Luis: Still likes to "hide" on the library shelves

See here for a similar pose in October.

Baby (Boy) Rincon #2

Today, we had our "20-week" ultrasound (though I am only at 18 weeks right now).
Because I'll be over 35 at the time of delivery, this is considered a "high risk" pregnancy. They sent me to the high risk ultrasound people, who took an amazing amount of measurements of the baby. In the last 3 years, ultrasound technology has really improved and Diego and I were mesmerized watching the baby on the monitor. I had not felt a whole lot of movement yet, so was relieved to see the baby squirming and flipping all over the screen. Everything looks good with the baby, and the measurements confirmed an ~ July 1st due date.

We decided to find out the sex of the baby at this ultrasound. The tech did all of the measurements first. When she began trying to determine gender, she kept getting a shot of what looked like the baby sitting on an invisible chair with the photo taken from below. And the legs CLAMPED shut. Both Diego and I laughed. The ultrasound tech bumped and nudged the baby a bit to try to get a better view. The next clear view we got was almost the same, except this time around, the baby seemed to be pushing down on the "invisible chair" with both fists, as if adamant not to reveal the gender.

After a few more bumps and prods, baby spread it's legs wide open. And clearly, it's a boy.

(For those interested in a comparison view, here are two of the ultrasound pictures of Luis)

Pollo a la Brasa

We've been in Dallas for just over a year now, and have really settled in to our new home. We've found just about everything we need here, except Peruvian Chicken. Diego has done a lot of looking and internet searches. We've been on a few wild goose chases looking for restaurants that don't actually exist. We found one place about 30 minutes north of here - but the day we went, their rotisserie was broken. But finally, we have found a place - El Gran Machu Pichu.

For those of you from Northern Virginia, it's no Super Chicken. But it's yummy. And they have yucca - a must for me. They have lots of Peruvian Delights that Diego loves, but I don't (like anticuchos)- which is a must for him. And they have chicken, one of the six foods Luis will actually eat, so it's really a win-win-win situation. The down side is that it's about 25 minutes east of here, in the direction of traffic. So far, we've only been out there on Sunday evenings, but really, that is not all bad...

Rainy Day

What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than splashing in puddles?

Luis Visits the Fire Station

Very often, when we are at Walmart, Luis and I see firemen shopping. Luis ALWAYS wants to say hello to them, and they are very accommodating to Luis, chatting with him, answering his questions. Luis, of late, has been refusing to wear socks with his Froggy/Fireman Boots. He claims that "fireman don't wear socks with their fire boots". So when we saw a fireman in the parking lot this morning, I decided to try to get to the bottom of this debate.

Luckily for me, the fireman confirmed that they do, in fact, wear socks with their boots, to keep their feet safe from the fire. Additionally, he invited Luis to come to the fire house for a visit anytime. So later that day, after nap, we took him up on the offer.

Fireman Jesse graciously agreed to give us a tour of the fire house. We started with the Engine truck, seeing the different gear and equipment they kept on the truck, what it was used for, etc. After approximately four minutes, Luis asked me, very politely, if we could go home. I was pretty embarrassed. We stuck around for the whole tour and saw lots of interesting things. Luis got to try on some boots, hold the axe, climb into the truck, play with the flash lights, and see where they ate and slept. And about every four minutes, he asked again, very politely, if we could go home. Sigh. Luis was able to impress Fireman Jesse with all of the knowledge he'd gleaned from Fireman Sam and this Fireman DVD.

Big shoes to fill

Fireman Jesse shows lets Luis have a turn with the axe

This was as high as he could lift the axe - it had about 20lbs on Luis

(It was a complete coincidence that Luis was wearing his "Hero in Training" fireman shirt the day we visited the fire station.)

Fireman Luis!

One of the presents Luis got for Christmas was a set of four DVD's from Bibi Croom that includes a fire & rescue video. Luis has watched it at least once a day since Christmas, and several times a day on certain days. He still loves his Fireman Sam, too. In general, his fascination with fireman/fire truck things continues to grow.

Diego helped Luis with some of his "turnout gear". He took his old camel back pack, put an oatmeal (cylinder) container in the back and found a hose to provide Luis an air tank to give him fresh air to breath while he puts fires out. They found Luis's goggles (to protect his eyes). The Froggy Boots officially became "fireman boots". And Luis's big red winter jacket became his fireman's jacket.

There is a scene in the fireman movie where the alarm sounds during the night, signalling a fire. At that point in the movie, Luis JUMPS off the couch, runs around the house putting on all of his turnout gear and then re-appears in front of the TV, ready to help fight the fire. It's pretty hilarious to watch.

Even in the bathtub, Luis likes to play Fireman. Here, he's got his goggles on to protect his eyes and is using another toy to act as his "breath thing" (the regulator for his air tank).

There is a very fuzzy line between Luis pretending to be a fireman in the tub and Luis pretending to be a SCUBA diver. I'm not really sure which one he is supposed to be here.

While Mary was Away...

Diego really stepped up to take care of things at home while I was gone. He stayed home with Luis on Monday and went in late on Tuesday so he could take Luis to school. Luis spent Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday with Leah.

The best story that came from while I was gone was from Leah. On Wednesday morning, Leah was going to take Luis to the Science Museum. It was time to put shoes on. Luis only wanted to wear his Froggy Boots. Leah told him that he had to wear his sneakers. A power struggle ensued. Leah stepped into the restroom. When she came out, Luis had his Froggy Boots on, and his sneakers were no where to be found. Leah looked and looked - they were gone. When she questioned Luis about them, he held his hands up under his chin and said, "I don't know where they are."

Turns out that he had hidden his sneakers. And all of his other shoes. In different places. Leah was shocked. After finding them all, she asked Luis if he had hidden them. Luis totally tried to pin it on Ashley!!

Leah called to tell me about this and I laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed. And, was glad that I was on the other end of the phone, not in the same room with Luis. After a little "quiet time" in his room, Luis came down, donned his sneakers and they had a good time at the museum.

Mary Takes A Business Trip

On Saturday, I flew to South Carolina for a business trip. A custody case I've been working on since May is finally going to trial. (It was scheduled for trial in October, but postponed when the adverse attorney came down with H1N1 right before the trial.) It was a complicated, intense case where we represent a mother who was both defending outrageous abuse allegations made by the father and seeking custody of their small child. I was heavily vested in the case from probably hundreds of hours worked over eight months. But it was more than that. I believed in our client and I really felt that the current situation was not in the best interest of the young girl.

Thomas, Erin (the other attorney in his practice), and I spent about 14 hours on Sunday preparing for the three-day trial that started on Monday morning. All of us camped out in Thomas's office, each with our laptop, scanning through reports, depositions, affidavits, emails and other documents - it was like being in the War Room. While the work that we were doing was very different, it was not unlike my days at HITT Contracting, the night before a big budget was due, poring over excel spreadsheets, double-checking formulas and reviewing drawings. I LOVED IT.

Court on Monday was fascinating to me. I really enjoy court-room dramas on TV, so it was exciting to actually be in court, sitting at the attorney's table with Thomas, Erin and our client. It was also really exciting to me to see questions I had posed, details I had unearthed in the documents and tactics I suggested be used in court. I'm finding it really difficult to find the words to describe what it was like for me. On a different level, court was intense because some of the most mundane, slow-pitch questions Thomas asked of the adverse party's witnesses produced shocking answers and opened doors we didn't know existed. This also gave us LOTS of work to do Monday night in preparation for Tuesday...

Tuesday morning, the court called the attorney's in to the courtroom (I got to sit in on this - exciting to be part of "the attorneys" group!) to announce that his mother in law was dying of cancer and he expected a call at any time to notify him of her passing. When that call came, he would recess court and reconvene some time in the future. We got about 2 hours of testimony in before the call came. The judge literally interrupted the father's testimony, mid-syllable. He notified us that he would reconvene court in early February to continue the case.

While we all understood his situation, it was hard to process that we were being put on hold for another month. I likened it to spending weeks studying for a final exam only to be told half way through to come back in a month to finish it. The up side was that we now had another month to investigate some of the (shocking) new information that had come out in testimony. But it also meant another trip back to SC for the final stage of the trial, and it meant yet another postponement for our client, and for her daughter.

Another upside to the postponement was that I got ELEVEN hours of uninterrupted sleep Tuesday night. It was amazing. Amazing. I spent Wednesday in the office working on other cases before heading back to Dallas Wednesday night.

Just before heading to South Carolina for this trip, I signed up to take the LSAT's in February. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet. But taking them seems to be the right thing to do.

Luis's 3-year Check Up

Luis had his 3-year check up today. Generally speaking, Luis got a clean bill of health from his good friend Dr. Curry. Luis's weight was 34lbs and his height was 39". The nurse deemed him to be in the 90th percentile for both height and weight. (I'm pretty sure she was incorrect, as he is still wearing all 2T clothes, and is smaller than most of his friends.)

Luis (Still) Loves to Clean

It is a pretty common request from Luis to ask if we can vacuum. I am not exaggerating. And when, as a special treat, we pull out the vacuum for him, he'll spend 30-45 minutes meticulously vacuuming the base boards, under the furniture and in the corners. It's great. Mopping is something that is typically reserved for work in the garage with Diego, but on Sunday, Diego let Luis take a turn at mopping the front entryway. Luis loved it. So did Diego.