21 Weeks

My apologies to all you faithful followers of our baby blog. I've been a bit of a slacker over the past two weeks, thereby skipping over the 20 weeks post entirely. It took Amanda giving me some good tough lovin' to kick me back into gear. So, thanks to her, I'm back on the horse. And without further ado, your 21 weeks post:

The past two weeks have been very busy for me, mainly at work. For those who don't know yet, my job now includes being the Athletic Director of our school. Yes, me, an Athletic Director. Well, who knew how much time it takes to run a varsity sports program. I'll tell you, it's all-consuming. And when that's only one-sixth (if that) of your job, it's impossible to have a "normal" work week. However, I can happily report that we won our first soccer game ever last week. It was one of the coolest experiences watching the kids on the field and those on the sidelines all hug each other, jump up and down, and cheer for their school. Last week was also consumed by another big project. Another role my job includes is working with high school teachers to integrate community connections and service into their classes. This past week, I was working with the AP US History teacher to co-teach her class and implement a project in which the students will be running a voter registration drive. The kids are so excited and really passionate about enrolling as many voters as possible over the next 2 1/2 weeks. They've set their goal at 250 voters. It was great fun being back in the classroom. It's always invigorating to experience the rush of educating! Speaking of educating, seems we're doing quite well on that front at BPCPS. Statewide MCAS scores were just published, and our results are pretty impressive:

• On the 9^th grade Biology Exam, 100% of students scored in the Advanced or Proficient Categories, placing them 1^st of 271 school districts in Massachusetts.
  
• On the 8^th grade ELA exam, 98% of students scored Advanced or Proficient, placing them 2^nd of 283 districts.
• On the 8^th grade Math exam, 93% scored Advanced or Proficient, placing them 1^st of 282 districts.
• 100% of students passed the 8^th and 9^th grade exams.
  
• On the 6^th and 7^th grade exams, BPCPS students significantly outperformed their peers in the Boston Public Schools on all exams.

Needless to say, I'm pretty proud to be part of such an amazing team of educators!

Now, what you really came here for: the baby update! Everything is continuing to progress well with the little one. He's kicking up a storm these days, so much so that sometimes it can be hard to concentrate on anything else. He's clearly growing, as you can see in the pictures of my belly. Sometimes it feels like he's growing faster than my belly can accomodate. It can feel like he's pressed right up against the sides, trying as hard as he can to stretch them out for more room -- almost as if at any moment I could become part of some creepy sci-fi film in which a baby tears its way out of its mother's stomach. This week, he's around 12 1/4 ounces, or 3/4 of a pound. He's about 10 1/2 inches long, the length of a carrot.

This weekend, we made our final registry trip to Babies R Us. As we were leaving, the woman at the desk suggested that we need to register for somewhere around 300 and 350 items, based upon the number of guests expected at the three separate showers. This seems absolutely ridiculous. We're perfectly happy with our under-100-item list and suspect that any generous gift-givers will be as well. Needless to say, Mike is thrilled to know that this registering bonanza is over. That's not to say that all the shopping is over. In the coming weeks, we'll be visiting a few recommended furniture warehouses to tackle the crib and other bedroom furniture. However, it's good to know that a major task has been tackled!

Thanks to everyone who has recommended names. If you haven't heard yet, we're not sharing our chosen name -- or even the runners up -- until the baby is born. I know this can be frustrating, but we feel this is something we need to do on our own. I will say that many of the names on our list have been suggested by you, the faithful readers, so you can sort through them and see if you can guess which one it will be!

In conclusion, Amanda, I hope you can eat, sleep, and concentrate now that you know what fruit or vegetable our little guy is this week! :-)