to paint or not to paint

Last Friday Lela and I both finally got a chance to unwind from work and get a little R&R. We caught up on tv shows and were going to paint. However, we had a nice lil ice/sleet/snow storm Saturday and decided that would not be the best day to paint as it would be hard to clean up. It was a weird day, when we were down south and when we went to church on Sunday there was a few inches of snow, whereas where we live just 15 or so min away we just got a ton of rain. So we finally cooked a bunch. Well by cooking I mean Lela cooked as I grab things she needs and then clean the dishes, because you know, I know my role. We hadn't cooked since the beginning of January really, so it was actually pretty nice. Yes our lives are ones where we get excited to cook and watch tv, not afraid to admit it.

While the weather was so lovely saturday, we continued our search for a pair of maternity jeans. I thought, how hard can this be, we really just need one pair to get her through. . . yeah, its hard apparently. Lela literally tried on at least 75 pairs of jeans Saturday - okay, maybe not 75, but a lot. About 90% of the jeans looked very um, mom jeanish (its a term in websters I think) with the remaining portion apparently not feeling right to Lela. So we bought a pair that I thought looked nice, and then Lela tried it the next day and apparently they didn't feel right. So she tried on 150 more pairs and decided the ones she bought the previous day were the best. Remind me, why did I sign up to have 2 women in the house? Are we going to need to devote 10 hrs per week now to going back and forth on decisions?. . I kid I kid. I was off doing man things part of the time because you know, I am manly, and didn't get to witness some of the activities. Apparently one of the ladies at the store was less than PC and the second Lela would show her things would say "that's just way to big" and walk off even though Lela didn't think it necessarily THAT big. Lela told me about this lady, we'll call her the Maternity bootch, and I just sort of nodded and agreed that sucked. Later while trying on the 2nd 100 pairs of jeans, I was there and the lady said the same thing. Its a good thing there aren't many sharp objects in maternity stores.

I would also like to mention how its really amusing walking through those stores and seeing the guys there with their significant others. I mean deer in headlights is an understatement. Not that I wake up on Saturday and say, 'Lela, let's hurry up so we can spend extra time in A Pea in the Pod, I've just got the urge to find,' but since she is bearing my spawn, I don't think its too much to ask that I come in and give an opinion on certain things. Just to clarify, by opinion, I mean unless I really, really care about something, figuring out what Lela wants me to say and then saying that. My hit rate on that is about 60% at this time (if you ask me, not Lela) and if I were a baseball player that would put me in the hall of fame, so I am pretty freaking awesome. Anyway, thanks to a PDA device where I can pull up scores of games, read articles and do many things, and those nice wooden chairs, its not such a bad experience. Granted, every woman I know that has been or is pregnant tells me maternity clothes shopping isn't very fun really, so there may or may not be a mood swing, but still. And by the way, can someone have me go shopping for a new mini wardrobe where its elastic at the top of pants and not a ton is form fitting? What's that? There's a mob of angry pregnant women coming with torches and pitch forks to kill me? I take that back.

Lela also started to read a book I received from Nicole about bargains and what things to buy. Holy crap, a whole lot of info, that's all I have to say. It takes the price comparison shopping out at least, but I think Lela's head might explode with all the knowledge or fear of buying something wrong. That's why I try to leave a lot of open space in mine.

One last note and this is REALLY important. I saw this morning that NBC is renewing Friday Night Lights for 2 more seasons. EVERYBODY needs to watch this show, its been on the edge of getting cancelled for a long time and is one of the top 3 shows on tv (along with Lost and 24) and nobody knows it. Its not really about football as much as you would think, its just good. As Lavar Burton would say, "you don't have to take my word for it." End of that rant!

The baby books

Well, I officially started reading the dad books last night that Nicole gave me. Lela had 2 books that her friend Kelly had loaned her, "what to expect when you are expecting" and some mayo clinic book. Those books should both be combined and renamed, "everything that could ever go wrong with your pregnancy and that will freak you out every time you open them". I mean, we have like 5 items we can eat in our house at this point due to the book and various websites. I guess in some respects its good as I now eat a lot of fruit and also get a lot of whole grains because of how Lela's digestive track is slowing and that helps . . . oh wait, that's TMI, but the books tell you about all those things. . .

Any the dad books sort of crack me up thus far. The first few chapters say things like, "really listen to your partner as she is going through a lot physically and emotionally, so she needs your ears and support, even if she just needs to vent." Really? Would I even be married if I didn't understand that at this point with pre pregnancy hormone roller coaster rides? I mean God sort of made women more emotional than us guys, isn't that the whole complementing each other deal and shouldn't a dad to be have the concept figured out (even though I have determined we will never figure out how to perfect reacting to that. . .)? Also, "your partner should try to eat and live healthy so eat and live healthy so eat the nutritious foods with her and exercise with her." So pre pregnancy the conversation would be, "well Lela, you can have that nutritious food, I am going to fry some things and then coat it in chocolate and take a nap while you have some fruit and hit the gym so that I can shorten my life" but now I would never say that (sarcasm inserted here). Anyway, I decided they should rename those chapters "if you are not married to your baby's momma or your wife really hates you, read this and find out why and what to do about it". And yes, basically I have decided that I am the ideal husband based on reading that, maybe that's what those chapters are for, to build the dad to be's ego - again being the best husband ever because I understand those concepts, not because I know how to implement as I think that's impossible. . .

I have viewed a glossary that has all the terms (some of which quite disgusting to be frank) that Lela has already used and I just nod like I know what's going on even though I don't and Lela knows I don't. I have skimmed through some of the rest of the chapters and I think they are going to open my eyes to what's coming, so that's exciting, if you are into dentist appts.

On a dog related note, I have begun running cooper in the morning for a few blocks to get him trained for when he is fully grown and can run with Lela. He's actually been taking it quite well, almost better than walking as he doesn't have the opportunity to sniff EVERYTHING in the universe. He's getting better at fetch too, which to me is the most fun thing. Sometimes he will willingly just drop the toy and can catch the tennis ball on the bounce sometimes too. I know, I know, nobody probably cares but me, but that doesn't mean I can't write it!

On a pregnant lady note, Lela has finally busted out full fledged maternity gear. I think it looks frickin comfortable, can I get some pants with an elastic waste band and shirts that give a ton? Women all over (or the 3 that probably read this) are rolling their eyes right now as I " have no idea what its like to be pregnant and all that goes with it":)

Two days in a row

So since I took a 2 day hiatus from blogging, I figured I owed it to the world to blog on consecutive days. That brings me to my first point. Writing is sort of addictive, I can see why people go to school for four years so they can fight over bad paying jobs writing for a newspaper or something. Of course I went to school so I could sit at a computer for a bunch of hours a week and possibly get yelled at by a client, so I don't want the previous sentence to be interpreted as me saying its a bad thing to do that, just that it seems like it would be fun. I do like numbers though so maybe Accounting is my calling, like when I like to tell Lela my birthday rocks because its 2 perfect squares (9/25). Am I proving my point that I shouldn't be a writer with this meandering paragraph. Yep!

Anyway, just wanted to give an update on everybody. Lela and Mila (pronounced MEE-LA for those of you at home) are doing well. Just so everybody knows we are not complete freaks (well Lela isn't at least) and are not going to name our child Mila but for the purpose of this blog we are going to call her that, so as to not give up the super secret name that we may or may not have decided on and that if someone were to try to take it they may or may not face a knifing from a certain Asian mom to be. Only partially kidding. . .

Just to clarify the pictures on the Coopster on the previous blog as Lela pointed out that he looks somewhat scary, here's the setting. Cooper likes to lean against his crate door sometimes when we are out of the room or doing something and he has been just sitting there lately with his paw up when we open the door. Its pretty cute and funny. . . well to us it is. . . probably like how certain pictures of Mila are going to be really neat to us, but to people who don't get to see the first Huebner Wasian they may not be quite as fun. It'll happen, we are okay with it.

On a more serious note though Lela and I were just talking about how blessed we are. We finally got to go to church last weekend for the 2nd time in months and I think it really helped me to realize how lucky we are. We have a dog that we love and adore (tonight we asked ourselves is he okay? because he seemed way to nice and calm), we have a baby that's developing and is definitely going to be the cutest Wasian baby ever (high bar, I know, but we aim high in this house), we were reminded of our family and how much we enjoy time with them this weekend, and friends out there to help whenever we need. There's more, we could go on and on, but then this blog'll get sappy and we don't need that. Now we just need to get Lela to slow down on her workload for a bit so we can actually hang out and I can let her blog (yeah, I said "let her" because I have officially hijacked this blog and determined that its mine) so you can get the mom to be's thoughts.

Last thought, I filled out a few home depot surveys online tonight so as to try to win $5k. Does anybody know anyone who has ever won these things? Whenever I click on the past winners I think like 90% are from Oklahoma or North Dakota in places which its hard to verify exist.

It's a . . ..

I was going to try to think of some witty way to say it, but I couldn't. We found out the sex of the baby and. . . its a girl! It seems weird saying that since ya know, that's what people say after the baby is born in the movies and on tv, but the sonographer seemed really sure. The whole sonogram thing isn't what I expected. I thought you go in, they show you whether its a boy or a girl, do like 2 kick the tires test to make sure your baby isn't an alien and then you go home with a picture of the baby. Well for all you people (mostly guys who are clueless like me) its totally not like it. First of all she figured out the sex by looking at the baby from underneath, whereas I thought it would be more of a profile looking for a certain body part or lack thereof. Then the sonographer goes on to do like 50 measurements and hopefully proves that your baby is all on track. for the last 13 min of the 15 min appt I was like, okay, okay, okay, having zero clue that any of these tests were going to place and not knowing what some were. I am not sure they confirmed that the baby isn't an alien as the pictures look questionable, but the sonographer seemed sure it wasn't. By the way when I hit spell check on this, sonographer isn't a word, but apparently one of the closest words is pornographer. Thought you all should know. Anyway, all was well with Baby Huebner, so that was good.

We of course immediately drove to Pottery Barn kids and checked out everything pink imaginable. Has anyone ever thought of attaching a PBarn kids, a Gymboree or any of the other kids stores to the hospital or putting them across the street? Upon finding out the sex, does any mom not want to go and immediately start buying stuff? Anyway, Lela, Mom, Jill and Julia of course made a trip to the mall Saturday to get started on the buying of clothes. By the way, before Lela came home from said trip to the mall, I thought Gymboree was some sort of place where kids go to play or there is like jungle gyms or something. Apparently they sell clothes there. Is anybody else scared for me and my lack of knowledge? One of my coworkers Nicole, hooked me up with some books, some of which are for prospective dads, so I think I had better get on reading that.

Anyway, I hate to say it, but I was right. I even got Lela to say, "You were right, I was wrong" to me because she thought it was a boy. Those are words I don't hear every day. . . anyway, I know I know you just want your kids to be happy and healthy, but I have already projected baby Huebner to either be a star gymnast or a point guard of the b-ball team. She'll be great no matter what, but I think that's just where she is projected based on my analysis of Lela and I. Oh and I decided I am starting a group called Dad's Against Dating (DAD for short). It's a grassroots movement to put restrictions on daughters dating until the age of 21 unless the boy passes a series of tests and agrees to various things such as wearing a bug at all times, having a tracker attached to their car, etc. There has to be some money somewhere in the bailout plan to get this program started? Can we get some politicians to back us up? Emails are appreciated, let's make this happen. Vote for DAD in 2009.

The whole Huebner clan was down here this weekend. Lela, Jill, JOe and I went to the NCAA tournament games Saturday and Mom and Dad watched Julia and Jacoby. It was a bit of a crazy weekend, but we had a ton of fun. The games themselves weren't close, but it was great to watch Memphis' athletes and Blake Griffin. We were also excited to get Cooper exposed to more people as we have been working to socialize him. He's getting there but still has plenty of energy and isn't afraid to show it when people come around, but he got better as the weekend progressed. Joe also continues his suggestion that we combine my name and Lela's and call the baby Mila. We are taking it into consideration. . . .

I attached a few pictures again. Some of Cooper and us and the first ever published pictures of the Belly. The first is the 19 week picture, the second the 20 week picture. They are after morning runs so hence the gear. Lela is even running with me on our recovery run mornings, which I know kills her, but is nice to me as on those easy runs to just chat. Rest assured within a week of her being able to run after the baby, she'll be running off like a crazy asian again.

Weekday update

So the blog has sort of turned into the adventures of Mike and Cooper, with an occasional shout out to Lela and Baby Huebner. Basically right now Lela eats, sleeps and works, so we haven't been able to get anything out of her, but after 3/16 word on the street is we will have some free time so we will get her to write down some takes.

Anyway, spring appears to be here, for now anyway. I have a strong urge to just leave work and go home and do whatever outside. I am sure a child will even further it, but having a dog has given us a reason to be outside which is nice when the weather's like it is now. Speaking of, cooper continues to love fetch. One of these days I will get him to just drop the ball but for now he likes to prance (in a very masculine way of course) with the ball in his mouth. He also enjoys taunting the next door dog who barks more than any creature known to man while he has the ball in hand, almost like saying "maybe you should try not barking incessantly and doing something with your life like me." Maybe I am projecting. . .

2 weeks from today is the beginning of the NCAA tourney, which means that 2 weeks from tomorrow we find out the sex of the baby. You see the correlation there? Well there isn't, but that's how I remember how its all working out. Allegedly Lela's going to pose for some pictures one of these days to show how little she is showing (note the use of the word little, I don't think you can under use that word around pregnant women, or so I am learning. . . ). I still think its going to be a girl because that would mean we have 2 males and 2 females balancing the house. Sort of like balancing the force on Star Wars but sort of not. Either way, it'll be fun to find out and know.

Mom and Dad are going to be in town this weekend, so I am sure a fun time will be had by all (Mom quote there for you).