While waiting for dinner one night Bianca and I played a career choice version of "Would you rather". We did a whole hour of careers: garbage man v. sewer maintenance (you know my choice), etc. until we arrived at the four choices to your right in the new poll. These were essentially unresolvable "would you rathers". To aid in voting here is a little primer on each career.

Jedi

Made famous in the Star Wars series of movies, these do-gooders use the Force and their trademark weapon the lightsaber to defend the galaxy from bad guys. Ideally, Peanut would become a Luke Skywalker or Ben Kenobi type Jedi rather than an Anakin Skywalker type (though if he becomes like Luke he will have to kill me, but I am okay with that if I go on a tyrannical killing spree). Something like this would be sweet for a demonstration of Jedi skills:



So that is career choice #1. Oh and just in case you think there is no such thing as a Jedi in real life you should look here.

Astronaut

This one is a little more realistic option than Jedi. Being an astronaut is the closest thing there is to being a super hero: you have super human intelligence, super human physical conditioning, and you are an all around AWESOME dude or dudette. The requirements are pretty strict. It is encouraging though to note that the website says that openings are available. It is sort of like saying that openings are available for the job of President, though there have been far fewer people to walk on the moon than be president (12 to 44). Still we believe in Peanut and we think he has a real chance of becoming the first Sculimbrene in space.


Left Handed Starting Pitcher

When this option came up in our little game I was simply stumped. If I could, I would adopt Jon Lester, but seeing as he is a millionaire, 26 years old, has both of his parents it would be a little awkward. Still, he pitched the winning game of the 2007 World Series and a no-hitter in May of 2008 AFTER beating cancer with his parents looking on in both situations. He is my favorite player right now, and in my top 5 of all time.

Peanut however, if he goes down this route, will be even better. Lester's four-seam fastball is pretty good (92-96 mph) and will be a standard part of Peanut's arsenal, but Peanut's curve will be even better than Lester's. Lester's is merely a plus pitch, but Peanut's would be a plus plus curve.

So think of it like this: by choosing this option Peanut is becoming a Left Handed Starting Pitcher with 35 starts a year, an ERA of under 3.00, 200+Ks a year and a handful, 8 or so, complete games a year thrown in for sheer manliness. This is a good option to pick.

Oh and he would pitch for Boston or maybe Cincinnati (though their advanced scouting would tell management that his talent would require a signing bonus only a large market team could afford). If the Yankees came a callin' I'd tell them they had the wrong number or answer with "Hello, Fitchburg Pizza Hut, how may I help you?"

First Chair Violin for the BSO

Now this option is not as flashy as Jedi or as well known as being an astronaut, but it is a pretty sweet gig. I imagine that Peanut will be something like Malcolm Lowe, the beloved concertmaster and First Violin for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. How sweet a gig is it? Well, Mr. Lowe has a chair funded in perpetuity. Also he plays on a pretty nice violin, which is, itself, funded in perpetuity. The job of concertmaster is such a plush position no one retires from the job, there have been exactly three, including Lowe since 1920. This is sorta like how you never hear of a "retired" rockstar, the job is so clutch no one ever stops doing it. He is also a faculty member at Tanglewood, which is a pretty nice place to hang out in the summer. For cultural contribution, longevity, and cool toys none of the other choices beat out this selection (astronauts get cooler toys, though a Strad is pretty darn cool, but their mortality rate is terrible by comparison).

Though all of this fun, we just want Peanut to be happy, healthy, smart and kind. Anything else is a bonus.

Though Jedi Starting Pitcher would be SUPER awesome. Imagine the pick off move.

So about two months ago, one Saturday Bianca decided that she was feeling cooped up so we hoped in the car and went on our first pregnancy adventure. Our original goal was to make it back to a Newton favorite, Johnny's Biltmore Cafe (which doesn't have a website, seriously how 1890s of them). Their old menu was classic greasy spoon cuisine. Their NEW menu however, was fancier and three times as much. We ditched and ate at Fat People Factory a.k.a. The Cheesecake Factory. They have good food but the portions are enormous, even when eating for two. Then over break we went to Magic Beans and got the Phil and Ted stroller. That was Pregnancy Adventure II.

Today we did Pregnancy Adventure III. We went to Jordan's Furniture to make sure we did not miss any cribs. The store is really amazing. The one we went to has a restaurant, an ice cream store, a waterworks show, and a trapeze that everyone can use. Oh and an IMAX. They also sell TVs, sound systems, and furniture. They had a bunch of cribs but they were all ENORMOUS. So we were able to cross them off the list (Bianca's favorite past time, in case you were unaware, is crossing things off the list).

Our real objective was this place. They are a local chain, but they have more baby stuff than any place I have ever seen. They had over 100 cribs set up with all of the accompanying furniture. They also had over a 100 gliders and at least 50 strollers (including ours, at the same price). You get the sense that all of this stuff is hot, like if the Mob ran a baby furniture store this would be it. They have REALLY nice stuff though and tons of it. The only scary thing was this salesman kept on bugging us. Bianca is not high on intrusive salespeople and with the Momma Bear hormones surging through her body I almost had to pull the guy aside and tell him "Look I know you are trying to help, but you are driving me crazy, and I am not the pregnant one. I know she looks tiny, but that woman will break you in two if you don't leave us alone." Fortunately we were able to escape while he was helping other customers.

Our next stop was the legendary Harrow's Chicken Pies. The store had no seating. It had a wooden floor. It looked like it has not been painted on the outside since before the last hurricane to hit Boston, but once inside you were hit with the most delicious of smells--chicken and carrots and potatoes (curse you Dan Quayle now I can't remember how to spell that word) and the buttery crust. We bought a frozen pie for the some time next week. I can't imagine how good it will taste.

Finally, after completing the closet yesterday I could not resist buying baby hangers. Erica donated some boy clothes to us (how is that for luck? two boy cousins and we have a boy, we'll have hand-me-downs for life) and I wanted them to go in the closet. But when we went to Target I was seduced by the lure of impulse buy baby clothes. Here is the result:



And here is the outfit in the closet (its SO TINY):



We'll post the making-of video for the closet once I have it encoded and uploaded.

The first poll results are finished. Grandpa Sculimbrene looks like he will have to sign a record deal to go by G-Daddy, as the "Yes" votes were outnumbered by the "Only if he signs a record deal with Def Jam Records" votes.

There is a new poll, now that we know that Peanut is a boy, regarding his career path.

We had the ultrasound today and the moment, literally the very moment, that the probe touched Bianca's belly he flashed us with this classic shot:



She had just started to ask us if we wanted to know when it became clear that whether we wanted to or not, Peanut was going to tell us.

Then she went on a hunt for all sorts of pictures. We have a few really cool ones. The first one is a little hard to figure out. We were aided by the movement of the image, but if you look you can see that this photo is of Peanut's nose, mouth, and chin:



He is sort of at an angle with the top of his head in the shadows. His head would be in the upper left corner of the photo. Those things near his mouth are teeny tiny baby hands.

Then there is the picture of Peanut's head. It looks a little like the Grateful Dead logo. Take a peek:



Finally there is Peanut doing his Skeletor impersonation. This one is super creepy (you've been warned):



Mom and baby are both happy, healthy, and lookin' good.

And yes, I know that I said that looking at these pictures is like doing constellations or looking at alien pictures. And it is. But it is also SUPER amazing. Seeing him flip around, moving, and showin' us his weiner was pretty amazing. It was one of those knot in your stomach, catch in your throat moments. We will never forget it.