Tip for all you ladies out there

For any of you in the childbearing age range, something I would recommend doing before you get pregnant is getting a Toxoplasma titer run at your doctor's office. Toxo is a protozoal parasite that you can get from eating undercooked pork or cat poop (after it's sat for at least 14 hours). It's a very common parasite, so 50% of Americans are already immune to it, since they were exposed and their immune system took care of it (so they were never sick and never knew they were exposed). As a pregnant woman, you worry about being exposed because it can lead to miscarriage. However, if you have a positive titer (antibodies) to Toxo, you will know you are immune and not have to worry about it. I should also mention that not all cats have it and it usually just comes from them just eating a rodent, so keeping a long-term cat indoors only, it would be very rare for them to have it or be infective.

I mention all this because I never had my titers run last pregnancy and always worried about exposure to cat poop. This pregnancy, I just went ahead and got it run. I also got my Parvo titers checked at the same time, since I'm exposed to children at Cyrus' daycare (it causes fifth disease in children and can cause problems for fetus, including death). Interestingly, Americans are also 50% immune to the parvovirus without knowing they were exposed as kids.

So, the results are in! In an interesting twist, I am immune to Parvo, but I am NOT immune to Toxo. The research shows that vets and animal care-takers are not more likely to be exposed to Toxo than everyone else, but I felt sure I would have been after all the cat-fostering I'd done. Anyway, I will continue to be careful around the litter box and in the yard (you can get exposed doing yard work due to cat poop in the soil). I'll admit I'm surprised, but at least now I know.

-Shirin

Pregnancy update

My sister asked me for a belly picture, so I took my first one day. Just for fun, I posted my belly around the same time last pregnancy as well. I feel a lot bigger this time, but I don't think the picture does it justice. I'm already in maternity pants and am trying to figure out what to wear every day due to the baby bump. Oh well, here are the pics.

-Shirin

13 weeks pregnant with Cyrus.

Almost 13 weeks pregnant with Baby #2.

A chilly, Christmasy Saturday

It's frigid outside and it finally feels like winter. Cyrus doesn't seem to care and wants to go outside anyway. To give Gabriel some time to work on his computer-building, I took Cyrus to the park and then to visit Kim and Solan to help them decorate the tree. It was a lot of fun and I finally felt like the holidays were upon us.

-Shirin

On our way to the car in our winter gear.

Little Eskimo baby.

A cool little Eskimo baby

Whee...Cyrus loves sliding down the big kid's slide.

Then, it was over to Kim's warm house to help them decorate the tree.

Two peas in a pod.

Solan has the coolest toys. Cyrus is in hog heaven with all the new stuff to explore. Whatever Solan does...

Cyrus does too. They are still trying to learn about sharing as they wonder around the house together, taking each other's toys.

Oooo...our finished product. Kim smartly has a gate around the tree. Otherwise, all the ornaments would just be taken right back off of the lower branches by two little gremlins.

Boards are finished!

Just a quick note to say I took my board exam today (ignore the countdown clock on the right). It's two days off due to me changing test dates. Anyway, it was a brutal marathon of a test in Atlanta and I spent the night there last night with my longtime friend, Amy. She hooked me up with a lot of snacks, which I ate during each break between the 6 sessions of my exam.
I won't know for sure if I've passed until Jan or Feb, but I can relax until then because I no longer have to study at night after clinics. Whew.

-Shirin

A few new videos

The first two are the videos of Cyrus and Morgan's first encounters at Sam's house during our Thanksgiving Break. The last one is from tonight. I came home to find the boys eating apples dipped in yogurt...yum! Cyrus kept asking for a spoon, but he seemed happy enough to use the apple for dipping.

-Shirin

Baby update

I'm 12 weeks along now and I'm starting to feel a little better. I'm definitely less nauseated and can eat a lot more foods. I also seem less tired, although it's always hard to tell with clinics, because they exhaust everyone. My doctor's appointment went well yesterday and the ultrasound showed a real little baby in there with all the right parts. They don't do evaluations until 18-20 weeks to look for sex and deformities, but we're definitely on the right track. When pressed about the possible sex, she said she would guess it had boy parts right now. But, her disclaimer is that girls look like that at this developmental stage, so I really don't know anything still. However, we did start talking about boy's names last night. It didn't go well...we don't agree on anything yet. Oh well, we didn't agree on Cyrus at first either. And, I haven't decided whether I'm going to tell anyone the name we pick out, because I really did get tired of all the criticisms and opinions of so many people. Becoming a mom has taught me a lot about being less judgemental of others, although it's hard at times not to think the stuff.

Anyway, I'm now finally convinced that there really is another little baby coming our way, and I'm finally getting excited.

-Shirin

Thanksgiving in FL

Sorry this post is a week late. This is the first day off I've had since I've been back and I've been pretty busy and exhausted. Sadly, looking through my photos, I noticed that I took hardly any of the womenfolk's pictures. I'm not sure why, except that I was probably too busy talking and cooking with them to photograph them. Also, I mostly took action shots, which involve all of the men playing some sort of game (and which also includes some of the women) and, of course, took lots of pictures of the baby cousins. Sorry, Janice, Rita, Mamaw, Nicole, Ashley, and Emily. Next time, I'll snap photos of you constantly! :)

This was the first time Cyrus and Morgan had seen each other since Christmas, so it was like meeting all over again. They were very curious about each other, although I'm not sure Cyrus really knew what to make of Morgan at first, since Morgan was obsessed with touching Cyrus' cheeks (we took video of it because it was so funny). They are almost exactly the same size now and actually resemble each other a fair bit. They were very cute together.

-Shirin

Getting a hello kiss from Uncle Casey.

Reuniting with Morgan. Don't they look similar?

Morgan going in for the cheeks while Cyrus looks dubious.

Yay! Pap pap arrived with a big pot of his "dot soup." It's the best soup ever, especially when I was sick and not very hungry for anything else.

Group hug for the Pap pap.

The family milling about outside before our adventure games in the woods.

Cyrus looking on from the back of Sam's truck.

The end of the game involved us making fire in the pit and running up the hill to set off out bottle rockets. This last task was the cause that Gabriel and I came in second place instead of first. Darn.

Meanwhile, Cyrus took a nap with Pap pap inside on the couch. How cozy.

We usually stay in a hotel (since the baby was born, it's easier on us and Sam's family alike) when we visit Sam's. However, now that Rita and Gene bought land nearby and put a big RV on it, we stayed there. It was really nice.

Their land is beautiful. Lots of trees and Spanish moss.

Cyrus enjoyed running around outside every morning.

He also enjoyed playing inside with Pap pap while his mommy and daddy slept in every morning. That was nice for all of us. (You can see our bedroom in the background).

Going crazy like all naked kids do.

We were also able to access the internet from the RV with Gabriel's laptop and Droid phone. That meant he got to do some Black Friday shopping while feeding Cyrus breakfast.

The RV also had a TV in the livingroom with several channels on it. Cyrus was in the process of falling backwards in this photo.

Back at Sam's, here are the two little cousins getting read to.

Nearby, Bren and Mamaw were having a deep conversation (probably...at least it looks like they were).

Across the room, David P, Seth (David's nephew), and David R (Bren's childhood friend) were all finishing up breakfast.

Man, this book is lasting forever....

Time to start grabbing at pages.

This is the annual Thanksgiving photo with Pap pap.

Playing golf on Sam's course (there were sand traps and the rough parts and everything).

Get it in the hole, Gabriel!

We played another game in the woods that Gabriel created based on the book, The Hunger Games. It's about trying to outsurvive everyone and we had a pit of weapons to start with. The question is, do you run in the pit to get supplies and risk getting "killed" by an adversary or do you race into the woods and hope you find a hidden weapon there before your enemies do? It was a fun game and David R. won it the first time and I won it the second time.

Waiting around for the Hunger Games to begin.

Another family celebrity

Well, we all know Casey was seen all over national TV when he was on Big Brother 11, but the Beal family has another family celeb. Check out the UGA Social Work site (click here) on tab 3 to see the youngest brother's internet debut. You can click on the "learn more" tab to read the whole interview.
-Shirin