Waiting for baby

Well, since my last post a lot has happened. Most importantly we are expecting a baby girl – This Monday actually (the due date is 2 days from now). Cheryl was 5 months pregnant on our Italy/UK trip, and right now we’re as prepared as we’re going to get, and mostly waiting to meet her.

Yes, we are very excited, and somewhat scared!

That’s not to say we haven’t been having any fun since my October post… We’ve had two trips to Whistler – some of the best pre-season skiing I’ve ever seen, hosted a perfect Thanksgiving feast, Cheryl went to Ontario, Mr. and Mrs. Hale came to visit, Cheryl threw me a rocking birthday party, we bought and decorated our first Christmas tree, and a lot more… Above and beyond that we’ve spent some time trying to learn the intricacies of having a baby through various courses offered by the Swedish Medical Center, we’ve managed to compile a small warehouse of baby gear (Thanks everyone!) and Cheryl now has a new library of baby books that have been walking us through the process.

Cheryl enjoying a stroll through Whistler Village:

Christmas 2009

This Christmas was the first I did not spend in Northern Ontario with family. Cheryl and I stayed back in Seattle in case we received an extra present over the holidays. Luckily for us baby decided to wait until she was full term. I very much missed going home for Christmas, but we organized a virtual video discussion over Instant Messenger which was really good, though certainly not a replacement for going home.

Our cats had their first Christmas as well. So of course, Cheryl bought Charlie and Boots their own stockings. I find it a bit odd that their stockings are bigger than ours, and they also have their own names printed on theirs, but I think we’re going to rectify that eventually 🙂

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care:

Charlie enjoying his new basket:

 

We were lucky that Henry and Trang invited us over for their Christmas feast. It was a great prime rib dinner with the amazing attention to detail that Trang and Henry seem to put into everything…

Christmas dinner at Trang and Henry’s:

I’ve only ever known ‘white Christmases’ as I’ve always been back in Northern Ontario in December, so things are a bit different in Seattle. Putting up a Christmas tree when there is no snow to be seen felt a bit odd. But I got over it.

Cheryl sporting her Christmas cheer and belly in the sun:

 

The only ones who enjoyed the Christmas tree more than Cheryl did were Boots and Charlie. We hoped they wouldn’t climb the tree since it was a fake, but they became expert climbers by the end of the holiday, and managed to bend many of the tree’s branches, and they eventually hid almost all our round ornaments under the couch… We didn’t find them until we started packing the tree back up, so when I looked under the couch to see 20 or so ornaments it was quite a sight…

Cameras

Our point and shoot (Canon SD600) is on the fritz. It often won’t turn into photo mode (gets stuck on video mode), so, with a new baby on the way we decided to start looking into a new camera.

I took this as my opportunity to play with a few different types of cameras. I wanted to get a sense if it was worth buying a digital SLR, or if the new point and shoot cameras would do it for me.

I took the following with Henry’s digital SLR:

I also spent some time playing comparing the Canon S90 with my Canon SD600 to see how much better it was. Short answer: Night and day. The Canon S90 is Canon’s compact in the prosumer line. For those of you that understand these things (one day I will), this point-and-shoot shoots at F/2 wide open which apparently lets in about twice as much light as most other point and shoots at F/2.8. The difference when taking a photo in a restaurant, or at home without daylight is clear.

Anyhow, after taking a few shots and video with the S90 I decided to buy it instead of the SD980IS which would have the benefit of HD video, but essentially the same lens as the SD600. I still might end up getting an SLR with a good zoom lens, but at least I have a very solid point and shoot for when baby arrives.

What now?

They say most first babies are late, though I’ve had multiple friends this year go 3 weeks early on their first, so who knows when she’ll decide to come into this world. The main concern we have now is for a healthy baby and mom. Timing isn’t so much of a concern for us at this point 🙂

Maybe she’ll read this one day and know how excited we were to meet her!

Stay tuned!