I really suck at updating this blog.

So it's been since October of 2007 since I last updated the blog. A lot has happened since that time; the school year is flying by, we've been working on finishing our deck, we put up a fence, Susan and I have been sharpening our Wii skills, and oh yeah, WE HAD A BABY!!!

Reid Koji Oliveto came into the world on February 11th at 5:07am via a C-section. Reid (who also goes by Reidster, Reader, or SpeedReader) is freaking incredible. He is by far the most amazing thing that has happened to Susan and I. He is now 9 weeks old and a heathly (very healthy) 12 pounds, often being mistaken for a little Buddha.

Most everyone knows of the ordeal that Susan went through, but she is doing remarkably well and started going back to work today. She'll be going part time for the first two weeks, and then will start full time in the last week of April. Since Susan is going back to work, Reid had his first day of DayCare, and made several friends.

Overall life has been pretty great these last two months, we have pictures on out Picasa page at
http://picasaweb.google.com/japalian. We updated that from time to time, so check back often. The overall goal is to keep this updated with news about Reid and, well just life in general (not that we're very interesting).

Drum roll please.......

It's been a quick five months, except for waiting to find out the sex of Baby O! Well the wait is over and Baby O is going to be a Baby BOY O!!!! We're having a boy!!!! Again, we're having a BOY!!! We all know Susan was hoping for a girl, but she was still pretty excited!! We went to our ultrasound appointment and the guy was really thorough in checking the health of the baby, but at the same time he was taking his sweet ass time getting to the part about the gender (though we did appreciate him taking his time to make sure everything was in good shape). Finally he asked if we wanted to know what "brand" our baby was and then he focused in the Baby O's bits and pieces!! It was awesome. Especially seeing have active HE is! We even got to see a 3/4 view of his face which was amazing! Unfortunately he couldn't get a picture of that, but we have 4 pictures to share below.

Now that we know Baby O is a boy, we should be updating the blog a little more often. There was some down time there for a bit while we played the waiting games. So keep checking back.

Here are the pictures:

Daycare

We found daycare for Baby O! Damon looked into one daycare that was recommended from another person in the school district but they were not taking infants in April. We had the name of a gal from our neighbor and we went to visit with her in her home daycare. She lives in the Shoreline area which will be nice since it will be close to both of our places of work. Her name is Debbie and she watches a lot of teacher's kids. She is very nice, experienced and glows when she talks about the kids she watches. You can tell that she really enjoys what she does and is in tune to each child and where they are developmentally. Damon and I got in the car after our visit with her and Damon said, "Okay, who does she remind you of in about 20 years?" I said, "Becky!" (Our friend Becky that is a teacher in Yakima). Needless to say we discussed that we liked Debbie and called her a few days later to tell her to hold a space for Baby O.

Nothing new yet

Sorry for the lack of updates. There really hasn't been anything new to report, plus the start of the school year has pretty much consumed my life. We will however be figuring out in 3 weeks the sex of Baby O. But according to the poll (Girls 14 - Boys 11) and the Chinese Lunar Calendar (which I am sure is really scientific), Baby O is destined to be a girl. However check out these kids, particularly the second one, it totally makes anyone want to have a boy!

Here's a link to a Blog about going green with your Baby.

Baby O will for sure be green!

14 weeks down

This is just a quick post. Tomorrow is the 14 week mark, meaning 6 more weeks and then we'll have confirmation that Baby O is a boy! Susan had a doctor's appointment and everything looks great. Her blood work came back fine and there is no sign of down-syndrome. The heartbeat is racing away at 155 beats per minute and Susan is pretty much over her morning sickness. She's still a bit tired, butstill has enough energy to make me do some chores. Here's what Baby O apprently looks right now.

Leading the girls name suggestions...

Seeing as a majority of people are voting wrong and the girls votes are winning, I figured I might as well post a girls name that has been suggested. So when I first started the blog a few weeks ago, Andrea went to the random name generator link and came up with the name "Flossie." It's an English name and I believe has something to do with mouth hygiene, but none the less a week or so later Hurricane Flossie made headlines (thanks global warming!). Coincidence? I think not! Mother nature and carbon emissions have helped Andrea take the lead in naming Baby O if by the unlikely chance Baby O is a girl. As far as a boys name, Hurricane Dean is making its way through the Caribbean right now, but it doesn't have the same ring as Xiuhcoatl the fire serpent! Here is a picture of Xiuhcoatl I found online. Looks just like his father with the wings and whatnot!


One last note, apparently there is a country for baby names. I couldn't find it on Google Earth though.

Coolest name yet...

So Susan and I are getting a ton of suggestions for names. Thanks to everyone for your contributions, but I have to say that the bar has been set pretty high. Sid has come up with the name of all names. If Baby O is a boy, we might have to name him...Xiuhcoatl!!! I don't know quite how to pronounce it, but it's Aztec for fire-serpent; weapon of destruction. NOBODY would mess with someone named like that! Keep the name suggestions coming, but you'll have to work pretty hard to beat that one.

Our next appointment with the doctor is August 22nd. Stay tuned.

Things are starting to take shape...

So we had our first full ultrasound and blood work yesterday. It was crazy seeing Baby O in Susan's belly. It was moving around non-stop, constantly moving his arms and legs. Little guy has a ton of energy. We get the blood work back sometime next week. This will be the last picture until October or so. The head is on the left and in the top picture you can see his arm! He's going to be a pitcher!! We're starting to really delve into names now, and we are nowhere close to agreeing on one. My idea is that we sell raffle tickets at $10 a pop and the winner gets to name Baby O. I'm still trying to sell that one to Susan. More to come in a couple of days...

Baby O as a Simpsons Character - I would imgaine that this is a pretty accurate way to determine what Baby O will look like