Walking outside today you might think we had been assigned a post in the artic. The wind chill factor for today was 4 degrees. Now that is cold! It would be one thing if there was not any wind but the winds are brutal. They cut right through you! Last night Seth was brave enough to grill hot dogs for a Super bowl party. Out of 10 available grills, Seth was the only brave griller. Today he was walking home from the metro and wished he had heeded his wife’s warning about taking his new gloves and scarf. His legs were getting numb and he made a call on his cell phone to be able to use the phone as an ear muff. He figured losing a hand to the cold was better than losing his hearing. It’s good to have at least one working ear and hand I guess!  Too bad he uses his left hand for talking on the phone. He might have to become right-handed.

We had our first OB doctor’s appointment here in DC yesterday. We learned that it is perfectly acceptable to use curse words in OB appointments. Shocking I know, especially with a fragile, innocent baby listening in.  Since we are only here temporarily there is no reason to be picky. Some people get attached to their doctors but I think those attachments are behind us as we will probably never have the same anything anywhere we go. So, for now we are accepting our pro-life, profane, child-delivering, overpaid physician.  We heard the baby’s heart beat which sounds very strong! We won’t be finding out the sex of the baby for a month but our doctor kept predicting that it’s a girl. I’m convinced he did that to see if a month of dwelling on it would convince me that it is a girl as well. What an evil trick he is playing on such an impressionable pregnant woman. The power of suggestion is strong these days.  In addition to hearing the heartbeat I had to endure the dreaded weigh-in. You may wonder why I am telling you this…the only reason is that I had not gained anything…in fact I may have lost weight. The doctor recommended that I add a few “damn milkshakes” to my diet. It is the ONLY time in my life that I will ever be told to have a milkshake so I am going to obey doctor’s orders.  In addition, it is probably the only time I will hear the words “damn” and “milkshake” in the same sentence. Who really says that? Seth is making me clean my plate and took me out to dinner after the doctor’s appointment to make sure I got enough to eat. This is a lot of pressure! Next month the doctor is going to say I’ve gained double the suggested weight so I am trying to savor these moments of indulgence.

We have an appointment on the 28th of Feb for a 4-D ultrasound. Supposedly we will be able to see the baby’s facial features and meet him or her!!! We’ll try to post the picture when we get it. In the meantime, back to the snacks!