Meet Jake Anthony: Searching For State Quarters...

Friday, October 9, 2009

Searching For State Quarters...

As our boy continues to learn the states, he's become very interested in collecting state quarters. In an effort to avoid having these quarters lined up randomly all over the house, I bought him one of those state quarter US maps and he's been putting them in all the right places over the past month.

Nanny and I have exhausted every source of quarters that we might have (and some we never even knew we had...LOL) and yet there are quite a few he's still in search of. Last night he asked if we couldn't just "get some help from some of the people who love me"...which I thought was way too cute. So, here's the official call for help...

The list of missing quarters includes:

California

Wyoming

Minnesota

Tennessee

Texas

Alabama

Massachusetts

Maine

Guam

Puerto Rico

US Virgin Islands

American Sanibel (huh?)

He's offering a BIG kiss and even BIGGER hug for anyone you might be able to find!!! Happy Friday!!

p.s. Attaching a few pictures from his pumpkin picking school trip yesterday. As you can see, always surrounded by the ladies!! Last night was his first night as his new gymnastics program and finally, some kind of sport that he LOVED!! More on that, including video and pics, later...

Do you even see any other boys in sight?

Holding hands...

1 comment:

abby said...: You can put us down for Wyoming (I just rifled through my wallet, which literally contained 6 dollars in quarters, the majority of which belonged to states already represented on Jake's map. No wonder my wallet weighs a ton; I have to start using up all that change). I'll keep my eyes open for the other missing states...; October 9, 2009 at 2:25 PM

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About Jake Anthony

Jake was born on Aug 19, 2005, he weighed a hefty 9lbs 10oz, was 22 inches long (before you say "ouch" it was by C-section) and was welcomed into this world by his mommy, nanny, pops, uncle JJ, LaLa, Aunt Bear, Aunt No-No, Aunt Amy, Aunt CC, Aunt Razz, Aunt Titi, Aunt GG and Aunt Tracey (soon to be Aunt Dana too). To say he was a "dream come true" would be the understatement of the century!!

I had always dreamed of being a mommy and for some reason, had always wanted a boy. (So much so, that I enrolled in the MicroSort clinical trial for gender selection and had the sperm sorted to increase the odds to 85%.) Jake was conceived using IVF and donor #1876 from Fairfax. The donor selection was a VERY serious process including a thorough analysis of every detail imaginable. In the end, the pool was narrowed down to four possible choices, and each of the Posse (his group of Aunts) had an opportunity to evaluate the bio and stats and vote for a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice. The votes were tallied and actually, there was a tie between the one we called "Giraffe" and the one we called "James" (because he looked a lot like my brother). For the initial attempt, I went with Giraffe, but after no luck with 2 AI cycles, I switched to "James" (1876) and transitioned to IVF.

The first IVF attempt resulted in 8 eggs, 6 of which survived the fertilization process and 5 of which made it to day 5. PGD testing revealed that there was only 1 healthy normal embryo in the mix and luck would have it, it was a boy! The pregnancy, however, lasted only 8 weeks before I was told it was a non-progressing pregnancy. After that VERY big disappointment and weeks of waiting (and a DNC...uggh), I had the opportunity to try again.

This time, I was rushed in at day 3 and told that the 3 remaining fertilized eggs would not make it to day 5. The absolutely FUNNIEST part of this whole story involved my mom. I had not planned to go to have the procedure on Day 3, so my mom and I had to scramble to get there. (I received the message so late that they actually had to stay open late for me and I had to drive up from South Jersey 3 hours to get there....talk about driving at the speed of light.)

So, my mom meets me and we drive up together and on the way up I tell her "mom, no matter what they say, I only want to put 1 egg back in. I'm having this baby on my own and we already have a strong history of twins in the family and I don't want to risk ending up with 3! Mom, I really need you to be with me on this because they always push you to put more in to increase the odds of success." To which she replied, yes, no problem, I understand."

So, we meet with the doctor and he says, you have 3 remaining embryos, we couldn't do the PGD so we have no idea if any are normal (let alone the sex), so I'm recommending you put all 3 back in. My eyes open wide and I say "ALL 3????" I turn to my mom and she says "I agree with the doctor"...LOL!! And before I knew what hit me, off I went into the surgical suite...

And the result, is the most lovable, adorable, smart little boy in the whole world...hope you enjoy reading about him even half as much as I enjoy raising him...