Life in Oceanside

Oceanside can be a little rough at times but it has the beach and the Pier. Two things we tend to not appreciate as much as we should 'cause they are right down the street.


(10/08/05 from Tanya: I've taken the liberty of "editing" the last few postings by Don and, basically, deleting them and instead using another program that works with this blog to display our photos... particularly the scenic shots. Click the photo above to see a compilation of the best sunset/beach shots we've taken with our new camera)

Front View of Baby Isaak

Here is one of the ultra-sound pictures we had taken mid-August. Kind of scary looking.


Front view of Baby Isaak

Baby sure can move!

I'm sure this will be nothing new to anyone who has already had a baby... but baby sure can move! On Monday and Tuesday I was in San Diego for Verity's Developers Conference. Verity put all employees attending up at the Omni Hotel. Don joined me. The thrill for me was that we had a TV! Anyway, some evenings as I lie down more than sit up, the baby seems to adjust itself and moves a lot. On Monday evening this was the case. Don first put his hand on my stomach and felt a few good kicks, but he hasn't had a chance to really see the baby move. So I uncovered my tummy and boy did we see some action. I don't know what the baby is doing, but I've never seen my tummy move like that. I think the baby is doing some break-dancing moves like the full body wave or something. For those who have never had a baby, the only comparison that I can make is if you've ever see an alien invasion movie where the alien somehow gets inside a human donor and, as they get ready to break out, the human donor's stomach starts convulsing... I guess that doesn't paint a very pretty picture of being pregnant, does it?

Tuesday evening we went to the obstetrician and the nurse midwife checked the baby's heartbeat and while checking she was able to feel the baby move. The heartbeat was in the 140s, which may mean it's a girl. I think they know the sex of the baby. We don't want to know, but we were asked twice at the last visit if we wanted to know. For me it's more exciting not to know. It's like getting presents at Christmas. You kind of want to know what you're getting, but you don't because most of the surprise and excitement is in not knowing.

It's been a busy few days...with Isabella

I've been letting Don have all the fun in posting to our blog. It's my turn now. We've been pretty busy the last week. We took last Friday off to drive up to the Santa Barbara area for the baptism of Isabella, Todd and Liz's daughter. Don didn't want to pay for a hotel, so we camped in Pismo beach. I wasn't too thrilled about the idea, but it turned out to be really quite nice. The campground was great. We were next to the sand dunes which were next to the beach. The first night we were there, we pitched the tent in a hurry, walked across the sand dunes (an adventure in and of itself) and had fun with our camera. We got a couple of pictures of the two of us with the sun setting in the background. I was trying to show off my belly - which has gotten quite a bit bigger! The picture here is one of the better pictures. The sunset was pretty amazing. I do have to say, though, getting up in the cold in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom was not so much fun. Still, we should go camping more often, although how we're also going to be able to fit baby and baby stuff in the car along with our camping gear I have no idea.

We spent pretty much all day Friday getting to Pismo Beach. Then Saturday we were at the baptism, which was really nice. The church didn't look like much from the outside, but it was really nice inside. The baptism reception was at the Four Seasons in Santa Barbara. That was amazing! What a beautiful hotel! There were a few weddings there that looked pretty elaborate judging by the dresses the brides were wearing and by what the female guests were wearing. We got some pictures at the baptism. Here is a picture of Hertha, Todd's mom and a very proud grandma, holding Isabella in her cute baptism outfit.

Sunday we spent in Solvang - a danish town. It was pretty cute as all the buildings were built in the same character, giving it a very European look. Almost a bit kitsch, but not quite. They had lots of bakeries and restaurants. They also had a couple of shops that sold needlecraft stuff. I bought a tree skirt to cross stich with different types of Santa - or actually more like St Nicholas. Will probably take me a few years to complete and I promised Don I'd first finish the knitting I already started - especially the baby stuff I've started to knit. He wants to make sure the baby will have clothes when it's born.

While we were in the Solvang area, Don wanted to see where Michael Jackson lived. So he looked the address up on the Internet and we drove to Los Olivos (very Napa-esque and looked like it had some great biking) and into the countryside and we found the entrance to Michael Jackson's Neverland. It's located right across the street from a school. Did anyone know that? We didn't take any pictures, just drove by. There were no fans hanging out - probably because Michael Jackson is rumoured to be in Jordan as a guest of the King there. That's the info we found on the web. Los Olivos, though, is a cute little town. Too bad it takes a whole day to get there, otherwise we'd probably go there more often for camping and biking.

I think that's all I'll write for now. Have to have dinner and also figure out a good way to let every one view the pictures we took at the baptism. Until next the next post!

(10/09/05 from Tanya: I've deleted all the photos Don placed here. If you click the picture of Hertha and Isabella, it'll take you to more pictures of Isabella's christening)

Swap Meeting on Weekend

On Sunday, we made our way to an event co-ordinated by the sister hospital (Scripps La Jolla) of the hospital where we will have little Fred(orika) at. It's basically an infant and toddler swap-meet where folks set up booths in the parking lot to sell their no longer required baby or infant crap (though most of it is in really good shape).

We were only looking to pick up a Universal stroller carrier base for an infant car seat (as we want to buy a new car seat but can get by with a pre-owned stroller), but ended up going on little shopping spree. We got some 2nd hand stuff and some pretty cool stuff we've been seeing on the Web that we could touch and feel first-hand and was being sold at less than Web prices.

Cheap stuff:
7 - Onesies for $0.25 each.
5 - Socks for $0.25 each.
Bag of assorted teethers $1.00 (sounds gross but put them through the dishwasher and off you go).
Bag of assorted bath toys $1.00.

Dr Seuss's Books for $2 each (kind of neat to only purchase the books that we remember reading as kids):
- Go Dog Go!
- Mr Bean Can MOO! Can you?
- Ten Apples Up on Top

Cat in the Hat:
Inside, Outside Upside Down (Bear in a Box) $0.50.

Book for making your own baby food - something we intend to do. Don't want to spend the money on commercial baby food and don't think they can process food that is anywhere near as healthy as what we can make ourselves buying fresh ingredients locally at Boneys (a local blue collar Whole Foods). Time well tell if we can stick with the extra work required. $2

Pack and Play Play pen that has a Basinett and Changing table built in. We intend to use it as the crib for the first 6 months, so the crib is taken care of. It folds up into a bag, and has wheels so its portable inside and outside the house and you can travel with it. $40.

Play thing that sits on the floor - "Toy of the year" $10.

2 Fleece Slings (baby carriers for hippies) (one for me and one for Tanya) $30 each. (http://peekaboobabycollection.com/)

1 really nice, classy Wrap (baby carriers for hip hippies) $55. (http://www.sunbearbaby.com/)

Think that's about it. Next time we go, we'll proably look for a wagon for dragging stuff to the beach and or a trailer for the back of the bicycles (though we have our eye on a really good one from Burley in Oregon).

Think they have this swap meet a few times a year, so we should be able to pick up stuff as we go along.

So, we had a really good weedend on the baby front.

On Saturday we we went to Tanya's company picnic and had a really good time checking out the camera we bought last week-end.

Here's a picture of Tanya in her current state (sorry for photo orientation - this Blog has pretty limited features - from Tanya: what Don didn't realize was that he had to orient the photo in its file format before uploading to ensure the orientation is correct. What would he do without me?).

Though this picture kind of sucks, I took a few other really good shots and am looking forward to awesome pics of Frederika (or Hobileena) and/or Jacob (or Wolfred).
Here's an example:

Ruminating on names

So. A few folks out there apperently have some reservations about the dead Dalamation namesakes' Fred and Hobbes.

For those in the dark, Fred and Hobbes where Dalmations that were a big part of my previous life in Canada (pre-Tanya) . Fred was a big, gentle liver-spotted (brown spots not black) grand-fatherly, former stud and Hobbes was a hyper - rather needy, little snuggler that was rescued from the pound.

Some excellent names we're considering are:
Boy:
Wolfred Jacob Isaak

Girl:
Hobillia (or Hobbileena) Frederika Isaak

I swear I heard my niece Cailtlin call him Hobbes Hobbileena when they were playing dress-up and she dressed him up in a scarf and skirt. At the time I thought it sounded a little feminine for a male dog but as Hobbes was nutured and all, he did not object. Presently, Caitlin, says 'Tanya, you've got to talk to Don about those names'. Seems she's changed her tune.

One of Tanya's sisters says she's 'going to come down to San Diego and open a can of Whoop Ass on me' if we don't come up with something better.

Did you know that John 'the Duke' Wayne's real name was Marion? And that Duke was the dog that faithfully walked him to school everyday? And that Condelezza Rice was named after a pizza?

Wolfred, Hobbileena. Tomorrow's Duke, Condelezza....

If anyone out there has some better suggestions bring 'em on.

Post-Getting-Ready-For-Baby-Class...

I had more confidence going into the class about having a baby than coming out. Naturally, Don felt he knew everything. It was pretty much all was common sense and, if you've read any baby books or articles, you've heard it all before. I think what really got me was the thought of trying to bathe a baby in the first few weeks. And trying to figure out its wants and needs. Don made the comment about the baby not being able to communicate and all it could do was cry. I've heard, on the other hand, that you can tell the difference between the different cries a baby has - if it's hungry, wet, tired... Don's response to that was a question to ask if babies could communicate as well as dogs...

Other funny moments during the class came when the instructor told us to throw away any leftover milk and not to give it to the baby if the baby hasn't drunk from it for 15 minutes. Don asked if that leftover milk could be used in coffee...

Yup, pretty much did know everything. Kind of strangled the doll during swadling practice and sent the instructor flying when she turned out the lights for the video and then she proceeded to trip over my laptop extension cord - but all-in-all went pretty well.

Few other things. Instructor said if the kid does not eat for 6 hours - call the doctor; sounded kind of nuts to me. Also, apparently your not suppossed to wash the baby clothes with regular folks' clothes - your suppossed to use more expensive soap on the babies clothes and never mix in even a single mommy or daday pair of socks. Ya right. Wonder if they used to wash the baby clothes in a different river before washing machines were invented.

One good thing though, a whole lot of other first-time Dads look to be just as old and cranky as I am - just not as good looking - and with much less attractive wives.

Always nice to get a visual on shoving a thermometer no more than one inch up the baby's bottom. Can't wait.

Getting Ready For Baby

We're going to our first baby class today - Getting Ready For Baby. It's supposed to cover things like basic parenting skills, infant nutrition and home safety issues. It's a 2 part series with today being the first part. The 2nd part will be taught by a pediatrician. Maybe we can ask the pediatrician about the Amby Baby Motion Bed (www.ambybaby.com) that we've been considering. Seems like a nice alternative to a traditional crib... but it's on the expensive side.

Don has decided to come, which was a nice surprise. He has held the opinion that he already knows everything there is to know and doens't need to be taught anything! And what he doesn't know, he's wants me to tell him - which is all fine and dandy except he never accepts/believes what I say and needs to either figure it out by himself, or have it confirmed independently. We were recommended to take this class, as well as the others (Hospital Orientation, Childbirth Prep and Breastfeeding) by one of the midwife nurses at the obstetrician's office.

It's all still so unreal that I'm having a baby. I'm much bigger (I know we have to put pictures up for everyone to see) and the baby is starting to move. I'm carrying the baby differently from the way Lise, my friend, is carrying hers. Her baby is more spread around her upper and lower abdomen. My tummy is definitely bulging in the lower quadrant. Kind of like the picture I saw of a pregnant Heidi Klum the other day. She had a boy. According to folk wisdom, the way you carry your baby is indicative of sex. If you carry high, you'll have a girl, low a boy. This seems to have been true for Todd and Liz (Don's cousin and his fiancee). Liz said she carried Isabella higher up. Seems to have also been true for Heidi Klum. I still think the baby will be a boy.