Surprise!

My girlfriends teamed up to throw me -- and the Bean -- a surprise shower last Sunday. We had a great time visiting, eating, drinking and eating some more at Jess' and Becca's place, but the highlight was the goodies I got to take home.

Here you can see the girls hard at work designing custom-made onsies for the Bean. I supervised from the couch while sipping on Courtney's delicious watermelon-mint punch concoction. Mmmm.



And here are the finished products all lined up and waiting for a little person to model them. Too cute!

Ready For A Close-Up

We got a good look at our Baby Bean yesterday -- 36 weeks and 2 days into the pregnancy. Bean is looking pretty good, and measuring right on schedule, though Mommy did have a slight panic when she noticed the measurement for the noggin was about a week ahead of schedule! They estimated Bean's weight to be 6-pounds, 6-ounces at this point.

Bean In 3D

Had a follow-up to our last ultrasound today. Here's how the little one is growing. Stats are all right on for this point. Baby Bean is checking in at a full pound now. It was pretty funny as he/she was not into cooperating with us, at one point even putting its hands and feet up to block where the technician was poking around with the probe. Again you can see the preferred spot for that little hand is right in front of the face! The top one is my favorite.

It's a...

Boy? A girl? We don't know -- and don't plan to find out, so for now, we're referring to the little one affectionately as Baby Bean. Here are our favorite pics of the little one in action from our 18-week ultrasound yesterday.

Dad-O's Favorite



Mommy's Favorite



I'm feeling pretty good, though very tired! Like I said, I'm 18 weeks along, now. The baby is growing right on schedule and due to arrive in mid-August (August 15 is the official date, for those keeping score at home.)

Mason's pretty excited to be a big brother. He's sure it's a little sister (Papa agrees based on the second pic, where you can faintly see Bean's hand draped across his/her forehead in dramatic fashion.) Though, when we told the Doctor this yesterday, and she immediately asked Mason what Mommy had in her tummy, he said a baby brother -- go figure.