I Look Just Like Daddy!

Technology has come a long way. When my mom gave birth to me, she had to wait to even find out that I was a boy. Every color that she received for her baby shower was either green or yellow the universal colors for a baby. Today babies can be casted in their first movies while still in the womb. Of course we took the opportunity to get a movie of Ben, twice.
For the second time I had to leave school early the day of the 4D sonogram. I pushed two meetings up by two hours and worked through lunch. I had less than 24 hours until my students showed up for the first day of school. I had to be at that appointment, no way I was going to let Jill be the only one who knew what he looked like.
Jill kept telling me, "I understand if you need to stay, I want you to get your classroom stuff done..."
There is no way I was going to miss out on seeing my little boys face. The only thing I could think of is how much he would look like me.
At the first 4D sonogram, we attempted to get the video, but the star of the show was not cooperating with the camera.
He kept putting his hands in front of his face, and then turned upside down as to say to us, "If you want to look at something, look at my big butt!" My mother, Mother n Law, and sister n Law were all there to witness his inheritance of the bootay.
That was an awesome Monday, I saw my son clear as a summer's day. Unfortunately, it made me extra anxious to meet him and time has begun to slow down. Wait until you see him, WOW!
We're trying to get the video on the blog, but for now go to www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN4cPtJu650

Jill's thoughts: The first trip to the 4D sonogram was a little disappointing because we really couldn't see much. But the picture we did get looked EXACTLY like Hector's baby picture. It was the coolest thing to compare the two.

Then when we went back that next Monday, the baby was ready to cooperate and we got some awesome shots. It's amazing to know we've had our first glimpse of our son. His features, his eyes, his little tongue. We got to see all of that. I'm like Hector - it makes me that much more anxious to meet him in person! I know the next couple of months will fly by, but I'm ready to meet him NOW! :)

Grandpa's First Touch

We decided to go on a Santiago-Tappe family trip to Galveston. Jill just turned 7 months pregnant. It was an awesome get away. DD allowed us to stay at her beautiful Galveston home. We played games, watched the Olympics, talked, went to the beach, and we ate some good food. As far as I remember, we did not have one family blow out. No one called anyone any names (to their face) and no one left bleeding from an MMA elbow.
The trip was definitely a blessing but my favorite part of the trip was on our first night there. We were sitting around the dining room table playing cards. I did well against Jill this time around. Well Allen sat down and I did not know but Grandpa has never felt Jill's belly.
It was time for Grandpa's first touch. I don't know if he actually got to feel Ben try to punch or kick him. I do know Ben felt Grandpa's love. There is nothing like a Grandpa's love. I could see it in Allen's eyes, he was proud to be a Grandpa, he was excited, he was enamored, and he excited to be able to lay his hands on his little girls tummy again, just like he did when she was little. If he didn't feel Ben kick his hand, I am sure Ben will kick him in the shins someday.

Jill's thoughts: This trip was the best trip we've taken as a family in I don't know how long. We were all together, and awesome memories were created. This was also the first week that Meredith and Caleb got to feel Ben move. He's so active now that if you're patient, even for a minute or two, you'll typically feel either a roll or a kick. It's a little freaky but totally wonderful.

On a less fun note, this was the week that my third trimester heart burn kicked into high gear! This was also the week that Caleb and Savannah started calling me Prego my Ego!

Hector was fabulous on this trip. He took great care of me. He definitely won major husband brownie points!

I'm not Picasso but he was over rated anyway

Well it is now time to set up the nursery. Previously it was Jill's home office and a place for me to throw my crap in when school was out. Now it is going to be Benjamin's room. This will not be an easy project. The room was nick named the hunting lodge. For the reason that the walls were solid wood and not drywall. No, it was not paneling it was custom cut, beveled, stained, wooden cedar walls. I originally wanted to get the nail studded chairs and a couple of animal heads and skins and hook up the room. Ben changed my plans.
It is now time to paint and drywall the room. Jill asked a friend from her woman's devo group for some advice. She suggested a friend of hers to help with the new drywalling. Alex came by on a Saturday morning and gave us a quote on repairing the room.
Alex had very little English. I to communicate a bit to him in Spanish so that I was sure he understood what we where asking for. He suggested that we should just lay the drywall over the wood and paint over it.
We spent about 30 min. talking about details and cost and came up with a CLEAR agreement. We translated everything in English and in Spanish. Two weeks later, Alex showed up with his wife and a handful of tools.
It took him the two days he quoted to us, except for both days he was late hours. So he could have finished a lot sooner. At the end of the project the walls were lob sided, the floorboards where broken, the finish was extremely dusty and I just told him to go home paid him his 120 dollars and decided to finish the work.
I did not realize how much work it would take, but first had to paint. So off to Home Depot for paint. We chose the bedding and picked the colors from there. As you can see from the pictures I worked hard. (pictures to come)

Jill's thoughts: What an ordeal! We just thought the nursery was going to be fun and easy. Hector has had to work so hard, and it seems like we've faced crazy obstacles on every front. But I know it's going to look perfect when it's finished. All the work he's done so far looks great. It's so hard not being able to contribute, but Hector won't let me help because of the fumes and dust. Understandable! Aaron and Dad came over to help with some of the painting and molding, and that helped too. All I know is the before and after pictures will belong on Trading Spaces!

Hit and Run! And I AM Not Talking About Baseball

We just started working at day camp at church. Monday was awesome god really gave us an awesome opportunity to work with the kids from the church. Jill had to work a couple of days during camp this week but she planned on being there for three days to help with Noah. We decided to go eat out at Estella's, a small Mexican restaurant, down the street. After dinner I wanted to go to a game store to see if they had some karaoke games for Friday. As we turned on to Cooper st. from Arkansas, a diesel truck swung out and brought traffic to a complete stand still. Some how some jerk turned the corner and clipped the car behind us causing it to slam into the rear of our car.
"Honey, are you O.K!" I asked Jill as the white Buick zooms past us to get away. The car that hit us had a father and two kids. We pulled off the road and as soon as Jill got out they freaked. The back end of our car was worth about $9000.
We had the rental car for about a month. We called Jill's doctor and she had us go to triage and get checked just to make sure. Everything was fine but it gave me comfort knowing that we were for sure O.K. Jill was confident the whole time. Seems like being scare is going to be a regular thing with Ben growing up.

Jill's thoughts: This was definitely not the way we wanting to end the evening. It's amazing to me how expensive a wreck can be that wasn't your fault. In the end I think it ended up costing us around $750 out of pocket. Not to mention the decrease in value of my pretty car! But we really didn't care much, because we were just thankful that no one was hurt. It made me grateful to be driving such a safe car. Somehow the wreck broke my seat, but didn't hurt me! Sounds like another God thing! :)

When we were at the hospital making sure everything was okay, Ben kept kicking the monitor on my stomach. It was really funny. I don't think he liked being spied on! But he was perfectly fine, and we got to go home after a couple of hours.