A couple ultrasound pictures

Here are a couple pictures from the ultrasound on Wed. We had another one yesterday (and both grandmothers got to go!), and those pictures came out much better. Baby Girl must have known she had a very special audience because she was moving all over the place and was much more cooperative. Plus, we received confirmation that she is, in fact, a girl! We also got a DVD of her squirming around, and if I can figure it out, I'll put some of that on here. And, I'll get Jason to take a picture of me so you all can see how much weight I've gained......thanks for the suggestion, HEATHER.... :)

And the verdict is....

GIRL!!!!!

Everything looked absolutely perfect! I'm 19 weeks, 3 days, and little girl is measuring exactly that! Jason's getting the pictures on the computer, then I'll post some here. She was lying on her tummy, which isn't a great position for good pictures, but, luckily I have ANOTHER ultrasound tomorrow, so we'll hopefully get some better ones then.

Yay for pink!

Not that I'm counting or anything,

but in only 23 hours we'll know if our Christmas present will be wearing pink or blue!

7/9: Drive into Zululand

We woke up early this morning and headed south out of Johannesburg. The smog from cooking fires was hazy in the sky, and we passed a few townships on our way out of town. This is the best picture I got of them this time, but stay tuned for some good close-ups from Cape Town. Horrible to think that people are basically forced to live in this kind of situation.

We had 2 big vans to carry all of us and our luggage. Our van consisted of: Dad as the driver, Jason as the navigator, Katherine as the carsick passenger, Claire as the bored toddler, Chris as the funny uncle designated to keep her entertained, and Lauren as the way-back passenger who was continually kept out of the loop.

Almost immediately after we got out of the city, we hit wide open prairie. The color of the grass is an amazingly bright gold, and the contrast between that and the deep blue sky was beautiful. So much of the interior of the country is untouched, and we went miles at times without seeing a building.

Finally, after 5 hours of driving and a lunch stop, we arrived at our next destination: Fugitive's Drift. This is a lodge started by a noted historian of the Anglo-Zulu Wars of the late 1800s. Dad and Jason are big fans of this time period, and the tours the guides give of the battlegrounds are great, even if you've never even heard of them. We were too late to do a battleground tour this day, so we went on a nature walk instead.

We saw our first giraffes, way up on top of a ridge: (Can you find them?)

And then right in front of us! I could have walked over and touched him, had I felt so inclined (which I did not).

We got back in time for the rest of our group to get cleaned up for dinner. Children were not allowed in the dining room, which turned out to be a real hassle, so Jason and I dined by fireplace light every evening in our farmhouse while the rest of the group ate in the dining room.

Fireplace light? Farmhouse? Oh yes, more on that to come......

7/7-7/8: In the Air

We had a very uneventful journey into Johannesburg on Tuesday and Wednesday. Claire slept the entire way to Atlanta, then played and ran around for the few hours before the long flight. Once on board, she settled right in, fascinated by the little video screens on each seat. Delta has great entertainment, with at least 150 movies on demand, plus games and tv shows to pick from. I think Claire watched Madagascar 3 times before realizing the Mickey games were lots of fun. She did an amazing job sleeping on the plane, and her special kid's meal was a hit. So even though the AC left a little to be desired, and the flight lasted 16, instead of 15, hours, the flight over was a success. Here are some shots of our little world traveler:



We landed in Johannesburg around sunset, so we had an overhead view of all the cooking fires in the townships. This is where the black people in South Africa were moved during Apartheid, and because of the lack of jobs and money (along with a deep-running racism), they are still living there. There is no electricity or running water, and people live in nothing more than metal sheeting-made boxes about the size of my closet. These are all over South Africa, mostly in the out-lying areas of cities. Because of the World Cup coming next year, the government is tearing down a lot of townships and moving people into government housing, but it's not going fast enough. It's really hard to believe people are living in these kind of conditions.

Here's a view of a few fires from the plane:


And here's the skyline of the city. It looks foggy, but it's actually a constant haze that covers the country because of all the smoke:


Up next: our trip into Zululand!

Bon Voyage!

In just a few hours, we'll be on our way to South Africa!!! We're about to head over to Honey and H's, then we'll all go to the airport together. We'll meet up with some of our family in Atlanta before enjoying the lovely 15-hour flight into Johannesburg. Aunt Lou and Uncle Chris will be meeting us there after spending a few days in Madrid. And then the fun will begin!

I think Claire is just as excited as the rest of us for the cool weather we're about to have:




I'll try to keep this updated as best I can, but as you can guess, Internet access is very sparse. At the very least, be prepared for an onslaught in 2 weeks once we're back! As the Zulus say, hamba kahle--bye!

Busy, busy, busy

Things have been crazy around here for the last week or so. We're leaving on our trip tomorrow, so there have been huge piles of laundry to get done and shopping to do. And this is what J's been working on for the last week with his dad and friend Bill:




We have a new deck! We're throwing Aunt Jamey and Jeff a shower shortly after we get back from the trip, and we thought it would be fun to have a nice deck. We were just going to have a rectangle coming off of the little patio slab and ending at the end of the house, but things got a little bit bigger. Now it wraps around the house to take advantage of the shade from the cedar tree. It's not completely finished yet, but it will be soon! I can't wait to be able to sit out there and enjoy our backyard with a cold glass of lemonade!

No ultrasound today

We didn't have an ultrasound today, just a check up with the high risk doctor. We got to hear Baby's heart beating again, and he checked my sugars (which were fine), but mostly we just talked about our upcoming trip to South Africa. We'll go in for an ultrasound in 4 weeks, then have them every 3 weeks until I hit 30 weeks, at which point I'll start going in weekly. They're really hyper about watching the size of the baby to make sure he/she doesn't get too big, but with Claire being a whopping 5 pounds at birth, I doubt we'll have issues. I don't mind all the sneak peaks inside, though!