I Wonder?????

You may be wondering where we've been over the last year.  It was a sobering experience logging back on to this site after a year of dormancy and seeing "Her name was Miriam Louise".  It all seems so close, yet so far away, just like Saturday, March 3rd, the assigned due date for Tie-Tee Tot.

A picture of our family Luke drew early on in the school year sharing the good news with Mrs. Suba and others soon after our announcement to the family.

I've had a few inquiries as to why "Tie-tee Tot". Losing Miriam shed new light on many aspects of our life and being pregnant brought the attention back to the tiny person many times over.  In the past, we had used numbers to refer to the child in utero not knowing whether they were a boy or girl.  Looking back, I'm disappointed at our lack of creativity with Augustine as #2 and Clement as #3.  Truth be told...Pete and I called #2 A.J. in private ;-).  We broke the mold a little with "I.V." (pronounced eye-vee) but still closely linked as roman numeral representation for "four".  Some may see the connection of IV to Peter Vincent now and consider re-guessing Peter's girl name as there is a similar connection. And to lay it all out there, Miriam Louise was actually the girl name we had picked out for Clement, and Aunt Debbie and Uncle Matt would have been #3's Godparents had it been a girl.  We haven't reconsidered any of the other girl names we selected for the other boys, and hesitated to do so with Miriam Louise but there was a  vivid moment in the early stages of pregnancy in the short time between taking the pregnancy test and being rushed in for emergency surgery where I was upstairs near our bedroom where there was a great sense of joy as I lay my hand on my belly and thought, "Are you our Miriam Louise?"

All this being said, "Tie-tee Tot" is not really connected to the names we have picked out . It  took us much longer to settle on names this time.  Miriam made the number schematic a little tricky.   Do we go for something related to five as if Miriam never existed or skip right to six thus bringing recollection for us and questioning to others as they count and recount the stair steps of moving bodies lined up next to us?

Tie-tee Tot arose from the method of announcing our pregnancy which came later than we had hoped because of a miss-click of the mouse in ordering a homemade storybook which featured a variety of characters in the form of Mr. and Mrs. Potato head and their offspring.  Consequently, Tot was chosen.  I may have slipped up once and said Tater Tot instead of Tie-Tee Tot which Clement got a big kick out of.  We didn't want Tater Tot though and Tiny Tot didn't seem like a good choice considering Peter Vincent weighed in around 11lbs. on his birthday.  Pete and I had enjoyed a wonderful date night at home with the contents of our Try the World box which included Thai tea and may, or may not, have brought about the existence of our newest family member (blush, blush).

Thus, Tie-Tee Tot is soon to be born.  

Me working on the blog post with uninstalled new infant carseat alongside and Peter V. unawares of the full extent of the changes coming soon.  New booster seats arrived and were assembled today as well.  Gotta figure out how to fit the whole gang into Viceroy.

I've been wondering... are you a boy or a girl?  Will you arrive early? on time? please....not ten days late!?!?  Despite the total lack of baby bump photos and reports of pregnancy processes I guess I better give others a shot at the game of guessing your name???  It is rather fun and it helps make the wait a bit more bearable.   If you want to return back to some of the guesses from previous pregnancies, check out these posts:

Let the Games Begin
Calling all guessers of Peter's Successors

Luke's guess.  Hoping to share a birthday it seems...

Augustine's guess- a bit more "colorful" if you ask me ;-)

Your guess should include:

A.) Baby's name (first and middle)
B.) Boy? or Girl? (Let's face it folks, given the names and trends of the times it's not as easy to distinguish male/female based on name choice)
C.) Proposed birthdate
D.) Weight and Length
E.) Any other tidbits, advice, or anecdotes you choose to add.

Clement's guess.

O' Clement!

Side shot of "Tie-Tee Tot" measurements, according to the midwives seem to be "right on".  Peter pointed to Feb. 28th on the calendar.  When asked "boy or girl?" he said "gurr" but he also tends to repeat the last word you say to him.  He said "Bay-BEE" and hit my belly.

The boys all keep referring to Tie-Tee Tot as a "him" to which I gently remind them "It could be a girl".  I'll admit I'm a little more open to the change/challenge of a girl this time around.  Clement is sure that the baby has a penis, 'cuz he just knows. And since the new carseat we ordered has a boy on the front Tie-tee Tot has to be a boy according to Augustine.  Pete's sticking to "girl" which he's guessed every time.

I look forward to hearing from you and am grateful for any prayers you may have to offer in these last few weeks. 

"I am woman, hear me roar." One of the few photos I have of Tie-Tee Tot and me "together".  Happy to have made it to and through the "Rock Solid" Confirmation retreat last weekend with 30 7th and 8th graders.  Here's to prayers of strength and courage during childbirth!