Releasing the feline

As you know, since I've been harping on about it, the LA and I are expecting our first child. We've been awaiting today rather anxiously, or at least I have; today was the 20 week anatomy scan, since the sprog is now expected to be large enough to count fingers, check for presence of kidneys, and so on. As it turns out, like the vast majority of pregnancies, ours is proceeding normally; there are no gross abnormalities, and it already looks like the poor child will be saddled with a rather axe-like nose. Both the LA and I tend towards the larger end of the scale in that department, with long straight noses.

The kid was active, yet cooperative; the check went very smoothly. I'd post a picture, but all they provided were some "3D" shots which, frankly, look like nothing so much as a half-melted candle; the old-fashioned 2D pictures are much easier to interpret.

And now for the big news. Once we got home, it was just about within the acceptable time window for calling my mother, and so she was the first family member to get the news: we are expecting a girl. I'd been watching the screen, and thanks to some pointers from friends who've been through it before, I had some idea what I was looking for; I was pretty sure we were dealing with a daughter even before the tech confirmed it.

While we don't have any illusions of being able to entirely avoid pink, frilly things, we'd like to request that if there's a choice, you please lean towards the version which isn't pink. There will be plenty of pink, you need not add to it!