Single Digits and the Holiday Season!

We're into the single digits now...nine weeks until Cate's arrival. Here's a shot of my growing belly. :-)

We got into the holiday spirit after coming out of our food coma from Thanksgiving. On Black Friday we got up at 4:30 to hit some of the sales and managed to pretty much finish our Christmas shopping. We even still had time to put up our tree!


And yet after all of that, we still went down to watch Santa and Mayor Mallory light the Fountain Square Christmas tree. It's definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas. And just a little over a month after Christmas means Cate's arrival!


~Eric and Melody

Cate at 27 Weeks

I finally got around to scanning in the most recent ultrasound pictures of Cate. They are of her at 27 weeks on October 26, 2007. The first one is of her profile:

She's definitely getting bigger. In the next picture she is facing towards you. I realize she's still a little alien looking, but we think she's pretty cute. :-)

Eric and I are both amazed at how so many people love her so much and haven't even met her. This weekend was my first baby shower, given to me by the wonderful women at our church. Cate now has all kinds of clothes, toys, bath essentials, blankets, and more (we also now have a high chair in our dining room, a monitor that my aunt joked about saving and hiding under the couch when she's a teenager and has friends over, picture frames and a photo album for the hundreds of pictures I'm sure we'll take). We're in awe at how fast baby "stuff" seems to take over one's house. And we are so grateful for the wonderful friends and family that are helping us get set up with all of the things we need for her. It's hard to believe that in about 11 weeks she'll be here and there will actually be a baby in the house instead of it simply looking that way.

~Melody :-)

The Countdown Begins!

Today is the first day of my third trimester...weird. I still don't feel like I'm all that pregnant-- mostly because I've been blessed with a fairly easy pregnancy and apparently (according to the doctor), the reason I'm not HUGE at this point is because of all the running and cycling I was doing right up until I found out and even some in my first trimester (until we had that whole dehydration issue).

Incidentally, we did have another little dehydration scare, but when we went to the doctor about a week and a half ago we were told there is nothing to worry about. They did another ultrasound just to check fluid levels-- it's all normal. I'll post pictures once I get a chance to scan them in somewhere.

Cate is measuring average size for how far along I am. She is also moving around like crazy! If I'm still for more than 10 minutes, she starts wiggling around in there. It won't be too long before she's out of wiggle room and has to wiggle her way out.

The reality of becoming a mom is definitely setting in. In a good way though. I'm excited for her to be here and I'm ready for the awesome responsibility that is being a mom. In the beginning, I'd go back and forth between being ready to be a mom and thinking that I was way too young and immature for this. But in the past 7 months God has blessed me with a peace and understanding that everything is going to be fine. There is no perfect parent, but with His help and guidance, Eric and I will do our best to raise our little girl.

We received another blessing not too long ago as well. As many of you know, Eric had been sort of casually looking for another job. He loved where he worked, but retail hours aren't exactly the best when you've got a family at home. Back in August he gave his resume to the Executive Director of The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (both of us have run marathons through their Team in Training program and I was training for a century ride before I found out about Cate and had to quit about halfway through-- apparently crashing at 25 mph isn't so great for baking a baby). He knew there were some openings with Team in Training and figured it couldn't hurt to let someone know he was interested. As of Wednesday, Eric will be a Campaign Manager for Team in Training with his primary focus being on the cycle program. And he couldn't be more excited. He even gets to go with the cycle team to the century ride in Tucson in a couple of weeks! Aside from some weekend travel and some evenings during recruiting periods, he'll work mostly normal 9-5 hours. And he won't have to miss a Thanksgiving, Christmas or Easter again!

So as we countdown these last 12 weeks, we continue to thank God for everything he's blessed us with and the blessing of our daughter to come. At this point we're just a couple of baby showers, a labor and delivery class, and a little under 3 months away from becoming a family of 3!

~Melody :-)

Bengals Mania (Eric coming into his manhood)

So Monday night, Mel and I got the chance to go to Paul Brown Stadium and tour the facilities, including the players locker rooms. It was amazing to see. I'll share a few pictures. A few stats:

The Box suites start at a minimum $50,000, and go close to $100,000 the closer it is the the 50 yard line. That doesn't include tickets or food. (view from the box)

Mel and I were pretty amazed as well to see Bible's in several of the players locker spaces.

Willie Anderson has the Largest size foot in the NFL Franchise (19 EEE) You can almost fit both of Mel's feet in one of his shoes.
How did the game go tonight, coach Riggs?

For those of you that know me even a little, your probably understanding a little about the subtitle of this blog. Even as little as a year ago, my first choice on TV probably wouldn't have been to watch sports. This season, I am addicted. I have found myself listening to every game of the American League Championship series on ESPN radio and 700 WLW, and watching more college and pro football than I ever did in the past. Maybe it came with the advent of Satellite TV in our house, but I am actually interested in ESPN news. I am coming into my manhood, at a late stage, but it is good. Go Bengals!! (And Redhawks!!)

- Papa E

What's one foot long and weighs two pounds?

lots of things. Carnival Hot Dogs are sometimes a foot long. Grocery store tiles as well. A Wii is three inches short. A barbell isn't even up to snuff. An acorn squash is about two pounds but isn't as long. A bottle of diet coke is almost the same weight. A small puppy could be both one foot long and two pounds, but zoey is about twice as long and closer to 9 pounds.

In case you haven't caught on yet, my unborn baby daughter has reached a new stage. She can now smell, hear, and distinguish light from dark. And she is around a foot long and two pounds. She is actually developing likes and dislikes in food.

And one day soon, she'll be graduating high school. It's just strange that we are having this baby that seems so small, and helpless, and she is going to be just like us one day. It's completely mind-boggling.

And I can feel her kick like crazy right now. Are soccer games in our future?

More to come soon.

For now I leave you with this.


- Papa E

New Ride

I know you can't see the baby bump as well in this picture, but you can see the new ride to tote Cate around. :-) We came to the realization that in both of our other cars, not much fit once you had both of us, a carseat, and a stroller. Not to mention the other things we're going to need to haul around when we're taking Cate to Hudson and later to Atlanta to visit to my parents. So we traded in our Saturn Ion Coupe and got a Dodge Caliber. It's not a ton bigger, but all the baby stuff will fit in the trunk and it sits up just a bit higher.

As for the WILD THINGS shirt and lovely spandex pants-- it was finally cool enough to go for a bike ride, so this is me pre-ride. I haven't been on my bike since we got back from Hilton Head since I had to watch the whole dehydration thing. In fact, I really couldn't do much of anything when it was hot out. So now that the temperature is down, I can finally get back out on the bike a little (running is out at this point since it makes me uncomfortable, but I usually get a walk in every day if it's not too hot). Thank goodness bike clothes are stretchy and I'm not too big yet. We went down to Lunken Playfield and rode the flat path around the airport (it's about 5.5 miles). It was absolutely wonderful to do something semi-active (we didn't ride that fast or far) outside again. I love that fall has finally come!

~Melody

She's popped!

Maybe it was the music of last week's Pat McGee Band/Josh Kelley concert (which was awesome by the way) that made her dance a little farther out. Or maybe it was our relaxing trip to spend time with Melody's family in Hudson that encouraged her to somersault forward. Whatever it was...Mel has a pregnant belly now.



This is the belly at 23.5 weeks. At our doctor's appointment on Monday we were told Cate is measuring right where she should be and Melody's gaining just the right amount of weight.

We also are most of the way done with the nursery. There are still some finishing touches to add, but we thought we'd share a few pictures.


We still have a few things to do, but you get the idea. It's all ABC and animal theme with primary colors. We figure she'll be wearing enough pink that she doesn't need it in her room.

So we're at about 3 months and 3 weeks until the due date. Things are definitely falling into place. Keep praying that both Mel and Cate stay as healthy as they've been so far.

~Eric and Melody