We talkin' bout practice

Since we received a bunch of new baby goodies from the shower, we wanted to demo some of them to see if they pass Jones standards. Natalie thought it would be a good idea for me to captain the trials because she believes my practical baby experience to be lacking due to me being the youngest child in my family. I think she just likes barking orders and making the monkey dance. As we do not currently have a baby, we recruited a stand-in to aid in the test process.First I performed basic diapering on our new changing table. As you can see...flawless.Next I mastered the ancient art of swaddling. I thought my diapering was good, but the precision of my swaddling surprised even me.
Choosing a car seat can be a little overwhelming. Chicco? Graco? Maybe Combi? Here you see I put our Chicco KeyFit 30 through some rigorous stress tests.
Though Natalie would not let me post the photo of me throwing the car seat off our deck, I feel pretty confident our baby could survive a three story fall in the Chicco.

And finally, I made a couple of laps around the nursery in our new stroller. It handles like it is on rails.
Apparently Sully felt he could use some big brother practice and got in a few smooch reps. Well done.One step closer to parenthood.

Shower

Friday marked the 8 month point. Here is another photo to check the progress. Saturday was the eagerly anticipated baby shower, and it did not disappoint. It is an embarrassment of baby stuff around the Jones house following the big haul this weekend. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the safety and clothing fund of Baby Jones.It was quite a turnout at the Mayo-hosted event in Denver. We had friends making the trek from such far off places as San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta to add to the already diverse crowd. From frat gals to the dentals...and even some Chatfield Chargers...added to the carnage of wrapping paper and half eaten crudités. Here is Natalie surrounded by her spoils.
All of this has got me wondering when the husband/dad gets his day in the sun. For the ladies, it is a constant string of parties and gift giving: wedding showers, bachelorette parties, baby showers. When do I get my loot? All I've had is a bachelor party and the only "gift" I got was a shot of Austrian gasoline provided by Jeff Risom.

But seriously, thanks to everyone who came and thanks for all the wonderful gifts. There is very little left that we have on our list of needs, which means I have even fewer trips to Babies R Us in my future. Honestly that is gift enough for me.

Check back soon as we begin our stress testing of all of our new baby items...

Hospital Tour

Nat and I took a tour of Memorial Hospital North where if all goes well we will be delivering a baby in a couple of months. A couple of pivotal pieces of information were learned at our tour:

Number 1, where the hospital is. To this point I wasn't 100% sure I had ever driven past it.

Number 2, where to take Natalie in the hospital. If all else fails, go to the emergency room entrance.

Number 3, do not abuse the entry access code or it will be taken away from you. So for all you crazy party crashers who like to bust into delivery wards, do not come to me asking what the code is because you are out of luck.

We are really lucking out with the hospital. It is very new and nice. Flat screen TVs, the whole nine yards. I am a little concerned that there are only four birthing rooms, but apparently they only deliver around 130 babies a year. We'll roll the dice on getting a room I guess.

On a side note, both mom and dad-to-be are becoming emotional wrecks. I always knew we were a pair of softies, but the two of us cannot watch anything even slightly emotional on TV or it's a sob factory. I totally lost it watching "Grey's Anatomy" the other night, imagine what happened when we saw "Marley and Me." Not pretty. Natalie can blame it on the hormones, I however am just a pansy.