Forty-Percent Through

Today Anna had her sixteen-week appointment with her doctor. Everything appears to be going just fine; they baby has a good, strong heartbeat, though it was a bit hard to keep track of. This baby squirms around a lot, just like Jessica did.

Sixteen weeks behind us; twenty-four more to go: Anna is now 40% of the way through this pregnancy. On September 16 we'll go in for the twenty-week ultrasound, and we may then learn the sex of this baby!

Reading with Mommy

Here are a few pictures of Jessica reading with Mommy on Wednesday afternoon:

Family Portraits

Today we set up a makeshift photo studio in the living room and took some family portraits. Here are three of the best:

Jessica's First Pajama Party

Last night Jessica spent the night at Granny and Pa's house. She had a great time, and she slept the whole night through!

Here are a few pictures Granny took during Jessica's visit:

Mommy and Daddy used their first free Saturday night in two and a half years to go to Thai Lotus in Lawrenceville (their favorite Thai restaurant), and then to the new Harry Potter movie. (It's very good.)

Girl in Hat

Yesterday, after a long nap on the sofa and during a particularly wound-up afternoon, Jessica put on her purple hat, and wanted Daddy to take her picture. Here is the resulting portrait:

Nap on the Sofa

Today, after Mommy left to go to work for a little while, Jessica insisted that she didn't need a nap, but she did want to sit on the sofa and watch a little TV. Five minutes into America Rock (the tape she picked out), she was fast asleep:

Yellow River Game Ranch

Today we went to the Yellow River Game Ranch in Lilburn, not far from Stone Mountain. It's kind of like a small zoo where you can pet and feed half the animals (including some very tame squirrels). Among the most interesting for a toddler are the goats, which Jessica thought were rather silly:

She did a good job of feeding them, though:

Near the end of that section, there was a cute little goat resting on a bench, and Jessica could not resist giving it a hug:

* * *

In other news, today Jessica is exactly two-and-a-half years old! Hard to believe, isn't it?

And, in case there's anybody reading this who doesn't already know, she won't be an only child for too much longer! Read about it here.

The First Picture of the Littlest Burdett

Today's ultrasound went very well; we heard a very firm (and fast) heartbeat, saw four distinct limbs wiggling about, and saw the Littlest Burdett squirm around as though trying to avoid the camera. It was awe-inspiring and beautiful.

The picture doesn't really do justice to the experience; when you see it live, the ultrasound really presents a picture of a tiny little human being rolling around in Mommy's belly. But here's the picture anyway:

--Chris

Anticipation

Tomorrow, Friday, July 17th, we go to Anna's OB/GYN for her first ultrasound. It is both something to be excited about and something to be nervous about.

Fortunately, for this particular procedure, Anna is required to have a full bladder; they suggest drinking 32 ounces of water an hour before the appointment. This means that mostly what we'll be thinking about is how quickly it can be over so she can get to the bathroom.

We will post a picture of the ultrasound picture tomorrow; simply for nostalgia's sake, here is what Jessica's first ultrasound looked like, almost exactly three years ago:

--Chris

McDaniel Farm Park

This morning we had breakfast at Sweet Tomatoes near Gwinnett Place Mall, and then went to McDaniel Farm Park in Duluth. It was the fourth time Jessica has been there, and once again she loved it. Here are a few pictures from our visit:

Road Trip '09: Faribault, Minnesota: Home!

We left a day early, on Sunday morning rather than the originally-planned Monday, and made it home on Tuesday evening at 9:15. The drive home was uneventful.

We enjoyed the trip, and were very happy to see Anna's family, and also glad to be able to visit a little of the country between Loganville, Georgia, and Faribault, Minnesota. Jessica was a very good traveler--she was generally content reading books or playing with the Magnadoodle and her "A Princess Mess" mix-and-match magnetic puzzle set in the car; she enjoyed stopping at various restaurants and rest stops along the way, and she was excited by the different hotels we stopped at on our route. She especially enjoyed the indoor swimming pool at the Clarksville, TN, Quality Inn on the last night of our trip.

But now we're home again, and I'm preparing to return to the real world of teaching one section (thankfully only one section!) of English 1101 at Griffin Tech this summer, starting Thursday night at 5:45.

We hope to be out on the road again soon!

Road Trip '09: Faribault, Minnesota, Day 7: Family Pictures

Last night, the last night we'll be in Minnesota visiting the Benoits, we took a few family pictures:

Great-Grampa Ray, Gramma Mary Jo, Anna, Jessica

Back: Uncle David, Uncle Jeb, Chris
Front: Uncle Luke, Aunt Molly, Aunt Theresa, Anna, Jessica

Back: Grampa Denny, Uncle Luke, Uncle David, Uncle Jeb, Chris
Front: Gramma Mary Jo, Aunt Molly, Aunt Theresa, Anna, Jessica

(Click here to read about the end of this adventure.)

Road Trip '09: Faribault, Minnesota, Day 6: Playing in Faribault

This afternoon, Jessica walked up to the playground in Faribault, along with her Mommy, Daddy, Grampa, and Aunt Theresa. Here are some pictures of Jessica playing on the slide and the see-saw.

(Click here to read about the next part of our adventure.)

Road Trip '09: Faribault, Minnesota, Days 3 & 4

Tuesday and Wednesday, days 3 and 4 of our trip, were spent almost exclusively in travel. On Tuesday we drove and drove and drove through parts of Illinois that were flat, through some that were hilly, and through bunches (as I hinted at before) were there was a good deal of road construction going on. We stopped for gas near Knoxville, IL, and I got out of the car for a few minutes to take pictures. Here are a couple of them:

(I don't know what was growing in these fields, I just like the lines and curves. I'm a photographer, not an agronomist.)

After we crossed over into Iowa, we stopped at a rest area to, well, rest, and Anna and Jessica did some drawing with the sidewalk chalk. When I asked Jessica to make a funny face for the camera, she stuck out her tongue:

This is the squid Jessica drew:

We spent that night in Cedar Rapids, IA, and had dinner at the CiCi's there. We eat at the CiCi's in Snellville (about seven miles from our house) at least once a week, and we try to work in a CiCi's when we're on the road.

The next morning we made a quick trip to the Barnes & Noble just a mile from our Comfort Inn, and then headed out into the chilly midwestern morning. (The temperature was a good 30 degrees cooler than what we'd been used to just a few days earlier in Georgia; in fact, I think my car's thermometer didn't read even as high as 70 until we were nearly out of Iowa. And we brought nothing but short-sleeved shirts and short pants!)

We stopped at yet another Iowa rest area, ate some mediocre pizza from the convenience store across the street (the Arby's sign lured us in, but when we got there we discovered the Arby's wasn't yet finished), and Jessica played for a bit:

while I took pictures:

After this break, we went nearly non-stop until we arrived at Anna's mom's house in Faribault, Minnesota.

(Click here to read about the next part of our adventure.)

Road Trip '09: Faribault, Minnesota, Day 2

Day two was mostly a driving day; we drove through the beautiful farming lands of Kentucky, and on through the rest of Kentucky into Illinois. Shortly after we crossed over the border, we stopped in Metropolis, IL, the self-proclaimed home of Superman:

This fifteen-foot statue keeps a constant, unmoving watch over the small town:

I assume that if any Bad Men were lurking in his town, he would come to life and bring them to Justice.

The town is steeped in Superman; there is even a Super Museum. Fortunately for a two-and-a-half year-old, there are a few other interesting things to see, like this dolled-up mouse:

There were plenty of interesting colors, textures, and geometrical arrangements for a back alley photography study, but I'll limit myself to posting just one of them here:

We ate at the Hardees in Metropolis, easily the least-super meal of this trip (a place like Hardees should not attempt burritos and tacos), and drove a couple hundred miles more through Illinois. There is a lot of road construction going on there.

We spent the night in Champaign, IL, and on day three made it into Iowa.

(Click here to read about the next part of our adventure.)

Road Trip '09: Faribault, Minnesota, Day 1

We're driving to Minnesota to see Anna's family!

We set out Sunday morning at 9:00, and had a fairly uneventful drive up through the top of Georgia. Around 11:00 we made it to the Tennessee Welcome Center in (or near; we're not sure) Chattanooga:

(Yes, I know it's not an exciting place. But if you ever go there, this is what you'll see.)

We were fortunate enough to meet Kevin Eames and his family for lunch in Lookout Mountain. The Lookout Mountain Cafe, where we've met them a few times before, was closed for renovations, so we ate at the new chicken fingers place, Gutherie's, only a stone's throw away.

After lunch we went outside to visit for a while, and to be entertained by Jessica's running and climbing and gesticulating and her impromptu monologue about squids, armadillos, witches, and whatever else was on her mind:

It was great to see Kevin and Lisa and their family; I wish we could see them more often. But at least we see them more now than when they lived in Iowa!

After we said goodbye to the Eameses, we went only a couple of miles away to one of my favorite places, Rock City Gardens. I have pictures of myself at Rock City that go back nearly forty years, which is just about as far back as I can go without being in utero (or non-existent). I can't remember a time when I didn't love it there, and I was eager to take my little girl there.

I'm happy to report that Jessica loved Rock City as much as I do, though I'm not sure what this face was all about:

Jessica and Anna indulged me by posing as Humpty Dumpty:

And Jessica made a new friend in the Rock City Maine coon cat (a stray rather than an official resident, I think, but they seem to take good care of her):

I had no luck in getting a full family picture in front of the Rock City Gardens June 2009 bench, but I at least talked myself into posing there:

(The bench is there even when it isn't June 2009. They just change the sign.)

In many ways, Rock City reminded Jessica of Stone Mountain--which is why she had such a hard time staying on the path:

However, unlike Stone Mountain, Rock City has Fairyland Caverns, where you can see, among a great many nursery rhymes, Jessica's former favorite, Humpty Dumpty:

Later, after we'd circled Mother Goose village about a million times, Jessica and I posed in front of a vintage fire truck:

Here are a few pictures I took in a study of that beautiful truck:

And finally, Jessica after a full day of walking:

Before we left, we wandered through the gift shop and I bought a copy of my friend Tim Hollis's new book, See Rock City. I'm looking forward to reading it.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful. We drove for a couple of hours to Clarksville, TN, where we spent the night (we passed Mickey Dolenz at the train station), and Jessica and I went on a late-night trip to Wal Mart to get toothpaste for her, and Pop Tarts for me.

And so ended our first day out on this trip.

(Click here to read about the next day.)