Quick Update

It is way past my bedtime so this will be quick! Things are going well here in terms of Pregnancy #2. I hardly even feel pregnant. This is a welcome change from the first trimester and the vast majority of my pregnancy with Max! Thankfully I am using my good feelingness to get a LOT of work done. I still have no idea how I will possibly accomplish a dissertation by December, but I am giving it a run for the money. Life is pretty limited to work, Max and sleep these days so sorry if I am out of the loop with a lot of people. My voice is also getting worse again - it is really oscillating a lot with this pregnancy. Thus, I'm not too keen on talking on the phone and that combined with my dissertation stress has my current status as downright non-social.

I just made a few changes to the template here. There are some things I have left to do, but I am just too tired to do it tonight! Please vote on the little survey on the right. We hopefully will be finding out the sex of the baby at our Level II ultrasound. It is yet to be scheduled but it will presumably be sometime in November. As for me, I have been wrong about 100% of the time so I am not even attempting to guess. I know we will love it no matter what! (Max is certain that it is a boy, yet he continually refers to it as his "Little Stister.")

Police Officer

Max has been wearing the police officer hat every night when we pick him up from school!

First Trim.ester Scree.ning

Check out the bebe! The pictures, of course, don't do it justice. It was having a grand time jumping and dancing around and not wanting to sit still for measurements. It really is amazing how much those little things move around inside of there. Based on today, I would say that we have another quite energetic little being in there; it is taking after Big Brother already!

Although we didn't do any screening when I was pregnant with Max, the predictive power of the technology available to us here has increased. The measurement of the nuc.hal translu.cency between 11 and 14 weeks gest.ation is very predictive of chromosomal abnormalities and some other problems. This is combined with a blood test to calculate an overall risk. Anyway, the nuc.hal translu.cency measured 1.3 mm, well below the cutoff for negative (2.5 mm). Also, the crown-rump-length was ~6.2 cm. That translates to a gestational age of approximately 12 weeks 5 days. Since we are at 12 weeks 3 days that is basically right on! The heart rate was 162 bpm. These are all indicators of a healthy baby. It is too early to tell the sex yet, but hopefully we can find that out at our Level II ultra.sound around 18 weeks gesta.tion.

Fish

Not so good

Uncle Bjorn was the only happy one. The season is looking pretty bleak...

Little Red Wagon

Max and our neighbor working on their "taking turns" skills.

Big Brother

Adam's departmental picnic was yesterday. Upon meeting the little girl in the picture, Max immediately announced, "I'm a big brother! Wanna see my baby?" And *up* went Mommy's shirt! Good thing we had decided to tell Adam's coworkers anyway!

Digging in the sandbox

Max got this fancy digger from Grandma Ida and Grandpa David!

Max's First Day Back at School

Even though school was only off for two weeks, it feels like a big deal to be going back. Only three students are returning from last year, and Max has brand new teachers too!

Off to school!

Max is off to preschool, complete with his Spiderman backpack! Goodness - he looks so big!

Almost home

Taken just on the other side of Chicago. Max was pretty wild this morning after spending the whole day yesterday in the truck. Thankfully, he is napping now. I'll be glad to have those guys home safe and sound!

Max and Adam are heading home

Here is a picture that Max and Adam sent me taken somewhere between Minneapolis and Iowa City. It looks like they stopped for a little snack!

Adam and his brother did a lot of work on the truck while they were at the Hoppe's place. They redid the drum brakes with a few complications and also patched up the topper. Finally they are on the road and heading for Iowa City to check in on baby Lars tonight and then back to Michigan tomorrow. Adam hopes to get here in time to sign some paperwork at the lab!

We're lonely

This is the picture that Puli and I sent back.

Nice Hat!

Great Grandpa Hoppe

Max & his great grandparents

I think that is a smile! Nice overalls!

Grandpa David and Max in the Big Tractor!

Click on the picture to enlarge it! It looks like they are having a lot of fun!

Grandma Ida, Max and Rory

It sounds like Max is a very efficient hauler with his little tractor. So far I've heard that he's hauled sweet corn to the cows and a load of zucchini for Grandma Ida.

More of Grandma Ida's Poultry

Guinea hens and peacocks?

I guess it is just guinea hens.