why we're calling our baby Hero.

When we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl, I was calling our little baby "Bean." Chips didn't want anything to do with that at all (one, it sounds puny and two, he or she may end up like Mr. Bean). And since we still didn't know, we really couldn't pick out names yet. So we thought, okay, let's at least have a nickname ready. 

If it could have something to do with the baby's real name later on, that would be great. But if not, well, case-in-point there's "Chips" which if you knew his real name would beg the question "now where did that come from?" Did we want the same for our kid? Well, curiosity is always a great conversation starter. 

Okay so here's what we knew: the baby is due December. If you backtrack, that would make him or her a March baby. A Bataan Death March baby to be exact! 

One night during dinner, Chips was wearing his BDM finisher's shirt. And I just said, why don't we call him (or her) Hero? It would work either way. And I loved how it just brings us back to how incredible that race was for Team Chips. Hero. That's what we're nick-naming our little one.

So now we know that we're having a girl. And we talk to her and call her Hero. We haven't completely decided on what her real (full) name would be yet, but for sure, our Hero's going to be a feisty little ball of cuteness. Who knows, maybe she'll even grow up to be a runner like her daddy.

the battle of the baby joggers

It's fun looking at strollers, especially now that we're just a couple of months from our due date. We're not really bent on getting a jogger. But they just look extremely hardcore and cool. Chips would presumably have loads of fun with it. I just like it because I guess it stems from my love of big cars, err, SUV's.

We've decided on getting a lightweight stroller, especially since I'll be using it most of the time. And we could still take the baby jogging - maybe not at Chips' pace. Most probably mine, which is like... walking. Anyway, just for amusement's sake, I'll post some photos and info on baby joggers I found totally cool.

Caution: No reviews. Purely aesthetic. Maybe some snide remarks.

The JEEP OVERLAND Limited Jogging Stroller.  They named it after a monster of an SUV. That just about sold it for me. And it has an odometer and a dock for iPods. The other thing, JEEP is branded so beautifully up front. Grrrar.

The JOOVY Zoom 360 Jogger.  It looks fierce. It's actually for "city living". I guess you would need all that 3" travel suspension with all the potholes in the metro. The product manual also says it's made out of aircraft grade aluminum. So when your baby travels, your jogger and the airplane would be really good friends.

The BOB Ironman Single Jogger. It's called IRONMAN. How awesome is that. Your baby could look at other babies and say, "Hey I'm on an ironman. Oh what, your stroller has little bears." And if daddy or mommy has actually done the Ironman, that's just doubly awesome. It's like fate.

The SCHWINN JOYRIDER Jogging Stroller.  The sheer size of the wheels bite you first. They're 20 inches in diameter. How crazy is that. It's made up of aluminum and folds into something I couldn't even explain. It looks like a stroller sandwich.

The BABY JOGGER 25th Anniversary Performance Jogger. If other babies saw your baby in this stroller, they'd be thinking your baby was some loony speedfreak. It's just a picture and it already looks fast. It's a solid one-piece frame built for maximum durability and it has shock absorbers too. It also has reflective stitching in case you know, you'd like to get your baby used to your 4am weekend runs.

35th Milo Marathon - Garmin Connect

I think that this Garmin thing is so cool. Honestly, when the hubby showed me a photo of the watch I said to him, "It looks like a calculator." Well, it still does. But at least now I think it's a cool calculator.

Ever since he got it, they've been inseparable on runs. Even the shortest distance. Still need to wear it. Except for unfortunate instances (very few) when he forgets it or forgets to charge it.

He even wanted to try out its heart rate monitor belt-thing on my tummy to see if it could pick up our baby's heartbeat. If we get crazy enough maybe we just will.