Becca's new ride

We'd been thinking about a new car for a while now. With a baby on the way, we wanted something a little bigger and a little safer than the Civic but with comparable fuel efficiency. It was a close race between the 2008 Honda CRV and the 2008 Nissan Rogue. In the end, the Rogue edged out the CRV and we couldn't be happier with our decision. We'll absorb a manageable increase in our monthly car payments but our insurance premium actually dropped by about $14 per month. Anyway, here's a photo of Becca's new ride. Click it for a larger version.

It's a boy!

Well they are 95% sure it's a boy anyway. They have to keep the 5% probability for themselves just in case they are wrong. We had our first trimester screening today which helps identify if our baby may have down syndrome, trisomy 18 or trisomy 13. Everything looks good so far, we'll get the results in about a week. After they took some measurements of our baby's neck and a small blood test, they took an early look and determined it's not an it any more, it's a he. :-)

We got to see him moving around and he even waved for us so we could see all his tiny little fingers. Heartbeat is still going strong at just over 160. This was the first time Chris got to see him moving, we are so excited. Below is one of the sono shots from today.

Baby Thomhouser's Progress

I saw a nifty little gadget on another friend's blog (they're also expecting) and decided to use the same gadget on ours. Now, we can all see how many days or weeks are remaining or elapsed in the pregnancy as well as a 3D rendering of what our baby might look like.

Overall, Becca and our baby seem to be doing well. We have our next doctor's appointment on Monday (next week is the 12-week mark) and hope that Becca's morning (read: all-day) sickness will soon subside.

Say cheese!

Becca and I have been considering the purchase of a new camera for some time now. Even more so with a baby on the way. Luckily, we found a convenient excuse to bite the bullet in the form of my impending 30th birthday (16 days and counting).

Best Buy sent me an offer for my birthday: 12% off any purchase if I use my Best Buy card. They also had a nice package deal for a Nikon D80 camera, an additional telephoto lens and a camera bag. Combine all of that with 18 months of 0% interest on the purchase and we couldn't resist.

In short, we're now the proud owners of a brand-spankin' new DSLR camera (see below for a picture of it). Let the high resolution, photo-taking madness begin.

Weekend in Napa/San Francisco/Sanoma Valley

Last Thursday evening Chris and I joined our friends Brad, Jenny, Justin and Michelle for a trip to sunny California. We spent Friday touring wineries in Napa. We spent Saturday in San Francisco doing a little sight seeing and shopping...and a fair amount of eating as well. Then we spent Sunday touring wineries in Sonoma. To make a long story short, Chris did the wine tasting for both of us and we brought home a case of various wines which we'll enjoy after the baby is born. We took a slew of photos and they're all up on our Flickr album.



Just wanted to say to Steve and Natalie; wish you were there.
Also a big shot out to Emily for the great restaurant recommendation, The Stinking Rose was awesome. Even though we all smelt like garlic for the rest of the weekend we loved it. :-) Thanks.