21 weeks - Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!

Ben and I successfully put the playpen together. It was sadly harder than it looked... Oh well, practice makes perfect!

How far along? 21 weeks!!

Total weight gain/loss: +11 pounds

Maternity clothes? As one of the kids I nanny pointed out this week, "Aunty Nicki - good thing you got those big clothes - normal ones wouldn't fit you anymore!"

Stretch marks? Sadly, my cocoa butter plan is not working out as well as I hoped. Worth it nonetheless!

Sleep: Still battling some insomnia. At least I can take naps!

Best moment this week: I was talking about him with Ben and just as I said "Henry", he moved! I'm sure it was a coincidence, but it was still really cool!

Movement: The flutters are starting to get a little bit stronger - soon they will probably feel like full kicks.

Food cravings: Maybe it's just the Valentines Day commercials, but I have eaten a lot of chocolate this week. I even made Carnival Cruise Line's chocolate melting cake. I ate it every night on our honeymoon. So good!

Gender: It's a boy!

Labor Signs: Nope!

Belly Button in or out? Still in!

Wedding rings on or off? Off

What I miss: When bending down was a simple thing.

What I am looking forward to: Showing off my growing belly to my family this weekend!

Weekly Wisdom: Enjoy the good days - I am feeling so much better than I was even just a month ago!

Milestones: We definitely felt like beginning to set up baby stuff in the house was a big deal! So far, we have the playpen in our room, the extra dresser in the baby's room with all his books ready to go and a few clothes we got at Christmas in the closet. Baby clothes are so cute! (Except maybe that Cardinals shirt...)




Daddy's Thoughts: 

I've been thinking about Henry's name a lot this week.  Henry.  It's a good name, right?  I mean, I really like it.  We've been postulating what we're going to call him for short:  Hank, Harry, someone suggested Hal, there are a lot of possibilities with this name, and I love it!  Honestly I don't see us really calling him anything consistently other than "Henry" but I think Nicki and I call each other by our actual names about once a month, so you never know.

Anyway, it occurred to me that Henrisaurus is in good company with his name.  I'd like to take this opportunity to remind you of all the great men named Henry.  Or at least some of them.

First you've got to start off with the big guy, the original H, I'm talking about Henry VIII.  You know it's funny, he was the 8th guy to carry the name Henry in the Tudor family, but he's definitely the one that gets all the credit.  Probably for having the impossible figure of 6 wives to his name.  Also he is where we get the phrase "Every Tom, Dick, and Harry" because after his reign, Henry became such a popular name in England that you couldn't throw a cat and not hit some poor defenseless kid named Henry.

Then you've got Henry Kissinger, the Vark's personal favorite.  For a while there we were considering doing my residency near Clemson University South Carolina.  We didn't end up going there (obviously) but a big selling point was old Austria Breath went to school there.  You know, I hate to be one of those guys who says that history depended on one person, but you have to give this guy credit:  It's entirely possible the nuclear war could have broken out if he hadn't been Secretary of State.  Someday this could be you, Henry B!

And then there's Henry Ford, a personal favorite of my dad's (see white 1997 Ford F150 in his driveway).  Actually, if I'm not mistaken, Mr. Motorcity was quite a jerk, but he did make a heck of a lot of automobiles during his tenure in charge.  So that's cool.  But you also have to remember the guy who really built up Ford Motor Companies, because Ford was really too crazy to be a dependable CEO.  His name?  Henry Lawrence!  Yeah, that's right, the job still needed a Henry.

And we could go on (and I feel that we probably will at some point), but that's enough for tonight.  Oh wait, Henry Philips!  He made your screw driving experiences 1/2 as difficult!

Looking forward to seeing what your legacy is going to be Henry!

   - Daddy