Yes Waiter, I'll Have Peanuts and CrackerJacks Please

My company has corporate tickets to the Giants that my CEO raffles off for most of the games in the season. Last night we were fortunate enough to be able to use the seats. I know, I know, the last time we went to the Giants game (July 4) we were in a box and I swore I would never go back to regular seats again...but this is Club Level baby. Wahoo!

Nikos was big into clapping throughout the game, very entertaining for those around him. Okay, may have been annoying after awhile.

Oh no! I didn't notice until I looked at this picture but I am already getting Heather Pregnancy Nose. AHHHH. Seriously. For those of you who don't remember, last year when I was about this far along one of my coworkers told me, "you look so great, I can barely tell you're pregnant, well except for right here" (as her hand motions to her face.) Nice. Wait, here's the kicker "your nose looked like it changed shape." WHAT? Who says these things? I'll tell you, the receptionist at work.

Again celebrating his "own seat" independence.

Boys Can Wear Pink Too

This past Saturday we joined Jeff, Sarah, Marco and Sarah's mom Pam for the Komen Race for the Cure in support of breast cancer. It was a 5k race along the waterfront in San Francisco. We were there in support of Sarah's cousin, who is our age and is recovering from breast cancer. We also were celebrating another survivor, Anut Sandy!

Here's our action shot. Since we were running like cheetahs, Taki was obviously using some sort of crazy high speed film to catch a clear shot. That guy thinks of everything.

Marco shows off his pink.

Niko pouts because Marco won't share his bunny ears.

Team Andreotti relaxes after the race. 

After the race we walked over to the Survivor's Garden to look for the flower that we bought in honor of Anut.

Niko found Anut Sandy's name on the board - he is clearly a genius!

After the race we hopped on bart and Nikos enjoyed his own seat for the first time. I hesitate to post this picture since it clearly shows me in all my pregnant glory and from what I can tell (from blogstalking) the few other people that I know that are as far along as I am are NOT EVEN SHOWING. Whatever. Look how big he looks!

Even big boys need monkeys.

The Best Things Come in Small Packages

Last Friday Niko had his 15-Month Check-Up. He is still clocking in on the small side - 29.5 inches for height and 19.9 lbs. He did impress the doctor with his pipes since I had packed the day with fun and caused him to miss his nap, and therefore scream whenever the doctor wanted to evaluate him. Since he had fallen off the chart for weight the doctor wanted to test his blood again for TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone.) Yup, turns out his count is above the value again, so it looks like we'll wait to hear from the Endocrinologist to see what she says. We'll keep you posted!

Happy Birthday Melanie!

Happy 30th Birthday Mel! To celebrate everyone (well everyone that is NOT pregnant) got to do a little indoor skydiving.

Taki's skydiving outfit caught Nikos by surprise and he was a little bit freaked out. Poor kid. He screamed almost as hard about 30 minutes later when he saw me pick up Mason. I am sure this is a great sign for six months from now when he will no longer be an only child.

Here's part of the group gearing up for the flight.

Why does Taki look so angry in this picture? He tried to tell me that he had to concentrate on flying so he couldn't smile.  Uh huh. I guess everyone else is better at multi-tasking.

Poor Maile looked petrified but she told Mel she had fun. It took a little while for the instructor to convince her to let go of his hands...

And we'll end with a short clip of Taki.

Can't We All Just Get Along?

Here's a quick update for all those that have been asking how this pregnancy is going compared to the last one. Sixteen weeks in and I have finally stopped puking up all of my meals, thanks to a lovely drug called Zofran. I have gotten sick a few times when I missed the window to take the pill (I really need to take it as soon as I start to feel nauseous) but I haven't puked in any expensive purses - yes Uncle Ray, I puked in my $900 -- that I did not pay full price for! -- purse. Other than that I am just exhausted and of course using the pregnancy as an excuse for everything. Of course, I told Taki I couldn't clean the bathroom because I shouldn't be near any cleaning products and he snidely pointed out that all of the Method cleaning products are non-toxic. Blast that green company!

On to the fun stuff, I don't think I detailed this yet on the blog as it is a mouthful but after Nikos was born and spent time in the NICU I was diagnosed with Neonatal Allo Immune Thrombocytopenia (NAIT.) Yes, superfun. To explain it as simply as possible, my platelets don't get along with Taki's platelets, in fact, they are such mortal enemies that my platelets develop antibodies against Taki's platelets. Perfect. So when Niko was born he ended up with warring Montague vs Capulet platelets. Luckily his platelets dropped a bunch but then made a recovery on their own so he didn't need a transfusion. 

Are you still with me here? When we were in the NICU they told me about this NAIT that I had and advised us to go to Genetic Counseling before we had any more children. Of course, three days after a labor of pushing for almost 4 hours and then ending up in the NICU, you can imagine how much credence I put into anything that involved me having another child anytime soon. Fast forward one year and one positive pregnancy test later and Taki saying "weren't we supposed to see some counselor before this happened?" Ha. 

Anyway, sorry to keep this long story long. Last week Taki and I both had a crapload of blood drawn, mine so they could confirm the NAIT diagnosis and Taki's so they could check to see if he was homozygous (all of the same "bad" platelets) or heterozygous (some platelets what would "get along" with mine.) We are expecting the test results this coming Monday. If Taki is homozygous I will most likely have to go on a weekly IV to lower my antibodies so baby #2 doesn't have as bad of a reaction after birth. If Taki is heterozygous then we do an amnio to see if baby #2 got the "good" platelets = no IV or the "bad" platelets = IV. Whew. Basically I am not too worried. I figure this is already more than we knew with Niko so we are ahead of the game. 

On to the fun stuff! 

Friday Nikos and I headed in to Walnut Creek for my 16 week doctor's appointment. My parents met us at Kaiser and my dad watched Niko while my mom came in with me to hear the heartbeat. Everything is looking good so far with the baby. I thought I would have a sonogram picture to post but I guess we will have to wait for the big ultrasound in three weeks!

After the doctor Nikos and I met up with Gail and Brayden for lunch at Tomatina. After a few minor tableside disasters that involved an entire glass of spilt ice tea and flying fruit (yes, Taki's teaching Niko to play catch and he seems to be constantly practicing, apparently the need for a ball in the equation is not apparent to him) we were able to enjoy a delicious lunch. After cleaning up and apologizing to our fellow diners we headed over to Giggle to browse the baby supplies.

Here Niko tries out a glider. You can see how happy he is to have the chair all to himself. (Yes, that would be foreshadowing my friends.)

This is the look I got when I told him he was going to share the chair with Brayden. (And before you get to the pictures let me just add a note that Nikos is 15.5 months old and Brayden is 7.5 months.)

It starts out with Niko looking all innocent (and like a lazy slug)...

Hmm, when caught by the camera it looks like an innocent tap on the cheek. Oh not so my friends.

This is the look I got when I reprimanded him and reminded him that we don't hit our friends.

Attempt #2 for a nice photo. You can tell how thrilled Nikos is...note Gail's hand on the chair, I think she was ready to rescue Brayden should the need arise.

Happy Birthday Riley!

On Thursday night we met up with Riley and Aspen and the Cecchins at Pyramid in Walnut Creek to celebrate Riley's birthday. As you can see, Nikos was super excited to be apart of the occasion.

A french fry toast to Riley!

And this is what happens when you put Taki in charge of taking a picture of the birthday boy. He tried to say it was because his style of picture-taking is more photo narrative than posed. Yeah.

Swimmin' Like a Fish

Swim lessons part II started on Saturday. Nikos was relaxed and ready to swim, he even managed to ham it up for the camera before class started.

Flashback to seven months ago...

Niko did well during class although it was clear that his favorite part was play time at the end of class where everyone gets to choose a different toy.

Flashback...

Niko noticed a few ladies in swim class that caught his eye so he demanded we take him in for a haircut. We headed back to Cool Cuts (because they do a nice job despite the fact that they are a teensy bit rude and totally overpriced.)

Completely mesmerized by the Elmo video.