We’ve hit the second trimester running…erm, actually sleeping most of the time. Jina is still pretty tired a lot, but she’s rocking. The 3-day weekend was a good one for her to rest up take quite a few naps. I of course felt it my responsibility to take naps with her, because I want to be supportive.

Little Elyla is 13-weeks old today and the size of a juicy little peach. What’s amazing is that I actually bought two peaches this weekend at the store, and I hadn’t done that in probably a year.

What made me buy them on Sunday? Divine intervention?

No clue, but when Jina told me this morning the latest fruit size for Elyla, I went directly to the fridge and ate a peach.

The other news in the kid’s development is that the intestines are apparently “moving” from the umbilical cord to the tummy area.

Another good step I would guess, considering you really want those things in the right place.

Other than that, we’re doing good. We have an appointment with our new OB on Thursday, so hopefully that goes well.

First off, you have to know I’m a weather nut to the core, but this isn’t really about the weather.

It’s just about enjoying it.

Today has been one of those days that is worth remembering. It was chilly this morning, overcast and drizzly. I love it when it’s like this, but yesterday had been rainy all day and I was sort of ready to see it clear up a bit. We talked about going to dinner tonight, maybe sitting outside on a patio, but with the clouds and rain, it was a bit too cold.

I had to run a package to the FexEx store this morning, and it was still cloudy, but the rain had stopped. So I took the top off the Jeep, piled the dogs inside and we went for a ride. They loved it. Stopped at a park, they went running all over the place as if they hadn’t been out of the house in months.

Which is actually true.

But just driving in the cool temperatures was relaxing and awesome.

It didn’t take long for the skies to clear and the sun to come out. And the temperature rose, not too high, but to an absolute perfect 71 degrees.

I’ve been trying to work this afternoon, but every so often I have to go and sit outside on the patio. The wind picked up, so my trees sound so soothing as they blow in the breeze. The sun keeps you just warm enough not to get cold, and the air feels heavenly. Every now and then the light dims as a lone cloud blocks the sunlight.

It even smells good out there.

These are the kinds of days that make me feel close to God. Heck, heaven could be amazing, but I almost am hoping that if I ever get there someday, I’d like to be perpetually in a place that is like today.

Relaxing, eyes closed…just feeling the rush of the wind around you, the sound of the leaves swooshing back and forth and the wind chimes on our patio playing their soft music.

It’s basically my perfect day out there. The only way it could possibly get better would be a brief thunderstorm rolled through, reminding you that while God created this peaceful day just for me, he can also turn it on its head in a moment’s notice.

Not sure what compelled me to write this…it’s just how I get when it feels like heaven sitting outside on a lawn chair.

Little Elyla is 12 weeks old today. Mother and baby are doing great as has been the norm, although the last few weeks have been a bit tough on Jina physically. She’s been very tired and feeling a bit sick here and there, but has gotten through it like a champ.

Last Friday, we had plans to go out and see some friends, but she just wasn’t feeling that great, came home at 3:30 in the afternoon and slept all the way until Saturday morning, waking only to eat dinner and watch a little BSG.

But as I’ve said, Jina amazes me with how strong she is and how well she’s doing with all this. I try to do my best to take care of whatever she needs, but rarely does she complain about how crappy she feels.  She’s a tough little cookie, and I think it’s because of all the football we watch during the fall around here.

We’ve been cutting expenses right and left, but when the subject came up about NFL Ticket and the cost involved there, we both agreed that would be a last resort.

That’s one of the many reasons I love her.

So if you didn’t get the meaning in the title, little Elyla is the size of a plum today, which really doesn’t lend itself to anything interesting that I can remember. I do love a good plum here and there, but it’s not really one of my favorite fruits to eat.

Maybe I should buy a few just to celebrate this week?

According to Jina’s handy-dandy guide, the baby has all its important parts already, they just need to grow and develop a wee bit more.

Only 8 weeks until we find out the sex, and then Elyla can become either Eli or Lyla for the duration of the pregnancy.

The little guy or girl growing inside my wife is the size of a lime today, which also happens to be its 11th week anniversary.

Limes really have only one purpose and that’s to be sliced and squeezed inside of a Corona. I really have zero clue what people did with those things before that beer was invented.

I’m not sure how the kid would feel about being dropped inside the bottle of a Mexican beer, but the good news is that he couldn’t even FIT right now.

On a side note, the kid sort of has a name in our household (household - a big word for two people) and it’s time I passed it on.

When the kid is born, it will either be named Eli Charles, or Lyla Grace. Since we don’t know right now what the heck the sex will be, we came up with a nickname that was born from saying the two names a few times real fast:

Eli, Lyla…ELYLA!

Pronounced: E-lie-lah

It actually got pretty annoying after 5 minutes, but it stuck and we call it that now and then, especially when”the baby” just gets old.

So that’s the update this week. We’re all doing fine, the baby is fine, Jina is fine and most importantly, I’M fine.

If you arrived here thinking you were headed to PopCritics.com, then you are part of the group having problems. Both Pop Critics and this site are hosted on the same server, and we moved to a new one last night, but for some reason, people looking for PC are being forwarded here.

We apologize for that…hopefully the matter will be fixed shortly.

Mike

I used an exclamation point in the title of the post because I wanted to make you think this was an exciting, awesome update.

But in reality, we really don’t have much in the way of coolness to update you with. Certainly no new ultrasounds for another 10 weeks, which really sucks. We got spoiled at the fertility clinic with TWO ultrasounds within a week of each other.

Today the baby is 10 weeks old, which is a nice round number. That’s the same number as Leandro Barbosa wears for the Suns, but I really am trying to ignore them right now.

Jina told me yesterday that the baby is the size of a prune now. If you want to see what it might look like, the handy dandy little animation up to the right should give you all you want, and maybe more. It’s actually a cool little applet.

Jina is doing well, but still pretty tired a lot. We went to see Iron Man last Friday at 4:50pm, we got home, ate dinner and turned on Battlestar Galactica, and I looked over and Jina was asleep already.

It was like 7:59pm.

That’s our MO right now. And I say OUR, because I figure I should to endure whatever she is feeling right now. So I eat a lot, sleep a lot and pretend to be in pain so I can get sympathy.

Kidding about the pain part.

But it sure is nice to eat and sleep more than usual!

Honestly, it’s been interesting because they say 50% of fathers end up with sympathy pains as they go through this, and not just pain, but stuff like being tired a lot.  Jina started not being able to sleep through the night, and for about a week, I kept waking up at odd times too. And it made me incredibly tired during the days.

Ah well…

We had our first OB appointment on Monday, and we go back for another one in four weeks.

We’ll keep you guys posted if anything exciting happens, like if the prune suddenly starts talking to us and says “I want to know who’s in the coffin on Lost daddy.”

We all do kid…we all do.