It's a ...

BOY!!    

     On Friday, Grant and I went in for our ultrasound.  I have to admit going into this appointment, I was convinced in my mind that we were having a girl period.  Not just because of the poll that we took, but it did help me feel more confidant, but because of several years ago when I was in Europe we did this type of palm reading thing where you dangle a ring from a hair over the palm of your hand and then depending on how it will spin or swing, it will tell you if you are having a boy or girl, how many kids and in what order.  I know there are many of you out there who are disbelievers, but I have predicted all 5 of my niece and nephews and in the correct order.   So naturally, I did not doubt "the ring" when it said I would have a girl first, however, it also said I was going to have 7 kids and I must admit I have never given that prediction any credit whatsoever.  

So going into this appointment, I really did not even think about what I would do if it was a boy, even though Grant has been insisting that it is. Grant, on the other hand, has been insisting that the "strength of his sperm" would create a "male heir."  Once we got started, I was watching to see if I could tell the baby was a girl, but after a few moments, even I could see before the sonographer said anything that our little girl was NOT a girl but a baby boy!  I'll be honest, I am very excited to be having a little boy, but my first reaction was disbelief.  I kept thinking, "There's no way that Grant's sperm is that strong and he has his arms and feet up around his head, how can we really be sure."  But then as if he could read my mind he would flash us and give everyone a clear look that we was indeed a boy (I think this must be a Mullin trait).  

      I think one of the reasons why this was  at first hard to accept is because Grant has predicted the whole pregnancy, he knew I was pregnant even before I did.  So I couldn't help but notice when the sonographer said, "It's a boy!"  that Grant got what  I lovingly call "the smirk of victory."       

Then with a quick glance at Grant, the sonographer told us that everything was normal...comparatively speaking.   The baby even gave us a thumb's up sign to let us know he's doing good (which is a White trait because of our large thumbs)! 

  Needless to say, we are both thrilled to be having a baby boy!   

Habit or Hobby?

Teresa has been pregnant for a while now, and it seems that Grant has begun to develop certain idiosyncrasies that can’t be easily explained. I haven’t been able to determine whether it’s a hobby or a habit.
It began innocently enough. At first money went missing inexplicably from the account. Then for no reason at all, he began to be ill tempered and would fly off the handle for no reason. Teresa didn’t think much of this new attitude as her fatigue forced her to inexplicably fall asleep on the couch.
One evening she was strangely awakened one evening by what she thought was grunt coming from the bedroom. She awoke slowly, groggy from her recent nap. As she approached the bedroom door she noticed that it was closed. Odd, she thought, Grant usually watches television with the door open. As she approached the room she became eerily aware of a deafening silence. She parted the door slowly, not knowing what she would find on the other side. What she saw would change her forever.
She parted the door and found Grant on a chair huddled staring intently over the table. The table contained an open box with odd plastic shapes and many tiny bottles containing several different colors of paints. But even more alarming, Grant had an open bottle of modeling glue lying out on the table. Grant’s hair was spiked in all directions; strange guttural sounds were coming from his throat from shear frustration and intensity of effort. As you may have guessed, he was assembling model cars. Or was he?
The fact that Grant claims to assembling model cars does seem rather a rather convenient explanation to his glue sniffing, and I don’t think you, reader, should buy it. First of all, if he’s assembling model cars, why does his hair need to be so spiky? Second of all, even the model cars he’s assembling seem to be so crazed and disjointed that only a junky would put them together. But the final bit of evidence seems to come from his insatiable insistence that he work on these models nearly every night. Teresa once witnessed him make a mistake painting a model car, then attempt to fix it by immersing the entire model in a acetone. When he awoke the following morning, the model was a puddle of plastic at the bottom of a cup.
Habit or hobby? At this time, it can’t be known. What is certain is that Grant carefully takes these models into his place of work. Places them on a shelf, then meticulously finds ways to draw his co-workers attention to them. Decide for yourself, but don’t do it under the influence of modeling glue.

The Bean

      

      This was our first ultrasound that I got when I went in to the doctor's for the first time.  I was only about 11 weeks along so there really wasn't much to make out.  The left side is the head and the right side is the tail/bottom of the torso.  The darker patch by the head is the heart beat, but is hard to tell on a still picture.  In this view we also can see one of his little arms, which Grant likes to refer to as tyrannosaur's arms because they are more like little nubs than useful appendages right now.  

      The day we went to the doctor's office, Grant met me there.  But before he had left that morning for work, he thought he should bring the camera in case there was a Kodak moment that we would want to capture.  However, afterwards, when we were back out in the waiting area, he said he felt like a pervert for bringing a camera into an ob/gyn doctor's office.  I thought it was pretty funny, but am so glad for how excited Grant is about the baby and wanting to be involved as much as possible.   

Since he had to go back to work after the doctor's appointment, I asked him if he wanted to take the ultrasound to show the people he worked with.  He just gave me this look and said, "I work with a bunch of guys, if I took that in, they would think it looked like a bean."  This is where the loving name of "the Bean" has come about since we don't know if it is a boy or a girl.