Yesterday was our third check-up. We spent a long time in the ultrasound room. The doctor nurse (or whoever she was) prodded and measures and typed up notes for probably half an hour or more. She showed us the little heart beating and the brain and the little feet with tiny little toes. The baby is 50th percentile in weight, and everything is developing as it should, including the momma.
With so much room to swim around, the little baby is quite active in there. In fact, maybe she will turn out to be an athlete someday.
So the first of the Nufer grandchildren will indeed be wearing ballerina tutus and will play with my little ponies. Livia will teach her how to dance, sew, quilt, scrapbook, and grow her hair out long. I'm still going to teach her how to be a boy scout, but she she'll be a brownie, not an eagle scout. There will be princess wallpaper, flowing dresses from second-hand thrift stores with accompanying jewelry, hats, and shoes that are too big, cell phone and SMS charges, diaries with little locks on them, daddy-daughter dates, girls nights out, etc.
When she becomes a teenager, I will plan on purchasing a hunting rifle. Though I am not a hunter, I WILL stay at home while she goes on her dates, cleaning my gun while I slowly rock on the front porch swing. I will be dressed in camo and have a hunting knife unsheathed as I wait for the good news that my little girl is home safe from her date. It may just be better if I be the one to choose which person she dates.
One taste that we are helping the young one develop is a penchant for fine music. I have a nice pair of Grado Labs SR 60's (professional headphones) that I put to Livia's belly, and we play a selection of jazz. Right now I am choosing music with strong baselines, as the lower frequencies register more strongly inside the womb. I have mostly been playing Diana Krall, Oscar Peterson, a select amount of John Pizzarelli...the easy stuff. I would like to slowly introduce her to Nat King Cole, Bill Evans, and Jon Clayton. Once she's born, we'll bring out the Miles Davis and Charlie Parker. Of course we are also playing the classical music. I think there really is something divine about the music of Mozart and Bach et al. We dedicate between 5-15 minutes a day to "Jazz Appreciation Time".
If any of you has a suggestion for baby girl names, post a comment to this blog and we'll see what comes of that.
