Baby Bargains Bafflement...and Birthday Bashes

I'm opening up this general question to a larger audience besides my trusted baby advisers. I know there are other moms and dads and aunties and pirates out there who may have some input on the following questions:

Is there a baby item that you could not live without? (and I don't care if your answer is pots and pans or a dog leash -- this is not restricted to products made specifically for babies).

The (perhaps implied) reverse of that is also worth asking:

Is there a baby item that you thought you had to have and it turned out to be a dud?

In other news, the little pirate got to meet his/her great-great aunt at her 90th birthday celebration this week. My great-aunt Tid turned 9 decades old on Tuesday (a birthday that she shares with other illustrious people as Uncle Greg "the original matey" Gerbi and Grandma Polly "shiver me timbers" Doyle). It was wonderful to see her and see some relatives that I don't get to see often enough. I'm hoping that some of their southern twang rubbed off on the little one. I got made fun of for fully enunciating "you all". Sheesh.

20 Week Bellies

Belly, belly, who has the belly? We're pretty sure we can outwit all you smartypants out there. Can you guess whose belly has a baby on the inside? Pirate Pat is only swimming around in one of these beauties.

Pirate Pat

Arrggh Matey.

Thursday morning was a relatively significant day on the pregnancy trail. We had the pleasure of meeting our future baby, for the time being to be known as Pirate Pat, via the 18 week ultrasound.

We know Paul Magyar will be thrilled to find out John is no longer the only one in the Doyle family who impersonates pirates. Apparently 7 oz. babies aren't carrying much fat on the bones just yet, so when the fancy 3D ultrasound kicked into gear, it produced the picture above, in which Pirate Pat was giving us a little stare-down while rubbing his chin.

For those who are slightly frightened by Pat's 3D ultrasound, we included a more familiar side shot below where everything looks much more normal, which is pretty much where they told us Pat stands at this point. No major problems, no expected issues. It's nice to hear that once in a while.

Pat was clearly taking a nap when the ultrasound wand started cruising up and down his or her back, although Pat began to maneuver (some might say thrash) around in order to get any feet and hands into the mouth. In a couple of the ultrasound shots, there's clearly a goal of getting feet or fingers into the mouth.

Last but not least, don't look too hard to figure out if this is a Patty or Patrick. First, both of those names are out. Second, they have mastered the science of genitalia avoidance and were able to respect our interest in waiting until December to figure out Pat's true identity.

O'Doyle Drools

Along with Harold the Slightly Unstable Kitty, current undisputed head of the house, we're making the big leap into parenthood, so what better time to start the Doyle Family Blog (likely "Doyle453894 Family Blog" given how many other Doyle families are probably already blogging). We figured this would be a great way to:

1. keep family and friends posted during the 3 month gaps in phone messages you get from John (obviously much shorter gaps from Melissa)
2. let you comment back to us and tell the world what you think about ongoings and stories from the Doyle Family
3. let you smile, laugh, question, snicker, taunt, or outright heckle us when reading our blog in the privacy of your own home
4. provide an email address where we both receive the messages, so you no longer have to worry about keeping track of doyle.melissa, gerbi.melissa.bluecross, colby.1999.edu, jf_$%doyle@hotmail, harry@kittycat.com, etc...

Hopefully all of the above reasons will make our blog useful. If not, we'll use the experience to write an internet book on the top 20 signs of a dud blog.

We may never get back to the 1970s-style "family phone number" where there was one number you used to find everyone, but this should get us close. We'll have a single email address and fill up our blog with plenty of stories and pictures to keep everyone entertained, or at least up-to-date. Who knows, as our kid(s) grow up, maybe kids posting to the family blog will be the 1970s equivalent of dressing kids up like sailors for family pictures. It's just something everyone will do.

Last but not least, for those who are wondering about our blog title, O'Doyle Drools. Well, babies will drool. And little Doyle will probably drool. The rest is best explained by distant Doyle relatives, chronicled in Billy Madison a few years ago. Ideally there won't be a whole lot of ruling going on, or else we're going to have some serious problems in a few years.