Boy, oh Boy!

It's official...we are having a BOY this time around. Both the ultrasound tech and the doctor chuckled when we asked them to verify just one more time, as they showed us...it was quite obvious when you knew what you were looking for/at. The last triple-check (thank you Dr. Matsumoto for humoring us...), our son was grabbing his "junk". SO...yep, definitely a boy! :)

Here is a profile shot of him. They took lots of pictures for us, but Baby Boy was moving around so much that in most of them, unless you were there, you won't really know what you are looking at.

I will have a follow-up ultrasound in 4-5 weeks to confirm that some cysts have disppeared on their own by week 25, as the doctor predicts, so we are sure to have more photos to share at that time!

Estimated weight was 13 ounces, and length is about 6.5 inches from head to hiney! He looked beautiful--- all his organs appear to be functioning as they should, all his fingers and toes were present and accounted for, his legs are growing nice and straight, etc. All the signs we wanted to see. He's is quite the mover and shaker (and y'all thought Lauren was a busy girl...what do we have in store?!), and is seated quite low, which explains the very frequent trips to the bathroom that are still occuring...he's kicking me in the bladder on a very regular basis!

Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes while we awaited the news!

This Is Craziness...

...we actually had to register our child-to-be for school this week because there was only one space left in the Infant Room for the school year beginning in August/September. You can only imagine how bizarre it was to list Baby Marschke, no gender known, no birthdate-- only a due date.

Craziness!!

Merry New Year!

WARNING: This is an EXTREMELY long post, so kick off your shoes and settle in...you've earned it!

The New Year is proving to be good to the Marschke's, but already is so busy, I can hardly believe Todd's birthday is behind us (Saturday, 1/17) and MLK is already here. Time flies when you are having fun...or when you have a 2 year old, grad school, work, and oh yes! a husband to boot. But...life is good, so no complaints. Here is a recap of our Christmas holidays. Enjoy!

Christmas in Georgia

Christmas in Georgia kicked off to a frenzied start. On Saturday, 12/20, we celebrated with Todd's sister and her family at his parents house where we were spoiled rotten. Plus, Mimi and Papa Fish got an awesome playhouse for the kids and lots of neat things to keep them busy at Camp Grandma in the summers. Then, that night Santa made a surprise appearance at our house since he knew we were leaving for WI on Sunday afternoon. Mimi and Papa Fish spent the night. Once again, we were spoiled rotten (are you noticing a theme here?!)

The crowning glory for Miss Lauren was her very own play kitchen, which she (in total awe) referred to as, "MY House!".

We didn't do a tree this year since we were gone so much over the month, but did manage to hang stockings, garland, etc. The hearth served as our "tree this year"

Lauren loves that her kitchen has a phone with buttons that work. She immediately called Nana. ha. I guess we DO call Nana a lot, so not surprised that's what she modeled. :)

Playing with her grocery cart .

This cracked me up. Mimi got her a "laughtop" which Lauren called Mommy's computer (sho 'nuf). Here she was laying on the floor checking it out. The pose just seemed like such a big kid to me. Please note the new Elmo "Boots" (aka. slippers) from Aunt Lisa and Uncle Scott. I swear she wore them our whole trip to WI..she even tried to wear them in the shower one day.

Another big hit: her own Elmo flip phone. She gets in such a tizzy over anything Elmo or Sesame Street.

PS. Check out how curly her hair is in all the GA Christmas photos. It was 70 some degrees here that weekend!

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We continued on our journey North that afternoon after cleaning up the wrapping paper, boxes, and gift bags. We originally planned on spending the night in Louisville or Bowling Green, but made such good time that when I called to check in with my Aunt in Indianapolis, we were only 90 miles away. She generously offered her home to us, so we took up the chance to get in some extra visiting time. Luckily my cousins Jonathan and Abbey were home too, so extra double visits! Life on the road was hard for Lauren that night. I am shocked that anyone got any sleep over her antics, but the next morning we hung out with Aunt Kathy and Uncle Jim. My Aunt Jean (both my dad's sisters) also lives in the Indy area and she came over for an early lunch. It was her birthday, and Lauren didn't disappoint with lots of iterations of "Happy Birthday" sung to Aunt Jean!

From there we went on to Stevensville, MI (Benton Harbor area) to see Todd's Uncle Bruce and Aunt Marcy. Finally we had some SNOW to go with the incredibly cold temps we experienced in Indiana. Lauren just looked out the window, not quite sure what to make of it, and Todd just was in heaven to see all that fluffy white stuff! Bruce and Marcy made a wonderful meal for us, and (yet again!) spoiled us all rotten with Christmas tidings.

The next morning we headed to WI to see my family. On our way we stopped to see my best friend Beth, who is the Director of Public Programming at the Field Museum in Chicago. The roads were snowy, as we had heavy snow flurries. Todd kept asking if we were driving in "white out" conditions...trust me, honey, you'll KNOW when it's a white out! Beth's birthday is the day after Christmas, so we exchanged gifts, and then she took Lauren on a special tour of the Play Lab at the Field. She loved exploring all sorts of things, but especially loved the field kits with the dinosaur bones in them to dust off and discover. It was very cool. I only wish I had thought to bring my camera in from the car.

Christmas in WI

Finally, we hit WI and the Huck Family Christmas could begin! My brother and his wife, and my sister and her boyfriend (also a Racine boy) were all in town. It was just wonderful.

We were so excited to get Lauren out exploring her newfound Winter Wonderland. My dear friend Clare Burgess Mork was so generous, sharing shoes, boots, and snowpants/coat that her daughter Caroline has outgrown, so Lauren was all set with snow gear!

Lauren and Daddy

She thought snowballs were pretty cool, even carrying one inside with her and around for about 45 mins or so (until it finally finished melting ALL OVER Nana's house!). She later told us that "when snow melts, it makes your mittens cold". Quite astute for a 22 month old, we thought!


Todd takes Ladybug on a sled ride down a mountainous snow bank. The sled was made by MY Poppa (a carpenter) for my brother Paul as a child. Pretty cool to see it being used again.

Ever observant, checking out the snowball, or perhaps her snow gear. She was pretty enthralled with the cherry boots (thanks again, Clare!!!)


Pure joy! She would giggle at the cold winds, the snow, you name it...I was non-plussed by the snow after 25+ years of living in it. It was neat to see it again through new eyes (and from the porch...this was definitely "Daddy time" since he was equally enthralled. My Dad loved that Todd offered to help shovel so much so he could further explore what a White Winter is like. I think Dad misses us now that we are gone...and the snow keeps comin'!

Lauren feeds snow to Daddy. I did try to teach them not to eat the Yellow Snow. Sure hope they listened...


Just to give you some perspective on how deep the snow was. Lauren stands at around 36+ inches, so if SHE'S 3 ft tall....that's SOME snow.

Christmas Morning

Nana found a Sesame Stree Lunch box for Lauren that had COOKIES INSIDE! Oh my goodness.

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We had a wonderful trip seeing many family members, though not nearly enough of our WI friends. This trip was primarily about family, and LOTS of it!


Snuggling in with Aunt Sarah!

This is the only friend visit we squeezed in with Jenny Henkes Popowski and Clare Burgess Mork and some of the kids (Jenny's boys were at home with their dad). Thank you to Clare for playing hostess. It was a short visit, but filled with reminscing and laughter.

And, that, my friends, was our holiday. I'll do my best to keep you updated, but I am in my last semester of graduate school (graduation is May 9th at 2:30pm! yahoo!!), I am in my second trimester with Baby Marschke #2 (sex TBD on THURSDAY!), and just the normal busy-ness of life with a toddler. EEEEk!!!

May 2009 be good to you all.

Love,

Kate, Todd, & Lauren