jesse corduroy

we've been talking to marianne about her baby brother (due dec 10) as much as we can with the unsquashable expectation that she will welcome him with open arms when we bring him home and become instantly attached to him. it's that easy, right? ok, i'm not completely off my rocker—we are prepared for any possible reaction marianne might have to a new baby in the house but i'm sure hoping that the more we talk about him that she won't be absolutely unnerved when the day comes. over the past six months, her comprehension and interest in the subject has fluctuated from curiosity, to aversion, to excitement, and all in between. she's gone with us to the "baby doctor" (as she calls my ob) for the ultrasound appointments to get a glimpse of him and hear his heartbeat. and although he's hasn't been very cooperative in giving the u/s tech very good profile "photos" for us, anatomically everything is looking healthy. our ob even gave us a follow-up ultrasound at 28 weeks to double-check everything to put our minds at ease given everything that we've been through with marianne's kidneys through pregnancy and postnatal. as a side note, i've switched practices and am seeing a completely different ob with this pregnancy and i am loving how amazing, amenable, and responsive she has been about every concern, every step of the way.

baby boy laflen : 13 weeks

baby boy laflen's feet : 20 weeks

in the last couple of months we've been talking increasingly more about names for the little guy—who has taken on the pregnancy nickname 'hank' since we found out he does indeed have a penis (or, at least, a scrotum which is all that we've seen...even so i think it's safe to assume that the twig is there as well). it's highly likely we won't name him until after he's born. which is when we named marianne, mostly because we simply hadn't decided between our top three favorites. but, in retrospect, having the opportunity to meet her got me to a place of absolute certainty that the name belonged to her, however relatively brief those eight hours between birth and naming her. so we're working on names for hank (which we have decided to keep a surprise!!!) and have periodically asked marianne to weigh in. now keep in mind that she chooses rather transparent names for her stuffed animals ("pink meow meow" for her pink cat, "brown doggy" for her brown dog, "piglet" for her pink/white striped pig...you get the picture) so the first option she gave us was "baby brother". makes sense. then, a couple of weeks ago she decided that "princess" was a viable choice. to which, of course, momma and daddy were not as convinced. yesterday, she pointed to my belly and said "that's my baby brother." i figured, while she had brought up the topic, i'd ask her for another opinion on his name. without hesitation she declared that his name should be "jesse corduroy" — no doubt, derived from toy story 2's cowgirl jessie and the bear from the classic children's book corduroy (a couple of her current favorites). hmmmmmmm.........well, i guess if he comes out wearing a cowboy hat and green overalls we won't be able to argue, now will we?

i suppose i'll subject myself now, to a little humiliation. here's the progress on the burgeoning hank belly:

16 weeks

























24 weeks

...and he is going to KILL ME but i cannot resist to post this : sympathy belly 16 weeks

i'll leave you with something genuinely cute...a "kids say the darnedest things" moment:
marianne has been rather opinionated lately. this weekend, i scored a cute new yellow purse for $8 at the thrift store (thanks to my good friend, amy, who is schooling me in awesome thrifty finds)! i've been carrying the same green purse for 6 months now, so i thought it was time for a change and the price was right. sunday afternoon, marianne and i were on the way to a birthday party and marianne (who, from her spot in the seat behind me, has a clear shot of the front passenger seat where my purse rides) asks, sounding rather disgusted, "where's the green purse?"

i told her i changed to this new yellow purse.

"oh."

several moments pass and then comes a quite definite, "i like the green purse."

for what it's worth, i haven't switched back to the green purse...yet.

marianne (right) with the birthday girl, maia