Lost Somewhere in Houston

Things have been a little hectic lately. We’re getting close to the closing date on our new house (Sept. 30) and of course are also trying to keep our current house looking good so we can hopefully sell it before our daughter starts grade school....

This past weekend was pretty eventful. We had the inspection on the new house Friday just to make sure the roof or foundation was not going to collapse on us anytime soon. As expected, the inspector found dozens of tiny things that are easily fixed, but nothing serious. We left him at the house before he finished because we had tickets to see Dave Mathews Band at the Cynthia Woods Pavilion, conveniently located close by in The Woodlands. 

It was my first DMB concert in some time. I think the last one I went to was circa 2002. I had tickets to a concert at the O’Dome at UF in 2004, second row seats actually, but Kristy (Tiffany’s maid of honor) was visiting UF that weekend so I passed on the concert. Yes, I do remind her of this on occasion.

It was Tiffany’s first ever Dave concert, and by association our daughters, who was kicking quite often. It was one of the better Dave concerts I’ve been to and might have ranked first, but the encore was so-so with a new song which was good, but not great, and a finish of All Along the Watchtower. Watchtower is always good, but I was hoping for a Crash, Ants Marching finish. It was also strange to hear a Dancing Nancies version where Dave says, “Lost Somewhere in Houston”...

That was probably my 11th DMB concert so to put it near the top is saying something. I remember my first ticket was $19.50, this past ticket was $70. Don’t get me started on the $11 can of beer (albeit a 24 oz. can) 

We spent the remainder of the weekend at Tiffany’s parents just down the street from the new house where we, okay I, enjoyed some college football and Tiffany got up to speed on how many clothes our daughter already has thanks to a generous donation from friends of her parents who live across the street. 

I promise you this is no exaggeration. This child now has more clothes than Tiffany and I do combined. There were crates, that’s plural, of gently used and never worn girl clothes ranging from 3 months to 18 months old. Combined with what we already have, well, this child won’t be hurting for something to wear, that’s for sure. 

Sunday we returned to our current house to find that we were having an open house. A miscommunication with our realtor, but we were happy to find something to do for a couple hours and our neighbors, Brian and Brittany, were gracious enough to let us watch the end of the Texans game at their house. 

As for developments with our daughter, I can actually feel her much more now. Tiffany claims she can see her shirt move sometimes, I can’t verify that but I can feel our little girl moving in there whether it be a kick or punch or just rolling which is nice. 

I’ve read that a woman becomes a mother at inception and a man becomes a father at birth. That makes a lot of sense. Now that I can feel the baby moving, it’s becoming more real, but Tiffany doesn’t go very long at all during a day without being reminded she’s pregnant. Other than the fact her stomach is getting bigger, it’s hard for me to understand how she feels or really have daily reminders of the pregnancy.

Today is the start of the third trimester, I think, so we’re on the home stretch. By the time we get settled in our new house, it will be the holidays and pretty soon we’ll be counting down the days.

I Felt it Move

We’re home again after seeing some friends and family in the northeast, in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It was the little one’s third trip in utero and the first since we found out that we were having a girl. We did buy some baby girl clothes while on vacation and our friends Matt and Andrea got us a nice girl outfit with a Phillies theme as well as a onesy. We bought some dresses for 6-9 months old since they were on clearance now in Philadelphia, but will be nice to have in May and beyond in Texas next year. 

During the past week Tiffany has really started to feel our baby girl move around. One night at Matt and Andrea’s I actually felt it when I put my hand on her stomach during a particularly active sequence. I’m sure it will get easier for me to feel her over the next few weeks. She is most active when Tiffany is laying still because movement supposedly calms babies down in the womb.

We also saw a sonogram of Matt and Andrea’s little boy and a 3-D version of the face, amazing. We are just a few weeks from that. Their due date is about four weeks before ours so if Andrea is two weeks late and Tiffany is two weeks early, we could both have Christmas babies.

We also got to see Bob and Melissa and their two young daughters who were born about 15 months apart. They are very cute and really love Bob and it was interesting to see their different personalities. Emma and Abigail were born less than two years apart and from the same parents yet seem to be almost two completely different people. Both very sweet, but very different mannerisms. This time next year I’ll be dealing with a 7-month old baby girl with her own quirks and mannerisms. 

This weekend we will be celebrating Cameron’s first birthday (Britney and Brian’s son two doors down). It seems like last week that they were bringing him home from the hospital. It’s been fun to watch him grow over the next year and I look forward to doing the same with ours (and seeing more!).

In name news, we’re 95% percent sure on what we will be calling our daughter, but we’re stealing an idea from Matt and Andrea who are not telling anyone their son’s name until he is born. We will be doing the same. My mother was not a fan of that plan at first...her response on the phone when I told her our plan...”WHAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!” Plus, she almost seemed angry until we pointed out that we didn’t need a bunch of monogramed clothes and/or gear and that she did know it’s a girl. I will say that it’s NOT going to be Madison or Addison. We’ll see if our girl starts “answering” to our name in the next few weeks and hopefully I’ll be able to feel her move again soon.