3D-4D Ultrasound #2

This time Rohan was a little more cooperative, but not 100%. But what do you expect from a Bacon/Syring hybrid? :)
There are several shots of "most" of his face, but he's getting so big that he's running out of room! 34 weeks is the max they'll usually do, and Mara is about 33 3/4. In most of the pictures he's snuggled up to the placenta, but you can see some features. Most notably his fat cheeks! They did some measurements and estimated him at 4lbs 11oz!!! At our last ultrasound (around Thanksgiving) he was 3lbs even. So the kid has grown 1 3/4 lbs in a month! Moooo! She guessed about a 7 1/2 lb baby in Feb...:) Bigger than both Mara (6lb 8oz) and me (5lbs 5oz).
Here is the video (~20 minutes) if you care to watch:

Yeah Winter!

Can you feel the sarcasm? It's hard to bitch about the 6" of snow that we got earlier this week when WI gets slammed with 1 foot or more every week. But we get to enjoy one thing they don't...ice. Moving to a slightly warmer climate in Missouri gave us later snow arrival, earlier & later golfing throughout the year, and December rain which turns to ice when the temp drops at night. We are supposed to get 1/2 inch of ice tonight so it should make for some interesting driving tomorrow on our way to work/school. Mara has an exam in Pharmacology and then she is done until January!
I feel sorry for the students who have to leave that were flying out of Kansas City. Sounds like they'll be shut down for a day or so to clean up after the ice hits them. One girl in Mara's class gets married on Saturday and a bunch of her family flew into KC and are now stranded! That would suck!
We are headed to Tim & Allison's this weekend to hang out with Cameron & the family. We are also going to try and get another 3D Ultrasound done, so hopefully Rohan is more cooperative this time...:)
Hope no one has to dig out of a snow storm this weekend! The Caldwells & Schmits are excluded since they're in Phoenix. A little snow would cripple those spoiled desert wanderers. We can't wait to be among them! :)

Supermassive Black Hole

After 16 years of photographing the galactic center of the Milky Way (its the galaxy we live in Michelle) scientists have proven the presence of a supermassive black hole "powering" our galaxy. The Milky Way has huge spiral arms (we are in the one called Orion) which are all rotating around the galactic center.

It's always been assumed that there was a large black hole at the center, but now there is tangible proof of existence. Since we can't SEE a black hole we can infer it's presence by looking at the stars that surround it. This was published in the Journal of Astrophysics in October if you want some dense reading...:) I heard the ESO (European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere) was going to release a time lapse video so they finally did today. I was all geeked up...:) You can see full videos at the ESO Website, but I am posting a short one here. Hope you enjoy it!

The supermassive black hole is calculated to be roughly 4 million times the mass of the sun, but in a MUCH denser package. The video zooms in from afar and shows several stars, but a star (called S2) orbiting the black hole shows the location. In the video it's located in the upper right of the central cluster of stars. It makes a sharp U-Turn and comes within 1 light day of the black hole; about 5 times the distance of Neptune & the Sun. 1 light day is the distance that light can travel in 24 hours. Quick calculation, Speed of light 299,792,458 meters per second, 31,536,000 seconds in a year. So light can travel 9,454,254,955,488,000 meters in a year (or 5.88 Trillion Miles)! It doesn't look that far in the video...:)
You can also read a little more at APOD if you want. Fun Fun!

Rohan Alexander Syring

We finally get to spill the name! Although we had to deal with Holly & Michelle both posting the name on their blogs before we got a chance to... We wanted to wait until the baby showers to tell everyone in person, and now we can tell everyone who couldn't make it! Its obviously not a family name. The name Rohan originats in India and roughly translated means "Sun/Bright". Mara's former boss Shekar named his son Rohan and ever since then, we've always loved the name. Incidentally it also has a place in Lord of the Rings, with the Riders of Rohan horsemen...:)
We spent some time trying to figure out sleeping arrangements for everyone on our way down to IA, but finally settled on an arrangement. We spent the ride to IA listening to Mara's Cardiology lectures on EKGs. We had to turn it off when it got dark because it started to put us to sleep! Mara got up at the ass crack of dawn and headed to a Starbucks in Davenport to study for 3-4 hours before the shower so she wouldn't feel like she was behind in her studying. I think that's what smart kids do...:)
We gave Jackson a gift that I hope Rohan will never inherit. The story goes that Michelle was calling me "Snack Cake" (I'm not exactly sure why), but like hell am I taking a nickname like Snack Cake! I decided to gift the name to my nephew...:) I spent a while finding pictures that I thought represented the honor of the Snack Cake name. I found Twinkie the Kid & Friends, some cupcakes, a doughnut, The Little Debbie logo, and a Swiss Cake Roll. I printed them onto transfer paper and ironed them onto a onesie. Who knew I had such skills? Mara had the best contribution of all. I had several small cupcakes I was just going to place randomly, but she said they would make a good necklace and cuff-links. They looked awesome! The best was when we put him in it just before the shower started. Jackson had a bad diaper rash and so they let him go commando to "air out". Well he took the opportunity to crap through the onesie and onto the floor! It was both disgusting and hilarious at the same time...:)
The shower itself was a lot of fun, and we were so happy to see everyone, especially those we NEVER get to see! Being busy is nice, but we sometimes feel like we neglect some of the families! We had a lot of fun with Jen's crossword puzzle, and there was only ONE person who actually guessed the name! My cousin Mary somehow came up with it. We got a lot of great gifts and a much needed break from Kirksville, even though it was only a week between breaks. Any break is a good break!
Thanks to everyone who came to both showers! We were really happy with the great gifts we got from everyone!!! Honestly Rohan could come tomorrow and we'd be pretty much set on everything. I'm sure that's just me being nieve. We'll never be 100% ready...:)
Enjoy the pictures!

The video is of Lucy begging for our food during supper. She is a perfect example of Pavlov's Dog behavior. It's gross to see the wet mark on the floor. Ewwwwww...

3D-4D Ultrasound Video

I had pasted a link below for the video, but I realized many people missed it since it was buried under the pictures from the ultrasound. Here is the video, but I'll warn you the ultrasound place added some pretty lame music to the video, but that's what the Mute button is for...:)
So without further adieu:

If you find some of your favorite pictures (or sections of video) just add a comment with the time so others can find the cool parts faster. Thanks!