No April Fool's joke--Peanut was kicking up a storm last night. It was both a lot of kicks and BIG ONES. It seems that he is all bunched up in there, and sometimes he just lets out with a big HI YA! We were laying in bed, before going to sleep and Bianca told me, as she usually does, "Your son's moving" and I rushed over only to feel and see a belly-shaking body movement from our boy.

It was amazing.

Saturday was blistering cold, as if the Winter was telling us that it was not quite done yet. It dropped into the low teens Friday evening to Saturday morning--a stark difference between last week's 72 San Francisco-esque weather.

On Saturday morning I fired up my PS3 and started to play. Then it happened. Peanut and Bianca were sitting next to me on the couch and he kicked me, as if to say "DAD PAY ATTENTION!" The controller went down, the PS3 went off, and for the next half hour Bianca and I played with Peanut. He responded to a flashlight, which studies have shown stimulates a baby. The instant the light came on, an Arc6, if you must know, Peanut gave me a strong, visible karate kick. This the first action-reaction we have ever had with Peanut. It was pretty darn cool.

Because of the frigid weather Saturday was an indoor day. We have been on a Pixar kick recently. It started when we realized last weekend that we both hadn't seen Cars. Thinking that there is an off chance that Peanut will like all things Cars, we bought the Blu Ray (which looks gorgeous). This week we bought Toy Store on Blu Ray. Hopefully by the time Peanut is ready we'll have the complete collection of Pixar movies in HD. Toy Store was really, really good. Car was good too, but not quite as original. Had it come out BEFORE Toy Store, Pixar would have still been famous and it would be heralded as a groundbreaking, game changing movie. Great stuff and I can't wait to share it with Peanut.

We also took a trip to a small, rural town in Massachusetts called Groton. Groton is an ancient hamlet, with one restaurant being in continuous operation in the same place since 1687. If this restaurant is halfway through its life it will close in 2333! How is that for a crazy fact? Our destination was a slightly newer place--Gibbet Hill Grill. The place is a steakhouse, reception hall (in a separate building, which is also resplendent), and working farm with a CSA associated with it. It is kind of like the super cool PolyFace Farm of Omnivore's Dilemma fame, but with a restaurant attached. Everything is sustainable, local, and mostly organic. I really don't care about any of the that--the burger was AMAZING. It was on a ciabatti roll which was extra great. Even the cornbread and butter were great, though they were cut and not broken, which we all know is bad luck. The grounds around the restaurant were idyllic and there is a long trail through the countryside. Everything was just splendid. Peanut really like the protein from the beef, BTW.

After that we took a tour in the Subaru of the grounds of Groton School, a super-exclusive prep school, kinda like Hogwarts for Episcopalians. The list of alumni is incredible. Both of the Roosevelt presidents were Groton School grads. Seven senators or congressmen were Groton School grads. The endowment is around $368 million AFTER the Great Recession. They have had five Olympic rowers come out of their school. The campus was beautiful, after all it should be, it was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The school is nestled on top of a rolling hill with a bunch of nice gathering places. It is touched by a bend in the Nashua River for their famous crew teams to practice. And the cost for all of the perfectness? It depends, but the average student pays $47,000 plus a year. The best part of the elite institution is there slogan: To Serve God is to Rule. At least they aren't hiding it.

Grandma Vickie and G-Daddy are on vacation which means no iChat sessions or phone calls on the way home, but they do seem to be enjoying themselves. Vickie, high priestess of a Sun God cult, was seen sunning, while G-Daddy was caught checking out mile markers, his Clark Griswold instincts getting the best of him. Have fun!

Ten weeks and counting.

So when do you become your parents? Well when you become a parent. Nonetheless, this weekend's line up looks awfully familiar.

It was a sparkling spring day on Saturday with a sun that visited frequently as it danced behind large puffy clouds. A breeze, warm enough to dry your hands, but not hot enough to make you sweat, passed over most of Massachusetts. It was 72 most of the day. Doesn't get nicer than that. So what did we do? Transformed in my parents and did yard work. Bianca and Peanut made piles of twigs and leaves and I hauled them away in the wheelbarrow.

Around 4 we packed up and went to FRIGGIN' church. Can you believe it? CHURCH. There is a Catholic school down the road from us and the associated church is just across a sweet Cable Stay Bridge. The parish St. Bernard's seems a little old as Bianca and I were the only people without either a hearing aid or a walker at Mass. There is a high school and an elementary school, so there has to be some young people, somewhere. We just didn't see any. Bianca even commented that I was "very good" at Mass. My reward (besides spiritual rejuvenation)? A trip to the new electronics store in town: Ultimate Electronics. It is really nice, a significant step up from Best Buy (who will not get link love because I HATE THEM). After that we had dinner, busting out the grill earlier in the day for Bianca's delicious Grilled Chicken Parmesan.

During dinner Bianca SWORE that she saw a furry creature scoot by the door, but thinking that it was pregnancy related delusions, she didn't say anything. Then after dinner, I was sitting in the living room and visited by a squirrel. He had made it down the chimney into the basement where the second chimney's flue was still open (we have never used it, so the flue was left open). It went up the stairs and into the living room. A few Christmas Story-equse moments later and I had chased it up the chimney and shut the flue behind it. Though it sounds quick, it was a much more complicated affair and we were lucky that it just went up the chimney. Otherwise I don't know what I would have done.

Then we made a video of Peanut's room--all that is missing is baby and furniture. Here it is, with Bianca looking adorably pregnant:



Then, this morning, Sunday morning, we watched Sunday Morning.

Its official. I have turned into my parents.