There's a lot Joy and I still don't know about what is going to happen in the next few months, but for anyone interested, we do have some decisions made at least. So here's a rough timeline, if everything works out the way we think. It brings to mind the old line, "If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans." These should be worth a chuckle.
We hope to have heard back from any school still interested in me this week. Within the next couple weeks I will be flying out to visit Nigeria. We hope to have a final decision about where then or very shortly thereafter. So we'll stop being silent/coy/private in a few weeks.
Baby Lavinia arrives June 24 and we begin a frantic dash to get her passported and visad.
Early July we will move out of Ithaca and visit our families in California and Utah, blessing Lavinia in my parents' ward.
Late July or early August we leave for our grand, three year adventure.
I'm sorry we've been keeping rather quiet about things online. It's certainly not for lack of interest as we can find precious little else to talk about that is quite so engaging. Until a decision is made, though, we would rather not jinx anything. The places still on the table are each very interesting prospects that we are excited about and we'd love to tell you more ... soon. We just know we probably won't be in Ithaca for more than another 10 weeks.
Showing posts with label Lavinia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lavinia. Show all posts
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
This kid is too cute
Steve and Emilee just gave Hyrum a belated birthday present. She told him to close his eyes and hold out his hands. When he opened his eyes, he saw a coloring/sticker book he was very excited about. Emie then told Joy to close her eyes and hold out her hands too. Emie had made a lovely baby quilt for Lavinia.
Then Hyrum told me to close my eyes and hold out my hands. Obedient, I heard him say, "Now, Emilee, you should give Daddy something."
Then Hyrum told me to close my eyes and hold out my hands. Obedient, I heard him say, "Now, Emilee, you should give Daddy something."
Sunday, February 20, 2011
They Grow So Fast
Lavinia is about the size of a carrot, they tell us. And growing rapidly.
Hyrum is now taller than the television on its stand. Not quite three years old, we are moving him up into size 4 and 4T shirts (still size 3 pants). After months of no weight change, he's gained about 2 pounds in a month. In percentage terms, that's the equivalent of me gaining 15 pounds in four weeks. It's growth spurts all the way with this one.
Hyrum is now taller than the television on its stand. Not quite three years old, we are moving him up into size 4 and 4T shirts (still size 3 pants). After months of no weight change, he's gained about 2 pounds in a month. In percentage terms, that's the equivalent of me gaining 15 pounds in four weeks. It's growth spurts all the way with this one.
Looking Forward to Lavinia
Joy: "We are still having a girl! Yeah. We are now 21 weeks along and we think that poor Lavinia has had very little press on this news feed. Derrill felt her kick for the first time last night. Joy started feeling her kick or punch about February 9 (some undetermined stuff before), but has felt her most days since then. The funny part of that was the nurse had just been asking me earlier that week if I was feeling her move yet and I said well not really. I had thought that movement or fluttering by my ribs was the baby earlier and then found out that my uterus wasn't even close to my ribs. So, I chuckled and decided I wasn't really feeling her yet."
D: In all our ultrasounds, she has been a Mover and a Shaker. She squirms, she cartwheels, she spins.
"She nearly makes our doctor swear."
She certainly makes it difficult for him to keep an accurate heartbeat feed. Hyrum, by contrast, was a modest baby, hiding his head from the camera and crossing his legs. Joy could count Hyrum's 10 movements in the morning, but he didn't make much noise otherwise. "Maybe hiccups." I think she'll get to 10 movements daily for Lavinia any time now.
HISTORY OF LAVINIA'S NAME:
Back in the paleolithic era of our marriage, when infants did not rule the earth, "our first attempt at a pregnancy was a short-lived one." The miscarriage helped us get prepared to become parents eventually, changed our outlook on life, and was otherwise a very traumatic experience. Even though it occurred at such an early age, we had felt a real connection with our little embryo and felt that we were expecting a little girl.
"We felt close to her and had prayerfully chosen a name for her: Lavinia Thalia Watson."
This made losing her all the more tragic.
"When I suggested Lavinia, it was because I really felt that she was close to my great-grandmother Lavinia in Heaven."
I wanted to name her after Joy, but Joy was just as adamantly against a child named after herself as she is about a child named after me. So I made up a word. The word I made up was Thalia (TAY-leah). I thought it sounded nice. I later went to a baby name website and discovered that the name was Hebraic for ... Joy. I felt inspired. :?D
"And we just think the two names go best together with Lavinia first.
"When we found out we were expecting this time, I tried really hard to tell myself that I would be equally happy for a boy or a girl. When someone would say 'I think it's a girl,' I would say, 'I dunno. It's probably a boy.' And vice versa, trying to keep my heart open to all the possibilities, knowing there are only two."
When we were pregnant with Hyrum, we were ready with a girl's name, but not a boy's. We had some joke names lying about -- Sassafras was our code name for our first male child, Tinuviel (of Tolkeinian invention) our first girl, and Luigi if there were another boy out there somewhere. We returned home from our Hyrum ultrasound and warned him: 'Your name as of now is Sassafras. If you want something better, you'd better tell us who you are.' After much deliberation, the two names we settled on were surprisingly the first two we wrote down: Hyrum Spencer. This time we were better prepared. Lavinia Thalia if a girl, John Thomas Lazenby Watson if a boy. So now it's John (or John-Thomas or J.T. or whoknows) who has a name in waiting. Given Hyrum's penchants for Mario and Luigi, the code name just doesn't work anymore. But back to Lavinia.
EVERY PREGNANCY IS DIFFERENT
D: In all our ultrasounds, she has been a Mover and a Shaker. She squirms, she cartwheels, she spins.
"She nearly makes our doctor swear."
She certainly makes it difficult for him to keep an accurate heartbeat feed. Hyrum, by contrast, was a modest baby, hiding his head from the camera and crossing his legs. Joy could count Hyrum's 10 movements in the morning, but he didn't make much noise otherwise. "Maybe hiccups." I think she'll get to 10 movements daily for Lavinia any time now.
HISTORY OF LAVINIA'S NAME:
Back in the paleolithic era of our marriage, when infants did not rule the earth, "our first attempt at a pregnancy was a short-lived one." The miscarriage helped us get prepared to become parents eventually, changed our outlook on life, and was otherwise a very traumatic experience. Even though it occurred at such an early age, we had felt a real connection with our little embryo and felt that we were expecting a little girl.
"We felt close to her and had prayerfully chosen a name for her: Lavinia Thalia Watson."
This made losing her all the more tragic.
"When I suggested Lavinia, it was because I really felt that she was close to my great-grandmother Lavinia in Heaven."
I wanted to name her after Joy, but Joy was just as adamantly against a child named after herself as she is about a child named after me. So I made up a word. The word I made up was Thalia (TAY-leah). I thought it sounded nice. I later went to a baby name website and discovered that the name was Hebraic for ... Joy. I felt inspired. :?D
"And we just think the two names go best together with Lavinia first.
"When we found out we were expecting this time, I tried really hard to tell myself that I would be equally happy for a boy or a girl. When someone would say 'I think it's a girl,' I would say, 'I dunno. It's probably a boy.' And vice versa, trying to keep my heart open to all the possibilities, knowing there are only two."
When we were pregnant with Hyrum, we were ready with a girl's name, but not a boy's. We had some joke names lying about -- Sassafras was our code name for our first male child, Tinuviel (of Tolkeinian invention) our first girl, and Luigi if there were another boy out there somewhere. We returned home from our Hyrum ultrasound and warned him: 'Your name as of now is Sassafras. If you want something better, you'd better tell us who you are.' After much deliberation, the two names we settled on were surprisingly the first two we wrote down: Hyrum Spencer. This time we were better prepared. Lavinia Thalia if a girl, John Thomas Lazenby Watson if a boy. So now it's John (or John-Thomas or J.T. or whoknows) who has a name in waiting. Given Hyrum's penchants for Mario and Luigi, the code name just doesn't work anymore. But back to Lavinia.
EVERY PREGNANCY IS DIFFERENT
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Who is this girl?
Yes. Yes, I did.
Lavinia Thalia Watson, coming late June.
(la-VIN-ee-ah TAY-lee-ah)
(Joy calls her Evie, I call her Thaly ... we'll see what she chooses)
We are ecstatic.
And may I say I am quite pleased with the picture quality on my old cellphone now that we are camera-less?
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