OK readers, this one is not for the faint of stomach...

One of the difficulties of living in Thailand, especially living up North and going in and out of villages, is that we are often catching one bug or another. Orion (who we are happy to say is visiting here from the States - it's been a real blessing) and I caught a burly one a few days ago which put us out of commission for a while - lets say we were having trouble keeping anything in our stomachs (Orion might be a bit upset when he finds out I'm broadcasting this information over the internet - sorry man).

Those of you familiar with the first trimester of pregnancy, and I feel that I can safely assume I am the least educated of our readers on this subject, know of a certain condition known as morning sickness. Well, I am happy to report that my Lori has been pitching a perfect game so far in the pregnancy (thank God for baseball analogies!). To be more clear, she hasn't been vomiting (morning or evening) - not even once!

In fact, although she's been tired and nauseous at times, Lori's pregnancy has suited her very well thus far. I've been so proud of her! Unfortunately, the other night I ruined the Perfect Game.

As I was losing the remainder of my last meal into the bathtub, Lori knelt beside me and threw up into the toilet. I tried to tell her that she was taking the "in sickness and in health" vow way too seriously, but she tends to go that extra mile. Although you can't really give credit for the hit to morning sickness (after all, the vomiting was reached on an error by the husband) her perfect game is forever gone. But hey, at least she still has a no-hitter going!

I love nicknames. I make up new names for Lori on a daily basis (soup, squishy, lorna shell and babydoll are high on the list right now). That said, we have gotten tired of calling the baby "the baby" or the even more annoying "it" - uggh.

This morning we decided we have reached the end. So I promptly named our baby Nerf. Soft, squishy and round, Nerf seemed like a very appropriate name to me. Lori, however, was not as keen on naming her firstborn after sporting goods.

"Not even children's sporting goods? Well then, why don't you tell me what you are keen on?"

"Bean. or Jelly Bean. or Jumping Bean."

Bean. It has promise. Jumping Bean was immediately out because there is a child in our village named Jumping Bean (I make up nicknames for them too, Jumping Bean is in the company of the Trouble Twins, little cat, R2D2, Mrs. Santa Claus and Turtleneck). So currently our little guy is being called Bean or Little Bean or Jelly Bean.

We found out that we had joined an odd little community of baby nicknam-ers for the not-yet-born. I guess it's just the next step of many in the natural progression of parenthood.

It will probably be a whle before he/she is writing for themselves, so for now you will have to bear with the parents version of the newest addition to the Vernon Journal suite - Baby Notes. Here on Baby Notes you will find all of the info and details about doctors, checkups, pregnancy and having a baby as a missionary that only a grandmother could care about.

Thanks for caring!