inflation

As you might know, pregnancy causes your waist to swell to abnormal proportions. Some people say that short women build highrise bellies, while tall women build ranch-style bellies. Curious where I fell in this spectrum, I have been measuring my waist during this pregnancy. (Actually, it just seemed like a more benign measure than weight gain.) It is now 13 inches wider than pre-pregnancy. Check me out:


(OK, it's not really me, but until our home reorganization project reaches completion, I can't download the real photos.)

Fortunately, it's not just my belly that is expanding at a rapid rate. For those of you who are interested in this gory detail, as of last week, I was already halfway to the ultimate goal of 10cm dilation. I hate to be a cheater, but in this arena I will take a head start where I can get one. Who doesn't like freebies?! We are hoping to see Vivian on, or before, this Saturday!

And, if she doesn't come on her own, I am finding a crowbar.

oh dear.

An ultrasound this morning disclosed that little Vivian is weighing in at an estimated SEVEN POUNDS ALREADY! With 4 weeks to go, it seems unfortunately likely that she will come close to my heavytitle of over nine pounds as a newborn.

Some birthing manuels suggest visualizing 'opening like a lotus flower'. I am thinking garage door.

Banana Splits over Texas Horizon

Pigs in space are one thing, but bananas? Texas just gets weirder.

Let's just start over...

Phooey on trying to update the old blog. Out with the old and in with the new, I say! We are less than a month away from being a family of four so might as well get get a fresh start here. Jesse may try to fill you in on some of the details from the month of December later on.

Auntie Hannah stayed with us for the holidays. Zach LOVES her. Doesn't hurt that she can throw him around like nothin' (I can barely get him his carseat, let alone a shopping cart. How are you supposed to put the kid in the cart when the closest you can bring him to yourself is arms length? Center of gravity is all off. So, Zach pushes the shopping cart with me. He also selects items he wants and tosses them in, but what can I do... I can't bend that far into the cart to retrieve them!) Back to Hannah. Hannah is very serious about teaching. Hannah taught him to push a stool to the sink, wash his own dishes, and blow suds all over the kitchen. He's has generalized that lesson so well that nothing is safe on the counters any longer. Bye bye knife block! She also taught him about tick safety when he is out on hikes... having trouble seeing the relevancy of that lesson, when we can barely claim proximity to the Texas Hill country, let alone mountains to climb? It seems he wanted to watch videos on her computer, so she let him watch her tick safety video. It's a bit too complicated to explain, but here he is, totally engrossed in the close up footage of the tick, and pretending his little fingers are the legs of a tick. Eww.

He is also contemplating the value of the toilet. After he started going to the bathroom and closing the door to poop, I thought perhaps we should give it a whirl. We haven't seen the Grand Poobah make any appearances in the toilet yet, but he is certainly enjoying trying. I think it's all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the ritual -- getting naked, using your stool, putting that cushy seat on the toilet, getting naked, playing with your bath toys, getting naked, etc. He is also very fond of his Thomas underwear. Sometimes he wears them over his clothes.

Finally, Zach is all signed up to start preschool. Despite my hesitation to send my boy off into the wide world, he is ready for some peer interactions and we are a little concerned about my ability to handle his 2 year old energy level while recovering and hanging out with Vivian (that's her name!) Zach is set to attend preschool with his best bud Martin. With Martin by his side to show him the ropes, I am sure he will do just fine. (See the boys scheming on Zach's intro day last week.)