When oh when...

Cindy feels she is ready to deliver our baby. The DC heat, the long work days and commute, the difficulties sleeping and the physical discomforts all make her feel each day that that day is a great day for delivering the baby. In fact, we almost thought it would happen a week ago on Saturday July 17, when she had contractions every 10 minutes for almost six hours, but they did not get stronger or faster, and stopped by themselves.

The doctor had also told us that she would like to induce Cindy on August 3, because she thought the baby would be large. But that plan has changed because Cindy's doctor had to fly back home for a family emergency, and she will not be back until August 8. The new plan is for Cindy to have a sonogram next week to measure whether the baby is large or not, and then we and the substitute doctor will decide whether or not an induction is necessary. Because the baby is measuring normal from the outside, she may go full term, which would be August 17. We have no idea what will happen...

The Bota Guessing Game

It is therefore a great moment to start the Bota Guessing Game (much like the Grippy Guessing Game we had for Alex. Email your guesses for the date of birth, the birth weight, and length to Rob or Cindy, or to webmaster at robandcindy.net.

How will we determine who wins? With the three guesses you give us, we calculate the number of penalty points. If your guess for the birthday is off by a day, you get 20 penalty points, and 20 more for every additional day. For every 30 grams (1 ounce) that your guess is off from the actual weight, you get 1 penalty points, and for every centimeter (0.4") that your guess is off, you get another 5 penalty points. The one with the fewest penalty points, wins a nice prize. Last time, the winner received box of chocolate. But who knows what the prize will be this time!?

April 19	May 16	July 18

But what will we name Bota?

We will use the name Bota only refer to the baby as long as she is in Cindy's belly. Once she decides to come out, we will give her her real name. Out of the many, many possibilities we have narrowed the field down to two possibilities, Irene Maaike, or Maaike Irene. As you may have noticed on our home page, we put up a poll to ask your opinion. Of course, this polling is not a democratic one, because eventually Rob and Cindy will have to decide, but we are very curious about your opinion! So please let us know what you think!

Alex is looking forward to his sister's arrival

Alex has all kinds of plans for after his sister's arrival. Many of these he has already been disappointed on... For example, he was planning to talk with his sister, only to find out that babies cannot talk yet. He then wanted to walk, but babies cannot walk either. In the end, he decided he will be in charge of giving his baby sister a bath: "I will give Bota a bath. That's right". The latter is something that Alex likes to add to reaffirm that something is ok, even when he knows it is not...

We have also asked Alex whether he prefers Irene Maaike or Maaike Irene as his sister's name. His answer: "Buzz Lightyear"...