HALLOWEEN BASH

Happy Halloween!

We threw a monster Halloween party, complete with Witches Brew and Monster Toes, a bone-chilling soundtrack, a crime-scene bathroom, lighting by candles and Halloween lights only, and a haunted photo booth!

Here are some photos from the booth:

Jay and I as a Beauty Pageant MC and Miss Conception

The Cole family as characters from the Wizard of Oz (how cute are those kids?)

Our surprise guests... they didn't RSVP, but we were sure glad they came!

At the party for 10 whole minutes before they took off their masks!

It's Stephen and Robyn!! Those sneaky kids came all the way from Oregon to surprise us!! They mailed us a box of Halloween candy and text-messaged a picture of themselves sitting on the couch "waiting for trick-or-treaters" to throw us off the trail... We never expected them to show up at the party (although, we did invite them), and I literally screamed in their faces when they finally took their masks off! It was the best surprise EVER! And, by the way, they won the "Scariest" category in the costume contest!

Jerry and Michelle won "Most Original" in the costume contest - a (working!) traffic signal and speed bump!

The controversial costumes (and quite the good effort "ladies"!)

And finally, here I am with Bat-cula, my pal Chester

THIS IS HALLOWEEN, THIS IS HALLOWEEN

We started off this year's celebrations with a potluck at work and most everyone dressed up!

Jay, Cindy, and Karl

Yum... Witch Fingers, Jellyfish Rolls, and Monster Toes

Jay and Sandy enjoy the Ghost cookies

Fiona, Cheryl, and Rick

Karl's calling for a bailout...

Jay and Jim, wildland firefighters

The Microbiology Team: Steven, Fiona, Dawn (she went as Steven), Margaret, and Karl

Sandy was a jellyfish, complete with gonads

THE NURSERY - PART ONE

Baby James' nursery has been painted and his furniture has been purchased and assembled! I did the taping, but the painting was all Jay, and so was the furniture assembly. In just 2 nights, he covered the old hunter green (it took 2 coats of primer) with a cool new celery green. We wanted something different than the traditional blue for a boy's room, but don't worry, there will be plenty of blue in the bedding and room accents! Jay also replaced and updated all the electrical outlets in the room (as he's been doing throughout the house). I think it looks great! Here is the "before" picture:

And here are a couple of "after" pictures, with the furniture in place:

We're saving the decorating for later this month, when my mom and grandma will be here to help!

BACONS' FIRST ANNIVERSARY!

Happy Anniversary David and Taryn!

IT'S A... SOCCER PLAYER!

Fun news - Jay felt Baby James kick!

Late in the evening, I joined Jay on the couch with my nightly ice cream and after about 3 bites the baby started kicking (he likes ice cream, or, at least, cold food items get him moving). The kicks were getting stronger, so I had Jay put his hand on my belly. We've been doing this for about 2 weeks now, with no results prior to tonight. Jay didn't feel anything for the first 5 kicks (I didn't say anything because I didn't want to influence him), then Baby James gave a really big kick and Jay looked at me with his eyes wide, and I said "Yup, that's your boy in there". He was pretty impressed, and he was able to feel a couple more kicks (not in a row, just the big ones) before we went up to bed. Cool, eh?

So, 17 weeks was the "flutters", at 18 weeks I could feel little kicks, by 20 weeks they became an everyday thing and they were getting stronger and less sporadic (I could even feel them with my hand on my belly now and then), and at 21 weeks exactly, Jay could feel them!

Hooray for baby milestones! I'm feeling particularly happy tonight, and the little guy has been kicking almost nonstop!

WESTWARD BOUND

We had our first non-family visitor this weekend! Kelly stopped in Vicksburg for a couple nights on his way to California, where he'll be starting a new and amazing job in Monterey. Jay made his famous catfish dinner, we roasted marshmallows over a campfire and played some Wii, and basically just enjoyed catching up with a friend we hadn't seen in over a year. Thanks for stopping by Kelly, and we wish you the best of luck out west!

CRAFTY...

My husband is crafty... Although he had surprised me back in July with new (non-peach!) paint in the living room, stairs, and hallway, there was the lingering question of how to safely finish the out-of-reach spots above the stairs. I came home from work today to find him concentrating very hard...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

So, what does a pregnant woman want for her 30th birthday? Just a quiet day at home with her husband and lots of phone calls/emails from friends and family. And that's just what I got, so thank you all very much, you really made my day! We started off the morning by sleeping in, followed by chocolate-chip pancakes and bacon with orange juice (my newest craving since becoming pregnant, and oddly, something I used to hate). Then, I had a nice bubble bath before retiring to the back deck with (decaf) coffee and birthday cake to open my cards and presents with the birds and chipmunks (we saw 6 at one time!):

Mouton and Jude watched us from upstairs:Then we decorated the house for Halloween:And finally, we enjoyed a delicious dinner at the "other" nice restaurant in town (the one we hadn't been to before), Anchuca, a historic antebellum home that is also a bed and breakfast:

SWEET BABY JAMES

Yay! We've reached the halfway mark!! We had our 20 week appointment today for the anatomy scan and Baby James (to be named after his daddy, of course) is doing great and measuring right on schedule for his due date (he's at 13 ounces now). Everything looked great and it was awesome to see the little man in there, just doing his thing. He was very busy squirming around (actually, it took a while to get all his measurements because he was so wiggly) and touching his face and ears with his hands. Jay did a great job reading the sonogram, saying things such as "that's the umbilical cord, right?", "cool, you can even count his fingers", and "check out his little biceps"... whereas I pretty much just laid there staring at his little face every time it wasn't covered by his hands, mesmerized, and not sure what else I was seeing anyway! Cut me some slack though, these pictures are amazing, but certainly not clear. We got to hear the heartbeat again, 148bpm this month. I've been feeling the "flutters" for about 2 weeks now (it's less like a tickle to me, and more like that stomach-dropping feeling you get when you're nervous), with the actual kicks starting about a week ago (I prefer the kicks... the nervous stomach is actually a bit unsettling, even if it IS cool). The kicks aren't strong enough for Jay to feel yet, but at this growth rate, I bet it won't be long... Did I mention I had a growth spurt while I was on the cruise? I had about 2 days of stronger-than-usual belly tightness and round ligament pain, then woke up on the last day of the cruise to find a significantly different belly shape than I left with (and it wasn't JUST the buffet indulgence!) Jay couldn't believe the difference in both look and feel!

So you can see for yourselves, here's a photo of me today at 19 weeks 4 days:

And now for the sonogram photos, after a quick look at some belly jelly (hey, it's a memory...)

Our little lucky charm is getting cuter by the month! Here he is in 2D, a nice profile shot, so you can see his little nose

And this one is in 4D, with one of his hands up near his face as he was wiggling around

And finally, a good close-up of his face - you can see his nose and sweet little lips!

I'm going to miss these sonograms... They are no longer monitoring the placenta or umbilical cord for cysts because my doctor feels certain now that there is nothing there worth worrying about, so we won't have a sonogram at our 24 week appointment next month. Hmmm... whatever will I blog about? Anyway, that means our next sonogram will be the 28 week 4D-only sonogram (not covered by insurance, but too fun to pass up) where we'll get VIDEO of Baby James moving around in utero and some 8x10 color photos!

BABYMOON/BIRTHDAY/ANNIVERSARY CRUISE

That's right, we're going to be parents soon, so we figured we better get some practice at multi-tasking! We will be celebrating our 5th anniversary this December, my 30th birthday is coming up this weekend, and all the pregnancy books we've read recommend taking a "Babymoon" before the baby arrives. So, in the interest of saving time and money, we decided to combine all these celebrations in a fun cruise to the Bahamas with some friends and family (not necessarily our family, but our family by choice, if we could have a 3rd - the Birdsong Clan!)

We set out from Jacksonville on Thursday for a 4-day cruise to Nassau and Freeport, taking advantage of the federal holiday on Monday for Columbus Day (see, aren't we good at multitasking already?) Here are Jay, Jackson, Betsy, and John boarding the ship:

The cruise was a perfect getaway. We did a great job handling the buffets. We swam in the sea-water pools on the ship and even hit the hot tub the first night (before the water temperature got too hot for this Bahama Mama!) We went on a 2-hour birding tour where I saw 11 new species (including the Smooth-billed Ani and Bananaquit, the species I was most hoping to see). I even got my first pregnancy comment from someone who didn't know that I was pregnant... our tour guide looked me over as I was staring up into the trees and said "Oh, I see you two are making a baby" in her English accent! I absolutely LOVED it and almost cried I was so happy (what a pregnant sap I am!) Anyway, on with the details... We made it to every sit-down dinner and heavily enjoyed the Captain's Dinner menu (mmmm... lobster). We went to a couple of the on-board shows. We ate at Senor Frogs and snorkeled in Nassau. Jay played in the Slot Tournament, but wasn't a big winner (it's the fun that counts though). I spent a lot of time reading my first book on how to take care of a newborn (I'm getting tired of the pregnancy books, and it's about time to start planning ahead anyway). And there was lots of time to catch up with our friends. They even threw us a surprise Baby Shower during our day at sea! Thank you all (especially Betsy, for putting it together), again and again, for the lovely baby boy gifts, the delicious blue chocolate suckers, and for making us feel so special! We are so lucky to have friends like you guys! All in all, we have to say it was a great vacation! On with the photos! Here is Jean waving farewell from the dock at Mayport as the cruise ship passed by (2.5 hours later than we thought it would!)

Here we are passing underneath the Dames Point Bridge (also known as the Napoleon Bonaparte Broward Bridge), which is America's longest cable-stayed bridge, spanning the St. John's River

Dianna took a lot of photos at our surprise baby shower (Thank You Dianna!), so here is just one, where the two of us are actually looking at the camera!

Dressed up for the Captain's Dinner

Pulling into port in Nassau, we spied a pair of rainbows

In front of the Cloisters on Paradise Island, on our birding tour

Jay, Jackie, Jeff, Jay, and Eric at Senor Frogs in Nassau

John and Betsy joined us for lunch with a sleeping Jackson (not pictured)

There were 4 cruise ships in port by mid-day. Ours is the white one (hee hee). And yes, Jay is enjoying cheap beer before getting back on the boat...

While in Nassau, Jay found us a beach for swimming and snorkeling. We saw a lionfish, a damselfish, a big red starfish, and lots of other little silver fish. Jay and John jumped off the sea wall. Jackson found lots of seashells and Hunter practiced his doggie-paddle skills. That's Betsy with Jackson and Scott with Hunter in the photo below:

Last night of the cruise... the Birdsongs all got together for some family photos, and we decided to take some of all us "kids" while we were at it! Here are Jackie, Scott, Hunter, Jenny, Jeff, Betsy, John, Jackson, Jay, Denise, Jay, Dianna, and Greg (and yes, most of the Birdsong Clan is clad in Jaguars apparel or colors, and they won!):

Luckily, we flew out of Orlando, so we had some quality time in the car with Jean to tell her all about the cruise. Here she is with Jay at the airport:

GEARING UP

Part fun, part frustrating - that's what we've decided registering/creating the list of things we'll need for our first baby is! Babies-R-Us is an intimidating place for new parents-to-be, and the list of registry items they hand you at the door is LONG! We figured we'd start early so we could start buying things monthly to break up the cost. After we found out Baby Lindsay's gender, we went straight from the appointment to the store. I had been doing my research online, along with some tips from my mommy friends about what to get and what to ignore from the "suggested items" list the store gives you. However, Jay was in for a big surprise! Here he is struggling with one of the travel system strollers (the one we ended up choosing):

And here he is actually having some fun, just like he did with our wedding registry, because I let him hold the scanner the entire time (I found a few interesting items on the list when I got home and checked it online later that night... seems he had more fun than I thought!):