For Doodle

"Read me books, Mama.
All these."
She points to the pile.
We snuggle up, her head on my shoulder
her legs curved around my belly,
around her sibling.

We cuddle and read
book after book after book
with breaks for "what's that?"
and
"oh no, is he okay?"
My compassionate little bookworm.

I feel her drifting off to sleep
lulled by my voice
and my presence.
I'm glad I'm here now.
I have things to do,
lists upon lists of urgent projects

but right now, she needs me

and I need her.
We need this.

Soon she'll be a big sister
with big sister feelings
and a big sister portion of my time.
But right now, here,
we cuddle.

I know I'll love another
just as much as her.
I'll love watching her
embrace her new role: big sister.
It's just so hard to imagine.
Hard to think about
my divided attention,
my divided time.

I promise her I'll do my best
and kiss her sweet, sleepy head
as I settle in
and drift off to sleep with my Doodle.

Doodle & breakfast

Miss Doodle is quite the amusing, entertaining, awesome little person. This morning she insisted on having hot chocolate for breakfast. When I refused she started crying and whining, even asking Papa in hopes he'd say something different. After a few offers of waffles, oatmeal or applesauce she wandered into the kitchen to figure out her own breakfast.

She proceeded to grab an ear of corn from a bag of farmer's market produce we hadn't yet put away. She turned and told me, "I eat corn for breakfast." She then walked to the garbage can, where she husked the ear of corn completely. I turned in time to see her take a bite of the raw corn, followed by an "Mmmmm" of satisfaction.

She then brought it to me, saying "you cook corn. It's ok, I only ate one bite."

While I cooked her corn she ate a waffle for breakfast.

The Belly

I seem to have officially crossed some pregnancy threshold: I'm huge. I say this not because I have passed a certain measurement or hit a wall of awkwardness. It's what others are saying. Comments have recently switched from the "aww, you're pregnant. How cute!" variety to the "Holy... wow. You're REALLY pregnant. Due soon?" variety.

Quick Public Service Announcement: As pregnant ladies we aware that we are pregnant. This is not news to us. Comments of the "oh, you look great" variety are always welcome. Comments tending toward "wow, you're huge" or "oh, poor thing... you must be miserable" are never welcome, at least not by me. If I want to bitch about pregnancy-related stuff, I will. But if I barely know you, chances are I'd rather stab myself in the eye with a spoon than receive your unwanted sympathy for how big I am and how uncomfortable I must be. Because really? I'm not that uncomfortable. Honest. Yes, there are actions that are difficult for me, namely putting on shoes or shaving my legs. So if you're offering to give me a pedicure or tie my shoe, your help would be welcome. But for the most part I feel really good, and don't want your damn sympathy thankyouverymuch.

(P.S. I am 34 weeks pregnant. That means I have somewhere between 3 and 8 weeks until this little one is born, probably somewhere around 6 weeks from now. So I'm not sure how making me feel ENORMOUS now will help the next six weeks pass easily and comfortably. Y'know?)

Alright, alright. Enough ranting. Tell me what you think. Here are a couple of photos Doodle and I took on a stroll up at Tony Grove Lake yesterday. Is this belly shock-worthy?

Self-portrait of the cuteness.

View from the front. Photo by Doodle.

Well?

What do you think?

Summer rainstorms are great

...especially with a friend's umbrella.

due date stress, or lack thereof

If nearly everyone around me seems to be nervous on my behalf that I might give birth before my due date, does it make me foolish to not be nervous?

My rationale: I've planned as much as I can for alternate scenarios. I can't anticipate for certain when the baby will be born (somewhere in the 37-42 week window is my best guess. Not exactly something you can block out on the calendar as *the day*). Stressing about something that I can't control seems futile. Might as well just sit back and wait, right?

If the baby is born before I've taught all of the early-semester labs I'm scheduled to teach then we'll work something out. The prof in charge of the class and my fellow TA are both prepared for this.

If the baby is born before my bellydance show, they'll have to rework things without me. My fellow dancers know this.

If the baby is born while J is in Pennsylvania (I'll be 37 weeks), then I'll just have to do what I can. I have support I can call on.

It'll all work out. It may not be the easiest, best planned approach, but it'll work. Seems reasonable to me. Is there something I'm missing?

This post is worthless without photos

Tonight at dance I got the comment "I don't think you'll make it [read: stay pregnant] until the show." Our big bellydance show is October 2nd, 8 days before my supposed due date. It's a reasonable guess that I may not still be pregnant then. *shrug* Ok, fine. Whatever.

This was immediately followed by "are you sure you're not having twins?"

Excuse me while my head explodes. Twins?! Do I look like I could be 33.5 weeks pregnant with TWINS?! No. Certainly not.

At least I don't think so. Time to take another round of bellypics, I suppose.

Drowning in apricots

About 1.5 weeks ago we picked apricots. Lots of apricots. The friends of a friend of ours had a tree full of apricots and didn't want them to go to waste. I inquired about picking, and they happily invited us over to "take as much as we wanted."

We brought home six boxes worth of apricots.

This is where those who have processed and canned fruits ask "what in the world possessed you to take so many? What can any one family do with SIX BOXES of apricots?"

That is a very good question.

We made 31.5 pints worth of apricot goo - like applesauce, but with apricots. Doodle loves it, J likes it, and we could use it to feed a small army if necessary. No scurvy in the long winter months for this family!

We also made two dehydrator-loads worth of apricot-applesauce fruit leather, which will hopefully last our frugivorous child at least partway through the winter. *fingers crossed* Oh, and we gave ~3lbs to a friend to give to another friend to make into Apricot Hefeweisen and jam.

Yes, ridiculous amounts of apricot product. I know. Want to see what the process looked like?

Half of our sink was commandeered for the apricot cleansing.

Then the cooking of the goo. Lots of goo.

My view of the pitting process, 31 weeks pregnant. Added bonus: it was dang hot in our house, so I rarely had my shirt pulled down over my belly. Good for not overheating. Bad for avoiding the occasional squirt of apricot juice in the bellybutton. Blech!