WE'RE HAVING A GIRL!!!!

WOW! It has been almost a year and a half since our last post. I’m pretty sure I remember telling Melissa, “We’ll take turns. It’s my turn now. I’ll write all about Linus being born and graduation and stuff” and I just never got around to it. So I guess here I am getting around to it, and you should probably expect the next post from me to be well after our last child is born in ten years or so.

For anyone aware of the goings on with our little family, you know that we are pregnant. For anyone to whom this comes as a surprise, well…SURPRISE!!! We are pregnant! That’s right, WE are pregnant. Please forgive me while I pontificate a little passionately for a moment: I recently saw what was meant to be a comical little rant on the late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel live where the host told a pregnant actress that he and his wife were pregnant and she listed a number of reasons why men are not allowed to use the pronoun “we” when excitedly announcing the couple’s state of expecting an addition to their family. The reasons that she give’s begin with the obvious (men just don’t understanding the pain of actually birthing a child), waxes humorous (crying in the car alone listening to a stupid Bette Midler song), and then wanes pitiful by complaining about not being able to have shot of tequila because of the “love-goblin” growing inside of them (although I have to admit the term love goblin did elicit a chuckle). For all these reasons, men aren’t allowed to say “we’re pregnant” because, according to her, I’m not actually pregnant.

Of course, I was absolutely willing to disregard her rant as just another actress I’m not entirely fond of trying too hard to be funny. But, I couldn't stop myself from browsing the comments below and nearly laughing out loud because of the vehement debate going on. Without, making this a long winded essay I just wanted to say that I feel bad for the women whose husbands don’t use “we,” and I feel worse for the husbands that want to make it a “we” experience whose wives won’t let them. I’m just grateful Melissa lets me, and sometimes makes me take care of her while she nurtures and protects of our little tadpole.

I mean, biologically speaking, of course I don’t have a little king-ling growing and developing in me, and I don’t envy the fact that she has to experience the nausea and soreness that goes with being a walking incubator (not the most flattering term I’ll admit but for some reason I don’t want to delete it). On the other hand, I know she doesn't envy the fact that I have to hold my sweetheart while she sobs for no reason racking my brain trying to figure out some way to fix it, and knowing there is no fix, she’s just experiencing feelings. Just to be clear I’m aware that I’m comparing apples to oranges. Bear with me. What I’m trying to say is, we are in this process together from beginning to end; and five months from now, when Melissa’s begins going in to labor, we will be going to the hospital together, we will work together, and when our beautiful baby girl is born we will rejoice together (although based on past experience Melissa will be so drugged up and tired that all she will be able to do is smile faintly and say, “OH!“). Yes, all of the changes will occur within the frame of my wife’s body, but we will experience the process of pregnancy together. And on those nights that her hips and sciatic nerve are so sore that she can’t stand up, I will carry her to bed happy that I get take care of her as she takes care of my unborn daughter. 

I will never be able to fully express how thankful I am to walk the path of eternity with such a strong and beautiful woman as she. We walk the valley together. We build our family together. WE are pregnant! AND IT’S A GIRL!!!!!!!!!

P.S. I’m sorry, I’m sure you were hoping for an update about what’s new in our lives. I'm sure an update isn't too far away.

I Just Have a Lot of Feelings!!!

My younger sister Stephanie once told me a story about a girl she worked with. The girl was talking about PMSing and how she would get really emotional. She told Stephanie how her boyfriend didn't seem to understand that she just had a lot of feelings and that when he didn't get it she would have more feelings. Well lately I have had a lot of feelings! Lucky for me I have a wonderful and patient husband who just holds me and says that it is just fine for me to cry and not know why. After a week of finding myself in tears at least once a day I think it is safe to say that I just have a lot of feelings.

In other news: Today Alex and I are going to find out the gender of our little Poppy seed. I wish that I knew how to feel about this. I have been waiting for it like Christmas but now that it is here I'm nervous. I'm not sure why. I don't know if it's that once I know the gender it is all going to become very real and I then have no excuse not to start getting things ready, or if it just that once I know the gender I am limited to only dreaming about that gender. There is the part of me that thinks it is a girl and then the other part of me that is pretty sure that because I think it's a girl it will be a boy. I think this all just goes back to having too many feelings about everything. Or maybe it just means that I have a talent for over thinking things. All I can say is that it will be a miracle if I can get through today without some kind of tears.

Alex is greatly enjoying the fact that Poppy seed can now hear and has taken to singing or talking to my tummy any chance he gets (and yes, it is both hilarious and adorable because they are never normal songs or normal things to say to a baby.) He is still waiting, in a not-so-patient way, for the time when he can feel the baby move. He is frustrated that I can feel movement and he can't, but from what everyone is telling us that should change soon.

Well I will try and be better about keeping this blog updated and I will let you all know the gender very soon!

The Holidays Have Been Good To Us!!!

Once upon a time there was a wild bear, or was it a boar, it might possibly have been a beaver but then when I told this story before I distinctly remember telling a story about a furry animal whose name began with a “B” and ended with an “R” and only had one syllable thereby ruling out the following as protagonists of my story: backpacker, backslider, baroceptor, bobsledder, bootlegger, bootlicker, brachiator, buccaneer, brontosaur, and of course the infamously viscous baffler whose only known predator is the Chessmaster 2000 with his smug face and robes that he can only have stolen from Gandalf himself. If the hero of this tale wasn’t a bear he might have been a bawr, a beer (now that’s just ridiculous), a bier, a birr, a blur, a boor, a brer, or possibly a burr…however I’m now one hundred percent certain that it was a bear, and further more that this story has nothing to do with the task that I set out to do when I began writing this blog entry…a great many apologies to those who feel I have wasted their time.

What I’m trying to say is my wife created a blog and she wrote the first two entries and then told me that it was my job to write this next one so that everyone would know that this a joint venture. My response was to then procrastinate, and put this project off long enough for me to have a substantial amount to blog about…which I have done with great success! And now I begin…

GREETINGS! I have never written a blog entry before this one and therefore hope that I have not offended anyone yet with my meaningless babbling in the previous two paragraphs. I should note also that I honestly don’t know where to begin so I will start with the most exciting events of late and then proceed forth telling of other equally exciting, though not quite as exciting as the first item on the list, events in this the Alex and Melissa King family.

First: WE’RE HAVING A BABY!!!!! Which, most of you know since I’m pretty positive that anyone reading this is also friends with us on Facebook. This is the part where I should probably be a little serious at the risk of getting smacked upside the head by Melissa. So, nowhere in my description of events past, present, or future will I refer to our fetal king-ling as an alien, a goblin, a potato, an old man, or Hector. The truth is that, to say both of us are excited for this new addition to our family is a gross understatement! Melissa has made it to stage two which means that any talk at all has the potential to make her cry. And I’m slightly evil because I occasionally will talk about wonderfully exciting things just to see if I can turn on the waterworks. For example, in the car the other day I began describing to her a scene wherein she woke up and walked into the living room to see me on the couch, snuggling with baby and reading or singing lullabies. With a swat to my arm she told me to stop, which meant to me that I won. Of course I can’t say much, I’ve heard that there is such thing as sympathy pains that happen to the husband when his wife is pregnant, and I wasn’t sure I believed in such a thing. However, lately anytime I watch a movie about a man losing his family, or hear a song about a fella who’s nervous about the paternal responsibilities that lay before him, or even when I think too much about the future being that I’m going to be able to call son or daughter (we don’t know yet) my eyes start to leak this strange salty fluid. I blame sympathy emotional attachment disorder which is a real thing – as of now.

If you tilt your head to the left, stand on one foot, cross your eyes and look very closely at this picture, you might just look ridiculous! Seriously though I've never seen such a clear ultra sound, and the good news is, we're not having a squirrel!

Next: CHRISTMAS!!! I may need to dial it back on the exclamation points for fear of people thinking I’m digitally yelling in their faces. I’ll do that next time. We took a much needed vacation up to Spokane to visit Melissa’s family. While there we enjoyed sledding, making crooked snowmen, watching 12+ hours of Lord of the Rings, fingernail painting (that one was Melissa although I did consider having my cuticles healthened. That really makes no sense, does it?), and lots of other family fun stuff. It was great! Countless thanks to Mom and Dad McCarty for letting Melissa and me invade and share Christmas!

Nextly: New Years!! For those of you that don’t know, every year on New Year ’s Eve there is a big party at my parent’s house where there is much feasting and playing of games. We went. Melissa took a nap from 11:15 pm to 11:55 pm. We had a blast.

Let’s see…finally: I read two novels in two weeks (a personal record), ate lots of delicious food (the names of which I have forgotten), Melissa and I are now proud owners of a food storage beginners kit, and…old man cardigan.

Well, that should probably be enough for now. I’m very sorry it has taken me so long to get this post up. I know if you are anything like my wife (or me) you probably check our blog daily in hopes that we have posted something new, only to be disappointed with the same old amazing photographs of me in psychedelic short shorts…you’re welcome world. We now vow to be better at stuff and improve our other things. If you have somehow made it to this point of today’s entry, thank you for your attention, and congratulations on your abundance of patience. Until next time, and finally…Cheers!

Marathons and Colds

Well so much for being bloggers.  It has been almost a month and I have told myself every few days that I need to write on the blog and I am only just now getting to it.  In my defense I got really sick right after the last post.  First I got the flu and was in bed with a fever and an unhappy stomach.  And if that wasn't enough, about a week after that I got a horrible cold that still has me coughing.  Alex also has the cold but luckily his didn't set in until after he ran the marathon.

Speaking of the marathon, Alex was amazing!  I am so proud of him that he made it through all 26.2 miles! He didn't even seem like running all that way bothered him all that much, right after he finished he started telling me what he wanted to do for his next marathon.  He says that he wants to be one of the old men that can't even remember how many marathons he has run.  I told him that was ok with me as long as he is careful because I would like a husband that is still able to walk in his old age.

Alex found these shorts for $5 and decided he needed them.

This is them at 4:30 in the morning looking very excited before heading out. 

Coming toward the finish line and not looking as full of energy as they did 8 hours ago. 

They were so glad to be done and we were all so proud of them!!

He felt pretty good about himself after running for over 5 hours. 

Now I can feel some of you wondering how my running has been going... well it hasn't.  I ran the once and then I got really sick and I just haven't done it again yet.  I guess that Alex wasn't as good and keeping me going as I thought. :)  But he did take great care of me while I was sick.  And as soon as we are both well again maybe we will try getting me running again.

We Are Now Bloggers!

Everyone has to have a blog these days so that family and friends can keep up in their day to day lives. So this is us joining the trend.  There are just the two of us but we do some fun things... sometimes.  For example, Alex is training for a marathon and today I started running.  This means that my husband, who runs 5 miles as an easy run, got to "run" one mile with me while I ran a block and then walked a block.  Lucky for me he is a very patient man and doesn't seem to mind.  The good news is that he should be able to keep me from falling into the trap of working out once and then waiting 6 months before I do it again.

Alex has been really busy with school, but that is to be expected when he is taking three Russian literature classes in one semester.  He has a reading list a mile long and always has his nose in a book.  Then again I can't say I mind too much because it is giving me a chance to read some books myself.  Mostly I'm reading fun books but I have decided that I'm going to read Crime and Punishment and Anna Karenina with Alex when he has to for his class.  I have already started Crime and Punishment and I am actually liking it so far but I'm not sure how long that will last.  It could be that it is Russian... or the fact that is has punishment in the title but I'm pretty sure it isn't going to end well.