We call him Squishy.

I'm sure he will love this nickname at 17.

G-Pap and Papa Ratzi

Those are the ridiculous names our fathers gave themselves when they found out they were going to be grandparents. My dad chose G-Pap (some version of Gary/Pappy) and Nate's dad, Denny, thought Papa Ratzi would be a fun play on words since he's into photography.

Um...no.

Does anyone else think G-Pap sounds a lot like Pap Smear? Just saying...

Thanks to our moms, who have wisely decided on Nana (my mom) and Grandma (Nate's mom). I guess we'll just have to see what Calvin decides to call our dads, because there is no way we are teaching him G-Pap or Papa Ratzi.

Maybe we'll have him call them both "old man." That should inspire them to rethink their choices.

Good morning, loves.

My beautiful boys. I am so blessed.

I have ankles!

That's the phrase I've been uttering over and over again the past three days. Seriously, I have never been so excited about weight loss in a random part of my body. After months of walking around on puffy, swollen cankles, my now normal-sized ankles seem ridiculously skinny and wonderful. It really doesn't take much to delight me in my new role as an exhausted mother.

I'm not going to lie: it's been a rough week. And an enlightening one. I had no idea what having a baby was going to entail. Never mind the whole labor and delivery part — that was a piece of cake, in hindsight. No amount of warning from books and friends could have given me a realistic sense of how tired I'd be, how often I'd break down sobbing over nothing, and how frustrating it can be to get a baby to just latch on already.

Luckily, babies are cute. This was a strategic move on the part of someone, because every time I start to think it might be okay if the past week never happened, this squishy-faced little angel of mine looks up at me with his big blue (ish) eyes and I can't think of anything I'd rather do than be his mom. He's amazing, and Nate and I are so thankful to be his parents.

Here are some pictures from his first week with us. More to follow soon!

First came love, then came marriage...

Then came Calvin, our precious baby boy.

Calvin John Breyer
May 15, 2009
3:45pm
9lbs 11oz
21 inches

We are so happy.

WordGirl.

Has anyone with kids heard of this show on PBS?

I just ran across it (and of course I was curious, it's called WordGirl! Could anything be more perfect for me?) and here's the episode description offered by my cable provider:

"Lady Redundant Woman Copies WordGirl by Duplicating Her; Answer All My Questions and Win Stuff: Lady Redundant Woman creates a nefarious copy of WordGirl in an attempt to ruin her do-gooder reputation; WordGirl is on the case when a new game show turns out to be a plot to steal money from the contestants."

I had no idea what I'd find when I flipped to this show based on the episode description, but I certainly didn't expect to find a cartoon. For children.

According to Wikipedia, this is a cartoon for kids ages six and up that teaches the "expansive English language." Are you kidding me? It took me about 10 minutes to understand that episode description (two episode names separated by a semicolon, aha!), but six-year-old kids are supposed to get it?

I might be too dumb to be a parent.

(But I'm not too dumb to know my kid is totally watching this show.)

36w5d

That's babycenter.com message board lingo for "I've got three weeks and two days left and then this kid is coming OUT."

I've had several requests for an updated belly shot, so here you go. The white tank top under the green shirt was maybe not the best idea for picture-taking.

Ah well. Since most of my maternity shirts aren't long enough to cover my stomach anymore, I'll take whatever I can get. And so will you.