Gabriel loves his bed

Gabriel loves his new bed. He always runs into his room and bounces on his bed. I was actually surprised that it took no effort at all to transition him from the crib to the bed. I probably shouldn't be, but I thought it would take a little bit of coaxing to get him to sleep in it, instead of just playing in the bed. Today, he surprised me by telling me that he was ready for a nap. That was the first time he has ever done that. I wish I could have grabbed a camera quickly enough for his comedy routine this afternoon, but it didn't last long. He crawled into his bed with his sippy cup, drank a few sips, shut his eyes tight, and feigned sleep. I just about cracked up. I found myself wondering if he would start snoring for good measure. What a clown! I actually did put him to sleep then, but only after telling him that he was a nut.

Today I remembered....

Today I remembered why I don't clean fish tanks while Gabriel is awake. When he was younger, he would play in the dirty water and tip over the buckets, if I didn't catch them in time. Now he takes drinks out of the buckets of dirty water. I guess this is typical 2-year-old antics, but it is still frustrating. He always has a sippy cup sitting near him. Maybe he is mimicking the cats, who drink out of any open container of water they see. I am just not happy with the diarrhea he got from it. At least he drank out of the water from the tank with no fish. It was just algae and dirt...and snail poop? There are still freshwater snails from the water plants living in that tank. I guess I'll go back to cleaning tanks at nap time.

Ultrasound Update

Heather had the first ultrasound yesterday. Of course, I went along to tend to Gabriel and to keep him entertained. Even if this was our first baby, though, I wouldn't have missed this. When Heather was pregnant with Gabriel, I went to every appointment until the last month, when the appointments were scheduled weekly. I hope to do the same thing this time around. There will be a level-2 ultrasound coming up in about a month. The last time, I didn't realize it was the last ultrasound of the pregnancy. Otherwise, I would have been one of those guys who brings the camera along. I do plan to bring the movie camera for the detailed ultrasound. It is amazing what you can see, especially with the baby moving. I figure I will add that to a movie that I can show our kids when they are a bit older and can appreciate it. That is, I will make a movie that shows all this stuff, sort of a history of the life of our second child, the same reason I have been saving video for Gabriel. Another reason? The grandparental units are far from here, and this way, they can share in the experience. I have gotta tell you, seeing your baby moving is cool, even if it is an electronic image that requires some interpretation. Being a parent is just really cool.

This is the first ultrasound picture of our baby. The dashed line across the picture is being used to measure the baby from head to hip. The measurement is used to accurately estimate a developmental frame of reference. Based on this picture, Heather is 16 weeks into the pregnancy. That is very accurate, based on our estimates, too. Four months already. Wow! Another reason to digitally record the little things: the time just sails by so fast, and I don't want to miss the details.