it's a boy!

so at 1:27am this morning the first SMS arrived from Rich announcing that it was a boy but had not yet come out. they were at the hospital in Santiago and all was OK with Sandy. at 5:16am, little Ricardo (actually Richard Edward Weber) had been delivered. we are excited for them and anxious to meet the new little guy. so no more big belly for Sandy! thanks to Open Shirt Mike for the picture of Sandy shown on the left in the last days of pregnancy!

wonder what it was like to have a baby in a Dominican hospital. i am sure Sandy will have some interesting tidbits to tell about that experience.

Richard will become the newest member of the Cabarete Boys Club! there must be something in the (bottled) water here because all the kids born to parents we know who have been living here are boys with 2 exceptions. there's Kai, Rodrigo, Elliot, Oshen, Guillermo, Alex, Jordi, and Jacobo. Zoe and Alexandra, the 2 lone girls, will certainly have their choice of boyfriends.

the availability of cheap nanny labor makes the experience of raising a kid a lot easier here i believe. most everyone has a nanny for their kids. it's too cheap not to! for like $150/month, you have a full time baby sitter 6 days a week for 8+ hours. i think some may even cook lunch for you (nice!) that same nanny will watch the kid in the evening too for some ridiculously low price. i mean do the math on the hourly wage on a monthly basis. the nannies welcome the work and the money. so there's none of that "we can't find a babysitter" thing.