The Gender Sender Delivers the News

Wifey and I have been keeping a secret for a bunch of weeks:

The news of baby's gender was available to us around Thanksgiving-ish. However, as of Christmas morning, only Wifey knew the gender. Turns out we have significantly different opinions about this little tidbit of knowledge the second time around. Who knew?

I lived through several weeks of loving torment (e.g. "Do you want to know now? ...how about now? ...um, now?"). We made plans to disclose the Mills side of our family at Christmas lunch AND force them, willingly or not, to participate as the gender was revealed to me/us. Here's how it went down:

Our calendars are marked for May 27th!

The Great Pacifier Backfire

Wifey & I didn't want to use a pacifier with Alex. Then he went to daycare and we found ourselves knee deep in those thangz. It made our lives a little easier at the time but Alex is so chill that neither of us think there was a material benefit. Quitting the habit brought the full range of withdrawal goblins though and that's what we're dealing with this week.

Naturally, I took the pacifier notion and mashed it with one of my favorite musicians (Walker Hayes). Here's where I landed.

Since I have very little music-ability, I needed to rip the instrumentals and most of the remaining creativity. Getting the lyrics and instrumentals didn't go quite as planned but you got the point! Here's the original song. I picked it because it's got a nice message behind it that is easily relatable. 

You be the judge though, which version do you like more? ;-) 

Fall is for Farms

This is a great time of year to be (as mature as?) a toddler. Who doesn't like to carve up a vegetable, cruise down a hillside slide on a potato sack, roll around in corn or over-indulge on cinnamon donuts? We've been doin' one fall festival per week for a while. It's great - each weekend a new farm!

Gaver Farm was our choice for pumpkins and farm animals this year. Alex especially likes the goats.
By the way, have you ever noticed human's predisposition towards enormous pumpkins? I can't explain it but it seems to be part of our nature. I direct your attention to Exhibit A (...as in Alex).

Despite the more reasonably sized pumpkins, Alex wanted the pumpkin that weighed as much as he does. Gotta admit, I love his ambition! Unfortunately for him, when I was growing up, the rule was; if you can carry it, you can get it. So...

The best part of Butler's Orchard Pumpkin Harvest was the squash shooting, jack-o-lantern launching, punkin' chunkin' CANNON. How could I resist? Pay close attention to Alex when I blow the horn.

Side-note: Butler's has the best cinnamon donuts.

Blizzard Wizard

I am so very happy that Jonas decided to plop more than 2' of snow on us. Now-a-days winter-tech is just a distant memory in my book. But it's just too hard not to have some fun when the opportunity presents itself. Plus, in my mind's eye, this is exactly how I'd look if I were cast in a Winter apocalypse movie.

Notice that my trusty sidekick has decided he's gone far enough. While I press forward clutching Jake's leash in my hand, he had decided that a pee-break wasn't worth the effort and retreated back into the warmth of our cave. I bet he'd change his mind if he was wearing SmartWool from head to toe...

I finally coaxed him out as the storm started to wind down. Hardly anything was cleared but those sidewalks that were created a fun maze for us to navigate.

And then there was this little fiasco. This is the bread isle at the grocery store. Kinda crazy, right? Would you be surprised to know that the ingredients used to make bread were virtually untouched?

The storm affected a lot of folks in a negative way. We're hoping that they stay warm and safe. But for me, it was a lot of fun to frolic in a winter wonder land.

We'll pass on the wine tonight

August 6^th occupies a nice little spot in my heart and mind these days. It was last August 6^th (a Wednesday) that Ali and I learned of our greatest adventure yet.

We were on vacation house-sitting in Eagles Mere the week prior. Heading back to work is never easy and by the time Wednesday the 6^th rolled around, we were both wishing we were back in PA enjoying the mountain air.

On this particular Wednesday, we both had pretty awful days at the office. When we got home, it was all we could do just to make dinner and find a few minutes to relax with one another. Ali went to the change out of her work clothes and I went to the kitchen to grab a bottle of wine. You know it’s been a really bad day in Davey World when wine becomes appealing. As I waited in front of the TV – quality programming I’m sure - I poured two glasses of wine. Then my wonderful wife appeared to my right.

“I think I’m going to pass on the wine tonight…”

You could probably guess what ensued. Our emotions rushed in two different directions. Ali, shock. David, gitty like schoolgirl. We were overwhelmed with emotions. And then, “Are you sure?” We looked at the test. “Looks like a ‘+’ to me. Right? Umm, do another one.” No more tests in the house – and this was not the time to leave things any less than 100% definitive. …quick, Ali, drink some water. I’m going to Safeway!

I return 20 minutes later with 3 new tests (from 3 different manufacturers, of course) to a wife bursting at the seams. 3 tests and 30 minutes later, we’re still not 100% convinced. It wasn’t until the following morning, in the doctor’s office, after a blood test that we accepted the news that we had been hoping for; Ali was pregnant.

Field of Dreams

I’ve got retirement on my brain.

Mostly because my mom retired this year and we just celebrated with her, family, and friends. But…also a little bit because I’ve been planning for retirement since 1996 and been obsessing over it ever since.

Take a trip down memory lane with me. My first ever retirement plan was to hit the Maryland Lotto and retire at (or before) age 30. One needs to reach the ripe age of 17 before purchasing a lottery ticket in Maryland. Oh, I counted those days all the way down to my 17^th b-day. When the day finally arrived, I drove straight to the 7-11 in Damascus and bought as many Lotto tickets as my birthday cash could afford. The money I won was “reinvested” immediately which led to compounding losses and eventually…no more cash. As it turns out, the lottery was not a good retirement plan for me. I haven’t given up on that dream entirely but I’ve augmented it with mitigation strategies including the Virginia Lottery and a career.

  

With Plan B well underway, I’m free to think about the more operational related pieces of retirement. I like to refer to this part of the dream as “FTB” or soccer (f)ield, (t)urnstile, and (b)arn.

1.     Soccer Field: Kinda like Groundskeeper Willy meets Ray Kinsella from Field of Dreams. I'll spend my mornings tending to the (full size) pitch. In my minds eye, it’s freshly mowed, painted and has the professional style goals where the nets are tied behind the goal forming a perfect ready-to-billow canopy.

2.     Turnstile: the Red Sox hold spring training from early February to early March each year (currently in Fort Myers, FL). I’ll spend those 4-5 weeks each year exploring a second career: as one of the ticket checkers at the turnstile gates.

3.     Barn: I want a barn to house a wood-shop real bad. Ha! I’ll build furniture in my spare time.

 
Even more important than FTB though, I hope to be surrounded by friends and family. That’s the real dream. Which is what we did with Mom this weekend. So enjoy the retired life, Ma. You’ve earned it.

Our New Addition

For the last week or two of Ali’s pregnancy we spent every day wondering if today was going to be the day. Not knowing turned us into loonies as we began trolling the universe looking for signs. Our car was nearing the 100k-mile mark. As the miles passed by, the odometer screamed increasingly louder – signaling to me the impending reality: Baby’s on the way.

Eventually, 100,000 miles came and went. Our best guess came and went. Baby’s due date came and went.

The 283^rd day of the pregnancy (40 weeks 3 days) was a Sunday. At this point, we felt like we were on borrowed time. Which meant that both Ali and I were working lots of extra hours and trying our best to get ahead of our workload and put ourselves in a good position to take extended leave.

Ali was doing email at the computer desk and I on the couch round about 5p when she turned to me and said, “my stomach doesn’t feel real well.” And that was it: the beginning of labor. We didn’t know it yet but we were in for an exciting night.

Around 6p, Ali still wasn’t feeling well but the feeling would come and go. She was the first one to wonder aloud, “do you think this is…labor?” I’m not 100% sure, but I’m pretty sure I responded dismissively from behind my Outlook, “Darlin’, if it were labor, there would be no mistaking it.” Then, back to my email. Ha! My bad!

By 7p, there was no mistaking it. We settled-in and waited for the one thing that I clearly recall from the parenting classes: 5-1-1. Money well spent! At 1a we called the doctor and doula. The doctor said, “how’s about you bring her into the hospital and we’ll try to figure out what’s going on.” I wondered quietly to myself, “they didn’t teach how to interpret these symptoms in medical school?”

Labor bag? Check. Overnight bag? Check. Clean the house so that Matthew will be comfortable while dog-sitting? Umm…not so much. Very sorry about that one, Matthew. But thanks for taking care of Jake!

It was pouring rain on our way to the hospital. We walked from the parking garage to the emergency room and stopped twice for contractions. Once we got into the emergency room, no one had to say a word. They just smiled knowingly and pointed towards the Labor wing.

Ali was a champ. All. Labor. Long.

I can’t sit in one position on the couch for more than 30 minutes. Ali held terribly awkward positions for 4x that long and by the time Baby arrived at 7:42am on Monday, April 20^th, I was convinced that balancing upright on epidural-ed legs is her superhuman power.

Baby weighed-in at 7lbs 11oz. We haven’t made the final decision on his name so he’ll have to be “Baby Mills” for a little bit longer.

Shortly thereafter, the new mom, the new dad and their new baby were moved into a Mother/Baby Room. Our emotions were all over the place (in a very good way). By this time the rain had stopped and the sun was welcoming all of us to a new day and the next chapter of our lives.

It turns out the it's a slow day in the Labor & Delivery Unit (and that news travels fast). The nurses and doctors have been pouring into our room to see and hold the adorable new baby with red hair. :-)