we decided to go! This performance the first (technically second, the first show was the night before) of its kind in Canada, and Caitlin and I got exceptional seats seeing we got our tickets an hour before the show. We were at the back of the theatre, centre, which was directly in front of the sound mixers! Couldn't get much better sound wise for the performance of Video Games Live, a symphonic performance of video game music. It was an amazing show, and there were even some people from Microsoft and Sony giving out swag such as stickers and lanyards. There were also some T-shirts, which were "prizes" for making a fool of yourself by singing PlayStation2 Karaoke. Since the only cost was to wait in line, and I don't mind singing in public, I opted into this ordeal. Caitlin was going to participate in this affront to pop culture with me, up until it was our turn. She then realized that standing in line for 20 mintues made her uncomfortable to the point that she couldn't do it, and I was on my own. After a performance of "Rocket Man" that could have been outdone by a bag of cats in a dryer, I was rewarded with a PlayStation shirt. I'm not sure if you could call it a PlayStation shirt, because the PSX logo on was about the size of a postage stamp. The shirt is a little big for me, but perfect for Caitlin, and it was free to boot. Besides, I have a feeling we are going to need a few shirts that we don't mind getting stained. This will be one of them.

It's amazing how much video games have permeated modern society, and not as the waste of time and effort as some people think. Interactive entertainment has become the pastime of choice for the 21st Century. Also with the arrival of higher quality media for games, better sound came too. Oddly enough, classical compositions have a more powerful impact than pop music, and games are gravitating towards that genre for gameplay. For Christmas, my brother-in-law got a soundtrack for "Alice". I haven't played the game, but apparently the music is really good.

I mention this, because this night out for Caitlin and I was an educational experience as parents-to-be. Caitlin told me throughout the performance that during very strong numbers - such as Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Advent Rising, and Final Fantasy - baby was very still. Almost as if she was listening very intently. I'm very glad we picked up the soundtrack for Advent Rising, because those numbers were some of the most powerful numbers we heard. It's not quite like the "Mozart for Mothers-to-be", but it does have an energetic yet calming tone to it.

Games are starting to develop into interactive movies almost, with the scope of storylines they are taking and the quality of the music. With Blu-ray and HD DVD coming to the market, the potential for this will only grow. Nevertheless, I'm still going to monitor what my children play. For instance, I'm never going to let them play Grand Theft Auto. That was brilliantly innovative in terms of gameplay and concept, but on the other hand, I don't think they need to have the experience of beating a police officer with a baseball bat, and getting away with it.

I actually had a brief discussion with my manager today about censorship. This was brought up because I noticed that a DVD player that I sold someone had a TV guardian built in. Had I known we carried that player I probably would have bought it, since a) it was less than $60, and b) the player had an optical output, which would feed into our home theater. I mentioned that we have a TV Guardian for our VCR, and I enjoy it when we watch videos. My AM thinks that it's an ignorant thing to do, because the world isn't like that, and there's no reason to shield children from reality. Maybe so, but I don't "Survivor" or "American Idol" either, and I don't feel I'm missing anything.

On a comic note, I have a feeling this will be me in a couple of months.

First Christmas with baby, sort of

I'd like to say that this is baby's first Christmas, but seeing that baby isn't born yet, and we don't know if baby is a boy of a girl, I don't think it counts. Nevertheless, we (i.e. Caitlin) have had kicks and punches at odd times. A number of the gifts we got for Christmas were for baby, but mostly for us to prepare ourselves for baby. A new set of pots, a good container for a 72-hour emergency kit, and family friendly DVDs were some of the gifts we got from the Tolleys. From my family, my parents gave us a big bag full of baby stuff, and we (i.e. Caitlin and myself) haven't gone through the bag completely. There's some good stuff though, such as "The Baby Whisperer", "Fatherhood" by Bill Cosby, and Barbara Colorasso. Excellent stuff! There were also a few videos, which makes me grateful that we still have that VCR, and that I hung onto that remote when my old VCR died. Who'd of thought that we'd come across another GE VCR?

Even though it was nice when I was able to dig out that remote, I've discovered that you don't need to hang onto everything that comes your way. Namely flyers, receipts, and papers that are so faded you don't even remember when or why you got it in the first place! Goodness, I threw out so much trash today!

My parents came a little earlier than I expected, and so I didn't manage to clean the apartment to the level I wanted. Felt kind of bad, but Caitlin felt worse since she was laid out with a wave of weariness. This pregnancy has really taken the mickey out of her! It's all good, because even though I was cleaning house, she was feeding baby, and helping baby grow. I would guess that Caitlin helped baby grow at least 2000 new cells today.

As much work as there was, I am done school now, and dad told me a while back that when I was done my degree he'd give me his PlayStation2. He was waiting until I was done because he correctly assumed that I didn't need any more distractions. The question I have now is what I have to do in order to get the controllers. I'm thinking that he forgot to pack them, but I did find it a little odd that the console was there, along with the connecting cable and the power cord, and a few games, but the controllers and the memory card was missing. It's not really a big thing, because I was planning to get Dance Dance Revolution and a dance pad controller to go with it. Still, I was looking forward to playing "Enter the Matrix". Eh. I've waited this long.

I would have to say that today, I did my first act of baby proofing our home. It's not much, but for the first time, I made a concious decision to hide something that a toddler could easily grab and use to cause physical injury. It doesn't look like much, but when I was cleaning up the stuff in the main room, I came across the HMV dongle that tends to get lost from time to time. I decided to hang it on one of the dials on the stereo receiver so that we wouldn't lose it, and so it would be ready for easy access for anyone, even a child. It's a big plastic gizmo, never hurts anyone, and it would be very difficult for baby to swallow. But then I remembered...
It's perfectly safe so long as you don't cut yourself on the razor blade inside! I haven't cut myself with it, and I would think that it would be quite the feat if you did, and I've heard that children are quite adept at acheiving the improbably when it comes to hurting yourself. So I moved it to the junk drawer, where I'm sure our child won't dig it out and cut a gash in their finger, or the carpet, or a towel until they're much older.

Call me overprotective. Call me paranoid. But I think the proper term is a parent.

Heh. How witty. Guess I'm not that tired after all. Actually, yes I am. Night.

Window into the Womb

For the first time I was actually able to get a good view of baby. I found it rather amazing that I was able to get a glimpse of our little bundle, who isn't so little anymore! The ultrasound technichian had to move the sensor around a substantial bit to get a complete view of the baby. It was kind of like looking at a huge pdf document piece by piece, but it was also 3D, so it was layer by layer as well.

From what I could see, baby is developing beautifully, although it took a little bit of orientation to figure out what the heck I was looking at.
Thankfully, the tech was eager to point out what each white blotch represented (and labeled the picture we bought). The cervix and the placenta didn't really grab my attention, nor any recognition, because I see those things every day. Yeah. OR NOT.

It didn't take long for me to recognize shapes of the arms, legs, feet, head, elbows, spine (which was very straight). It was really neat when baby twitched her (that's the assumption of the tech, which could be wrong) feet. I've felt baby move, and I've seen Caitlin's tummy burble, but actually seeing the image of the foot move independently... bit of a magic moment.

Truth be known, I should have updated a couple of weeks ago, November 24 or there abouts. That was the day we went to the West end for a prenatal appointment. Embrassingly enough, it was also techinically our first official appointment. While we were there, the doctor got out the Doppler (mike/speaker) unit that allowed us to listen to baby's heartbeat. I made a recording, and I was trying to figure out a way to post it on the blog. Then I learned that audioblog was discontinued on Nov 1, 2006. Bleh. I could just email it to those who want to hear it, or use that wonderful invention of the telephone.

Then again, I update this blog almost as often as I call people. Huh. I don't think that's a good sign.

Moving into the final strech

As the third trimester comes we can expect things to get crazy. Rick and Karen Bennett have offered to give us a crib, and one of Caitlin's coworkers has offered to give us some bedding.

Okay, I'm really tired and I can't think of much to say right now.
Here's a picture of Caitlin showing how much she's showing. She might be stressing it a little there, but baby is starting to get more prominent. In a couple weeks I think it's going to much more obvious.

Showing, but not obviously

Last night Cailtin and I went to see a dinner theatre production by the Beaumont Drama Society of "Charley's Aunt". We learned quite quickly that the word has not got around that we're pregnant. I thought that it would be obvious since Caitlin was wearing her U of A Mom shirt, but we had to point it out to almost everyone.

Pretty pics

I finally decided to purchase some kind of paraphanalia that indicates that I spent 13% of my life at the educational institution commonly know as the U of A. The trick was to find something that was nice, but not extravagant, cute, but not nauseating, proud, but not unabashed. I came to a compromise when I found Caitlin's shirt, and discovered that there is a matching one for me. They are just sold out for the moment, and the new shipment should arrive in three weeks with some more. I thought it was appropo since I went to the University of Alberta, and I'm going to be a dad, and Caitlin a mom. However, some people read the shirt "University of Mom, Alberta." I suppose that works too.
It requires higher learning, and you don't understand the lessons until you take the tests, which you pass or fail depending on how much patience and luck you have that day. Or so I've heard. More often then not you have to work in groups to make any progress whatsoever, and you have to invest large amounts of money.
Hence we have our kitty fund! I thought it was a very cute representation of our family as it will be in a couple months. Tomcat, KittyKat, and our kitten! Mew mew mew!