It's a Girl!

Well, we went to Kaiser on Thursday for "the big ultrasound." The ultrasounder (there must be a technical term for that nice lady) knew after a few seconds the sex of the baby. She asked us if we were ready to find out and, after we said yes, she announced that Baby Sorbello is a girl! Given that I was one of the few people I know who expected a boy, I asked her if she was serious, and she reassured me, "We don't joke about these things." Below are a few of the ten pictures we left with...

Here is a picture of the heartbeat, which was fast and furious (144 bpm). The dark spot in the abdomen is the baby's stomach...


This is a picture of the spine, which the ultrasounder noted was "very pretty." I'm not sure if she was just being nice or what...


This one is creepy. You can see the baby's head and eyes. The lenses of the eyes are visible if you look close...


The ultrasounder also commented about the prominent bridge of the baby's nose, which is definitely visible here. Do we have an Italian in the making?


We are pretty set on a name: Siena Grace Sorbello. Siena is a beautiful Tuscan town, which we loved visiting on our trip to Italy shortly after we got hitched. Here are some of our pictures from Siena, Italy, back in the summer of 2004...



The plaza in Siena (where we are seen eating above) is the scene for a famous horse race, where teams are created based on neighborhood, ornate flags and uniforms are in abundance, and dirt is dumped onto the brick plaza of Siena for a spectacular event... Sam's parents took this picture...


Sunday marked the end of a loooong, but fun, intramural season at UCD. Sam managed to get in on some action, despite her bum ankle and blossoming belly. I've posted a few pictures of some of our teams this season...

Here is Sam, ready for the next whiffleball offering during the 24-hour Whiffleball Palooza at UCD... she pitched two scoreless innings for her team and had several at-bats.


Here is Sam's championship team in their victory t-shirts. They are oh-so-elegantly posing pregnant to match their captain, who needs no artificial belly-stuffing...


My team won the tournament on the men's side. It was a great weekend, because my long-time friends David Forester (now a busy dentist and father-to-be in Fresno) and Peter Nelson (youth pastor and father-to-be in San Diego) joined Justin Smith (teacher and hubby-to-be in Woodland) and I for the tournament. We had a great time hanging out and talking about weighty issues like fatherhood, faith, and fantasy baseball.


Luke Steidlmayer couldn't join us for whiffleball, but he was able to make it to Davis for UCD's annual 3-on-3, outdoor basketball tournament. Joining Justin, Luke, and I was Charles Warne, a defensive monster.


A goofy picture of our coed AA softball team... Sam played on this team a little bit, but primarily starred as the league's best photographer and scorekeeper. She gave us extra runs whenever we needed them. :)


Here's our AA men's championship softball team... Sam played the first inning of the last game at catcher because we were short one guy. She did great - ankle, baby and all!


We probably won't ever play this many IM sports again, which is one of the many sacrifices that parenthood will surely involve. The competition and camaraderie are great fun, but they take up lots of time, especially during the playoffs.

On another note... Bethany and Richie announced recently that they are expecting bambino #2 in January. We are very happy that there will be another cousin for Siena!

Sam's last day of school is tomorrow, and she is looking forward to having some downtime this summer. But she will miss all (well, most) of her students, too.

Whelp... this was a long one. That's all for now.