Happy Tears

I can't believe it's taken this long for this to happen, but apparently I'm finally a crying, babbling mess of emotions. Don't get me wrong, they aren't sad or lethargic or even self-loathing sentiments. They are the complete opposite....they are happy...excited...thrilled emotions! Not to say that I haven't felt these happy feelings all along the way (because believe me I have!), but I'm just not normally an emotional crier. I've always only cried when I've been angry, when something wasn't going my way, or when I can't get my thoughts and feelings about something into coherent words or statements. I've always been more of a frustrated crier throughout my life. I guess that's an emotion, but it's not the same emotion all other girls in the world cry for. Normal girls cry at puppy food commercials, or when their favorite character lives at the end of a movie. Yep...not me. I'm just a bratty, want to get my way, crier =)

Well, apparently all it took to get me to shed some happy tears was a photo shoot and a beautifying session. A simple little hour at a park flicked on the waterworks. Well, I can't say it was the hour at the park that actually did it. It was more the outcome of that hour at the park. You see, I have a very talented and incredibly generous friend named Roomie. Or rather, Alicia to the rest of the world. She's more than a friend, really. She's....well....she's special. I can't even put in to words how much my friends mean to me and she's one of those exceptional friends who has dug herself a warm cozy spot in my heart and is camping out there for life. And I'm just going to leave it at that because I've typed this one sentence just about 100 times in the last two hours and I can't get through it without bursting into tears. Just know that she's just special. She's more than just a friend to Paul and to me. She knows how I feel about her. I emailed her my MOH speech. lol!

Anyway!!! Back to the photo shoot. Out of the kindness of her heart, Roomie offered to shoot some maternity pictures for Paul and me. Something to have to show little Blank when it's older and to remind us of what we were like during this pregnancy. I thought to myself "pshawww...Roomie's in for it. All her previous pregnants have been petite and cute...I'm a pale, swollen mess!" She literally had to pull teeth to get me to agree to it. Practically beg. She even enticed me with having my little Lauren work her magic on my skin and hair. Hello! Sneak!! But finally, I reluctantly agreed. All the while I was a nervous wreck, wondering what was going to come of this photo shoot. Every day that passed by, I worried about Sunday, July 26th. What was I going to wear that wouldn't look horrific against my nearly clear skin? How was Lauren going to even work with said clear skin?? How was I going to pull off the "serious look" Roomie so perfectly documents with other clients without looking like a mean witch? How was I going to slide my swollen feet into some really cute shoes to make it a stylish shoot? How did I ever let her convince me to have my picture taken?!? And was she really going to post these on her blog for all the world to see? Oh boy. This was going to be a nightmare.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing but utter confidence in her ability to take spectacular pictures. Really, she truly is gifted beyond what she even comprehends about herself. But her subjects are usually incredibly cute and incredibly photogenic people. I don't really look in the mirror and feel like I could fill those shoes most days. So I had absolutely no confidence in myself whatsoever. Add to that, pairing me up with my beautiful husband, who has always been the cutest thing in the world to me and I thought for sure I'd ruin these pictures. But Roomie assured me they would be great no matter what I thought. She coached me on my outfits, helped me pick accessories and told me to just be myself. The finishing touch was that Lauren, so talented and perfect at what she does herself, did my hair and makeup, I thought "well, MAYBE this won't be so horrific."

Nevertheless, come photo shoot time, I nervously fumbled my way through an hour of pokey grass, hidden snakes, what I envisioned as mountains of black widows, and broken chaises. Paul was a champ...enjoying the limelight and relishing in the moment. His handsome smile calmed me and his silly jokes made the moment so very "us." And Roomie was a professional through it all....posing us in natural "frames," savoring the warm and creamy light, and snapping away while making us feel like we really knew what we were doing.

At the end of it all, even though we had warmed up to the experience, I thought there was no way this was going to produce anything worthy of putting her name on it. We'd never really posed for pictures like this. Our wedding day was a collection of stolen moments and candid shots. We had spent, maybe, 20 minutes being directed by our photographer, yet they were still mainly moments of giddiness and delight. After all, we had JUST gotten married minutes before. We didn't even care that the photographer had a job to do! Yet here we were, July 26th and I was convinced I blew it.

Boy was I wrong. I could have never in a million years imagined that I'd be so thrilled with the way things turned out. Turns out, I should have just trusted my Roomie and my Lauren. Turns out, I should have just had more confidence in myself. Turns out, I should have known all along that skipping around side by side with my wonderful husband would be all that it would take to make me love the moments my Roomie so expertly captured. Turns out, it is possible to cry for two days straight out of pure delight. Turns out, I really, really am in love with these pictures.

The most amazing revelation that has come from this, isn't so much that hey maybe I CAN pull off a serious look, or maybe I'm really not that horrific looking. It's that Paul and I are creating something so beautiful, so innocent and so pure. You can actually catch a glimpse of the love we share between us that has enabled us to create our little baby growing inside me. You can actually feel the emotions we've shared for the last 7 months - emotions of excitement, wonderment, joy and elation. And believe it or not, I'm finally a subscriber of the school of "pregnancy really IS beautiful." All it took was a little blush and some loose pretty curls, some skipping hand-in-hand, some cheesy prom poses, some giggling in the park, and someone special to capture it all.

Thank you again Roomie for convincing me to do this and for the incredible job you did with these pictures. We will forever cherish them and look back at them and remember how beautiful this whole experience was. Thank you Lauren for reminding me that a little blush and some curls is all I need to make me feel like me again. You're an expert at what you do and you'll go so very far in this world! I'm so lucky to be able to watch you do it! And most importantly, thank you to my Paul for loving me the way you do, so beautifully, so innocently and so purely.

And without further delay:

http://www.themoderntypeblog.com/2009/07/sandy-paul-darling.html

Make sure to check out the slide show under "click here for more pictures of Sandy & Paul."

And now, I'm done crying for the day! =) (PS, my mom even cried looking at the pics! Woah!)

Thanks for reading my long update...I promise to update soon again. And for those that are wondering, all is well with me and little Blank. We're both healthy, happy and chuggin along....and we're at Squash status! YAY!

Love always,

Paul, Sandy and Squash

P.S. Just so you know, these are my talented and wonderful friends that created this all for me:

Alicia: http://www.themoderntype.com/

and my Lauren: http://www.bylauren.blogspot.com/

They are both amazing at what they do and I can guarantee you'd feel nothing but beautiful after a session with each one of them.

Woah

Sooooo...there's a human being with its eyes open sitting inside my belly right as we speak. EYES OPEN! INSIDE ME! WOAH! Isn't that a tad on the creepy side? =)

Hi everyone! I'm back to update. So this week little Blank's eyes open wide finally. I don't know why, but that makes things all the more real to me. Before, the baby was this fragile little cluster of cells that I was hoping would just grow the right way. And now, not a few months later, it's kicking, rolling, adjusting and apparently staring at my innards. It's probably so bored in there, with it's legs and arms crossed in pure bored frustration! Poor Blank! Well, I can't really say it's bored, because this little baby's favorite new game is kickball. And it's ball of preference? My bladder...sometimes my intestines.... a few times entirely too close to my ribs, and lots of times my belly button. It's pretty surreal, to say the least. But it's the coolest feeling in the world. In fact, when Blank isn't moving around, I get worried...is Blank sleeping? Did I not say a funny enough joke? Why isn't Blank moving!! And then just when my worry gets just about to hysteria, I get a swift kick in the gut - and all is well in the world again.

It's amazing how the second you get pregnant, you become a parent. A worrying, frightened, would do anything for my child, parent. I make deals with God almost every day...."dear God, if you please just make Blank move right now, I promise I'll never be an aggressive driver again!" "Dear God, if you please just get Blank to kick really hard right now, I'll never eat 4 brownies in one sitting ever again!" It usually works...thanks God! I guess it's true what they say, from here on out, I'll just worry for the rest of my life. I'm up for the challenge!

So far everything has been going great. The babe is growing just as it should, it's moving around all day long (uh oh! We're in for it!), my doctor didn't yell at me today at my appointment for being a fatty, anddddd we only have 86 days left. Holy heck. When we were getting married, and there were only 86 days left, I was in full freak out mode. Full "omg, 86 days is NOTHING!" Well, I'm beginning to get into that mode again. I can't believe we're almost there. It's exciting and overwhelming all at the same time. But if life has offered me any lessons in this department, it's that no matter how worried I am about the future, it's definitely going to be the greatest ride of our lives. Marriage has been nothing but incredible, so I know for a fact bringing this baby into the world will be just as wonderful.

I do have one person to credit for that, and that's my incredible Paul. I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again...he really is the most amazing man. He's been nothing but patient and helpful and encouraging the whole way through. He's just as excited as I am about this little baby, and I really truly can't wait to see him be a dad. He goes above and beyond what any wife should expect from her husband and I think to myself daily, that I don't know how it is that I go so lucky to have him as my husband. Seriously. Being with him have been the best years of my life...but these last 6.5 months have surpassed any dreams I have ever had and I can truly say I've never, ever, ever been happier. He makes me laugh til I cry almost daily and he makes me feel like I'm the most beautiful person in the world even though I look like a beluga whale. I couldn't imagine my life without him. And because of him, our baby will be the cutest baby in all the land! ALL THE LAND! =) He's simply the best.

Anyway...I just had to throw that out there. I was due for a few tears for the day. Ha!

So there's the update. We're chuggin' along, doing great so far. I'm hopeful things continue to move along great for the next 12 more weeks. Or 10 more weeks...we'll be cool with a slightly early arrival! We're at eggplant status right now....and just under 28 weeks. Come 29 weeks, we'll be at a squash. And yes, it does feel that big.

Thanks for continuing to follow our journey! The next few weeks should be fun! Aunt Bani & Aunt Nins turn 22 again, Aunt Linds has her baby shower, Aunt Roomie is going to do a maternity shoot for us and Aunt Lauren is prepping us for the big shoot....exciting next few weeks! I'll post again soon.

Thanks for reading!

Love,

Paul, Sandy & Eggplant

At Last...Another Letter to My Wonderful Child!!!

Dear Baby Levis,

Okay, so it’s been more than a month since I’ve written to you last and I really have no good excuse. Things have been crazy, as of late, “yes” but that is still no excuse not to write to you any chance I get. So, Poppa is sorry for the long delay! I will definitely try my hardest to keep up with my journalistic duties as an informative blogger and write to you as often as possible.

So as you can imagine, a lot has happened since my last entry. Let’s look back at some of the things that have taken place in the last month or so…

We were told what you are going to be!!!! Yes…another awesomely proud moment in the Levis’ fresh history tree. Dear old dad had an idea of who and what you were going to be, so it was very exciting when the doctor told us what you are! Both your mom and I felt very proud at that very moment. The doctor almost couldn’t tell because you were so active in there, but you gave him about 3 seconds to take a look and that was just enough time to determine what you are. I must admit (now granted you are my first child), I have never seen such a beautiful baby in all the land! You have really grown up since the last ultrasound. And you were really kicking and punching in there. I think you are going to be a ton of energy for mommy and I, but that’s a good thing, because I definitely like to run around too, so you’ll have daddy always there playing with you!

You and mommy were the Maids of Honor at “Uncle Stebs and Tia Alicia’s” wedding. That was a lot of fun! You probably felt a lot of moving and shaking because mommy was having a blast running from the dance floor to the Photo Booth. Man, that Photo Booth idea…whoever started that trend of having them at weddings is GENIUS! Mommy looked beautiful as always and gave a wonderful speech! She definitely won the crowd over with, well, “glitter.” Another wedding down for the Levis’ and probably about 4 more to go!

There was a lot of celebrating going on during the month of June. Your lil’ cousin Gabe turned 5 years old. We had a good time! There were lots of kids running and playing, it was very nice to watch all the kids having fun. Soon, you’ll be out there running and sliding and swimming! I can’t wait! Another person who celebrated a birthday was mommy! She turned 24 years old (well so she says)! We went to Los Doyers game and ate Doyer Dogs and cotton candy! It was a good time and they won! I think the couple of games that we’ve gone too, they’ve won, so you must be a good luck charm! Speaking of winning, our beloved Lakers won also! Yeah, that makes daddy very happy! During the games, mommy almost went into early labor because it was so exciting and the games were very close, but in the end, we won! Back to mommy’s birthday…we also went to the restaurant at the LAX airport. The place was fun and mommy enjoyed it because we could watch all the jumbo planes come in for landing. You will soon find out that planes are the most interesting things in the world for mommy, so it was a nice treat!

Another celebration that happened was that mommy and daddy, both, got a chance to celebrate Mother’s Day and Father’s Day this year (as actual parents)! Yes! Both days were wonderful and both sets of family’s made those days absolutely spectacular for the both of us! It was an absolute amazing feeling to celebrate Father’s Day. I’ve always appreciated the day when we would celebrate it for your grandpa, but it was a tremendous feeling for me to celebrate it! I felt so grown up and “accomplished.” I know that that probably doesn’t make any sense, but it was just a GREAT, GREAT feeling…like being a member of an exclusive club or something. Most importantly, it reminded me that I was soon going to be a dad to the most wonderful child in the world! I guess I really have you to thank for that! So “thank you”!

Another celebration was Tia Becca’s high school graduation (so if you got scared by a bunch of screaming and yelling and bull horns one Sat. morning, it was the family cheering on your aunt)! That was very exciting for the whole family. She is the last one in the family to graduate from high school, so it was a big celebration. So next in line to graduate from the immediate family is…well…YOU! So keep eating away at those Prenatal pills and I’ll make sure mommy eats lots of “brain food” and maybe you’ll graduate from high school at like age 6 or something? I know, I know…that would be crazy, but we never know!

Well, let me tell you about some exciting news, in regards, to you. I finally felt you move around in there! WOAH! That was absolutely amazing! I have never felt anything so surreal in my life! I think I just froze there, motionless, because it was so amazing, so crazy, and so unbelievable that you are in there! That made things even more exciting because I was now able to feel you. It actually makes me wish that these next 3 months or so would just fly by so that I can hold you and squeeze you and have you in my arms! I know that mommy feels the same way too!

So, that’s pretty much all the major events that you’ve been feeling and hearing for the last couple of weeks. I do have to admit that it has been a wonderful experience and that each day I get more and more excited about having you in this world! You truly are a gift from God and I am so thankful that I get to be apart of this miraculous event! Your mom has been so strong and amazing throughout this entire experience and she truly deserves all the accolades in the world on how well she is doing with this. I can totally understand how difficult it can be, at times, for her and I hope that she knows how much I love her and support her (even if she thinks she acts crazy at times). She has definitely gone through a lot and she has been very tough through it all. You both are the loves of my life and I will never let you forget it!

Love,

Daddy Levis

P.S.

My mom just called me at work to tell me she saw a picture of me from February and that I looked "skiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinny, skinny, skinny then!"

Thanks mom. I totally needed to hear that today.

Remember to eat healthy!!

Yes, yes I know. This is my dad's daily adage and it finally hit me this weekend that I'm pretty sure he thinks I look fat. Though, he is kind enough to know that telling a pregnant chick that she's fat = instantaneous death to the sayer of these words at the hands of said pregnant chick. While I'm not eating only chicken and broccoli on a daily basis, I also don't think I'm doing too bad in the weight department either. Well, minus the one day at my cousin's house that shall go down in infamy. Let's just say there was a deep fryer involved and I was definitely tied to a chair and force fed deep fried oreos, taquitos and empanadas. FORCE FED! Oh and my drunk husband was definitely involved in creating the hysteria. Damn Laker game. I will say I took one for the team though, because our beloved Lakers are where they should be right now. All because of my torturous bout with the fryer!

Nevertheless, I apparently am noticeably fat. And I'm not writing this out to garner sympathy from the 4 readers of our blog. There's no "you are NOT fat Sandy! you're beautiful!" necessary, PLEASE! I'm aware from the outside looking in, pregnancy is beautiful. Skinny or fat, a pregnant women is a work of art (gag!). But from the inside looking out, it's kinda reallllly hard to see the beauty in this Monet. From the pregnant's perspective it's kind of like Monet took Opium + Absynth + Crack Cocaine + drank a 40 of Jager and attempted to copy the Mona Lisa "a'la Monet style." Kinda looks like a bad hangover that almost resulted in an overdose. No matter how far back you stand, you can't see the beauty in it.

Having said that, feeling-down-on-herself pregnant chick can absolutely see the beauty in what's going on inside her. I mean, I can see the beauty in what's going on inside me. =) I really can, and because of the amazing experience of feeling our baby moving around inside me every single day, I'll take the gross outer appearance feeling any day of the week. And I'll take the jabs from people too. I may not be Halle Berry, only gaining 5 pounds my entire pregnancy, wearing non maternity True Religion jeans until I'm 9 months pregnant, but I still am equally as cool as her in that I'm creating a real human. So while the container may not be as attractive, the end product is truly the most beautiful thing life has to offer, and I'm fully aware of it and feel incredibly blessed to be able to go through this experience.

Besides, I know I can run better than most (well except Monica apparently!) So once Blank is out of incubation, I'll run til my hips fall off and look like Jillian Michaels before you know it. And/or I know how to properly (and healthily) starve myself to at least look like a normal person. Either A or B will apply! But come wedding season starting in April, I'll be a MILF (excuse my language lol!) for sure! My wonderful Paul suggested I buy a killer "goal" dress and hang it around the house somewhere to keep me motivated. I just may do that. I love goals. Almost as much as I love killer dresses!

AND! I'm allowed one "swollen" pregnancy. Next time, I'll be Halle. Or something. So yes, I will eat cotton candy when I go to Los Doyer games, and yes, I will bake brownies every 3 months, and yes I will eat lots of cheese. Cuz I heart cheese and its gooey wonderfulness! The skinnies can take the hit with their boring meals of baked fish and cauliflower. Next time I'll join you in your misery. This time I'll do my best to eat right, but I won't deny myself the luxury of some pudding here and there.

For those keeping track, by the way, we are finally at the point of monthly fruits and vegetables. So until the end of the 24th week, we're at Papaya! Can I tell you how much I loathe the smell of Papayas? I really do! They smell awful and I don't know how people eat them! But they are big, so I'll take the comparison to show us where Blank is at right now. Oh, also, this week we turn 23 weeks. So thankfully, Papaya only has about 2 weeks left to play.

Well that was my blog for the day. A little bit of 'woe is me' mixed with a lot a bit of 'this is amazing!!' We've continued to feel great and we're continuing to trek on as we get closer and closer to actually meeting beautiful baby Blank!

Thanks again for reading so far. I'll update soon again.

Love,

Paul, Sandy & Papaya

It's all downhill from here...

In a good way though. We're at 21 weeks! YAY! That means that we're further than half way through this pregnancy. So hopefully, from here on out, time will fly. Hopefully!

Wellll!!! We officially know what we're having!! And we're both so excited about it! But I won't mention the sex here, because Abuelo reads this blog and he still doesn't want to know what it is. He wants to wait until the baby is born so he can be surprised. So I'll do my duty and not mention it, though I'm pretty sure the whole wide world knows what we're having by now. Good luck to the person that spills the beans to him!

Aside from finding out if Blank is a boy or a girl, our ultrasound went great. Everything is continuing to grow as it should, all looks healthy, and Blank was swimming around perfectly. We saw it's arms, legs, eyes, mouth, ear (only one ear because Blank apparently felt like leaning up against my uterus on the other ear and wouldn't give us a peak), kidneys, liver, heart, toes, fingers, and it's bits. HA! Good times at the doctors office! We saw little Blank swallow some fluid just like it should be doing, which was way cool. And we saw it be shy for the camera....arm in front of it's face the whole way through. Apparently it doesn't like the paparazzi! All in all, everything looks great so far. We get one more peek on July 30th and then we wait til birth. As of right now, by the way, Blank is the size of a Banana! Awwww! How cute!

I'm still continuing to feel great, though I've caught a little cold. But this cold has been way easier than the last cold I had last month. I think this one is actually dwindling away nicely without the need for meds, phew! Other than that, I'm feeling like my old self again....with the added benefit of a basket ball under my clothes! I tell people that I don't necessarily feel any different that pre pregnancy, but then I walk in front of a mirror and I'm like "WOAH! Where did that come from!" For a split second I think I have to go on a diet...but then I realize, it's Blank doing it's thing!

Speaking of Blank doing it's thing...holy heck it's moving a lot! I feel it swimming and kicking every day. Blank tends to be most active from 6 pm to about bed time. Paul calls it "my time on the throne of laziness" aka our chaise on the couch. While I wish I could sit here and tell you that it's as comfortable as it used to be, it really hasn't been lately. But it does wonders for my swollen feet, so I continue to be lazy on the throne. I think sometimes Paul wants to pull his hair out from all the "relaxing" we're doing, but he's been a good sport about it and has let me be a lazy fat porker on the couch.

We decided to take a walk last night...so we walked about 2.5 miles over to Aunt Bani's house. It was kind of challenging, but it felt great. If only I could get my tush off the couch more often, I'd do it nightly. But if you threw sitting on the throne of laziness vs. walking out to me, chances are thrones would win. =)

Anyway...things continue to progress nicely with this little bundle of joy. I'm hopeful that they will stay that way for at least 19 more weeks! We're both super excited to meet little Blank and we're super excited to get started on the nursery in the coming weeks. I'll post pictures of the progress on the blog once we get started. And yes, I'll actually post pictures, unlike my promise to post belly pictures....which I still promise I'll try to do soon =)

In the meantime, Blank, Paul & I thank you for continuing to read our story!

Love,

Paul, Sandy & Baby Blank...who's actually a boy or a girl now! YAY! I mean Banana, for now!

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY!!!!

Dear Little One,

It’s Poppa here, once again! I’m sorry that I haven’t written to you in a while. I’ve just been trying to get all my feelings and emotions down on paper before I post to you because I don’t like it when I write something that just sounds like words and thoughts all thrown together. I guess I’m a little neurotic about that, so please don’t think that dad is crazy or off his rocker…I just want my little notes to you to be worth reading when you get old enough to read them.

So today is a HUGE day for you! Happy Pre-Birth Birthday!!!! You are exactly (approximately) 20 weeks old!!!! That’s right, you have made it through the first half of pregnancy! Congratulations!!! That’s a huge accomplishment! You have grown all your organs and extremities. Your brain and heart are really working hard now. You are a beautiful little person and your mom and I are so very excited! You have definitely grown a lot in the past couple of days. Mommy’s belly went from “looking like she ate too much cheese” to looking fully pregnant! It’s beautiful! She looks amazing and she is doing very well! You guys are eating good and actually getting a lot of exercise (I thought that exercising would be at the bottom of the list for mommy…boy was I wrong). According to Mommy, you are really working on your Karate skills or maybe your ballet pirouettes? I’m not sure what’s going on, but Mommy says that you’re really moving around in there. That’s great! Keep up the kickin’ because it makes both your mom and I so happy when she can feel it. Unfortunately, I can’t feel it yet, but that will soon come and than you’ll be hearing a loud voice from outside saying, “Keep Kicking!!!” That loud voice will be me because I want you to get big and strong while you’re in there. But I know that you are going to be a bundle of energy when you get here. You’re a Levis…

So tomorrow is a big day for everyone. We, finally, get to find out if you’re a boy or a girl! YES!!!!! I think everyone is 50/50 of what they think you will be. This is very exciting! I’m actually a little nervous. I’m not nervous because I have a preference…I really don’t care if you are a boy or a girl, but I think I’m nervous because this is a major life altering experience. I mean, this will determine what kind of a dad I will be. Don’t worry, you’re still getting a dad who will love you and support you no matter what! But after we find out if you’ll be a boy or a girl, I get to start thinking about all the things that life will have to offer. If you’re a girl, I’ve got to start prepping myself for dress shopping, tea parties, Barbie, teenage-hood, & boys (CRAP…boys!). I should definitely start a wedding fund early! If you’re a boy, I’ve got to get ready for sports stuff, cars, Transformers, Star Wars, & bugs probably. If you’re a girl and you want to play with boys’ stuff, I’m cool with that. If you’re a boy and you want to do girlie things well, I’ll be okay with that too…as long as you are happy and having fun! That’s all I really care about! I want you to be as happy as humanly possible and I want you to enjoy everything that life has to offer! See these are the things that get me a little nervous. I get nervous because things have changed so much from your generation to my generation (I don’t know if you have a generation yet, but that’s how fast things change around here). I know that as parents, we’ve got to battle things like computers and Internet and technology. I’m good with computers and technology, but I’ll probably be a dinosaur by the time you’re ready to use a computer. These things really scare me, because sometimes these concepts can have negative characteristics to them and it’s my job to protect you from it. I don’t want to fail! That’s my biggest fear in life…I never want to fail you or your mom or any of your future brothers or sisters. But with help from your mom, I’m sure I’ll be ready for whatever comes. I know that both sets of grandparents are VERY, VERY excited! We’re just all anticipating your arrival.

Well, I just wanted to write you a little note before tomorrow’s ultrasound because I want you to know what was going on in dear old dad’s head. Please know that I love you dearly and that my love for you grows every single second. I love just knowing that you are inside Mommy’s belly and that you are going to be with us soon! I’ll be talking to you soon…literally…because now you can hear my voice, so I’m going to start reading or talking to you. It’ll be weird because I’ll be talking to a stomach, but I think it will be nice for you to know my voice! I love you!

P.S. I guess Downey is bad, SO “if I ever catch you in or around the City of Downey, YOU ARE GROUNDED!” Ha! Ha! How was that dad moment for you!?! I really have to work on that, huh? Oh well, I've got time to practice!