Jay’s mom asked that when we told her we were pregnant and it has stuck.

Yesterday, we had the BIG ultrasound. She was an awesome tech, older, knew her job. The baby was not cooperating so she poked and jabbed and apologized. I told her to keep going, was not bothering me a bit.

The anomaly scan checks how the baby is progressing. We had already had the triple screen which tests for Down’s Syndrome, Spina Bifida, and other birth defects and that came out negative (or positive if you are more a glass half full person).

Apparently at this point, a baby should be about 7 ounces, ours was 9. She checked th heart, face for a cleft pallet, kidneys, stomach, brain, arms, and legs and everything checked out normal. Phew.

Then we went to see if we could figure out if it was a girl or boy. The baby was not being very cooperative, so we were not feeling very confident about our chances.

Then the tech asked if we had a gut feeling. Well, you all know that Jay and I have thought girl all along. Not because I was hoping one way or the other, this pregnancy just screams GIRL!

So we said girl. Then she waved the magic wand. And before she said anything, we knew.

It’s a Girl!!!

I looked at Jay and saw him tearing up. I could not believe how excited I, myself, was. Thane is going to be such a great big brother to a little sister and our little family seems complete.

We are very excited!

Slayton and ClaraAnne’s 3rd birthday was celebrated at JumpZone, an entire store of inflatable jumping toys for kids and adults. I cannot remember the last time I had that much fun!

Catherine promised that there would be a toddler area and, true to word, there was. Thane was a little timid at first in the little kid area but Jay put on some socks that I brought and got into the laguna with him. That settled him and gave him a moment to notice, hey this is fun. He would climb on the loch ness monster, crawl around, fall down and giggle. It was way fun.

We then went to the “merry-go-round” and I decided to beg some socks from Aunt Cat so I could go play too (and, yes, I was careful). The merry-go-round was a huge inflatable carousel fully enclosed, with nothing in it but room to run around, or crawl around if you are Thane. And so he did. He played a great game of chase mommy. Way fun.

Daddy then took him to the more adventurous slides. Historically, Thane has not liked slides but we figured going with dad would make it better. I hope I captured how much fun he was having. Daddy was having fun too, although I think he called it exercise too (take a look at the sweat pouring from him!). He had to climb this inflatable set of stairs each time, holding Thane and holding the next step in the other hand. It was daunting.

I have no pictures of other kids because, well, they were all around. The place was controlled chaos. A great setting for a kids’ party. We loved it and Thane was exhausted afterwards.

Be sure to click the pictures, click once to get to the thumbnail then again to see a big shot.

If you asked me how I spent last fourth of July, I would not be able to tell you. This year is an entirely different story.

Fireworks are not permitted in Franklin City limits (but they sell them all over). Fireworks are allowed in Thompson’s Station, where James and Diane live. We decided to leave the puppies behind, apparently a wise idea.

Let me say now that Thane is not impressed. Based on his reaction, I don’t think we have a fearless daredevil on our hands and Jay and I could not be happier.

When we pulled into the drive, it was still light but festivities in their neighborhood were in full gear. There was even a family that had a colossal cookout on their front lawn, complete with sno-cone maker and large inflatable slide. James and Diane were more low key but had spent a small fortune on fireworks.

Their cul-de-sac had a zillion (yes, I counted) kids on it setting off all kinds of noisy fireworks. We let Thane take a look (from a VERY safe distance) and, as you can see by his death-grip on Daddy’s shirt, he was not impressed. He was apparently trying to climb him. We quickly scooted him inside where, after Uncle James showed off his new perfect push up, and daddy tried, Thane came behind and followed suit. He did not do a push up but he imitated daddy very well.

When night fell, this New York City gal headed outside while Jay took baby to the bonus room to watch from a quiet window. I have never seen so many amateur fireworks, I swear they gave fireworks shows I have seen a run for their money. Some were beautiful, some were duds, some were just loud. Ash was falling all around us (I even got some in my eye before retreating inside).

We brought Thane out when it quieted down but he was still not too pleased. He took a short nap in their spare bedroom before we headed out, trying not to run over any live ammunition or small children on our way out.