September Appointment

Our monthly appointment was on September 20th. Approaching this appointment April was absolutely positive that she had gained at least 5-7 pounds. Because this is the first thing done at every appointment (besides the lovely plastic cup) the appointment started off on a good note with us learning that April's weight gain was only a pound.

The doctor that we saw during this visit was Dr. Reddy. She answered questions we had related to exercise and our travels. Dr. Reddy was incredibly informative and answered all of our questions in great detail. It's always an exciting moment when we get to listen to our little muffin's heartbeat!

Lastly, Dr. Reddy asked if we were interested in receiving the vaccination for whooping cough (TDAP) and the flu. Although the nurse was speedy in administering these vaccinations, April's arm hurt from the TDAP shot for almost three days! Brandon escaped this appointment unscathed (he did, however, receive his TDAP and flu shots a week later from our physician).

We scheduled our next appointment for October 26th at which time we will have our monthly OB visit as well as our ultrasound appointment to find out if we are having a boy or girl! We are so looking forward to this visit and have invited our mothers to join us.

Baby Walker Travels the Continental U.S.!

September may mark the time as the beginning of Fall (September 23rd) and end of summer...beginning of a new school year, end of vacation... However, for the Walker family, quite the opposite is true. This month (and into the first weekend of October) we will be traveling to four different cities over four weekends. How did this come about, you may wonder. One day, April was on facebook (dependable to keep you up on your latest news and gossip while providing endless resources) and saw that Jet Blue had their annual All You Can Jet deal going on. Looking into it, we found out that for $699 per person, we could enjoy unlimited travel from September 7 through October 6th. It took a brief conversation before we made up our minds- we'd be crazy NOT to take this opportunity to get some last minute travels in before becoming full-time parents. We discussed desired destinations and came up with the following:

September 10th-September 13th :: New York
Brandon sugggested going to New York the weekend of September 11th. This year will mark 9 years since the fall of the Twin Towers and conveniently, I found a good deal for a hotel located adjacent to Ground Zero. Included in our weekend itinerary is: Statue of Liberty, Central Park Bike Tour, Dinner in Greenwich Village, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Empire State Building, Brooklyn Bridge, Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, Times Square, Brunch, and walking through Little Italy and Chinatown.

September 17th - 19th :: Las Vegas
We're taking the opportunity to visit Baby Walker's Auntie L while she is in Vegas for Grad School. We weren't sure when we'd have another opportunity to visit so we wanted to make sure to include this in our month long tour of the great cities of America. Of course, we've been to Las Vegas more times than we can count. However, this weekend we are dedicating to catching up with good friends and taking in the unseen sights.

September 24-26th :: Chicago
Neither of us have been to or heard much about the Windy City. However, a friend of ours lives in the heart of downtown Chicago and is assisting us with our itinerary. We are most looking forward to Hot Dogs and Pizza along with catching up with friends.

October 2nd - 4th :: D.C.
Our trip to the Nation's capital rounds up our four weekend travel fest. We have had many friends who are familiar with D.C. and we are counting on them to point us to all the right places! April has been there years ago and enjoyed the Smithsonian museums and all the typical sites. However, we are looking forward to touring D.C. together and with our little baby bump!

Stay tuned for pictures recounting all of our adventures!

Baby Walker...Baby Pisces!

As pregnancy progresses so does our curiosity. Of course the big question is, boy? or, girl? We've had plenty weigh in on their thoughts. We've had an overwhelming amount of supporters for a Mini-April. Those include Auntie Paige (April's sister), Grandma Helen's co-workers, and close to all of mommy's friends. However, the Emmsley Clan (Grandma Lani, Joseph & Kai) are hoping for a boy. The Chinese astrological calendar says that we should expect a girl. However, it also said that Baby Walker's cousin, Riley, was going to be a boy. Six more weeks and we will know!

Baby Walker will be born in the year of the Rabbit (Mommy is year of the Rat, Daddy is year of the Boar). He/She will be born to the Pisces astrological sign (February 19 - March 20). It has been fun to learn what "greater beings" have to say about our little bundle of joy. Pisces are referred to as "old souls"with a thirst for spiritual knowledge and personal growth. Pisces is one of three water signs. The other two signs that share the water characteristic are Cancer (Gigi Gina) and Scorpio (Grandma Helen, Grandpa Ken and Grandma Lani). The Astrological birth sign of Pisces is usually associated with being extremely creative, sensetive, and artistic, as well as a healthy fascination with the metaphysical and spiritual.

Aquamarine is March's birthstone (again representing the water of Pisces). The flower belonging to March is the Jonquil (also known as Daffodil or Narcissus). As you can see you can get carried away with looking into all these different signs, flowers, gemstones, etc.