It's a Boy

You read right. The technician was 95% that it's a boy. It was right after giving birth to Joshua when I said that I would have all boys! I have no complaints. Although I did have visions of decorating a violet nursery or using a cherry blossom theme, then later in life doing her hair and dressing her up if it was a girl. I feel excited that there will be one more boy in the house, though. I did do some pouting at first and my wonderful husband came home from work with a card, a Lindt chocolate bar and a very cute Carters baby one piece that said "smile".

By that last line I'm sure it's easy to tell that I am already spoiled by my 2 boys. There's something about my son picking me a dandelion and saying, "Here mommy, this is for you because you're so pretty." That will never get old. I find dried ones in my jacket pockets all the time. Plus, nothing beat the cute little baby boy outfits.

I'm also thankful above everything that the little booger is healthy. (I type 'booger' with the greatest affection) In fact, the technician had a little trouble getting good pictures and had to take some extra time because he was so active during the ultrasound. Usually in the morning and evening is when I feel tiny kicks and tumbles. Mike can't feel them yet but he's still talking to him. Unfortunately, we didn't get any body or feet pics but we got a good profile pic and also got to watch him stick his fingers in his mouth.

Last night, after finding out the gender, our favorite babysitter came to watch Joshua and we went to Yokohama Sky Tower with plans to have dinner at El Torito. Unfortunately (started out unfortunate but turned into a fortunate) for us, the whole restaurant was reserved for a big party so we ended up going next door to Antonio's. It ended up to be a blessing in disguise. The Italian restaurant had some delicious food. We had garlic bread and handmade sausage to start and Pesto and vegetable tomato pasta for our entrees. I had fresh squeezed blood orange juice and Mike had an Italian Beer. It was expensive but the view and super fresh ingredients were worth it. We also ran into one of our good friends, Miyako. She used to work with Mike and we've gone out several times for ladies night. We've lost touch recently mostly because I've been a little flaky but after seeing her it really sparked my fire again to stay in touch. The odds of seeing her at Antonio's was pretty low too. Out of all the people we could have seen! What a great surprise.

Now we are down to the important business of names and nursery! We are thinking either Samuel Charles of Charles Samuel for a boy. I'm Jewish and Mike is Catholic, so we like to compromise and pick names from the old testament. One of the girl names that we were thinking of was Delilah but after remembering the biblical story about Delilah I didn't necessarily want to use that one. We decided on Hannah Marie for a girl. It's easy to say and not too flowery. I liked Hannah Rebekah but Mike thought that it was too much old spelling. (FYI Hannah is actually a biblical name from the book of Samuel... she was the mother of Samuel.)

As far as the nursery goes, I may have picked out some bedding from Etsy but I'm not quite sure. I was going to take a look at some local fabric stores and see if there is anything I liked better that I can maybe make myself. My good friend Lindi, who just happens to be the Kanto Plain craft queen, has offered to take me to a fabric store in Yokohama. I think that I have mentioned Etsy before but I absolutely love some of the things they sell. The site is basically a way for people to sell the things that they make. Almost like a giant online craft festival but much trendier. My good friend Dayna recommended it to me a while back after I saw her bag and thought it was fabulous. I'd also like to get a chair and dresser to start off in the nursery as well. We've got some time, but at the same time, things like furniture are pretty limited here. We've either got the furniture store on base or Ikea; everything else is just really pricey and not very comfy. I'd like the chair to be comfy for those all nighters. However, I do have one of the world's most evil couches downstairs for that very purpose. Adam and Tom can attest to it's powers. As soon as we plop ourselves down on it, it sucks us in.

As far as gear goes I'm pretty much set. As most first time moms will admit, we had to have all the "new" stuff. No matter what anyone told us, we had to have brand new. However, I've hopefully become a little wiser. Many of the gadgets like swings, highchairs, bouncy chairs, and exersaucers are expensive, take up a lot of space and usually need to be stored or gotten rid of by the end of the first year or year and a half of the babies life. Getting them second hand if possible is the best bet. A stroller is a little bit different. Invest in a GOOD stroller that you absolutely LOVE. Compromising on price for your second choice, usually doesn't work out in the end. A stroller is usually used for at least 4 years or maybe longer if you have another one. It's one of the products you'll use the longest. If you cheap out, one year down the road you may realize it's a POS and buy another one. Usually at the end of 4 years you may have gone through 3 strollers and ended up paying more than if you just would have bought the one you LOVED in the first place. For me, I need a durable compact stroller. I already bought my car seat secondhand. I'm planning on purchasing a frame for it in the beginning. They are inexpensive and the first few months it will probably prove the most practical. I've got a nice Maclaren that I bought second hand for Joshua when he was about 3 and is still in great condition so I'll probably use that one once I feel like my arm is going to fall off from lugging around the infant carrier. However, there's still question as to whether I should go strait to the Maclaren because the baby may need a little more back support. We shall see. I'll stop my ranting now about strollers. Most of this stuff I will most likely by when I go back home anyway. Outlet stores here I come!!

I'm sure that many folks may roll their eyes at my endless materialistic rants about shopping however, just about every American woman living here has fantasies about walking through Target and Wal-Mart. I've heard stories of woman who did their 3 year tour with out visiting the States and then upon moving home stood in front of an aisle in Target and cried because there were just too many choices. Many equate the shopping experience here as in living in Communist Russia. Don't worry, it's not that bad sometimes we over exaggerate. However, coming from a California grocer that has 3 quarters of one of their aisles dedicated to olives and then going to two choice at the commissary (green and black) can be discouraging. But, if one is diligent one can find other VERY fresh gourmet options off base.

Now that I'm all out of thoughts I'll end here. Let me know what you think of the names and nursery choices!