Yesterday we got a knock on the door, and while Millie bolted to the bedroom (I guess she didn’t feel presentable), she yelled out for me to go answer it. It was the UPS man, and he dropped off two big boxes: one with the carseat you see below, and one with a stroller. We were flummoxed as to who had bought this for us – there wasn’t a note or card or anything. But after a few minutes of conjecture and hypotheses, I realized that there was an invoice attached to one of the boxes which might say who the items were billed to. Sure enough it did, and it turns out that one of Millie’s relatives (her mom’s cousin – what does that make her to Millie?) bought the carseat and stroller for us! I’m not sure if I have even met this relative; I know we certainly haven’t seen her since we’ve been married, so this was quite an unexpected blessing.
I had fun today figuring out how to adjust the carseat, and I practiced on Charlie the Build-a-Bear. Charlie is a little smaller than a baby, although come to think of it, he might not be smaller than our baby, since Millie was just told that our mystery-sexed child is too small! She had an appointment on Monday where the doctor measured her and said she seems 3cm too small. On Friday she’ll have an ultrasound where they will confirm whether or not the baby is actually too small, or whether Millie’s belly is small for some other reason, and hopefully we’ll figure out what the upshot of having a runt is. From my brief Googling, it sounds like sometimes babies’ growth slows in the womb, so they have to induce labor early so that the baby can start growing outside the womb. I would actually be excited at the prospect of an early inducement, assuming there were no associated medical risks for the baby, since I’m excited to meet this kid!
Since we’ve made it this far without knowing whether we have an Alowicious or a Helga, we’re going to try to avoid discovering the sex at the ultrasound on Friday. I’ll tell the ultra-sound technician that we don’t want to know, and with any luck there won’t be anything too obvious dangling on screen that will give it away. The tech is kind of mean though, so hopefully she won’t be insensitive to our wishes, and start referring to it as a “she” or “he.”
In other news, I got a part-time job researching for a professor at school. The pay is $10/hour, which is a moderate drop from my $560/day job at A&B earlier this summer, but it’s better than nothing 
I think it will be nice if I can continue this work during the school year, since it’s the type of job where I can set my own hours and work from home.
Lastly, we’ll be coming home this Friday, and are looking forward to seeing whoever is there. Dad and Sarah leave on a mission trip on Saturday, but at least we’ll see Dad for one night (I think Sarah will be in Athens). I’m looking forward to playing with Liam, eating some good food, and staying up to a ridiculous hour with Jona.
