I finally saw The Return of the King yesterday, and at Colossus in Toronto no less! I went with my best friend Ian who hadn't seen it yet either. We were both immensely impressed and very satisfied by it. I was literally trying to catch my breath during some of the battle scenes! I am already anxiously awaiting the extended edition of the DVD thought as it supposedly add an hour or more to the theatre release and that would make me a very happy boy indeed.
I still don't think I can read the books though, which is somewhat of a personal embarrassment for me. I just can't stand Tolkien's writing style, so please forgive me.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!
I can't believe it has come and gone so fast. I guess this year its especially hectic for us with Maya and all. Its weird to think that last year we didn't ever imagine it being our last one alone. To Maya it was like every other day; sleep, wake, eat, poop, sleep, poop again, repeat. Next year will be quite different everyone tells us.
So we slept in till Noon or so (obviously with occasional wake ups to feed Maya) and had pancakes for breakfast. Anne and I only exchanged stockings this year and so present giving was on the cheap. We were both pleased with what we got each others. Then it was off to Meaford to visits Anne's parents and her mom's side of the family. We had a good time got supper at Uncle Mike's and Aunt Chris's house.
Tomorrow we go to my mom and dads place for my side of the families celebrations.
I am sick though, just a cough and my head. UGH

Skiing was sooooooooo good tonight. I got to try my new skis I bought at the end of last year on special and so didn't have a chance before now. They were much better than my (very) old pair. They felt faster and turned much smoother, especially at high speeds and on rougher sections.
The hills were in very good shape and I am pretty sure all the regular night-skiing hills were open. My friend Darryl and I went on all of them and had a great time. The snow was quite good as well, pretty powdery and mostly didn't seem to manufactured.
I think my legs are going to feel it tomorrow though.
It was supposed to rain this coming week which would have been VERY bad for the hills but it not supposed to anymore.

Tonight Anne and I will be picking up our seasons passes for Blue Mountain and skiing. Well I will skiing, but we a currently debating whether or not Anne should. I think she will likely do at least one run. According to the Blue Mountain web site 22 runs are open so things are probably not too bad, but its supposed to rain this week so we are making a mad dash to get at least a couple runs in before Christmas.

This is definitely my new favorite Strong Bad e-mail. It just too funny. Ahh poor Strong Sad. Acually I could use a hit of caffeine like that. I think we are also overdue for a new Teen Girl Squad as well.

So. Very. Tired. Maya hasn't sleeping well the last few nights and thusly, neither have I. Last night she was so fussy that Anne actually got up at 1:30am (I still hadn't got to sleep) and went downstairs. This morning I woke up and she was sleeping on the couch curled up with Maya. I know Anne is getting less sleep than me, I think she is going to have to start to sleep more when Maya is.
How many years until she is sleeping regularly? I have had several people at work today asking if I am okay! hmmm I wonder if I can leave because I am "sick"? :)

So my parents, who before Maya was born seemed rather blase about the whole baby thing, have now gone into full fledged grandparents mode. My Mom, who rarely dropped by for more than a few minutes in the past, is now visiting regularly and does not let go of Maya nearly the whole time. My Dad does not have much reason to be near to Hanover but when he has dropped by or we go their house, gets quite the big goofy grin, andinsistss on being "grandad". Anne and I weren't quite expecting this and its rather fun. I think Maya is going to be spoiled rotten by them.
Anne's Mom is excited as well and is going to be "Nana", unfortunately she still hasn't got Maya's name straight so we are pretty sure that whole side of the family thinks our daughter is "Myna". Anne's Dad still hasn't seen her.

Finally I have the gallery of pictures of Maya up. It fairly rudmentery right now but I will fix it when I add more pics. In the mean time, enjoy!

This afternoon, starting now actually, Anne is having a baby shower. So what does this mean to me? Well I basically get to do what I want while its on, and get all the benifits of very good finger food. MMmmmmmmmm mini pizza bagels...
Plus I have hockey tonight which should be a blast as well.

Can anyone who still has the problem where the page does not let you scroll down let me know please. It seems to be fixed to me.

So after eating excessively for the last week and sitting around a lot, I went and played indoor soccer for 2 hours straight. My legs are very sore, and I think I am walking funny.
Since for the last month our pre-natal classes have taken place during my soccer time I haven't been able to play. And soccer is definantly more of a workout then hockey.
It was great to play again though and I should be in better shape for next week.

So today is my first day back to work since Maya was born. BLEH
The day is going pretty fast so far and it looks like all the equipment survived while I was gone.
There has been much "oooo"-ing and "ahhh"-ing of the pictures and stuff which is fun. There were a few presents on my desk for her as well, which was very nice.

And the moment you all have been waiting for...
We would like to announce the name of our daughter:

Maya Elizabeth Bellamy

So what do you all think? We really do appreciate all the suggestions as they honestly did help us reach a decision.

I think she likes it :)

Well I think we may be able to get back to real time soon. With the baby here and stuff sleep has been very erratic and short naps are the order of the day. Anne is trying to get the baby into a routine now so we should be a little better tonight I think.

We also went to our last pre-natal class tonight as well. It was interesting for two reasons, one was it was the first time we had the baby in its car seat and traveled with it in the car. The second was that because we actually had the baby at the breastfeeding class with us breastfeed while learning about it. It was very cool when people were like, "so very cute, when did you have it?" and we responded "yesterday", and their eyes go wide with shock. Anne looks so radiant today and is moving around very well so you wouldn't really know it from looking at all.
There was another woman at the class actually in the early stages of labour.

Here's a family photo from this afternoon.

Who wants pictures? Well here are a couple of the baby. We have 35 or so of the whole process but most a pretty graphic. I will set a web page for those later this week. In the mean time here's a couple of our little cutie.
- Not even one day old
- Anne and the Baby
- Luke and the Baby

As you can see Anne is more than a little exhausted and sleep deprived and I an a little bleary eyed myself.

Edit: One intersting thing to note is that in that picture of Anne and the baby, she is acually laying in the same spot she gave birth. The baby didn't acually leave the bedroom in which it was born until about 11am today.

This morning, at 1:45am Anne gave birth to a perfectly healthy daughter. 7 lbs 4 oz.
We had 18 hours and 22 minutes from the time the water broke to the time the baby was born. As of yet the baby is still nameless so any suggestions for a name for her are perfectly welcome. So its been a long day now and I need some sleep.
I guess now we officially are "post-DINK".

Also, today is just going WAY too fast. I thought it was like 10:30am and it was already 1 pm.

Just had the first midwife visit. All is progressing well and fine. So there probably won't be much to report until the contractions start to be a little more painful and more regular. The midwife stretched Anne's cervix and said she thought the baby probably wouldn't make it until tomorrow morning sometime but maybe later tonight. Still haven't thought of names but we have been busy preparing everything else this morning. We should have time this afternoon to discuss it though.

So anne gets up to go pee this morning and stuff keep coming out. So her water has broke. I guess this thing is coming today! (or early tomorrow anyway)
So I guess we really do need to think of names now....