Week 31- The Magic All-Telling Bump

Julia,

We are now 31 weeks along with you. Your Mom is growing and tired and beautiful! Her feet stink a little, but I rub them every night. I (apparently) stink a lot to her, due to her incredible super smelling powers, but your Mom lets me close enough to her to rub the aforementioned feet. I don't remember smelling this awful to her with Aidan, so hopefully you won't think I stink when you come out.

At any rate, let's try to move on to some non-stink related news.

Developmentally, you are going through major brain and nerve developments AND it says that all 5 of your senses are working wonderfully. Which would be good news if we weren't trying to avoid discussing the olfactory funk that apparently has consumed my being. Hopefully since you'll have taste now, you'll have good taste and you really won't inherit your mother's perception that I am a big stink bomb. I don't smell of garlic and onions and general stank; think of me as sweet...with a hint of sharpness.

Like a pineapple!

Which is quite coincidental, because at week 31, that's about how big you are!

Which is not surprising at all: Look how beautiful your Mother looks!

Can you believe how far you've come in just 20 weeks?

WHOA!

And the 31 week-old belly apparently is giving off 'Julia vibes' like crazy!

A few weeks ago a random Dad at our local yogurtery approached your Mom and said "I'm not trying to be creepy, but are you having a girl?" He could just tell! Amazing...and he was a bit creepy.

Then, this week, we went to a local salad bar, at which kids eat for free (so we'll be going there a lot) and we walk in the door. The employee who opened the door stopped us after we had taken a few steps and said "Excuse me. When is the little girl due?"

It took a moment to click that he- without knowing us from a cherry tomato- could tell you were a girl just form looking at your Mom's belly!

Isn't that incredible?

I gave him a high five and asked how he knew. He said "A man always knows."

Okay.

He also thought your name was beautiful and wanted us to make your middle name your first name. He also wanted us to spell it with a lot of apostrophes in it: perhaps "S'Keineh" or something. Sorry, magic oracle salad bar guy, you're very nice and your gender detection senses are very keen. But, Julia Sekina is Julia Sekina...although the spelling of your middle name is still being debated. But we do know there will be no apostrophes for you, little girl.

But, a rose by another name would smell as sweet. And you, little one, apparently are setting off all the oracles radars with your sweetness: they know you're a girl the moment they see how you're riding in the womb. We are so pleased with the seeming magical nature of these two random occurences, and think it's a good omen that you will be a great girl and strong woman. And nothing stinks about that.

Talk Like a Man

Aidan,

I used to keep a list of every word that you said, in the order in which they appeared in your vocabulary. I was preparing for the worst. At your 18 month check up the doctor wanted to know if you could say five words. Your Mom froze and said "I don't know...uh...yes...yes he does." She was asked to list those words. She blanked.

The doctor said that by 24 months, they wanted you to say 50 words and be able to string two of them together into a phrase.

So I kept a list.

By 2 years old, you had surpassed all our expectations and had a vocabulary of at least 50 words  (and noises). Okay, maybe you were just shy of 50 words, if you don't count onomatopoeia, and subsituting animal noises for animal names (like 'arf' for 'dog).

But we weren't worried any more about your language skills. So I stopped keeping the list. It's a good thing too, because I couldn't have kept up if I did.

It seems that recently your vocabulary is increasing incrementally. I can't even remember everything you said yesterday, all the new words you learned over the last week (we learned "heavy," "booger," "guys," sunny," "sorry" etc).

But it's incredible to watch and be innundated by the flood of words coming out of your brain.

It's lke watching your brain at work, especailly when we don't understand what you're saying and you come up with other ways to explain to us what your saying.

And of course, vocabulary enhances your attitude too.

The other day, our friend Bryan was telling Luke that the pig says "oink." You corrected them: "no...pig..."

You're a little smart alec...but you're a smarty pants too.

It's really a pleasure to talk to such a smarty pants, by the way.

Especially when he can say "Joe" and "Baba,"

"Yaya"

"Mommy"

"Mimi"

"Brady" (Bray-deeee)

"Smile" (and can smile when we ask him to)

"Baby!" (and can kiss the baby when we ask him to)

"Daddy"

(You just started calling us "mommy" and "daddy". previously we'd been mom, ma, da, mom dad and my dad)

"Eat" (or, "eat eat eat")

"Dog" and "Walk"

 "Me you" (which means either 'me and you' or just you, meaning Aidan)...okay, that one's confusing...

Photo by Aidan

 "Toby" (which you just learned last week. It started out as "Taboo" and then you finally got it...you were so excited to say "Toby" that every dog is now "Toby!" even...

Photo by Aidan

 "Toby"...okay, that's "Preston," but we're still working on that one.

Photo by Aidan

 "Pig," "Pink" and "Pinky (the finger!)

Photo by Aidan

"Friend" (we just learned that one this weekend!)

"Pops" (which currently sounds like "Poss")

 "Yellow" and some variation on the word "Bracelet"

 "Shaow" (Shadow-- you love making shadow puppets, a trick that Mimi started and Daddy continued...you love the "big wolf" shadow...and the 'baby wolf' shadow too)

"Frog"

"Color"

"Dark" and "Eyes"

"Train!"

"Haircut" and "Baby"

You say "set go set go" for chases and while playing with cars.

You also say "Green set go" when you're ready for the traffic light to change.

You love Yellow and point out yellow-ness everywhere: "yellow bus!" "yellow truck!" "yellow car","yellow block," "yellow crayon," "yellow chair."

And "yellow candy" (sounds like "yellow canny"). You bargain for your yellow candy (a Reece's Pieces) after your medicine. But now all the yellows are gone, so you bargain for "brown canny" and "orange canny" too.

When people ask you "How old are you?" You dutifully respond "two!"

You learned to say "Ernie" "Mo's Ducks" and "sunny days" for your favorite Sesame Street character, songs and books.


You love numbers, including "two," "five!" and whenever any one is counting, you conclude with "nine ten nine ten nine ten", no matter where we actually are in the chronology.

You know our neighbors, Bryan, Tammy and Luke and discuss their comings and goings. "Bran gone." "Hi Tammy" "Yuke!"

You love your "Buzz car!" And love "wood-dee" too.

You say "you me swim"...but the jury's still out if you want to swim alone or with me.

One day we read a book about Winnie the Pooh. In the very end, Winnie the Pooh O.D.s on a lot of honey and goes to sleep, dreaming of "honey pots and pots of honey." You started saying "honey!" I asked you if you wanted some honey. You said "honey!" So I gave you a little spoonful. And you said "honey" again. So I gave you a second, third, fourth helping of honey. "Honey, honey, honey!" you said! So we went to go tell your Mommy. "Aidan, tell Mommy, what did you just eat?" I asked. You thought about it awful hard and then repiled "Pooh!"

Oy vey. That's right. You're speaking Yiddish too. Mimi taught you to say "Oy vey," and you use it when we read a book about "Sunny Days" (aka Sesame Street")


You also are learning some great words about gross-out stuff. Some Mother who shall remain namless taught you "Pee-Yew" for stinkiness or yuckiness. You LOVE reading about the garbage truck and saying "Pee-Yew." We ask you what you think of the garbage truck, and you'll reply "Pee-yew!"


Sometimes you join us in the bathroom. One particular day after I had stood up from the toilet, you peered in and said "Pee-Yew Poo Poo!" Great, now you're shaming me.

But, it's good for you to feel natural in the bathroom. Everybody poops. And now you can say "potty." The other day you barged in on me, sw what I was doing and said "Pee Pee Potty!" Unfortunately, you've also joined your dear old dad and had reason to say "Poo Poo Potty."

You love cars and trucks, and love riding the "Buzz Car" Brady let you borrow; you saw a "Big Truck" outside your school, and saw a "big Black Truck" outside our house.

Your new words aren't just limited to defecation and transportation, though. We had dinner with Aunt Sham and Scott last week, and you learned Scott's name. You thought long and hard and dubbed him "Sock!" And the whole night you kept calling him, "Sock! Sock! Sock!"

Then you saw a picture of the tow of them and said "Shammy! Sock!"

I've been compiling this posting for a week now to try to remember all the hilarious, amazing, new things you've been saying and I just can't keep up. You're talking so much now...and I'm just happy to be part of the conversation!

Fun with Friends...and Odds & Ends

Aidan, as you're getting older, you're also becoming more of a social butterfly. You used to acknowledge other children, but now you're really into playing with them, especially your best bud Brady and your awesome little pal (and next door neighbor) Luke.

Here's some evidence:

You're always pretty excited to see Luke! The other day we were at the park and Luke and Tammy came a little later. You saw Luke coming and you ran up to him to say hello! Then you put sticks on his head. No friendship is perfect.

You're also getting along great with Brady! You guys play together, hang out, and encourage each other to be silly...and get wet.


...Very wet...


You guys were so dirty (and wet) from the park, that you even bathed together. What? Friends do that, right? I took some video, but I'm not going to post it here, as the video went from G to R rated pretty quickly when Brady decided to stand up.

But there were some funny moments in your growing friendship.

Brady, standing up, turned his backside to you and bent over. You turned to us and said what anyone in your situation would say: "Meow."

Also, you thought it was very hilarious to continually pour water on Brady's head. You would pour it, then laugh. Pour it, then laugh.

But when Brady tried it on you, you got upset.

So, yeah, friendships need to be fine tuned; but you're off to a great start at learning the basic tune!

Here are the odds & ends:

1. You've been watercoloring with your Mommy, and the results are great!

2. You've been talking a lot more, and trying out new words: especially names.

You now know my name, "aaahn" and Mommy's (hall). And your own ("adn!"). You're working on family and friends names too. You called cousin Kobi "koko," you're working on "Bekka" and have "BG" (Uncle BJ) and "kai" (Kari) pretty much down. Of course, you know Mi and Yaya and Pop too!

3. You're amazing us with your Nursery Rhyming.

Your Mom worked with you pretty diligently one day to get you to fill in the blanks on "Humpty Dumpty". You say 'wall,' 'fall,' 'men,' and 'again,' at all the right places, very excitedly!

But, the other night, we were reading you stories and decided to try some more fill-in-the-blanks, and without any reminding necessary, you new the words to "Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat" which you now request by your name for it: "Been" (since you love to say "been"). We were floored by this development!

"been" "queen" "there" "chair" --- you're quite the rhymer...and really surprised your Mommy and Me by pulling that out of your hat!

4. DANCING!
The other day we heard some street musicians and you just started to bebop and dance all over the place. I helped you out by calling dance moves: clap! snap! spin! drum! (and you beat your hands on the ground). I tried to get  video of it, but by the time I got the camera out, you had found a nearby puddle to dance in. But that was cute too...and still involved some really top notch dancing.



Now you love dancing! Whenever your Muppets songs come on, especially your current favorite ("Life's a Happy Song", which you request by brushing your teeth...trust me, it makes sense), you dance, dance, dance!


With friends, and dancing, and painting rhyming, life really is a happy song (although there are a few cadenzas of Grade-A tantrums). We're ecstatic to sing along with you!

Pains and Names: You're number one!

So, now that it's 2010, the official lists for the most popular names of 2009 have come out and, not surprisingly, your name is tops on the list (though it is spelled differently, so technically it counts as a different name).

This wasn't really a surprise, though. Back in the summer when we were coming up with names for you, we really liked the name we eventually chose for you. I'd never met anyone with that name and your mother had only met one. We knew it wasn't the world's most original name, and that it is night impossible to come up with a truly original name that won't be shared with anyone else in the world. Unless you wanted a name like "Urashfsd" or "Hzbsba." And we simply don't earn enough money to afford to name you after an inanimate object like "Apple" or "Paper Clip" or "Seesaw" or "Trigger" like so many rock stars can afford to do.

Using the really cool tool on the Social Security website, we searched your name and saw that over the past years it's been trending upward. So, yeah, we knew it was a popular name. But we didn't know it was going to be number 1 for last year! I mean, for 2008, your name wasn't even on the top 10 list. That means you sky rocketed past Jacob, Michael, Ethan, Joshua, Daniel, Alexander, Anthony, William, Christopher to take the number one spot!

You're number one!

But, even being number one doesn't make a name that popular. For example, last year's number one, Jacob, represented 1.035 % of the people born and named in 2008. That means that about one out of 100 people were named Jacob. So, it'll all depend on WHICH 100 people you choose to hang out with!

Even though we knew it was a popular name, we still decided to give you this name. We love the flow of it, the name itself, the way it fits with our last name, the fact that it honors my Grandmother, the meaning, the sound and- already- it is just...YOU!


It is interesting, though, how names like yours suddenly enter the national conciousness.

Even though we seem to have tapped into some sort of national cosmic trend without knowing it or doing it intentionally, we are sticking with your name! So, forget about it if there are 10 other kids with your name in your 1st grade class: you're still the only you on the planet! Your feelings shouldn't be hurt if you have to share your name with some other cool kids.

You are number one in another category too, though, and this one's a little bit more painful.

With the finish line in sight, the pregnancy is really starting to shift gears toward discomfort and pain.

Your mom just can't get comfortable while she's sleeping because her belly is so big.
She has these short and sorta painful fake contractions, which are just her body prepping for the big day.
Her pants ripped yesterday when she sat down (although, they were old pajama pants that she's had since she was a teenager...but it was still really funny!)

And now, your kicks and movements and jabs are tickling less and less and starting to shock and awe more and more.

Apparently, the bigger you get, the less room there is for amniotic fluid, so the body stops producing it. The lack of amniotic fluid means that there's a lot less cushioning between your fists, elbows, feet and head and your Mom's internal organs and ribs.

But, with pain comes pleasure (it's one of those dumb dualities of life); and you already are giving us so much pleasure in our lives that the pain (which surely pales in comparison to the potential pain down the road...in a month or two) is totally worth it!

So keep on kicking, buddy, and we'll keep watching for your feet to ripple under your Mom's belly. And while I'm smiling at the opportunity to feel you kick, and your Mother is grimacing, just know that we are eagerly waiting your arrival.

See, you're number one already!

Initial Name

Well, young man, as you are reading this (in the future), you most certainly have a name. But, as of this writing, you don't.

We definitely have been pouring over names since before we were even, pregnant though.

And, I'm pleased to announce that we have more than likely officially decided on your name.

In fact, we've been calling you this name for about a month, just to test drive it and see if we like it. And, we actually both LOVE it! It makes us happy, excited, and seems to encapsulate how we're feeling about you-- and isn't that what a name is supposed to do?

Now, of course we want to wait until we see you to decide for sure, because, what if you come out and you don't look like a _______?

But, we thought you'd like to know that you are very close to being officially named. And, as we inch closer and closer to week 22, I wanted to announce your likely initials.

This is pretty intense, because we're both a bit indecisive. So, check out the image below, for it contains your likely initials:

Now, just because it's almost Halloween (and wait til you see our costumes), I wouldn't play a trick without giving a treat! I wouldn't be so snarky as to leave you hanging like that! The three letters for you are as follows:

And here's an extra hint, the "W" stands for Weinstein!

Orange You Glad I went to the Airport?

You are officially well into your 15th week inside your Mom's belly. The fruit equivalent of your size, on average, is a naval orange! The site says that on average a baby at your age will be 4 inches in length...although you were 4 inches from rump to crown about two weeks ago!

But still, an orange is a pretty big piece of produce! You are continuing to grow in your Mom's tummy and nearing normal proportions. This week your legs should finally be longer than your arms. No wonder in the video you were so easily touching your toes! Your arms were longer than your legs. But not any more!

On a good note, though, Oranges are very good for you. And you've been very good to your Mother! The post-plane nausea has all-but disappeared, and she's gotten her appetite back; although she's now mostly hungry for Egg Drop soup and egg rolls.

The site also says you should be very busy in there, wiggling and squirming around, though your Mommy can't feel it quite yet. But she's looking more and more pregnant each day! Check this one out from our trip to Maine:

Someone else has been moving around like crazy this week too: me! But I wasn't in anyone's belly...I was in a plane. But at the airport in Chicago yesterday afternoon, waiting to come home you and your Mom, I saw stars from one of your Mom's most favorite television shows: "Myth Busters."

I went up to the stars, Tory, Grant and Kari, and got their autographs, a picture and chatted with them.

I even asked them for advice on baby names, since your Mom and I seem to have writer's block on baby boy names!

Now Kari, who apparently just had a baby girl 10 months ago, said she couldn't give me her best boy names, in case she had a boy next. Then she offered "a boy named Sue" (which is a Johnny Cash song and also completely not an option for your name).

After some moments of thinking, Kari and Tory both offered up the name "Buster."

"Buster" is their show's famous crash-test dummy who gets stabbed, beaten up, drowned, exploded and abused in every episode.

The bruised and battered "Buster."

I also pointed out that "Buster" from "Arrested Development" doesn't fare to well either (See below).

But, Tory added that "Buster Keaton" did quite well with that name. And, hey, the name "Keaton" isn't too bad... but it's not an option either!

So, needless to say, the Mythbusters, who can solve nearly every conundrum thrown at them, couldn't do anything to help bypass this baby naming boondoggle! Well, except maybe they contributed two names that are definitely off the list (and weren't on the list to begin with!)

But don't worry; your Mom and I will have a great name picked out for you by the time you are ready to come out into the world!

Green Olives...Part II

Earlier this week we were talking about how you are just the size of a green olive. The idea must have really struck a chord with your mother! No don't get all freaked out, because there are no cannibalistic tendencies in our family, but your mother ate an entire jar of sliced green olives.

I'm not even kidding.

An entire jar. Of Green Olives.

Her only response: "I didn't mean to!"

It's almost as bad as the time I came home and she had eaten a can of corn for dinner. Out of the can. (don't believe her when she tells you that she put it in a bowl...she ate it just like a hobo...using the lid as a corn shovel).

Well, we were just glad that she was able to eat something! Her eating habits sure are quirky now.

Also, we took your first trip to the library. Your gonna love this place. It's got computers and movies! Oh yeah, and books. We checked out a couple baby name books to get inspiration for your name. We have several good contenders for baby girl names that we both like; but we're a bit more stuck on boy names. Don't worry, Herbert is already taken, and Gilbert is too close to my middle name- so you're safe on those two fronts.

But, you probably won't feel safe at all until you're larger than a green olive!

Green Olive!

You're 9 weeks and 2 days old now! We're still keeping you a little bit of a secret, but a lot of people know about you now! They are so excited and can't wait to see you grow. As of now, you are officially a fetus (as opposed to an embryo) and the size of a green olive, or so says "the bump."
Speaking of bumps, it sometimes looks like your Mom is showing, but then other days she doesn't appear to have a bump at all. Well, I did some reading in "What to Expect When You're Expecting" and answered that question. Even though your Mom is really petite, you're just the size of a green olive! Soon enough you'll be showing, but most of the visible bump now is actually a distended bowel (gross, right?)! That basically means she's full; she's full and it ain't going anywhere. Kind of like what happens when you eat too much Matzah.


Good news though, your Mom is feeling way better. Last night she said the nausea was almost gone...but the food aversions and cravings are still rocking the menu selections at Casa de Weinstein.


The tortilla soup was not at all appetizing to Holly. Instead she had a nectarine and two bowls of Rice Krispies.


oh, PS, we're having a fun time refining baby name lists. Via email today, Holly officially icks-nayed "Harrison," "Garrison," (which I didn't like anyway) and "Lennon, " if you're a boy. To be honest, I didn't really like 2/3 of those names either. Sometimes I just suggest names to her to test the limits...something you'll probably learn all about soon enough.