Week 30: More cabbage, please!

Our little dude has hit the big three-oh. 30 weeks. Wow. They grow so fast. I remember when he was just 10 weeks old. Just a surprise in his dad's eye.

He's now the size of a cabbage, around 15-inches long and about 3 pounds, which is a lot for little Elisa to carry. He's learned some new tricks over the past week. He can get his little feet under mom's ribs and now sometimes when he kicks he can actually make an impression in Elisa's stomach.

Elisa's ever-growing belly has also caused her to start sighing frequently. To which, without fail, I always ask, "What's wrong?!" It's just the grape taking up more space she tells me, but I'm starting to get my antennae up for early signs of labor.

Happy Holidays from the Gridleys!

Bump Update

Week 29: Snow Day(s)!

Week 29 started with a bang for us. Ever heard of "thunder snow"? Neither had we, until we were woken up at 5am on Thursday morning to a bright, white flash of lighting and what sounded like a plane crashing in our backyard. What followed was about 6-inches of the white stuff and a snow day for me, Elisa and the grape, who is now the size of a butternut squash.

I'm really going to try to get bump update photos out this weekend. Mom is starting to get a bit unwieldy these days. Case in point, she accidentally turned on the stove with her belly yesterday.

Hope everyone has a safe and warm holiday!

Winnie and me after a snow shoe through the neighborhood.

Week 28: Commie Patch Kid

Elisa is now in her third trimester with the grape that is about the size of this communist veggie above, a Chinese cabbage. He's been really active this past week. Elisa said that sometimes it feels like she's carrying an octopus in a popcorn popper. Nice visual, huh?

Stay tuned for bump update photos this weekend!

Don't be like your dad

A friend of mine posted this photo of my 8th grade tennis team on Facebook today. Think you can spot me*? When I showed the picture to Elisa she rubbed her belly and stated, "Don't worry, baby we won't let your hair get that long."

* Hint: I'm not one of the two girls wearing white.

Week 27: Cauliflower

Thanks once again to our friends at BabyCenter.com for providing us another piece of produce to compare our baby's growth rate to. Up this week is our ol' friend the cauliflower, America's favorite vegetable to push to the side of their plate.

Elisa had a doctor's appointment this week. The baby is doing fine. Unfortunately, we didn't get any new ultrasound photos, so we'll just have to imagine that he looks something like this now...

It's exactly three months until the grape's due date. We're so pumped!

Week 26: Nice Cucumber

This man is very happy about his large cucumber, as are we. According to our friends at BabyCenter.com we have ourselves a baby about the size of an English hothouse cucumber. Fancy, huh? He's about a pound and two-thirds and measures about 14 inches.

Elisa and I obviously give thanks today for our healthy little guy and our loving and supporting family members and friends. Oh, and we're also thankful that our baby is not the size of a yam or a can of cranberry jelly this week so that we can enjoy our Thanksgiving dinner!

Can you tell she's excited?

That's Grandma Greene practicing swaddling* at her grandparents class yesterday. She said it was a good refresher on how to handle the wee ones since she hasn't done it in some thirty years.

While grandma was learning grandparenting, we were in the classroom next door taking in a six-hour-plus session on childbirth. Elisa and I found it very informative. It helped dispel some of the stigma of childbirth that we both had built up from watching too many over-dramatized television and movie births.

* No babies or plastic babies were harmed during class

Bump Update

Week 25: Ruta-wha?

I'll admit it. Our weekly produce update sent me scrambling over to Wikipedia to actually see what a rutabaga is. Did you know that this root vegetable, also called a swede, was originally produced as a cross between a cabbage and a turnip? (Two great tastes that taste great together!) And in the UK prior to pumpkins, they carved rutabaga's for Halloween! I'm sure some 14-year old just posted that on Wikipedia for kicks.

I digress. Back to the grape.
He's been an active bugger this week. Besides the copy machine, he has a new favorite sound to boogie to... Mozart. Apparently, he has gotten really excited a few times when Elisa had classical music playing, which would indicate he has either his mom or Grandpa Greene's taste for classical music. Thankfully, he won't be getting my crappy pop-music-loving gene. Sorry, Kanye.


We're off to an 8-hour childbirth prep class tomorrow. I may elect to test out the epidural about halfway through.

Best onesie ever

Thanks to Auntie Lauren for helping to teach our son what his pops is famous (infamous?) for.

Week 24: Iowa's favorite week

Our little guy hit several big milestones this week. First off, he's now the size of a corn on the cob. Hopefully, not shaped as such, but developing nicely none the less.

Elisa is also six months into her pregnancy and we're now just 100 days away from the due date.

Mom and the grape are doing great. Elisa may write a guest blog soon about her experience with junior at the copy machine. It seems he really likes (or hates) when her tummy rests against the copy machine at work.

Also, we'll be soliciting name suggestions on this here blog in the next month or two. So you can start thinking of all of the funny things that go with Greene. Kelly, Putting, Mean Joe, Bowling and Gang are off the board.

Week 23: You can't-a-have-a de Mango!

In case you didn't see SNL between Gilda Radner's Roseanne Roseannadanna and Tina Fey's Sarah Palin, this is Mango. He was a reoccurring character on the show portrayed by Chris Katan in the late 90's and early aughts.

Yes we will

April 20, 2008.

I remember telling Elisa any child conceived from that day forward would most likely be born during a new administration. We had no idea then that would apply to us.

Words can't describe how proud we are to welcome our son into the world during Barack Obama's presidency.

2009 is shaping up to be a great year. Heck, maybe even the Mariners will win the World Series. You gotta love hope, right?! Get your season tickets now folks!

Bump Update

Week 22: Riddle me this

So, you think you got it?

No, the grape isn't the size of a "pasta whacker." C'mon. That doesn't even make any sense.

If you guessed our little guy is now as big as a "spaghetti squash" then give yourself a little pat on the back.

Elisa said the baby is starting to react to noises now. He gave a few kicks when she was talking today and then got really excited at the copy machine.

Kick it!

The possibility of a 2015 Little Greene Grape post looking something like this are becoming more and more likely. I felt the strongest kicks yet from our little guy last night. The first time I felt anything other than a little flutter.

Maybe we will have to consider the name Beckham Greene after all.

By the way that is me back in the first grade. I think if I remember this moment correctly I was just cracking the ball in the upper right-hand corner of the goal to put our team ahead in the final minute. Either that or I was taking a shot on the sidelines at the Tupperware container of oranges my mom had brought.

Hooray for mom!

This baby making business is tough work. Elisa has endured fatigue, back pain, crazy changes to her body, daily/nightly kicks in her belly and many other issues that don't need to be discussed on this blog.

Despite all that, check out how beautiful she looks.

Thanks, Elisa!

Notice a theme?

Thanks to all of our family and friends who have already given us so many wonderful gifts for our little man. I was just looking over his haul so far and started to pick up a theme.

See if you can detect what it is...

Week 21: What's up, doc?

Week 21 at 1121 and our grape is now the size of a carrot according to our friends at babycenter.com, who have a team of researchers working on produce-to-baby conversions around the clock.

Well, our wascally wabbit is definitely discovering his little legs. Elisa said his kicks have been become stronger and more frequent. He seems to be most active after she eats and then sits or lays down, which we both hope is a habit he breaks soon after his birthday.

Speaking of birthdays, we've passed the half way point now and we got a peek this week at what we have to look forward to in March. Our friends Cindy and Brian welcomed their first child, a boy named Finn, into the world today.

Congrats to the Walkers!

Teach Your Children Well

Week 20: Bananarama!

Our little guy has had a big week. He started out as an heirloom tomato, got an ultrasound, had his parents and dozens of folks on the internet check out his business and now he's a banana.

No wonder why our boy was flipping us off yesterday.

Our Little Man

That's right! Elisa's ultrasound today revealed what less than half of you expected... we're having a boy! The ultrasound technician said he looked healthy and also mentioned that he wasn't camera shy. Apparently, it was one of the quicker scans that she had done in recent memory.

It took about 15 minutes to get the big news that we were waiting for. As soon as our tech saw this angle she said right away, "There's your guy." I think we're looking up at this angle at our baby's junk. I know it's tough to see and I know you're all saying to yourselves that means he takes after his dad. Save it.

We love this pic. You can see his little head, his hand and wait... what's that? Is he flipping us the bird?!

That's our boy!

All Will Be Revealed Soon

Boy or girl?

It's been a close vote in the blog poll. A very slim majority predicted we won't see anything resembling a penis in the ultrasound tomorrow afternoon. (You can save your jokes about me because Elisa has already made them.)

We'll have our answer soon and then we'll start taking name suggestions!

Week 19: You Say Tomato

Our grape has grown to the size of everyone's favorite fruit-that-eats-like-a-vegetable. And according to our friends at babycenter.com, our little bugger isn't just your garden variety, store bought tomato. No sir, we've got one of them fancy-pants, elitist heirloom tomatoes!

And look! The babycenter email came with this adorable picture sent of a fetus doing an impression of an heirloom tomato or maybe this is an artist's rendering of David Blaine in the womb.

Good to know the little guy or gal can hear us now. We've gotta start getting it ready to take the WASL.

It's a...

Week until we find out what we're having. Hope I didn't give you the wrong idea with that subject line.

All will be revealed soon!

Feeling a Flutter

The grape made its presence felt for the first time last night. Elisa described it as "a flutter." [Insert your own caterpillar/butterfly metamorphosis analogy here.]

The itty-bitty calisthenics have continued in her abdomen this morning.

Week 18: Pick a Pepper!

We're at 18 weeks today and our little grape is growing up. According to our friends at babycenter.com (aka babytoproduceconversions.com), Elisa is now carrying something the size of a bell pepper... and it's going to be kicking soon! Not yet, but soon!

Baby Item of the Week: Go Dawgs!

Elisa, with the help of her lovely assistant Winnie, is modeling the latest baby item of the week - the U-Dub onesie from my mom!

There are two known knowns about our pending arrival:

1) It will be on the shorter side of the spectrum. (If it's not, Elisa has some 'splaining to do)
2) Our child will often be decked out in purple and gold or navy and teal, regardless of gender. Crimson and grey or pinstripes of any sort will be banned for life! Violations will require the child to watch the '91 Rose Bowl or recite Niehaus' call of "Edgar's Double" verbatim.

New Grape Photos - 17 Weeks

Elisa's thin belly is giving us great ultrasound photos of our little grape's progress!

Week 17: Turnip!

Elisa went to the doctor this afternoon because she was having some stomach pains. Good news is that it's only a cold and there's nothing to worry about.

The doc also said the baby's spine looks straight and the heartbeat is strong.

New grape (turnip?) photos coming soon...

Grape Factory Facelift

The future home of our little one got a new paint job a couple weeks ago. Here are a few before and after photos.

BEFORE

AFTER

Fruit evolution

Elisa is 16 weeks along today. According to the weekly email she gets from some parenting site, our grape is now the size of an avocado.



I'll pass on the guacamole this weekend.

The Tell Tour: Mom

We told my mom about the news with a baby book on sign language and by signing, "You are going to be a grandmother." It took a couple attempts to get the news to sink in. But, her reaction was well worth it.

Love you, mom.