Tick ... tock ... tick ...

Wellllll the bases are loaded and mom is coming into the final stretch of the ninth inning of her pregnancy. All that's left is a safe delivery and recovery, a beneficial childhood, supported adolescence, affordable college experience, and we're all set! We leave in a couple of hours.

We've got not one bag loaded, but several several. There's a few bags of baby stuff, a couple bags of mom stuff, and a huge bag of dad stuff, not counting Grandma Biziza's stuff. What does this all mean? What the heck stuff do we have to pack?

Food. We're thinking ham sammiches for dad and maybe protein bars or something for mom. Not real sure there.

Tylenol, because apparently hospitals don't have pain medication for headaches.

Ice packs for painful back labor, because apparently hospitals don't ... yeah.

Labor and delivery bed, because ... wait, what?

Havianas, a Brazilian brand of flip-flop, because pregnant women find labor easier when they're walking, in the 20 minutes before they begin begging for the anesthetic.

A photo, of boydog and girldog, to remind mom of her youngest children and help her feel at home.

We hope to spread news through the blog, through an unfortunately short mailing list, through the phone ... but don't know how much or how well we're going to be able to keep up. If you hear, please feel free to tell someone else. We haven't been through this before, but we keep hearing how overwhelming and exhausting everything is at the beginning.

On the other hand, Dear Reader, you have helped keep us strong through this, and we appreciate all the support of our beloved family, Uncle Rodrigo, our wonderful friends, and Joe as we go on. Thanks for being with us, thanks for supporting us in the birth of Lil' Genghis, and thanks for offering to bring us lasagna. Wait, what?