"YOU'RE SO FAT!"

So if/when you are pregnant and grow weary of the blatant lies about how small and cute your belly is, I have a piece of advice: find a sibling. They'll tell you how it is, straight up. If your siblings are too kind, you can borrow mine. It's actually quite refreshing.

We've now finished 21 weeks; I'm more than halfway there. Nowhere close to halfway through the projects I need done. This is adding up to bad news.

Here's Sean at 21 weeks. I'm not sure what's going on-- all I know is I almost forgot to take his picture this morning, he reminded me, I found him like this, and then he insisted I post it in color. You can take a stab at analyzing what it means. Is he exploring his sociopathic side? Attempting to shred preconceived notions of what a "good father" looks like? Artistically expressing disgruntledness? A little behind on Halloween?

All I can say is, when you meet our daughter, keep in mind from whom she descended (and cut her a little slack). Poor soul.

gettin' folksy in Fischer

In an attempt to be cooler than the Kerrville Folk Festival, Sean submitted a birthday request for two of the 300+ tickets available for the semi-local Rice Festival in Fischer, TX; his parents obliged. So we (and 300 inebriated middle-aged hippies) were SUPER cool the first weekend in November. Way cooler than Kerrville. Especially because no one has EVER heard of the Rice Festival or Fischer, TX. (Lack of name recognition is directly proportionate to degree of coolness.)

As proof of coolness, I'm including a picture of the chair backs, which have Fischer misspelled on many (someone has gone back and inserted a little "c" into the name to fix it). This is obviously due to lack of name recognition (or being an inebriated middle-aged hippie)-- either way, supremely COOL.

In all honesty, though, the music was indeed great. I developed a very deep appreciation for the fiddle, and Sean told me he wants a banjo and mandolin for Christmas.
A couple of the musicians were a little too folksy (like in a cheesy, dumb way). But most were excellent songwriters, and if I haven't made it clear, extremely talented musicians.

The same cannot be said for the coordinators and providers of the food options at the festival. We gave up on the Fischer frito pies by the second day and sought out some local goodness in Blanco, TX. Bet you haven't heard of Blanco. Therefore, also VERY cool.

Blanco BBQ restaurants have butterflies in front of them. They also apparently have parades in front of them every now and then for no obvious reason. We just missed it though, so I didn't get pictures. We just saw the aftermath.

Our accommodations were fairly minimalist. We stayed at Canyon Lake State Park, 3 miles down the road from Fischer. This aspect went beyond cool to downright cold.

On whole, it was an excellent trip, one that Sean fondly describes as "better as a memory." (Most "cool" things we do probably fit that description pretty well). We'll probably go again next year; anyone can do something unusual once-- you're only truly cool if you're committed! Besides, we'd be better prepared in many ways. We'd also have a 7 month old, but that could make it even that much more exciting (and super cool, because then we'd be doing something cool that, like, no other young parents do. We'd be going to an unknown event in an unrecognized place and be totally non-conformist by doing so with an infant. I mean, come on, how cool is THAT???? I know, you're probably getting giddy because you personally know such cool people. Feel free to start sending fan mail now.)

Wilburrito

...bathtime is just NOT fun

Atlanta At Last!

We finally made it back to Atlanta together last week-- it had been way too long since I'd gotten to see our friends, and yet it felt like no time had passed at all! Sean had a forum and work that kept him busy most of the week, but we crammed in as many visits as we could; it was truly a delight seeing everyone.

Lots of good food. Of course, what trip with Sean does NOT revolve around lots of good food?? I'm happy to say that all the new places I tried were totally on par with what I hold to be excellent Atlanta dining.

Also took a walk through the area between the Mason Mill tennis courts and Medford Park-- they've developed a really nice trail through that part of town-- the fall colors make for perfect scenery.

BABIES!

(a.k.a. hormones make you psycho!)

You can tell my pregnant brain has serious tunnel vision whenever I get around infants now. I totally failed to take pictures of my FRIENDS and I just took pictues of their kids. (Shelly's the only one who made it-- and that's because she's holding her kid). I objectively admit this behavior is sick, warped, and unforgiveable. Now that I'm back home and away from my friends I really miss them and wish I'd taken pictures of them. But in the presence of wee ones, my brain ceases to function-- they cast their spell upon me and it's hopeless.

(I somehow managed to not take a picture of Corbin, so he isn't pictured, but he was sooo well behaved and wonderful!)

We're not sure when my next trip back will be (depends on Sean racking up airline miles), but I'm already looking forward to it. I'm still blown away by the quality of the friendships we had there. (That sounds dorky, but I don't really know how else to say it.)

We Begat a Baby Girl!

I'm excited to announce a pronoun, at long last! It's finally time to transfer from the vocabulary of "it" and "thing" to "she" and "girl." YAAAAAY!

Perhaps needless to say, this was an extremely exciting piece of news-- the whole experience was awesome! I really didn't understand what a difference it'd make in terms of how connected I felt to her. Partially it was finding out the gender, for sure-- but I don't want to discount how rewarding it was to sit through the show-and-tell session while the nurse introduced us to each itty bitty body part and told us how good everything looked. Seeing the little body in motion is just incredible (it totally beats the still pictures you end up with). What's bizarre is that you can see the bones in the arms, the ribs, the detail of the spine, the gallbladder, kidneys, blood flowing through the umbilical cord arteries-- and best-- the heart beating. She even showed us a cross-section of the heart so we could see all four chambers with valves opening and closing! Think about it! That's nuts! I've seen more detail of my unborn child's innards than I know about my own! I wasn't expecting to be able to see anything beyond her skin and body shape (the things you typically see on other people).

Which caused me to to ponder whether we might all be a little nicer to each other if we could see strangers' hearts pumping. Sort of a literal version of knowing what's happening on the inside of people who we otherwise might treat a little robotically. Like to listening to your spouse's heartbeat. I don't do that a lot, but when I do, I'm always floored by how DEEPLY thankful I am that it's in there beating. It's an extremely important function that I totally take for granted. I think more about getting the oil changed in the car and maintaining an anti-mildew bathroom than I do about that heart chugging away. Anyway, beating hearts are just a cool thing, seen, heard, or simply appreciated.

They recorded some of the scan on VHS, but I don't have a way to convert that into a digital video, so the stills will have to suffice... (At least they're better than the 10 week ultrasound photo...)

Profile of face (her belly currently looks a lot like her mom's!)

Bicep curl-- check out those muscles!

Kicking Mommy

There is also a photo of her girl parts, but when she realized what we were doing, the poor gal immediately crossed her legs and rolled over. Modest little thing (we're thrilled with this trait). I decided, out of respect for her obvious preferences, I would refrain from uploading that image to the world-wide web. She also made another preference perfectly clear during her HDTV debut, which I promised I WOULD broadcast to the public. See below.

Opinionated little booger, isn't she?? But so cute.

And now, if she'd just have red hair. That'd be a dream come true-- I LOVE red hair. There is a very slight chance it could happen. She also needs to have Sean's personality so we aren't terrorized to tears by her teenage years. We already know she's got some kick to her. Probability favored us having a boy, just based off our charts. It's not hard to go back and see when conception must have happened, and there are statistics that show that how close it is to ovulation affects the likelihood of the baby being a boy or girl. (Apparently boy sperm are smaller, more fragile, and swim the fastest. The girls are slower, but bigger and can survive longer while waiting around for ovulation). All I can say is this chica must have been a FAST little gal. She whooped all the boys! I like this about her very much.

We're now officially halfway through the 40 week gestation period. The ultrasound machine estimated her weight at 13 oz (a pound is 16 oz), and she's about the length of a banana. We recently signed up for our required Bradley Method Classes, which will be Thursday nights between Feb 5th and March 26th. I'm also borrowing a Birthing From Within book from our friends down the street (the Luthers had a lot of success with that approach), and I'm curious enough about the hypnobirthing stuff to check out a book on that, too.

At this point, though, the best thing I can do to prepare for her arrival is step up the progress on house projects...

Pet of MY week.

Well, many sincere thanks are in order for Wilbur's campaign team, the volunteers, his undyingly devoted supporters... all those who made calls until wee hours of the morning-- your valiant efforts are to be commended. Special recognition goes to HKS, Fidelity Investments, Accenture's IT analysts, and the Luthers (our awesome neighbors) who demonstrated loving care for His Highness during such a critical week when his rise to prominence might have been otherwise undermined by his owners abandoning him while they went to Atlanta.

Despite the coordinated support and the sheer impressiveness of the candidate hedgehog himself, it seems a muddy dog stole the title of Dallas/Fort Worth Pet of the Week.

HOWEVER, as a strategist on Wilbur's campaign team, I am neither dismayed nor concerned. While he didn't carry the title, he did rack up the most broadcast air time of all the pets in the running. The news crew mentioned him specifically by name and showed his photo during a brief segment discussing how they usually just get cats and dogs submitted for their Pet of the Week competition. Yes, you read that right. Wilbur, in simply being a hedgehog, made major metropolitan evening news headlines. In case that wasn't enough, he was mentioned the following morning by the weatherman!

In short, our publicity team is quite pleased with how things played out. We lost the title, but we won the hearts of the media team itself (which clearly is a tried and true path to ultimate victory). You have not seen the end of Sir Wilbur Sims, Hedgehog Extraordinaire.

VOTE AGAIN, NOW!!!!

The presidential election was just practice, y'all. Here's a vote where your voice really matters!

Wilbur has a chance to be pet of the week!

Please go to:
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/

Scroll down to the link for pet of the week. This will open up a new window where you can choose Wilbur from the 8 finalists for this week's favorite pet. Apparently there are WAY too many people out there who don't understand the charms of a hedgehog. (At least we're doing better than the cat. ...On second thought, that's probably not a very campaign friendly, base-increasing comment, so please ignore that if you're a cat person.)

Unfortunately, it seems you can only vote one time from any given IP address, so if you have an office computer, vote there too! Tell your friends! Call your congressperson!
Upon winning, Wilbur will be sure to reward his most fervent supporters with high-ranking titles and kickbacks. But don't ask what this hedgehog can do for you. Ask what you can do for this hedgehog... and his cute little whiskered wiggling nose...

Party on the pepper plant

This is the place to be. Tell all your bug friends.

Somebody needed a hug...

126 days (18 weeks)

We had another check up on Monday-- all is still fine with the cowpoke. The heartbeat had some moments where it sounded, appropriately, like a galloping horse. The baby, who's been two-stepping around the barn for a few weeks now, is 5.5" from head to rump-- picture a bell pepper.

No, no. I take that back.

Picture a highly animated bell pepper tying its umbilical cord into a lasso and practicing calf-roping skills in a space with a 27 year history of museum-quality silence and stillness. That's more accurate. BabyCenter's tendency to compare the fetus to objects found in a still life painting is unbelievably inaccurate. First there was a heartbeat (which, I repeat-- kumquats do NOT have) ... then a few passing points of pressure, then a few wriggles (maybe this apple had worms??), now a one man rodeo. Bell pepper my foot.

The wrangler's home now occupies the whole lower part of my abdomen-- you can feel a big firm bump that goes all the way up to my belly button. (This means that everything that used to sit quite happily at belly button level and below is now crammed up above it. I'm not a big fan of this nor the fact that the organ-cramming is only going to get steadily worse. Sometimes I eat a big meal just to remind the baby that it doesn't get the run of the whole space. Never too early for a little discipline. "Stop all your acting up and go sit in the corner!" says the Sub Sandwich Nanny, her deli meats reheated to steaming.)

Here's the hugeness after 18 weeks:


In other news, I did come across a fairly good deal on a gym membership (no minimum month requirement, no start-up fees, and a price of about $1/day) that includes pool access and all classes, like yoga. This is good because I've had to stop jogging due to some pretty undeniable discomfort, and the walking thing just hasn't been cutting it. I figured as winter sets in I'll only get that much more sedentary. So I signed up last Friday and already feel like it's making a difference. Helps with the hormones, helps with the core muscle strength, helps with the crankiness, helps with the fluffiness, hopefully will help with the sagging bum... yes, the sagging is so depressing... it is only after you get pregnant that you hear about the accompanying chemical called "relaxin" whose sole purpose is to loosen and spread every single facet of your body. It is NOT such a beautiful thing. By the time this is done my earlobes are going to be flopping by my shoulders. They'll slap my baby in the face when I go to kiss it goodnight. I'll have to be careful what earrings I wear. And these are the disheartening side effects of pregnancy no one tells you about.

Sean at 18 weeks (notice how disheartened he looks about my earlobes and bum):


Soooo I'm trying to think if there is any other baby-related news. I'm going to schedule The Ultrasound for sometime the week before Thanksgiving so we can say thanks for the baby using accurate pronouns.

OH, and if you're still reading this far into this post, and you are one of the half dozen people in my life who have infants of your own, I would really love to see what you dressed them up as for Halloween, if y'all did that. Please send photos of your pumpkins and daisies and turtles. Thank you!

Lastly, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, if you go vote, I will reward you with more cute pictures of my hedgehog.

Is it love???

Sean-- big loud brute that he is-- is not Wilbur's favorite person. He need only walk by and Wilbur starts huffing and puffing. (The fact that Sean routinely bares his teeth and growls at Wilbur might have something to do with that-- so don't get to feeling too sorry for Sean).

Sean's SHOES, on the other hand, are apparently completely unrelated to the intimidating terrorist Wilbur so fears. Upon the discovery of these fragrant havens last night, Wilbur perched in there for ages, burrowed some, treated the inner sole to some serious scratch-n-sniff, and eventually curled up and fell asleep, relishing the scent of stinky boy feet.

You've never seen a more content hedgehog.
Or human.
Sean was inwardly tickled at this display of affection, as demonstrated by wry comments and pretended displeasure. He woke up this morning still amused, chuckling at the memory.

Folks, let's call it what it is. I believe we have a budding romance on our hands.