Life is a Banquet

Guess the Beta Game!

(EDITED: if you are reading this in bloglines or another reader, you'll need to click the post title to see the youtube video at the bottom of the post, or go here. I also added a viewing guide below as to what is what.). I've been walking around all day giggling and going, "I'm really having a baby." Not that I thought I was having puppies or something, but it's just so surreal. We had an ultrasound yesterday to check for growth. It was the first Beta viewing since 19 weeks. Remember that? When I had to beg you to reassure me about the eery glowing spine? What a difference 3 months make!

Gone was the ghostly one pound wonder, replaced by a 4 pound + squirmy BABY protesting the inferior accommodations. Measurements were a challenge and 3D ultrasound was impossible b/c quarters are very cramped in there. I'm sure s/he is drafting a complaint as we speak. Or perhaps an appeal, since the OB says that since the growth is right on target, we'll keep the original due date of September 12. Beta and I are both shaking our heads at the idea that I'm supposed to get bigger. 

Everything else looked good & healthy. I'm so relieved. My blood sugars behaved. I feel so lucky right now that I've even laid off whining about the heat. But you're not reading this looking for me to drone on about the meaning of life, are you? No, you (like our families) want to know if we're still on team GREEN.

The answer is YES, but with a special bonus game to tide us over till September! The AMAZINGLY patient doctor didn't note the sex in the chart or give us any hints, but assured us that he got VERY good look. Then he handed us the video so that we could have fun guessing and playing armchair ultrasound tech. I've watched it about a dozen times, and my answer keeps changing. It's addictive.  (Edited to add: The video snippet goes face, heartbeat, leg bones, long stretch of bottom (starts at 1.3 minutes or so), feet, quick glimpse of bottom (2.3 minutes), face again, and one more good shot of the bottom (3.15 minutes)). Now you try! Post your best guess as to sex,  date of arrival, and birth weight.  The person who guesses closest gets a prize post-baby! 

I Finished the Book

Not MY book! I did THAT last week :) But, I took a break from editing/plotting to read the same book as the rest of the world this weekend.

Started Saturday morning, finished this afternoon. WOW. What a ride. Did you/will you read Harry Potter 7?

Lenny

For the last several months, I've found myself unwittingly involved in a polyamorous relationship.  It didn't start out that way. At first, I thought I was simply cheating with my husband's permission. I went to the Big Blue Box and hooked up with this total stuffed shirt. He was the silent type, and never told us his name, so I just started calling him "Lenny." He was short and squat, rather dumpy actually. But, I went into total girlfriend mode, and gave him a fashion makeover. Now, he sports flannel and actually changes his clothes every so often. But, he's still dumpy and squat.

At first, I just took naps with him, but I loyally spooned up to my husband every night. Then my hips started hurting more, and my back ached, and I tossed and turned all night long. "You need Lenny," Freak advised. He was very sympathetic about the whole thing. So I invited Lenny, lover of gravid women, to share our bed at night too. It did feel like Freak was now on the other side of a mountain, or like we were involved in some odd Amish bed ritual, but I slept better with Lenny there.

Lenny also shares my hobbies. He's content to prop me up while I read as long as I want, and never complains about how long the light is on. So despite feeling more distant from my husband, the perks of my love affair kept me committed. Before long, I couldn't sleep without Lenny, and even the pets bonded with him. One day, he accidentally took a nap on the floor, and I came in to find all 3 pets sprawled out on him. But, he didn't seem to mind. He's easygoing like that. 

Even though Lenny slept with us every night, I still saw him as mine, and as something Freak was merely tolerating. Then, something strange started happening. I'd get up to use the bathroom (one of my 50 million trips a night) and Freak would be draped across Lenny. Thinking that this was an accident, I'd grab Lenny back and gently push Freak on to his own side. A few times, I woke up because Freak was trying to pull Lenny to his side of the bed. I figured this was just normal jealousy, so I tried to cuddle with Freak more.

But, still strange things kept happening. I'd go use the bathroom, and now Freak would have dragged Lenny across the bed to his side. Incidentally, Lenny didn't seem to mind this at all. But, I finally figured out what was going on (I'm a little slow), when I came downstairs one day while Freak was taking a nap. He was sleeping with Lenny! And this wasn't a one time occurrence! He was napping with Lenny a lot! And liking it! He'd make little snuffling sounds if I tried to take Lenny away. I don't know why it took me so long to realize that Freak had been seeing Lenny too! He really loved him.

So now, we share Lenny. I've offered to expand our little threesome to a foursome but Freak insists that our bed can't accommodate TWO Lennys. I think he's just bonded to MY Lenny though.  It's kind of cute. If I need to roll to the right with Lenny, I have to stick a pillow under Freak's arm so that he doesn't flounder searching for his friend. I'm not sure what we'll do after the baby comes. I wasn't planning on needing Lenny much beyond the pregnancy.

In fact, I was thinking I might let the pets have him. Or maybe cannibalize him for a craft project. But, now he's become a part of the family. I wonder if we could adopt Lenny? But, then the judge might look at us kind of strangely when we brought a big body pillow in and asked to make our relationship legal. In fact, they might try to take Lenny away from us, and we can't have that.

To you, he's a pillow. To us, he's so much more.

32 Weeks Today

Artsy Belly
Originally uploaded by wavybrains.

This is my new favorite picture. Everyone says I don't look THAT huge, but I certainly feel huge, and I'm continuing to measure about two weeks ahead.

The dearth of recent belly pictures is due to the heat. I threatened back in February that if I made it to July I'd be living in mumus and spending my days in a wading pool. That's about right. I still haven't convinced Freak that a wading pool is a sound investment, but I've been living in the same four items of clothing, none of which are particularly flattering.

I remedied this last week with 2 new sundresses and 2 tank tops. I'm hoping that's it for maternity shopping, as even the clearance racks add up quickly. I truly love this dress (Burlington, Clearance, $7), and I love how feminine I feel in it.

I love my bump. Not even loosing 100 pounds made me feel this great about my body. I mean, I really wish my arms, chest, and butt didn't feel compelled to provide companions of equal or greater size for Beta, but I love this. Even in the heat, I love it. I love all the extra kicks and movement lately. I especially love being able to watch the movement. I stay awake some nights just to watch the show. I love that Beta now knows Freak's voice from across the room, and will wiggle to get closer.

It's hard to feel beautiful when you keep sticking to your leather office chair, but I do. This is truly the only time in my life where feeling miserable seems to have greater purpose, and where even on bad days, I just look in a mirror and grin at myself. Unfortunately, it's even harder to capture that feeling on film. This picture at least comes close.

Done!

Done. 92,233 words. 474 pages. 8 months. Apparently it takes me about as long to write a book as it does to grow a baby. At least the baby doesn't require editing. But, I've never been so excited to begin editing. It's like Jennifer Crusie says--sometimes you have to finish the first draft to know what you really have and what the story's really about. And now I know. Or at least, I have a better chance of finding out.

Let the editing begin!

P.S. Real post soon. Promise.

90,000

Just hit 90,000 words. With the exception of Saturday and Sunday, I've been meeting and exceeding my 4-6 pages a day goal for the last week.  I'll try to have a real post soon, but other than my writing, my life is rather boring right now. There is only so much whining one can do about being 8 months pregnant in the heat when one is also very grateful to BE 8 months pregnant, so I've just been drenching myself in iced tea and airing myself in front of the window A/C. For which I am also very grateful for.  But, 90,000 words? That's worth ALL my iced tea and my window A/C and maybe even my fan.  Maybe.

Just One Word . . . .

This post on "wanting it" may have changed my life. Truly.  (You can see my extensive take on it at the MWVRWA blog).

I've been terrified of jinxing myself, but I seem to be writing again. It started with discovering two handwritten scenes that I hadn't yet entered into my WIP. And of course, adding them in led to more words and transition scenes. . .and somehow I've got nearly 87,000 words. I need to figure out how to change the end goal of my little counter, because it looks like we're heading for 90K.

After reading "Wanting It," I made a big red sign that asks, "Do I want it?" and while this hasn't completely cured my blog/google addiction, at least it encourages me to focus more mindfully on my choices and what I truly want.

Even so, opening that document is the biggest obstacle to progress. This morning, I read blogs, then did dishes, and still the muse was nowhere in sight. Cue mindless surfing. But, then I opened the document. I wrote one word. Then another. Then the cusp of a new scene emerged and . . .

I'm slowly finding my way back. Because I do want it. I do.

For the Love of Tether

Score!
Originally uploaded by wavybrains.

Dear Humans,

Since Wavybrains (also known as she who throws like a girl) is in a pissy mood today, I'd thought I'd do her favor and blog about the newest love of my life: Tether.  You can see the whole photo set on Flickr. Video here:

Download summer_2007_109.mov

It all started about a week ago or so. The humans emerged from my new white drive (I'm still bitter about the loss of my cozy blue drive) and let me come help them unload. I'm very good at herding their packages into the house.

A long thin box emerged, and he-who-throws-the-furthest was saying something about how it was only $3. But I wasn't paying any attention. At the end of the box, a yellow B-A-L-L was dangling. I immediately started trying to play with it!

I knew just where it should go, so I herded him all the way to the backyard. Wavybrains said, "Hey! We still have to buy concrete!" Luckily, HWTTF ignored her, and slammed the long metal pole into the ground! It was a ball! On a string! Attached to a pole!

The ingenuity of it still astounds me! A toy that doesn't require a human and that can't escape the fence! I'm not sure how much $3 is, but I know that I'd be willing to trade my rubber ducky, rope, and big bone for one of these. 

But, the whole slamming the pole into the dirt thing wasn't satisfactory very long. The top part of the pole came loose, and I ran around the yard with the ball, dragging the pole behind me. "Don't bite it!" the humans yelled, but I knew better. I needed to kill this ball and show it who was boss around these parts.

This worked really well. The ball lay in a limp defeated heap until the resurrection machine came and filled it with air again, and the HWTTF poured this huge bucket of gray stuff into the ground. He even pressed my paw into the gray because it was for MY toy.

After a century or so, the pole was back up and the newly resurrected ball came too. Now, it behaved MUCH better. I could go round and round and round. By the second game, I'd figured out that I could wind and unwind the ball by changing direction. This is great training for my soccer playing as it keeps my reflexes sharp.

You can see in the pictures that sometimes I let HWTTF play too! He's not nearly as good as me though.  Last night HWTTF and He-who-throws-further-than-Wavybrains were lighting things on fire in the backyard. I ignored all this, and played a long game of night tether.

The genius who invented this game also saw fit to have a bright orange ball. This means that even in the middle of the night, when the humans let me out and say, "JUST pee!" I can race to my tether and play a quick round before they bellow my name!

Also, Wavybrains can watch me out her window and shout encouragement. This isn't nearly as much fun as having her out with me, but since she waddles really slowly lately anyway, I oblige her with a good show.

I'm not putting my soccer balls and frisbee in the garage just yet, but I've got to say that I love having tether available all the time! It's like having a party in my backyard all day!

If you have dog, you might want to try getting a tether. Well, I wouldn't recommend trying this with those white floor mops--they're too closely related to cats to understand the intricacies of tether, but any of your SMART breeds should enjoy this! They can't have mine though!

Love,

Caylis

Party Dress

Invited to a B-day Party at 4:00 p.m. on Sunday.  On Saturday, the Hostess nicely enquires about what I plan to wear (my parading around town in gigantic maternity overalls may have made her nervous enough to ask). I resolve to wear my lone nice maternity dress as this is an outside event and I overheat faster than a bunch of teenage girls at a Boy Band concert.

9:00 a.m. on Sunday: Put dress on. Notice how fetching my bump looks today.
9:30 a.m. Eat egg sandwich for breakfast. Get mayo right in center of bump. Scrub. Dab. Scrub. Dab.
10:00 a.m. leave for Church
10:45 a.m. Notice that outline of oil is still there.
11:00 a.m. suffer first of several hot flashes
12:30 p.m. Freak buys me a Sugar Free Slurpee on the way home. Promptly get Red Dye # 3 splatters all across front of dress. Good news: Oil outline looks less noticeable now.
12:45 p.m. More scrubbing and dabbing this time with soap.
1:00 p.m. Make coleslaw for party.  Put on  Apron.
1:15 p.m. Notice that a big dab of mayo has landed on dress at top of apron. Scrub. Dab. Scrub. Blot.
1:45 p.m. Sit down with light lunch. Immediately get mustard on self. Also another sprinkling of Red Dye #2 from slurpee  dregs. Scrub. Dab. Scrub. Dab.
2:00 p.m. Front now looks like I suffered some freak pregnancy accident with multiple wet patches all air drying.

Is it just me? Does pregnancy turn anyone else into sloppy eaters? And what is about nice clothes that seems to magnetically attract stains? I'm thinking I'll have to pack a spare outfit just to make it through the party in a presentable fashion. Also, how pitiful is that I actually considered removing the dress and sending it through the wash before 4:00?