Appreciations of a Pregnant Bod

Behold, our new shower curtain rod!!!!!!!!!

To you, it may look like a boring piece of brushed metal.
But to me - ah! - to me it means FREEDOM! Acres and acres of soapy freedom!

The beauty of this curtain rod is that it is curved out, allowing up to 7.5 inches (7.5 inches!!) more elbow room! I prefer to think of this as 7.5 extra inches of growing abdomen room. But call it what you will, it means a lot to my morphing physique.

Do you understand how awesome this is? Of course you don't - unless, of course, you were me about 15 months ago when i was hugely pregnant with Rosemarie and absolutely closterphobic in my very own shower.

So now i love my husband more - for spending $40 to help regulate my self-esteem during my 3rd round of rapid growth in 4 years. And i've resolved to show him how much i appreciate his gift to me by making sure i shower at least every other day.
(Hey! Chill out! I'm not a smelly person, and my hair actually looks better on day 2.... I like to think of it as me getting in touch with my more European side. And would i get PC points if i said conserving water and shampoo this way was, er, Green?)

A present for the preborn Maggie

It's been run through my sewing machine and will be in the mail this week.

FINALLY!!!!

Rosemarie gave your sling a test run, and fell asleep in it 2 minutes after we tried it on for this photo. I think you'll find it quite comfortable. ;)

Could you ask your mama to send her mailing address to me via email?
Thanks, cutie. See your pretty face soon enough!

p.s. sorry about the armpit in this photo. Utterly unattractive, i know. But who couldnt use a little extra humility in their lives?

See you after we're sun-kissed!!

And yes, these are the only outfits we're taking with us. ;)
Well, maybe we'll bring along some extra underpants, too, just to be cautious.
But don't worry yourself over that - i'm the one obsessing over what we should and shouldn't pack.

I'll write again in late June!

A Lesson in Life and Death

At the age of 26, it's difficult to wrap my mind around the beautiful mysteries of life and death.

At the age of 3 1/2, i'm sure the difficulty is even more pronounced.

For instance, Honeysuckle Run is proud to announce that we have our very first baby chick! That's right - bred and born here in our own backyard. A cute little peep of a chick... or so i've heard, as mother hen (a Bantam Porcelain Bearded Belgian D'Uccle) is mighty protective and shields the creature from view. I can hardly blame her, though - aren't all we first-time moms cautious to the point of paranoia? Anyway, my point is that Thomas knows that a mom and dad chicken got married and with lots of tender care, a baby chicken was born forth from their mutual 'love.' Simple yet thurough, eh? True, no? He was invigorated by the bigness of the whole idea.

Less than 24 hours later, his boyish heart was smashed to bits upon discovering that his pet goldfish - for whom he alone took responsibility - had given up the ghost. Thomas blamed himself, naturally, saying that he had given it too much food. (I think this is because i overstressed the importance of moderation when it came to those fish flakes, mostly to make sure i - i mean, he - didnt have to clean the bowl every other day.) He wept bitterly, and grieved over the loss of his pet. But i think he's okay now, since he seems to grasps the fact that spiders and flies and fish and racoons all have rather shortish lives that end after their purpose is completed.

A lesson on life and another on death - all in 24 hours.

Rethinking things, maybe at 3 1/2 it's not so hard to get it after all. Perhaps the innocence and simplicity of childhood makes those two mysteries more palatable, more tangible, more real. At least it seems to when i compare my own 'adult' understanding to that of my preschool son.

Planet Earth Series

One thing that Joe and i have gotten good at in the summers since our marriage is watching DVD series from our local library. After lunch, it's too hot to do much work, and, since we like to work until 8pm or so, we're obliged to transplant the common daily break into some other part of the day.
[I'm including that explanation for those readers who are inclined to think of a midday break as lazy and slothful. You know who you are!;P]

Presently, we're enjoying the 5 disc, 11 part series from the BBC entitled "Planet Earth."

Though i recommend completely avoiding the 5th disc, which is full of anti-human, global warming, we're-all-gonna-die-if-this-species-of-frog-goes-extinct propoganda, I'd give this audio-visual delight an overall rating of "Bloody Excellent!"

Exquisite, comprehensive footage of the most remote and unbelievable parts of the Almighty's creation.

Time lapse photography of growing vegetation or melting snow.

Heck, they even threw in a night shot of some starving lions attacking and devouring an elephant! An ELEPHANT!! (I'm told this is bizarre behavior. And for the faint of heart, they've spared viewers the goriness of it all. Gotta keep it family-friendly!)

Apparently, i missed the highlight of yesterday's episode. Read on:

After laying the baby down in the bedroom, i returned to the humidity-free basement only to be told, "You missed the best part, honey!"

Me: "Huh? Man! What'd i miss!!!"

Him: "They just got through featuring the Wild Asses of the Tibetan Plain!"

Me: "Aw! What'd they say about the wild asses?" (Sincerely curious, mind you, and dumb to the slam i was about to endure.)

Him: "They said the behavior of the female wild asses is bizarre and unpredictable and noone knows why they do what they do."

Rosemarie on Demand

This post is dedicated to the highest ranking sister-in-law on my husband's side. (See "Comments" from last week's floor post.)

And like her, i also can't get enough of this sweet little face and those twinkling blue eyes!

Example:
Sunday morning i hesitantly pulled this purple garage sale dress over her head, afraid that it might appear a bit too gaudy for my taste. (What kind of person likes primary red flowers on a lilac background - in theory, anyway?) But as soon as i buttoned up the back, tied up the pretty bow, and opened my eyes, my instincts drove me to plop her on the porch and snap ferociously with my camera.

So to all the members of the Rosemarie fan club, i'm glad i can satisfy your appetite for cuteness!

Need I say more?