Buone feste!

Christmas concert: Dylan is in the front row

to the right of the little black girl. Those are his two teachers

in the back row.

I didn't do an official holiday card this year to send out to friends and family, and I'm really sad about it. I normally order them through a photo service in Amsterdam and it takes a while so when I realized the first week of December that I had forgotten to put the order in, I knew it was just too late. :( Today Dylan had a mini Christmas concert at school. The school is not big enough to hold all of the parents, grandparents, etc. so we kind of had to stand in the doorway while the kids sang in the "great room" where they play during indoor recess. So my pictures and videos are not very close up. I'm posting a couple of things here.

Pregnancy-wise, I'm feeling really great and the baby is kicking up a storm. I am HUNGRY 24/7 after months of eating boiled potatoes and crackers.

I just wish I wasn't so far away for the holidays. That's always a killer, and this year it is hitting me more than ever. I would drown my sorrows in Christmas food but Italian Christmas food is very heavy on the meat and fish and vegetables are scarce. There aren't even any good desserts. I think I'd rather eat fruitcake than panettone. Oh well. At least 2012 has lots of (or at least one big) things in store. Happy Holidays!

I posted a couple more videos from the concert here.

Nineteen week ultrasound

It looks like Dylan will have a little brother. Considering I will have a scheduled C-section sometime around week 38 (the week of April 16), I am halfway there! So far Dylan is not all that interested in his little brother (though nor is he jealous), though he has picked out a name for him and is pretty adamant. The first name he picked out was the name of the kid who bullies him at school (Sebastian). We weren't sure what that was all about but we quickly nixed that idea. But it's still too early anyway to decide on names. I'm finally feeling better. I had a rough first (into second) trimester and have probably only been really feeling much better for about two to three weeks now.

Everything went well with the ultrasound (pic below!) and the baby is doing just great. I'm already feeling him bounce around like a little tadpole. We are very excited! Now if we just had more space. Raising two rambunctious boys in 900 square feet and with no yard is going to be a challenge. We are trying to figure out ways to optimize our space in the best way possible.
Above a (grainy) 3D image and below a profile view.