Category: neck deep in the zeitgeist

The cats are beginning to sense that the jig is up. Ever since we cleared out the room that the baby will sleep in and began putting new furniture in there, they’ve been acting weird. Siegfried, who is our more mischievous kitty, will often go and roll around on the rug in the baby’s room. Roy, our more needy kitty, has been spending much more time with us wherever we are.

Last night, in an attempt to garner more affection, Roy crawled up into the bathroom sink and meowed until we petted him. When I shooed him out, he jumped into the bathtub and rolled around in there – something he does occasionally when he wants to be petted and we are in the bathroom.

Hastings, our most affectionate kitty, seems to maintaining equilibrium for now. Although this will surely change when he realizes that the spot between Dave and I where he curls up at night and sleeps will soon be filled by a tiny human.

You may notice that we have registries and links to other purveyors of fine baby goods on the right side under the heading of ‘Mr. X’s Registry’.

We have been struggling with a baby name for many a month and still have come to no conclusions. However, we felt that we should refer to said fetus as something more than just ‘the baby’. While watching a movie back in July or August, we tried out the names in the credits. One of the last ones was ‘Mr. X Lights and Sound’ or something like that and somehow Mr. X has stuck. And honestly, it has stuck to the point that Mr. X is sounding like a mighty fine name to me these days. I mean, it worked for Mr. T, right?

Also, luckily, we found out in September that the baby was a boy. Good thing since Mr. X would be a pretty silly name for a girl.

…and he’s using it to scan in all of the old family slides that have been sitting in my parents various closets over the years. Behold me, at some young ages. I’ll try to annotate as much as I can remember.

Me with a doll in bed. I think this was my parents room. They used to let me watch tv in there. I’m pretty sure I still have one of these sheets that we use as a painting drop cloth. Note the wallpaper.

On the jungle gym with my brother and Mom in our back yard in New Jersey. Note my mom’s cool sunglasses and my fine matching orange hat, sweater and socks. I bet someone knit those for me.

I’m not looking too pleased in my Halloween costume, posing next to our next door neighbors Scott, David and Greg.

No memories of this moment. But do check out the lovely baby walking shoes of yore.

No memories of this moment either, although I don’t look too pleased to be having my picture taken.

We had our 18 week ultrasound on Friday, which went very well. We also found out that our progeny-to-be is a boy. Or at least, so said el sonogramador. This picture barely does justice to the beauty of our boy – but it is your first peak at who is to come.

I thought I was pretty down with British slang, but as I watched the BBC news this morning, I saw this crawl across the bottom of the screen:

Tiger Woods in determined mood as he looks to break his major duck this season at the USPGA chamionships

You never know what’s going to be lost in translation. Reminds me of a guy I used to work with who grew up in North Carolina and hadn’t traveled much until he went to England on a business trip. His hosts asked him what he did for fun, and he said he liked to dance. They asked what his favorite was, and as a good North Carolina boy who grew up going to the beach and dancing a particular homegrown R&B dance, he responded, "I like to shag." You can imagine their reaction.

A sign at our local Barnes & Noble.