It's a Girl!

Well the wait is now over and I'm proud to announce the arrival of Viola Marie to everyone. She was born on March 27, 2006 at 5:04pm and weighed in at 7lb 7oz and is 19.5 inches long.

It's hard to explain the joy an excitement in watching a new life enter the world. First the head and then shoulders, followed by arms as we build up to the big finale and see the waist and legs. At last the wait is over and I see we have a little girl. Freya has a little Sister now.

Quickly she's laid on top of mother and introduced for the first time. I cut the cord and then they take her over and check her out more and clean her up. I quickly snap some pictures and film some video to help brake the news to the whole family waiting in the lobby.

Grandmother and Oma happen to be waiting right outside of the room as I come out with a Camera & Video Camera, so I was able to tell them first. I made my way to see my daughter who wished for a baby sister and I was happy to tell her that her wish had come true. She had hoped to name the baby Arial Snow White and even the same if the outcome would have been a boy. I told her that could be her special name for Viola.

Next Freya and I bring the whole family back to see Viola for the first time and with Freya leading the proud family on back. She's the perfect proud big sister and will be a big help for sure over the next few days, weeks, and months to come.

Being surprised and keeping the names a secret till the end is fun for us. If we decide to have a 3rd child, I'm not sure if we'll find out or not, but for now we are keeping the name of the boy a secret and I guess we'll have to come up with another name for a girl. We have a lot of time to think about all of that though.

Put that on my list please...

My daughter loves to say this and I thought I'd give it a try for once. For example we'll be walking around the toy store and she spots something she likes, "Put that on my list please..." and I make a mental note. It's not as hard as it seems, just about the whole store will be on the list and I don't know why she likes the Fantastic 4 hands for the character Thing.

So a buddy happens to show me the keynote speech from Bill Gates at CES this past year and I have to say some really cool stuff was shown. I could ask for everything I saw, but I'm only going to put my favorite of the whole speech on my list. Leave room for other stuff later on, I think I have a horse on my list from when I was little.

Keynote Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Nevada on January 4, 2006. (Watch Video Clip)

The three panel monitor setup is incredible and I hope this is not some concept computer type thing they never plan to make. You'll need to look hard at the video, but these monitors are see through and it looks like you can look through the back and see the person but not what is on the screen from behind. I just love all that desktop space.

The Wonder Pets!

At the end of every preschool day when the students have all gone home, a call for help rings out and three very special pets: Linny the Guinea Pig, Ming-Ming Duckling and Turtle Tuck, who live in a classroom become The Wonder Pets, courageous superheroes who sing opera and travel the world using teamwork to help save young animals in distress.

The combination of live action and stop animation is the new show from Nick Jr. and I find it rather enjoyable. I'm not sure if its because I've seen so many of the other shows over and over and this is just new for a change, but I think the artistry involved and story lines have a lot to do with it. Plus I just love the expressions on my daughters face when you hear, "The Phone is Ringing" and the trio spring into action. My daughter starts to sing along and loves this show. So if your looking for something new and fresh, give The Wonder Pets a try, I think you'll soon be smiling too.

The Babies new room

I'm amazed that this room was actually the office at one point. It use to hold about 4 computers, 2 to 3 printers, a scanner, shelf unit, 2 desks, a bookcase, and just about everything else that did not have an official place in the house. We needed an Extreme Makeover and fast.

With the new baby on the way, it was time for the office to go bye bye and all the other odds and ends to find a home. Most has gone to storage and lots of stuff was sold, donated or thrown away.

The new room is really nice and we've been working hard on the rest of the house too. Baby proofing takes time and we still had a lot in place from before. So its not to hard to get back to how it was.

It still in some ways feels like its the first time, being right at about 5 years now from the time Freya was born. We are all excited and looking forward to the big day. I think we just about have everything ready now. I think we'll need to look at a bigger house if we decide to have another baby. I don't think the garage can take much more stuff going out there.