How Far Along: 23 weeks! Apparently Bumbo Baby is now the size of a grapefruit, which makes sense, because he has basically taken over my whole torso. Like overnight. I feel like there is more him in charge now than me.

Best Moment of the Week: It was really super fun to interact with my niece and nephew (who most of you know are 2 of my favorite people) and talk about the baby (plus it was around a fire with s'mores in Pennsylvania- talk about best moment!). They feel we should name him Spaceboy, so that is a real contender. They both say they will play with him and hold him, though Wobby kept digging holes in the dirt with her feet and saying that's where my baby was, so let's not leave them alone for a while. I think cousins are one of God's best inventions (only second to siblings perhaps), so I am excited that some of our baby's cousins are excited to meet him.

I Would Really Like Some: billionaires frequent flyer miles and great seats! We were seated one ahead of the exit row (the worst!) in what had to have been the smallest Frontier Airlines plane in the world. I do not like you, stupid turtle plane, but my butt hates you most of all. Or really, the lady who had to keep letting me out hates you most of all. We have 6 more flights, at least, until I become a beached whale, so I am hoping for slightly more cooperation from the airplane gods until then. If not, we will just build a whole bunch of character.  

Most Interesting Prego Quirk: There really aren’t that many interesting things to say about your pregnancy (maybe none?), but people ask and ask, so you build things up to keep it interesting. For example, everyone wants to know how you feel about the sex of your baby. How do you feel about the size of your nose? Or your allergies. Sure, this detail can change a lot of things, but really, who cares?  If you are not careful, you can start to feel like these answers are not some of the dumbest, least interesting things you have ever said, because you say them so often they start to sound like they must matter. The truth is, there is an interesting, I am sure lovely person someday residing near my belly button, but beyond his excellent dance moves and excitement for drinking orange pop that one time, he (and his barely formed brain) doesn't have a lot of personality or activity to speak of yet. So you end up making things up or talking about your pregnancy woes. I may just start coming up with stories about this little parasite, and see if I can really weird people out with my claims.

Bizarro Thing No One Warned me About: You can wear tight dresses. I never thought I would ever look better in a tight dress than not, especially because I just came face to face with my first full length mirror for the whole pregnancy, but tight really does help you look like you but pregnant, instead of like you but pregnant with a circus tent. I know this is a generational thing, but I am glad to be in the generation that is not at all embarrassed of their prego curves, because like any body type, you are better off showing off what you are proud of than trying to hide what you aren't so excited about. Plus, when I see pictures of myself, it kind of freaks me out, which is fun.

And The Boy?: When I asked just now what I should put for this, he said "Ladies be exploding" then immediately looked frightened. I swear, I am mostly very nice to him and only get riled up when we talk about Common Core or bicyclists. What he meant is that I do look a whole lot more prego fast, which he is right about. We have been trying to get him to feel the baby moving, but he says he can only feel my heartbeat, so that's that.

Looking Forward to: This weekend we are going to see my friend Amanda and her very fresh spawn Alexandra (I know, I know, we offered not to come multiple times, but they want us there, so I will bring them good food and try to do dishes and so forth). I am looking forward to seeing the world's most regal baby, and for the whole experience to scare the crap out of the Boy, especially after the exploding comment.