What a baby wants...

This past weekend Tony and I began the registry process for little Allie. It's amazing how much stuff such a little baby needs! From transportation (strollers, car seats) to luxury bedding (cribs, mattresses) to elegant dining (highchairs), Allie should be welcomed into the world in style!
Then there are toys! OK, so daddy and mama had a little bit more fun there than Allie may for a while...what can I say? I absolutely love all the teething books, the noise-making books, the touch and feel books and the bi- and tri-lingual books!! Yes, I'm into the whole bi-lingual, learning toy thing--don't worry, they're cool toys, too. Our daughter won't be a geek--she'll be a really cool smart baby!
Then there are clothes! Girls do have a lot of cute things, but we didn't go overboard on that. We mainly registered for the necessities for the first six months--onesies, hats, socks, etc. We only put a handfull of cutsie things on there--it's hard to find the right styles for the season of when she would be able to wear it. And, in the early months, she will be growing so fast--there's no sense in getting too many floofy things that she can only wear for a week or two.
Well, the registry process was a lot of fun for us. We would highly recommend it. If you want to read more registry details, complete with pointers, check out a recent blog I posted to my MySpace site: http://www.myspace.com/joyrancatore. Also, in case you would like to check out our choices, you can view both our registries online: Babies R Us (www.babysrus.com) and Target (www.target.com).

Here goes...

With the quickly approaching arrival of our first child and the cute examples of several friends, we have decided to enter the wide world of blogging--outside of MySpace!
I am sure our posts will be somewhat slow and sporadic at first; but once little Allie arrives in September, we will have much more to post and blog about! We hope that this blog will be a source of smiles and deep thoughts for friends, family and not-yet-friends.
Thanks for checking us out, and we hope you come back to visit again!

A Great Big Yawn and Two Melted Hearts

On Monday, April 30, Tony and I went to the doctor for our 20-week appointment. This was the big one--we were to find out if we were having a boy or a girl.
The lady took her time checking all of the baby's organs and body structures. Finally she came to the moment we had been waiting for--it's a girl! We were a little surprised because we had both guessed we were having a boy, but we were very excited!
We are having a little girl! Now we can call her by her name, Allie. Her full name is Allie Jael Rancatore.
Allie was very active for the ultrasound, scratching her elbow, opening and closing her mouth, yawning and waving at us. She looks perfect--10 fingers and 10 toes! We have been told she has long fingers and big eyes. Those fingers may come in handy for playing the piano--now Joy will have someone to play duets with! Tony is thinking more along the lines of "long fingers are great for playing basketball!"
In the words of the doctor, everything looks "boringly healthy." We pray that things will continue to be that way through the end of pregnancy, through delivery and once she is here.