Names

On our way up to Duluth for a family Thanksgiving with my folks and brothers PuddleMama and I began to discuss a few potentail names for PuddleBaby. Well, I'm not going to share any of the favorites, but after throwing back names for an hour the conversation began to degrade to names of whatever we saw on the road: "Fir Tree Kleczka", "Stop Sign Kleczka", "Giant Voyageur Kleczka", etc. You get the idea. We were also inspired by the thought that the babies name should reflect something significant from our pasts. I thought I'd share some of the "better" ones:

Boof Kleczka: This was the only name that the baby actually kicked PuddleMama hard when I said (or shouted...) obviously meaning PuddleBaby loved the name (PuddleMama thought that it was displeasure with the name instead of excitement. Pish.)

Old Mexico Kleczka: Old Mexico (the restaurant) has a solid place in family history already, as both the site of our wedding rehearsal dinner and also the lucky spot where PuddleMama first took the positive pregnancy test for PuddleBaby. Yes, she took the test at Old Mexico (Walgreens had no public bathrooms, but that's okay- I much prefer Old Mexico Kleczka to Walgreens Kleczka.)

Cabo San Lucas Kleczka: Where we took our honeymoon.

Ted Splendid Splinter Kleczka: See previous blog post (if you don't know what I'm talking about here is a hint- look at the blog posts labeled with the "Photos" keyword.

Pacarrie Kleczka: Celebrity couple name, appropriate for a female PuddleBaby.

Capaul Kleczka: Celebrity couple name, appropriate for a male PuddleBaby.

Clancy Kleczka: Kinda like a reverse Indiana Jones scenario.

The Kleczka: Props to my oldest PuddleBrother for this suggestion. Brilliant. "The" also could be a middle appropriate for just about any first name (i.e. "Pacarrie the Kleczka.")

There ya have it. Send me any "suggestions" for names, and I promise PuddleMama and I will take it very seriously.

Oh, on an unrelated note- PuddleMama signed us up for a baby class and a breast-feeding class. She sent me Outlook calendar invites so that my boss knows not to schedule any important meetings during breasty time. The classes aren't till January, but you can start looking forward to a few "explicit" blog posts right now.

Who we mourning? (and other tidbits)

Well more than one of you has chided me for a lack of posts lately. I have no excuses, and hope the four of you out there who actually read this blog didn't give up on me (well, I know PuddleMama, PuddleMama's mama, and my mama didn't give up, so if anyone else is reading this.... Thanks!)

I've been creating a lot of documentation, presentation type material at work the past few weeks, and by far my favorite tool of this type of trade is the bullet-pointed list. In fact, I just modified my profile and added "bullet-pointed lists" to my interests (right between baseball and cigars.)

So in that vein, I figured I'd catch everyone up (all four of you) on the latest developments using.... a bullet-pointed list. Here we go:

• Latest prenatal appointment was yesterday. Everything looked good. Apparently the placenta is a little low, but is not enough of a concern to even warrant another ultrasound (a low placenta could potentially cover PuddleBaby's escape route come evacuation time requiring a c-section type rescue, but this is a long shot.)
• Next appointment PuddleMama has to drink "glucola" before a Gestational Diabetes test. The term "glucola" tickled our funny bones, which registered a blank stare from the nurse. Not to be denied, PuddleMama asked the nurse if "glucola" came in diet (without aspartame of course.) The blank stare continued. Carrie and I hope we get the other nurse next time.
• I FELT THE BABY MOVE! Last weekend at my brother's house I was falling asleep with my arm across PuddleMama's belly. I felt a definite kick on my forearm, and the next night I felt another kick. PuddleMama can even *see* her belly move occasionally now, although I haven't seen this alien experience yet.
• PuddleMama was contemplating a belly photo shoot yesterday. If I convince her to show her beautiful belly I'll be sure to post it on the Internet immediately. Immediately.
• PuddleMama says goodbye to me every morning before she leaves. I tell her to spin around and I tell her how beautiful she is and I fall back asleep. I'm usually about 3/4 asleep and the room is dark, but I noticed this morning that I couldn't remember seeing her in any color other than black lately. I asked her today if she was mourning someone, and if so why wasn't I made aware of this sooner. She told me black was slimming, which is probably why people still refuse to give up their seats on the bus for her. If you ask me, having a big belly when you are pregnant is ideal, and I wish PuddleMama just wore tight tank tops every day.
• Speaking of, PuddleMama is deathly afraid her belly-button will turn into an outie. It is trending that direction, but so far the turkey-timer has not popped. If it does, I will update the blog immediately. Immediately.
• We visited our good friends and their month old baby tonight, and were greeted with a bunch of poop stories.
• Dang their baby was cute though. I held her for awhile (don't worry, I was sitting the whole time and I didn't move a muscle) and looking at those tiny TINY fingernails for some reason made me so excited for every moment of PuddleBaby's life.
• Except for the poop stuff.
• I was considering a post "Pregnant Lady at Thanksgiving" in the same light as "Pregnant Lady at the State Fair" but I think this bullet-point will provide the appropriate image, and besides, I'm still trying to convince PuddleMama to do that belly shot.
• Warning: Shameless plug. We registered at Target and Babies 'R Us.
• Registering at Babies 'R Us made me feel like I was joining a cult. The 20 minute registering to register session (initiation) was creepy, and the suggestion to register for over 200 items (to make sure the shower guests all had something to buy) was downright laughable after registering for approximately 30 items in 3 hours at Target.
• Don't worry, none of the bullet-pointed lists I create at work have this many bullets, or this much detail per bullet. I just felt in my very own blog I could splurge.
• I'm a bit disappointed that I've only seen two user-filed comments on my blog, and one of those I removed because it was a spam-bot posted advertisement for a personal dating site. I'm not sure I can count that as reader number five....

PuddleDoggy Halloween

PuddleMama can't wait till she can dress up PuddleBaby for Halloween. If you don't believe, get a load of what she does to PuddleDoggy:

Well it must be a girl....

I heard from some very reliable and knowledgeable sources last night that true athletes have daughters, not sons. Well, combine that fact with my strike-out-to-walk ratio as a pitcher on my Thursday night St. Paul fall-ball slow-pitch D-league softball team and the result is a foregone conclusion...

PuddleBaby wants to be a.....for Halloween!

PuddleBaby, although shy about his/her privates, was not shy at all about what he/she wanted to be for Halloween. I'm not quite sure how PuddleBaby got the skeleton mask into the uterus, but pictures don't lie:

After showing off the costume, PuddleBaby proudly displayed a pointy chin (definitely a trait from PuddleMama's side of the family:)

After proving she was indeed PuddleMama's offspring, PuddleBaby was getting a little surly and showed us his/her dukes. Put 'em up!

And finally, after even more intense ultrasounding, PuddleBaby had had enough and gave us the full moon:

Not even out of the womb and PuddleBaby can moon like a true member of the family. We are so proud.

Poll has been reopened!

That's right! If you were tardy getting your vote in you now have more time.

We had an ultrasound appointment today and PuddleBaby did its best to hide its goods. PuddleBaby is a bashful little bugger. On the bright side PuddleBaby did have two arms, two legs, a pointy chin, a nose, a spine, eye-sockets, a kidney, a brain stem, and some other goodies as well (and everything except for the eye-sockets I mistook for a ding-dong.)

I'll post some of the ultrasound pics soon!

Dirty Politicking!

Only 4 days left to vote for "Boy" or "Girl."

"Boy" initially got off to a strong lead, but because of some dirty politicking and negative campaiging the race is now too close to call. The polls show this race could go down to the last vote.

Remember, the specific radio-box you select is not as important as the simple fact that you vote.

UPDATE: 3 days to go and now "Girl" has pulled ahead. Now I absolutely know that dirty politicking has been going on! This is the greatest comeback since last night's Sox-Ray's game.