Our New House

Elaine and I took the plunge the other day and dove into the world of home ownership. (More properly speaking, we're in the process of taking the plunge, we don't have the keys yet, but we've signed so many things I've developed a case of writer's cramp and a slight fear about the ownership of my soul.) We decided to stay in the city and postpone the inevitable move to the suburbs until our little one starts school or can push a lawn mower, whichever comes first.

The house is about five blocks north of Lincoln Park, a.k.a stroller central, and less than a mile from "grandpa" Fawcett's place. We won't be as close to a metro as we are now, but Elaine will still be able to walk to work, and there is a bus that runs pretty much straight from the house to my work, so our commutes should be alright. There are a few projects on our list already, but for the most part the house is ready to move into (which is a good thing since Joe and Cate are conveniently moving to St. Louis before we can put them to work). We'll be moving sometime in early May, and I'm sure a lot of you in DC will be roped into lifting some boxes since Elaine won't be able to carry much. For all the movers, we promise to provide beer and snacks, and sometime between moving in and baby's arrival we'll try to throw a little house warming party.

(click here to see more pictures of the house, or here for the slideshow)

Sonogram

On Friday we went in for a sonogram and we had a little surprise. The nurse told us that based on the sonogram, Elaine was not 20 weeks pregnant, but almost 22 weeks pregnant. So, we've revised the baby countdown to reflect our baby's new August 6th due date. Having heard a few too many stories about how large my dad was when he was born (over 11 lbs), Elaine wasn't completely convinced of the new due date. Her fear, which the nurse didn't dismiss, is that she's still only 20 weeks pregnant with what is going to be a gigantic baby.

Whatever size the baby ends up being, we still don't know the sex. As I've mentioned before, we're planning on being surprised, but I did my best to try to figure it out during the sonogram. On of my co-workers at EPA and his wife are expecting a baby about the same time as Elaine and I, and he brought in the pictures from their sonogram earlier in the week. They're having a girl, and he pointed out exactly what to look for, so I wasn't going in completely blind. My inexpert opinion is that it looked like a boy (and I hope I'm right, because I don't want to have to tell our daughter what I thought I saw). I don't think you can actually tell the sex from the pictures they printed out for us, but if you feel like hazarding a guess, feel free to post it in the comments.

The sonogram went well, everything looked healthy to the doctors, even if it looked like something painted by Edvard Munch to us. They printed out a few still pictures from the sonogram, the middle to pictures are actually pretty nice profiles of the baby. The top picture is a bit more abstract, but you can make out the head and body. Of the bottom picture, Jeff put it best saying that it looks like our baby is a member of The Misfits.