I ate some crow pie at the OC Fair on Sunday

Yeah, there was plenty of other foods offered there (of which I think photos will be forthcoming), but the main thing I ate was a slice of humble pie.

We went with Herb and Tammy from our small group. I have been saying that I will not buy clothes for the baby (nor too many toys) for quite some time. It's not that I'm not generous, I'm certain that I will be. Perhaps to a fault so I'm mentally trying to stave that overspending now. But I also have a practical side of me that says the baby girl will not remember whether or not she rotated through two weeks of outfits as a a child or if she had a different outfit for the first 365 days of her life. And I don't what to be relegated to driving an SUV because of the baby toys we need to haul each time we go somewhere.

Anyhow, I was the first to cave in and it happened at the OC Fair of all places. I bought my first baby outfit. Here are a couple of photos.

By the way, the rest of the food at the fair was better. Not the same having to drive and park at the fair as walking down the alley back in the days of youth at the county fair in Reynolds, Indiana.

Happy Birthday Jessi

Jessi turned 1 on July 29!

We're Halfway There!

I can't believe our pregnancy is half over. Today the baby is 20-weeks old.

Here are the stats for a typical 20-week old fetus:
Weight: 10 1/2 oz
Length from head to bottom: 6 1/2 inches
Length from head to heel: 10 inches, the length of a banana

She's definitely getting stronger by the day. At 18 1/2 weeks, I started feeling little pokes. I now feel stronger pokes and her moving around. I can feel her throughout the day -- I love it! I can't wait until Derek can feel her from the outside.

People are starting to tell me that I'm showing. I grew out of my regular clothes a long time ago, but I guess I'm finally looking pregnant.

Though I'm super excited about our baby, my heart is heavy for others. We heard of one whose pregnancy just ended at 17-weeks and another who is currently in the hospital, trying to keep their 24-week old twin babies in the womb. I guess we're never in the "safe" zone and every day is a gift. This whole process is truly a miracle and all in God's hands.

- Lena

We had our 19-week ultrasound and discovered...

that our baby is shy and non-photogenic. Hands in front of the face and not turning for good photo shots. Here is the ultrasound scan to see if YOU can tell the gender of our baby. =)



Here are two profile pics. The first is the baby facing down, the second is the baby facing up (click photos to enlarge).



The doctor took a lot of measurements (e.g., brain, kidney, bladder) and also checked out the blood movement in the heart, the amount of amniotic fluid and even the lips. It was amazing how much she could see and evaluate. Everything looked "terrific." We are very excited and thankful for a healthy baby!

- Derek & Lena

P.S. It's a girl!

Slight disappointment today...

No ultrasound today. We have to wait until Fri when we go for our official 20 week "stuff." I think we'll technically be 19 weeks and one day at that point.

We did hear the heartbeat of the baby... a healthy 137 beats per minute. And Lena's stomach looked fine.

She asked if Lena has felt anything yet. Last night, Lena yanked my hand from the remote control (I thought to switch from a drama show to the Food Network) and placed in on her lower belly. She was feeling pokes. The doctor said between 20-24 weeks I could start to feel the baby's movements.

No sympathy weight gain for me this appointment. Yay!

More after Friday's visit.

- Derek

Boy or Girl?

Our next check up appointment is on Tuesday, July 22. We'll hopefully find out the gender of the baby (assuming it cooperates!). If we can't tell what the gender is, we actually have another ultrasound scheduled on Friday, the 25th. I think we'll know for sure by then.

At our last ultrasound, the doctor said that she was about 75% sure that our baby is a girl. However, a couple of friends have told me that our baby looks like a boy in the ultrasound. Strange... Another friend said that he had a "premonition." He saw a little boy with dark hair and immediately knew it was ours. He said he's never had premonitions before. We'll see if the doctor or our friends are right. Check back here to see what we find out!

I'm excited for this appointment because it's actually been six weeks since our last appointment. We couldn't make our regularly scheduled appointment because of our vacation last week. This week our doctor is on vacation. It's been a long time and we pray that the baby is still healthy and continuing to grow as it should.

- Lena

When It Rains, It Pours

Before we left for vacation, Derek was driving the Passat behind a truck. A small rock hit the windshield and cracked it. The small crack quickly grew and we'll soon have to replace it. What a bummer. But in hindsight, that was nothing...

When we went on vacation, we left the yellow car at the airport for 11 days. We came back late Saturday night and parked the car in the garage. Sunday evening, Derek went into the garage after a motorcycle ride. One of the bicycles had fallen from the ceiling. The bike hangs on a hook and the hook came out and the bike crashed into the windshield (and I do mean CRASH). It shattered the windshield and dented the roof. We couldn't believe it! The car was out of the garage for ELEVEN days! Within 24-hours of our return, the bike fell and did $1310 worth of damage. Good thing our insurance covers it and we'll only have to pay $100. However, we won't see the car for ten days while it's being repaired.

Our Vacation: Part III (A Week At The Beach)

Patty's family goes to the New Jersey Shore every summer. They typically go with John's parents but this year they invited us. We spent a week relaxing, BBQing, hanging out at the beach, visiting neighboring towns, and reading.

On Tuesday, Dad and Soyong came to visit and stayed with us a couple nights. They brought a great dinner that we prepared at the house. The next day we went out to lunch and went window shopping. On Thursday, we hung out with Julie's family. Julie and her family were at a beach house in Delaware the same week with Marzano's family. They took a ferry to meet us at the zoo. It was great being all together. Dad and Soyong left afterwards and the Lee's came to our beach house to hang out for a few hours and eat dinner.

The week went by quickly but it was a nice time of relaxation and family time. On Saturday, Patty and John dropped us off in Atlantic City. We took a Greyhound bus to NY to catch our flight. Once in NY, we took the subway to the airport tram to the airport. Lots of traveling! It wasn't too bad except that I've been really sensitive to motion and have been experiencing lots of motion sickness (on the flight to NY, in cabs, and even in at the movies!). The plane put me over the top and I felt horrible when we finally landed. I didn't recover until later the next day. But overall, it was a great vacation!

- Lena

Our Vacation: Part II (A Night in Philly)

We took a train from NY to Philly. Our friends initially thought they could drive us to Philly on the way to a wedding. Plans changed so we took the NJ Transit. The tickets were about $20, so that should have given us an idea of the comfort level we could expect. We squeezed into some seats that had another row of seats facing us. We quickly became friends with the two ladies in those seats as our knees touched and we had to do some adjusting before we all settled into our seats. The ride was long...

When we arrived, we checked in to our comfy hotel. We rested up a bit and then took a taxi to Philly's Party on the Parkway. We walked around and found a place to buy Philly cheesesteaks and fries. We had great expectations as we found a great cheesesteak place last time we were in Philly. However, the ones we had that night were greatly disappointing. We watched the parade and then it was time for funnel cake and a diet coke. By that time, the rain came down hard so we ended up taking a nice long walk back to the hotel. We hung out at the hotel and watched the fireworks on TV while listening to them outside our window.

The next morning John and Patty picked us up on their way to the New Jersey shore.

- Lena

Our Vacation: Part I (Good Food & Friends In New York)

Our first stop was New York where we stayed with our friends in Brooklyn. The first night, we walked down the street to a fabulous Middle Eastern restaurant. Great food and we ate so much! The next day, we met Kris for lunch and went to his favorite coffee shop. Afterwards, we enjoyed some good NY pizza.


Kris went back to work and we were on our own to wander the streets of New York. We found a good gelato place. We shared some gelato while people watching.


We made our way to Magnolia Bakery where we enjoyed three different types of cupcakes. Good thing they only offered three varieties! Talk about sugar overload!


Afterwards, we ran into a beautiful Old English sheepdog. Derek and I both had one while growing up. The dog's owner was a huge sheepdog fan and loved talking to us about her dog. They were really sweet.


We made a quick stop at Ground Zero. I found the streets to be a bit haunting. As I looked down the side streets, I just pictured the billows of smokes chasing people down the road.

Needless to say, by the end of the day we were tired and still so full from all the food we had eaten in the past 24 hours. But, we of course didn't pass up dinnner. We went to K-town for some cold noodles. On the way home we stopped at the Brooklyn bridge and enjoyed the skyline of NYC.

The next morning, our friends dropped us off at the train station and we were off to Philadelphia!