4.5 months down, 4.5 months to go

Here is the first official belly picture. In all belly pictures, I WILL be fully clothed. You won't find my naked belly anywhere on this blog.

I took this about a week ago, so I am definitely starting to look pregnant. A few days ago I started feeling the baby move, so that's been cool and weird at the same time.

Not much else to report. We are starting to buy clothes and get more and more excited. Thanks for tuning in.

Got my hair did!

So, here's my new look. I haven't had hair this short in about 13 years, so it was time. Don't tell me if you hate it. Compliments are always welcome.

2011: A Rabbit Baby

In honor of my brother Jonathan serving in Hong Kong and the fact that at work I sit next to a girl from Hong Kong, I have learned about what kind of baby Tyler and I are to expect come August, according to the Chinese Zodiac. Thanks to Wikipedia, we know that our baby boy will be: "Rabbit (🐇 🐰) – 兔 or 兎 (卯) (Cat (🐈 🐱) in Vietnam) (Yin, 4th Trine, Fixed Element Wood): Gracious, good friend, kind, sensitive, soft-spoken, amiable, elegant, reserved, cautious, artistic, thorough, tender, self-assured, shy, astute, compassionate, lucky, flexible. Can be moody, detached, superficial, self-indulgent, opportunistic, stubborn."

Let's discuss some of these traits. The first few seem like the kind of characteristics a Tyler & Rebekah offspring could possess. However, "soft-spoken" is something neither me nor Tyler has ever been called. I don't even know what we'd do with a quiet child. Maybe the child will be quiet because Tyler and I will talk so much that we won't give the kid a chance to speak. As you move down the list of positive traits, once again, shy comes up. I just cannot imagine a child of mine being shy, but I guess you never know.

After two rounds of ultrasounds though, this baby boy has demonstrated some of his rabbit qualities already. He likes to keep his legs crossed the entire duration of the ultrasound, thus showing that he is both reserved and stubborn. We tried speaking to him, telling him we just wanted to know his gender and that it was okay to uncross his legs for his parents. This must also be his shyness manifesting itself.

In all seriousness, we are really excited about having a baby! However he decides to behave, we are happy to have him in our family and excited to start training him in the ways of goodness, funniness, and intelligence (like his parents, of course).

We have decide on the name William Fielding, taking the middle name from the father, Tyler Fielding Hutchins. William is a pretty grown up name for a baby, so we will call him Will or baby Will until he decides he wants something different. As many of you know, naming a baby can be a difficult task, so there are no promises that his name won't change by August 14th.