And now introducing...lil' Garbanzo!!

IT'S A BOY!

Mark and I are thrilled beyond words at all of the opportunities and possibilities that having a son will bring to our lives! We are so, so , so happy and in love with him...!

My dreams since Monday have been filled with our little baby boy, and I can't help but hope that he is as sweet and dear a baby as his dad was. Here is a photo of Mark in his babyhood. This photo melted my heart the moment I saw it.

For years Mark and I joked about naming our kids after legumes---i.e. "Garbanzo" if we had a boy, and "Chick Pea" if we had a girl. Well, now that we have this precious news, we are graduating our little guy to the more gender-specific name of "Garbanzo!"...though he'll always be our lil' Lentil. :)

A boy or a girl... What do you think???

Well, we had our 5th month ultrasound today! What a wonder it is to have a short glimpse into the world of our little one, and what a blessing it is to discover that our lil'Lentil is completely healthy. In fact, this baby is big for size--in the 90th percentile! Eish! The due date, based only on the ultrasound, was put at the 22nd of March (rather than the 26th)...so we'll see.

And...we found out the gender...though it seems we forgot it already! Could you help us out? Look at the photos below, take your best guess, and leave a comment (or send us an email)! He!he!

One of my favorite discoveries of the morning...lil' Lentil has Mark's feet! That is, a middle toe that is significantly longer than the big toe. The radiologist called it a "Greek foot," though according to Mark it's often called "runner's foot."

What a 23-week pregnant Kendra looks like...

Freya loves to rest her head on my large abdomen.

Answers coming very soon, I promise!!!!

Venice, the most spectacular place in the world to hang your laundry...

We spent a magical 5 days in Venice in the middle of October. I will soon blog in more detail about that amazing city. For now, as a way to whet your appetite for our amazing Venice photos, I suggest a little game, called Locate the Laundry!

In no other place on the globe have we seen wet clothes so artfully displayed as in Venice. Sometimes the colors blend in with buildings, other times the contrast in colors is what creates a striking scene. Every time, the laundry gives the old, old buildings a sense of freshness and life. Hanging laundry is everywhere you look, the unspoken proof that Venice is still a living city (though it feels a bit like a ghost town too, but more on that in the next post).

So, look closely! A few of the photos have multiple clotheslines, some hidden surprisingly well. On your mark... get set... go!!! Locate the Venetian laundry!

I counted 5 different clotheslines in this photo! How about you?

My personal favorite, especially for all my friends who love (or hate) high places!

Our escape to Porquerolles...

Though I was MIA from blogging at the time, Mark and I did manage to have a few adventures in the time we were away from cyberspace. This particular adventure took place at the end of September on a tiny island off the south coast of France.

My good friend and French teacher, Maryline, told me of her love of the island soon after we met. She and her family had been coming here for years, and they soon offered to share it with us (such incredible generosity)!! Thank you, Maryline and Jean Luc! We had a magical experience there, exploring different parts of the island and getting to know it's breathtaking beaches very well. Perhaps not surprisingly, my morning sickness magically went away while we were in this beautiful place, and it has not come back!

The flowers by our window...

Maryline and me

Dinner with Maryline and Jean Luc

Some history... The island has a long story, the evidence of which can still be seen in the form of old army forts scattered along its surface. Some time back, a wealthy business man who had made his fortune in Mexico bought the island and gave it as a gift to his wife. A little church in the town square could pass for a village church in Mexico, easily. What a fabulous gift, eh? Wow!

Me while exploring one of the island's many old forts.

The beaches here were so pristine and the water crystal clear.

Mark looks for signs of life in the tidepool.

A path to the next beach...

I got my feet wet (I actually went swimming in the velvety water the next day, though no photos of that)

The next day we found our own little beach to play at. Only us and a couple of boats...

I love this photo of Mark!

Lots of coral to watch out for when swimming!

Mark brings his French dictionary everywhere, even to the beach!

Another fort...

The sand from a black-sand beach...

Turns out, Mark is a master at skipping rocks! I had no idea of this trait in my husband, and I was so happy to discover it that I was downright giddy! The most skipps I counted for a given stone was 9!! Way to go, Mark!

Coming up next: Venice...the most spectacular place in the world to hang your laundry!

Fall colors...

Lyon bathed in yellow...

Mark looking handsome and distinguished during a Sunday walk.

Parc de la Tet d'Or (literally golden head)--at its golden best!

An abundance of leaves.

An abundance of turtles.

The smell of caramel corn was so strong as I took this photo!

Enchanted paths...

Enchanted waters...

A growing Budha belly...

A place to meditate...

Ducks in a row... (actually, pigeons)

Strange happenings...

Halloween night...the two of us haunted by the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer we were watching (season 6, episode 1)...a knock on the door...

In the USA it would have been some trick-or-treaters, but not in France (no such sort of celebrating for Halloween here). We opened the door to a costumed person, though. A girl was standing there, dressed in hundreds of silver sequins with shiny silver hair. She explained that she was getting married in a few weeks, and she needed to go out on our balcony. Turns out this is part of a tradition here in France, much like a bachelorette party, called enterrement de vie de jeune fille (word for word translation: burial of life of young girl). The French term for bachelor party is similiarly enterrement de vie de garçon. Our "young girl" ran to our balcony, threw open the windows, and howled down to all of her girlfriends, who started clapping and laughing as she successfully completed the dare.

I must admit, this is my first real pregnant-looking photo!

Another strange occurance happened on a walk today. I was out exercising on the beautiful streets of Lyon, when a car pulled up with very loud music blasting out of its open windows. Usually this type of sharing only annoys me, as the chosen music is rarely to my tastes (I'm not so big a fan of gangster rap). However, as I listened to the music, I had no choice but to smile. A spunky, jazzed-up version of ...The Hokey Pokey was playing loud and clear, for the entire block to hear!

You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in, and you shake it all about.....you do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around....Great exercise music!