Open Season on Comments

Now that WordPress is in place, I have two plugins to protect against junk comments (i.e.- SPAM!). As a result, all posts on the site are open to comments again!

Under MovableType, I simply closed each post to comments after 14 days because that was about how long it took the SPAM engines to find them and start littering them with objectionable material. With WordPress, it says in fine print that we can use a little less brute force and a lot more finesse to achieve the same result.

Keep reading for more details...

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Wordpress in Action

Ok, that's it... we're giving this a whirl. I still have not worked out all the kinks to get things "Just right", but finding time for that gets less and less likely each passing day, and I want to get this going!

So, welcome to my site on Wordpress! I decided to do a "makeover" at the same time as the cutover from the no-longer free MovableType to the open-source Wordpress, hence the new look. Let me know if you hit any snags. I had to patch a few files to fix some odd behavior that was killing my Apache server for reasons unknown, but the latest version of the affected functions seems to be working. I'll keep making tweaks and adjustments in the near future, but about 90% of the work is done.

Enjoy!

Sydney and Amy Photos

Tomorrow is Sydney's third birthday! We can't believe she's getting so big, and I know I haven't done a good job of posting periodic photos, so here are a few from a recent trip to the Dallas Arboretum and a morning shave! In addition, there is a photo of Amy since so many people who are far away have asked to see a picture of her pregnant.

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Define "Due"

Guess what everyone! Amy is officially 40 weeks today! That's right, today is our technical "due date". So, um, what's that supposed to REALLY mean? I mean, our little boy hasn't shown any signs of wanting to come out yet. Amy hasn't felt any contractions or other indications of impending labor. In fact, the teacher of our childbirth classes said the average first time pregnancy without intervention (induction, c-section, etc) runs around 41.5 weeks. So what's all the fuss about a due date?!

Amy and I are planning to go to the park tonight with Sydney and enjoy the outdoors if possible. Amy has been gardening and we've been going through all of the Spring routines like the first mowing, feeding the lawn, weeding, etc. Naturally I have kept Amy from doing anything that might overdo it, and we have recruited family members to help with some things, but I think the rest of the family is on pins and needles more than we are. We get a number of calls each day asking how things are (as if we wouldn't call our family members to let them know... ;-) But I'm sure that's just natural excitement, and I appreciate the care and concern. Basically, we're just hanging out and waiting. The overnight bags are packed for the hospital, the arrangements are made, now we just wait. Which brings me back to my question - why do they call it a "Due Date?" Can my bills be "due" like this? I'll call the mortgage company and tell them "Yeah, my payment should be there sometime this month. It could be this week, could be next..." Not sure they'd go for that...

So perhaps there's a better term to use. Maybe "Arbitrarily Chosen With No Input From Your Child Date?"

Suggestions?

Sonogram of "Baby Brother"

Yesterday we had a sonogram done of "Baby Brother". Though the reason for the sono stemmed from concerns on the part of our OB, everything looks fine, and we even came away with a portrait of our little boy!

It's not the clearest thing in the world, but if you look just left of center, you'll see him looking out at the world!

Gotcha Day Photos

Hey, I was supposed to post some photos of Sydney from Gotcha Day last week! Where does the time go?

We had a great day on Gotcha Day, between having lunch as a family at Pei Wei and the fingerpainting and other general silliness we came up with in the evening after I got home! But the photos will tell the story better than I can:

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Gotcha Day Anniversary

It's hard to believe, but Sydney's Gotcha Day was two years ago today! You can go back and read the original post from that day to see pictures and read our thoughts at the time, as well as the outpouring of support and prayers from the people following our journey.

Sydney turns 3 next month, and so much has changed since we first held that little infant who could not walk, crawl, or feed herself! She is, in case you couldn't tell from our sporadic posts, a delightful, happy, loving little girl who loves to play and sing and read. I'll try to post an updated picture later today, although she is going through a phase of being shy around the camera.

We praise God for these two wonderful years, and pray and look forward to many more!