Tough Tommy

Well...Tough Tommy is showing his strength. He sent Mommy to the doctor's earlier this week with a pulled ligament. I think we have a soccer player on our hands! While we were at the doctors they were able to give us a picture of what they think he will look like at age 9. They took both of our genetic make-up into account. The mixed Dubow and Rodger genes should look something like this:

Just kidding!!!

We are working hard to prepare for his arrival. Last weekend we went to Babies R Us to register. What an overwhelming experience! Even after all that, our friends are still telling us all the things we forgot to put on the registry. Who knew a tiny little guy could need so much! We sure didn't!

It's a boy!!!!!!!

We had the ultra sound last Thursday and found out we are having a baby boy!!!! We have decided to name him Thomas David Dubow. Joe is already calling him Tough Tommy....see him flexing his muscle in the pic. Tommy seems to be doing well. The doctors counted 10 toes, 10 fingers and 1 big "bleep" (this is a g-rated blog).

So we are at 21 weeks.....more than half baked. We both are gaining some pregnancy weight. Joe is keeping up to Amy quite nicely.

The news of having a boy has really kicked the house work into high gear. We bought the furniture for the nursery yesterday. We plan on redoing the down stairs to give us added space as well as redoing the 2 upstairs bathrooms. Just an FYI - We are accepting donations to help fund project "Tough Tommy Dubow" ;).....we accept all major credit cards and pay-pal.

The Dubow's European Vacation

So we are back from a wonderful vacation in Paris. We had tons of fun and ate a lot! We created our top ten and bottom ten list to share with you all.

Top 10 Things We Loved About Paris:

1. Chocolat at Cafe La Metro- after searching for the best place in Paris for hot chocolate (as recommended by the book Eating in Paris) and finding out that it is now an insurance agency... we stumbled upon Cafe La Metro. They serve a carafe of steamed milk with a smaller carafe of melted dark chocolate for you to mix your own Chocolat...yummy!!!

2. Banana Nutella Crepes- specifically the ones from the street vendor on Rue St. Andre des Artes. We preferred these to the gourmet ones served in restaurants. Sometimes Nutella is better than Godiva!

3. Dinner at Cafe Med- Great restaurant recommended by friends of Amy's mom and dad.

4. Falafel and Vegetarian Pitas- After a long morning of sight seeing and than and hour searching for the perfect place to eat a light lunch, we stumbled upon a small Lebonese cafe with the most delicious pitas. The best hummus Joe has ever tasted!

5. The Eiffel Tower at Night

6. Watching the police chase and tackle trinket sellers near the Eiffel Tower at Night- Amy was going to add this to the Bottom Ten, but Joe thought it was funny.

7. French Onion Soup on a Cold Day in Paris

8. Sacre-Coeur- Although some think it is not that impressive, we thought it was... We give props for anyone who continuously prays for 120 straight years!

9. The Louvre- all of it!

10. Ile St. Louis- Great shops...great restaurants. It was a quaint little neighborhood.

Bottom 10 Things We Did Not Like About Paris:

1. Waiting in line to go up the Eiffel Tower at Night. Brrrrr.......

2. The Eating In Paris book we bought at Borders. The restaurants were either Insurance Companies or closed for the holidays. We didn't find one useful tip.

3. CNN World News...The only English channel. Did anyone know that Saddam Hussein was executed?

4. Rule Breakers. This is the name we gave people who don't follow basic rules of etiquette. For example: Two French women in fur coats who cut the whole security line at the airport. Example 2: People who shove a pregnant woman out of the way to get a picture of the Mona Lisa (note: 2 rules broken).

5. Long Trans-atlantic flights with screaming babies (yes...we know we will have one soon) and teenage girls throwing up in the aisle.

6. No hablamos frances.

7. Crazy Drivers with no regard for pedestrians or passengers. Joe thought the limo driver was Italian...he drove like it!!

8. It was cold.

9. Charles De Gaulle Airport- rivals Philadelphia for the dirtiest and smelliest airport. Don't use the bathroom.

10. The shower at the hotel. Why can't Europeans figure out shower curtains?

To see more pictures click here.

Christmas in Indiana

We just returned from a great trip to Indiana, where we spent Christmas with the Skiles family. Amy got to see where Joe's mom and sisters were raised. We enjoyed spending time with Grandpa and Virginia, as well as the rest of the family. We had a great time playing Dirty Santa and Dirty Bingo... all kinds of dirty things going on in Indiana!!!! Amy ended up with the letter Z and got a Zebra picture frame (good for the baby's room) and Joe left with a Gap gift certificate for the letter G (good for baby clothes!). Here are some pictures of our trip:

Baby Bump, Christmas, and More!

So we are 16 weeks into the pregancy and little-d is pushing on Amy's belly.








We heard the heartbeat last month........he/she is an active little bugger...160 beats per minute. Tillie hasn't quite figured out what is going on with Mommy's belly.

We are excited about Christmas. We will be spending the holidays in Indiana with the Skiles family. After that, we are off to Paris to enjoy the little time we have left as a twosome. Tillie is sure to miss us, but won't miss being humiliated....

We hope you all enjoy the holiday season!!! Joe wants everyone to stay in the Christmas spirit...
www.americanangst.com/dingfries.html

Okay...Here We Go!

Many people have requested that we start a blog....so here we go!!! We don't have much to report right now. We are in New Mexico with Amy's parents for Thanksgiving. We are busy relaxing and doing not much else. We are hoping for all of your sakes that our life gets more exciting soon!
Joe and Amy