Trip to Seattle

Jul23

This past weekend we took our first trip since finding out about you. My friend from childhood got married in Seattle, so Mom and I took a short road trip (7.5 hours) over there to take part. I was a groomsman in the wedding and in our downtime your Mom and I explored the city.

I had been to Seattle a few weeks prior to speak at a conference there for work, but your mom hadn’t been in a couple years. July in Seattle is, well, not normal for Seattle. It was sunny and beautiful nearly the whole time we were there and it made for an incredible weekend. The wedding was incredible as well, which only made things better.

I wanted to tell every friend I have about you. It was on my mind the entire time, and your mom is starting to show some signs. Nothing physically as of yet but she is tired a good percentage of the time. Luckily for her she has never been a drinker. We didn’t realize how big of a deal that would be at events such as weddings and friend activities where alcohol is present. No one suspected anything because she is a healthy person and rarely even drank a glass of wine.

I gave a speech during the wedding. Public speaking has never been something that has scared me, in fact it is something that I really enjoy (we are both curious to see your feelings about the practice as your mom does not care for it). However, for the first time in a long time, I actually got a little nervous. Not because of the venue, the 100’s of people or that it would be entertaining; only because your mom was there and outside of our own wedding I have never given a speech in front of her. She of course managed to find some flaws with my performance, but overall was extremely encouraging.

In addition to all of my friends (Aaron, Mike, Jon, Chris, Nate, Dwane, Greg, Matty, Adam, Joe, Will, Jon, Joey, Cohen, Jay), Mom also got to see a friend of hers named Laura. Laura has been extremely skeptical of Mom, and had outwardly expressed that she thought she was pregnant. None of us could understand why this was, and we of course vehemently denied that this was true, but she was unwilling to accept our response. After much deliberation, we decided that it was best to tell her about you while we were in Seattle.

Mom and I at the wedding – Thornbury Castle

These types of trips are going to become more rare as Mom’s pregnancy with you progresses. After you are born we will obviously be limited to even a greater degree with taking care of you. We are definitely trying to enjoy these last few months as much as possible, but both of use would trade any trips at this point just to have you here. We cannot wait to meet you and it consumes every conversation we have.

Love, Dad

We Told Nonnie About You!

Jul20

Your 9 week mark came and passed this week. It was Thursday, and we celebrated by sharing the news with your soon to be grandma (you might know her as Nonnie. Up until now she did not know about you, and she could not have been more surprised or excited!

She had not been to our new house yet and made the trip to Boise to both see it and watch Layla for the weekend as we were going out of town. In fact I am writing this as I sit in a mall in Bellevue, WA while you mom shops.

Anyway, we took her for a tour of the house showing her everything there was to see. It ended with us showing her to the guest room. We mentioned that there was one last thing to see, and then mentioned to the bed where the photo of your first ultrasound was laying. She was ecstatic! You can’t believe how much you are loved even though no one will meet you for another 7 months almost.

Her and I went on a walk later that night, and she threw out some names for boys and girls (since at this point we don’t know what you are). Most were terrible, I mean absolutely horrendous, but a couple were good (we liked Hawkins if you are a boy so if that ends up being your name you can thank Nonnie).

We are so excited to tell everyone and the day when we can is quickly approaching. The excitement about you is building with every passing moment.

I cannot wait to meet you, and love you already.

Love, Dad

Current Situation and How We Got Here

Jul17

Typing the whole story about how we met, got together, our journey and why we are here now will take longer than the time I have right now (but I will make sure to do another post at a later time).

Half of the reason I am typing this up is because your mother constantly berates me for not knowing enough about my family and their whereabouts when they were younger. I wanted to give you a reference point so you know not only where we are from but where we have stopped along the way. This is also meant to address why we are currently in Boise and where we might venture after this.

Let’s start with your mom:

Mom was born in Palm Springs and lived there until she was about 9 years old. After that she moved to Sun Valley, ID and lived there through high school. After high school mom came to Tucson to attend the University of Arizona and after one year she transferred to USC in Los Angeles. I will stop there as our paths then combined and we were in the same place together from there on out.

As for me, I was born and raised in Tucson. I lived there my whole life and attended college there. Only move I made was to attend Eastern Arizona College in Safford, AZ my freshman year to play baseball, then quickly moved back afterwards. Upon graduating from the University of Arizona, I took a job in LA and moved there to be with your mom while she finished college.

Your mom graduated college in May of 2009, and in addition to getting married that summer, we also moved to Denver as I was offered a new position there with my company. We lived in Denver from May of 2009 through May of 2010 when we decided to move back to Southern California, this time San Diego. We lived from from May 2010 through August 2012 and both worked, your mom as an executive assistant to a CEO in La Jolla and me at as an E-Commerce Manager to a manufacturer of team uniforms in San Marcos.

In July of 2012 I was offered a new job with a company in Boise as an SEO Analyst and we made the move the following month. As I write this, it is July of 2013 and we have been in Boise for nearly a year.

With the new purchase of the house and you on the way our plan is to stay here for a while. That being said, there are other places we are still considering.

We loved Denver and would be happy to go back there. Chicago is also on the short list (more mine that mom’s as she has never been there). Mom is pushing hard for the south, somewhere like Charlotte or New Orleans.

The plan is that we will be here in Boise from at least 5 years and then go from there. As for where we will end up, who know! But this is what makes things exciting.

Hope you find this interesting later in life, this site is becoming as much a source of reflection for me as it is one for information for you. Cannot wait to meet you, and love you already!

Love, Dad

What Will Your Name Be?

Jul16

Figured this was worthy of discussion. My parents had a list of possible names, most of which I absolutely hated, that they shared with me when I was older. My name when I was little was incredibly rare, although it has become very common over time. My parents had a bunch of names: Elijah (yep that’s real), Scooter, Joshua among others and to this day I find it comical.

What is even funnier is that I hated my name growing up because it was so unique. never had any friends with the same name and it made me feel like an outcast. That was until I got into high school and realized how cool it was that no one had my name and it became a unique identifier. Today, I love my name and it has served me well.

So since we don’t yet know if you are a boy or girl, we have names for both. Just a heads up that in the future your brother or sister may get one of the names we don’t use on you, so don’t be surprised. right now some of the names we are considering are the following: Ethan (boy), Riley (girl), Airey (girl), Caleb (boy, self-indulgent I know but has to be considered), Charles (boy, this won’t make the cut), Quinn (girl, maybe a middle name). This is all we got right now but the list is growing.

To give you a sense of the time, here are the most popular names as of today:

As you can see, Ethan is on the list which it was not when we first came up with it, but we will have to see how we feel about it if you are a boy. As the name debates progress, just know that we put in our due diligence.

Regardless of your name, I love you and can’t wait to meet you

Love, Dad

Your First Ultrasound and Confirmation of Existence

Jul16

Today we learned that you are in fact a real thing and not a figment of our imagination. We saw you today, and you were pretty incredible.

Well, by incredible I mean you kind of looked like a kidney bean. But while we were watching, you wiggled as if you knew we were looking. You were shaking your hands and feet and even flipped your entire body around. The ultrasound tech said she had never seen any baby do that, so you are obviously special. Right now you are 8 weeks and 4 days along.

Just to catch you up we found out about you on June 16, 2013 which was, oddly enough, Father’s Day. We of course were not absolutely sure until today, but had a good idea. In case you ever ask, you were intentional and we actually timed it pretty well. We recently bought our first house here in Boise and moved in on May 17th 2013. Before that we got Layla on December 20, 2012. You were the next step in creating our family and we are excited to meet you.

At the doctor today they talked about how healthy you and your mom are. just for reference, your mom is insanely healthy. She works out all the time, doesn’t drink (not just because you are in there), and is absolutely gorgeous. The doctor today, Dr. Tim West (UA alum btw), said that at this point there is less than a 1% chance of a miscarriage because you are so healthy. Your vitals were all solid, your spine was beginning to be seen and your hands and feet are developing. You are just over 2 centimeters long right now.

You are also probably wondering about when you are due, because my guess is that it will differ a bit from when you will actually arrive. Your due date is February 20, 2014 and we are counting the days.

Because I think it is fun and don’t plan on your reading this until you are a bit older, thought it would be fun to share what your mother and I think you are going to be. I will just throw it out there, I am positive that you are boy. I have always thought I would have a boy first and after seeing you today I am sure. That being said, if I am wrong, please know that whether you come out a boy or girl I will be stoked. It is not that I want a boy more than a girl, just that I feel like it is a boy coming. Your mom thinks it will be a girl, perhaps because I think it is a boy and she tends to be a bit argumentative :), but does not have the conviction that I do about the topic. At 20 weeks is when we will find out what you are.

So where do we go from here? We will be having appointments with Dr. West every 4 weeks up to 30 weeks. After that they go to ever 2 weeks and then down to once a week in the home stretch. You are still so young that we have not told anyone about you, although it would be safe to do so, it is customary that you wait until the end of the first trimester.

Figured you might want to see your first ultrasound, notice the full rotation that takes place in the 5 minute span:

So there it is, the first post. I plan on updating this as much as possibly throughout this process and after you arrive.

I know it is weird to say this, but I love you and cannot wait to meet you.

Love, Dad