It's been a while--sorry for the lack of updates. While you were all most patiently and eagerly awaiting news about our new baby to come, Dan's defense, Isaiah's progress in life, and other terribly enthralling issues in our life, the new baby continued to grow, Dan defended, and Isaiah progressed in life. Throw in the mix a trip to Japan over Christmas, followed by a trip to Michigan to see Grandma and "Gray-gum" and the Sharda clan, Dan's acceptance of a post-doc here at Penn State (starts next week), the daily realizations that we will have two kids SOON and that we should probably start thinking about minor details like, oh, what to name the baby, where to put him/her following birth, how to juggle life with having two kids, 1.5 jobs, and you've basically got the full report from us.

Essentially, life has been hectic but good. We have, by the grace of God, maintained good health all throughout the swine flu and normal flu season, and hope to continue on that trajectory. The Japan trip was fun, and it was great to spend time with my brother, parents, and others I knew from way back when. Dan has gained back the 10 lbs he lost while writing his thesis, and is looking ...less gaunt, shall we say? I have gained not quite that much total since finding out I was pregnant, but was assured today that the baby is fine and that I do not need to worry. I am thrilled with that news, as I am eating as much as my cramped stomach will allow, and less weight gained now means less weight to lose later on.

I was thinking about how to summarize Isaiah's leaps and bounds of progress, and it is actually kind of hard. You kind of have to see (or rather hear) the kid in 'action' to get the full picture, but I hope the following helps:

The World According to Isaiah

1. If I point my ever-powerful index finger at someone in the room (most likely "Gray-gum" if he's present), they WILL respond to my order to "come on?" and proceed to walk sideways and/or backwards with me.

2. The stairwell is an excellent play environment for adults young and old (including "Daddys"), as tennis balls, when thrown from the bottom of the stairs, will naturally reverse direction and bounce all the way down, where an old person can wait and throw them right up again. Besides, the stairwell is the storage area for applesauce.

3. Kicking Daddy in the chest and belly while getting a diaper-change is encouraged and highly tolerated; not so for the same action on Mom.

4. Call "Mama" when you have a complaint that you cannot explain or feel the need to explain. Call "Kaasan" (equivalent of "Maw") when you cannot find something.

5. Items that are not to be touched are "Momp's". These include the stethoscope and blood pressure cuff at the chiropractor's.

6. Tantrum-throwing should be reserved for times when Mom and Dad tell you you've had too many pretzels, tofu, clementines/mikan ("igan?" which also means 'stomach cancer' in Japanese), or raisins.

7. Don't touch Mom and Dad's glasses. Do, however, go around the glasses and poke your overgrown fingernails into their eyeballs. As long as you identify them as "eyes?" you're OK.

8. Mom's external surfaces (area and depth) are more suitable than Daddy's for "shnagoo"ing.

9. Mom is less mobile than "Daddys". (by the way, "Mom" is singular, "Daddys" is plural.)

10. The shower isn't that scary after all.

11. Cocoa = Moose.

12. Singing Silent Night is appropriate all year-round. Moreover, Dad apparently needs more practice with verse 3, as he tends to repeat verse 2. Totally unacceptable.

13. Elephants say "pfft".

14. Matt Cramer says "kee-now".

15. Sledding is great fun, especially when cousins and "Daddys" do all the hauling.

16. Balls are the best inventions. Ever.

17. Why do I have to color? Why can't I just take the lid off the marker, color my fingers, and put the lid back on time and time again?

18. Why would I want to watch the actual story from "Veggie Tales"? The theme song played over and over again is good enough for me.

19. The household TV set was made for one purpose and one purpose only: to watch Aunt Jackie play her senior recital. This is best achieved by standing as close to the TV as possible, swaying like a drunkard.

20. Church is where we get bagels. Lots of them. My main role at church is to proclaim "all done" after each segment of the service for ALL to hear.

21. "All done!" = "That portion of the service is ended. Now let's hear some singing from some KIDS!"
"...all done?" = "That was the second haircut in two days, and now you're looking at my head arguing with each other...may I please get up from my highchair now? Why are you talking about dressing me in camo and enlisting me?"
"Aaaaaallll DOOOOOOOnnne!" = "OK, guys, seriously, 2 minutes of vacuuming is way more than you have done in the last year of my life, and I am now deaf. Can we please get back to throwing tennis balls up the stairs?"

22. One's water glass is for rinsing cutlery following the meal. Also can be used to dip remaining food items such as crackers, potatoes, bread and butter, or blueberries.

23. Whenever Daddy dresses me, Mom dresses me again. Not sure why. But I sure am glad she knows where she put the shirts that fit me!

24. Blocks are best played with around 5:30 pm on the kitchen floor.

25. When flipped upwards, that switch under the sink makes a really loud 'disposing' type of noise. Freaks me out every time.

26. The chair at the chiropractor's office elevates. This means that if I am perched on the headrest, and I kick the button (after turning the key to unlock the button), I get a preview of what it will be to be 6-7 feet tall (my destiny as a 7th grader).

27. "Meleagris gallopavo" in italics or underlined means "wild turkey" in Biologese. My parents are nerds to make me take a picture of "Alan the Meleagris gallopavo" to my class at school.


...and that's about all I can come up with for now. Hope that helps!

Well, we went to the ultrasound last week, and the most we can report is that we have a healthy baby something. That's a lot to be thankful for. They were very active during the ultrasound, and we actually got a shot of them with their knees over their head--legs stretched straight out. They must have gotten their flexibility from their Daddy. He is currently diligently doing a 30-minute "Yoga for inflexible people" routine. He needs it right now. A lot. While it may seem that sitting on your rear everyday and all day for the last month and a half is not much to make one's body ache and groan and plead for relief, it has been a stressful time for him, writing his thesis. He is making great progress, and I am extremely impressed and proud of him, but he still has a ways to go, and with little time left. So please keep praying for him and the rest of us, that we will remain healthy, not become too stressed out, and that it will get done on time (aka, preferably a week or so before he defends so that he can send it to his committee and work on his defense presentation). Again, he is doing a great job, but writing an entire thesis to summarize and explain 7 years of scientific experimentation in a mere two months is not something that most people can do without some level of stress.

Around us, people are coming down with the flu, the swine flu, pneumonia, hernias, sinus infections, you name it, but by the grace of God we have remained unscathed so far. We haven't exactly been quarantined, either, so it's a little puzzling, but I'm not complaining in the least. I hope it stays that way.

Today marks the 19-more-weeks-til Furoshiki point. That's right, we have started counting down instead of up, so that is encouraging. Despite the fact that I definitely look pregnant (or am hauling a watermelon in my shirt) and don't fit in most of my pants anymore, I have not gained any weight, which is another happy thing for me. I know I have pounds to spare, and with Isaiah, this same pattern of weight gain (nothing at the beginning, then exponential gain towards the end) occurred, so I know not to worry about it.

We are very excited to be going to Japan in about a month, and can't wait to spend the holidays with my parents for a few weeks, then head back to the U.S. to recover from jetlag (and a 14-hour plane ride) at Dan's parents' house. :) We are also thrilled that they have been so gracious to agree to wait for us to come back before they celebrate Christmas.

I went to my first "parent-teacher conference" the other day. It kind of cracks me up, because the kid is not even two years old, and what would there be to report? Still, it was interesting to see what kinds of things they noticed at his Stay and Play program, and I learned a bit about him. He apparently somehow has learned that he should use the English word for "phone" at Stay and Play even though he will say "denwa" over and over again when demanding the phone at home. It's just fascinating to me how he made that kind of distinction, and I'm excited to see further evidence of our haphazard attempts at raising him bilingually. He is definitely becoming more verbal lately, and while I don't have an exact number of words on his vocab list, I can tell you that he will parrot back to you the last two syllables of any sentence or word that you speak to him. He loves the word "no" and knows how to use it well. ...unfortunately. I can't think of any really funny incidents recently. I'm sure 3 or 4 of them will come to me once I log off. Oh well. We have wondered what he knows (if anything) about his little brother or sister, and have tried to tell him that Mommy has a baby in her tummy. He will say good night to Furoshiki each night by very sweetly laying his head up to my stomach, and it's very cute. I still don't think he understands that this baby is going to turn his Isaiah-centered world upside down come March. :)

Oh, here's something. We went to church this morning, as usual, and we made a valiant effort to try to get him to sit still for a little longer than usual by taking books with us, and by sitting in the balcony where people don't care if you're somewhat disruptive. Well, we forgot to teach Isaiah about this great thing called "whispering". Actually, we'd have settled for 'inside voices' this morning. We sat down and he immediately started stripping the pew of hymnals, Bibles, pens, and "Divine Doodles". That was fine, but then he wanted to "SIT?? SIT??? SIT???" Then he wanted my "TEN? TEN? TEN?" (pen), which I gave to him. Then he wanted his "BABO?? BABO? BABO? BABO?" (Bible). We are thrilled, by the way, that he has taken a major liking to his bilingual Bible sent to him by his Grandma Murchie in Japan. After we all solemnly uttered the Prayer of Confession (like good Presbyterians), he proclaimed "All DONE!" Then it was time for the choir to sing, and this morning, the 3rd and 4th graders were singing. They did a great job, and we tried to get Isaiah to pay attention to this. Dan told him quietly, 'Isaiah, look, there are kids up there" "KIDS?? KIDS??? KIDS?? KIDS??? SEE? SEE? SEE? SEE? SEE?" "That's right, those kids are going to sing" "SING? SING? SING? SEE? SEE? SEE? SEE?" "Yes, Isaiah, Shhhhh..." "SEE? SEE? SEE? SEE? SEE?" He was very excited about the kids singing, and that he could see them, as was evident to the entire congregation of 500 or so. Whew. Well, perhaps we were a bit naive in expecting that he could sit still and quiet for more than 2 seconds in church (although he will sit happily on our couch and look at books for 30 minutes at a time sometime). I think we will try to teach him how to whisper this week, and try it again next time. Stubborn parents? Absolutely. The only question is whether we are more stubborn than he is. :)

Well, that's about it for now. I'll see if I can't upload some pictures to this or the next blog, as our camera is full with pictures from last June.

We have reached a happy consensus about the ultrasound. Sometimes we can be so incredibly stinking diplomatic it makes me sick, but I must admit that is one thing I love about our marriage. After a month or so of me nagging about the ultrasound (which is, as everyone knows, a very necessary component of diplomacy) we finally settled on an agreement over lunch today. We have decided that we will NOT find out the sex (I have been informed by a fellow editor that "gender" is not the appropriate word to use here, as it has some cultural connotations...not sure what that means, but will take their word for it). So I won. :) HOWEVER. We will do so on one condition, and that is that I make a strong effort to not call Furoshiki only "she" as I have been doing so for 4-5 months now. This will be difficult for me, as I am still convinced that he/she is of the female persuasion, but I am willing to at least give the double pronoun thing a shot. I am apparently allowed to slip up once, maybe twice before 11/3 (U-day), and must make a valiant effort to maintain the double pronoun usage until 3/21 (D-day) or thereabouts. So for those of you who wanted to start shopping in the 'pink section', you'll just have to wait. I promise you will survive. :)

On a completely different note, I must tell you a few dirty tales. Tonight when we were shopping at Wegman's (our favorite store ever), I started to smell something. Not surprising, as it had been a while since we left the house. However, while I managed to snag the birthday present, get dressed nicely, and grab Isaiah's backpack stocked with several diapers when we went to his first birthday party ever (more about that later), I forgot to take it to Wegman's. (yes, that's correct, I didn't need the diapers at the birthday party). Anyway, as you all know, a smell is something that can be indicative of something, and it was pretty clear what that was. However, without any diapers, we just decided to do our shopping anyway and hope for the best. At one point Isaiah wanted to be picked up, and as Dan hefted him out of the grocery cart, I could see leakage coming through his pants. We quickly grabbed some paper towels (we were in the produce section) and stuffed them between Isaiah's rear and Dan's arm so that not everything would get contaminated, grabbed some wipes and diapers from the baby section, and Dan headed out to the van while I paid for the rest of the groceries. That is the better story, and luckily the van will have ample time to air out before we need to use it again. The other story occurred a few weeks ago, when Isaiah would not fall asleep. We put him down at the usual time, and although he seemed quite content and happy, he kept waking up and talking--to himself, to us, to Jerry and Lammy (his two crib stuffed animals--Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations), and this went on until we went to bed around 11:30. When I went in to tuck him in, he pulled out his pacifier (nuk), beamed at me, and declared, "Akkun!" (nuk). I wasn't sure what to think, but he kept waking up every hour or so throughout the rest of the night. Dan got his nuk for him, gave him a hug, gave him a glass of water, tried to give the beaming toddler a stern warning (yeah, right), but the kid WOULD NOT SLEEP. The next morning, we all staggered downstairs for breakfast, groggy from the previous night's events. Dan had to leave for school early that day, so Isaiah was making oatmeal with me. I picked him up and smelled something (common theme with him), and as I shifted him in my arms, I also felt something. I turned off the stove (best decision I made that day), and headed back up to the changing table to get him into dry clothes. I unzipped him and was horrified to see chunks all down one of his legs, even into the toes/foot of his sleeper. Apologizing profusely, I tried to undo his onesie so that I wouldn't smear it all over him. At this point I thought it had just leaked out of one side. I carefully and oh-so-gently removed the onesie, thinking that only his legs were dirty, but as he sat up, I was horrified once more to see chunks on his back and up to his neck. In a similar manner to how most men would die from labor pains, I think most men would have thrown up to see this. (I was actually very happy that I was over morning sickness at the time). I attempted to take his diaper off, but could not do so without it getting everywhere. Isaiah was beaming this whole time, by the way. Not sure why. After removing all of the chunky clothing off, I decided that a bath was in order, so I set him down on the floor so that we could head to the bathroom. I was still trying to wipe my hands off and not get too many chunks all over the place, when Isaiah took off with glee and headed to our bedroom, squealing "Again???" (translation: "please hurl me through the air onto the feather top mattress as it is my favorite thing to do 'again' and 'again'") and trying to climb up on our beautiful quilt bedspread that Dan's Mom made us several years ago. That was my third and most horrifying moment of the morning. I grabbed the soiled child and took him into the bathtub where I spent the next few minutes hosing him down. ...then we made oatmeal. I'd rather not repeat that kind of a waking up experience. We're still not sure how we completely missed the fact that he might need a diaper change all of the times he kept waking up that night. So much for our 'parents of the year' award. Maybe next year. (ha)

Well, it's Saturday night, and I'm done with work, and we have a few more minutes of awake and alert time, so I think we're going to hang out for a bit. Dan has just informed me that "I am trying to be patient" and is poking me now, so I am going to close. Good night.

We had a great week in Michigan last week, and are back in Happy Valley, where a strange, unseasonly storm hit last weekend (homecoming week). To the dismay of tens of thousands of tailgating and football fans, 9 inches of snow was dumped on the town overnight, and it still looks like the town is recovering from this. Today the weather is beautiful, but in front of most houses are piles of broken branches with nice green leaves on them that broke off the trees from the storm. Apparently a lot of the town lost electricity for a while as well. We are somewhat sorry to have missed all the excitement, but will get over it, especially when we remind ourselves that we were able to watch the PSU vs Minnesota game from a warm living room (with power) in Michigan.

We got to hit all the soccer games and one football game while we were in Michigan, which was a lot of fun (albeit cold). Karen graciously babysat Isaiah for us while we traipsed from field to field, and that made it a lot easier to watch the games and not Isaiah. Maybe next year he will have a better appreciation of his older niece and nephews in their physical prowess, but this year, all he wanted was the 'ball? ball? ball? ball? ball?' on the field, and was quite disappointed when he was denied it. That disappointment didn't last long, as there were many balls back at Dan's parents' house--a yoga ball (which was unfortunately deflated by a rose bush--oops), several tennis balls, and of course, the many soccer balls that made it in as well. Isaiah was in his element, and all day long the house was filled with squeals of glee as he and Gwaabwaa and Gwaamwaa hung out. It was a luxurious vacation for me, and I did absolutely no housework, which is terrible as a guest, but I will try to make up for it over Christmas. So will Dan.

Speaking of which, Dan has begun the arduous process of writing his thesis, and got a lot done this week on that. He has finished his first chapter (mostly--it probably needs a few more revisions) in record time, and is working on the second now. We're hoping and praying for continued diligence, motivation, and perseverance. His defense date is set for December 4, which is coming up soon. The 'carrot' in front of his nose right now is the fact that on December 7, we will be flying to Japan to spend Christmas with my folks for three weeks. We are very excited to see them, and to introduce Isaiah to Japan and all the good food and wonderful people there. After a week in Michigan with Shardas, his vocabulary list was lengthened significantly, especially in English, and I am curious to see how he fares in Japan.

I know I've mentioned this before, but while he understands both languages (although "come here" doesn't register in either language yet, as he runs away with glee--not sure that's a language issue, actually...), he is selective about which words he will say in each. A lot of times English wins out because the English word often has fewer syllables. He is doing well with up to 2 syllables, but hasn't quite gotten down the 3-syllable words. In English, he'll parrot back the last two syllables of a sentence, one of which was recently "Ree-ich." A lot of the words are still unintelligible to people other than Dan and me and sometimes we don't even know what he's getting at.

Still working on the potty-training, and it is a slow process. I am still hoping that by the time Furoshiki arrives he will be mostly out of diapers, but am not married to the idea, so I won't be too disappointed if he isn't.

Speaking of Furoshiki, he/she is growing well, and made some rapidfire kicks at the Doppler at a recent prenatal visit. Isaiah was never a real vigorous kicker, so I thought maybe the Doppler was having feedback issues, but apparently not. We don't know the sex yet, and I am strongly opting to wait until D-day for that, but Dan is not convinced. We have fairly well split Dan's family down the middle in terms of whose side they are taking on this issue, but I am proud to have Dan's Dad and Beth and Bob as strong supporters of my point of view. I will not mention names of opposers, as they will likely feel bad when they realize they are wrong. :) Suffice to say, it is not necessary to have another 5 months to shop in the 'pink section'--there will be plenty of time for that after March. Any comments about this issue are welcome, unless, of course, they go against the master plan (MINE). If Dan wants support, he should get his own blog. I have a few more weeks to drag him unwillingly over to my side, but if I can't by 11/3, I might just have to schedule another appointment and go alone. :)

Aside from those intense debates about ultrasounds amidst thesis writing adventures, we are doing well, and are thankfully remaining healthy even though many around us are struggling with the flu virus (swine or not), so we have a lot to be thankful for. Thanks for all your prayers for Dan's writing, all of our health, and for everything else going on in our lives. God IS good, and despite the hectic schedules and craziness of finishing up our lives as grad students, we are SO BLESSED.

Potty training Isaiah has been somewhat of a slow process. We actually were motivated to start potty training him because one of his cohorts (2 months older) was trained this past summer, and was doing well with it all. We were jealous of their diaper bills (or the lack thereof), and decided that maybe we'd give it a shot with Isaiah too. The other kid is very good with communicating, and has an extremely advanced vocabulary list, but I'd say that Isaiah is pretty good as well, so we thought that we'd give it a shot.

So far he has learned that if he sits on the potty (which plays "Royal" pep melodies if he makes a deposit--there is a sensor in the bottom) he gets a cracker, but that's about it. He has made a few successful deposits, for which he was given a cookie, but we're pretty sure that those deposits were coincidental, and he just happened to be ready during the 20 minutes when he was sitting there. He basically has learned that when he wants a cracker, he just goes and sits down and he will get one. I'm not overly psyched about this, as you can imagine. So we're going to step back a bit and start giving him crackers if he tells us that he has made a deposit in his diaper. We are hoping that by using the cloth diapers that do not let you forget that you have wet yourself will help him develop a dislike for diapers and anticipate when he needs to be changed a little better. Disposable diapers are great in that all the wonderful ecofriendly (??) chemicals absorb the wetness like there's no tomorrow, so the kids develop fewer diaper rashes and all, but I think maybe we'll try the cloth ones for now just to develop some animosity between Isaiah and diapers. I hope that's not cruel. Too bad if it is, we're going to try it. :) We're still hoping that he will be out of diapers before Furoshiki arrives, but I am willing to be patient in the meantime and let him take this at his own pace. Any tips or hints on how others trained their kids are always welcome.

Onto cleaner but maybe more gruesome subjects--yesterday Isaiah inherited my childhood nickname, "Shiner" (thanks, Dad). Dan was playing with him in the basement while I worked on some editing upstairs in our bedroom, and I heard some commotion and more prolonged crying than usual. I was curious, but figured that he stopped crying, and Dan was down there, so I kept working (Mom of the year award, here I come!). I heard them come up to hte main floor, and that is when I heard Dan say, "Wow, Isaiah, that is a nice shiner!! Let's go show Mom!" followed by clambering up the stairs and some awesome "Mama? Mama? Mama?" calling to me. I called back and when they got in my room, I saw that he had a shiner that spanned from under his eye and reached across his eye up to his forehead. According to Dan, "he pushed himself into the coffee table". Right. It didn't help that Dan was tossing him around in a moving blanket, but I can see how a toddler could 'push themself' into a coffee table. (Dan's parents broke him of lying early on in life, and now he is really bad at it.) Anyway, it had faded quite a bit by this morning, when we had to go to church, but we debated about giving him a sandwich board sign saying, "Please don't call Child Protective Services." Luckily there are enough people at church who raised kids (boys, in particular), and no one has taken us aside yet to discuss the demerits of child abuse. ...maybe they should...

One final thing--Isaiah started Stay and Play (half-day day care thing at our church) officially last Thursday. I must admit I thoroughly enjoyed the extra 3 hours to myself, and I think he had a blast. He'll be going twice a week, and I am so curious to see what he learns (English, for one?).

Sorry for the 2-month hiatus, for the 3-4 of you who read this. :) We have survived the summer, had a wonderful time in Arizona with my Mom, sister, and Grandparents, and are now back in Happy Valley where it is actually quite chilly for this time of year.

I just looked at my last posting about Isaiah being afraid of the bath. Thankfully, he has moved on from that stage, and now happily, willingly, and with a lot of giggling and squealing, takes showers with Dan. This is definitely a welcome change. I'm not sure if it was the jungle paradise pool that my sister bought him in Arizona or just being able to move out of a stage, but either way, we are glad that he is no longer afraid of sitting in more than an inch of water. We are also trying to start potty-training him right now, and after a week or so, I am still not sure if what I am doing is right. We have had one successful 'deposit' (of the wet sort), but I don't know if he knew it happened...does that count? He got a cookie for it, of course, and much overly enthusiastic adulation from me, but I think I need to be more patient and just start with "Yes, that puddle on the ground is from you, and that is called peepee. Next time let's try to get the peepee in the potty!"

Isaiah will have his first official day of Stay and Play (kind of low-key daycare at our church) tomorrow morning, and I am guessing that I am the most excited about this newest development, as it means that I have an additional 3 hours in the morning to do...stuff. You know, like shower, brush my teeth, sit and stare at the wall, read, not worry about a diaperless someone crawling up on the couch, stuff like that. The simple pleasures of life... I am also quite excited to see how he does interacting with the other kids in his class, and I know that he will absorb quite a bit, especially at this stage. He is repeating EVERYTHING right now, and it is very cute...for the most part. When I thank a clerk at the grocery store, he'll often parrot "Thanks!" to them as well, which always earns a few brownie points, and he'll mimic any words you try to teach him, which is also a lot of fun. However, there is the occasional word that only I am allowed to use. I'm talking about the word "no." I was trying to get him to pick up some of his books the other day, and all he wanted to do was read them (I hate those dilemmas...). I kept telling him, "no, Isaiah, we need to put them back on the shelf. It's time to clean up." but he kept pulling them off. At one point, I said, "No! Isaiah, it's time to clean up. Please put the book back on the shelf." His response was "No!"--with a broad smile, of course. I was whipped, as usual. He has gotten substantially better at cleaning up, however, and I am quite proud of him for that. He still loves books, and it still amazes me how he does not rip them, even when they're not made of cardboard. I think it makes other people nervous when he grabs their paperback novel or some other adult equivalent, and maybe I should (for their sake) make sure that he gives it back, but at the smae time, I know that he's not going to do much more than flip through the picture-less pages, so I tend to conserve my 'no's for more urgent cases requiring disciplinary action.

Let's see, what else...ah, yes, three long paragraphs into a blog post is about the appropriate place to announce that we will be having another baby in March (March 21 is the due date). Being a second child myself, I have always thought that my parents totally lost interest after my older sister, as was evident by the fact that I slept in the hallway, was put in (and subsequently dropped out of) a laundry basket (my Dad says they had to make room for the clothes), and according to my baby book (I am actually surprised that I even have one) I accomplished nearly every milestone at 2 years of age (and all entries were written in the same color pen). However, now that I have a second child on the way at least, I am so much more sympathetic to my parents, and know that it is not a lack of interest per se, but just a different way of welcoming in another life. (there's a euphemism for you!) We're really excited, and love this one just as much as we did Isaiah, but I must admit, I don't look up every day on the internet to see how big Furoshiki is (that's the in utero name, by the way) or what I should expect in the next week or two. Maybe that is because I have been through it once before, but I think more than that is that I don't really have the time to be consumed by the pregnancy part of it. I do feel guilty a little, but Furoshiki is alive and well and doesn't need me to be looking up internet articles about them in order to thrive. They do need me to be well-rested and not too stressed, and that is proving to be somewhat harder than last time, as I have Isaiah to look after now. I am just pulling out of the first trimester, so a lot of the nausea and all-day fatigue is diminishing, but by 'diminishing' I mean that there is some left. :) Hopefully in a few more weeks I'll have all my energy back, my heart rate will be up in the 'normal for a non-pregnant person' range (which is high for me), and I will feel much better. In the meantime, I am relying heavily on my gracious husband to put up with a messy house, having to pitch in (or completely take over) making dinner, doing dishes, etc. My brother Sam was also here for the last week or so, and he did a lot of our dishes, which helped out immensely (I don't think he realizes how much, actually). I don't think Isaiah understands yet what is going on--in fact, I would be really surprised if he did--but I have told him that there is a baby in my tummy, and now when asked where the baby is, he will come up and lay his head on my stomach and gaze lovingly up at me. He used to come up and give it a nice smack (post-partum flab is great for making some awesome noises!), but I have pretty much broken him of that habit. We'll see if he has any more recognition set in once I get a little bigger.

Dan's experiments are winding down, we think...we hope... He came home fairly satisfied with some results today, so maybe in another two weeks he may be able to start writing his dissertation. We're still hoping that he can defend before the year ends, so lots of encouragement and prayer will be necessary and much appreciated.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll try to be better about posting more frequently, so maybe check again in November. :)

Isaiah is scared to death of taking a bath. I'm not sure why or when that fear arose. He used to love bathtime, but lately he won't sit down in the tub and stands there screaming the whole time. Last time Dan bathed him he came out of the bathroom and his ears were ringing for the next 30 minutes. He vowed to purchase a pair of earplugs before the next bath. This morning Isaiah buried his face in my lap as I did my best to wash him while he was standing ankle deep in the water. That helped with the noise quite a bit, and I was thankful. I finally gave up trying to get him in a good mood and at the end, knowing that there was no other way to get him to cooperate with the hair-washing part, took the shower (which terrifies him the most) and made him endure several seconds of that while I washed and rinsed his hair.
After he recovered from that abuse and terror, he went back to playing with his acorns. He was entirely cooperative and enthusiastic about going to bed for a nap, but didn't realize it meant that he had to part with his treasures. Alas, Mom was not in a patient enough mood to allow him to play more or say farewell to the acorns, as the Good Parenting books recommend ("Give your child notice well in advance when they need to stop playing so that they have enough time to mentally prepare." blah blah blah). As far as I'm concerned, he's sleeping now, and I will give him ample time to mentally prepare for his joyful reconciliation with his beloved acorns when the time is right. I also think he's got enough of his Daddy in him that I'm going to need to establish early on (yesterday, even) who is boss. We'll see how that goes.
Speaking of figuring out who is boss and not spoiling Isaiah, we will be headed to Arizona on Tuesday to see my Mom and my grandparents (her parents) and my sister, Mo. This will be the first time my Mom (and grandparents) will meet him, so we are greatly looking forward to this. We'll be there for two weeks, during which I am sure Isaiah will undoubtedly receive the highest levels of discipline from three adoring grand- or great-grandparents.

Speaking of Dan, which we weren't really doing at all, he had a very good lab meeting yesterday and a good talk with his advisor afterwards about his experiments (which are being completely uncooperative) and writing his dissertation. At some point in the Ph.D. career, you have to call what you have good enough, write it up, and move on with life. There is little wisdom in continuing to kick the dead horse, as you are learning little from that experience (except frustration) and sometimes it IS best to just let something rest for a bit before trying it again. That was the conclusion that he and I have come to recently, but it was good to hear that his advisor agreed with him on that. He is still hoping to write his dissertation and defend it this fall sometime, but is hoping to give the experiments a few more shots here. Continued prayers for wisdom, perseverance, and yes, good luck!! would be much appreciated. We are hoping he can become a slave to the lab while Isaiah and I are in Arizona, so hopefully things will line up so that he has enough to work on during those two weeks.