A Pretty Good Little Saturday

Before being laid low Sunday by a mild illness and a stronger medicine, we got a lot done on Saturday. Having spoken to Sarah's family, it looks like everybody's Christmas travel plans are all set, so we decided we'd better start getting the place ready. There's now a mattress in the crib and a big stack of firewood in the garage. We've also acquired an adult-size bed for our guest room. (There's no bedding yet, though. We might've gone to Bed, Bath & Beyond, but we didn't have enough time.) Now, so long as there's not a blizzard the weekend before Christmas, everything'll be great...

Posting Tonight

Confession: the biggest obstacle to posting here is not really time. Truth is, over the past few weeks I've spent plenty of time watching TV and reading a novel (Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, to be exact); that time could, in principle, have been used to put up some text both here and at BQ. The truth is that I ordinarily work at a computer all day, every day, and that the thought of sitting at my computer when I get home makes me want to puke. Tonight that problem doesn't really apply, because I've been working on a theoretical issue with pen and paper for the last couple of days. If this holds up, who knows how much blogging I might get done.

All My Girls

Sarah is, at the moment, all curled up on the couch with Daisy the beagle. Together they make my three favorite people.

In Other News...

Winter is coming on rapidly here in Salt Lake. It was snowing today when I left work, and it snowed earlier in the day down near Sarah's work. Of course, it was 65 degrees yesterday, so the ground is pretty warm and the snow didn't stick. It's also pretty toasty here in my living room, where my wife has had a roaring fire going since before I got home from work.

Uncertainty

Sorry to've been so slow getting back to this. I've been trying to write a "the story so far" kind of post, but I don't have a lot of spare time these days and I'm afraid the story so far is very close to escape velocity. So I'm going to post what I can when I can and hope that we eventually catch up.

Since I posted the sonogram pictures last week, there haven't been a lot of new developments. I should note, perhaps, that despite the color and tagline of this blog, we're somewhat less than 100% sure of the baby's sex. The pictures are less than conclusive, not least because the baby was pretty darn uncooperative. It was uncanny, really; whenever the sonogram tech tried to get a picture of the relevant area, she threw her hands between her body and the camera. Also, she spent much of the ultrasound period with one leg folded up under her; "sitting on her foot", as the doctor said when she came in to take over for the tech. The doctor had better luck than the tech, but was never able to get a perfect picture. Thus, we think "girl" with something like a 95% confidence limit, but opinions vary.

Of course, Sarah was eager to pin this all on me. Just like Daddy, she said; stubborn and uncooperative as all get-out. To my mind, though, the fault here was clear. After all, someone in my house likes to sit with one foot folded up under them; that someone is not me.

First Pictures

This is Miss Ainsleigh in profile. The sonographer has attempted to label the relevant anatomical features. The labels are pretty far from their targets but, I think, mostly unnecessary anyway.



Such nice bicep definition. Be nice to this little one, or she'll kick your ass.



This is her face from the front. Again, the labels are kind of misplaced but give you the general feel of the orientation of the picture.



Lastly, I give you the evidence of Miss Ainsleigh's gender. I'm not sure she'll thanks me for posting such a picture on the Web, but there you have it.

More on the ultrasound appointment tomorrow, but for tonight I've got to get to bed.

Hi There

This blog is created to chronicle the birth of our first child, the soon-to-be Miss Ainsleigh Brynn Hopkins of Salt Lake City, Utah. More on the history and philosophy of this blog and whatnot to come. For now, it's late and I've got to get the sonograms up...