I want to start by saying I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and may everyone also have a great and healthy new year. Also, I want to apologize if I offended anyone with any previous or future posts. Kate has notified me that my thoughts are regularily offensive. But don't worry loyal readers, I will continue to post all my thoughts whether or not Kate thinks they're offensive.

• It’s not officially Christmas until my mom gets me a bag of beef jerky and a box of chocolate covered cherries. I think I’ve received these in my xmas stocking for the past 15 years. And yes, I still get a stocking from my mom!
• We received some baby outfits and small toys for Christmas and this fueled my impatience for the baby’s arrival. Only 167 days or so left. 167! Hurry up Baby Big Head, Daddy’s waitin’.
• Christmas night we got home the same time our neighbors across the street did. They had they’re first child two and a half months ago. We were able to go over and see the little guy. He was pretty damn cute. And quiet as can be. So as you can imagine this also added fuel to my impatience.
• We have an appointment Thursday morning at 7:30am. Hopefully all is well and we’ll be able to schedule our ultrasound appointment to determine the sex. I’ll post something Friday to update everyone on how the appointment went.
• I’ve given a lot of thought to where the baby’s birth will rank on my top five greatest moments of my life. Here is the current list:
  #5 – May 15, 2004, highlight – became a homeowner
  #4 – February 6, 2005, highlight – Eagles played in the SuperBowl (lost)
  #3 – May 12, 1995, highlight – lost my virginity
  #2 – May 2, 2004, highlight – Katie agreed to marry me
  #1 – May 13, 2005 highlight – Katie actually showed up for the wedding
  I’m currently thinking it will be either #1 or #1A along side marrying Kate. We’ll see how well this marriage thing goes. These are always subject to change.
  NOTE: Also receiving votes for the top five were; June 8th , 2001, highlight – First date w/ Kate; and April 16th , 1995, highlight – got driver’s license (oh the freedom)
• I tried my best the past few days to try to get a feel for what it’s going to be like with a baby next Christmas and I was unsuccessful. I would stop at various times during the holiday and ask myself “what will I be doing differently at this moment next year?” It was hard to say. Especially when during Christmas day the youngest person at my mom’s house or Kate’s parent’s house was my 11 year old cousin Lauren. I did get a glimpse on Christmas Eve at my grandparent’s house with 3 kids 2 years old or younger. Yikes!

Here are some thoughts from a busy weekend:

• We were at a party Saturday night and everyone would rub Kate’s belly because she’s starting to show. I love belly rubs! Why can’t people rub my belly too? It’s growing as fast as Kate’s. And aren’t WE pregnant, not just Kate?
• I didn’t have more than 20 minutes to sit around and do nothing all weekend. Between parties, working at my mom’s, watching the Eagles (I consider this labor these days), and work Sunday night, I was always doing something. All of this should make this holiday weekend all the more enjoyable.
• I received a phone call this morning from an excited Kate because she found maternity pants she really likes. I think it might actually be okay for me to be in the same room with her while she gets dressed in the morning now.
• If there are any women out there who have been pregnant and are willing to corroborate Kate’s claim that her belly is significantly larger at night versus in the morning please respond to this post. If no one responds I’ll just keep assuming Kate’s delusional.
• I wonder if the baby can hear what is going on around him/her? I probably need to know because I use bad words much more than I thought I did. One could argue the f-word flows out of my mouth as often as wine flows through Tinapopo’s liver.
• Kate actually made me extremely sad Saturday. I had just got home from my mom’s and she looked like she was on the verge of crying. A semi teary eyed Kate stuttered out “I wish other people were pregnant too. It would make it so much more enjoyable.” In light of this heart breaking moment I am offering for both Karen and Kristen to move in with us for the duration of their pregnancies. Let me know if you can.
• There is a guy at work who sits in the cube across from me whose wife is due any day now with their first child. I see the excitement in his eyes and it makes me even more excited. Actually he’s not in today which means she may have had the baby this past weekend. What an awesome Christmas gift!
• Not that many of my male friends actually read this, but I’m hoping to get together with all of them Friday somewhere for booze and good times. And lucky for me I’m drinking for three.

It’s been a while since thoughts were added so I have quite a few from the past week. Here they are in no particular order.

• I will never be able to understand how Kate and her mom can spend hours and hours Christmas shopping. Especially considering how they shop. They’ll spend 20 minutes agonizing and going back and forth on whether to buy even the smallest most inconsequential gifts. And they eventually conclude to get they gift on the pretense they can always return it. Kate’s crazy mom will fill up her cart just to walk back around the store and put half of it back. Unfortunately Kate doesn’t think this is weird because it’s all she has ever seen her whole life.
• I couldn’t be more relieved that the bathroom is done. I was so tired of having to endure the inconvenience of not having a fully functional bathroom. You don’t know how important they are until you go a couple weeks without one. It’s also neat to look at the completed bathroom and think that’s were my little kids are going to learn how to go potty and how to splash water out of a tub all over the walls to their parents disapproval.
• The baby name discussion (war) has really died down lately. Hopefully it stays this way through the holidays. Because next month we’ll find out what we’re having and when we know the real battle will begin. Look for either Sophia Marie Marseglia if it’s a girl or Lucas Knight Marseglia if it’s a boy.
• I wish my wife made the same effort to spend time with me as she does with her mom. I’m growing tired of playing second fiddle. Hopefully when the baby is born Kate won't ask me to move into her parents house so her mom can move into ours and completely replace me.
• I have my marketing final Thursday night and I can’t wait for it to be over. I really think the holiday season will begin for me after that burden is lifted off my shoulders.
• I’ve been so damn busy for the past month and a half I’m starting to really miss a lot of my friends I haven’t seen a lot of lately. They know who they are (not you Nick). Hopefully a card game or a bar gathering will break out in the next few weeks.
• After tearing my mom’s kitchen out over two months ago we almost have it all back together. The flooring goes in today and the countertops go in tomorrow. I can’t wait to start getting phone calls from my mom that don’t include questions like: Can you be here all day Saturday and Sunday to install the cabinets? OR Can you come over after work and help the electrician get everything done?
• I still struggle with the thought that we’ll have a 6 month old during next Christmas. Oh, I know everyone’s tired of hearing it but I can hardly wait.
• I am already getting that nervous excited feeling in my stomach about finding out what we’re having. It like that overtime playoff hockey feeling.
• All my life I’ve been going to my mom-mom and pop-pop’s for Christmas Eve to enjoy the feast of the year. The seven fishes of the sea. Headlined on the menu by the delicious lobster tails. However the stark realization hit me the other day that it will probably be my last great feast. For as exciting as it is for me to start new traditions with my family it’s just as sad as the old traditions are unable to continue. Damn Mike!
• I really think my brothers are going to be good uncle’s right from the start. And I hope my sister has the patience to be in the same room as my kids for more than 5 minutes. And I guess I just hope Kate’s brother can remember all of our kid’s names someday.
• I’m considering taking Kate for a cat scan since it’s been a while since she’s had an actual thought.

With the destruction and construction of the bathroom all but complete I feel like I can finally relax for a little bit. It seems like we have a lot of good days ahead in the coming month. We’re having a bunch of Kate’s friends over for dinner Friday and we have a Christmas cocktail party to go to on the 17th. And then the following weekend we have the start of the holiday festivities. I’m glad because I can use the R & R. It looks like I’ll be able to take it easy in January too. Come February it looks like I’ll be back to work. This time I’ll be working on the dreaded kitchen. Once that is done it should be smooth sailing to the birth of BBH in June. Here are some more thoughts from the past few days:

• I was nervous about what the pregnancy would do to Kate’s daily energy but as it turns out she’s still just as tired as she was before we got pregnant.
• For the second time in a month my dog (a Great Dane named Tyson) went into the trash and eat chicken bones. The first time he did it he eat an entire chicken carcass and somehow didn’t throw up. Tuesday morning he eat the bones from the 20 chicken wings I eat before the Eagles game Monday night. This time however he puked all over the front bedroom. He’s smart enough to wait for me to leave, open the cabinet to the trash, and carefully remove the trash from the cabinet but he’s not smart enough to not eat the chicken bones. I don’t get it.
• I was so busy at work Sunday that I dreamed about the stress that night. I remember in my dream thinking “oh $hit, we never made that order and it was placed an hour ago.” Anyone whose waited tables and been extremely busy knows what I’m talking about.
• There are times when I really dislike my dogs for misbehaving and it makes me wonder if I’m going to have these same feelings about my kids when they misbehave. For the record I know dogs aren’t the same as kids. I’m not one of those people.

• I get so damn excited around the holidays. There is just so much to look forward to in the coming weeks. Family, food, and presents are what awaits.
• Kate goes food shopping five times a week and there's never anything good to eat in the house. I think the man of the house needs to go food shopping at least once a month. That way there is always an endless supply of chicken wings, smokey BBQ potato chips, and marshmellow fluff.
• I question my wife's sanity when she gets home from work and walks right past me and starts talking to our one dog. And she says stuff to the dog like "how was your day little angel girl? please tell me all about it" and "I missed soooooo much today!" Am I that unimportant to her where the dog takes precedence? Am I that boring that she opts to try to hold conversations with our dog instead of me? Hmmm, I guess I should have addressed these issues before had kids.
• If Kate buys one more little, inconspicuous, stupid christmas decoration I'm going to lose my freakin' mind. I have logged at least 7 entires into our checkbook in the past two weeks from stores like "Michaels" and "Joanns". They next ream of red fabric that comes into my house will be lit on fire along with Kate's checkcard.
• I recently felt a renewed sense that we might not be the only set of our friends that might be expecting soon. I did the math and there are just too many couples for none of them to get pregnant in the next few months. Heck, for all I know one (or two) already are.
• I need to start drinking more. It seems like I just haven't been myself the past few months. If I'm going to be someone's dad I need to perfect the "sitting on the couch while drinking a beer and doing nothing" technique that all TV dads have. If I work hard maybe someday I can be the next Homer Simpson. You gotta have goals!

Here is an idea of the weird things I go through and think about:

• For as strange as it was for Kate to run into the spare bedroom while I was on the computer to show me her belly at different stages (sucking it in, sort of sucking it in, and letting it all hang out) yesterday, I mildly enjoyed it. It showed me that she is finally genuinely excited about the baby.
• Last night we argued about how to arrange the living room in preparation for getting our Christmas tree next week. We never really argue about anything. And I guess as far arguing goes last night wasn't really even anargumentt. Sometimes I think I use the term "yes dear" too much. Once the baby is born I'm not using it nearly as much as I do now. Damn pregnancy!
• I have thrown in the towel on the idea that one of our friends that lives nearby (Kristin, I love you but you and Eddie don't count because you live over 45 minutes away. And I am looking forward to the summers on the beach with the kids) will be getting pregnant anytime soon. A certain TinaPoPo hasn't been able to crack the rock that her husband has become and nobody else seems primed to get started.
• Being that the baby is due in June I have already thought about when to start the baby in school. I'm thinking if it's a girl its fine that she is the "young" person in her grade and if it's a boy I think it's better if he is the older guy in the grade. I know this is stupid to be thinking about now so forget I mentioned it.
• Somehow my excitement builds greater and greater everyday. When we found out I thought I couldn't get any more excited than I was at that moment. I was foolishly wrong.