It's a ....

We had another ultrasound done very early this morning. The reason we had this one was because I didn't pass my Quad screening in the area of downs syndrome. The blood test showed pretty much the same risk as my age (about a 1 in 92 chance). The ultrasound was done to try and lower my chances. Well, that didn't really happen. They saw a bright spot in the right ventricle of the heart. It is called an "Intracardiac echogenic focus (EIF)" which means a spot in the fetal heart that is as bright as bone or brighter on ultrasound. An EIF is usually a normal variant of the developing heart. The heart is expected to continue developing and functioning normally. It is seen in about 25% of normal pregnancies. Most pregnancies with an EIF will not have a genetic disorder. However, occasionally the EIF is caused by the baby having Down syndrome or another chromosome anomaly. Since I am at such a high risk, they will be doing a follow-up ultrasound in November. Other than that, this little one was quite active. It did not want to show much. It did however give us a "thumbs up" sign. I am taking this a a positive sign. It wasn't until the very end of the session that this little one decided to open his legs and give us a pretty good look at his boy part. You might be able to make out his hand that just happens to be in that area. The ultrasound technician and I got a good laugh at this one. So as you can see, we are most likely having a boy!

"Poop"

I just had to share this. When I came home from work last night and logged onto facebook this is what I found.

"Brad Heilenman tried introducing sloppy joe to his 2 yr old son. Not only did he not like it, he kept pointing and saying "poop, poop!" (It was so hard not to laugh...okay, to not laugh uncontrollably.)"

Needless to say, I had to ask Brad about this. We spent a good 10 minutes laughing our heads off.

We have one funny and entertaining little boy.

Baby Update/Benny Update

Hello everybody,

l know it has been a while since I updated this blog. A lot has been going on. The baby is doing fine. We had another ultrasound a few weeks ago and I have a doctor's appointment on Friday the 25th. According to the ultrasound measurements, my due date is anywhere between Feb 17th and Feb 20th. The earlier the better for me but not to early.

Benny has been making great strides over the past month. Just recently we had to get him new shoes for two reasons. The first reason was because his other shoes were actually worn out. The second reason was because he had almost grown out of this size 6 shoes. He is now in 6 1/2 size shoes. He has had a vocabulary explosion over the last few weeks. Words you wouldn't think he knows just rolls of his tongue. He is also pronouncing words a little more clearly. Just the other day, he was riding his bike in the street in front of our house. He looked at me as said "car come" and proceeded to "ride" his bike over to our yard. He can say "please", "thank you", and "you are welcome" correctly on a somewhat more regular basis. "Sorry" is a new word to his vocabulary since he is more involved with other children (at the YMCA).

Not only has his vocabulary increased, but his appetite has as well. The past few days he has been surprising us by the amount of food he eats. At first I wasn't sure if it was just a growth spurt (which I think he had) but his appetite has been increasing a little more every week. Yeah! Hopefully he will get a little more meat on his bones before our cold rainy season starts.

I had mentioned the YMCA. Benny has gym class on Monday and Wednesdays and swim class on Tuesday and Thursday for the next two weeks (until Oct. 2nd). He is very excited about going. Once this session is over, I think I will limit him to just swim class. He favorite thing is jumping into the pool which for him is actually falling into the pool. I want to keep going as long as he is interested.

Silly Thomas

Benny quickly found out that his motorized Thomas the Tank Engine does not just run on the tracks. Thomas now makes tracks all over the living room. By accident, Benny found that Thomas can push this squirrel. Now he asks to have Thomas do it almost every day. It is a cute video. Enjoy!

Benny's 2nd Birthday

For Benny's 2nd Birthday we had a Thomas the Tank Engine theme because of his love of trains. Here he is playing with his Thomas train set. It is motorized and has quickly become his favorite toy. We did a cupcake "cake" this year and it worked out great. As you can see, Benny ate more of the icing than cupcake. No surprise there!

We also let the kids have icecream cones. This is Benny's first time with a cone. He has had ice crean but only in a bowl. He ate as much of the ice cream he could reach. He was not that interested in eating the cone.

He had a lot of fun openning up his presents. He did very well at ripping off the paper. Here he is with his friend from church. He is looking at the big book of trucks that she gave him.

Last but not least is the cupcake "cake". As you can see, it was very cute. The Thomas toy can actually be played with. In fact, I think it is in his bed.

Overall, I think he had fun at his party. Not too many people were there and that was okay by me. Benny had friends from church come as well as some of mommy and daddy's friends. Benny really liked all of his gifts.

Grandma and Grandpa's Visit part 2

Here is a great picture of my parents and Benny. They just couldn't get enough of him and would have taken him with them if they could. We are lucky to have a fire station just up the hill from our house. Pop-pa took Benny up there because Benny loves fire trucks. He was actually able to sit in one.

Pop-pa liked to sit next to Benny whenever he could as we were driving around. I don't know who was sillier, Benny or Pop-pa. They sure had a lot of fun though.

Benny loves to have books read to him. He even managed to persuade Pop-pa into reading a book to him as Grandma watches.

Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's Visit

Some of the beautiful wild flowers up on Mt. Rainier. There was still mounds of snow at the picnic area at Paradise. Here is Benny and Pop-pa standing on one. Here is one of the sculptures from the Sculpture Park. This was Benny's favorite because it is a train.

Benny and Pop-pa at the Sculpture Park.

Benny had a great time with his Grandma and Grandpa (who he calls pop-pa). Of course my parents would visit during the really hot days we had in July. On the hottest days we went up and around Mt. Rainier. We had a picnic at Paradise and they had the chance to finally see Sunrise. We drove through a thunderstorm, but that was okay because it dropped the temperature from the 90's to the 70's. We stopped at a sculpture park on the way to Mt. Rainier. Benny had fun running around.