Only one more week before the gender is revealed. Here's what's going on this week with Whisler Baby 2009:
Baby Stats:
Size: 5½ inches
Weight: 5-7 ounces
Baby Developments:
The baby's ears are now facing forward and are completely formed so he can actually hear us talking now. I guess I'll have to make sure I tone down the tech talk over the next few months. I'm not sure Laura is ready for another software developer in the house. This week is also the beginning of ossification. And while that sounds like some long and involved paperwork you might have to fill out during tax season, it's really a fancy medical term for the hardening of the baby's miniature bones, teeny tiny bones. And that's a good thing.
The baby's nerves are making more and more complex connections. Her sense of smell, taste, sight and hearing are all developing. A substance called myelin, which makes nerve connections travel faster, is now coating the baby's nerves.
The baby now weighs between 5 and 7 ounces and is about 5½ inches long—about the size of a pickle from a corner deli. Laura has acclimated herself quite nicely to pickles. In fact, I was recently instructed to rush to the store to seek out a particular brand in a specific jar. Yeah, I failed.
What We're Doing:
The seasons are changing yet again and thoughts often turn to lawn competition. Alas, the hum of a perfectly-tuned Honda Harmony 216, cannot drown the ominous rumblings of small feet and soccer games that loom on the horizon. For me, this is the time to reflect and remember a thriving community of fescue that is my backyard, now coined Backyard BC or Backyard Before Children. Faced with the knowledge that I have more bermuda ahead than behind me, I must look to the future and hold fast to the hope that someday I will trade in that tree fort for a teenager who can hold a trimmer in mid-July. I cringe at the thought of waterslides, trampolines and sandboxes, but cling to the dream of conducting an ensemble of free laborers from the comforts of a shaded porch accompanied by an ice cold Dr. Pepper. What has been seeded will one day grow, to sow, and mow...for me.