Captain's CornerLove is a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

Lazy man photo post:

Devin’s First Photo Shoot

Okay, I’m lazy, so I published these photos from iPhoto into Facebook, so they’re found here:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1853307&l=d1a83054c2&id=513208420

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day. We stayed home and the five of us (Ann, Lilybeth, Mom, Devin/Kaylee, and I) just relaxed. We played some Guitar Hero on the new PS3, watched the parade and dog show (blech) and then proceeded to eat too much – but not so much that we were sick this time! (It’s like we’re learning or something).

As is our tradition before saying the blessing over Thanksgiving dinner we all said something we were thankful for. We’ve had an amazing year here and there was a lot to be thankful for – some bittersweet, some just amazingly sweet (like the bun in the oven!). When we got to Lilybeth we decided to coach her a little bit so we asked her if she was thankful for various things…

Ann: Are you thankful for Daddy?

LB: Yeah.

Me: Are you thankful for Mommy

LB: Yeah.

Ann: Are you thankful for Grandma?

LB: Yeah. (shouting now) Thank Mimi!

Now Mimi is not Lilybeth’s name for grandma… when she doesn’t call grandma “mamma” she calls here something like “gaga”. Mimi is Lilybeth’s name for Spider-Man. She has some Spider-Man PJs and a Spider-Man cell phone and a Spider-Man weeble wobble thingy… Her amazing father tries to teach her the theme song everytime she gets something with him out… and she sings along: “Miiiimiii, Miiimiii!” We all busted up laughing because Lilybeth apparently grasped the point of the conversation, and was most thankful for Spider-Man (or at least we like to think she figured it out).

I found a website today… it’s retarded, but funny:

How Many 5 Year Olds Could You Take in a Fight?

Just a quick update on the baby (more can be found on her website)!  This week she had two firsts.

1. She rolled over all by herself and I got to see it!  (Great, now we can’t just leave our baby anywhere we please and leave the room… KIDDING!)

2. She laughed out loud.  That was the most beautiful sound in the world (especially after 2 months of screaming).  It was so cool.  She was in her swing looking over at her mom and I while we read and she was just talking up a storm (well, trying to talk… it’s more like cooing at this point), but in the middle of what to her must have been a sentence, she laughed for a good 5-10 seconds or so… It was awesome.

Lilybeth Erin Dooley joined us at 6:37 pm, weighing in at 8 lbs and 4 oz and measuring 19.5 inches. More later!

So I’ve been thinking a lot about nicknames lately. After all, I’ve got a daughter arriving any day now (not nearly soon enough for my wife!), and I’m sure she will inevitably end up with a nickname. I’m just one of those people who doesn’t use names. I dunno… Is it just me, or do you never use a person’s name unless you’re describing them to someone else, or trying to get their attention?

Today Ann and I went to the Doctor today and had our (well Ann’s) week 20 sonogram. There is no doubt that we (again, mostly Ann) are having a girl! Lilybeth is derived from the Welsh name Lilybet, which means “God’s promise”. Erin means “from Ireland”, which is a tiny bit deceptive as the child will be (from our calculations) 37.5% Scottish, which will be the biggest percentage of her varied heritage… basically we thought the name was pretty.

Or at least that’s what Dr. Brodsky told Ann and I when we went in for her 12 (13 due to scheduling) week appointment. We watch the baby flip over and wave at us on the sonogram, and then the Doc came in and said everything was perfect and we were in great shape. Ann is now on a 2 day streak of not being sick, and the Doctor said that was normal and that aside from an amazingly perfect new baby growing inside her she should start feeling something closer to normal now…

We’ll be back in 3 weeks for a major exam with blood work and all that jazz, and we’ll have an appointment in 6 weeks to see if we can determine Baby Dooley’s gender…

I’ve kept it bottled up too long! Ann is 7 1/2 weeks pregnant! Today we saw the above sonogram and were actually able to see the babies heartbeat! The baby is due about June 17-18. We’re both really really happy as we’ve been trying to have a kid for about 2 1/2 years now. We’re also really, really scared as this is (obviously) our first.

So to answer the question, yes we have names picked out… but they’re a surprise (except the few of you who already know).

I will, of course, keep you all updated via this wonderful blog…

So I watched my 2 year old (3 at the end of August) niece Joline today. We watched the Neverending Story II. Actually, I watched it and she napped in the Lazy Boy with me. Then I read some books to her, spun her around for what felt like an eternity on her Sit N Spin. Then we got out the ole playskool (what a brand name for kids btw, let’s start misspelling stuff early!) play houses, and drove the toy cars (driven by Elmo and whatever the orange guy is) through the 2nd story… and on and on it went. During this Ann took my sister out shopping for a much needed break and some “girl time”. Joline ate some mac-n-cheese, learned that even Uncle Kevin gets a little irate when you smack him in the face a bunch of times, and generally had a good time. As the evening wore on I threw in Evolution, a fairly humorous movie with David Duchovny and Julianne Moore. Joline gasped and shrieked and cuddled with me when the “dinosaurs” (they’re really aliens, but she’s two, cut her some slack) harrassed the townsfolk. She’s now in bed, Ann, Rosie and I are sitting around waiting for Eddie (my brother-in-law) to get home from 2nd shift at the railroad and generally unwinding. Tomorrow we meet up with Ann’s best friend from high school and then it’s off to my reunion.

That’s all for now, I’d hate to be considered anti-social whilst a guest in someone’s house…