+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Pictures!
Here are the pics from January and February: http://www.thenortonzoo.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=452
Here are the pics from Malta: http://www.thenortonzoo.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=23
Enjoy!
+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Continued good news...
Dan and I went to our third ultrasound this morning for Farquar II. This one was with a perinatologist, a specialist in fetuses. Both the ultrasound tech (a wonderful woman compared to the one who did the first two scans) and the doc said that there is nothing to indicate any problems with this baby or pregnancy thus far. All of my test results have been within normal limits, the baby is the right size, his heart has no noticable defects (and they did look at the structures pretty closely), his stomach and kidneys look completely normal, his brain is developing normally and he has ten fingers and toes and all of the appropriate arm and leg bones. They can't see or predict everything, of course, but so far, we should be expecting a healthy little boy. Next up is his echocardiogram late next week.+ 0 - 1 | § ¶Malta
We just got back from Malta over the weekend. That's the Malta off the coast of Italy, not the Malta in upstate New York. My parents took Alex, Kari, Abby, Bill and me there in celebration of their 40th wedding anniversary. On a whole, we all had a great time on the trip, exploring a new area, and hanging out with some of the family.
The trip out on Friday/Saturday was relatively uneventful. Alex managed to sleep for a few hours, and so did I. Kari slept a little bit. We adjusted to the time change pretty quickly, and managed to go out to Carnivale on Sunday. I've never been to a Carnivale/Mardi Gras celebration before, but this was pretty interesting. This seemed more of a family event than the Mardi Gras of Louisiana is depicted on TV, but that's a good thing, considering we were there as a family.
On Monday and Tuesday, Kari got all manner of facial/pedicure/massage/etc at the spa in the hotel. On Wednesday, Dad, Bill and I went scuba diving. We went to see a wreck of a British destroyer that sunk during the second world war. Apparently, it was a pivotal ship in finding the Bismark in order to turn the tide in the war. Its importance may have been slightly exagerated by the dive instructor, but it was very interesting nonetheless.
On Wednesday evening, we went to see the Tarxian temples. These are 3500 year old ruins that were unearthed in the middle of a city. It was odd to see something so old in the middle of the city. Such are the marvels of a place with such long lived history. It's an odd comparison with the US, as we have only had Europeans on the continent since the 15th century.
On Thursday, Kari, Alex, Abby, my mom, and I went to see Ta' Qali. This is an artisan village, where they have glass blowers, pottery making, metal working, etc. You can see all of the craftsmen doing their crafts. I picked up some fossils and some leatherwork. The rest of the party picked up a myriad of glasswork, of which a small portion made it home intact, which was quite a shame.
The trip home was quite a bit more eventful than the trip out. We flew from Malta to Milan, only to find out that the flight from Milan to Newark was canceled due to mechanical problems with the plane. We had to go pick up our luggage from the baggage claim, and then recheck in again at the ticket counter. They managed to put us on standby for a flight to London, where, hopefully, we would be able to get on standby for a flight to JFK. We got on the flight to London, after royally annoying some of the passengers that they had to rearrange in order to give us seats that were together so that we could watch after Alex. When we arrived in London, we realized that the flight to JFK was scheduled to board in one hour. We had to go pick up our baggage from the baggage claim, again, and recheck them at the ticket counter, again. After some sweet talking of the airline staff, we were escorted around many long lines to get right into security, and got to the airplane just in time. *whew*!
We've been adjusting to the change in time again, which doesn't seem to be as easy this way. It helps to be able to be outside in the sun to reset the body's internal clock, but there hasn't really been a chance for that yet, as it has been in the 20's and flurrying.