THE LATEST

Okay, so here's the latest on the baby. All is well, although he's growing really fast now. He weighs about 4.75 pounds now, and while the hospital is showing his due date between Jan. 25 and Jan. 28 (different areas of the hospital are showing different dates), his rate of growth rate for his legs are showing as early as Jan. 18. So, he might end up a little early. The lady doing the 4-D ultrasound said he has a big head (much to Tara's dismay). But all is healthy and he's growing quickly now. If the calculations for his due date are right, and the trends continue (.5 pounds for each week for the last six weeks), he could come out as big as eight pounds. We'll see, next appointment is due Jan. 5.

SHAPPELL SNOZ!

Early returns had Ethan with Tara's nose, but the latest pictures show a Shappell Snoz is there ever was one! All-in-all, this isn't a bad shot of the left side of his face.

DON'T MIKE TYSON ME!

When we first started Saturday, Ethan played shy looking away. So, we got a shot of his ear.

HANDS

No wonder Tara says her ribs hurt. Ethan's got his hands in fists, so he's really throwing punches in there. Just so everyone's aware, he switched over and his left hand is now stationed by his head.

JR'S TOES

Much to Tara's dismay, little Ethan appears to have JR's feet. Here, you can see his second toe is longer than his first toe, which really freaks Tara out. Wait until JR shows Ethan how to grab things with his toes!

IF THERE WAS ANY DOUBT

Yes, that's right. We went in today for another check up. If there was any doubt or anyone was holding out for the possibility there was an error, this shot confirms what we believed had been confirmed earlier. It's definitely a boy. If you haven't heard, his name will be Ethan James Shappell.

LIFE IN BLDG D, APT 101

The first video was a success, so we thought we'd try a second. JR got the whole household included on this one, as we visit Boots, Bear, the baby's room, and the belly holding the baby!

A VIDEO OF THE BABY

Well, supposedly this will work...If so, you get to see a video of the little guy swimming around in there.

SHOWING SOME FEATURES

You can start to see some distinguishing facial features...the eyes, nose, lips, etc. here. It's hard to tell whether he has more hair than his daddy yet, or why exactly he chooses to have his right arm by his head, always, but he looks like a mutant alien thus far, and we guess that's about right.

HE HAS FINGERS, TOO

He's got fingers, too...ten of them, five each...just like the toes...Good to go.

LITTLE FEET

Yep...Ten toes, five on each foot...So far so good.

IT'S A BOY

Yes, we believe if you look at this picture you'll be able to see why we think this.

SHY GUY

You'll see by the other pictures this little guy is a
ham in waiting. Here, however, he's hiding from
our "camera."

WHASSUP?!

Baby looks like he's striking a pose here. He really liked having his right hand by his head.

THINKER

Obviously this baby will be a thinker. Look at him strike the pose. That, or he got a set of earphones in there.

TIGHT SPACE

The baby has chosen to start expanding his territory. He was very active at the doctor's office, and Tara says her stomach feels funny all the time. I like to tell her he's moving in. You can see his tight quarters for right now.

DIGITS

OK, so obviously this is a good thing. The baby has ten fingers and ten toes.

HERE'S DA BABY!

OK, so it might be a little tougher to make out than we thought. But you can see the eyes and nose and the baby's arm up with his elbow sticking out.

BABY

Yes, as I'm sure you are all now aware, there is a Baby Shappell on the way. Here is the ultrasound from this morning. Apparently the doctor must have assumed we couldn't figure it out on our own, so he drew the face on the bay. If you look close you should be able to see an arm in there, too. The baby's heartbeat sounded good and it appears as if everything is on schedule with week 14. Our next appointment is August 18, at which time we will get the "4D" view ultrasound done, which should show a better view of the baby's development. So far so good.

YAKCHEONSA TEMPLE

Yakcheonsa is the largest Buddhist Temple in Asia. This is the view from in front of the temple. There are also several branch off temples and several living areas. The temple resides on Jeju Island.