Strolling in the city

Here are some more adorable pictures of Beckett.

Here he is on Saturday morning after laying in bed with his mommy and daddy for awhile.













Beckett is all dressed up and ready for his first stroller ride outside of the house!




















Here he is on his first "official" subway ride with his mom, who is doing quite well for someone who gave birth (induced without any drugs or an epidural) four days before (oops, this was posted for awhile as after) this picture was taken.

Home Sweet Home

Dawnell and Beckett returned from the hospital late Thursday afternoon. Other than looking a little yellow, Beckett continues to be happy and healthy and adorable. Since we didn't have a car seat (on purpose, we don't have a car or hardly ever use a car) we took the subway home. Here's a couple more pics of Beck:

Beckett already had a playdate with his new friend Sheldon. Sheldon is three weeks old, so he wore Beckett out.

All dressed up in the U of U outfit and Air Jordan booties! Ready to go home!

All tired out after his first subway ride, sleeping peacefully in his crib (a.k.a. pack n play)

Video of Beckett

Beckett is Cute. I have proof.

Every person who has spoken with one of us over the telephone has demanded pictures as soon as possible. So here you go...

Wise words from the Appellate Division Judge who addressed those admitted on Monday: "You won't remember many of your work days as a lawyer, but you will remember today." Wow, you mean all 87 of us admitted that afternoon had wives in labor?

Dad, that was the worst joke I've ever heard. I mean, I've only been alive for about ten minutes at the time of this picture, but that's still a horrible joke.

Um, hand. Tastes like chicken. I'll just let the rest of these pictures speak for themselves. I'm also putting up a video if I can figure out how to do it. It's uploading to Youtube right now, so hopefully I can link to it and you can watch it on the blog.

For a newborn baby Beckett is surprisingly docile. He appears to be wondering what's going on, already questioning his outer world. For instance, here, he may look a little peeved, but he's not actually sad. He rarely even cries. He's just wondering what that horrible smell is. And that smell is hospital spaghetti. That, unfortunately, is not a joke.

Mom is tired but happy
Grandma!
What is that up there?

Faux-hawk!

Beckett Somerville Moon

It is with great pleasure that I announce the arrival of Beckett Somerville Moon. Beckett was born on April 24th at 2:24 a.m. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 4 oz. Both mother and baby are healthy and in good spirits. Father was able to make his bar admission ceremony.

Pictures and a full update to come later.

Quizas Quizas Quizas

Congratulations to everyone on your blog persistence. As you were told, this would be the first place to go for baby news. I'm not calling anyone except for my mom, so this is the place to go for news.

Anyway, Dawnell had a stress test this morning and it looks like, despite kicking so hard I could see his foot last night, Beckett did not pass with flying colors. Nothing to be stressed out about of as far as I know, but they will probably be inducing Dawnell. I'm on my way to the Hospital with the pregnancy bag right now.

Keep up in your thoughts and prayers and let's hope he doesn't come in the next three hours, because I still have to find a way to get sworn in this afternoon.

-C

April 22 Update

Dawnell took some pictures of me in my Jazz hat and Jazz jersey at halftime of the game last night. I bought a Raul Lopez jersey for $5.00 a couple of years ago on clearance. It seemed like a great deal. It wasn't Raul's fault that he blew out both of his knees and was robbed of the quickness that made him an NBA prospect. Anyway, he wore #24, which is currently the number of Uber-rookie Paul Millsap. So that worked out well for me.

I'm not posting the pictures because the Jazz lost.

Dawnell and her mother did not feel well this morning, so we didn't make it to church. Walking around with an artificial knee isn't great for Dawnell's mom, and walking around with a natural 37 pound womb isn't great for Dawnell. But she is not in labor, and made me post this update because she was certain that all of our friends from church would check as soon as they got home to see if Dawnell was laboring.

Let's Go Jazz!

We're pretty excited for the game tonight! First Jazz playoff game in several years. Unfortunately, it is the most exciting news to report. Tip-off in a couple of hours. As always, if there is any other news we'll post here first!

C

Just a Mid-day update

As a nod to all you faithful blog followers I thought I wouldn't make you wait until the end of the day when Chris got home to know what was going on. Still nothing. And now enough time has passed that I need a new manicure. Maybe I'll go do that. I have to do something. Sitting around the house is driving me crazy.

At this rate I'm either going to miss Chris' swearing in to the bar or my mom is going to miss the baby. This sucks and I'm pissed off. If you dare to call me you better not have any "suggestions" about how to get this baby born or ask if I've had him yet. I am not a happy camper. It's best to just wait until I call you.

This Update Is Like Seinfeld

Much like the TV show mentioned above, this post is about nothing. We've now taken to explaining to Beckett that he has lots of friends all ready to play with him, but he's still acting stubborn. Sounds like he takes after his mom. Or his dad. Or both of us.

That's all for tonight. Tonight is TV night in our household. (Earl, Office, 30 Rock).

Feel free to not call us for updates :-)

-C

Fitting Quotes

To paraphrase womb-baby's namesake's most famous work:

Why are we here, that is the question. And we are blessed in this, that we happen to know the answer. Yes, in this immense confusion one thing alone is clear. We are waiting for Beckett* to come.

-Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot

*Originally Godot of course

And here's another quote for womb-baby, just in case he's reading:

we don't have time to be sad
come out tonight, you've got to grab it
if you want to have it
you've got to become what you can
it's dark and it's savage but it's only in neon
so come out and grab it

come out tonight
come out tonight
come out tonight
come out tonight
come out tonight

Kenickie- Come Out 2 Nite (which is a great brit-pop song about getting drunk
and partying, but I'll take my relevant quotes where I can find them)

-C

Quick Update So You Don't Need To Call...

Here is your update! I assume you are all checking the blog every half-hour, on the hour.

Thankfully, worlds did not collide, as I was able to interview for admission to the New York bar without Womb-Baby joining us. And before anyone asks how the interview went, it was like five minutes long and is nothing more than a formality. I get admitted next Monday, which, while a formality, is also cool.

We also had an appointment with the midwives this evening. Dawnell is progressing, and she is a 7 on the Bishop's Scale (that's some way that people measure when you are going to go into labor). A "7" means that you will definitely go into labor within a week, and probably go into labor in the next 2 to 3 days!

Dawnell was also told that one way to get things going is with a "labor salad," which is watercress, romaine lettuce, walnuts, feta, and a vinagrette. Who knew that the Greeks were the gods of inducing labor?

Speaking of ancient history, Dawnell and her mom went to the Natural History Museum today. I wasn't able to go, so here are some of us at a museum. This is actually from the Met, but you take what you can get.

Here is a cool picture of Dawnell's mom with one of the stars of Night at the Museum! The second picture is Dawnell's sisters and her at some old painting. Then me and my buff body kick it Greek style, just like the salad Dawnell will be having for breakfast, lunch, and dinnner.

Mom arrived so now Beckett can too

After a three hour tour of JFK airport and Manhattan, Mom, who was the first on the Super Shuttle and the last off the shuttle, arrived at our apartment. She had a great time on her tour of the island. I, despite Chris' assurances everything was fine, had a mini nervous breakdown and thought she was lost forever. Everyone should have a cell phone. But everything ended up okay even though she was tired. We were glad to finally get her here. We went to church today in a deluge but at least I got to show her off to all my friends in the ward.

We tried to set up the cradle, but had some problems with cheap Chinese screws. As a result we ended up setting up the pack n' play and using the beautiful quilts JuLee made us. Mom was much impressed with its multifunctionality. We all declared it better than the pink bathtub that Jil had to sleep in when she was a baby.

Here is Chris demonstrating how he'd say hello to Beckett. Or perhaps he's demonstrating how he would check if Beckett needed to be changed since he's leanging over the changing table portion:

In our efforts to trick Beckett out of me we put a fake baby in the pack n' play. We told him that he needed to come out and claim his bed. He was not threatened.

All Dilated Up With No Place to Go

Today's doctors appointment confirmed what I already knew was happening.....nothing. I'm dilated to 1 cm and about 50% effaced. So not much progress. According to Chris I have 4 more days until I'm allowed to be depressed or upset about this. Perhaps a miracle will happen and the baby will still come "early". But I don't really count 1 day before the due date as early. I guess anything can happen, but it seems like I'll follow the tradition of many first babies and end up going late.



I think the above picture is kind of ugly although it was meant to be amusing so here's another one of me at Week 39.

Week 39

I'm continuing my tradition of very busy days full of activity. Yesterday I was spent a very taxing couple of hours getting a manicure and a pedicure.

It was not as wonderful as it sounds. I paid an extra $5 for fancy designs on my big toes and even after 3 rounds under the dryer, the fast dry spray, and saran wrap I managed to ruin one on the 2 block walk home. It was very emotionally trying. I had to keep my socks on for the American Idol party I went to that night. I'm sure you're all very sympathetic.

On today's agenda I have TWO activities. I went to lunch with my friend Addy where I got grape jelly all over my giant belly. Then I have to write a thank you card for this very cute present we got on Sunday. As you can imagine Chris was most thrilled. It was from our bishop and his wife who, along with their children that Chris taught in primary, still remember him coming to a Halloween party as a basketball hoop.

So here's me looking sassy at the end of 38 weeks in the shirt I wear every other day because nothing else fits. Just wishing the baby would come out. At least my mom is coming on Saturday.

Question for all the women folk

This is Chris and I'm too lazy to sign out and use my own account. Dawnell says that when Womb-baby jumps out and says "hi" she gets a cool present of a significant monetary value

Is that correct? I know you all check out the blog, so please comment.

And a "sorry" if this ends up getting any of the new fathers in trouble when their wives start asking them where their cool presents are. We guys are oblivious sometimes.

-C

Walking Out Womb-Baby

Dawnell's new obsession is finding ways to coax womb-baby out of his home. I'm sure that he's very happy there, but it's time to come out. Today we tried walking. I was off work, so we took the afternoon to do something we had never done, despite living in Downtown NYC for almost 4 years: walking across the Brooklyn Bridge!










Here is Dawnell with a determined look on her face. As you can see, she's pointing right at the focus of our trip.

Here is a cool picture of the Manhattan Skyline as seen from the East River, about halfway across.

















On the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge is Grimaldi's Pizzeria, home of pizza that makes all of the "best of" lists. Thanks to our friend Michael, we were finally able to figure out the location, as we didn't bring a map.

Yum! Womb-baby likes Pizza! So does Dawnell.














Chris likes ice cream. Down the street from Grimaldi's is the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory. Combined the two places have been voted best "nexus" of food in New York City. I just thought that was a cool use of the word nexus. Dawnell also enjoyed the ice cream, especially the butter pecan.










This is a limo. You may think it's a bus, but it is white with tinted windows, which means it's a limo. A wedding party came out of this (presumably) tricked-out ride to take pictures at the Brooklyn Pier. On a cold, cloudy, windy day.











Apparently the pier is the Brooklyn version of the reflective pool at Temple Square. The limo bride didn't come out of the bus for awhile, so we were wondering where she was. Then an Acura pulled up and a 50 year old woman hopped out in a wedding dress (and black patent leather heels. Quite the fashion faux pas). Immediately we wondered whether the old lady was the bride of the limo bus and she had rented the bus for all of her kids. But then we saw the real limo bus bride, and we figured out that the Brooklyn Pier is totally the place for Brooklyn brides to take pictures. The young bride (who smoked like a chimney) was seriously bitter that her train got dirty by walking on the wooden pier. I won't post the pictures we tried to take of the wedding party, because there were like 10 bridesmaids and groomsmen, and they'll probably find us and cut us.

Overall we had a great time! Crossing the bridge was lots of fun, but Womb-baby still enjoys chilling in his house for now.

Dolce and Gabbana naa naa naa naa naa naa

An argument can be made that Alanis Morrissette's Jagged Little Pill was, with the exception of Nirvana's Nevermind, the seminal album of the 1990's.

The argument can also be made that the Black Eyed Peas are the worst musical group in the history of mankind, narrowly beating out a group of tone-deaf Franciscan Monks from the 15th Century.

Combine the two and what do you get? Awesome satire. (warning, sort of inappropriate dancing and ridiculous lyrics)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W91sqAs-_-g

The newest member of the big baby club

I had my first day time appointment today. I figured since I didn't have to work I might as well go see them at 11:30 instead of 6:30. I finally asked how big they thought the baby was since they were not going to believe my very scientific 25 pound estimates. So when she measured me and listened to heartbeat she started feeling around to get an estimate of how big he was. Even though I haven't been measuring big she thinks he's at least 8 lbs. At one point she said that was being conservative! So it seems that whatever made all Mormons in New York get simultaneously pregnant and have boys has also made us all have huge babies. My three close friends who have all given birth within the last two weeks (one within two days) have had babies over eight pounds, one had an over 9 pounder! Armageddon must be coming in about 20 years since we seem to be growing an army of "large in stature" men.

It was the cool British accent midwife that I met with and she was pretty excited that he was so big. She loves big fat babies and was really positive about the impending birth and me giving him a good start by plumping him up. We don't want no scrawny babies! She kept saying nice things like my head was in the right place and she wasn't worried about me at all during labor. I guess this means I have proven myself to not be a whiner during my pregnancy. But it really was reassuring. She told me to drink red raspberry leaf tea and and have lots of sex and walk, walk, walk to work on getting the baby out. She's almost as excited to see the little guy as I am. She said if he's not out by my appointment next week they'll tell me some other things to try. I can only assume this means the dreaded castor oil or an enema. Yuck! She asked if I wanted an internal exam, but who wants an internal exam? Double yuck! So we'll save it until next week to see what they tell me about fun things like being dilated and effaced. I figured knowing won't necessarily make the baby come faster, but it could very well drive me insane making me think the baby should come sooner.

Madness in the Midst of Madness

The NCAA Basketball Tournament is complete, along with the requisite office pools. I finished 22nd out of 25 in my own office pool despite having the 2nd most number of picks correct. As you might have guessed, I did not have Florida or Ohio State in the final game. The last couple years I've theorized that I should pick teams who I don't believe have the best chance of winning because their chances of winning are still excellent and a lot less people will choose them to win than the prohibitive favorites. This year (and it's easy to claim now, but maybe my step-dad would back me up on this one) I repeatedly claimed that I believed Florida had the best chance of winning the tourney. However, I ended up picking Kansas because I believed they had the 2nd or 3rd best chance and not as many people would pick them to win. In theory, I have a better chance of winning if those picks come through because so many others picked the overall favorite.

I now believe this strategy is counter-productive because my knowledge of college basketball is greater than the average person who fills out their bracket. This means that my advantage over the field should be greatest in the first two rounds when there are a large number of games between (relatively) unknown teams. This is what happened this year, as I ended up in second place after the first two rounds before my picks dropped off the face of this earth.

It seems obvious in hindsight that Florida was the best team in college basketball by about a mile. The selection committee figured this out way before everyone else, naming Florida the overall number one seed in the tournament despite what quite honestly was not the best performance throughout the season. But apparently Florida got bored, and then when the tournament started they were no longer bored. Hey, I get it. And if I would have made the picks that I really thought would have occurred, I still probably wouldn't have won, since I really thought Ohio State would lose to Texas A & M (due to A & M's ridiculous home-court advantage thanks to the committee sending them to San Antonio for the Sweet 16).

Oh well, there's always next year for the picks. I've got to win another one of these. Dawnell thinks I am basking in the glory of my 2003 bracket win (I had Kansas and Syracuse in the finals).

On to the NBA, which, in case you didn't know, is only about ten times better than college basketball! Let's go Jazz!

March 29th Doctor's Appointment

Dawnell and I have appointments with a random midwife every week now. This week we had the cool young midwife (she has had a nosering while on the job, which endears her to Dawnell).

Dawnell is now past 37 weeks, which apparently is full-term. This means that Womb-baby could turn into Beckett at any time and it would be okay. Dawnell sure hopes that "anytime" means "in the next two weeks" and not "one month from now."

The midwife did not agree with Dawnell's estimate that Womb-baby was "approximately 25 pounds," but she did agree that his heartbeat sounded healthy. We can't wait for him to show up!

I promise I'll add some non-baby content on here sooner or later. I really want to talk about Wal-Mart and New York City, so everyone has that to look forward to...

My Celeb Look Alikes Are Diverse

http://www.myheritage.com

Well, Dawnell is sad that there are no pictures of me on our blog. So I also tried to do a celebrity collage. After trying some other pictures that convinced me I have a very androgynous face, this is what I came up with: One former (admittedly cool) dictator, one former actor turned crazy activist who loves third world dictators, one punk, and one who enjoys punking.

I need to find a better picture of me without a graduation cap. I'm pretty sure Fred Durst and Ataturk are probably only on the list because of the hat.