Bear is not deaf anymore!!!!

Bear can now hear normally once again! That is always good news. The night before this amazing phenomenon, John flushed out his ears with hot water and peroxide, apparently it helped things along. Life in the nelson household is now a lot less frustrating! Bear had been praying every night for his hearing to return, its nice for a kid to be able to see results from bedtime prayers, for every reason.

Random post

I just feel like i have been slacking on the blog lately and don't really have anything to post. I am excited about the prospect of going to adam and cassandra's in february, we just have to set a date. I am pumped about february getting here, i always view february as the beginning of the defeat of winter.
Bear is hard of hearing lately ever since his ear infection last week. They say there may be some fluid left in the ear post-infection whichj should be gone in 3-6 weeks. That is goiing to be a tedious six weeeks. You usually can't tell if he hears you anyways, due to his lack of the need to respond, now you really have no idea. I find myself talking loudly to john unneccessarily.
I estimate that i am about 7 1/2 weeks pregnant. The quirky eating has begun, as well as the fatigue. No belly yet ...that can be attributable to the little one, anyway. My other baby is crying, my play time is done. We'll talk later- Dani

Kevin Priest's Blog

It's official. Kevin Priest has begun blogging. As the resident woodwright at his new company, he has started a journal where he describes his various woodworking projects.
If you like watching This Old House, or Norm Abram's The New Yankee Workshop, then this is a journal you will enjoy. I, myself, am living vicariously through Kevin on several levels. The woodworking is one of them.

http://blueriverjournal.blogspot.com/

Just another picture

Carol and Dan's Neighborhood

So apparently Dan and Carol have moved to some sort of wilderness paradise. Look at this waterfall and stone lodge a few miles from their place.

Caleb and this Bird, "Swirls"

Check out this sweet picture of Caleb that I stole from the Siedlecki blog. It is great. Apparently, there is this bird, the same bird, that circles around Caleb in the evenings, every evening. I guess he has been getting kind of freaked out about it, like it is some kind of harvenger of doom or something, but mostly it's been a curiosity. They even named it -Swirls.

They went to the beach the other day, miles from their home, and supposedly that same freaking bird was there, circling him, and when Caleb decided it was time to get out of there (I can't blame him), Swirls swooped down and grabbed his car keys!!! Do you believe that??! This is the picture that Erin took of it when it was going for the keys. Anyways, we're all wondering what it all could mean, what Swirls is trying to tell Caleb... It's all pretty bizarre, but stranger things have happened in Florida.

Really Important

The Nelson family went nuts tonight and had Chinese at the mall (Danielle, who is Italian, had pizza).

Also pretty important, I ate this huge grape at work today. Check out those regular-sized grapes I provided to give you a sense of scale. It was like a big grape flavored plum with no pit.

Stephen Harry Nelson

Steve left us this comment about the baby name quandary...

So. Bear and Willow are pretty unique names, as we all know. There may be some part of you that thinks the third child must have an equally unique name. But, I don't agree. Imagine a traditional name. Imagine that this baby with a traditional name would, therefore, be unique among his siblings. Imagine a name with character. Imagine a name with strength. Imagine a name with meaning. Imagine this: Stephen Harry Nelson. -- ST

Here is an interesting backstory: We discovered we were pregnant with Willow on Stephen's birthday and the projected due date fell on Harry's birthday. What Stephen does not realize is that, had Willow been a boy, there was a strong chance that baby would have been given the name Stephen Harry Nelson. Seriously. So I don't have to imagine too hard.

Baby Names

ever since we found out a third child is on its way i have been searching for boy name options. This is going to be tough. Girl names we got....but the boys names we can't agree on. I have a few that are on the table that John hates and i am not even so nuts about. John says they sound gay. There were some momentary options that i thought he would like, but were quickly passed by due to past real life associations that are not necessarily postitive.
The other night i could not sleep because i kept dreaming of baby names lists. I'll probably find the perfect boy name the night before we discover the gender and find out its a girl.

Random Pictures

Today was Dan Shaw's first day of work at his new job in their new state. This is a picture of their new place. It is a five minute walk into town and is positively dripping with charm.

Here is a picture of Amya getting totally pissed that she has to sit in what looks like a kid chair she got for Christmas.

Adam sent us this substantial documentation he saw in a Sam's Club near Cincinnati last week, thus jinxing us into discovering we were pregnant the very next day.

Any time the camera phone comes out, it is tough to get a shot of Willow because she always wants to grab it and turn it around to see the picture. She has a remarkable sense of the ironic.

Danielle and Willow joined me and some IDV co-workers at Asia's Fines for lunch. We kept shoveling Willow rice, and she, in turn, mostly fed the floor.

For dinner, Danielle made some great roasts. I smashed them up and gave some to Willow. She was a fan.

So I left the room for a minute, and when I came back Willow was cramming piles of roast into Apple. They both were pretty pleased with themselves. You're right to judge me, that's pretty gross.

Here, Bear gives Willow pointers on crashing the baby gate at the stairs. She is a quick study.