Time has been moving pretty fast for Julie and me. There is now visible evidence that we are having a baby. If you look closely at Julie you can tell. If you look in the "nursery" you can tell. Today we went for our ultrasound. Warning, below I disclose the sex of our baby. If you don't want to know, delete this mail now ...

OK. So you're all still with me. Good.

I thought it was scary a couple of weeks ago when we bought The Crib. The cats believe we bought it for them, and thoughtful it was. We have to leave the door shut on the "nursery" so the cats don't sleep in it. Thoughtful we are not. In the process of picking a crib, a theme picked us. We didn't really think we would have a theme, but we splurged and picked ourselves a really cool blanket/bumper set. So the theme is "Farm Animals." It's very cool. Of course, once we had picked our first theme, we were struck with one even more clever and, as far as we know, never used as a "nursery" theme: aliens. You know the green things with big black eyes. That thought has now passed, and farm animals it is...

There is sort of an interesting thing happening. For Julie, the process of becoming a mom is a steady but gradual process. She spends all her time with the baby. The changes are always present. Everyday, she notices some new change. For me, it's a bit more of a stair-step thing. I know "abstractly" we are having a baby. When we heard the heartbeat the first time, that was a step. Buying the crib was a step. Rubbing Julie's stomach at night and talking to the baby, that's a step. Today was a biggy. We saw pictures of the baby. The baby has all the parts, two arms, two legs, feet and hands in the proper places, spine looks good, heart looks good. (We'll know more once the doctor looks at them, that will be next week.) Only one head which does look a bit alien-like at this point. Two eyes, fingers, everything. It was amazing seeing our new baby for the first time. Brings a tear to the eyes, to realize just how important you have become to someone. Now I look forward to meeting the newest member of our family, now it seems like five months is a long time off. I know I've started watching other parents with babies pretty closely. I remember specifically the look in Nathan's eyes when he saw Steve the last time we were in Colorado. I can't wait for our baby to look at me that way. I know that even if it is scary, I'm ready now. Fear is simply the thing that will drive us to being the best parents we can be. The whole process is now categorically the right decision. We saw our baby today.

So now for the baby's sex. We went back and forth. For a long time, I didn't want to know and Julie did. There are arguments for both sides. Good ones. In the end, we decided to find out. It does make some decisions go away and others become concrete instead of "what if." So the newest member of our family is going to be a new baby boy. This is ninety-nine percent likely. Julie and I have decide that the surprise we are going to give all of you will be the name. For the next five months, the name is going to be a secret that the three of us will share. Of course, we haven't picked a boy's name yet. We did have a cool girl's name picked and amazingly enough we both agreed on it. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice and men.

I hope everyone is doing as well as we are ...

Love,

Daryl & Julie & the Little Apple Seed