Christmas break through '09

Well we made it to Kingman, AZ and are staying with family for Christmas. Hit a few snow storms in western New Mexico and northern Arizona, but not to shabby of a drive! Well I just wanted to post a few pics that will have to last through the rest of the year and into early Jan. Last Friday we went in for another ultrasound, our NP (nurse practitioner) was unable to get a good measurement of Mini Meli. She got was she was looking for on this trip:

Looks as though the kid is right on schedule with initial thoughts so July 24th is the 'official' date of arrival. Of course this is all subject to change but based off of cycle calculations and now measurement of Mini Meli...it's 'official'. All is good though and we are looking at the 12 week ultrasound coming up in Jan. Well update with the findings :) A few more pics of Suz's belly:

We will log off with that and rejoin sometime after the new year...Have a Merry Christmas and a great New Years!

All alone...

Suz is out in San Fran and seriously this blog has been all about her so I thought I'd update you as to my status. Sunday I cut my thumb...pretty badly.... The dialog was something like this:
Suz: Hey sick boy!
Leo: Yes my loverly wife?
Suz: Your sick right?
Leo: Yes dear.
Suz: Cut the onions, you won't cry since you can't breath.
Leo: Seriously?
I showed her...I cried anyway...when I snipped off half of a tip of my THUMB!



WARNING: These images can be disturbing to viewers. Wait was that supposed to go before the pics? It doesn't matter they were not that bad.

DO NOT BASH MY CULINARY KNIFE SKILLS! I was rolling heavy on a concoction of Musinex (DM no less!), Theraflu and Nyquil (not the day time stuff). The good news is that the thumb tip did not make it into the chili. If it did...I'd still eat it, we spend good money on that ground beef and buffalo! Yeah buffalo, even you'd eat it now huh? Either way...I have to say, I did not use my thumb for most of Monday...and it is actually a bit difficult to button and unbutton shirts and pants. Try it out. Tonight before bed or before a bathroom run, try not using one of your thumbs, you'll stop taking that guy for granted real quick like.

Lastly, I do have to thank Edith Smagala for digging up this LINK (thanks Edith!). They came out of a book titled Safe Baby Handling Tips (Board book), though I'm not so sure 'Washing Baby' is all that incorrect...judge for yourself.

PS - If you want an email when ever this is updated shoot me an email at leoandsuzi@gmail.com, we'll add you to the list.

Week 8 and sub freezing temperatures

So our little Suzi-Q is into her 8th week of pregnancy and all is well! She has had zero morning sickness and so far she has had no mood swings...well today she was a crabby-McCrabberson but I think that has to do with me being a little baby (I'm sick, and have been acting like the world should revolve around me during my time of need) and Suz will be flying off to San Fransisco at 6am tomorrow, so it might not be the pregnancy. The good news is that this is her final trip! Starting off next year she will be doing inside sales at EF and will get to actually spend her time here in Denver.

So first off I will post up the week 8 shots of the belly. Take note that Suz stayed clear of salty food this week (claiming last week's picture was TERRIBLE!) and went to a pilaties class so her stomach is looking pretty ripped if you ask me...I think I will be going to the next pilaties class with her just so my keg of a belly will start to look like hers...after all she is pregnant, not me for God's sake.



Oh so we also put up a little diagram of what Mini Meli would look like if Suz had swallowed a hi-res camera and some how made its way into Mini Meli's home. It's off to the left, below the 'about us' section. We have decided it looks like a small balooga whale, with little feet and bazooka attached to its stomach. Your descriptions are welcome, what do you guys think?

Parting words here, Denver just pulled a 'typical Denver' weather move. It was mid to high 50's for about 5 days and today we woke up to 1 degree. Yeah, that's 31 degree's below freezing and with the windchill it was -22 and I believe it, we had to shovel snow this morning. My face instantly froze and I couldn't even cry from the pain fearing my eyeballs would burst. Cutting this short, we slow cooked chili and it's ready to munched on! Next week we will be updating you all from the road, Santa Fe, NM, to be exact as we begin our Christmas/New Year trip to Kingman and Phoenix, AZ.

Week 7

Suz here. Here are the Week 7 belly pics as well as the first ultrasound pic!





Can you tell I ate a lot of salt this weekend?!? Leo came with for the appointment and we were able to see the heartbeat and the yolk sac (what's in there, a baby chicken?!) The nurse said that once you see those two things, there is only a 3% chance of a miscarriage. Good news! She asked me to come back in two weeks because they weren't able to get an accurate measurement of mini Meli.

By the way, I am feeling really good. I get pretty tired in the early evenings, meaning 7pm and I am exhausted! No morning sickness, yay! I have been exercising regularly and surprisingly haven't missed my 5+ cup of coffee habit too much. I won't lie though, I am very sad about missing out on snowboarding this season. I made sure that Leo was aware that next season he would be spending some time in the lodge with the kid while mama goes out to shred the gnar!!!

Leo, by the way, is an amazing husband. Can I just say that? He has been taking even better care of me than he usually does. :-) He is going to be a great papa!

Last thing, I will start including waist and hip measurements so that we can all compare week to week. As of today:
Waist 29.5 in
Hips 38.5 in (5 in below belly button)

Oh Christmas tree...Oh Christmas tree!

This entry is slightly out of order, but the day of the basement flood was the same day we went out and got a tree to brighten our mood. So I wanted to break that up a bit and post this little entry after the news of the flood and news of the baby...it's been a busy week for sure.

Any who, the day the flood happened in the basement we were pretty beat and pretty down, but NOT OUT! So we decided to run out and get a tree to liven up the spirit of our have ruined home (not really ruined, the place is officially dry as of today, and carpet will be relaid and finished by Tuesday - 12/9). So here is Noble, the Noble Fir:


Dressing Noble Fir Meli:


And Suz pulling a dangerous move to top it:


A little family pic and an individual of Lucy:


So that is all, Noble Fir Meli brought a little of the Christmas spirit to the Meli house,. Oh and we decided...hell the Christmas tree is up, let's exchange gifts...so we did :) Neither of us have that delayed gratification down quite yet.

Suzi is pregnant, Leo is not (but he helped)

Yes it's true we are having a baby! It's still early but we found out November 22, after three pregnancy tests. We narrowed it down to my trip out to visit Suz in Portland, October 31st, making Suz about 6 weeks pregnant.

Suz is insisting that we take pictures of her amazingly flat belly before it is forever lost to the vigors of child bearing. So our goal here is track Suz's belly progression on a weekly schedule. We are gunning for Sunday belly pic days, I'm pretty sure we won't see a change anytime soon, but hey it's always fun to take pics!

We want to know what people think, Boy or Girl? (Poll is on the left part of the screen)

So here are Suzi's week 6 pics, enjoy!
FRONT

From Pregnant Suz

SIDE

From Pregnant Suz

Really didn't need the pool in the basement....

So we are coming back from a great Thanksgiving family vacation in Las Vegas. On the drive back, we hit a snow storm from Vail to Idaho Springs...making 11 hour trip into almost 14...

4:30am we drop Lisa, Paul and Biggie off at their place. We make plans to meet tomorrow to distribute the luggage strapped to the roof. This is mainly due to the gusting wind, snow and 30 degree weather.

5am...we are home! Still snowing and the Xterra will not fit in the garage with the luggage on top. Leo: 'Should we take the luggage off the rack?' Suz: 'No.' Awesome plan let's get some sleep.

We walk into the house...Leo: 'Huh, why does it sound like the water is running?' Suz: '...', Leo walks down stairs...squish squish...what the hell the carpet is soaked. *click* turn on the basement lights, water is pouring out of the basement bedroom window, 'HOLY SHIT! SUZ WATER!".. Suz runs down the stairs, Suz: 'Huh? OH MY...' *SPLASH SPLASH* Leo is running through the basement up the stairs...Leo: 'SUZ TURN OFF THE MAIN WATER VALVE!'.

Leo runs outside into the snow to look at the window...The hose bib outside has a splitter that burst and gushing water for who knows how long...the window wells are filled with water creating this beautiful new basement waterfall we never really needed or wanted. Leo runs back inside 'HOLY SHIT...THE WINDOW WELLS ARE FILLED!'. With out missing a beat Suz runs to the closet that has the broom, mop and bucket, grabs the bucket. As she runs through the kitchen she grabs a Coleman ice chest...Leo thinks, GENIUS! Suz runs to one window well half full of water and quickly scoops the water out. Leo is working on the window well that is completely full and is partially under the deck.

Suz quickly runs over and they create a bucket line, Leo scoops, Suz empties the bucket away from the deck and window, preventing the water from going back into the well. All this took place in the matter of 10 minutes...problem solved, no more water pouring into the house. The next 30 minutes is spent talking to State Farm and Serve Pro setting up an appointment to get the water out of the basement. 6am...bed time.

10am Serve Pro guy: 'So your basement has a humidity reading of 92%'
11:30am Serve Pro guy: 'Got half your basement done...75 gallons of water so far...'
2pm Serve Pro guy: 'I've never seen humidity readings this high, should be dry in a few days, we need to get more blowers to dry out the basement we'll be back a little later...'

So this is where we stand right now...half the basement furniture is on the main floor, we are exhausted...but with the snow falling here, so we still have some Christmas spirit and have decided we are getting a Christmas tree tonight...and as a reward are going to open each others gift we bought to liven up our spirits. Suz put the situation in perspective when she said, "Well at least the house didn't burn down..." so true, because if it did, we wouldn't be able to take the nap we needing right about now.

For now it's nap time...been traveling since 3pm yesterday and got about 3 hours of sleep...