Can't believe it's been like six weeks since I last posted here. Guess the old adage that no news is good news is apt.

There is nothing exciting or annoying to report on the baby front. The surrogate is doing well. She had her last ultra sound two weeks ago and everything looks good. She goes back on Monday and then every two weeks until she, the baby, is born. Then again, we are at week 32 so that means only about 3-4 visits - not too bad.

Right now work seems to be the biggest issue. For reasons I can't quite grasp (other than management has their collective head up their ass) my suggestion that I take half days the last two weeks of my paternity leave was met with near hostility. I figured that if I come in half days, not only will it ease me back into work, it will also allow then to assign me cases either the week I get back or the week after. Here's how the conversation went:

Boss (: What if we need to send you to court during those two weeks?

Me (M): You can't, I'm only here half days.

B: but what if we need you to go?

M: I don't see how I can if I'm only here until noon.

B: That seems unworkable

M: How so? If I don't take half days, I'll take full days and I won't be here at all so you still can't send me to court

B: That's fine, we'll manage

M: But doesn't it seem like a good thing to let me work half days so I can be up and running when I come back?

B: No, just take your time off and we'll deal with it when you get back.

M: Are you planning to just hand me a stack of cases and shove me back in court the week I return?

B: We'll handle it when you get back.

The ass't boss, who is the trial supervisor, thought it was a great idea, because she can assign me cases for the first full week back. She was overruled. So stupid. Oh well, the HR person says I can do it, so I'm submitting my time as I want and HR said they'll explain it to my boss. Evidently mothers do half days for a couple weeks all the time so they can't deny me.

Things are moving forward, so much to do, so little time.

We are taking parenting classes, we figured it can't hurt so we did it. While talking about changing diapers, the instructor asked Mike what would he do if he checked the diaper and saw a poop. His answer: 'Andy, the baby needs to be changed.'

Cradle is up and next to the bed. Somehow it is being stationed on my side - I am so not in charge in this household. We set it up early so we could move the dog beds around and let the dogs get used to the new set up. They seem fine with it now. We got the cradle and a bunch of other furniture from my brother and his wife. They bought expensive stuff and gave it to us for free because they didn't want to pay to ship it from Philly to Vegas and because they are really nice people. That said, my brother lost, threw out, never kept, whatever, the instructions. That was fun trying to put it together - surprisingly it didn't take long and we figured it out with no screw ups.

What we did learn is that a) we have no cradle sheets, lots of crib, no cradle, b ) my brother not only lost the instructions, he lost the hardware to the crib. Luckily it was only $25 to order the parts.

Last on the baby front is parents, as in Mike's and Mine. My mother is a rather assertive person. So much so that I nearly tossed her out of the house over the 4th of July holiday when she took offense to my telling her to stop offering her opinions when I told her I didn't want them. Big cry fest, I didn't care, Mike told me to apologize etc blah blah blah. So I did. Like she was gonna be fighting with me and miss being there for the grand baby - never gonna happen.

Anyway, my parents are super excited. This is their fourth grandchild and it is Mike's parent's first. My parents are renting a condo in San Diego for 4 weeks sandwiched around the birth so that we can stay with them with the baby and not have to fly home right away after the birth - super nice of them. Save us a shit load on hotel costs. Very appreciated. One problem, it cuts Mike's parents out.

Then my mom ask/told me she was flying home with us and staying with us for 2 weeks to help out. Again, very much appreciated. Again, it cuts Mike's mom out. She was slow on the draw and my mom beat her to it. So while I was away for a week, Mike's mom says to Mike, she'd can't stay over when the baby is born because there's room because my mom is staying. Mind you his mom doesn't live THAT far away but for those familiar with DC, they are in VA well outside the Beltway. Basically the opposite side of the beltway and a haul during rush hour.

So what does Mike say? Yeah too bad mom. We have 3 or 5 bedrooms depending on what you do with the rooms in the basement. But upstairs there are three, ours, the guest room and what will be the baby's room. As mentioned above, we don't have the parts for the crib yet so we haven't set up the baby room yet. Clearly we have room, but he wants to set up the crib now. Like she's gonna be using that right away? Baby is gonna be in the cradle for 4-6 months and in our room.

Eventually I convinced him to call her back and tell her we had room if she wanted to stay. She does and she will. Great - both mothers will be here. Happy happy joy joy.

Lastly, we wanted to board the dogs at the new kennel we found for a couple days before we go to California for two weeks so they'll get used to going and coming home. We needed a short trip. We decided to go to Pittsburgh this weekend to spend a day with Anyta and family. Woo Hoo. Very cool.

Life is still beautiful.