Rockin' Around (The Christmas Tree)

You've been a busy little boy lately. You are moving regularly and it's not just little kicks, jabs or rolls anymore!

Two days ago, after we put up our Hanukkah and Christmas decorations, you were kicking and rolling all around in your Mom's belly (especially after she ate some cookies).

Last night, you were extending some limb (a foot? a hand? your head?) into your Mom's gut for extended periods of time. These weren't just fleeting movements..I actually had my had around whatever that was for like 5 seconds at a time. Maybe you were reaching out to me as a reaction to my voice or my hand on the belly, or maybe you were just trying to get comfortable and I kept bothering you.


Either way, it was truly amazing to just hold your (foot?)...it felt like a human...just a human wrapped up in a thick comforter pushing against you. So, yeah, I could feel a sturdy little appendage reaching out!

But cookies, my voice or touch aren't the only thing that's making you move now a days. We've told you how you react to music just the way that the pink ectoplasm does in Ghostbusters 2, but your Mom has been telling me that certain music makes you move more than others, letting us think that maybe you can recognize (and like?) certain tunes. You've certainly been exposed to enough Ben Folds and Beatles to know them by now, but your Mom swears that you'll wake up from a sleep and start moving around whenever she puts on Folds or the Beatles.



In fact, today she was sewing you a stuffed Lion and was listening to Abbey Road, and as soon as the tunes started, you started dancing.

This is consistent with our findings a couple of a week ago: When your Mom and I were playing "The End" from Abbey Road on Beatles Rock Band, you started kicking like crazy! So, your Mom made me play the song 5 times in a row to try to get a good video of you kicking and moving. Take a look at yourself moving:

• Specifically, around second 33, look at Toby's ear!
• And look for the big one at 1:09 near Toby's collar.

(also, ignore the gentle rat-a-tap-tap-thump-clods of my ah-may-zing drumming..it's on Expert, so give me a break!)

But, of course, we're gonna test this theory and see if it's JUST Ben Folds and Beatles or if it's just music in general that gets your motor running and starts you rockin' around!

A Light in the Belly

After reading a chapter in this book called "The Expectant Father" about communicating with you while you're in the belly, your Mom and I have really been stepping up our intra-uterine communication.

There's some amazing research (and anecdotal accounts) out there about how much you can actually be hearing and even soaking in. The book tells a story of an Orchestra conductor who somehow knew the Cello lines to the scores before he'd ever even heard or read them. As it turns out, his mother, a concert cellist, was practicing those very same symphonies throughout his pregnancy.

Of course, we've been singing to you and feeling your kicks and talking to you, but now we're trying to have conversations (albeit one-sided) with you and even play with you.

The book makes it a point to say that you will definitely know your Mother's voice (and heartbeat (and stomach gurgling noises)), simply by nature of you being in her belly. You'll also recognize my voice just from being around me, but if I make special effort to communicate with you in the belly, you'll be even more familiar with my voice.

Right after I read this chapter, you got a major concert on the way drive back from Houston two days ago of your Dad singing Ben Folds' greatest hits. And it was pretty dang good, because everyone knows that people sing the best when they're in the car.

So, besides singing to you, I've decided to start just chatting with you, giving you narration of our day, what's going on on the outside and more. It definitely feels silly to be talking directly to your Mom's belly, and takes getting over some self consciousness, but I'm starting to find it more natural. So instead of just reading out loud, like we've been doing, we're actually starting to engage you in conversation...

And, believe it or not, you're quite the budding conversationalist. Of course, not all this communication is verbal or audible. The author of the book said that he would often try gently pushing the belly once and saying "One," then pushing twice and saying "Two," etc. He said he would often get one belly kick back on the "one," and sometimes even got two kicks back on the "two!"

I tried this trick quite a few times and, to my surprise, I got some kicks back on the "One," but no matching on the "two."

However, when your Mom tried this trick, she swears that she got a One and a Two! Don't worry, I'll keep trying!

Even if she didn't, this new chapter on communication has begun in our lives and it's proving to both me and your Mother that there IS a light on in the attic...or, rather, in the belly!

Super Smell & The Quest for a Lullabye

Something stinks. And, according to your Mom's renewed super sense of smell, it's still me! After not hearing much about smells for quite some time (probably due to the cold and sinuses blocking that sniffer's super sensibilities), we are now currently experiencing a resurgence in your Mother's acute sense of smell!

The other day I went in for a smooch and Holly notified me that I "smell weird."

"What did you eat?" She asked.

"A slice of pizza and tuna fish." I replied.

"Yup! That's it! That's what it stinks like!"

Okay, admittedly, that snack wasn't my finest culinary hour, and tuna pizza breath would probably offend a regularly-powered nose.

But then yesterday, we were talking after we both got home from work and I was notified again that my breath stank once again. I did have a sandwich for lunch, but no tuna and pizza to speak of.

"You've been eating cloves of garlic again?" she asked.


First of all, I only did that like twice, and secondly, I hadn't done it that day!


But her nose was so sensitive that I was instructed to speak out of the corners of my mouth...like the Ninja Turtles.

Now HIS breath would certainly reek of Pizza and small acquatic organisms.

So, it's entirely possible that I suffer from halitosis. But I seriously doubt it. My mouth is so clean you could eat off of it! I think what we're really dealing with here is pregnancy Super Powers rearing their ugly heads again. First victim: anyone that might not smell like roses 24 hours a day. Namely, me and my breath.

Hopefully side-of-mouth-Ninja-Turtle talking will put that issue to bed.

Speaking of putting things to bed (how was that for a segue?), I started thinking yesterday about what Lullabyes we want to sing to you.

We could sing the Ben Folds Lullabye we heard at his concert (which you seemed to react well to, since you did kick your mother a lot during that concert).




And then, there are tons of Beatles candidates too, including Blackbird (which my old College roommate taught me to play on Guitar), I'm So Tired, Let it Be and Golden Slumbers.



And also a strong candidate is "All the Pretty Little Ponies" which- with a little bit of Hebrew added in- is pretty much the Lullabye Mimi and Pops sang me and Aunt Rebekka when we were growing up.

Ignore the "My Little Ponies" in this video. They are frightening doe-eyed monsters.

I also am quite fond of Simon and Garfunkel's "Sound of Silence," though I don't think it's a lullabye.

But, in an effort to sing that tune to you last night, I came across a very serious, chronic, hereditary illness from which I suffer: Lyric-itis. I inherited it from Mimi (who famously sang the song "You make me so very happy" as "Me so Me so very happy")

In "Away We Go" (that movie we were watching when I felt you kick) this pregnant lady sings a pretty cool lullabye to her niece: Bob Dylan's "Mr. Tambourine Man." SHE KNEW EVERY WORD TO THE SONG off the top of her head! I couldn't even get through one verse of "Sound of Silence" before I started make words up. I couldn't even do "Let it Be" without the song playing along with me! Singing you a Lullabye is gonna be pretty tricky if I dont' know any words to any songs.

So I started compiling a list of songs whose lyrics I do know:

• Boehmian Rhapsody
• Row, Row Your Boat
• Some of "Rapper's Delight"
• Quite a bit of Weird Al's "Yoda"
• Werewolf Bar Mitzvah

Yeah, these will all make terrible Lullabyes. I've got to start memorizing some lyrics!

In any case though, please be sure that after we tuck you in and turn on your nightlight (which your Mom made herself! Check it out below) and BEFORE we start singing you a Lullabye, I will brush my teeth, rinse with Scope and eat a mint- just in case you get your Momma's nose.

Coolest Night Light Ever! Made for you by your Mother! Sleep tight, little guy!

Stepping Out With My Baby

On Wednesday night, you officially attended your second concert! But this one was at the Meyerson Symphony Center Downtown. Classy! Don't worry: your folks are classy ones. We'll be taking you (as a bump) to listen to symphonies and operas and all that culture. We won't force you (too much) to attend these type of events once you come out though. But who knows, you might like them!

But, the musical experience at the Meyerson on Wednesday was not of a Classical nature. We took you to see one of our favorite current artists play with the Dallas Symphony: Ben Folds!

We had a really great time at the concert, and he even played the song he wrote for his daughter: "Gracie." Even though you are a boy (we'll find out for sure on Monday!), this song still makes me excited for the feelings of fatherhood and has a lot of sweet lyrics that reflect how I feel already:

You nodded off in my arms watching TV
I won’t move you an inch
Even though my arm’s asleep
One day you’re gonna wanna go
I hope we taught
you everything You need to know

and of course, the opening lines are really sweet too:

You can’t fool me I saw you when you came out
You got your momma’s taste
But you got my mouth
You will always have a part of me
Nobody else is ever gonna see

Take a listen to the song, yourself! Just ignore all the "gracie" and "girl" parts and replace them with your unknown name and "boy!" (and ignore all the images of other people with their children, just like you ignore the pre-existing picture that comes with a picture frame)





Also, I heard a Ben Folds song I'd never heard before at this concert, which also reminded me of you! It's called "Lullabye," and who knows-- we may sing you to sleep with it some night :)






Of course, one of the best parts of the evening was getting to "dress up" the bump and show you off in a beautiful setting. Excuse the picture of the three of us...the usher who took the picture kinda made it blurry. Oh well!

But check out that bump out in public!! Some people call a night on the town "Stepping out with my baby." I was stepping out with my baby and our bump! You clean up pretty good, kid!